The Banner of Practicality

David Price
5 min readOct 2, 2024
Pol Ledent, Blue Cornflowers 2017

… Under the banner of practicality, most of life becomes arranged to obscure and distract us from what called us to come to life in the first place. Most people remain unwilling to be extravagant enough to wander where their soul would lead them, adapting instead to an endless series of short-term goals. People easily misplace their deepest longings and tune themselves to someone else’s idea of life.

~ Michael Meade, “Fate and Destiny”

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We have to be quiet enough and clear enough to hear what our unique part in the drama is.

~ Ram Dass

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One of the obstacles to Bodhisattva discipline is an absence of humor; we could take the whole thing too seriously…

But that serious militancy is quite different from the lightheartedness and joy of the Bodhisattva path. In the beginning you may have to fake being open and joyous. But you should at least attempt to be open, cheerful, and, at the same time, brave.

~ Kyabje Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

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The animal heart lives according to an ancient set of laws. She doesn’t care about politics and politeness and never takes more than she should. She reminds you of your nobility, your physical magnificence, and the unselfconscious power of

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David Price
David Price

Written by David Price

I write about creativity, loving, language learning and psycho/spirituality. I’m a longtime painter and reader.