Thoughts on One Art

I was particularly interested when Kris mentioned the idea of Christian heavenly bodies, and more importantly, how we are not a heavenly body. When I read this poem in relation to this, I can not help but think of how this could be related to the idea of Buddhism. I read about Siddhartha Gautama, who people refer to as the father of Buddhism, and the way this poem is portrayed, I feel it could be a reflection to the trails and tribulations of one trying to reach enlightenment. The idea behind enlightenment is to cut off all wordly ties, and in the poem, this could be the art of forgetting. To go on this, a person would be able to forget or cut ties with trivial material goods easily, such as the lost keys. But as the things get more serious and more personal, then to cut the ties would become increasingly harder. The natural progression of the severity is how I would imagine someone going through the process would actually take. For example, I would think the process starts with losing physical worldly goods that one has acquired, then losing the sense of attachment to hometowns/country pride, and finally with the  detachment of the self. Even the Four Noble Truths give me some kind of insight to this poem: (here's a wikipedia rendition of them)

  - Suffering exists

- Suffering arises from attachment to desires

- Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases

- Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

We talked about how because she has this deep attachment, she suffers when it is forgotten. I just thought it would be interesting to read it in such a tone, and share actually how successful I felt the reading was. Although,... there were a couple stumbling blocks where the poem did not relate in this way, such as when she says she was looking for her keys for an hour, I don't think if one was trying to lose things intentionally this would of happened.