Look upon him who tells you your faults
\nas if he told you of hidden treasure,
\nfor he is the wise man who shows you
\nthe dangers of life.
\nFollow him: who follows him
\nwill see good, not evil.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Buddha<\/p>\n
This saying of Buddha (From Sayings of the Buddha \u2014 Reflections for Every Day by William Wray) struck me. It is what popped open when I picked up the book in Chapters. I have wrested the language from Wray\u2019s quaint thees and thys. The idea at the centre of this saying is at the core of my attitude towards literary criticism: during our writers unit sessions, there were two kinds of playwrights: those who defended themselves against anything anyone would say about their work, and those who examined criticism as an opportunity to find ways to make their work better by treating the criticism as a clue about how to make the play more effective. I count myself among the latter. By that measure, as I have said elsewhere in the Pages section of this blog, I truly welcome comments.<\/p>\n
Edit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Look upon him who tells you your faults as if he told you of hidden treasure, for he is the wise man who shows you the dangers of life. Follow him: who follows him will see good, not evil. \u2014 … Continue reading