Saturday, August 22, 2015

Rumi - What Is The Root of Love?



A certain lover in the presence of his beloved 
was recounting his services and works,
Saying, “For thy sake I did such and such, 
in this war I suffered (wounds from) arrows and spears. 
Wealth is gone and strength is gone and fame is gone: 
on account of my love for thee many a misfortune has befallen me. 
No dawn found me asleep or laughing; no eve found me with capital and means.”

What he had tasted of bitters and dregs 
he was recounting to her in detail, point by point, 
Not for the sake of reproach; nay, 
he was displaying a hundred testimonies of the trueness of his love.
For men of reason a single indication is enough, 
(but) how should the thirst (longing) of lovers be removed thereby?
He (the lover) repeats his tale unweariedly: 
how should a fish be satisfied with (mere) indication (so as to refrain) from the limpid water?
He (the lover), from that ancient grief, 
was speaking a hundred words in complaint, saying, “I have not spoken a word.”
There was a fire in him: 
he did not know what it was, but on account of its heat he was weeping like a candle.

The beloved said, “Thou hast done all this, yet open thine ear wide and apprehend well; 
For thou hast not done what is the root of the root of love and fealty: 
this that thou hast done is (only) the branches.”

The lover said to her, “Tell me, what is that root?”
She said, “The root thereof is to die and be naught.

The Masnawi - Volume 5 - 1245 



 

Rumi - How free I Am!




Oh how nameless, how free I am!
When will I see myself as I really am?

Tell me your secrets here and now, you said.
In this realm, I said, where is the here and now?

How can my soul be still
when I am whirling in stillness?

My sea drowned in itself.
What a wondrous, shoreless sea I am!

Not in this world, not in the next I am.
Where I am, both worlds disappear.

Naught, I am free of profit and loss.
How singular, I neither gain nor lose.

I said: My Soul, you’re the light of my eyes.
Where I am, he said, no need for eyes.

That’s what you are, I said. Stop it!
he said. No words can capture me.

I said: Since you are more than tongue can tell,
behold how eloquent I am without a tongue.

Like the moon, without legs, I race through nothingness.
See how fast I can run without legs!

A voice called: Why so fast?
Look into the hidden, find my true face.

The moment I saw Shams of Tabriz
I became a treasure, a gem, the rare pearl of the sea.




Friday, August 21, 2015

A Zen Koan - Everyday Life is the Path



Joshu asked Nansen: `What is the path?’
Nansen said: `Everyday life is the path.’
Joshu asked: `Can it be studied?’
Nansen said: `If you try to study, you will be far away from it.’
Joshu asked: `If I do not study, how can I know it is the path?’
Nansen said: `The path does not belong to the perception world, 
neither does it belong to the non-perception world. 
Cognition is a delusion and non-cognition is senseless. 
If you want to reach the true path beyond doubt, 
place yourself in the same freedom as sky. 
You name it neither good nor not-good.’

At these words Joshu was enlightened.



from:

 

Anamika - Unwinding



Once recognition has taken place,
once we have seen the essential nature of what we are,
once we have stopped taking ourselves to be this or that,
knowing that we are none of It,
( because unidentified with anything in particular )
or all of It,
( because there is nothing else but This )
we are Home.
A portal of the Infinite.
Sensing, Perceiving, Awaring.
Ongoing.



There can be a period of honeymooning.
The recognition of our true nature
is dismantling the structures
of who we thought we were.
And consequently we are feeling
the space and the transcendence
and are flowing with what is.

Breathtakingly taken in by the beauty.



And as well there usually is a period of transition.
Where everything in the body mind 
that has not yet aligned itself
with this new way of being is coming up.
Thought patterns, pains, aches, emotions.

They stay a while do their thing and disappear.

This is something which is taking place naturally and spontaneously.

And as far as i can see this period of unwinding
is indefinite and ongoing.

Always there is more coming up
to be seen and felt and discover.


There is no fixed place to land for the body mind.
A place of permanent bliss and happiness.

In the world of appearances
no such static place exists.


The Seeing, the Knowing, the Awaring
is the one thing always there.
Unchanging.
Unmoving.
Perceiving what Is.

Life






Wednesday, August 19, 2015


Jami - Only one song of Love




On the lute of my heart plays
only one song of love:
Because of this melody,
from head to foot,
I am in love.
Truly, for ages
I’ll never be able
To pay what I owe
for one moment of love.



Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Ken Wilber - World of boundaries



“The simple fact is that we live in a world of conflict
and opposites because we live in a world of boundaries. 

Since every boundary line is also a battle line,
here is the human predicament: 

the firmer one’s boundaries, the more entrenched are one’s battles.
The more I hold onto pleasure, the more I necessarily fear pain. 
The more I pursue goodness, the more I am obsessed with evil. 
The more I seek success, the more I must dread failure.
The harder I cling to life, the more terrifying death becomes. 
The more I value anything, the more obsessed I become with its loss. 

Most of our problems, in other words, are problems of boundaries
and the opposites they create.”


Monday, August 17, 2015

Pablo Neruda - Poetry




And it was at that age…poetry arrived

in search of me.  I don't know, I don't know where

it came from, from winter or a river.

I don't know how or when,

no, they were not voices, they were not

words, nor silence,

but from a street I was summoned,

from the branches of night,

abruptly from the others,

among violent fires

or returning alone

there I was without a face

and it touched me.



I did not know what to say, my mouth

had no way

with names

my eyes were blind,

and something started in my soul,

fever or forgotten wings,

and I made my own way,

deciphering

that fire

and I wrote the first faint line,

faint, without substance, pure

nonsense,

pure wisdom

of someone who knows nothing,

and suddenly I saw

the heavens

unfastened

and open,

planets

palpitating plantations,

the darkness perforated,

riddled

with arrows, fire and flowers,

the winding night, the universe.



And I, infinitesimal being,

drunk with the great starry

void,

likeness, image of

mystery,

I felt myself a pure part

of the abyss,

I wheeled with the stars,

my heart broke loose on the wind.
-Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973)

Chuck Surface - Spiritual marketplace



Today I wandered into the spiritual marketplace,
And heard 10,000 hawkers hawking,
10,000 children teaching,
And 20 held forth as 100.

So many voices,
So full of authority,
Young and old,
Certain and assertive.

I brought my Beloved with me,
But She could not bear the din,
And ran from that place,
Staring back from my Heart, tearfully.

I could not hear,
Amidst the cacophony,
Her sobbing whisper,
“My Own, My Love, leave this place…

And follow Me… Home.”