Kahlil Gibran - On Joy and Sorrow

 

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater thar sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, 

needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

http://www.katsandogz.com/gibran.html

 

Jean Klein - All disciplines are fixations

photo Martin Stranka

 “All disciplines are fixations:
discipline excludes everything, except the one thing that one wishes to concentrate upon.
Thus one establishes a dictatorship over oneself and all understanding is jeopardized.
What is absolutely necessary is attention without strain.
When I observe myself, I am really forced to admit that every day
I am the prisoner of a thousand unsatisfied desires,
or desires whose satisfaction brings me no permanent bliss.
So it seems to me that instead of endless running from one desire to another,
it would be better to stop and examine the true nature of desire.
If this investigation is successful you will penetrate the nature of the true aim of all desire.
What any desire really aims at, is a state of non desire.
This non desire is a state in which we demand absolutely nothing.
Thus it is a state of extreme abundance, of fullness.
This fullness is revealed as being bliss and peace.
You now know that you are really seeking nothing else but fullness and absolute peace.
Now that you have understood the inner nature of your ultimate goal,
you perceive that the ultimate goal is, in fact, not a goal,
that is to say an end towards which you strive, but that the ultimate state
can only be the consequence of relaxing and letting go.
Liberation is not to be obtained by collecting and accumulating,
but by being rooted in a state of being which is truly ours
and in which we live constantly without knowing it.
Even if we wished to, we could not live for a single moment outside of this state.”

 

Clare Blanchflower - Self Taste Silence

art Mahmood Farshchian

Life is
continually
weeding
the garden
of individuality

Consumed
in reverence
of the exquisite
exactness
of divine
perfection

She dances
with prowess
as Everything
Dying into
the freedom
of true living

I love you
She says
Planting the words
on this tongue
Echoing her
heart song
from these lips

I am you
She says
Every breath
Every move
Every sound
Every feeling
The world of play
appearing
as a perpetual
dance of
surrender
Being
reabsorbed

Bowing into
what is
without a prayer
Emptiness
inhabited
only by its own
knowing

Be filled
wholly
with
the Love
that you are
Disappear
into your Self
Taste
Silence

http://clareblanchflower.com/

 

Muhammad Shirin Maghribi - Let go of your self

Smash the jug;
you’re the water, not the jug.

Let go of yourself;
you are the ocean,
not the stream.

Take a journey beyond your self;
you will see Oneness.

Leave behind “I” and “you”;
you will see you are Him.

How long do you continue to travel around the world?
Start your journey from your self,
and travel within.

Though you have been a seeker for years,
you have never sought Him
in yourself.

Take a step beyond your self,
and you will find the crown of spiritual poverty
on your head.

How could you travel towards His District?
You are still a child chasing the bat and the ball.

Become polished like a mirror
to reflect the Friend;
don’t be a hypocrite with two sides,
like a piece of paper,

Oh Meghrebi, you will not gain the bounty of His union
until you let go of your self,
…completely.

Rumi - Come

You’re my feet, You’re my hands,
You are the essence of my intoxication.
O’ drunken nightingale come to the garden.
You’re my ears, You’re my eyes,
You are the chosen one.
You’re the missing Joseph.
Come to the market place
You’re hidden from peoples eyes.
You’re the soul.
You’re the world.
Come back to me crazy and perform Your dance of Love.
You’re the brightness of the day.
You’re the joy that burns all sorrow.
You’re the moon that brightens the night.
You’re the cloud that carries rain.
O’ destitute heart come along.
O’ torn liver you come too.
If the path is closed, don’t stop,
climb your way over the wall.
O’ scattered night and unwanted sorrow, go away.
O’ slumbering intellect disappear,
let the awakening love, come through.
O’ the breath of Noah and the desire of every soul
Come.
O’ the cure of the unwell and the medicine of the sick
Come…

Fakhruddin Iraqi - I am Love

It speaks to me in the silence of this one
then through the words of that one speaking;

it whispers to me through an eyebrow raised
and the message of an eye winking.

And do you know what words it breathes into my ear? It says,

     "I am Love: in heaven and earth I have no place;
     I am the Wondrous Phoenix whose spoor cannot be traced.

     With eyebrow-bow and arrow-winks I hunt
     both worlds -- and yet my weapons cannot be found.

     Like the sun I brighten each atom's cheek;
     I cannot be pinpointed: I am too manifest.

     I speak with every tongue, listen with all ears,
     but marvel at this: My ears and tongue are erased.

     Since in all the world only I exist
     above and below, no likeness of me can be found."

images from Bab'Aziz film 

 

Linda Hogan - Lost in the Milky Way

Some of us are like trees that grow with a spiral grain
as if prepared for the path of  the spirit’s journey
to the world of all souls.

It is not an easy path.
A dog stands at the opening constellation
past the great helping hand.

The dog wants to know,
did you ever harm an animal, hurt any creature,
did you take a life you didn’t eat?

This is the first on your map. There is another
my people made of  the great beyond
that lies farther away than this galaxy.

It is a world that can’t be imagined by ordinary means.
After this first one,
the next could be a map of  forever.

It could be a cartography
shining only at some times of  the year
like a great web of finery

some spider pulled from herself
to help you recall your true following
your first white breath in the cold.

The next door opens and Old Woman
counts your scars. She is interested in how you have been
hurt and not in anything akin to sin.

From between stars are the words we now refuse;
loneliness, longing, whatever suffering
might follow your life into the sky.

Once those are gone, the life you had
against your own will, the hope, even the prayers
take you one more bend around the river of sky.

 Linda Hogan