Saturday, May 12, 2018

Rumi - Enthralled only by Love …



Whenever you meet
someone deep drunk
yet full of wisdom
be aware and watch
this person is enthralled
only by Love

Anytime you see
someone who seems gone
tipsy and happy
filled with rapture
be sure and observe
this is the condition
of someone in Love

If you see a head
happy and thrilled
filled with joy
every night and day
this head was fondled
by the fingers of Love

Every moment
someone is blessed
a tree sprouts
an angel flies
even a monster
leaps with delight

When your body
feels together
when your soul
wants to unite
you are chosen
for a blissful Love


~ Rumi
Ghazal 2132
Translation by Nader Khalili
“Rumi, Fountain of Fire”




Rabindranath Tagore - One Day In Spring....



One day in spring, a woman came
In my lonely woods,
In the lovely form of the Beloved.
Came, to give to my songs, melodies,
To give to my dreams, sweetness.
Suddenly a wild wave
Broke over my heart's shores
And drowned all language.
To my lips no name came,
She stood beneath the tree, turned,
Glanced at my face, made sad with pain,
And with quick steps, came and sat by me.
Taking my hands in hers, she said:
'You do not know me, nor I you—
I wonder how this could be?'
I said:
'We two shall build, a bridge for ever
Between two beings, each to the other unknown,
This eager wonder is at the heart of things.'

The cry that is in my heart is also the cry of her heart;
The thread with which she binds me binds her too.
Her have I sought everywhere,
Her have I worshipped within me,
Hidden in that worship she has sought me too.
Crossing the wide oceans, she came to steal my heart.
She forgot to return, having lost her own.
Her own charms play traitor to her,
She spreads her net, knowing not
Whether she will catch or be caught.



 

Chuck Surface - The great robbery





 The Beloved broke in while I slept,
And wherever in this House She found,
Knowledge, belief, and certitude,
She stole them, quietly, deftly,
Leaving Wonder where they had been.

The mind deemed this robbery a tragedy,
And ran, frantically, to check those places,
Where its treasures had been displayed,
Only to find, in their place, Great Mysteries,
Gifts of Love, from the Divine Thief.

The Heart deemed the robbery fantastic,
And cause for the greatest celebration,
Running, straightaway, to The Tavern,
Where, in the company of The Thief,
Its Cup of Longing was Filled with Her Wine.

And in time the mind came ‘round,
And resigned at last to Poverty,
Joined the Jubilant Heart at The Bar,
Drinking all The Beautiful One would pour,
Into its now Empty Cup.

And together they reveled, Heart and Mind,
In the Great Gift the Robbery had bestowed,
The Divine Idiocy of Direct Experience,
Before words and concepts arise to describe,
When Heart and Mind Dance in the Ecstasy…

Of Astounded, Lucid, Confusion.

~~~~~~~
 




 

 

 

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Georgi Y. Johnson - When sorrow comes





When our jaws are grinding, our fists are clenched, our skin allergic and feelings are aching with pain, relaxation is what we yearn for. But when we are able to relax, into what are we relaxing?

Are we relaxing into the contracted flesh or the hard-wired nervous system?

Are we relaxing into the tired muscles of our aching legs?

The mind could tell us so, but it’s not so.

We are relaxing into space. We relax into the space around the body as a finer home, a sanctuary, a peaceful, loving, unbounded dimension of rejuvenation.

The mind relaxes into the spaciousness of silence. The heart relaxes into the stillness between all possible feelings. The body relaxes into the empty simplicity of gravity.

This relaxation, in which the space inside and the space outside become one, opens the doors to freedom. We loosen up, we can allow many perspectives, we can allow the rhythms of the body to realign with the rhythms of the universe.

This empty space. on which all of us depend, is not empty. It is a source of pure potentiality. It doesn’t judge and it never rejects. All forms are home to it, just as it is at home in all forms.

So feel the freedom to unfurl the stressed feeling of grief or sorrow into the loving space around you. Let there be space before it, after it, around it and within it. Let it be ever so gently caressed through the soft touch of space; let it be heard by the ever receptive listener of eternity; and let it be held, like a new born baby, in the peaceful arms of infinity.

 ॐ





Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Rumi - My burning Heart




My heart is burning with love
All can see this flame
My heart is pulsing with passion
like waves on an ocean

my friends have become strangers
and I’m surrounded by enemies
But I’m free as the wind
no longer hurt by those who reproach me

I’m at home wherever I am
And in the room of lovers
I can see with closed eyes
the beauty that dances

Behind the veils
intoxicated with love
I too dance the rhythm
of this moving world

I have lost my senses
in my world of lovers


 

Monday, May 7, 2018

Hafiz - A Suspended Blue Ocean




The sky
Is a suspended blue ocean.
The stars are the fish
That swim.
The planets are the white whales
I sometimes hitch a ride on,
And the sun and all light
Have forever fused themselves
Into my heart and upon
My skin.

There is only one rule
On this Wild Playground,
For every sign Hafiz has ever seen
Reads the same.

They all say,
"Have fun, my dear; my dear, have fun,
In the Beloved's Divine
Game,

O, in the Beloved's
Wonderful
Game."


 

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Rumi - Off with you!



Off with you! Know that the lover's religion is contrary to other ways –
falsehoods from the Friend are better than truth and beautiful doing.
The unthinkable for Him is the actual state, chastisement the reward,
all of His wrongdoing justice, all of His slander equity.
His harshness is soft, His synagogue is the Kaʿba –
a thorn from the Heart-ravisher is sweeter than roses and basil.
When He is sour, He is more excellent than a house of sugar;
when He comes to you annoyed, that is sweet kissing and embrace.
When He says to you, 'By God, I'm sick of you!,'
that is the water of Khidr from the Fountain of Life.
When He says 'No!' a thousand yeses are hidden within;
in the religion of the selfless you're family if you're a stranger.
His unbelief is all faith, His stones all coral,
His miserliness all beautiful-doing, His offenses all forgiveness.
You may taunt me and say, 'You've got a bent religion!' –
I have bought the religion of His bent eyebrow at the price of my spirit.
This bent religion has made me drunk! Enough! I will shut my lips –
continue on, O illuminated heart, recite the rest in silence!
O Shams of God Tabrīzī! O Lord! What sugar you pour down!
You voice a hundred arguments and proofs from my mouth!

Rūmī's ghazal 1869