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Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Malidoma Patrice Somé ~ The power of quiet

 


The power of quiet is great.
It generates the same feelings in everything one encounters.
It vibrates with the cosmic rhythm of oneness.
It is everywhere, available to anyone at any time.
It is us, the force within that makes us stable, trusting, and loving.
It is contemplation contemplating.
Peace is letting go
– returning to the silence that cannot enter the realm of words
because it is too pure to be contained in words.
This is why the tree, the stone, the river, and the mountain are quiet.~

 


 

Malidoma Patrice Some 

 

 

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Wei Wu Wei ~ The Essential Identity

 

art Andrew Ostrovsky

 

 'POSITIVE' is not positive without 'negative', and
'negative' is not negative without 'positive'. Therefore they
can only be two halves of one whole, two conceptual aspects
of one whole that as a whole cannot be conceived
—precisely because it is this which seeks to conceive.

'Being' cannot be without 'non-being', and 'non-
being' cannot not be without 'being'. Therefore they can
only be two conceptual aspects of one whole that as such
cannot be conceived—in which there is neither being nor
non-being as objective existences.

'Appearance' (form) cannot appear without 'void'
(voidness of appearance), and 'void' cannot be voidness of
appearance without 'appearance'. Therefore they must be
two conceptual aspects of what is objectively inconceivable
—as which their identity is absolute in non-objectivity.

'Subject' has no conceptual existence apart from
'object', nor 'object' apart from 'subject'. They, too, are twin
spinning aspects of the inconceivable in which they are
inevitably reunited in mutual negation.

Where there is neither positive nor negative, being
nor non-being, appearance nor void, subject nor object,
there must be identity. But identity cannot perceive itself,
and that is what we are. That is why only he who does not
know can speak, and why he who knows cannot speak
—for what-he-is cannot be an object of what-he-is, and so cannot
be perceived or described.

Positive and negative, being and non-being, appearance
and void, subject and object, can be conceived by us
because, as 'us', mind is divided into subject-conceiving and
object-conceived but, re-identified with what they are, we
are their total objective absence—which is thought of as
pure undivided mind.

 


 

PDF

Open Secret 

 

 

Monday, April 11, 2022

Hakim Sanai ~ There is no place for place!

 

 

 There is no place for place!
How can a place
house the maker of all space,
or the vast sky enclose
     the maker of heaven?

He told me:
"I am a homeless treasure.
The world was made
to give you a place to stand
     and see me."

Tell me, if the one you seek
is placeless,
why put your shoes on?
The real road
is found by polishing, polishing
     the mirror of your heart.

 


 


Hakim Sanai ~ The Wild Rose of Praise

Those unable to grieve,
or to speak of their love,
or to be grateful, those
who can't remember God
as the source of everything,

might be described as a vacant wind,
or a cold anvil, or a group
of frightened old people.

Say the Name. Moisten your tongue
with praise, and be the spring ground,
waking. Let your mouth be given
its gold-yellow stamen like the wild rose's.

As you fill with wisdom,
and your heart with love,
there's no more thirst.

There's only unselfed patience
waiting on the doorsill, a silence
which doesn't listen to advice
from people passing in the street.

 

 

poetry chaikhana


 

 

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Shams Tabriz ~ Soul fury

 

 

  What does pre-eternity mean to you?  

What is your
origin?
The source?  What is spirit?

Spend your life finding out your own state.
Those other mysteries will come clear.

God is depth.  And you, you fool, you are also deep.
The same depth is in you.

Don't worry about terminology, pre-existence,
the original face, spirit, soul.
Search within yourself.  The great mystery is there.
Everyone talks about gnosticism and dervishes.
Those are just words.

I want someone with a pulse, a living friend,
who says directly to me, You are a part.  I am the whole.
Come into this awareness.  Get to know me.  

 

 Excerpts from the Sayings of Shams Tabriz
Soul Fury
Rumi and Shams Tabriz on Friendship

 

 


 

PDF


 

Soul Fury-Rumi and Shams Tabriz

 

 

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī ~ Untill Judgement Day

 

 

 Because I cannot sleep
I make music at night.
I am troubled by the one
whose face has the color of spring flowers.
I have neither sleep nor patience,
neither a good reputation nor disgrace.
A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.
All my good manners have moved a thousand miles away.
The heart and the mind are left angry with each other.
The stars and the moon are envious of each other.
Because of this alienation the physical universe
is getting tighter and tighter.
The moon says, 'How long will I remain
suspended without a sun?'
Without Love's jewel inside of me,
let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.
O Love, You who have been called by a thousand names,
You who know how to pour the wine
into the chalice of the body,
You who give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces,
O Love, You who shape the faces
of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,
give me a glass from Your bottle,
or a handful of being from Your Branch.
Remove the cork once more.
Then we'll see a thousand chiefs prostrate themselves,
and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.
Then the addict will be freed of craving.
and will be resurrected,
and stand in awe till Judgement Day. 

 


 

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Hafiz Shirazi ~ Attachments!

 

 

 Sweet Heart,
Do you really want me to speak to you
About all your attachments,
Your attachments! My dear,
Let’s not speak of those,
For Hafiz understands the sufferings
Of your heart.
Hafiz knows
The torments and agonies
That every mind on the way to Annihilation in the Sun
Must endure.
So at night in my prayers I often stop
And ask a thousand angels to join in
And Applaud,
And Applaud
Anything,
Anything in this world
That can bring your heart comfort!”

 


 

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī ~ Wings

 

 

                 A voice out of this world
                calls on our souls
                not to wait any more
                get ready to move
                to the original home

                your real home
                your real birth place
                is up here with the heavens
                let your soul take a flight
                like a happy phoenix

                you've been tied up
                your feet in the mud
                your body roped to a log
                break loose your ties
                get ready for the final flight

                make your last journey
                from this strange world
                soar for the heights
                where there is no more
                separation of you and your home

                God has created
                your wings not to be dormant
                as long as you are alive
                you must try more and more
                to use your wings to show you're alive

                these wings of yours
                are filled with quests and hopes
                if they are not used
                they will wither away
                they will soon decay

                you may not like
                what i'm going to tell you
                you are stuck
                now you must seek
                nothing but the source

 


 

 —Rumi
                Ghazal 945
                Nader Khalili translation