The sea will be the sea, whatever the drop's philosophy...
A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.
A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvelous lute and drum.
Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?
I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,
To yield to Light and Happiness,
To Dance within
In celebration of Love’s Victory!
Beauty radiated in eternity
With its light; Love was born
And set the worlds alight.
It revealed itself to angels
Who knew not how to love;
It turned shyly towards man
And set fire to his heart.
Reason ventured to light
Its own flame and wear the crown,
But Your radiance
Turned the world
Of reason upside down.
Others got pleasure
As was their fate.
My heart was
Towards sadness inclined;
For me, sorrow was destined.
Beauty yearned to see itself;
It turned to man To sing its praise.
Hafiz wrote this song
Drunk with Love,
From a heart
Carrying a happy secret.
Master, Master, O master, O master
Moses, take us along, too, to the place where Beauty manifests itself
Who will witness the Beloved’s beauty if the sight makes you faint
Why speak of meeting Him someday
Why speak of meeting the Divine someday, O friend
It takes an epoch to meet just one’s own self
This intense divine beauty has left me wonder-struck!
This beauty has left me wonderstruck!
O how wonderstruck I am!
Ever since hearing that it would be possible to meet you on the day of resurrection
Your crazy lovers have raised a tumult worthy of Judgement Day
The warlike onslaught of your playful glances
Beloved, your distinctive coquetry
How wonderfully my devotion to you
Has turned me from a beggar to a king
O how wonderstruck I am!
Wood burned and became coal
Coal burned and became ash
When a sinful, wretched being like me burned
I became neither coal nor ash
Be it Mansur Hallaj or Sarmad, O Beloved
Or be it Sham Tabrezi
When they came to your lane, O Irresistible One
Each one sacrificed his life in Your Love
O how wonderstruck I am!
The heart which drinks from the Cup of Love
That heart always remains joyful and ecstatic
God is present everywhere, God is present all the time
The heart which, O master
The heart which, O beloved master
The heart which drinks from the Cup of Love
That heart always remains joyful and ecstatic
God is ever present, God is present in all
God is present everywhere, God is ever present.
Mansur Hallaj was hung on the gallows
‘I am Truth’ were his words
Master,’I am Truth’ were his words
The heart which.. O master, The heart which..
O beloved master, The heart which…
The heart which drinks from the Cup of Love,
That heart always remains joyful and ecstatic
God is present everywhere, God is ever present
God the Most High is present in all
God is ever present
Truth! Truth, O master.
Last night,
I was lying on the rooftop,
thinking of you.
I saw a special Star,
and summoned her
to take you a message.
I prostrated myself to the Star
and asked her
to take my prostration
to that Sun of Tabriz.
So that with his light,
he can turn my dark stones
into gold.
I opened my chest
and showed her my scars,
I told her to bring me news
of my bloodthirsty Lover.
As I waited,
I paced back and forth,
until the child
of my heart became quiet.
The child slept,
as if I were rocking
his cradle.
Oh Beloved,
give milk to the infant
of the heart,
and don't hold us
from our turning.
You have cared for hundreds,
don't let it stop with me now.
At the end,
the town of unity is
the place for the heart.
Why do you keep
this bewildered heart
in the town of dissolution?
I have gone speechless,
but to rid myself
of this dry mood,
oh Saaqhi,
pass the narcissus
of the wine.
From: Hush Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi
Translated by Sharam Shiva
The humour of the divine love-game
is that the One who is sought is Himself the seeker.
It is the Sought who prompts the seeker to ask,
Where can I find Him whom I seek?
The seeker asking, Where is God?
Is really God saying, Where indeed is the seeker!
Why complain about life
If you are looking for good fish
And have followed some idiot
Into the middle of the copper market?
Why go crazy
If you are looking for fine silk
And you keep rubbing your hands
Against burlap and hemp sacks?
If your heart really needs to touch
A face that is filled with abundance
Then why didn’t you come
To this old man sooner?
For my cheek is
The universe’s cloister
And if you can make your prayers
Sweet enough tonight
Then Hafiz will lean over
And offer you all the warmth in my body
In case God is busy
Doing something else somewhere.
Why complain if you are looking
To quench your spirit’s longing
And have followed a rat into a desert.
If your soul really needs to touch a face
That is always filled with compassion
And tenderness then why,
Why my dear
Did you not come
to your friend Hafiz sooner?
49 years ago today, Bruce Lee dropped his body (at the age of 32). To pay tribute to him on this anniversary, here’s a collection of some of his deepest quotes...
“I do not experience; I am experience. I am not the subject of an experience; I am that experience. I am awareness. Nothing else can be I or can exist.”
"When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and never has been, one realizes that one is all things – mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself. There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear. There is nothing apart from oneself and therefore nothing to fear. Realizing this results in true compassion. Other people and things are not seen as apart from oneself but, on the contrary, as one's own body."
“The difference between knowledge and enlightenment is that in the former a contrast exists between the knower and the known, whereas in the latter, there is no such contrast.”
“As long as we separate this oneness into two, we won’t achieve realization.”
“The oneness of all life is a truth that can be fully realized only when false notions of a separate self, whose destiny can be considered apart from the whole, are forever annihilated.”
"The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning, but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it. Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself."
“Sorrows are our best educator. A man can see further through a tear than a telescope.”
"Don't think. Feel. It is like a finger pointing at the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all of the heavenly glory."
"Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier. The more we understand, the greater and deeper will be our contact with all that is around us."
“Zen is both something we are, our true nature expressing itself moment by moment, and something we do, a disciplined practice through which we can realize the joy of being. So, what is Zen? Stop trying to get an intellectual lock on something that is vast and boundless, far more than the rational mind can grasp. Just breathe in with full awareness.”
“To meditate means to realize the imperturbability of one’s original nature. Meditation means to be free from all phenomena, and calmness means to be internally unperturbed. There will be calmness, tranquility, when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed.”
"Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless - like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
Thanks to Sanjeev Goel
