The Archives

March 2005

Sunday March 20, 2005 14:00
Yesterday was a great day for the people Wales. Scenes of jubilation across the nation as the dragon awoke at the Millenium stadium in Cardiff for the first time in 27 years.

Saturday March 19, 2005 12:13

Thursday March 17, 2005 8:05

"In the most simplistic sense, things don't just happen. Historical events don't just occur suddenly. Everything, whether it's a geological event, whether it's a volcano erupting or a tidal wave, there's been a buildup of events which causes the ultimate event. Historical events are the same way, even the most traumatic ones.

"And yet, when the horror is too great, we seem to respond to them with a kind of helplessness, with a kind of 'How did it happen?' It's the most common question, 'How on Earth did this happen?' Well, there are lots of reasons why things happen.

"We think that we will suddenly rise to an occasion when the occasion demands it—that human values, human integrity, these things don't have to be practiced, that somehow, when the moment of choice occurs, we will do the right thing. But these things have to be practiced. Human integrity, human values have to be constantly practiced. So that when the moment calls for it, we will be able to respond."

Anne Michaels

Wednesday March 16, 2005 7:54

Solomon to Sheba

Solomon says to the messengers from Sheba,
"I send you back as messengers to her.

Tell her this refusal of her gift
of gold is better than acceptance,

because with it she can learn what we value.
She loves her throne, but actually it keeps

her from passing through the doorway
that leads to a true majesty.

Tell her, one surrendering bow is sweeter
than a hundred empires, is itself a kingdom.

Be dizzy and wandering like Ibrahim,
who suddenly left everything.

In a narrow well things look backward
from how they are. Stones and metal objects

seem treasure, as broken pottery does
to children pretending to buy and sell.

Tell her, Joseph sat in such a well,
then reached to take the rope that rose

to a new understanding. The *alchemy*
of a changing life is the only truth."

'The Essential Rumi' Coleman Barks/John Moyne

Sunday March 13, 2005 18:46

Even if You Lose all you have

Learn the meaning of that secret

That God revealed in the Koran:

Whether He makes you happy or unhappy,

Whether He makes you sad or gives you hope,

Even if you lose all you have

Or suffer extremely in the spirit,

Be patient: a hundred divine graces

Are coming from His hand to you.

He who endures patiently the pain

That is sent from God

Will, it is certain, obtain

The strength and truth of faith.

Marvelous news is sent to the patient;

They will win a great joy.

You must be able to perceive grace

Even when His divine anger lashes you,

And think of Him always with serenity,

And always, whatever happens, cling to Him

With all you heart and all your soul.

Sultan Valad

From Poetseers.org

Sunday March 13, 2005 15:43

Interesting experiment: Solitude

Solitude is sometimes dark and difficult, but there is deep joy abiding in the flickering stillness. Moments when, as unexpected gift, boundaries and buffers dissolve and All is, as it always was, sacred and alive. Solitude can remind us there is no true spiritual freedom except through surrender to our own lives just as they are- here and now - in each moment.

Read about Bobs experience

Tuesday March 8, 2005 19:21

"But we can't choose our time. We can only decide what to do with the time given us."

Gandalf

Monday March 7, 2005 21:22

The hurt you embrace becomes joy.
Call it to your arms where it can

change. A silkworm eating leaves
makes a cocoon. Each of us weaves

a chamber of leaves and sticks.
Silkworms begin to truly exist

as they disappear inside that room.
Without legs, we fly. When I stop

speaking, this poem will close,
and open its silent wings . . .

~Rumi
'The Glance'
Coleman Barks

Sunday March 6, 2005 9:18

Amelia

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
it was the strings of my guitar
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture-post-card-charms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms

Joni Mitchell

Saturday March 5, 2005 17:58

Ancient poetry loved to swim in the sea of tears. Modern poetry loves to surf in the ocean of laughter.
Poetry tells the world, "O world, I am a flower. Appreciate my beauty if you want to. Enjoy my fragrance if you want to. But do not expect from me anything more than my beauty and my fragrance. If you expect anything more, you will be doomed to disappointment."

From The Yoga of Sri Chinmoy

The Multiday Runners Handbook excerpt is back up

Friday March 4, 2005 8:07

Friends, the Beloved has blocked every escape:
we are lame deer and He a prowling lion.
Cornered by a fierce and bloodthirsty lion
what is there to do but surrender?
This Beloved, like the sun, neither sleeps nor eats:
He makes souls sleepless and hungry, ,
saying, "Come, be Me, or one with Me in nature,
so when I unveil Myself, you may behold My Face.
And if you had not beheld it,
how would you have become so distraught?
You were earth, and now
you long to be quickened with spiritual life."
Already the Beloved has bestowed gifts
from that world of spacelessness,
otherwise why would your spiritual eye keep gazing there.

[VI,576-581]

From: "Jewels of Remembrance - A Daybook of
Spiritual Guidance Containing 365 Selections From
the Wisdom of Rumi"

Trans. Camille and Kabir Helminski

This page was last updated:  April 10, 2005 12:07