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Monday November 29, 2004 23:22
 The
Mill, the Stone, and the Water
All our desire is a grain of wheat.
Our whole personality is the milling-building.
But this mill grinds without knowing about it.
The mill stone is your heavy body.
What makes the stone turn is your thought-river.
The stone says: I don't know why we do all this, but the river
has knowledge!
 If
you ask the river, it says,
I don't know why I flow.
All I know is that a human opened the gate!
And if you ask the person, he says:
All I know, oh gobbler of bread, is that if this stone
Stops going around, there'll be no bread for your bread-
soup!
All this grinding goes on, and no one has any knowledge!
So just be quiet, and one day turn
To God, and say: "What is this about bread-making?"
'Rumi "The Soul is Here For Its Own Joy"
Edited by Robert Bly
Sunday November 28, 2004 16:44
Perhaps the most articulate mad lover of all time was Jelaluddin Rumi,
a thirteenth-century Muslim from Iran who fled the Mongols to Turkey,
where he succeeded his father as an expert theologian and had a sizable
following of orthodox believers. He scandalized them all, however, when
one day a weirdly dressed mystic, or "Sufi," appeared on the
edge of his audience. This man, Shamsuddin of Tabriz, fascinated Rumi,
who closeted himself with the newcomer to learn a more emotional and
flamboyant way of loving God. He came out of seclusion dancing, and
introduced musical instruments (forbidden to orthodox Islam) and the
whirling dance of the dervishes to his skeptical followers. They killed
Shams in hopes of getting back their beloved teacher; but divine madness,
once experienced, cannot be renounced. Rumi became Islam's greatest
poet and most famous lover of God. He says,
Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absent minded. Someone sober
will worry about events going badly.
Let the lover be.
(1986: 7)
from: www.jrhaule.net/
Sunday November 28, 2004 8:14
The Servant Of Unity
Most men in power have not the strength nor wisdom
to be satisfied with the way
things are.
The sane know contentment, for beauty is their lover,
and beauty is never absent from this world.
The farther away light is from one’s touch
the more one naturally speaks of the
need for change.
Yes, overthrow any government inside
that makes you weep.
The child blames the external and focuses his energies there;
the warrior conquers the realms within
and becomes
gifted.
Only the inspired should make decisions
that affect the lives of many,
never a man who has not held God in his arms
and become the servant of
unity.
St. Teresa of Avila
(Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from
the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky)
Wednesday November 24, 2004 20:50
PROGRESSION
What isolates, divides.
What divides, tempts.
What tempts, frustrates.
What frustrates, destroys.
What destroys, fails.
What fails, conceals.
What conceals, is exposed.
What is exposed, surrenders.
What surrenders, becomes
The future God.
Sri Chinmoy
From: The
Golden Boat Part 11
Sunday November 21, 2004 12:16 PM
77,000 ServiceTrees pt. 19525.
When I am madly in love With everything about God,
I feel God's Presence
In my heart-garden
As clearly as possible.
Sri Chinmoy
Wednesday November 17, 2004 7:44 AM
For Three Days
Not many teachers in this world
Can give you as much enlightenment
In one year
As sitting all alone, for three days,
In your closet
Would
Do.
That means not leaving.
Better get a friend to help with
A few sandwiches
And
The chamber
Pot.
And no reading in there or writing poems,
That would be cheating;
Aim high-for a 360 degree
Detox.
This sitting alone, though, is
Not recommended
If you are normally
Sedated
Or have ever been under a doctor's
Surveillance because of your
Brain.
Dear one,
Don't let Hafiz fool you -
A ruby is buried
Here.
'The Gift - Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master'
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
Tuesday November 16, 2004 8:45
Watching means to sit in the cell and be always mindful of God. This
is what is meant by, "I was on the watch and God came to me."
Abba Macarius the Great: The sayings of the Desert Fathers
Friday November 12, 2004 7:42
Be Lost In The Call
Lord, said David, since you do not need us,
why did you create these two worlds?
Reality replied: O prisoner of time,
I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,
and I wished this treasure to be known,
so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;
its darkened back, the world;
The back would please you if you've never seen the face.
Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?
Yet clean away the mud and straw,
and a mirror might be revealed.
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,
it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,
you must do a little work.
My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
You return just as you left.
Where are the traces of my gifts?
We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold.
This Sun doesn't want a crown or robe from God's grace.
He is a hat to a hundred bald men,
a covering for ten who were naked.
Jesus sat humbly on the back of an ass, my child!
How could a zephyr ride an ass?
Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream.
Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.
Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call.
'Love is a Stranger' Kabir Helminski
Wednesday November 10, 2004 7:11
These Decisions
The old argument continues about fate and free will with
the king and his advisors
talking. The king rebuts their contention that all actions
are predestined. "But
surely we must be responsible for what we do! Why else
would Adam admit guilt?
Rather, he would have used Satan's answer, *You led me
astray.* Adam did have a
choice." Yet somehow both are true, destiny and free will.
We vacillate between
journeys. Shall we go to Mosul for trade or Babylon to
learn occult science?
These decisions are real. One person drinks a lot of wine.
Does someone else wake up
nauseated? When you work all day, you get the wages. A
child born from your soul
and body holds on to *your* legs. When has it been otherwise?
And if the consequences fail
to show up here, be sure they have taken form in the unseen.
'The Soul of Rumi'
Coleman Barks
Friday November 5, 2004 3:50 PM
Buddha in Glory
Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.
Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,
a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Monday November 1, 2004 19:39
The Sun Must Come
Rumi
Since Love has made ruins of my heart
The sun must come and illumine them.
Such generosity has broken me with shame:
The King prayed for me, and granted me His prayer:
How many times, just to calm me, did He show His face?
I said, "I saw His Face," but it was only a veil.
He charred a universe through the flaming-out of this veil.
O my God! How could such a King ever be unveiled?
Love reared in front of me, and I followed Him.
He turned and seized me like an eagle --
What a blessing it was to be His prey!
I plunged into a sea of ecstasy, and fled all pain.
If anguish is not delicious meat for you,
It is because you have never tasted this wine.
The Prophets accept all agony and trust it
For the water has never feared the fire.
from 'Perfume of the Desert' Andrew Harvey / Eryk Hanut
This page was last updated:
April 10, 2005 13:54
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