Sunday, August 31, 2014

AMONG THE MULTITUDES



I am who I am.
A coincidence no less unthinkable
than any other.
 
I could have different
ancestors, after all.
I could have fluttered
from another nest
or crawled bescaled
from under another tree.
 
Nature's wardrobe
holds a fair
supply of costumes:
Spider, seagull, field mouse.
each fits perfectly right off
and is dutifully worn
into shreds.
 
I didn't get a choice either,
but I can't complain.
I could have been someone
much less separate.
Someone from an anthill, shoal, or buzzing swarm,
an inch of landscape tousled by the wind.
 
Someone much less fortunate,
bred for my fur
or Christmas dinner,
something swimming under a square of glass.
 
A tree rooted to the ground
as the fire draws near.
 
A grass blade trampled by a stampede
of incomprehensible events.
 
A shady type whose darkness
dazzled some.
 
What if I'd prompted only fear,
loathing,
or pity?
 
If I'd been born
in the wrong tribe
with all roads closed before me?
 
Fate has been kind
to me thus far.
 
I might never have been given
the memory of happy moments.
 
My yen for comparison
might have been taken away.
 
I might have been myself minus amazement,
that is,
someone completely different.
 
~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
 
(Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
trans. by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)

Thursday, August 21, 2014

This earthly body of ours




this earthly body of ours
is the light of the heavens
our agile flights
are the envy of angels
one day the celestial bodies
wish to have our pure souls
one day we are a dare devil
who frightens a monster

Translation by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Dancing the Flame
Cal-Earth Press, 2001

Monday, August 11, 2014

In Uttering it Pt 3 - ALLAHU AKBAR !


Do we know what we say? Do we mean it? Or we just simply say it? Do we have any idea when we utter it?  read....


and more of it....

Now watch this video...


Friday, August 01, 2014

Tell me the absolute truth


The Sunrise Ruby

In the early morning hour, just before dawn, 
lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water.

She ask, "Do you love me or yourself more?
Really, tell the absolute truth."

He says, "There's nothing left of me.
I'm like a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness?
 It has no resistance to sunlight."

This is how Hallaj said, I am God,
and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.
Be courageous and discipline yourself.

Completely become hearing and ear,
and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

Work. Keep digging your well.
Don't think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.

Submit to a daily practice.
Your loyalty to that is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window
and look out to see who's there.

  Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
Castle Books, 1997



One morning a beloved said to her lover to test him,
"Oh so-and-so, I wonder, do you love me more, or yourself?
Tell the truth, oh man of sorrows!"
He replied, "I have been so annihilated within thee that I am full of thee from head to foot.
Nothing is left of my own existence but the name.
In my existence, oh sweet one, there is naught but thee.
I have been annihilated like vinegar in an ocean of honey."
In the same way, a stone transformed into a
flawless ruby has become full of the attributes of the sun.
The description of that stone does not remain within it – 
full of the sun's description, front and back.
Should it love itself, then that will be love for the sun, oh youth!
Should it love the sun to the bottom of its soul,
without doubt it will be in love with itself.

  Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love- The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi"
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983


At the hour of the morning-drink a beloved said to her lover by way of trial,
"O such-and-such son of such-and-such,
I wonder, do you love me or yourself more?
 Tell the truth, O man of sorrows."
He replied, "I have become so naughted in thee that I am full of thee from head to foot.
Of my existence there is nothing (left) in me but the name:
in my being there is naught but thee, O thou whose wishes are gratified.
By that means I have become thus naughted, like vinegar, in thee (who are) an ocean of honey."
As the stone that is entirely turned into pure ruby: it is filled with the qualities of the sun.
That stony nature does not remain in it: back and front, it is filled with sunniness.
Afterwards, if it love itself, that (self-love) is love of the sun, O youth;
And if it love the sun with (all) its soul, `tis undoubtedly love of itself.
Whether the pure ruby loves itself or whether it loves the sun,
There is really no difference in these two loves: 
both sides (aspects) are naught but the radiance of the sunrise.
Until it (the stone) has become a ruby, it is an enemy to itself,
because it is not a single "I": two "I's" are there;
For the stone is dark and blind to the day (-light): 
the dark is essentially opposed to light.
(If) it love itself, it is an infidel, because it offers intense resistance to the supreme Sun.
Therefore `tis not fitting that the stone should say "I," (for)
it is wholly darkness and in (the state of) death.
A Pharaoh said, "I am God" and was laid low; 
a Mansur (Hallaj) said, "I am God" and was saved.
The former "I" is followed by God's curse and the latter "I" by God's mercy, O loving man;
For that one (Pharaoh) was a black stone,
this one (Hallaj) a cornelian; that one was an enemy to the Light, 
and this one passionately enamoured (of it).
This "I," O presumptuous meddler, 
was "He" (God) in the inmost consciousness, 
through oneness with the Light,
not through (belief in) the doctrine of incarnation.
Strive that thy stony nature may be diminished, 
so that thy stone may become resplendent with the qualities of the ruby.
Show fortitude in (enduring) self-mortification and affliction;
continually behold everlasting life in dying to self.
(Then) thy stoniness will become less at every moment, 
the nature of the ruby will be strengthened in thee.
The qualities of (self-) existence will depart from thy body,
the qualities of intoxication (ecstasy) will increase in thy head (thy spiritual centre).
Become entirely hearing, like an ear, in order that thou mayst gain an ear-ring of ruby.

  Translation by Reynold A. Nicholson
"The Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi"
Published and Distributed by
The Trustees of The "E.J.W. Gibb Memorial

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