What We Want

(Credit : Panhala)

What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names--
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don't remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.

 

~ Linda Pastan ~

Champions in NonExistence!

(Credit : Ektoplazm)

Once again we have left our heart, intellect, and
spirit behind - the Friend has come into the midst and we
have disappeared.
 

We have turned back from annihilation and become
woven into subsistence; we have found the Traceless and
thrown away all traces.
 

Stirring up dust from the ocean and smoke from
the nine spheres, we have discarded Time, the earth, and
the heavens.
 

Beware, the drunkards have come! Clear the way! - no
I said that wrong, for we have been delivered from the way and
the travelers.
 

The spirit's fire has lifted its head from the body's
earth; the heart began to shout, and like a shout, we rose up.
 

Let us speak less, for if we speak, few understand. 

 

Pour more wine, for we have entered the ranks of the self-deniers!
Existence is for women - the work of men is nonexistence.
 

Thanks be to God, for we have risen as champions in nonexistence!

  Ghazal (Ode) 1601
Translation by Professor William C. Chittick*
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

Spinning With Your Love

I am filled with splendor,
spinning with your love.

It looks like I’m spinning around you,
but no – I’m spinning around myself!

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
A Garden Beyond Paradise
Bantam Books, 1992

Without You, how can I...?

(Credit : Nine Ravens)

There is no wine without You,
no use for the rosary without Your hand.
From afar You order me to dance
bu unless You set the stage and
open the curtain, my Beloved,
how can I dance?

  Translation by Azima Melita Kolin  and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

Bila Rumi Menari (M. Nasir)

Kita menari bukan sebarang tarian
Asalnya dari tanah orang-orang pilihan 

Bila terdengar masnawi ciptaan maulana
Ku bunuh nafsu lebur rantainya dari badan

Hingga hilang bangga diri
Berani hidup berani mati 

Bagai musafir bertemu janji
Ini Darwis sudah gila berahi

Kita tak rindu pada siasah dunia
Perangkapnya membuat manusia hampa
Untuk bertemu impian bukan percuma
Mengorbankan yang tersangat kita cinta

Bagai Yunus dimakan paus
Ibrahim tak makan api 

Bertemu kekasih di malam kudus
Luka di badan tak terasa lagi
Pukullah rebana jantungku bersyairlah maulana
Aku mabuk hakiki mendengar suaramu 

Sayang... pada mereka yang tak mengerti
Sayang... pada hati tertutup mati
Bagai sangkar tanpa penghuni
Burung berharga terlepas lari

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bertemu (ya maulana)
Hatiku merindukan pemiliknya (ya maulana) 

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu dengan yang dikasihi

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bertemu (ya maulana)
Hatiku merindukan pemiliknya (ya maulana) 

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu dengan kekasih

I only know what I've experienced

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.

There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies,
and in sunlight the beauty of friends
dancing at a wedding."

You ask the embryo why he, or she,
stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed.

Listen to the answer:

"There is no 'other world.'
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating."

Mathnawi III
Version by Coleman Barks
"We Are Three"
Maypop, 1987

The one who loves what God has made has no faith...

You are the real object

 Noah said, "I don't look at anyone but You;
even if I do, it's only a pretext,
for You are the real object of my glance.
I am in love with Your making—
both in the moment of thankfulness,
and when patience is required.
How should I be in love, like the unfaithful,
with that which You have made?"
The one who loves God's making is glorious;
the one who loves what God has made has no faith.

  Mathnawi III: 1359-1361
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996

Let's go home

Credit : Australian Geographic http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/wallpaper-barking-owl.htm)

A House for the Naked

It's late and it's raining my friends;
let's go home. Let's leave these ruins
we've haunted like owls.
Even though these blonde beauties beckon,
let's go home. All the reasons offered
by the sensible, dull, and sorrowful
can't darken our hearts now;
nor can all this phantom love play,
this imaginary paradise hold us back.
Some see the grain but not the harvest.
Don't ask too many "how's" or "why's."
Let beasts graze.
Come home to the real celebration and music.
Shams has built a house for the naked and the pure.

  Version by Kabir Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

Credit : OWLING http://www.owling.com/e-scr3.htm

Let's Go Home

Late and starting to rain, it's time to go home.
We've wandered long enough in empty buildings.
I know it's tempting to stay and meet those new people.
I know it's even more sensible
to spend the night here with them,
but I want to be home.

We've seen enough beautiful places with signs on them
saying "This Is God's House".
That's seeing the grain like the ants do,
without the work of harvesting.
Let's leave grazing to cows and go
where we know what everyone really intends,
where we can walk around without clothes on.

  Version by Coleman Barks
"Open Secret"
Threshold Books, 1984

What we notice

life is a garden,

not a road

we enter and exit

through the same gate

wandering,

where we go matters less

than what we notice


~ Bokonon ~
(The Lost Book)

We aren't listening.... Not within, we are out in the street looking up at the sky....

The thief among us

Totally conscious, and apropos of nothing, he comes to see me.
Is someone here? I ask.
The moon. The full moon is inside your house.

My friends and I go running out into the street.
I'm in here, comes a voice from the house, but we aren't listening.
We're looking up at the sky.
My pet nightingale sobs like a drunk in the garden.
Ringdoves scatter with small cries. Where, Where.
It's midnight. The whole neighborhood is up and out in the street
thinking, The cat-burglar has come back.
The actual thief is there too, saying out loud,
Yes, the cat-burglar is somewhere in this crowd.
No one pays attention.

Lo, I am with you always, means when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you.
There's no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.

A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower.

Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

 

 

 

 "And He is With Us"

Totally unexpected my guest arrived.
"Who is it?" asked my heart.
"The face of the moon," said my soul.

As he entered the house,
we all ran into the street madly looking for the moon.
"I'm in here," he was calling from inside,
but we were calling him outside unaware of his call.
Our drunken nightingale is singing in the garden,
and we are cooing like doves, "Where, where, where?"

A crowd formed: "Where's the thief?"
And the thief among us is saying,
"Yeah, where's the thief?"
All our voices became mixed together
and not one voice stood out from the others.

"And He is with you" means He is searching with you.
He is nearer to you than yourself. Why look outside?
Become like melting snow; wash yourself of yourself.
With love your inner voice will find a tongue
growing like a silent white lily in the heart.

  Version by Kabir Edmund Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

A Thief in The Night

Suddenly
(yet somehow expected)
he arrived, the guest....
the heart trembling "Who's there?"

and soul responding
"The Moon..."
came into the house, and we lunatics
ran into the street, stared up
looking
for the moon.

Then--inside the house--
he cried out "Here I am !"
and we, beyond earshot
lunning around, calling him...

crying for him
for the drunken nightingale
locked lamenting
in our garden
while we mourning ringdoves
murmured "Where Where?"

As if at midnight
the sleepers bolt upright
in their beds
hearing a thief
break into the house
they stumble about
crying "Help!
A thief! A thief!"

but the burglar himself
mingles in the confusion
echoing their cries:
"..... a thief!"
till one cry
melts with the others.

  Ghazal (Ode) 2172
"The Drunken Universe"
Translation by Peter Lamborn Wilson with Nasrullah Pourjavadi
Omega Publications, New Lebanon, 1987

Your Real Home

Seek nothing but the source

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

Ghazal 945
Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Cal-Earth Press, 1994

Jalan Pulang

Sekiranya aku tidak sesat

sudah tentu aku berada di dalam Rumahku

aku masih mengembara

Sudahkah kamu kembali?

sekiranya kamu sudah berada di dalam Rumahmu

maka tunjukkanlah padaku..

jalan pulang...

Nabi Isa alaihi salam and Jesus

Kapan ketemu? Kok bisa bersaksi ?

"...Sesungguhnya solatku, ibadahku, hidupku, dan matiku hanyalah untuk Allah pentadbir sekalian alam.."

(Maksud ku)

Don’t think too much

Don’t think.

Don’t get lost in your thoughts.

Your thoughts are a veil on the face of the Moon.

That Moon is your heart,

and those thoughts cover your heart.

So let them go.

Just let them fall into the water.

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva

A Garden Beyond Paradise

Bantam Books, 1992

(credit : deviant-art)

don’t think too much

put yourself to sleep

thinking is a veil

on the face of the moon

your heart is like the moon

don’t cover it with thought

cast your thinking on the water

Translation by Nader Khalili

Rumi, Dancing the Flame

Cal-Earth Press, 2001

You are more beautiful than you think...

I am that

The marvelous sound

That comes from the sky – I am That.

The sweet fragrance

That comes from the garden – I am That.

The great beauty

That comes from the heart and soul

Until I leave . . . Wait!

I can’t leave – I am That.

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva

A Garden Beyond Paradise

Bantam Books, 1992

I am the sharer of your secrets

how very close

is your soul with mine

i know for sure

everything you think

goes through my mind

i am with you

now and doomsday

not like a host

caring for you

at a feast alone

with you i am happy

all the times

the time i offer my life

or the time

you gift me your love

offering my life

is a profitable venture

each life i give

you pay in turn

a hundred lives again

in this house

there are a thousand

dead and still souls

making you stay

as this will be yours

a handful of earth

cries aloud

i used to be hair or

i used to be bones

and just the moment

when you are all confused

leaps forth a voice

hold me close

i'm love and

i'm always yours 

Translation by Nader Khalili

"Rumi -- Fountain of Fire"

Cal-Earth Press, 1994 

How close your soul is to my soul! For whatever thing you are

thinking, I know.

I have a token even closer than this; come close, and behold

my token.

In dervish guise you come into the midst; do not jest and say,

"I am in the midst."

I am like the column amidst your house; I am like a water-

spout hanging down from your roof.

I am a sharer of your secrets on the day of mustering and 

resurrection, I am not a passing host like worldly friends.

In your banquet I go round like the wine, in time of your

battle I go before you like a lance.

If like lightning I make a trade of dying, like the lightning of

your beauty I am without a tongue.

Always I am joyful; it makes no difference whether I yield my

soul, or seize a soul.

If I give you my soul, it will be good trade, for in exchange for

a soul you will give me a hundred worlds.

In this house thousands and more are dead; there you are

seated saying, "Behold my household!"

A handful of dust says, "I was once a tress"; another says, "I am

a bone."

You become bewildered; then suddenly Love comes saying, "I 

will deliver you this very instant from yourself."

Silence, Khusrau, speak no more of Shirin; my mouth is 

burning with sweetness.*

Translation by A.J. Arberry

"Mystical Poems of Rumi - 1"

The University of Chicago Press, 1968

* A play on "Shirin" and "shirini" (sweetness).

Spirit and awareness

What is soul? Soul is conscious of good and evil,

rejoicing over kindness, weeping over injury.

Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul,

the more aware you are the more spiritual you are.

Awareness is the effect of the spirit:

anyone who has this in abundance

is a man or woman of God.

Mathnawi VI: 148-150

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"

Threshold Books, 1996

Soul And The Old Woman

What is the soul?

Consciousness.

The more awareness, the deeper the soul,

 and when

such essence overflows, you feel a sacredness around.

It’s so simple to tell one who puts on a robe and 

pretends to be a dervish from the real thing.

 We know the taste of pure water. 

Words can sound like a poem but not have any juice,

no flavor to relish.

How long do you look at pictures on a bathhouse wall?

Soul is what draws you away from those pictures to talk with the old woman

who sits outside by the door in the sun. 

She’s half blind, but she has what soul loves to flow into. 

She’s kind; she weeps.

She makes quick personal decisions, and laughs so easily.

Mathnawi: VI: 148-50

Version by Coleman Barks

"The Soul of Rumi"

HarperSanFrancisco, 2001

10 signs of a spiritual awakening

I never knew it

By day I praised you

And never knew it.

By night I stayed with you

And never knew it.

I always thought that I was me – but no,

I was you

and never knew it!

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva

A Garden Beyond Paradise

Bantam Books, 1992

You

• You are the guy...

• You Are Not a Single YOU

• Who do you think it is?

 

 

There is another Moon...

CLICK HERE

Salam Ramadhan

(credit - "A Gift of Moonlight by Szilla774" at deviantart)

A Children's Game

Listen to the poet Sanai, who lived secluded:

 "Don't wander out on the road in your ecstasy. Sleep in the tavern."

When a drunk strays out to the street,
children make fun of him.
He falls down in the mud.
He takes any and every road.
The children follow,
not knowing the taste of wine, or how
his drunkenness feels. All people on the planet
are children, except for a very few.
No one is grown up except those free of desire.

God said,
"The world is a play, a children's game,
and you are the children."
God speaks the truth.
If you haven't left the child's play, how can you be an adult?
Without purity of spirit,
if you're still in the middle of lust and greed
and other wantings, you're like children
playing at sexual intercourse.
They wrestle and rub together, but it's not sex!

The same with the fightings of mankind.
It's a squabble with play-swords.
No purpose, totally futile.

Like kids on hobby horses, soldiers claim to be riding
Boraq, Muhammad's night-horse, or Duldul, his mule.

Your actions mean nothing, the sex and war that you do.
You're holding part of your pants and prancing around,
Dun-da-dun, dun-da-dun.

Don't wait till you die to see this.
Recognize that your imagination and your thinking
and your sense-perception are reed canes
that children cut and pretend are horsies.

The Knowing of mystic Lovers is different.
The empirical, sensory, sciences
are like a donkey loaded with books,
or like the makeup woman's makeup.
It washes off.
But if you lift the baggage rightly, it will give you joy.
Don't carry your knowledge-load for some selfish reason.
Deny your desires and willfulness,
and a real mount may appear under you.

Don't be satisfied with the name of HU,
with just words about it.

Experience that breathing.
From books and words come fantasy,
and sometimes, from fantasy, comes union.

  Mathnawi I: 3426-3454
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

 

 

Oh formless Heart-ravisher!

Oh formless Heart-ravisher! Oh unformed Form-maker!
Oh Thou who hast given a goblet full of uproar to the lovers!

Thou hast shut my mouth lest I voice the mysteries, and
in the breast Thou hast opened the door I cannot name.

As soon as Thy Beauty threw off its veil in secret, my heart
fell to the saki and my head to the wine.

It was morning, and Thy Image went mounted on its steed.
Holy spirits, innumerable as sand, went on foot.

And those who are famous for their glorification of Thee in
heaven broke their rosaries and pawned their prayer carpets.

The spirit cannot bear to see Thy Face unveiled, and Thy
Beauty is greater than whatever I say.

My spirit is a drunken camel following behind Thee, my
body a collar around the camel's neck.

Shams of God Tabrizi! My heart is pregnant from Thee!
When will I see the child born of Thy auspiciousness!

Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

O formless Beloved of the pure form-fashioner, O you who
have given the cup full of tumult to the lovers,

You have closed your mouth against uttering secrets, and
opened in the heart the door which I do not mention.

Since your beauty secretly cast off the veil, heart has gone
after saki and hand after wine.

In the morning when your image drove forth riding, holy
spirits, as numberless as the sand, followed on foot;

And those who are famous in heaven for their adoration broke
their rosaries and pawned their prayer rugs.

They cannot endure to gaze on your face unveiled; your beauty
exceeds all that I say.

My soul runs after you like a raging camel; my body is a collar
bound upon the neck of that camel.

Shams-al Haqq Tabriz, my heart is pregnant by you; when
shall I see a child born under your auspices?

Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
The University of Chicago Press, 1991

 

 

Whatever will be, will be.

Let the Lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about events going badly.
Let the Lover be.

Poetic version by Coleman Barks and John Moyne
"Unseen Rain - Quatrains of Rumi"
Threshold Books, 1986

The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.

Caught by our own thoughts,
we worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.

Poetic version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva "A Garden Beyond Paradise - The Mystical Poetry of Rumi"
Bantam Books, 1992

All year round the lover is mad
Unkempt, lovesick, and in despair
Without love there is nothing but grief
In love... what else matters?

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

 

In love..

I am hopelessly in love with you, no point

giving me advice.

I have drunk love’s poison, no point

taking any remedy.

They want to chain my feet but

what’s the point

when it is my heart that’s gone mad.

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi

Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

fallen in love with you

I will take no advice

I have tasted the poison

what good can sugar do

they say he is mad

and in chains

he must be put

mad is my heart

what is a chain

on my foot

Translation by Nader Khalili

Rumi, Dancing the Flame

Cal-Earth Press, 2001

There is nothing you can't achieve

 If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can't achieve.

 

Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter's place.
When you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chances are that you'll cut yourself.

 

(Tao Te Ching, trans. by Stephen Mitchell)

 

Still, that doesn't stop the sun from shining...

To follow one's own desires is to flee from God

and to spill the blood of spirituality

in the presence of His justice.

This world is a trap, and desire its bait:

escape the traps, and quickly

turn your face toward God.

When you have followed this Way,

you have enjoyed a hundred blessings.

When you have gone the opposite way, you have fared ill.

So the Prophet said, "Consult your own hearts,

even though the religious judge

advises you about worldy affairs."

Abandon desire, and so reveal His Mercy:

you've learned by experience

the sacrifice He requires.

Since you can't escape, be His servant,

and go from His prison into His rose garden.

When you continually keep watch over your thoughts and actions,

you are always seeing the Justice and the Judge,

though heedlessness may shut your eyes,

still, that doesn't stop the sun from shining.

Mathnawi VI: 377-384

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"

Threshold Books, 1996

In the core of your Heart..

you see no center

you’re so ego ridden

within your shell

your senses are

the brain of your body

and your brain

the sense of your soul

remember

that there is a friend

within your soul

once you surpass

the body sense and soul

there is nothing but the friend

Translation by Nader Khalili

Rumi, Dancing the Flame

Cal-Earth Press, 2001 

Don’t forget the nut, being so proud of the shell,

The body has its inward ways,

the five senses. They crack open,

and the Friend is revealed.

Crack open the Friend, you become

the All-One.

Version by Coleman Barks

"Unseen Rain" 

Threshold Books, 1986

Deafened by the voice of desire

you are unaware the Beloved

lives in the core of your heart.

Stop the noise,

and you will hear His voice

in the silence.

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi

Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

Be silent, for madness has begun to boil

(credit : World Photograhy)

Where is the knowing, nimble Minstrel of Love -
He who plays only for Love, accepting no one's request?

I have died hoping for Him but have not seen Him;
I have entered the grave in my desire.

Oh dear friend, if you have seen Him, how
good for you! Oh friend, indeed, how good for you!

But if He is hidden like Khidr*,
alone upon the shores of the sea,

Then oh wind, take our salaam to Him! For my
heart is in tumult over Him.

I know that burning salaams take lovers to their
Beloved.

Love makes the millwheel of the heavens spin, not water;
Love makes the moon go forward, not feet.

In remembrance, the millwheel of spirits begins
to turn through the water of the eyes.

Remembrance is the noose of union with the Beloved -
be silent, for madness has begun to boil.

  Ghazal 127
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

*"Hidden like Khidr" -- Khidr is one of the four prophets whom the Islamic tradition recognizes as being `alive' or`immortal', the other three being Idris (Enoch), Ilyas (Elias), and `Isa (Jesus). Khidr is immortal because he drank from the water of life. In Sufi tradition, Khidr has come to be known as one of the afrâd, those "who receive illumination direct from God without human mediation." He is the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path like some of those from the Uwaisi tariqa.
-- Derived by Sunlight from http://www.khidr.org

My Friend, I offer You my life.

O my Beloved!
Take me,
Liberate my soul,
Fill me with your love,
and release me from both worlds.

If I set my heart
On anything but you,
O fire, burn me from inside!

O my Beloved
Take away what I want,
Take away what I do,
Take away everything
that takes me from you.

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
A Garden Beyond Paradise
Bantam Books, 1992

 take me in my love
take my soul
set me on ecstasy
take both of my worlds
if I rest my heart on
anything but you
throw me with fireball
take everything I hold

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

 My Friend,
I offer You my life.
Accept me, make me drunk
and save me from both worlds.
Set me on fire
if my heart settles on anything
but You.

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999