Allspirit Inspiration Page 15
God said, “I loved to be known, so I created creation.” This is
reflected in the ones whom God loves. The qualities of loving,
knowing, hearing, seeing, will, power, talking are all God’s gifts
to humanity. But God’s greatest gift is love, the manifestation of
His love of knowing Himself. Love is the primary sustenance for
human beings. They cannot live without it, and mankind learned
to love from God.
~ Sheikh Badruddin
Excerpted from Essential Sufism Ed. Fadiman/Frager
A man wished to see the Prophet in a dream, but he could never
achieve this vision, no matter how hard he tried. He asked a saint
for advice. The saint said, “My son, on Friday evening you must
eat a lot of salted fish, then perform your prayer and go to bed
without drinking any water. Then you will see.”
The man followed this advice. He spent the whole night dreaming
that he was drinking from streams, fountains, and springs. When
morning came, he ran crying to the saint. “0 Master, I did not see
the Prophet. I was so thirsty that all I dreamed about was drinking
from fountains and springs. I am still on fire with thirst. The saint told
him, “So, eating salted fish gave you such a thirst that you dreamed
all night long of nothing but water. Now you must feel such a thirst
for God’s Prophet, and you will then behold his blessed beauty!”
~ Sheikh Muzaffer
Excerpted from Essential Sufism Ed. Fadiman/Frager
THE jewel is lost in the mud, and all are seeking for it;
Some look for it in the east, and some in the west;
some in the water and some amongst stones.
But the servant Kab�r has appraised it at its true value,
and has wrapped it with care in the end of the mantle
of his heart.
~ Kabir
Trans. Rabindranath Tagore
The darkness of night is coming along fast, and
the shadows of love close in the body and
the mind. Open the window to the west, and disappear into the
air inside you.
Near your breastbone there is an open flower.
Drink the honey that is all around that flower.
Waves are coming in:
there is so much magnificence near the ocean!
Listen: Sound of big seashells! Sound of bells!
Kabir says: Friend, listen, this is what I have to say:
The Guest I love is inside me!
Kabir
Translated by Robert Bly
The Swan by Rainer Maria Rilke
The laboring through what is still undone
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the awkward walking of the swan.
And dying-to let go no longer feel
the solid ground we stand on every day-
is like his anxious letting himself fall
into the water, which receives him gently
and which, as though with reverence and joy
draws back past him in streams on either side;
while, infinitely silent and aware
in his full majesty and ever more
indifferent he condescends to glide.
God’s Wounds
Through the great pain of stretching
beyond all that pain has taught me,
the soft well at the base
has opened, and life
touching me there
has turned me into a flower
that prays for rain. Now
I understand: to blossom
is to pray, to wilt and shed
is to pray, to turn to mulch
is to pray, to stretch in the dark
is to pray, to break the surface
after great months of ice
is to pray, and to squeeze love
up the stalky center toward the sky
with only dreams of color
is to pray, and finally to unfold
again as if never before
is to be the prayer.
Mark Nepo
Quoted in Essential Sufism Fadiman/Frager
This world is nothing more than
Beauty’s chance to show herself.
And what are we? –
Nothing more than Beauty’s
chance to see Herself.
For if Beauty were not seeking Herself
we would not exist.
Every particle of creation sings its own
song of what is, and what is not.
The wise hear what is.
The mad bear what is not.
And only a cracked mirror will show
a difference.
All your knowledge leads you in
the wrong direction;
All your worship only puts you to
sleep.
Insipid is this world which only
believes in what is seen;
Here, taste the wine from this Cup
which cannot be seen…
On account of those who repeat His
Name.
The Earth has become a paradise,
an honored place in the order of
creation.
God’s love is on this Earth,
And the heavens forever bend
over to greet Her.
~ Ghalib
Translated by Jonathan Star
The only thing that is Eternal is Love.
This Love *is* the Beloved *and* the Lover.
You are not to make any effort in this relationship.
When you are in front of your Beloved
this Beloved will not ask you to make any effort.
This Beloved will take care of you
and whatever she does you will accept it.
At that time you will not think what is going on
because in Love there is no dialogue.
In Love there is no dialogue, no question, no answer.
Simply both are quiet.
You are quiet and your Beloved is quiet
and something great is about to happen Now.
You have to wait.
When you don’t make any separation
between the Beloved and the Lover
you have found the secret:
That you have never been separated from anything.
This is all you have to do.
Did you get this secret?
From: This – Prose and Poetry of Dancing Emptiness
by Sri H. W. L. Poonja (Papaji)
Love makes us speak; love makes us moan; love makes us die;
love brings us to life; love makes us drunk and bewildered; it
sometimes makes one a king. Love and the lover have no rigid
doctrine. Whichever direction the lover takes, he turns toward his
beloved. Wherever he may be, he is with his beloved. Wherever
he goes, he goes with his beloved. He cannot do anything, cannot
survive for even one moment, without his beloved. He constantly
recalls his beloved as his beloved remembers him. Lover and
beloved, rememberer and remembered, are ever in each other’s
company, always together.
~Sheikh Muzaffer
This innocence waking up, realizing that everything is itself,
even all the confusion and all the ignorance and everything…
this is the dissolving of confusion, of ignorance, of karma.
~ Adyashanti
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