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Showing posts with the label Jelelludin Rumi

With passion pray

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  Rumi “With passion pray. With passion make love. With passion eat and drink and dance and play. Why look like a dead fish in this ocean of God?” Regret, that sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach. We’ve all been there, wishing we could have another chance. But, it is in this very feeling in which our return to the One happens. The Divine Essence is always seeking our return to Him, waiting for us to seek reconciliation with Him and wash away the mistake. And we give ourselves plenty of opportunity for returning. Darkness wants you to keep mistakes hidden but once you bring the Light in, the experience fades and leaves the lesson. Turn back to the Essence of the One and rejoice that the mistake opened the door for reconnection. Source: Love Poems from God Translator: Daniel Ladinsky

...That sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach

Regret, that sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach. We’ve all been there, wishing we could have another chance. But, it is in this very feeling in which our return to the One happens. The Divine Essence is always seeking our return to Him, waiting for us to seek reconciliation with Him and wash away the mistake. And we give ourselves plenty of opportunity for returning. Darkness wants you to keep mistakes hidden but once you bring the Light in, the experience fades and leaves the lesson. Turn back to the Essence of the One and rejoice that the mistake opened the door for reconnection. Rumi

Unfold your own myth

by Jelaluddin Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks) Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins? Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms? Who comes to a spring thirsty and sees the moon reflected in it? Who, like Jacob, blind with grief and age, smells the shirt of his son and can see again? Who lets a bucket down and brings up a flowing prophet? Or like Moses goes for fire and finds what burns inside the sunrise? Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies, and opens a door to the other world. Solomon cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring. Omar storms in to kill the prophet and leaves with blessings. Chase a deer and end up everywhere! An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop. Now there's a pearl. A vagrant wanders empty ruins Suddenly he's wealthy. But don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation, so everyone will u

What Is Bounty Without A Beggar?

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by  Jelaluddin Rumi for my recovery friends who are facing down their own fears   What is bounty without a beggar? Generosity without a guest? Be beggar and guest; for beauty is seeking a mirror, water is crying for a thirsty man. Hopelessness and need are tasteful bezel for that ruby. Your poverty is a Burak;* don't be a coffin riding on other men's shoulders. Thank God you hadn't the means or you may have been a Pharaoh. The prayer of Moses was, "Lord, I am in need of Thee!" The Way of Moses is all hopelessness and need and it is the only way to God. From when you were an infant, when has hopelessness ever failed you? Joseph's path leads into the pit; don't flee across the chessboard of this world, for it is His game and we are checkmate! checkmate! Hunger makes stale bread more delicious than halvah. Your spiritual discomfort is spiritual indigestion; seek hunger and passion and need! A mouse is a nibbler. God gave him mind in proportio

A Man Talking To His House

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by Jelelludin Rumi I say that no one in this caravan is awake and that while you sleep, a thief is stealing the signs and symbols of what you thought was your life. Now you're angry with me for telling you this! Pay attention to those who hurt your feelings telling you the truth. Giving and absorbing compliments is like trying to paint on water, that insubstantial. Here is how a man once talked with his house, “Please, if you're ever about to collapse, let me know.” One night without a word the house fell. “What happened to our agreement?” The house answered, “Day and night I've been telling you with cracks and broken boards and holes appearing like mouths opening. But you kept patching and filling those with mud, so proud of your stopgap masonry. You didn't listen.” This house is your body always saying, I'm leaving; I'm going soon. Don't hide from one who knows the secret. Drink the wine of turning toward God. Don'

"Dolls That Pull the Stuffing Out of Each Other"

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by Rumi You that give nourishment and steadiness and freedom, give the bent soul strength to stand up straight in the work it knows it's here to do. Give us patience and generosity and clarity to see through the images that appear. There is a coarse desire that wants world-power; there are armies that kill their own relatives; and there is the bitter pleasure of dolls that pull the stuffing out of each other. Read the passionate love stories again. Notice how everyone perishes in what is not love. Love is when the holy nothingness loves itself. Jealousies come as kindness turns cruel. If there were no legal punishment, no threat of prison, people would shred their enemies, the so-called lovers. Envy connects deeply with the old ambition of fallen angels, who do exist, and they have human helpers who try to destroy anyone who has loved and received wisdom from a teacher. Mathnawi V: 1197-1225 Version by Coleman Barks

A King Dressed As a Servant

by Jelalludin Rumi A sweet voice calls out, "The caravan from Egypt is here!" A hundred camels with what amazing treasure! Midnight, a candle and someone quietly waking me, "Your friend has come." I spring out of my body, put a ladder to the roof, and climb up to see if it's true. Suddenly, there is a world within this world! An ocean inside the water jar! A king sitting with me wearing the uniform of a servant! A garden in the chest of the gardener! I see how love has "thoughts," and that these thoughts are circulating in conversation with majesty. Let me keep opening this moment like a dead body reviving. Shamsi Tabriz saw the placeless one and from That, made a place. (Ghazal 2730, Version by Coleman Barks) For more poems by Hafiz and Rumi..

A Zero-Circle

by Jellaludin Rumi Be helpless and dumbfounded, unable to say yes or no. Then a stretcher will come from grace to gather us up. We are too dulleyed to see the beauty. If we say "Yes we can," we'll be lying. If we say "No, we don't see it," that "No" will behead us and shut tight our window into spirit. So let us not be sure of anything, besides ourselves, and only that, so miraculous beings come running to help. Crazed, lying in a zero-circle, mute, we will be saying finally, with tremendous eloquence, "Lead us." When we've totally surrendered to that beauty, we'll become a mighty kindness. (Mathnawi IV, 3748-3754, translated by Coleman Barks) For more poems by Hafiz and Rumi..

The Guest House

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by Jelalludin Rumi This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. Coleman Barks trans. For more poems by Hafiz and Rumi..

Come, come, whoever you are

by Jelalludin Rumi Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you've broken your vow a thousand times. Come, yet again, come. Coleman Barks trans. For more poems by Hafiz and Rumi..

The Shop

by Rumi Lightning falling on the helpless, a surge of pearl out of the rock covering the rock, this life torn into a hundred pieces, and one of those pieces a ticket to let me back into my life. A spirit world divided into eight sections, one a scroll. Eight scrolls in the parchment of your face. What kind of bird am I becoming, kneeling like a camel, pecking at the fire like an ostrich? You and I have worked in the same shop for years. Our loves are great fellow workers. Friends cluster there, and every moment we notice a new light coming out in the sky. Invisible, yet taking form, like Christ coming through Mary. In the cradle, God. Shams, why this inconsistency that we live with love, and yet we run away? Coleman Barks trans. For more poems by Hafiz and Rumi..

I've Broken Through To Longing

by Jellaludin Rumi I've broken through to longing Now, filled with a grief I have Felt before, but never like this. The center leads to love. Soul opens the creation core. Hold on to your particular pain. That too can take you to God. Coleman Barks trans. For more poems by Hafiz and Rumi..

Discover the Moment

[From our retreat: here are a few lines from Rumi translated by Coleman Barks.] Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins? Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms? Who comes to a spring thirsty and sees the moon reflected in it? Who, like Jacob, blind with grief and age, smells the shirt of his son and can see again? Who lets a bucket down and brings up a flowing prophet? Or like Moses goes for fire and finds what burns inside the sunrise? Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies, and opens a door to the other world. Solomon cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring. Omar storms in to kill the prophet and leaves with blessings. Chase a deer and end up everywhere! An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop. Now there's a pearl. A vagrant wanders empty ruins Suddenly he's wealthy. But don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation, so everyon