On the Night of Creation I was awake.
Busy at work while everyone slept.
I was there to see the first wink
and hear the first tale told.
I was the first one caught
in the hair of the Great Imposter.
Whirling around the still-point of ecstasy
I spun like the wheel of heaven.
How can I describe this to you?–
you were born later.
I was a companion of the Ancient Lover;
Like a bowl with a broken rim
I endured his tyranny.
Why shouldn’t I be as lustrous as the King’s cup?–
I have lived in the room of treasures.
Why shouldn’t this bubble become the sea?–
I am the secret that lies at the bottom…
Sh…No more words–
Hear only the voice within.
Remember, the first thing He said was:
We are beyond words.

“No more words. In the name of this place we drink in with our breathing, stay quiet like a flower. So the nightbirds will start singing.”  Rumi, Night and Sleep

You come to us from another world
From beyond the stars and void of space.
Transcendent, Pure,Of unimaginable beauty,

Bringing with you the essence of love.
You transform all who are touched by you.
Mundane concerns,troubles, and sorrows dissolve in your presence,
Bringing joy to ruler and ruled
To peasant and King.
You bewilder us with your grace.
All evils transform into goodness.
You are the master alchemist.
You light the fire of love
in earth and sky
in heart and soul of every being.
Through your loving existence and nonexistence merge.
All opposites unite.
All that is profane becomes sacred again.

~ Rumi ~~~ ❤ ~~~

Hummingbird at rest, a rare sight.

It’s a sometimes strange experience, realizing that you are a hyphenated American. One wants to take pride in aspects of one’s culture, but where is the line drawn? The bigoted internet outrage that happened over Sebastien de la Cruz’s performance (really, more his outfit) at the NBA finals highlights a reality that we’re aware of on an intimate level if we happen to belong to a particular group. America’s land purchases engulfed a huge amount of territory that was previously Mexico, and it is a saying that for the common folk, nothing changed. They woke up one day and were told the war they had not wanted was ended, and they were no longer in Mexico but in the USA. If a people and their culture have been around since before it was even a part of the country, is it really possible to expect that it would vanish just because the powers that be were no longer the same? How exactly should Americans be defining what it means to “be American” anyways?

What defines a culture and its common experiences is something that can draw people together as quickly as it pushes them apart. The Question Bridge Project is an amazing example of how the internet could be harnessed to answer these questions of culture and identity. Although it focuses on Black males, the series of questions and particularly the answers show how each individual has a unique perspective on how they connect to their label. It reveals that despite society’s attempts to paint a person with a brush, their innermost humanity can shine through if there is an outlet for it.

Also, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these translations. Rumi seemed fitting given that no matter what we look like, we all have an emotional life we try to navigate.

This world and that world are forever giving birth:

every cause is a mother; the effect is born as a child

when the effect was born, it too became a cause ,

so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.

These causes follow generation upon generation, but it takes a very well illiminated eye to see all the links in the chain – Rumi

More beauty from Duncan Mackintosh, Britain’s best reciter of Rumi!
Much love and Living Light ~~~~~~~

P

Thirst is angry with water. Hunger bitter

with bread.The cave wants nothing to do

with the sun. This is dumb, the self-
defeating way we’ve been. A gold mine

is calling us into its temple. Instead,
we bend and keep picking up rocks

from the ground. Every thing has a shine like gold,
but we should turn to the source!

The origin is what we truly are. I add a little
vinegar to the honey I give. The bite of scolding

makes ecstasy more familiar. But
look, fish, you’re already in the ocean:

just swimming there makes you friends
with glory. What are these grudges about?

You are Benjamin. Joseph has put a gold cup
in your grain sack and accused you of being

a thief. Now he draws you aside and says,
“You are my brother. I am a prayer. You’re

the amen.” We move in eternal regions, yet
worry about property here. This is the prayer

of each: You are the source of my life.
You separate essence from mud. You honor

my soul. You bring rivers from the
mountain springs. You brighten my eyes.

The wine you offer takes me out of myself
into the self we share. Doing that is religion.

~Rumi

Related articles

• Is Your Prayer Pure or Self-gratifying? (myviewandopinion.wordpress.com)
• For Every Pain The Remedy Has Been Given – Rumi Duncan Macintosh (blissfilled1.wordpress.com)
• Shifting Energy with Rumi: Move Into Your House of Joy (soulfields.wordpress.com)
• Rumi and the Quest for the Infinite (literarylew.wordpress.com)
• Great Poems We Love – Look at Love by Rumi (thenonpoetsclub.wordpress.com)

Love has grabbed everyone by the neck

And drags us to God by secret ways….

How could I ever have guessed

That God, too, desired us?

~ Rumi

EDITOR’S NOTE:

I think of a wonderful poetic image from Rumi:

Stay bewildered in God,

and only that.

Those of you who are scattered,

simplify your worrying lives.  There is one

righteousness:  Water the fruit trees,

and don’t water the thorns.  Be generous

to what nurtures the spirit and God’s luminous

reason-light.  Don’t honor what causes

dysentery and knotted-up tumors.

Don’t feed both sides of yourself equally.

The spirit and the body carry different loads.

Too often

we put saddlebags on Jesus and let the donkey

run loose in the pasture.

Don’t make the body do

what the spirit does best, and don’t put a big load

on the spirit that the body could carry easily.

–Translated by Coleman Barks; from The Essential Rumi (1995), page 256

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 13, 2013 COMMON ERA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Matt. 4, 4

1.  Man has a triple nature.  He cannot fulfill his mission without the development of each.  The life must be regulated for the good of the whole man.

2.  Satan’s appeal is in behalf of the body, only even to the ignoring of the soul.  Provide for it only.  But the soul is involved.  Christ’s is no meat & bread policy.

3.  Live by every word of God, the will of God in all things.  Must not divert the divine order–soul first.

The soul is fed by doing God’s will.  His grace is for us–his love, sympathy & word of truth.

4.  The soul desires, “crieth out for the living God.”  He alone can satisfy its deepest longing.  Christ is the Bread of life without which we perish.  He can do exceedingly “above all we can ask or think.”

5.  We have faculties and means.  God wants them used for our highest good and His glory.  The devil would have us use them for the body only that we may perish eternally.

Which will we do, neglect soul or feed it first and thus preserve the whole man unto eternal grace?

GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT

One day Rumi’s wife, Kira-Khatoun, asked him about

the mysterious meaning hidden in the haidith:” Most of the

inhabitants of Paradise are imbeciles.”Rumi replied,“If

inhabitants of Paradise are imbeciles, how could they have been

satisfied merely with paradise and its streams?”

To explain further what he meant, Rumi recited these verses:

*

“If, in hell, I could touch the curls of of Your hair, 

I’d be ashamed of the state of the elect in heaven.

If, without You, I was called to the fields of heaven,

That vast space would be too narrow for my heart.”

*

Rumi then said, ”Every low-souled person who confines

himself to contemplating the garden remains deprived of

the vision of the Gardener.”  

*

He added this marvelous verse:

*

“For me, Paradise without Him is Hell and the Enemy;

I have been burnt by that terrible splendor

That is Glory of the Lights of Eternity.

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.

- Rumi

Now be Silent.
Let the One who creates words speak.
He made the door, He made the lock, and He also made the key.

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”

–Rumi

Depending on how you view them, Sundays are either the last day of the week before a new work week begins or they are — as non-European calendars indicate, the first day of a new week that begins in church for the Christian world, even though most Christians in the US no longer attend church services, and Europeans refrain even more than we do. Either way, the day takes its name from our closest star, which unlike most other stars, has no proper name other than, “Sun”. Sunday also comes from the Latin for lord (dominus), as in the Lord’s day, Domingo.

Last Sunday our Sun was throwing off billions of tons of solar particles which were flung toward Earth at 900 miles/second. These CMEs apparently aren’t strong enough this time to disable our beloved electronic gizmos, like the appendage called my cell phone, but I suspect they are only getting stronger (as evidence suggests). We may be in for a wild and colorful ride, especially those of us living in the northern latitudes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten or more years ago I introduced Claire to the Catholic Mass, the religion of my youth. In the interim, I became re-disillusioned and dropped out, but she joined the choir and stayed, mostly for her love of singing, she says. I go with her occasionally especially when she’s one of the main cantors. That happened a few Sundays ago when I wrote this (Claire takes her car for early rehearsal then I follow in mine some minutes before Mass starts):

I was struck by the little prisms of dew drops on every blade of suburban cut grass this morning as I parked the car to walk up to the church. I wanted to run inside and yell, “There’s a miracle outside in all the grasses everywhere! Didn’t anyone but I see it?” But I thought better of expressing my exhuberance, especially with this group of people.

Lord, you provide some miracles for those who get up early and venture outside to see them. These droplets of dew are probably being evaporated as I speak. For late sleepers, I’m sure you supply other miracles, but the ones at dawn and dusk are my favorites.

I start out on this road,
call it Love or Emptiness.
I only know what’s not here.

Resentment seeds, backscratching greed,
worrying about outcome, fear of people.

When a bird gets free,
it does not go back for remnants
left on the bottom of the cage.

Close by, I’m rain. Far off,
a cloud of fire. I seem restless,
but I am deeply at ease.

Branches tremble. The roots are still.
I am a universe in a handful of dirt,
whole when totally demolished.

Talk about choices does not apply to me.
While intelligence considers options,
I Am Somewhere Lost In The Wind.

by Rumi

This misguided belief

This unwanted thought

That I may be unwanted

creates neediness, poverty, fear

and the opposite of well-being.

Knowing I’m wanted

turns the key

and opens the door

to my true

home,

Love.

I am loved.

I am wanted.

this Truth breathes

in and out

at the very core of my

BEING.

It creates Life

and more Life

Through me.

In Love.

This is one of the greatest

questions

ever posed to me.

Expanding my capacity for joy

is like yoga.

Stretching, balancing,

opening, contracting.

I don’t like the contracting part,

I sometimes mistake it as bad,

and I judge it.

When I know that so much

more JOY is possible

I simply can’t wait

to access more.

Not like an addict

or a hungry child,

but more like

Winnie the Pooh

who simply

loves

his honey.