"Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,
I gain the embrace of the universe;
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me,
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformed
Into its radiant jewel-like essence.

Jennifer Paine Welwood, “Unconditional”

This being human is a guest-house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a 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.

Rumi, “The Guest House”
Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

Dear Trin,
Thanks so much for those poems - The Invitation is so powerful!

I also love Rumi, and found another poem...

Be with those who help your being
Don’t sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.
Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

Be at peace with your own soul,
Then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.

Enter eagerly into the treasure
house that is within you,

And you will see the things that are in heaven;
For there is but one single entry to them both.

The ladder that leads to the Kingdom in hidden within your soul...

Dive into yourself and
in your soul you will discover
The stairs by which to ascend.

Saint Isaac of Nineveh

Yes, the invitation is amazing isn't it!

Thanks for sharing the Rumi poem Ally Much of his work moves me deeply. Had never heard that one before.

"Dive into yourself and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend"... WOW! The beautiful way that some are able to articulate and translate stirrings from the depths of the soul into words can be utterly amazing. Thanks Angel :angel:

The Breviary of Medieval Knights says:

By beginning the journey with that word and continuing with faith in God, you will arrive wherever you need to arrive."

By Paulo Coelho

To all of you on the Path... Love Ally

...On Death
Kahlil Gibran

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

I am deeply inspired by those who find the courage to see beyond the veil of illusion that confines our true nature.

The journey back to our true selves is not always an easy one, but I have learned over the years that the peace within our hearts that comes when we follow our true path in life offers us support and love that compares to nothing on earth.

I honour all my brothers and sisters here being true to yourselves and finding the strength to open your hearts. I dedicate to you this beautiful poem
written by James Dillet Freeman

With all my love
Trinity

"You cannot see me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot here me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel me, yet I am the power at work in your hands...
I am at work, though you do not understand my ways.
I am at work, though you do not recognise my works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know me
as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yes I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need me, I am there.
Even if you deny me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you and you are in me.
Only in your mind can you feel separate from me, for
only in your mind are the mists of "yours" and "mine".
Yet only in your mind can you know me and experience me.
Empty your heart of empty fears.
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing but I can do all.
And I am all.
Though you may not see good, good is there, for I am there.
I am there because I have to be, because I am.
Only in me does the world have meaning; only out of me does
the world take form; only because of me does the world go forward.
I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of
living cells are founded.
I am the love that is the law's fulfilling.
I am assurance.
I am peace.
I am oneness.
I am the law that you can live by.
I am the love that you can cling to.
I am your assurance.
I am your peace.
I am one with you.
I am.
Though you fail to find me, I do not fail you.
Though your faith in me is unsure, my faith in you never wavers,
because I know you, because I love you.
Beloved, I am there."

When one's heart is steeped in compassion,
no dissension can bring disruption;
if one's heart is strengthened by compassion,
the mind enjoys sweet coolness,
like a clear pool which no passion can agitate,
no fire of anger destroy.

Om Mani Padme Hum Hrih

The Ashes of Union

O Soul,
You are the Phoenix rising up from the ashes of Union.
Why don’t you fly?-
No one can see you on the ground.

O Blessed eyes!
I have seen something beyond imagination, unreachable by fortune or human effort -
I have seen the perfect face of Shamsuddin.

Rumi - translated by Jonathan Star

Are you searching for your soul?
Then come out of your prison.
Leave the stream and join the river
that flows into the ocean.
Absorbed in this world
you've made it your burden.
Rise above this world.
There is another vision...

Rumi

Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.

Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.

("The Gift" - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

On Talking
Kahlil Gibran from "The Prophet" 1923

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.
Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;
For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered
When the colour is forgotten and the vessel is no more.

On Marriage...
Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

I dedicate this divinely inspired Hafiz poem, to all of us who have been (or are going through) 'through the mill' whilst unfolding the true gift of the truth within... It's not always easy. It seems however that often the most challenging of moments give us the loudest wake up call, shining the brightest signpost to self-realisation.
Trinity
x

Tired of Speaking Sweetly

Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,
Break all our teacup talk of God.

But when we hear
He is in such a "playful drunken mood"
Most everyone I know
Quickly packs their bags and hightails it
Out of town.

From: 'The Gift'
Hafiz...Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

What a wonderful poem. It speaks to me eloquently of what I have come to know as 'Warrior energy' and that in turn reminds me of this fabulous poem...

"It doesn't interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned
if you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need to change you;
if you can look back with firm eyes
saying "this is where I stand."
I want to know if you know how to melt
into that fierce heat of living
falling toward the centre of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
to live day by day with the consequence of love
and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat.
I have been told in that fierce embrace
even the gods speak of God."
David Whyte

Chris

Stand still.
The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here...

The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
If you leave it you may come back again,
saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.

Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are.
You must let it find you.

David Wagoner

The Dance

I have sent you my invitation,
the note inscribed on the palm of my hand by the fire of living.
Don’t jump up and shout, “Yes, this is what I want! Let’s do it!”
Just stand up quietly and dance with me.

Don’t say, “Yes!”
Just take my hand and dance with me.

© Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book The Dance, HarperSanFrancisco, 2001

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or heing hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling
1865-1936

This poetry is beatiful and true in deed !

It´s telling us, in my point of view, that we have to mantain our centre always, it doesn´t matter what happens, good or bad.

And that´s the way I try to live everyday .

I use a point in the lower abdomen, approx. 3 to 4 fingers below the bellybutton (it is called ITTEN in Japanese and it is translated as POINT ONE). This point helps us to keep the centre and it works as a trash can.

Best regards,
Aline.

It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance.
It s the dream afraid of waking
That never takes a chance.
It s the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dying
That never learns to live.

~from The Rose
(by Amanda McBroom)

Know that the outer form passes away,
but the world of reality remains forever,
How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug?
Leave the jug; go, seek the water.

Rumi

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of live.
In the end, to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self.

Heart, I said, what a gift it has been
to enter this circle of lovers,
to see beyond seeing itself,
to reach and feel within the breast.

Rumi

Let go of your worries
and be completely clear-hearted,
like the face of a mirror
that contains no images.

Between the mirror and the heart
is this single difference:
the heart conceals secrets,
while the mirror does not.
RUMI

Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.
Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets.
Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love
RUMI

Oh Companion That Abode Is Unmatched,
Where My Complete Beloved Is.

In that Place There Is No Happiness or Unhappiness,
No Truth or Untruth
Neither Sin Nor Virtue.
There Is No Day or Night, No Moon or Sun,
There Is Radiance Without Light.

There Is No Knowledge or Meditation
No Repetition of Mantra or Austerities,
Neither Speech Coming From Vedas or Books.
Doing, Not-Doing, Holding, Leaving
All These Are All Lost Too In This Place.

No Home, No Homeless, Neither Outside or Inside,
Micro and Macrocosm Are Non-Existent.
Five Elemental Constituents and the Trinity Are Both Not There Witnessing Un-struck Shabad Sound is Also Not There.

No Root or Flower, Neither Branch or Seed,
Without a Tree Fruits are Adorning,
Primordial Om Sound, Breath-Synchronized Soham,
This and That - All Are Absent, The Breath Too Unknown

Where the Beloved Is There is Utterly Nothing
Says Kabir I Have Come To Realize.
Whoever Sees My Indicative Sign
Will Accomplish the Goal of Liberation.

Kabir

I see so deeply within myself.
Not needing my eyes, I can see everything clearly.
Why would I want to bother my eyes again
Now that I see the world through His eyes?
Rumi

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor ineating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

Kabir

"I've watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! - not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!"

William Wordsworth

I drive down into the depth of the ocean of
forms, hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.

No more sailing from harbour to harbour
with this my weather-beaten boat.
The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves.

And now I am eager to die into the deathless.

Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss where swells up the music of toneless
strings I shall take this harp of my life.

I shall tune it to the notes of forever,
and, when it has sobbed out its last utterance, lay down my silent harp at
the feet of the silent.

Gitanjali
(Translated from original Bengali by Tagore)

Those Who Don't Feel This Love

Those who don't feel this love pulling them like a river
those who don't drink dawn like a cup of spring water
or take sunset like supper those who don't want to change

let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology
that old trickery and hypocrisy
If you want to improve your mind that way

sleep on.

I've given up on my brain
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked
wrap your beautiful robe of words around you

and sleep.

Jellaludin Rumi
translated by Coleman Barks

Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.
Every wonderful sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade,
But do not be disheartened,
The source they come from is eternal, growing,
Branching out, giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?
The source is within you
And this whole world is springing up from it.

Rumi

On Eating and Drinking
Kahlil Gibran

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.

And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,
"Your seeds shall live in my body,
And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath,
And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."

"Any soul that drank the nectar of your passion was lifted.
From that water of life he is in a state of elation.
Death came, smelled me, and sensed your fragrance instead.
From then on, death lost all hope of me."
Rumi-

"In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."

Attar

"From each, Love demands a mystic silence.
What do all seek so earnestly? Tis Love
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist,
For self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul
Behold the Friend, Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of bothe worlds
Will find that the secret of them both is Love."

Attar

I am Taliesin. I sing perfect metre,
Which will last to the end of the world.
My patron is Elphin...

I know why there is an echo in a hollow;
Why silver gleams; why breath is black; why liver is bloody;
Why a cow has horns; why a woman is affectionate;
Why milk is white; why holly is green;
Why a kid is bearded; why the cow-parsnip is hollow;
Why brine is salt; why ale is bitter;
Why the linnet is green and berries red;
Why a cuckoo complains; why it sings;
I know where the cuckoos of summer are in winter.
I know what beasts there are at the bottom of the sea;
How many spears in battle; how may drops in a shower;
Why a river drowned Pharaoh's people;
Why fishes have scales.
Why a white swan has black feet...

I have been a blue salmon,
I have been a dog, a stag, a roebuck on the mountain,
A stock, a spade, an axe in the hand,
A stallion, a bull, a buck,
I was reaped and placed in an oven;
I fell to the ground when I was being roasted
And a hen swallowed me.
For nine nights was I in her crop.
I have been dead, I have been alive.
I am Taliesin.

-- Anon., (Welsh, 13th century)

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?

There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the
soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

Kabir

"Those who don't feel this love
pulling them like a river
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take sunset like supper
those who don't want to change

let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology
that old trickery and hypocrisy
If you want to improve your mind that way

sleep on.

I've given up on my brain
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked
wrap your beautiful robe of words around you

and sleep."

Jellaludin Rumi

Those words will walk in the woods with me today.

Thanks Trin.

With Love

Michelle xxx

"This verse belongs to no~one
and comes from no place
yet is written behind the eyes
of every mortal face.

This love is for no~one
that is to be found
neither in regions above
or below this earthen ground.

This peace is in the Heart
of all that comes to be
and goes flowing back
to formless Eternity."

RUMI

Why does the soul not fly
when it hears the call?

Why does a fish, gasping on land,
but near the water,
not move back into the sea?

What keeps us from joining the dance
the dust particles do?

Look at their subtle motions
in sunlight.

We are out of our cages
with our wings spread
yet we do not lift off.

We keep collecting rocks and broken bits
of pottery like children
pretending they are merchants.

We should split the sack
of this culture
and stick our heads out.

Look around.
Leave your childhood.

Reach your right hand up
and take this book from the air.
You know right from left don't you?

A voice speaks to your clarity.
Move into the moment of your death.
Consider what you truely want.

Now call out commands yourself.
You are the king. Phrase your question,
and expect the grace of an answer.

Rumi

Only

That Illumined
One

Who keeps
Seducing the formless into form

Had the charm to win my
Heart.

Only a Perfect One

Who is always
Laughing at the word
Two

Can make you know

Of

Love.

Hafiz traslated by Daniel Ladinsky

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is Hatred, let me sow Love.
Where there is Injury, Pardon.
Where there is Doubt, Faith.
Where there is Despair, Hope.
Where there is Darkness, Light, and
Where there is Sadness, Joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

St Francis of Assisi

To what shore would you cross, O my heart?
there is no traveller before you, there is no road:

Where is the movement, where is the rest, on that shore?
There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there;
There is not so much as a rope to tow the boat, nor a man to draw it.

No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford!
There, there is neither body nor mind: and where is the place
that shall still the thirst of the soul? You shall find naught
in that emptiness.

Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold
is firm. Consider it well, O my heart! go not elsewhere,

Kabîr says: "Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that
which you are."

Kabir

A profoundly beautiful sharing from Misty in New Zealand!
Heartfelt thanks :angel:

There is a force, a gentle yet all powerful force
that causes the Winds of Heaven to stir the soul of Man.
As the child of wonder seeks to capture moonbeams as treasures for the heart,
so the man of wonder gazes skyward in his search for the sun
that would illuminate the windows of his soul.

The child and the man are one,
Not alone in their search profound,
But guided by the gentle hand of the Unseen.

No longer obscured by the clouds of unknowing,
the elusive moonbeams of youth will dance for all eternity,
the sun will also rise, in the heart of the child and the soul of the man,
for He is the Lord of the Dance.

by
Misty (1990)

On the Nature of Love

The night is black and the forest has no end;
a million people thread it in a million ways.
We have trysts to keep in the darkness, but where
or with whom - of that we are unaware.
But we have this faith - that a lifetime's bliss
will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips.
Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs
brush us, pass us, give us delightful shocks.
Then peradventure there's a flash of lightning:
whomever I see that instant I fall in love with.
I call that person and cry: `This life is blest!
for your sake such miles have I traversed!'
All those others who came close and moved off
in the darkness - I don't know if they exist or not.

Rabindranath Tagore

By your side
I come to thee
answering your call
to be free.

Gentle waves of love
a teaspoon of light
permeating your dwelling
Your heart chose right.

A sealed message
I leave with thee
for times of need.

Open and thus read
You are free!

David Brunner

They are like shy, young school kids -
time and space
before the woman and the man who are
intimate with God.

The realised soul can play with this universe
the way a child can a ball.

A chalice - the Grail - my body became, for it held the Christ
and he drank
from me.

Sanctified are our limbs,
for every heart has touched God,
though most with closed eyes.

A holy relic is each creature,
and beauty may worry
about its comeliness waning.

We fear dying 'til we know the truth of ourselves.

The seams on my body
are torn;

I have stepped from that region of me
that did not love
all the time.

There is a divine world of light
with many suns in the sky.

I slept with my Lord
one night,

now all that is luminous
I know we
conceived.

St Teresa of Avila (1515 - 1582)

How
did the rose
ever open its heart
and give to the world all of its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light against its being,
otherwise we all remain too
frightened.

Hafiz

was/is the heart of Hafiz! Wonderful to read those words Trinity. Many may not realise, but those who understand the profundity of his words, know and understand how blessed we were to have had such a man amongst us.

Peace and love.

in reply to your posting on the Rose by Hafiz.

How delightful to find someone else who appreciates the words of Hafiz. At times I feel like melting at the majestic ability he had to put such things into words. Thank you Jessica.