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may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

~ e.e. cummings ~

(Complete Poems 1904-1962)

This is not to say "I am" or "I am not", it is to give no
thoughts to self but all to God. Let one say, "What would
God have me say, what would God have me think, what
would God have me do?" But even this is unnecessary for
there is always a feeling of ease if not of joy, when one
practices Darood -- to harmonize all action, speech and
thought with the breath. This is easy, simple and sufficient,
and for it no knowledge of metaphysics is necessary.

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

If it is not too dark,

Go for a walk, if it is not too dark.
Get some fresh air, try to smile.
Say something kind
To a safe-looking stranger, if one happens by.

Always exercise your heart's knowing.

You might as well attempt something real
Along this path:

Take your spouse or lover into your arms
The way you did when you first met.
Let tenderness pour from your eyes
The way the Sun gazes warmly on the earth.

Play a game with some children.
Extend yourself to a friend.
Sing a few ribald songs to your pets and plants -
Why not let them get drunk and wild!

Let's toast
Every rung we've climbed on Evolution's ladder.
Whisper, "I love you! I love you!"
To the whole mad world.

Let's stop reading about God -
We will never understand Him.

Jump to your feet, wave your fists,
Threaten and warn the whole Universe

That your heart can no longer live
Without real love!

~ Hafiz ~

(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

The Heat of Midnight Tears

By Mirabai
(1498 - 1565?)

English version by Robert Bly

Listen, my friend, this road is the heart opening,
Kissing his feet, resistance broken, tears all night.

If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,
I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.
If we could reach Him through nothing but berries and wild nuts,
Then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!
If we could reach him by munching lettuce and dry leaves,
Then the goats would surely go to the Holy One before us!

If the worship of stone statues could bring us all the way,
I would have adored a granite mountain years ago.

Mirabai says: The heat of midnight tears will bring you to God.

qua

"A prince who believes himself to be a beggar
can be convinced conclusively in one way only:
he must behave as a prince and see what happens.
Behave as if what I say is true and
judge by what actually happens."

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

There is neither up nor down nor inside nor outside
nor without nor within. All there is is Consciousness.
And this manifestation is an appearance within that
Consciousness. And even that appearance is only an
objective expression of the same Consciousness. All
there is is Consciousness.

We are merely an instrument through which Consciousness is functioning.

~ Ramesh S. Balsekar

You can always cope with the Now, but you can
never cope with the future - nor do you have to.
The answer, the strength, the right action, or the
resource will be there when you need it, not before,
not after.

Eckhart Tolle

It is a naïve man who thinks we are not engaged in a fierce battle.

Hafiz

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~

(Words From Under the Words: Selected Poems)

If someone remarks, "What an excellent man you are!"
and this pleases you more than his saying, "What a
bad man you are!" know that you are still a bad man.

Sufyan al-Thawri

"The realized man knows what others merely hear, but do not
experience. Intellectually they may seem convinced,
but in action they betray their bondage."
~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

My merciful master teaches me to free-fall.
It smashes my fingers when I try to hold on.
Pete S.

Barn's burnt down

Now

I can see

The moon


~Masahide

Hymn

April 4, 1995 - October 4, 2004

By A. R. Ammons

(1926 - 2001)

I know if I find you I will have to leave the earth
and go on out
over the sea marshes and the brant in bays
and over the hills of tall hickory
and over the crater lakes and canyons
and on up through the spheres of diminishing air
past the blackset noctilucent clouds
where one wants to stop and look
way past all the light diffusions and bombardments
up farther than the loss of sight
into the unseasonal undifferentiated empty stark

And I know if I find you I will have to stay with the earth
inspecting with thin tools and ground eyes
trusting the microvilli sporangia and simplest
coelenterates
and praying for a nerve cell
with all the soul of my chemical reactions
and going right on down where the eye sees only traces

You are everywhere partial and entire
You are on the inside of everything and on the outside

I walk down the path down the hill where the sweetgum
has begun to ooze spring sap at the cut
and I see how the bark cracks and winds like no other bark
chasmal to my ant-soul running up and down
and if I find you I must go out deep into your
far resolutions
and if I find you I must stay here with the separate leaves

Isan said to Kyozan, "All of your Sutra studies are
useless, who is the one, who studies?"

Kyozan remained silent, and Isan yelled, "Get out,
and don't come back."

Kyozan gathered his belongings and was leaving
the temple, when Isan yelled, "Kyozan!"

When Kyozan turned his head, Isan said, "Who is this
who heard my call?"

On hearing this, Kyozan dropped his belongings and
walked away.