Thought has altitude. Thought has velocity.
Thought has acceleration. Thought has dimension.
Thought has edges and vertices.
Thought has a radius and a circumference.
Thought dances in front of a thoughtless mirror.—Ahmed Salman
On land off an ice covered sea the traveler can ... detect the presence of open water, simply because it reflects less light than land or ice.
The open sea’s telltale sign is thus a darkness on the underside of the clouds.
—Harold Gatty
finding your way without map or compass
If anyone asks youhow the perfect satisfactionof all our longingwill look, lift your faceand say,Like this.
When someone mentions the gracefulnessof the night sky, climb up on the roofand dance and say,Like this?
If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,or what "God's fragrance" means,lean your head toward him or her.Keep your face there close,Like this.
When someone quotes the old adageabout clouds gradually uncovering the moon,slowly loosen knot by knot the stringsof your robe,Like this?
If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,don't try to explain the miracle.Kiss me on the lips,Like this. Like this.
When someone asks what it meansto "die for love," pointhere.
If someone asks how tall I am, frownand measure with your fingers the spacebetween the creases on your forehead.This tall.
The soul sometimes leaves the body, then returns.When someone doesn't believe that,walk back into my house.Like this.
I am a sky where spirits live.Stare into this deepening blue,While the breeze says a secret.Like this.
When someone asks what there is to do,light the candle in his hand.Like this.
—Rumi
Coleman Barks version, excerpt
And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he is much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
No other end of the world will there be,
No other end of the world will there be.
—Czesław Miłosz
Start with little things.Love the earth like a mole,
fur-near. Nearsighted,
hold close the clods,
their fine-print headlines.
Pat them with soft hands --
Like spades, but pink and loving; they
break rock, nudge giants aside,
affable plow.
Fields are to touch;
each day nuzzle your way.
Tomorrow the world.
—William Stafford
The Way It Is.
.
When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it.
You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.—Ram Dass
.
The most living moment comes when
those who love each other meet each
other's eyes and in what flowsbetween them then. To see your facein a crowd of others, or alone on afrightening street, I weep for that.Our tears improve the earth. Thetime you scolded me, your gratitude,your laughing, always your qualitiesincrease the soul. Seeing you is awine that does not muddle or numb.We sit inside the cypress shadowwhere amazement and clear thoughttwine their slow growth into us.
—Rumi
God
pours light
into every cup,
quenching darkness.
The proudly pious
stuff their cups with parchment
and critique the taste of ink
while God pours light
and the trees lift their limbs
without worry of redemption,
every blossom a chalice.
Hafiz, seduce those withered souls
with words that wet their parched lips
as light
pours like rain
into every empty cup
set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.
—Hafiz
All day in the garden
and at night when I wake to it
at its moment I hear a sound
sometimes little more than a whisper
of something falling
arriving
fallen
a seed in its early age
or a great frond formed
of its high days and nights
looking at the sky
made of daybreak the morning sun
and the whole of daylight
the moon and the stars and the clouds
and of the rain descending out of itself
coming down to its own leaf
there is no trace of regret
in the sound or in the stillness
after the falling
no sound
of hesitation on the way
no question and no doubt—W.S. Merwin
 |
the original text (c 60-100 CE). The text bears parallels to Luke and other synoptic gospels, yet it is far earlier than any surviving synoptic text. |
His disciples said to Him, “When will the Kingdom come?”
Jesus said, “It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘Here it is’ or 'There it is.’ Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.”—The Gospel of Thomas, v 113
Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where did you come from?’,
say to them, ‘We came from the light, the place where the light
came into being on its own accord and established (itself) and
became manifest through their image.’
If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’, say,
‘We are its children, we are the elect of the Living Father.’
If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of your father in you?’,
say to them, ‘It is movement and repose.’"
—The Gospel of Thomas
