love is a place

.

The Sky where we live
Is no place to lose your wings.

So love, love,

Love.


—Hafiz

.

a lover gambles every(thing

.

The small ruby everyone wants has fallen out on the road.
Some think it is East of us, others West of us.
Some say ‘among primitive earth rocks’,
Others, 'in the deep waters.’

Kabir’s instinct told him it was inside,
And what it was worth –
And he wrapped it up carefully in his heart cloth.


—Kabir

...

A lover doesn't figure the odds.

He figures he came clean from God
as a gift without a reason,
so he gives without cause
or calculation or limit.

A conventionally religious person
behaves a certain way
to achieve salvation.

A lover gambles everything, the self,
the circle around the zero! He or she
cuts and throws it all away.
This is beyond any religion.

Lovers do not require from God any proof,
or any text, nor do they knock on a door
to make sure this is the right street.
They run,
and they run.

—Rumi
Coleman Barks version

...

This
Path to God
Made me such an old sweet beggar.

I was starving until one night
My love tricked God Himself
To fall into my bowl.

Now Hafiz is infinitely rich,
But all I ever want to do

Is keep emptying out
My emerald-filled
Pockets

Upon
This tear-stained
World.


—Hafiz

.

give love in secret by praying for one another

.

Never get involved with God, and above all never in any really intimate way. 

Get involved with people and imagine that together with them you are involving yourselves with God. 

—Søren Kierkegaard
Works of Love (1847)

...

It is only necessary to know that love is a direction not a state of the soul. 

If one is unaware of this, one falls into despair at the first onslaught of affliction.

—Simone Weil

The Love of God and Affliction, Waiting for God

...

let all go

let it go - the

smashed word broken 

open vow or

the oath cracked length

wise - let it go it

was sworn to

go

let them go - the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers - you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go - the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things - let all go
dear

so comes love


—E. E. Cummings

...

I saw you dancing last night
on the roof of your house
all alone.

I felt your heart longing for the Friend.

I saw you whirling

beneath the soft bright rose

that hung from an invisible stem in the sky.

So I began to change into my best clothes

in hopes of joining you,

even though I live a thousand miles away.

And if you had spun like an immaculate sphere

just two more times,

then bowed again so sweetly to the east,

you would have found God and me

standing so near

and lifting you into our arms.

I saw you dancing last night

near the roof of this world.

—Hafiz

.

wait - what ?

.

every luminous movement

.

Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods.
We have ours, they have theirs. That is what’s known as infinity.

―Jean Cocteau

...

I used to know my name. Now I don’t.
I think a river understands me.

For what does it call itself in that blessed moment when it starts emptying into the Infinite Luminous Sea, and opening every aspect of self wider than it ever thought possible?

Each drop of itself now running to embrace and unite with a million new friends.

And you were there, in my union with All, everyone who will ever see this page.


—Hafiz

...

I rarely let the word "No" escape

From my mouth

Because it is so plain to my soul

That God has shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

To every luminous movement in

Existence


—Hafiz

.
wait - what ?
.

form(ation

. 

When you look at anything, it is the ultimate you see, but you imagine that you see a cloud or a tree. 

Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion: that is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realise that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear. 

Even the sense of ‘I am’ is composed of the pure light and the sense of being. The ‘I’ is there even without the ‘am’. So is the pure light there whether you say ‘I’ or not. Become aware of that pure light and you will never lose it. The beingness in being, the awareness in consciousness, the interest in every experience — that is not describable, yet perfectly accessible, for there is nothing else.

—Ramana Maharshi

...

If you are stone, be magnetic;

if a plant, be sensitive;

if you are human, be love.

—Victor Hugo

Les Miserables

.

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

.
Paul Slyer photo

.

beware of tiny gods

.

Some gods say, the tiny ones
"I am not here in your vibrant, moist lips
That need to beach themselves upon
The golden shore of a
Naked body."

Some gods say, "I am not

The sacred yearning in the unrequited soul;

I am not the blushing cheek

Of every star and Planet--

I am not the applauding Chef

Of those precious sections that can distill

The whole mind into a perfect wincing jewel, if only

For a moment

Nor do I reside in every pile of sweet warm dung

Born of earth's

Gratuity."

Some gods say, the ones we need to hang,

"Your mouth is not designed to know His,

Love was not born to consume

The luminous

Realms."

Dear ones,

Beware of the tiny gods frightened men

Create

To bring an anesthetic relief

To their sad

Days.

—Hafiz
Ladinsky version

...

Surrender. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are.
You have been stony for too many years.

Try something different. Surrender.

—Rumi 

.

four words

  

.

Every child has known god,
not the god of names,
not the god of don’t,

not the god who does anything

weird,

but the god who only knows four words

and keeps repeating them, saying:

“Come dance with Me."

Come

Dance.

—Hafiz

.

this is the time

.

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.

This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

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


—Hafiz

...

You have been telling the people that this is
the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.

And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?
Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those
who will be afraid.

They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart
and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river,
keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do,
our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner
and in celebration.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.


—The Hopi Nation Elders
of Oraibi, Arizona

.

 

beloved

.



Once we dreamt that we were strangers.

We wake up to find that we were dear to each other.


—Rabindranath Tagore

...

This is how a human being can change:

There's a worm addicted to eating
grape leaves.

Suddenly, he wakes up,
call it Grace, whatever, something
wakes him, and he's no longer
a worm.

He's the entire vineyard,
and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,
a growing wisdom and joy
that needs not devour.


—Rumi
Coleman Barks version

...

Awake awhile.
It does not have to be
Forever,
Right now.

One step upon the Sky’s soft skirt
Would be enough.
Hafiz,
Awake awhile.

Just one True moment of Love
Will last for days.

Rest all your elaborate plans and tactics
For Knowing Him,
For they are all just frozen spring buds
Far,
So far from Summer’s Divine Gold.


Awake, my dear.
Be kind to your sleeping heart.
Take it out into the vast fields of Light
And let it breathe.

Say,
“Love,
Give me back my wings.
Lift me,
Lift me nearer.”

Say to the sun and moon,
Say to our dear Friend,

“I will take You up now, Beloved,
On that wonderful Dance You promised.”


—Hafiz

...

The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed.

And it is entirely private.

Take it to be a dream and be done with it.


—Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

.