Poetry Wednesday: the kindred

Yes, it's Friday, but this poem has been simmering in my heart this week to share for Poetry Wednesday. So, here is my late offering.

 Love is a mystery...something that is difficult to put into words. A connection between two souls...deeper than any temporal appearances, labels or stories we live in this earthly existence.  I've felt this connection in my life...a kinship of souls that is so moving that it's undeniable.  A late night conversation with the Man I Love left me with this sense. I'm thankful to have loved and been loved in this way...My life has been made rich by the presence of kindred souls in whom the Beloved One has pitched his tent.

Thank you Hafiz...

The Woman I Love

Because the Woman I love lives
Inside of you,

I lean as close to your body with my words
As I can--

And I think of you all the time, dear pilgrim.

Because the One I love goes with you
Wherever you go,
Hafiz will always be near.

If you sat before me, wayfarer,
With your aura bright from your many
Charms,

My lips could resist rushing to you and needing
To befriend your blushed cheek,

But my eyes can no longer hide
The  wonderous fact of who
You Really are.

The Beautiful One whom I adore
Has pitched His royal tent inside of you,

So I will always lean my heart
As close to your soul
As I can.

~Hafiz~
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky, The Subject Tonight is Love

Enjoy more poetry from Poetry Wednesday

Poetry Wednesday: Listening...

I've been busy lately; moving, rushing, doing. My mind, too; racing, contemplating, creating. But stillness has been illusive...

Listening

Somehow, I must sit to listen.
Standing implies the readiness for action,
for the executing of the will.
To hear You I must sit down and calm down.

The magpie mind chatters.
It doesn't know about stopping.
How helpless I feel in its automatic firing,
its busy babbling. It is impossible to hear You
as long as I am full of sound.
I turn this helpless prayer toward You.
Help me to be quiet, to sit here
...slowly unknowing everything,
becoming dark, becoming yielding...
just sitting.

Here, without will, let me become willing.
Here, without concepts, help me to know.
Here, without doing, turn me toward usefulness.
Let my heart find its ears in You.
Let the countless cells of my body
open in order to listen,
Let my being come into Your presence
and experience the sound of Your light.
~Gunilla Norris~

Poetry Wednesday

Every Luminous Movement

Here's the deal--a few weeks ago, I wrote my last post on A Path to My Woods and tossed it up on Facebook with this poem from Hafiz:

Every Moment

"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 (trans. by Daniel Ladinsky, I Heard God Laughing)


I hit the submit button with a bit of hesitation because this is such a bold and outlandish statement. The word 'no' escapes my lips daily. I'm the mother of four young children. How in the world could Hafiz be so blind? There are a bijillion things to say 'no' to in the world; a bizillion gut-wrenching injustices to fight against every day. So what was up with Hafiz? Was he blind to the craziness? Did he, as my friend replied in jest, ever have a two year old?

This was my response (more for myself than for her): "I'm certain he did. This poem was most definitely written in a more ecstatic moment when even the exploits of two-year-olds are seen as an opportunity for the growth of humankind. Hmmn. Does that sound crazy? Kind of, but that is Hafiz. There is horrific evil in the world far outweighing 'terrible-twos', and yet, to see a the broader picture is to embrace the hunger and tragedy to be weighed with generosity and compassion. Have we reached a place of wholeness, no. But can I say "yes" to the beautiful process engulfed in Divine presence, Yes! :)"

I've had moments like these, moments when the whole of existence seemed to fill me up with awareness of the Ever-Present. Knock me off my feet if I haven't had that same experience standing by a gushing river, eyes lifted towards the trees, as I have standing at a sink of dirty dishes, hands soaked in sudsy water. God's Spirit is not something for us to 'usher in' with our praises, not something for us to invite. God's Spirit IS. This is what Hafiz recognized.

It's one thing to say "Yes, Yes, Yes" to a sink full of dishes or a pile of dirty laundry. It's an entirely different thing to "shout 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' to every luminous movement in existence." How can the All-Knowing shout 'Yes!' when we can see very clearly so much to say 'no' to? Does this mean we sit back blissfully accepting all that is with no response? Well, no.

I love this quote by former UN secretary-general--and mystic--Dag Hammarskjold: "For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes". Hammarskjold was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize post-humanously. On a life-time scale, his response to 'yes and thank you' was a luminous movement towards peace. On an eternal scale--every ounce of light to every ounce of darkness--we say yes, thank you.

The human experience is plagued with hunger and horror and tears upon tears. And God shouts, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' to the luminous imperfect longing and 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' to the luminous movement of grace and compassion offered in return. And the angels in heaven whisper, "grow, grow."And we do.

Just-Before-Spring Seasons

February. For the past few years of my life, February has been a month of impending dread. A dark, cold, long month; a month doomed by my psyche as lonely; an end of winter, how-will-I- ever-survive-until-Spring month. February. I could go into a myriad of reasons of how February has deserved this dismal relegation in my eyes, but we all have our seasons and I have grown to believe that even Februaries are sometimes needful and healing to the growing soul. So this quiet, painful Just Before Spring is my February--the one I've embraced.

Gunilla Norris puts it so beautifully in her book, Mystic Garden: "Everything is dormant in the cold. My spirit, too is spilled and scattered. I seem to be at a standstill...Benumbed, we may wonder if perhaps it is in quietude, in seeming deep freeze, that God enters our depth without interference? Below the ever-tracking mind, can we sense, trust, or feel the soul being led? Could we learn to simply accept this, to allow it?"

Now I'm searching for those redeemable moments:

I had an amazing opportunity during February to visit my family in Kansas--my family a thousand miles away. It was a once in a lifetime surprise visit that I will never forget. I came back from that trip haunted by a deliciously heart-rending word--submerged--and picturing a dear one's hands lifted, one slightly more elevated--two uneven plains of existence; to me a sudden sadness, a quick word of correction, of wall-raising. But then a realization that every instance in life has a bit of truth to offer--a lesson to level. And my soul said, 'yes'.

I layed in my bed that night picturing myself perched in the lower hand; my mind bucked at the thought and pushed it away, not wanting to accept this perception. But my soul said 'yes' to the moment; to the element of truth. And when I placed myself in the lifted hand, I realized that I was the one standing at the edge of a cliff, gazing sometimes at the water below, but mostly distracted by the whirlwind around me.

How do we submerge ourselves in Spirit? How do we live in that Divine awareness? I know the truth is simple. The practice can be elusive. This is why I come back to these four lines by Gunilla Norris in her book, Being Home:

First thought--as in 'first light'--

let me be aware that I waken in You

Before I even think that I am in my bed,

let me think that I am in You.

Presence and Awareness--knowing simply that the Divine is not barred from the cliffs we stand on, not confined to the water below, but permeates all. It is my awareness that becomes dull, distracted by life rather than submerged in Life. Recognizing Divine Presence in every moment, every simple daily act--this is the choice to be submerged in a presence we can never escape.

Absolutely Clear

Today I've been mourning my weakness, a bit sad that I don't aways live up to the awake-ness that I pursue in life. I know weakness in itself is an avenue of spiritual growth, but sometimes it's hard to rise above when we feel deflated.

Then I read this, among other of my favorites poems, and found myself back home, so filled up and reminded. This is just what I need.

Absolutely Clear

Don't surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.

Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.

Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft
My voice
So tender,

My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.

~Hafiz
(trans. by Daniel Landinsky)

How has art moved you?

Why do we ask, “What is the way?”
For there are as many ways
as there are stars in the firmament. ~Gunilla Norris

A few days ago I opened a new book by Gunilla Norris, Simple Ways Towards the Sacred. I was stilled by these first words and found myself repeating them in slow, hushed breaths. How can words, in an unsuspecting instant, reach in and grip your core? And why did these words hold such sway in me? I felt melted and poured into those firmamental stars, spread over a thousand light-years. How can it be? The depths of human sentiment... how art does move us, does stir us, connect us.

Art is the essence
of human soul
laid bare
in longing
for....

How would you finish this statement?

How has art moved you? Have you ever had a moment like this either creating art or experiencing someone else's artwork?

I would love to read your thoughts.

to love...

When you get over yourself,
you fall in love with the whole world.

~R

I'm standing here in my kitchen making a savory bowl of curried hummus for my children to enjoy with a hodge podge of veggies and crackers, thinking, as I work, of a poem that has recently come to mind.

BECAUSE HE GAVE BIRTH
So
precious
is a person's faith in God
so precious;

never should we
harm that.

Because He gave birth
to all

religions.

~St. Francis of Assisi~
Translation by Daniel Ladinsky
in
Love Poems from God:
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West

Hmmmn. I love St. Francis...his words are rich and insightful, springing from a life of contemplation and compassion. That doesn't make him infallible, but his words merit thought. At first read, I embraced this poem for it's lovely ideal. And yet, the more that I contemplate it, the more I have this uneasy feeling.

I want to say "Yes!" but my heart is only half way there. I do not believe that religion was birthed from God in a pure sense. I believe religion was birthed out of man's longing and seeking after God. Humankind reaches out to God and God reaches back, opening our hearts to truth and wisdom. What Aldous Huxley called the perennial philosophy are the eternal truths found at the core of most religions. Sacred writings for thousands of years have reflected man's longing to know God and understand the universe and are laced throughout with these eternal truths coming straight from the heart of God. However, they also reflect the belief systems and traditions different groups of people have attached to these eternal truths in their attempt to explain the nature of God. Some of these traditions have been beneficial to mankind's journey, some have not.

Over time, religion has been used to put God's approval on any number of atrocities and to control masses of people with fear and indoctrination to the point of brainwashing. I know from personal experience the power that fear of eternal punishment and discouragement of thoughtful questioning can have over a person. Not only that, but the exclusive mindset that creates an "us" and "them" division. "Us" being the saved or the chosen, "them" being lost, sinners, the world. Anytime a belief system controls the way people act and think, overshadowing perennial truths, it has reached cultic magnitude.

This is why I say that God has birthed in our hearts eternal truths. Mankind, in his longing, wakens to these truths within himself, permeating creation, so we find this very philosophy throughout sacred texts, from the Bible to the Tao Te Ching, the Dhammapadda, the Upanishads and Gita and other ancient texts. In my studies, I've found that the mystics of every faith-tradition, even in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have become awake to the eternal truth and risen above the boundries of religion.

I have to quote the Holy Rascal Rabbi Rami Shapiro again:

"A Jew cannot meet God; nor can a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian or Taoist. No labeled person can meet the Unlabeled and the Unlabelable. Each religious tradition must be self-transcending. Each must lead it's students to a point of departure and help them make the leap from tradition to Truth, God, the nondual reality that is the Source and the Substance of all things."

love love love this quote...I can't think of a better way to sum it up.

Anyway, that's what I think about in my kitchen.

With That Moon Language

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a
full moon in each eye that is
always saying,
with that sweet moon laguage,
what every other eye in
this world is dying to
hear?
~Hafiz~

(translation by Daniel Ladinsky in

Love Poems from God)

First posted November 26, 2006 on A Path to My Woods

Huddled Beneath the Sky

"Life is a journey from hypocrisy to sincerity, from self-centeredness to other-centeredness and love, from self-deception, ingnorance, and illusion to self-honesty, clarity, and truth. We are all immersed in these struggles, whether we realize and accept them or not. Even if we reject them, we have made a choice."
" We can only judge others if we can fulfill two conditions: that we know the other's heart totally, and that we love them unconditionally. Only God can possibly meet these two conditions, therefore only God can judge......."
"The spiritual journey only begins in earnest when we no longer experience the need to judge others, when we begin to take responsibility for our own inner development."
---Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Heart

Huddled Beneath the Sky

The sadness I have caused any face
by letting a stray word
strike it,

any pain I have caused you,
what can I do to make us even?
Demand a hundredfold of me--I'll pay it.

During the day I hold my feet accountable
to watch out for wondrous insects and their dwellings.

Why would I want to bring horror
into their extraordinary
world?

Magnetic fields draw us to Light: they move our limbs and thoughts.
But it is still dark: if our hearts do not hold a lantern,
we will stumble over each other,

huddled beneath the sky
as we are.

~Rumi~
(translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God)

First posted October 18, 2006 on A Path to My Woods

In All Things

It was easy to love God in all that
was beautiful

The lessons of deeper knowledge, though, instructed me
to embrace God in all
things.
~St. Francis of Assisi~

Do you grieve over failures or shortcomings, look back over your shoulder to see past mistakes looming, whether from yesterday or years ago? No more....rather embrace the heartache, joy, faults and successes of life with the same welcome of a lesson well learned, drawing you step by step closer to the heart of God. You cannot be compassionate and loving towards others until you learn to be compassionate towards yourself and be thankful for it all as a beautiful opportunity to learn and grow

First posted October 16, 2006 on A Path to My Woods

Like a Hungry Beggar

Refuse to fall down.

If you cannot refuse to fall down,refuse to stay down.

If you cannot refuse to stay down

lift your heart toward heaven

and like a hungry beggar,ask that it be filled

and it will be filled.

You may be pushed down.

You may be kept from rising,

But no one can keep you from lifting

your heart toward heaven--only you.

It is in the middle of misery that

so much becomes clear.

The one who says nothing good came of this,

is not yet listening.

~Clarissa Pinkola Estes~

Awakening

First thought--as in "first light"--

let me be aware that I awaken in You.

Before I even think that I am in my bed,

let me think that I am in You.



Eyes crusted over,mouth dry,

my creature self feels so inert and dumb.

Let me be aware that these words

searching toward You into consciousness

are also coming from You.



You are waking me out of this sleepiness

into awareness that my life, my thoughts,

my body, my tasks, my loves, passions,

and sorrows are gifts from You,

to be discovered and received this day.



Each hour wake me further to find You.

Let me relish in You, exult in You,

play in You, be faithful in You.

Let me be wholly present

to living the gift of time.

Help me to feel that tremendous, unrelenting joy

which is Your constancy

and which will not let any of us go.

Wake me to You.


~Gunilla Norris, in her brilliantly contemplative book, Being Home