Who is at my door?
He said, "Who is at my door?"
I said, "Your humble servant."
He said, "What business do you have?"
I said, "To greet you, 0 Lord."

He said, "How long will you journey on?"
I said, "Until you stop me."
He said, "How long will you boil in the fire?"
I said, "Until I am pure.

"This is my oath of love.
For the sake of love
I gave up wealth and position."

He said, "You have pleaded your case
but you have no witness."
I said, "My tears are my witness;
the pallor of my face is my proof.'
He said, "Your witness has no credibility;
your eyes are too wet to see."
I said, "By the splendor of your justice
my eyes are clear and faultless."

He said, "What do you seek?"
I said, "To have you as my constant friend."
He said, "What do you want from me?"
I said, "Your abundant grace."

He said, "Who was your companion on the 'ourney?
I said, "The thought of you, 0 King."
He said, "What called you here?"
I said, "The fragrance of your wine."

He said, "What brings you the most fulfillment?"
I said, "The company of the Emperor."
He said, "What do you find there?"
I said, "A hundred miracles."
He said, "Why is the palace deserted?"
I said, "They all fear the thief."
He said, "Who is the thief?"
I said, "The one who keeps me from -you.

He said, "Where is there safety?"
I said, "In service and renunciation."
He said, "What is there to renounce?"
I said, "The hope of salvation."

He said, "Where is there calamity?"
I said, "In the presence of your love."
He said, "How do you benefit from this life?"
I said, "By keeping true to myself

Now it is time for silence.
If I told you about His true essence
You would fly from your self and be gone,
and neither door nor roof could hold you back!

Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved, Jonathan Star
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997

My response to Rumi’s poem: Who am I to be bold and to knock on God’s door? Is he busy? He is sweet to take time to question my motives. My heart is enriched: made rich in the knowledge that I have God’s ear and heart. He loves me and he answers in riddle to challenge my thinking and encourage my feelings: My heart expands in his presence and within his silence.

In the Stillness of the Night


In the stillness of the night there is fire.
Not that which the Sun emanates in midday heat alone
But that which He impregnates within me
that has taken hold and begun to burn and glow.

In the stillness of the night there is tempest.
Not that which Thor and Neptune deliver when
their rage imperils all with wind and water
But that which Love fulfills within me
that has taken hold and begun to thunder and flash.

In the stillness of the night there is song.
Not that which the nightingale speaks
But that which the Divine One translates within me
that has taken hold and begun to vibrate and spin.

These work on my inner being--
Fire, tempest and song.
Let them continue until i am no more
So that I AM may live fully through me.

O Sun, O Nature, O Source of perfect stillness.
Glow and flash and spin each night
You fulfill me. I Am Thee.


David Lewis
July 19, 2010

Ocean Love


God is pleased when your love realizes
it is part of something oceanic
and begins to move with the whole

The large love is more real,
being itself reality. These forms, a mix
of earth and water. Yes, you say,
but I already have a deep love.

Not deep or vast enough
More like riverwater filled with silt
Don't wash your hands there.

The love you must enter lives in the saints
and prophets. It is already the ocean, whereas
most loving still filters through countryside,
enjoying the passage.

The ocean says, Quit pretending to be clear.
That pretense keeps you from receiving
what I can give.

Your water wants to reach the sea,
but landscape keeps holding it back.

If you could shake lose your foot,
the earth would be completely dry
and ocean water completely free.

But desserts and undiluted wine
soak you back into wet ground.

Wanting wealth, power, and more tasty food
have made you drunk.

When you can't have what you want, you get headaches.
That hungover disappointment is proof
that what made you drunk was desire.

Let a more measured necessity
govern the intensity of wanting.

You say, I don't need help with this.
I am already united with God.

That's like groundwater claiming to move with the tide.
Not yet. Stay with those who have pure love.

The taste of milk and honey is not it.
Love instead that which gave deliciousness.

This world is a watery shadow of ocean-love.
That sea of light cannot be contained
in single human beings, so leave fragments,
and be the mountain.

As you become existence,
you will distribute creation,
lavishly blessing everybody.

Hold out your apron to catch what comes
with being in the presence.

Don't tear the cloth collecting stone.
Wait for the smooth of old coins,
the silver and gold.

Don't pretend like children
that rocks are precious.

Let the held-out apron be your honesty,
and don't worry about finding a white-haired teacher.

Merging with ocean-love has nothing to do with age
or the color of anyone's hair.


From The Essential Rumi by translations by Coleman Barks

David, that poem is so beautiful. Is that yours or Rumi's? It's transcendent... Thank you for that. Julie

Two Kinds of Intelligence

There are two kinds of intelligence:
one acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining information.
You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge,
getting always more marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet,
one already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox.
A freshness in the center of the chest.

This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate it's fluid,
and it doesn't move from outside to inside
through conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.

From Essential Rumi
By Coleman Barks

Maria’s commentary:
This poem strengthens me to act from my heart. It seems to me that my ‘struggles’ in my life appear when I’m debating between following the one or the other intelligence. I know I have access to that fountainhead and at the same time I see myself trying to live up to expectations of society and my upbringing.
This poem gives me also comfort when I’m frustrated with, what I label, my slow reading skills. It makes me realize that I did enough ‘plumbing-learning’ in this lifetime!

"Love is the energizing elixir of the universe, the cause and effect of all harmonies.” - Rumi

Maria, I feel the two intelligences in the poem you contributed are united by the energizing elixir of love. I feel this love in your music, the harmonies showing your second intelligence in expression!
Thank you, Cheryl, for sharing this Rumi quote today from HeartMath.

Rumi Poems

Your love lifts my soul from the body to the sky
And you lift me up out of the two worlds.
I want your sun to reach my raindrops,
So your heat can raise my soul upward like a cloud.

From Thief of Sleep
Translation by Shahram Shiva

Julie's Commentary:
In meditation outdoors in nature, flower-gazing in my garden at the vibrant colors of the Beloved's rainbow garden, my body begins to float in a spiral ecstasy of love, well above this octave, easily transported to the third heaven by the simple virtue of exquisite color, like ribbons of light ascending, like the flowers with their heads toward Heaven, drinking the sunbeams...

"Love is the Cure" by Rumi

"Love is the cure,
for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain
until your eyes constantly exhale love
as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.”

I can see and feel how love is the cure for pain. I recently asked to be able to emit more love and concurrently a painful karmic situation came to my attention. Intuitively, I know that love is the cure for this situation. This poem helps me to understand that pain will keep revolving until love is a constant flow.

In proportion as the Sufi loves God, he sees God in all His creatures, and goes forth to
them in acts of charity. Pious works are naught without love.

"Cheer one sad heart: thy loving deed will be
More than a thousand temples raised by thee.
One freeman whom thy kindness hath enslaved
Outweighs by far a thousand slaves set free."

from The Mysteries of Islam, p.48
by Raynold A. Nicholson
Rutledge, Kegan Paul, London (1914)

"Soul, Heart, and Body One Morning" by Rumi

Ther's a morning where presence comes over you,
and you sing like a rooster in you earth-colored shape.

Your heart hears and, no longer frantic, begins
to dance. At that moment soul
reaches total emptiness. Your heart becomes Mary,

miraculously pregnant, and body, like a two-day-old
Jesus says wisdom words. Now the heart
turns to light, and the body picks up the tempo.

Where Shamsi Tabriz walks, the footprints
are musical notes and holes you fall through into space.

From: "Rumi The Book of Love" by Coleman Barks

WE ARE NOW ONE!

We stood together hand in hand in primordial time;
now at last, we are One again.

We are all of One soul, struggling along one path,
and all drunk with the same wine.

From among the two worlds we chose Love alone;
except for that Love, there's nothing we adore.

What bitterness did our souls suffer from separation!
At long last, we are free from separation.

A ray from the Sun came in through an opening
and raised us up in dignity, however low we were.

O Sunlight! Don't withhold Your loving radiance
from us!
Aren't we sitting in the robes of your radiance?

By Your radiance we are transformed into rubies;
it is because of You that we exist.

Dancing like particles before You;
in our yearning for You, we abandon all our chains.

From Divani Shamsi Tabrizi 1761
*********************************
Today I received an email that upon first glance felt painful; then I meditated on this poem and realized as I spoke to the soul behind the words of the email that the soul knew I loved her, that we are all One; that in our yearning together for YOU, Lord, we truly abandon all our chains; the chains of all negative emotions are gone in the joy of Your radiance that transforms us "into rubies". Your Love is all that is left as we are "...like gold, tried (proved) by fire". Rev. 3:18. The struggle is almost over! What joy!

Posted By Dean Baylor on 14 Jul 2010 02:39 PM



LET GO OF YOUR WORRIES


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

If you want a clear mirror,
behold yourself
and see the shameless truth,
which the mirror reflects.

If metal can be polished
to a mirror-like finish,
what polishing might the mirror
of the heart require?

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

-The Divami Shamsi Tabriz, XIII

We Are Now One

We stood together hand in hand in primordial time;
now at last, we are one again.

We are all of one soul struggling along one path,
and all drunk with the same wine.

From among the two worlds we chose Love alone;
except for that Love there's nothing we adore.

What bitterness did our souls suffer from separation!
At long last, we are free from separation.

A ray from the Sun came in through an opening
and raised us up in dignity, however low we were.

O Sunlight! Don't withhold Your loving radiance from us!
Aren't we sitting in the robes of your radiance?

By Your radiance we are transformed into rubies;
it is because of You that we exist.

Dancing like particles before You;
in our yearning for You, we abandon all our chains.

Rumi poem: submitted by Ronald Dubrawsky. This beautiful poem
appealed to me because of its straightforwardness and to the point, where Love is key, the way and the goal, and all else is unreal.

YOU, YOU, YOU

Beloved, You are my cave.
You are the fire of love that comsumes me.
The beloved is You; the cave is You.

The Prophet Noah is You; Spirit is You.
The conqueror and the conquered.
This chest torn into pieces is You.
The one knocking at the door of the secret is me.

You are the Light; You are the celebration.
The protection of those who are protected,
the bird over Mount Sinai is you.
the exhausted prey in its beak is me.

The drop is You; the ocean is You.
The gift and the rath are You.
The sugar is You; the poison is You.
Grant me no more pain.

The signs of the Sun are You.
The house of Mercury is You.
The path of hope is You.
Grant me the Way.

The day is You; the fasting is You.
The result of my begging is You.
Water is You; the ewer is You,
Give me the water this time.

The grain is you; the trap is You.
The wine bottle is you; the cup is You.
The cooked is You; the raw us You.
Don't leave me uncooked.

If this body becomes more refined,
the pathways inside my heart pump more freely.
Become my path completely, so there will be
so much less for me to say. Divani Shamsi Tabrizi 37

I related to this Rumi poem throughout. The first stanza reminded me of a recent dream of being in a golden temple or beautiful cave and hearing the voice that I associate with the divine. I tie the fifth stanza in with the eight stanza, in the house of mercury, the process of the inner and outer speech, being refined and purified. Through this, all four lower bodies are free, including the pathways inside my heart. God is molding me as I come up higher.

Submitted by Dwinn Dubrawsky

Exasperated and feeling desperate over current circumstances I kept Omraam's words in mind when searching for an answer. Omraam's wisdom goes something like this: You may approach a Holy book with love and expectancy and open it to find wisdom.

I opened the Rumi book in this manner looking for solace and found these word: "The new Dominion told me: Don't try so hard, don't trouble yourself; since by My favor and abundance I am coming to you myself."

These words reminded me that getting stressed out is not the answer. Trusting in God is the answer.

"¿Qué puedo hacer, oh musulmanes?, pues no me reconozoo a mi mismo.
No soy cristiano, ni judío, ni mago, ni musulmán.
No soy del Este, ni del Oeste, ni de la tierra, ni del mar.
No soy de la mina de la Naturaleza, ni de los cielos giratorios.
No soy de la tierra, ni del agua, ni del aire, ni del fuego.
No soy del empíreo, ni del polvo, ni de la existencia, ni de la entidad.
No soy de India, ni de China, ni de Bulgaria, ni de Grecia.
No soy del reino de Irak, ni del país de Jurasán.
No soy de este mundo, ni del próximo, ni del Paraíso, ni del Infierno.
No soy de Adán, ni de Eva, ni del Edén, ni Rizwán.
Mi lugar es el sinlugar, mi señal es la sinseñal.
No tengo cuerpo ni alma, pues pertenesco al alma del Amado.
He desechado la dualidad, he visto que los dos mundos son uno;
Uno busco, Uno conozco, Uno veo, Uno llamo.
Estoy embriagado con la copa del Amor, los dos mundos han desaparecido de mi vida;
no tengo otra cosa que hacer más que el jolgorio y la jarana".

Este es mi poema favorito de Rumí

Every venture one's life may replete
Mathnavi's purpose is the Great Defeat.
Set afire, burning with cleansing heat,
On the anvil, egos ply and beat.
This book, if you open, read, entreat
Your life, a mendicant's, in the street.

I feel Rumi's great passion for purification of life's purpose and desire. This reminds me of the words of Solomon in Lamentations: "All is vanity and vexation" and "There is nothing new under the sun". Inner wisdom and love accelerate in the heart reaching and attuning to the Light.

The place that Solomon made to worship in,
called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth
and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom
and mystical conversation and compassionate action.

"The Far Mosque" in Ch. 17 Solomon Poems, p. 191

Commentary: My own "mosque" is that which is made of what I AM, for me only. It is not made of thoughts or images of any other thing, any other person's thought. No, my mosque speaks only to me that which was made for me alone to hear. Nothing says what I AM better than my own mosque, for who else but myself knows what is best for me?

It's interesting, the poem I desired to post was already posted twice, once by Donna Korth and once by Ronald Dubrawsky. It's called "We Are Now One" and it obviously resonates with many of us. I am posting a poem that comes right after it, which also resonates with me, called "Your Image". This poem is similar to "The Bodhisattva Vision" in our prayer book--it shows the tranformation of darkness into light, of hatred into love. It also shows us that we can transform our greatest faults into our greatest virtues.

Once Your image settled into our hearts,
we found ourselves sitting in Paradise.

All of our worries of Apocalypse and Armageddon,
each turned into the face of a houri and the charm of
a Chinese beauty.

All that men and women fear to look at,
all that stalks them, now became close companions.

The skies became a rose garden and earth a buried treasure;
yet, what sort of "thing" are You that all existence became this way because of You?

Since we saw Him we have been prospering day after day;
the thistle that happened to find Him became a flower bed of certainty.

The unripe grapes turned ripe by the sun and became sugary;
likewise, dark rock turned into a gem.

Many an earth were tranfigured by His charisma;
the sinister turned felicitous out of His hand of fortune.

The darkness of the heart became an opening of the heart;
the waylayer of faith is now a mentor and a leader.