Topic: Saints and Mystics

[runningstream]

the word "Ordained"

 was a bit confronting in the last one hmm

perhaps it can mean something other than a priestly heirachial

version

[runningstream]

or maybe thats why they call "hymm 's"

because its more like a hmmm 's lost in translation

[Nichi]

the word "Ordained"

 was a bit confronting in the last one hmm

perhaps it can mean something other than a priestly heirachial

version

I hear it as 'decreed'. Or, she made it so.
But that's an uppity goddess for you. 

[runningstream]

Ok i had to look up Isis just now

looks like a female too

decree

we are speaking of commands it seems

which i attributed the connotation to a masculine line of order

by the languages common appeal


so I see and saw

female with male balance

and a law "decree"

of balance


got there in the end

laws made for all

risen


the eternal

cast upon


through decree

what no one can change

 

[Nichi]

`
I have not really known myself,
or anyone else.

I’ve tried to do good, and not
just what my appetites wanted,

But that was all infatuation
with this precious, isolated, body.

That you and I were constantly joining,
I didn’t know. I didn’t know

That even to ask “What are You?”
or “Who am I” breaks the harmony.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic



From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992

[Nichi]

Eating Poetry

~Rumi~


My poems resemble the bread of Egypt - one night
passes over it, and you can't eat it anymore.

So gobble them down now, while they're still fresh,
before the dust of the world settles on them.

Where a poem belongs is here, in the warmth of the chest;
out in the world it dies of cold.

You've seen a fish - put him on dry land,
he quivers for a few minutes, and then is still.

And even if you eat my poems while they're still fresh,
you still have to bring forward many images yourself.

Actually, friend, what you're eating is your own imagination.
These are not just a bunch of old proverbs.

(translated by Robert Bly)


'The Rumi Collection'
Edited by Kabir Helminski

[Nichi]

I saw the Omnipotent's flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude,
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
Into the little room of mortal life.
I saw them cross the twilight of an age,
The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn,
The great creators with wide brows of calm,
The massive barrier-breakers of the world
And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,
The labourers in the quarries of the gods,
The messengers of the Incommunicable,
The architects of immortality.

(Sri Aurobindo --- Savitri book lll canto lV)

The Savitri is on my bucket list: has anyone here read it?

[Nichi]

How I Became a Madman

You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus:
One day, long before many gods were born,
I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen—
the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives—
I ran maskless through the crowded streets
shouting, "Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves."

Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses
in fear of me. And when I reached the market place,
a youth standing on a house-top cried, "He is a madman."
I looked up to behold him;
the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time.
For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face
and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun,
and I wanted my masks no more.
And as if in a trance I cried,
"Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks."

Thus I became a madman.

And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness;
the freedom of loneliness and the safety
from being understood,
for those who understand us enslave something in us.

But let me not be too proud of my safety.
Even a thief in a jail is safe from another thief.


~Kahil Gibran~

[Nichi]

There is no "You" or "I," no object
to contemplate, no contemplation!
Everything is That lost in That.

The blind theologians didn't understand.
Then they saw, and their seven levels
of attainment dissolved to nothing.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

[Nichi]

The preacher and the torch bearer
are one and the same
Both illuminate the path for others
Yet remain in the dark forever.

Bulleh Shah
17th Century Punjabi Sufi Poet

[Nichi]

The moon is encircled by moons.
How can I hold it
In my hands?
The unseizable moon,
Glowing in the brilliance
Of a million moons,
Rocks my head
In a lunar carnival....

Moon fruits adorn
The tree of the moon,
Flashing,
Luminously flashing.

I try to see
But my eyes cannot bear;
The rays of beauty
Dazzle them.

Lalon
18th Century Bengali

[Nichi]

With passionate practices
I held the reins secure on my mind
and made the breath one column.

Then the new moon's clear
nectar descended into me,
nothing pouring into Nothing.


- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic



From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992

[Nichi]

I exhausted myself, looking.
No one ever finds this by trying.

I melted in it and came home,
where every jar is full,
but no one drinks.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic


From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992



Encore post.

[Nichi]

There are those sleeping who are awake,
and others awake who are sound asleep.

Some of those bathing in sacred pools
will never get clean.

And there are others
doing household chores
who are free of any action.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic



From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992

[Nichi]

I have no name (from The Song of Life)

By Jiddu Krishnamurti
(1895 - 1986)

 

I have no name,
I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains.
I have no shelter;
I am as the wandering waters.
I have no sanctuary, like the dark gods;
Nor am I in the shadow of deep temples.
I have no sacred books;
Nor am I well-seasoned in tradition.
I am not in the incense
Mounting on the high altars,
Nor in the pomp of ceremonies.
I am neither in the graven image,
Nor in the rich chant of a melodious voice.
I am not bound by theories,
Nor corrupted by beliefs.
I am not held in the bondage of religions,
Nor in the pious agony of their priests.
I am not entrapped by philosophies,
Nor held in the power of their sects.
I am neither low nor high,
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.
I am free.
My song is the song of the river
Calling for the open seas,
Wandering, wandering,
I am Life.
I have no name,
I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains.