Topic: Saints and Mystics

[Nichi]

Turkey's "national poet", Yunus Emre (1240-1321), a contemporary of Haji Bektash, is considered Bektashi, with lines such as A Moses may lie under every stone.
One of his poems well-describes the future Bektashi Order of Dervishes:


Our laws are different from other laws.
Our religion is like no other:

Different from the seventy-two Islamic sects.
We are guided by different signs,
And a Hereafter only before our deaths. We worship without ritual or cleansing,
Without positioning our bodies or facing Mecca.

Whether at the Ka'aba, in the mosque,
or in domestic prayer,
We all bear our own defects and handicaps.

Which religious sect is true, no one in truth can say.
Only the future can reveal 'the truth' - too late.

Yunus, renew your soul, be remembered as a Friend of Love,
Connect with the power of your integrity
and listen with compassionate ears.

http://www.beyond-the-pale.uk/albanian4.htm

[Michael]

For those who have Awareness,
a hint is quite enough.
For the multitudes of heedless
mere knowledge is useless.

    - Haji Bektash Veli

The Gap... as the years roll by, we try to close the gap, yet...

[Nichi]

Good and Evil

By Kahlil Gibran
(1883 - 1931)

And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of Good and Evil.
And he answered:
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."
For the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"
For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"

 
   

-- from The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

[Nichi]

"In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?"

(Rabia al-Basri)

[Nichi]

A single word can brighten the face

By Yunus Emre
(1238 - 1320)

English version by Kabir Helminski & Refik Algan

 

A single word can brighten the face
of one who knows the value of words.
Ripened in silence, a single word
acquires a great energy for work.

War is cut short by a word,
and a word heals the wounds,
and there's a word that changes
poison into butter and honey.

Let a word mature inside yourself.
Withhold the unripened thought.
Come and understand the kind of word
that reduces money and riches to dust.

Know when to speak a word
and when not to speak at all.
A single word turns the universe of hell
into eight paradises.

Follow the Way. Don't be fooled
by what you already know. Be watchful.
Reflect before you speak.
A foolish mouth can brand your soul.

Yunus, say one last thing
about the power of words --
Only the word "I"
divides me from God.

 
   

-- from The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre, Translated by Kabir Helminski / Translated by Refik Algan

[Nichi]

   

Becoming sky & earth

By Manikkavacakar
(9th Century)

 

Becoming sky & earth
Wind & light
Becoming flesh & spirit
All that truly is
& all that which is not
Becoming the Lord,
He makes those who say,
"I" & "mine"
Dance in the show
Becoming sky
& standing there...
How can my words
praise Him?

 

[Michael]

   

Becoming sky & earth

By Manikkavacakar
(9th Century)

 

Becoming sky & earth
Wind & light
Becoming flesh & spirit
All that truly is
& all that which is not
Becoming the Lord,
He makes those who say,
"I" & "mine"
Dance in the show
Becoming sky
& standing there...
How can my words
praise Him?

 

 

[Nichi]

"On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,
We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world
That we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,
And to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree.
Earth endures, heaven endures; some time both shall end,
While this unending sorrow goes on and on for ever."

-  Bai Juyi - A Song of Unending Sorrow - 300 Tang Poems