Topic: Saints and Mystics

[niamhspark]

Dark Night of the Soul.

[nichi]

Yes! I think so!

[nichi]

       Ram Tzu knows this

       You may obliterate your own body
       But you will never kill your self.

       When egos destroy their habitat
       It is a monumental display of conceit,
       An infant throwing all its toys
       Out of its playpen,
       Pitiful as the chest pounding
       Of a gorilla in a zoo.

       Who is fooled by your posturing?

       You are powerless
       Devoid of substance
       As free to choose as
       Characters in a play.

       What makes you believe
       In your own reality?

       Find the answer to this
       And meet God.

                               - Ram Tzu




No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990

[Jennifer-]

What makes you believe
       In your own reality?

       Find the answer to this
       And meet God.

                               - Ram Tzu

 

[nichi]

I am afraid for myself
Ever since your visit or was it a visitation
your light has been lodged in me,
now I drift somnolent, heady and
the light doesn't stop seeping from my eyes,
people are transfixed by this light,
I ask God-What is this madness?
This madness of carrying another person within me,
God replies-How can you know me if you don't know this madness?

Usha Akella
A face that does not bear the footprints of the world

[nichi]

Calligraphy

How easily you have untied my tongue
and handcuffed my heart!
Poetry was a dead thing, a forgotten thing.
The icy caverns of my heart have thawed,
churning waters of words wind through its chambers,
cascading fires of my soul coming to life,
all senses open to the world's music now,
a calligraphy of fire!water!earth!air!
ears!eyes!mouth!skin! opening their doors to the world,
the world comes pouring in,
light and color and sound and sense and beauty and life again.
A tree has grandeur and soft beauty, the green
spilling a hushed message from God,
the sky somersaulting in color,
a clown of orange and red stripes.
Yes! You have untied nature and my heart,
Poetry has burst through her cage to sing again,
You have come, and I spin madly around your presence
spinning...spinning ...around your presence.


Usha Akella
"A face that does not bear the footprints of the world"

[nichi]

Ram Tzu knows this…

      There is a hole
      Inside you that
      You try desperately
      To fill up.

      You pour in
      Various satisfactions
      To make yourself
      Feel alright.

      Sometimes,
      If you can get enough,
      The hole fills to the brim
      And there is a
      Blissful moment of evenness.

      But your hole is open
      At the bottom.
      Its contents always leak through
      Leaving you empty
      Again
      And desperate
      For more.

      Ram Tzu know what must be done…
      
      You must be thrown in the hole.
 
                               - Ram Tzu

      




No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990

[nichi]

I left the world.
I do not wish the two-fold deeds.
I do not mix with idle, useless men.
I do not listen to their speech.

I touched the state
when only Truth
remains.
I swept away
pleasures and pains.
The Highest
which is beyond the reach
of the four ancient Vedas
came
     here
          to me!

~Pattinattar~

14th century
Shavaite
English version by
Kamil V. Zvelebil

[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-
                                   

[nichi]

LANDLOCKED IN FUR

I was meditating with my cat the other day
and all of a sudden she shouted,
"What happened?"

I knew exactly what she meant, but encouraged
her to say more--feeling that if she got it all out on the table
she would sleep better that night.

so I responded, "Tell me more, dear,"
and she soulfully meowed,

"Well, I was mingled with the sky. I was comets
whizzing here and there. I was suns in heat, hell--I was
galaxies. But now look--I am
landlocked in fur."

To this I said, "I know exactly what
you mean."

What to say about conversation
between

mystics?


Tukaram

Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Poems From the East and West
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

[nichi]

First He Looked Confused

I could not lie anymore so I started to call my dog "God."
First he looked
confused,

then he started smiling, then he even
danced.

I kept at it: now he doesn't even
bite.

I am wondering if this
might work on
people?



Tukaram
From “Love Poems From God” by Daniel Ladinsky

[nichi]

I went into the woods with Govinda,
All alone.
This experience was mine, solely mine.
Do not call me a wayward woman.
I did not bond with a bad man.
No other path did I see.
I solicited him boldly therefore.
Reverently I embraced him and lay by his bed.
With familiarity he held me and I endured.
A child did I conceive as a lawful, married wife.
Why do I need to speak of that to you?
Tuka says -She ended her speech thus,
Protecting herself and Govinda.
For long she had desired this.
The Vow of Vows was thus fulfilled.

Tukaram

[nichi]

Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds

Listen -
Listen more carefully to what is around you
Right now.

In my world
There are the bells from the clanks
Of the morning milk drums,

And a wagon wheel outside my window
Just hit a bump

Which turned into an ecstatic chorus
Of the Beloved's Name.

There is the Prayer Call
Rising up like the sun
Out of the mouths of a thousand birds.

There is an astonishing vastness
Of movement and Life

Emanating sound and light
From my folded hands

And my even quieter simple being and heart.

My dear,
Is it true that your mind
Is sometimes like a battering
Ram

Running all through the city,
Shouting so madly inside and out

About the ten thousand things
That do not matter?

Hafiz, too,
For many years beat his head in youth

And thought himself at a great distance,
Far from an armistice
With God.

But that is why this scarred old pilgrim
Has now become such a sweet rare vintage
Who weeps and sings for you.

O listen -
Listen more carefully
To what is inside of you right now.

In my world
All that remains is the wondrous call to
Dance and prayer

Rising up like a thousand suns
Out of the mouth of a
Single bird.

~ Hafiz ~

[nichi]

Certainty

Certainty undermines one's power, and turns happiness
into a long shot. Certainty confines.

Dears, there is nothing in your life that will not
change--especially all your ideas of God.

Look what the insanity of righteous knowledge can do:
crusade and maim thousands
in wanting to convert that which
is already gold
into gold.

Certainty can become an illness
that creates hate and
greed.

God once said to Tuka,

"Even I am ever changing--
I am ever beyond
Myself,

what I may have once put my seal upon,
may no longer be
the greatest
Truth."

Tukaram


Love Poems From God,
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West
Daniel Ladinsky

[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