RUMI ~ A COMMUNITY OF THE SPIRIT | RUMI ~ STILLNESS SPEAKS | ERNEST HOLMES ~ BLESSING | KHALIL GIBRAN ~ A TEAR & A SMILE | RUMI ~ THE FRESHNESS | NO RULES | DOGEN ~ ENLIGHTENMENT | RUMI ~ NECESSARY AUTUMN | TAGORE ~ MIND | AMELIA EARHART ~ COURAGE | RUNNING | RUMI ~ ON ONENESS | I SHALL BE GLAD | FLOW OF LIFE | NOCTURNAL WIND | DAN MILLMAN ~ CYCLES | HARBOR | HEALING PRAYER | HILDEGARD ~ I AM | E.E. CUMMINGS ~ HEART OPEN | SRI CHINMOY ~ INNER LIGHT | SANSKRIT BLESSING | KRISHNAMURTI ~ THE IMMORTAL FRIEND | RUMI ~ THE UNIVERSE | THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER | TAGORE ~ STILLNESS | COLOURING | ADYASHANTI ~ ETERNAL NOW | HAFIZ ~ ON THE SUN | POETRY OF ANGELS | AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS | AN ARTIST’S PRAYER
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in the circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.
You moan, “She left me.” “He left me.”
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.~Rumi
There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of That
Don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek That.This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives.
This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth.
To be one with the truth for just a moment,
Is worth more than the world and life itself.~Rumi
Oh, weary heart, laden with earth’s weight and care,
Oh, feet stumbling on the way, bleeding and bare,
Oh, arms outstretched, and hands upheld in prayer,
Oh, back, which so oft has felt the lash and rod,
Oh, soul, which cries aloud for the living God,
Oh, life, struggling to free itself from the clod;
Know this: there is no power from without,
Yourself must answer every fear and meet all doubt
With some divine, indwelling power
Which you yourself, upon yourself, shall shower;
And giving, take, and taking, give
Unto that life which you, yourself, shall live.~Ernest Holmes
I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart
For the joys of the multitude.
And I would not have the tears that sadness makes
To flow from my every part turn into laughter.I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.
A tear to purify my heart and give me understanding
Of life’s secrets and hidden things.
A smile to draw me nigh to the sons of my kind and
To be a symbol of my glorification of the gods.A tear to unite me with those of broken heart;
A smile to be a sign of my joy in existence.I would rather that I died in yearning and longing than that I live
Weary and despairing.I want the hunger for love and beauty to be in the
Depths of my spirit, for I have seen those who are
Satisfied the most wretched of people.
I have heard the sigh of those in yearning and
Longing, and it is sweeter than the sweetest melody.With evening’s coming the flower folds her petals
And sleeps, embracingher longing.
At morning’s approach she opens her lips to meet
The sun’s kiss.The life of a flower is longing and fulfilment.
A tear and a smile.The waters of the sea become vapor and rise and come
Together and area cloud.And the cloud floats above the hills and valleys
Until it meets the gentle breeze, then falls weeping
To the fields and joins with brooks and rivers to
Return to the sea, its home.The life of clouds is a parting and a meeting.
A tear and a smile.And so does the spirit become separated from
The greater spirit to move in the world of matter
And pass as a cloud over the mountain of sorrow
And the plains of joy to meet the breeze of death
And return whence it came.To the ocean of Love and Beauty…to God.
~Khalil Gibran
When it’s cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are that freshness, and I am with you now.I can’t explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly,and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.~Rumi
(translated by Coleman Barks in Soul of Rumi)
There are no rules now.
You who bore me, taught me, raised me,
Mother, Father, friends, lovers,
You are my brothers and sisters now.All that you taught me to help me in life
Is no longer true, unless I find it so.
Your truths for you, mine for me.But I, being some part child still,
Grieve for the missing parents to be no more,
Nor to be a parent myself.
No longer even a child of God but co-creator.This is frightening.
This is glorious.~Jane Bishop
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.~Dogen
You and I have spoken all these words, but as for the way
we have to go, words are no preparation. There is no getting ready, other than grace. My faults have stayed hidden. One might call that a preparation! I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean. There are so many threats to it.Inside each of us, there’s continual autumn. Our leaves fall and are blown out over the water. A crow sits in the blackened limbs and talks about what’s gone. Then your generosity returns: spring, moisture, intelligence, the scent of hyacinth and rose and cypress. Joseph is back! And if you don’t feel in yourself the freshness of Joseph, be Jacob! Weep and then smile. Don’t pretend to know something you haven’t experienced.
There’s a necessary dying, and then Jesus is breathing again. Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are. You’ve been stony for too many years. Try something different. Surrender.
~Rumi
Where the Mind is Without Fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake~Rabindranath Tagore
Courage is the price that
Life exacts for granting peace.The soul that knows it not,
Knows no release from little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.Nor can life grant us boon of living, compensate
For dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare
The soul’s dominion.
Each time we make a choice, we pay
With courage to behold the resistless day,
And count it fair.~Amelia Earhart
Running to, running from,
Running away, running home,
Running until I find myself.
My heart pounds, I gasp for breath.
Running until I hear God’s voice,
“You are home, you are safe, you are divine.”
The running is over, my heart slows,
I breathe easily.~Shared in Dr. Bernie Siegel’s book, 365 Prescriptions for the Soul
If you put your heart against the earth with me,
in serving every creature,
our Beloved will enter you from our sacred realm
and we will be,
we will be so happy.~Rumi
If I can put new hope within the heart
Of one who has lost hope,
If I can help a brother up
Some difficult long slope
That seems too steep for tired feet to go,
If I can help him climb
Into the light upon the hill’s far crest,
I shall begrudge no time
Or strength that I spend,
For well I know
How great may be his need.
If I can help through any
Darkened hour, I shall be glad indeed.For I recall how often I have been
Distressed, distraught, dismayed,
And hands have reached to help,
And voices called
That kept me unafraid.
If I can share this help that
I have had, God knows I shall be glad.~Grace Noll Crowell
If the sky above seems cloudy,
And you are left out in the rain,
If you are searching for a rainbow,
But the colors bring you pain,
If your world is not revolving,
And there is no end in sight,
If you are looking for the sunshine,
But all you see is night,
If all around are smiling,
But all you can do is frown,
If you are tired of all this living,
When life just brings you down,Then look beyond your teardrops,
At the wonders of this land,
The beauty of a flower,
Like velvet in your hand.
Feel the air around you,
The smell of new mown hay,
Laughing children in the park,
The innocence there at play,Imagine floating with a butterfly,
As she flutters between the trees,
Or the whispers of the ocean,
On warm hot summer’s breeze,
Think of the taste of candy floss,
As it melts upon your tongue,
Or the melody of morning birds,
As they greet each day with song,
Remember words of beauty,
Told in your mother’s embrace,
Feel the gentleness of her touch,
As she softly kissed your face,Seek the good within you,
Cast the clouds from your sky,
Don’t look toward the pavement,
But hold your head up high,
Think not what life owes you,
But of all you have to give,
Forget about tomorrow,
Then you can start to live.So Bless this age your are living in,
With the gifts you can bestow,
Don’t disregard the stream of life,
Go gently with the flow.~Author unknown
Pink the aroma of the flowers
And blue the iridescent brilliance of the Mind
Inert is the water of emotions
Calm is the peace in the HeartCrescent waves of twilight dawn
That circumvent the Present Moment
Rich in views are one’s devotion
Of the dream passage at its own rhythmMany faces turn Inside
Searching for the only Mind
Vibrant the sea of knowledge Is
Bestow upon the golden night of the human HeartOnce again is time to fly
High above the Empty night
Soul recover searches Light
Mind you business says the HeartLet thy Light be as you Are
Changing glorious in the Night
Trembling also is the Heart
When the mind travel so farCome and sit in peace with Me
Change the color and raise you sleeve
So simple is the Pure Heart
Open wide before you Die~Cyndarion
The world of nature exists within a larger pattern of cycles,
such as day and night and the passing of the seasons.
The seasons do not push one another;
neither do clouds race the wind across the sky;
all things happen in good time;
everything has a time to rise, and a time to fall.
Whatever rises, falls,
and whatever falls shall rise again;
that is the principle of cycles.~Dan Millman
harbor
from this liminal state
we are reborn
into a threshold between worldsthrough the fabric of fog
a map for another way
presents itself
we see – in a flash – how life could becan we return to what is familiar
and make it new
finding mystery in comfort
or do we embark upon
the adventurous sensuous
togethersurrender
to the acceleration of self-discovery
that can only come
from encouraging the emergence
of dormant forces
embracing this vantage point
let the past be memorythis pause
between present and future
is the alchemy
that will wake us
unlock us
transform usthere is barely a moment
even in morning twilight
when i forget
to remember
the shift is happeningi am a light in the harbor
leaving the weight
of the past at sea
change is my anchor
deep inside
peace is so close~Nancy Levin, © 2010
Nancy Levin reads her poems before keynote speakers at Hay House Conferences. Save 10% on Hay House’s 2011 I Can Do It! Toronto Conference here! Nancy Levin is the Event Director for Hay House Inc., the international leader in self-help and transformational publishing. She has worked extensively over the past 14 years in the fields of personal growth, health, and spirituality. Nancy Levin has a published book of Poems, Writing For My Life.
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Dear Spirit,
I ask that you make your presence known here and now, for I am very frightened and don’t know what to do or how to handle things. Please infuse my being with your light, surround me with your love, that I may be lifted up and carried by your grace. Whisper into my thinking the inspirations that will help me through this. Help me to be clear and calm. Embolden my heart with the courage to stay present and connected, for I know that in that presence lies my healing. I ask you to guide me, and everyone involved in this situation, every step of the way. Lift my spirit into a higher vibration that I might grow from this experience and become my greatest potential. Let there be a miracle. I am open and willing to have a miracle occur. Let the healer within me rise and take charge. I thank you in advance as I know that it is already so.
~Kathy Freston, Quantum Wellness
I, the fiery light of divine wisdom,
I ignite the beauty of the plains,
I sparkle the waters.
I burn the sun and moon and the stars,
With wisdom I order all rightly.
I adorn the earth.
I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.
I am the rain coming from the dew
That causes the grasses to laugh
With the joy of life.
I call forth tears, the aroma of holy work.
I am the yearning for good.~Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are oldmay my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not youngand may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile~E.E. Cummings
When we live in darkness, our human life is a constant want.
When we live in Light, our divine life is a constant achievement.
Light in the physical is beauty.
Light in the vital is capacity.
Light in the mind is glory.
Light in the heart is victory.~Sri Chinmoy
I honour the place in you
In which the universe dwells.
I honour the place in you which is
Of love and of truth, of light and of peace.
When you are in that place in you, and
I am in that place in me,
We Are One.~Ancient Sanskrit blessing
I sat dreaming in a room of great silence.
The early morning was still and breathless,
The great blue mountains stood against the dark
skies, cold and clear,
Round the dark log house
The black and yellow birds were welcoming the sun.
I sat on the floor, with legs crossed, meditating,
Forgetting the sunlit mountains,
The birds,
The immense silence,
And the golden sun.
I lost the feel of my body,
My limbs were motionless,
Relaxed and at peace.
A great joy of unfathomable depth filled my heart.
Eager and keen was my mind, concentrated.
Lost to the transient world,
I was full of strength.
As the eastern breeze
That suddenly springs into being
And calms the weary world,
There in front of me
Seated cross-legged,
As the world knows Him
In His yellow robes, simple and magnificent,
Was the Teacher of Teachers.
Looking at me,
Motionless the Mighty Being sat.
I looked and bowed my head.
My body bent forward of itself.
That one look
Showed the progress of the world,
Showed the immense distance between the world
And the greatest of its Teachers.
How little it understood,
And how much He gave.
How joyously He soared,
Escaping from birth and death,
From its tyranny and entangling wheel.
Enlightenment attained,
He gave to the world, as the flower gives
Its scent,
The Truth.
As I looked
At the sacred feet that once trod the happy
Dust of India,
My heart poured forth its devotion,
Limitless and unfathomable,
Without restraint and without effort.~Jiddu Krishnamurti
What if someone said to an embryo in the womb,
Outside of your world of black nothing
is a miraculously ordered universe;
a vast Earth covered with tasty food;
mountains, oceans and plains,
fragrant orchards and fields full of crops;
a luminous sky beyond your reach,
with a sun, moonbeams, and uncountable stars;
and there are winds from south, north and west,
and gardens replete with sweet flowers
like a banquet at a wedding feast.
The wonders of this world are beyond description.
What are you doing living in a dark prison,
Drinking blood through that narrow tube?
But the womb-world is all an embryo knows
And it would not be particularly impressed
By such amazing tales, saying dismissively:
You’re crazy. That is all a deluded fantasy.
One day you will look back and laugh at yourself.
You’ll say, I can’t believe I was so asleep!
How did I ever forget the truth?
How ridiculous to believe that sadness and sickness
Are anything other than bad dreams.~Rumi
The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read,
beneath the long straggly branches of an old willow tree.
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
for the world was intent on dragging me down.
And if that weren’t enough to ruin my day,
a young boy, out of breath, approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down, and said
with great excitement, “Look what I’ve found!”In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful site,
with its pedals all worn out, not enough rain or too little light.
Wanting the young boy to take his dead flower and run off and play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.But instead of retreating he sat next to my side, and placed
the flower into his nose and declared with overactive surprise,
“It sure smells pretty, and it’s beautiful too,
that’s why I picked it, here, it’s for you.”The weed before me was dying or dead,
not vibrant of colour, orange, yellow or red.
But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave!
So I reached for the flower and said, “Just what I need.”But instead of placing the flower in my hand,
he held it in mid-air without any reason or plan.
It was then that I noticed for the very first time,
that weed toting boy could not see, he was blind.I heard my voice quiver, tears shone like the sun,
as I thanked him for picking the very best one.“You’re welcome,” he smiled and then ran off to play;
unaware of the impact he had on my day.
I sat there and wondered how he managed to see,
a self-pitying woman under an old willow tree.
How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart he had blessed with true sight.Through the eyes of a blind child at last I could see,
the problem wasn’t with the world, the problem was me.
And for all those times I, myself, had been blind, I vowed
to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that’s mine.And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose,
and breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose, and smiled
as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand,
about to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.~Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey
Stillness soars as a mountain peak,
Seeking its greatness in height.
Movement stops in a silent lake,
Seeking in depth its limit.
The fish in the water is silent,
the animals on the earth are noisy,
the bird in the air is singing.
But man has in him the silence of the sea,
the noise of the earth
and the music of the air.
There is a point where in the mystery of
existence contradictions meet;
where movement is not all movement
and stillness is not all stillness;
where the idea and the form,
the within and the without, are united;
where infinite becomes finite,
yet not losing its infinity.~Rabindranath Tagore
Colouring outside the lines is scary business.
Some days, I don’t have the courage for it at all.On my big, bold days though,
I like to let my red crayon just streak across the lines.
Out there with my purple…
In perfect freedom,
NO LINES!Colouring outside the lines is lonely too!
I’m the only one who doesn’t get a gold star on my paper.
The teacher frowns.
The kids call me weird or dumb or stupid.Why don’t they see that I’m not behind them,
I’m actually out in front,
Running free…OUTSIDE THE LINES!It would be nice to have a friend who would
Colour outside the lines sometimes too.
WOULD YOU?~Anonymous
Take a moment
to check and see if you are actually here.Before there is right and wrong,
we are just here.
Before there is good or bad, or unworthy,
and before there is the sinner or the saint,
we are just here.
Just meet here, where silence is—
where the stillness inside dances.
Just here, before knowing something, or not knowing.
Just meet here where all points of view
merge into one point,
and the one point disappears.Just see if you can meet right now
where you touch the eternal,
and feel the eternal living and dying at each moment.
Just to meet here—
before you were an expert,
before you were beginner.
To just be here,
where you are what you always will be,
where you will never add anything to this,
or subtract anything.Meet here, where you want nothing,
and where you are nothing.
The here that is unspeakable.
Where we meet only mystery to mystery,
or we don’t meet at all.
Meet here where you find yourself
by not finding yourself.
In this place where quietness is deafening,
and the stillness moves too fast to catch it.Meet here where you are what you want
and you want you what you are
and everything falls away into radiant emptiness.~Adyashanti
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,“You owe
Me.”Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.~Hafiz
Ever felt an angel’s breath in the gentle breeze?
A teardrop in the falling rain?
Hear a whisper amongst the rustle of leaves?
Or been kissed by a lone snowflake?
Nature is an angel’s favorite hiding place.~Carrie Latet
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
I walk, down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost…I am hopeless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in the same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.I walk down another street.
~Copyright © 1980 Portia Nelson
Oh Great Creator,
We are gathered together in your name
That we may be of greater service to you
And to our fellows.
We offer ourselves to you as instruments.
We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.
We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know that you created us and that creativity
Is your nature and our own.
We ask you to unfold our lives
According to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late
And that we are not too small or flawed
To be healed ~
By you and through each other ~ and made whole.
Help us to love one another,
To nurture each other’s unfolding,
To encourage each other’s growth,
And understand each other’s fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone,
That we are loved and lovable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you.~Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
