ssh

.

You are not a drop in the ocean.

You are the entire ocean in a drop.


—Rumi

.

the wind shifts like this

.

This is how the wind shifts:
Like the thoughts of an old human,
Who still thinks eagerly
And despairingly.

The wind shifts like this:
Like a human without illusions,
Who still feels irrational things within her.

The wind shifts like this:
Like humans approaching proudly,
Like humans approaching angrily.

This is how the wind shifts:
Like a human, heavy and heavy,
Who does not care.


–Wallace Stevens

.

hush

.

Hush.

I am so close, I may look distant.

So completely mixed with you, I may look separate.

So out in the open, I appear hidden.

So silent, because I am constantly talking with you.


–Rumi

.

if you try

.

You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket. 

If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run. 

To “have” running water you must let go of it and let it run.


–Alan Watts

.

conditions of a solitary bird

 .

The conditions of a solitary bird are five:

The first, that it flies to the highest point;

the second, that it does not suffer for company,
not even of its own kind;

the third, that it aims its beak to the skies;

the fourth, that it does not have a definite color;

the fifth, that it sings very softly.


–St. John of the Cross

.

I saw you dancing

 .

I saw you dancing last night
on the roof of your house
all alone.

I felt your heart longing for the Friend.

I saw you whirling

beneath the soft bright rose
that hung from an invisible stem in the sky.

So I began to change into my best clothes
in hopes of joining you,
even though I live a thousand miles away.

And if you had spun like an immaculate sphere
just two more times,
then bowed again so sweetly to the east,
you would have found God and me
standing so near
and lifting you into our arms.

I saw you dancing last night
near the roof of this world.


–Hafiz

.

for every reason in existence

.

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child. And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the sun's mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.


–Hafiz

.

beloved

.

Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder.

Help some soul heal.

Walk out of your house like a shepherd.


–Rumi

.

not to worry

.

They are always kissing,
they can't control themselves.  

It is not possible that any
creature can have greater instincts

and perceptions than the

mature human mind.

God ripened me.

So I see it is true:  

all objects in existence are

wildly in love!


–Meister Eckhart

.

delicious trouble

.

 

 

This the spirit that Beauty must ever induce, wonderment and a delicious trouble, longing and love and a trembling that is all delight.

For the unseen all this may be felt as for the seen; and this is the Soul's feel for it, every Soul in some degree, but those the more deeply that are the more truly apt to this higher love – just as all take delight in the beauty of the body but all are not stung as sharply, and those only that feel the keener wound are known as Lovers.

These Lovers, then, lovers of the beauty outside of sense, must be made to declare themselves.


–Plotinus

.

no need

.

You need not do anything.

Remain sitting at your table and listen.

You need not even listen, just wait.

You need not even wait,

just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.

And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.

It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.


–Franz Kafka

.

not to worry

.

The clear bead at the center

changes everything.

There are
no edges to my loving now.

You've heard it said there's
a window that opens from one
mind to another,

but if there's no wall,
there's no need for
fitting the window, or the latch.


–Rumi

.

i am that

. 

I am not this hair,  

I am not this skin,  

I am the soul that lives within.


–Rumi

.

water and wind and stone

.

The water hollowed the stone,
the wind dispersed the water,
the stone stopped the wind.
Water and wind and stone.

The wind sculpted the stone,
the stone is a cup of water,
The water runs off and is wind.
Stone and wind and water.

The wind sings in its turnings,
the water murmurs as it goes,
the motionless stone is quiet.
Wind and water and stone.

One is the other and is neither:
among their empty names
they pass and disappear,
water and stone and wind.


–Octavio Paz

 .

perhaps

.

Perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us yesterday, separate, in the evening.

–Rainer Maria Rilke

.

um ...

.

If you do not change direction,
you may end up where you are heading.

—Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching

.

gratitude

.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

—G. K. Chesterton

.

every good thing

 

.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.

And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.


–Ralph Waldo Emerson

.