BELOVED LORD PRAYER

Beloved Lord, Almighty God

Aside from Whom there is nothing else

Please help us to love Thee more.

Teach us to realize

that the sole purpose of Love is Beauty.

Bring us to know Thee

as Thou artand to find Thee

in the one place

that is big enough to contain Thee

The heart of Perfect Man

.Amen.

enough words

How does a part of the world leave the world?

How can wetness leave water?
Don't try to put out a fire by throwing on more fire!

Don't wash a wound with blood!
No matter how fast you run,your shadow more than keeps up.

Sometimes, it's in front!
Only full, overhead sundimishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you!

What hurts you, blesses you.

Darkness is your candle.

Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this,

but it would break the glass cover on your heart,

and there's no fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.

Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree, feathers and wings sprout on you,

be quieter than a dove.

Don't open your mouth for even a cooooooo.
When a frog slips into the water,

the snake cannot get it.

Then the frog climbs back outand croaks,

and the snake moves toward him again.
Even if the frog learned to hiss,

still the snake would hear through the hiss the information he needed,

the frog voice underneath.
But if the frog could be completely silent,

then the snake would go back to sleeping,and the frog could reach the barley.
The soul lives there in the silent breath.
And that grain of barley is such that,when you put it in the ground,it grows.
Are these enough words,

or shall I squeeze more juice from this?

Who am I, my friend

translated by Coleman Barks

Because I cannot sleep

Because I cannot sleep

I make music at night.

I am troubled by the

face e has the color of spring flowers.

I have neither sleep nor patience,

a good reputation nor disgrace.

A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.

all my good manners have moved

a thousand miles away.

The heart and the mind

are left angry with each other.

The stars and the moon

are envious of each other.

because of this alienation

the physical universes

getting tighter and tighter.

the moon says, "How long will I remain

suspended without a sun?

Without Love's jewel inside of me,

let the bazaar of my existence

be destroyed stone by stone.

O Love, You who have been

called by a thousand names,

You who know how to pour the wine

into the chalice of the body,

You who give culture

to a thousand cultures,

You who are faceless b

ut have a thousand faces,

O Love, You who shape the faces

of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,

give me a glass from Your bottle,

or a handful of bheng from Your Branch.

Remove the cork once more.

The we'll see a thousand chiefs

prostrate themselves,

and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.

Then the addict will be breed of craving.

and will be resurrected,

and stand in awe till Judgement Day.

without the capital

The lover's food is the love of the bread;

no bread need be at hand:

no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.

Lovers have nothing to do with with with existence;

lovers have the interest without the capital.

Without wings they fly around the world;

without hands they carry the polo ball off the field.

That dervish who caught the scent of Reality

used to weave basket even though his hand had been cut off.

Lover have pitched their tents in nonexistence:

they are of one quality and one essence, as nonexistence is.

Mathnawi III, 3020-3024

progress!

First he appeared in the realm inanimate;

Thence came into the world of plants and lived

The plant-life many a year, nor called to mind

What he had been; then took the onward way

To animal existence, and once more

Remembers naught of what life vegetive,

Save when he feels himself moved with desire

Towards it in the season of sweet flowers,

As babes that seek the breast and know not why.

Again the wise Creator whom thou knowest

Uplifted him from animalityTo Man's estate;

and so from realm to realmAdvancing,

he became intelligent,Cunning and keen of wit,

as he is now.No memory of his past abides with him,

And from his present soul he shall be changes.

Though he is fallen asleep,

God will not leave him In this forgetfulness.

Awakened,

heWill laugh to think what troublous dreams he had.

And wonder how his happy state of being

He could forget, and not perceive that all Those pains and sorrows

were the effect of sleep

And guile and vain illusion.

So this world Seems lasting,

though 'tis but the sleepers' dream;

Who, when the appointed Day shall dawn,

escapes From dark imaginings that haunted him,

And turns with laughter on his phantom griefs

When he beholds his everlasting home.

the day i've died

The day I've died, my pall is moving on

-But do not think my heart is still on earth!

Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"

You fall in devil's snare

- woe, that is awful!

Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial

-For me this is the time of joyful meeting!

Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave

-A curtain is it for eternal bliss.

You saw "descending"

- now look at the rising!

Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?

To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;

The coffin seems a jail,

yet it means freedom.

Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?

Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?

What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?

Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?

Close here your mouth and open it on that side

.So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!

be melting snow

Totally conscious, and apropos of nothing,

you come to see me.

Is someone here? I ask.The moon.

The full moon is inside your house.

My friends and I go running out into the street.

I'm in here, comes a voice from the house,

but we aren't listening

We're looking up at the sky.

My pet nightingale sobs like a drunk in the garden.

Ringdoves scatter with small cries,

Where, Where.It's midnight.

The whole neighborhood is up and out

in the street thinking,

The cat burglar has come back.

The actual thief is there too,

saying out loud,

Yes, the cat burglar is somewhere in this crowd

.No one pays attention.

Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God

,God is in the look of your eyes,

in the thought of looking,

nearer to you than your self,

or things that have happened to you

There's no need to go outside.

Be melting snow.Wash yourself of yourself.

A white flower grows in quietness.

Let your tongue become that flower.