the vision

During prayer I am accustomed to turn to God like this:

that's the meaning of the words of the Tradition,

'the delight felt in the ritual prayer.

'The window of my soul opens,

and from the purity of the Unseen World,

the Book of God comes to me straight.

The Book, the rain of Divine Grace,

and the Lightare falling into my house through a window

from my real and original source

.The house without a window is Hell:

to make a window is the foundation of true religion.

Don't thrust your axe upon every thicket

come, use your axe to cut open a window

.[III, 2401-5]

Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski

the journey

Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:

every success depends upon focusing the heart.

Unconcerned with the business of the world,

keep saying with all your soul, "Ku, ku," like the dove.

Consider this well, o you whom worldliness veils,

God has tied "invocation" to "I will answer."

When weakness is cleared from your heart,

your prayer will reach the glorious Lord.

[III, 2302-5]

Even though you're not equipped,

keep searching:equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord.

Whoever you see engaged in search,

become her friend and cast your head in front of her,

for choosing to be a neighbor of seekers,

you become one yourself;protected by conquerors,

you will yourself learn to conquer.

If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon,

don't smile contemptuously upon its quest.

Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?

[III, 1445-49]

O God, You who know all that is hidden

You who speak with compassion,

don't hide from us the errors of our wrong pursuits;

nor reveal to us the lack within the good we try to do,

lest we become disgusted and lose the heart to journey on this Path.

[IV, 1348-54]

Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski

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.