May Your Heart Fly - Hafiz

The lily-perfumed wings of love
Will lay dust of all your grief.
Patience my heart, and struggle on.

For when love binds,
It binds you to the tyranny of a racing steed,
And when love scatters,
It flings the soul-like fragments of the stars
Out of the ambergris scented woods.

Love makes of each moment an eternity
And tends the garden of the heart's desire.
When love mocks, ruby tears fall heavy as pomegranates
And when love looks, it sees your deepest mystery.

Love seeks out the tears of hidden hearts
And turns not from the Lovers of the Dawn.
Is there a remedy for the pain of love?

Or is it too unbearable for thought?

One taste of the medicine
And you realize just how sick you have been.
Those who plead in the defense of love
In love's judgement shall find grace
And to the court, Hafiz
May your heart fly...

Hafiz

with thanks to Death Deconstructed

Photo from the internet

 

UnKnowing - Chuck Surface

"The great religions are ships,
Poets, life boats.
Every sane person I know,
Has jumped overboard."

Hafez

~

My mind has lost its will,
To seek knowledge and understanding.
It no longer dreams of resolution,
To a Mystery beyond comprehension.

For after impassioned consideration,
It has concluded, rationally, empirically,
That Unknowing IS the resolution,
Any sane person will come to.

And from this Pregnant Fact is birthed...

The mind's Surrender,
The Heart having long ago Drowned,
In Love.

Chuck Surface

Facebook

~

I'm not "meditating", but Remembering.
Not in thought or image of something known,
Outside myself, something "other" there.
But a Feeling of my Essence, my Soul, Here.

And in that instant of Remembrance,
Before words, thoughts, or images can arise,
The whole of my Being Sighs in Ecstasy...

Chuck Surface

excerpt from Yes, and Yes
Facebook

You have not danced so badly - Hafiz

art by Rassouli

You have not danced so badly my dear,
Trying to hold hands with the Beautiful One.

You have waltzed with great style,
My sweet...

[.....]

So what if the music has stopped for a while.

So what if the price of admission to the Divine

Is out of reach tonight.

So what, my dear
If you do not have the ante to gamble for Real Love.

The mind and body are famous
For holding the heart ransom,
But Hafiz knows the Beloved's eternal habits.

Have patience,
For He will not be able to resist your longing
For long.

You have not danced so badly, my dear,
Trying to kiss the Beautiful One.

You have actually waltzed with tremendous style,
O my sweet...

Hafiz
Persian Poet
1320-1389

~

Art: "The Dance"

Rassouli

a wonderful artist!

Light Will Split You Open - Hafiz

Light will someday split you open
even if your life is now a cage.

Little by little, you will turn into stars.
Little by little, you will turn into
the whole sweet, amorous universe.

Love will surely burst you wide open
into an unfettered, blooming new galaxy.
A life-giving radiance will come.

You will become so free
in a wonderful, secret
and pure Love that flows
from a conscious, one-pointed,
Infinite Light.

[.....]

O look again within yourself,

[.....]

and spin in Eternal Ecstasy...

Behold the Beautiful One
from the vantage point of Love.
He is conducting the affairs
of the whole universe
in a tree house - on a limb
in your heart.

Hafiz

From: The Subject Tonight is Love

It is said that the above poem reflects Hafiz's
mystical experience into cosmic consciousness.

God Pours Light - Hafiz

God
pours light
into every cup,
quenching the darkness.

The proudly pious
stuff their cups with parchment
and critique the taste of ink

while God pours light...

And the trees lift their limbs
without worry of redemption,
every blossom a chalice.

Hafiz, seduce those withered souls
with words that wet their parched
lips

as light
pours like rain
into every empty cup
set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.

Hafiz

Death is a Favor to us - Hafiz

Death is a favor to us,
but our scales have lost their balance.
The impermanence of the body
should give us great clarity,
deepening the wonder in our
senses and eyes
of this mysterious existence we share
and surely are just traveling through...

[.....]

...all I know of life and myself is that
we are just a mid-air flight of golden wine
between [God's] Pitcher and His Cup.

[.....]

...our marriage with the Cruel Beauty
of time and space cannot endure very long.

Death is a favor to us,
but our minds have lost their balance.
The miraculous existence and impermanence of form
always makes the illumined ones
laugh and sing.

Hafiz

~

In memory of my mother-in-law who passed from this life
Nov. 12, 2017 after lingering many years with Alzheimer's...
Death was indeed a favor to her, allowing her Essence to
"pass through" and "journey on" beyond the fields we know...

Space Is Not Empty - Author Unknown and Hafiz

Empty space is not empty.  Space vibrates with energy,
and even the most barren of vacuums is seething with activity.
Space is warped, compressed and stretched.  Matter creates
"dimples" in space, much as a bowling ball placed on a
trampoline will create a deformation in its fabric, so too does
matter create distortions in the fabric of space.
A rotating body - like a planet, or star - will not only "dent"
the space around it, but space itself will be dragged along
in its wake, in much the same way that a rotating spoon
will cause a vortex om a cup of tea...
As an object moves through space, space itself becomes
compressed in the direction of the object's travel.
Stars and atoms and the vacuum are all of a single, seamless
whole...

We are trapped in the assumptions that the way we experience
things is how things are...

Author Unknown...

Note: I wrote these words down from a blog on a piece of paper,
 but failed to write down the author, or the blog - my bad.
If someone knows whose words these are
please let me know...  Thanks :)

~*~

Poetry reveals that there is no empty space.

When your truth forsakes its shyness,
when your fears surrender to your strengths,
you will begin to experience
that all existence
is a teeming sea of infinite life.

In a handful of ocean water
you could not count all the finely tuned
musicians who are acting stoned
for very intelligent and sane reasons
and of course are becoming extremely sweet

and wild!

In a handful of the sky and earth,
in a handful of God,
we cannot count
all the ecstatic lovers who are dancing there
behind the mysterious veil...

True art reveals there is no void
or darkness.
There is no loneliness to the clear-eyed mystic
in this luminous, brimming, playful world.

Hafiz

Divine Courage - Hafiz

We have not come here to take prisoners
but to surrender ever more deeply
to freedom and joy.
We have not come into this exquisite world
to hold ourselves hostage from love...

Run my dear, from anything
that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings.

Run like hell, my dear,
from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart...

[.....]

For we have not come here to take prisoners,
or to confine our wondrous spirits,
but to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom, and Light!

Hafiz

Excerpt from:
"We Have Not Come To Take Prisoners"

Photo: Mandala Art digitally altered

What's Your Echo? - Bram Levinson

Have you actually ever considered what you do right now,
like the next word that comes out of your mouth,
the next social media post that you put up, the next thought that
flutters across your mind...is actually contributing to your echo?
Your echo is the energy that someone is filled with when they talk
about you or think about you - your energy with them.
Your echo is the energy that trails behind you in your wake.
It's the energy that outlives you and out lasts your body, your life.
It's your impact, your imprint.
We emanate energy.  We are energy in a human body and that energy
is palpable, it's contagious.

What's your echo?

What's going on in the world has triggered a lot of opinion.
What you emanate into the world contributes.
It's your echo.
We are responsible for what we give off.
What is happening around the world right now is the sum total of
all our energies that are frenetic.  We are giving off a lot of chaos.
There is a rising wave of intolerance that is happening in our minds.
We get swept up into it...  [But] we are given life boats to navigate
those choppy waters if we are clear enough.
It's about getting out of our stories and beliefs that we walk around with
about who we *think* we are.

We are all energy, the energy that animates us into life...

What you do matters...

It takes presence...

What's your echo...? 

Bram Levinson
Yoga and Meditation Teacher

Excerpts from the video: "Echoes: What Remains of Us?"

To view the full video click HERE and scroll down to video

~

What we speak
becomes the house
we live in.

Who will want to sleep in your bed
if the roof leaks
right above it?

Hafiz

~

Photo - part of an arurora borealis

Medieval Mandala...

When I started creating the design for this mandala the *idea* was for something that looked like Cathedral Windows, but I had no idea it would turn out like this! - looking like something from a Renaissance Festival! lol  I wanted a warm glow and the old fashioned tudor style window, which actually looks more like a medieval castle window – hmmmm.  I wonder where in the psyche this one emerged from! lol…

I’m not sure I like this one, although in a strange way it appeals to me. And the process of creating it reminded me that life, like art, doesn’t always turn out the way we had envisioned – it unfolds the way it needs to.  There are sometimes dark places that one must traverse that transform us.   Light gets through as we learn to embrace the dark…   As we open, and become receptive to life as it is, something lets go, the form transforms – and...

Zoom Blur - radiant light and fluid energy emerge that was there all along – a true Renaissance!
Notice what appears to be candle flames and chalices… :)

“God
pours light
into every cup,
quenching darkness.

The proudly pious
stuff their cups with parchment
and critique the taste of ink

while God pours light

and trees lift their limbs
without worry of redemption,
every blossom a chalice.

Hafiz, seduce those withered souls
with words that wet their parched lips

as light
pours like rain
into every empty cup...”

Hafiz

~

Top Photo: The right side came out darker
and a little blurry because the
light was uneven.

Unconfined...

"We have not come here to take prisoners

but to surrender evere more deeply
to freedom and joy… 

We have not come into this exquisite world

to hold ourselves hostage from love.

  

Run, my dear, from anything

that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings.

  

 Run like hell, my dear,

from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend

those aspects…..
that stand outside of our house
and shout to our reason,
”oh please, oh please,
come out to play.”

  

 For we have not come here to take prisoners,

or to confine our wondrous spirits,
but to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom and Light!"

  

Hafiz

Hafiz poem from Love Is A Place

Strange Phenomenon...

I did this funky looking stone balance this past Sunday, but it is not the “strange phenomenon.”  (Or maybe it is!)  I spent nearly two hours trying to get different stones to balance, and it just wasn’t happening.  (Am learning a lot about stones, balance, and inner balance – kind of a Zen thing… J).  Just before I gave up, this one came into being, which was not the original version, nor the original stones.  Within 20 mins the top pentagon piece had toppled; pointing out the impermanence of it all.  You can see why in this shot.

It was precariously perched.  And the bottom “see-saw” pieces also toppled.  What remained looked like a little altar of sorts.

And then Monday morning this was my view out the window. The stones completely crumbled.

Something or someone toppled the remaining stones and left this flower pot bottom right next to the pile of rubbled rocks.

 The plastic terracotta bottom piece had been some 30 feet away from the rocks, lying next to the foundation of the house.  We have no idea how it got over here, or how the rest of the rocks fell over.  So we set up the video camera for two nights to see if we could see what might be playing games with my stones J  Do we have a “spirit”, or is this an intelligent raccoon that dragged it to the rocks.  And if so, why – maybe because he/she wanted to be a stone balancer too!  (not stoned balancer, mind you.) :) lol   However, it gave me this clever idea to carry the rocks around in this pot bottom.  Now how come *I* didn’t figure that out before! lol  I’m evidently not smarter than your average raccoon!

Here are a few links to stone balancing websites. They are fascinating stone “sculptures.”   The first is by Adrian Gray from England. He does his incredible stone balances on the seashore.  The second is Peter Juhl who does his exquisite stone balances on the shores of Lake Superior, and Lake Harriett (in Minneapolis, MN).  And of course, Michael Grab at Gravity Glue who got me started. :)  He does his stone balancing  *in* Boulder Creek, Boulder, Colorado...  Also see my other post on Stone Balance...

“All things are living,
even stones.
It has to be that way;
energy pulsates from their bodies,
since all are part of
the Omnipresent Living Being…”

Hafiz

“This is the realm of the passing away.
All that exists does not for long.
Whatever comes into this world
never stops sliding toward
the edge of eternity…”

Stephen Levine

From Breaking the Drought:
Visions of Grace

Nature's Canvas...

I wish I could say this was my art, but no, they are Nature’s canvases, with a little help from Adobe Fireworks. J The Fall colors around here were not all that spectacular this year, and none of my photos came out all that well, so I used the “Invert” function to create these photos of nature that look like paintings!

  

“When your heart sees Reality
then every atom of creation
is a window…”

Llwellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

“There is no distinction
between reality and unreality.
It’s all a perceived experience…

There is only Isness.
Everything just Is.

Everything is the Real.
There’s no distinction
between Real and Illusion…”

Author unknown

Photo: Tree trunk reflected in a pond…

“Oneness = Divine Nature and man’s human nature,
Spirit one with its own human nature,
God’s indivisible oneness with the
essence of mankind…”

Bernadette Roberts

Christian Contemplative

Photo: Tree fallen in a pond with its top branches
half in and half out of the water, reflecting themselves…

“All things are living,
even stones.

It has to be that way;
energy pulsates from their bodies,
since all are part
of the Omnipresent
Living Being.”

Hafiz
Sufi Poet

Photo: Tree and Bridge reflected in pond

“If there is light somewhere
there is darkness.
The brighter the light
the darker the darkeness,
inseparable twins…

Something holds them both equally,
light and darkness,
surrendering itself joyfully
to the play of duality…”

Ameeta
Non-Duality Teacher

Photo: Tree stump reflected in a pond.

“We are fingers of God’s Awareness.
We are all God’s perception.”

Ram Dass

Hindu

“It’s all the Self-existent
uncreated Absolute.”

Huang Po – Zen Master

Where do the "answers" lie...

“I have a thousand brilliant lies
for the question:
Who are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
for the question:
What is God?

If you think the Truth can be
known from words,

If you think the Sun and the Ocean
can pass through
that tiny opening called
the mouth…

O Someone should start laughing!
wild laughing – Now!"

Hafiz

"Instead of *thinking* up an answer,
it’s about letting the question
resonate in the pool of the heart,
not as a thought,
but as a listening -
as pure sensing…"

Joan Ruvinsky
Pathless Yoga

 

"Every new understanding of who you really are,
attunes you more delicately to this space of full awareness,
so that you can hear and be guided by your inner voice
more clearly…

Your attachments may veil the truth from you.
Your attachments lead you to seek
outside yourself for answers
that can only come to you
from your own heart.

Each time you lose contact
with that inner awareness,
you need only meditate.
For through meditation
you will hear that
inner “click”,
that sense of rightness.

Your answers are unique.
Listen with your heart…"

Ram Dass
Journey of Awakening

"The liberating Truth is not static;
it is alive.
It cannot be put into concepts
and be understood by the mind.

The Truth lies beyond all forms of
conceptual fundamentalism.

What you are is the beyond…
It is awake and present -
here and now already.

To be here,
all you have to do
is to let go of
who you *think* you are."

Adyashanti

My only advice for you is this…
Go within yourself
and probe the depths
from which your life springs.

And there, at its source,
you’ll find the answer
to the questions…

Accept this answer,
just as you hear it,
without hesitation..

Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet

(istock photo)

Do not seek the answers to your questions,
but find the perspective that lets you *see through* everything -
seeing the transparency of all things -
the fluidness of it all -
the changeableness of it all…

~

No longer seeking for answers – BE…
BE profoundly well with everything that arises.
Let it all take place around you.

Sit in the well of “wellness” – the hollow of the Heart.

Sit in the pool of profound Wellness of Being –
“Well-Being”
Inner Peace,
Inner Stillness,
Rest…

Live in Primordial Peace,
the Infinite Alive Stillness -
the Pause that sustains everything…

~

The invitation is to come into the depths.
Find the depths of Being internally.

Find the fluidity under the surface waters
at the depths of Being.

Remind yourself of the depths
from which you came,
and re-enter the depths.
Everything comes together
in the depths of Being…

Find the deep Stillness
and rest there…

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2004-2006

“The answer, my friend,
is blowin’ in the wind…
The answer is
blowin’ in the wind…”

Blowin’ In The Wind

Bob Dylan
1962
(sung by Peter, Paul and Mary)

Where is the Door?

“Where is The Door?
Where is the door to God?

In the sound of a barking dog…

In the ring of a hammer...

In the drop of rain...

In the face of everyone,
everyone I see…

Where is the door
to the divine tavern?

…in all that we can behold.”


Hafiz

“We all look up to the same stars;
The same heaven is above us all;
The same universe surrounds us all!
What does it matter by what
system of knowledge
we seek to know
the truth?

Not by one path alone
may we attain to
so great a secret.”


Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
A Roman Statesman

Every object,
every being,
is a jar full of
delight…

Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.

Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king,
and choose the purest,

the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about ‘what’s needed.’

Drink the wine that moves you…”


Rumi
from Essential Rumi
Coleman Barks

“Everything just gets swallowed up
into the open heart…”

The Door…


Author unknown…



~*~



Photos

#1 – Thought this picture was ruined
but even mistakes have a purpose.

#3 – a glass blown ball