tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62977445797076381972024-03-08T03:59:13.997-05:00melancholy blue summer evening skies full of godUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-1669456030613006682015-11-20T20:33:00.002-05:002019-12-06T17:16:28.972-05:00The Thorn of ExistenceReason said: “Stop there!<br />
In surrender there are only thorns!”<br />
Love replied: “O Reason!<br />
It is you who are full of thorns!”<br />
Be still, and pluck the thorn<br />
of existence from your heart,<br />
that you may come to see<br />
the rose gardens that lie within.<br />
<br />
– Jalaluddin Rumi, Ghazal 132, ll. 7-8<br />
<br />
[my translation]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-91448333134895670232014-12-29T02:04:00.002-05:002019-12-06T17:23:17.338-05:00Shamsuddin Hafiz, Ghazal 152<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">A beam of Your beauty</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> shone forth in pre-eternity;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">then love revealed itself</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and set the universe on fire.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Your face appeared;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the angel saw it but felt no love.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Impelled by jealousy,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> he caught fire and struck</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the heart of mankind.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">From that flame, reason lit its lamp;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> a bolt of jealousy flashed</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and threw the world in disarray.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">The conceited one sought</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to witness the mystery unveiled;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">the hand of the unseen</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> struck the undeserving heart.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Others won a favorable destiny</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and a life of plenty;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">for its part, my woeful heart</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> received the sorrow of love.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">My exalted soul yearned</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for a glimpse of Your chin;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">my hand reached up</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and stroked the curls of Your hair.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Hafiz wrote “<i>The Book</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><i> of the Joy Found in Loving You</i>”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">on the day he cut all ties</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> that bring solace to the heart.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b>[my translation]</b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-84924159722315824822014-12-28T17:43:00.000-05:002019-12-06T17:14:22.352-05:00From Fariduddin ‘Attar’s Book of Secrets<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">O friend, if you awaken from your sleep</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> you will savor the most marvelous joys;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">though immersed in sorrow and pain,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> this I surely know: we will find joy, at last.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">As there are thorns, there are also flowers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> As there is illness, there is also a cure.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">The cure has not yet become manifest;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> when the time has come, it will be revealed.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">And our tale goes even further than this:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> though pain is our lot in this world,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that World – where we will find its cure –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> no tale may describe, no lot may apportion.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Without any lingering doubt I know</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> that beyond this world we will find felicity.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">For every affliction we have endured here,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for every moment of pain and sorrow,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">in that World we will receive a joy in return.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Come! Let us not tarry on the way;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to know nothing of the World beyond</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> this earthly realm we live in is a tragedy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Why, O dervish, is your heart heavy,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> when such sublime joys lie ahead of you? </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">The delights conferred in that World</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> surpass all other joys in their exalted purity.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">If today you found one atom of that joy,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> you would burn with yearning for the next.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">The Eternal World is a realm of felicity</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> of which this entire earthly realm is a sign.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">There, is found the station of Prophets;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the heart and faith, the soul and beatitude</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">are found there; all spirits reside there;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and in that assembly, all houris are confidants.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">If you aspire to that place I have described,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> detach yourself from ‘I’, and there you are.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">If in this world you die to your self,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> you will touch the doorstep of that World.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><b>[my translation]</b></span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-14105614505280153392014-09-03T02:31:00.002-04:002019-12-06T17:14:32.125-05:00Homewardbound<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">We who seek the Treasure</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that can’t be found,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">have we not once known</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">its place of splendor?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">We who yearn for the heart’s breath</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and the eye’s spark,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">blinking a myriad eternal Nows –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ceaselessly giving life</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to a forever dying world –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">have we not drunk</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">from the source of that creek,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">yes, the one that flows</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">from that mountain of a Dream?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">We who seek the Treasure</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that can’t be lost,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">who yearn for its undying Memory,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">for its Day without setting,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">how would we bear</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">(dwelling in this narrow human nest)</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to find this Treasure’s place?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">How would this Bird ever conceive</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of stretching its wings</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to fly homewards to itself?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">For this Bird was created</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">(on the Morning</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of Eternity’s First Day)</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">with the joy of outbound wings,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that it may seek in sorrow</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">the one Treasure</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that lies beyond all seeking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-74080181296706861382014-07-11T22:35:00.000-04:002019-12-06T17:14:41.363-05:00Ḥāfiẓ, Ghazal 46, ll. 1-7<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">A rose on the breast, wine at hand,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> a Beloved to my heart’s desire;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">On a day such as this the Sultan</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> of the world is but a slave to me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Bring no candle to tonight’s gathering,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for in this assembly of ours</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the Beloved’s face is a full moon!</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Though wine is licit in our creed,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> it is illicit without Your face,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> O Cypress whose arms are roses!</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I am all ears for the reed’s song,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> all ears for the harp’s melody.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I am all eyes for Your ruby lips,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> all eyes for the passing of the cup!</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Spread no perfume in our assembly</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for each moment brings us</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the scent of the Beloved’s curls.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Speak not of the flavor of candy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and sugar, for to me nothing</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> tastes sweeter than Your lips.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Since the treasure of Your sorrow</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> came to reside in my ruined heart,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I have always been found here,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> sitting in this tavern’s dusty corner.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><b>[my translation]</b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-21466382706200839992014-07-04T21:41:00.000-04:002019-12-06T17:14:55.021-05:00Togetherness<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">In their closest intimacy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> lies immeasurable distance.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">This secret had remained</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> concealed in their embrace.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">The Lover once believed</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> he yearned for the Beloved.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">But this Love never was</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for the sake of one another;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><i>togetherness </i>is the only</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Love they had yearned for.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Ah! how far is ‘together’</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> now that two have another.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-72504329120867867742014-06-25T13:45:00.000-04:002020-01-28T10:09:01.086-05:00<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I have loved Her</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> through many veils,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">until one morning</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> She said to me:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“You will not know</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">the sweetest joy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of sorrow for Me</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">until the day you</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">can love Me as if</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">you cannot lose Me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Believe me, love.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I can never be lost.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“And yet, Love,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">how many times</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">have I lost You</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">through the veils</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I have so adored</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">instead of You.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I cannot ever lose</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">nor possess You.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">And so in my love</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">for lovely veils</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I have so often</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">lost trace of You.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Not because </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">You had left me,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">but because </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I had left You.”</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-70342415070379952202014-06-05T17:47:00.001-04:002019-12-06T17:15:15.382-05:00Who but the foolish lover<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Who but the foolish lover</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">has dared endure</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">this painful wonder:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">the awareness</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of being from You,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">while living apart from You;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">this bittersweet</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">torment of yearning</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">for togetherness,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">serenely poised</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">midway between</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">impossible union</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and inescapable separation.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-86668574700790760412014-06-02T12:06:00.000-04:002019-12-06T17:17:56.881-05:00Broken<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Really, friend, </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">what else </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">do you </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">expect,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">smashing </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">your heart </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">against </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">marble </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">statues?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-76788236664673333782014-05-27T03:20:00.000-04:002014-09-19T01:35:52.643-04:00You are the magic of sunrays<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">You are the magic</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of sunrays</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and I a speck</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of dust</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">whirling for joy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I am dust</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">dull and gray</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">but when You smile</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">on me</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I am a sun</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-44607716463078449012014-05-18T10:57:00.000-04:002019-12-06T17:15:40.192-05:00The Love of Your Eloquence<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>by Jalāluddīn Maulānā Rūmī</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b>[13th century]</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Your resplendent face</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> has become my soul’s mirror;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Your Soul, and my soul:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the two have become one.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">O completely full Moon,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the heart’s home is You!</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Once, the intellect ruled</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> as distinguished master; </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">it is now Your servant,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and the guard at Your door. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Though water and clay</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> have made me forgetful of You,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">since that day when You said:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> “Am I not your Lord?”*</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">my soul has been drunk</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> on the beauty of Your face.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Now the water is clear;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the clay has settled</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to the bottom of the pond.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I have ceased saying:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“This is mine, that is yours.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Now, the Emperor of </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Rūm</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">has crushed the Ethiopians.**</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> May the triumphal reign</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of Your felicity endure forever!</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> O You, whose cheek</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">is like the Moon! My lament</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> is renewed without end –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">for I have become veiled</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> by the love of Your eloquence.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b>Ghazal no. 61, F-2243</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><b>[my translation]</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">[<b>l. 11</b>] Water and clay both belong to our body, which is the vehicle or instrument by which our eternal soul can exist on earth and experience life through the senses. At death, we leave both water and clay behind. In this sense, clay is our solid and opaque material body, and water our subtle and transparent energetic body. During existence on earth, our soul is perceiving existence <i>through</i> the body, both material and subtle together. When we become attached to material things, our subtle body becomes troubled and restless, mixed with the heaviness of materiality. Then in that state our soul cannot see clearly <i>through</i> its vehicle of embodiment. The soul becomes blinded by material existence, since the subtle body, which in itself is transparent, is made opaque by its mixture with materiality. But when one surrenders attachment to materiality (that is, when one stops clinging to things and thinking in terms of “This is mine, that is yours”), the material body (the clay) stops being agitated and settles to the bottom. Then the subtle body (the water) can flow more freely, and it recovers its natural transparency, and is then receptive to the divine light. By means of the transparency, fluidity and receptiveness of the subtle body, the soul can then behold God’s light through the frame of bodily existence on Earth, without being veiled by the opacity of the material body.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">[<b>l. 14</b>] The Day of “Am I not?” (<i>Alastu</i>) refers to the Qur</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">anic story of God</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s creation of humankind from Adam: </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">And [remember, O Prophet,] when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, [asking them:] </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">‘</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">Am I not your Lord?</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"> and they replied: </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">‘</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">Yes, we do bear witness.</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"> [That covenant was taken] lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">‘</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">We were not aware of this</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">”</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"> (Qur</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">an 7:172). Rūmī is saying: ever since You showed Your Face to me, my soul has been in love with You, although this world (i.e. water and clay) has distracted me from you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">[<b>l. 22</b>] The Emperor of </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">Rūm</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"> (Qayṣar-i Rūmī) is a symbol of the realized human, whose soul is turned towards God and ruled by Him, while the Ethiopians symbolize the human still ruled by desires and preoccupied with the material world, hence dark-faced. Rūm (Byzantium) was the name of the region where Rūmī lived (hence his nickname), in present-day Turkey.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">[<b>ll. 27-30</b>] The closing lines </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">suggest that Rūmī</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s painful longing (hence his lament) is never-ending because of his love for the Beloved</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s eloquence, in other words, for the beautiful things that God creates. God</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s creativeness is subtly compared to the eloquent words that come out of the mouth of the poet. Rūmī</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s soul has been veiled by his love for God</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s beautiful creation/words, and that is why love is endlessly painful. The Transcendent, formless God, is the real Beloved, but whenever the soul falls in love with His creations, because they carry a trace of Him and remind the soul of Him, the soul experiences a love mixed with sorrow. The veil is because the lover has mistaken his real object of love by falling in love with God</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s trace in His creatures (His </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">eloquence”), instead of Him. </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">Shams of Tabriz, for instance, personifies God</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s eloquence for Rūmī. It is God that Rūmī loved in Shams, but because Shams is not God, Shams became a veil on Rūmī</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s soul due to his attachment to Shams. When Shams disappeared without a trace, Rūmī was inconsolable due to his attachment to him, which caused him long-lasting sorrow. But God Himself, Rūmī</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;">s real Beloved, never went away.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-66954543161637235942014-05-18T02:00:00.003-04:002019-12-06T17:16:38.507-05:00<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">There is no virtue in the form of the act without the soul of the act.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-91198351661075278172014-05-13T13:22:00.001-04:002014-09-19T02:22:42.897-04:00Prose and Poetry<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763;">Prose is the act of saying; to denote on the line what is said on the line.<br /><br />Poetry is the act of saying without saying; to evoke what is said between the lines, leaving on the side what is said on the line.<br /><br />And life, nature, reality, is prosaic to whoever reads what is said on the line, and a poem to whoever reads what is said between the lines.</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-39658893433572148652014-05-13T11:35:00.004-04:002014-09-19T02:02:30.423-04:00Yearning and Detachment<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">You open Your arms,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> beckoning me;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and I would embrace You,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> ah, forever!</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">But You made it so</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> that as soon</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as I open my aching arms</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to hold You,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">You vanish from me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> And so I hold</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">my peace, and stand within</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> my stillness.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">You open Your arms,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> beckoning me;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">then You let me hold You</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> without arms.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-67033765062382423012014-05-09T13:08:00.001-04:002019-12-06T17:24:26.803-05:00This Realm of Discord<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763;">This realm of discord<br /> will know of peace<br />only the absence of strife;<br /> this realm of clamor</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">will </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763;">know of silence<br /> only the ending of speech:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763;">but Your supreme peace<br /> vanquishes all strife<br />and Your sublime silence<br /> enriches all speech.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-82431811864438637292014-05-02T22:48:00.002-04:002014-05-29T01:30:31.225-04:00The Absent One<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">My Idol</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">turned</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">her face away.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Her beauty stayed,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">but her eyes</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">looked</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">away.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">How could words describe</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">the bitter sweetness</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that pierced</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">my heart</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as I placed</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">my soul</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">on the</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">shrine</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of the Absent One.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-3666830144153175012014-04-30T20:14:00.001-04:002019-12-06T17:17:48.999-05:00Returners<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“...wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn.”</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Rāji‘ūn is not properly a verb (although it does function as a verb), but an active participle, which is also a noun. It is not a future tense of a verb, for something we will do only after our passing from this life, but a substantive, which also qualifies our present nature. We are not simply <i>returning </i>to God after death; we are <i>returners</i> by nature. Every moment of our existence, we are returning; because we are created to be so, and all our faculties, all our strengths and virtues, are attuned for this returning which is our life, apart from which there is neither light nor goodness in us; for we are His, and to Him we are <i>returners</i>.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-72980018554972435222014-04-19T18:14:00.000-04:002014-09-19T02:05:31.364-04:00Your Absence<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I returned to that garden</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> where once we sat together,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">in the sunset of another life.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the place was </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">so full of you,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">the biting pain </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">so tender</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> that for a timeless moment</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I almost found you there.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-28739922806855861122014-04-04T19:11:00.000-04:002015-04-19T22:45:23.250-04:00The Apple Tree<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Grass grows to its fullness</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> in a matter of days,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> but the apple tree</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">will not yield one sweet apple</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> before many years.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">If grass-</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">eaters scoff</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> at your bitter </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">apples</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for Heaven’s sake</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">do not cut down your apple tree.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-68852126770436320702014-03-22T00:52:00.001-04:002018-07-14T21:59:51.730-04:00I will not ask to see or know You<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will not ask</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to see or know You.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will not seek</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to hold or own You;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">but my soul</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> will </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">turn </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to Your face,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">my heart heavy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> with love’s sorrow.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will not try</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to escape from You.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will bow down</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> in Your sunlight,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and at Your feet</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I will melt like snow.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will stay still,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I will be silent.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Then my heart</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> will well up,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as pain becomes in me</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> a raging storm.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will let out</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> heaves of sighs,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as tears of joy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> pearl from my eyes.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will yearn </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to be Yours.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I will long </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to be light.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will give You my life,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I will die.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Then, in my </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">nothingness,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> You will appear;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Your wondrous presence</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> smiling brightly</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">in the clear mirror</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> You have made</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to behold </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Yourself in me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-3306548003691205922014-02-16T11:06:00.000-05:002014-02-16T14:51:26.657-05:00love’s warm light<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">desire is</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">a fire </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that gives</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">no light –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">intellect,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">a light </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that gives</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">no warmth; </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and the</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">soul</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">that </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">has</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">risen</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">above</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">mere</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">sensual</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">life</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">finds </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">them</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">at one</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">in love’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">warm light.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-1047371642864866612014-02-08T15:03:00.000-05:002021-09-11T23:26:50.378-04:00Lady Wisdom in the Old Testament<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My retranslation of passages from the poetic books of the Old Testament </b></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">where Wisdom </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Grk: <i>Sophia</i>, Heb: <i>Hokma</i>) is personified as a feminine being.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;">“[Feminine wisdom] is no abstract, disinterested knowledge, but a wisdom of loving participation. [...] Thus the spiritual power of Sophia is living and saving; her overflowing heart is wisdom and food at once. The nourishing life that she communicates is a life of the spirit and of transformation, not one of earthbound materiality.</span><span style="color: #073763;">”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"> – Erich Neumann</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;">“Say to Wisdom, ‘You are my sister!’ and call Intelligence your intimate friend.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"> – Proverbs 7:4</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><i>From</i><em style="font-weight: bold;"> </em><b>The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>6:13</b> Wisdom shines brightly, and fades not.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Easily is she discerned by those who love her,</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and those who seek her find her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>14</b> She is quick to make herself known to those who desire her;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>15 </b>He who rises with the dawn for her sake will not grow weary,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for he will find her seated at his door.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>16</b> Taking her to heart is the perfection of intelligence,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and being wakeful for her is the short path to peace of mind.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>17</b> She herself ranges in search of those who are worthy of her,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and on their daily path she kindly appears to them,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and meets them in every thought.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>18 </b>Wisdom truly begins with the desire to learn,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> which in fact is love for her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>19 </b>Loving her means keeping her ways,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and keeping her ways means immortality,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>20</b> and immortality brings one close to God;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>21</b> thus the desire for Wisdom leads to a kingdom.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>7:7</b> Therefore I prayed, and insight was given me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I called for help, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8 </b>I valued her above sceptre and throne,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and held riches as nothing beside her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>9</b> I saw that no precious stone was her equal,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for all the gold in the world compared with her is but a sand pile,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and silver worth a pile of clay.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>10</b> I loved her above health and beauty,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and preferred her even to the light of day,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> for her radiance never sleeps.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>11</b> So all good things came to me at once with her,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and in her hands was wealth past counting.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>12</b> And all was mine to delight in, for all follows where Wisdom leads,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I was ignorant before, that she is the mother of it all.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>13</b> What I learned with pure aims I share without grudging,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I do not hoard the wealth that comes from her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>14</b> She is an infinite treasure for mankind,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and those who receive her become God’s friends,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> commended to Him by the gifts they receive from her teachings.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>7:21</b> All such things as are hidden and not foreseen, I have learned.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> For I have been taught by she who is the artist of all things,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>22</b> For in her is a holy and intelligent spirit,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> unique yet manifold, subtle, free, lucid, pure, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> clear, undefiled, lover of the good, eager,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>23</b> independent, gentle and kind, steadfast,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> unerring, free from care, all-powerful, all-seeing,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and all-permeating through intelligent, pure, and subtle spirits.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>24</b> Wisdom moves more easily than motion itself,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> pervading all things because she is pure.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>25 </b>Like a fine mist she rises from divine power,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> a pure emanation of the Almighty’s glory,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and nothing impure can enter her, even stealthily.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>26 </b>For she is the refulgence of everlasting light,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the flawless mirror of the divine active power,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and the image of his goodness.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>27</b> Because she is one, she can do everything;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> abiding in herself, she renews all things.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Age after age she enters holy souls</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and makes them friends of God and prophets,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>28 </b>for God loves none so much as those who live with Wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>29</b> More radiant than the sun</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and surpassing every constellation,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> she excels the light of day;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>30 </b>for day turns into night,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> but no evil can prevail against Wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8:1</b> She spans the world from end to end in power,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and orders all things well.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8:2</b> Wisdom have I loved; I sought her out in the days of my youth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and longed for her to be my bride,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I fell in love with her beauty.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>3</b> She glorifies her noble birth because she lives with God,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and the Lord of all loves her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>4</b> With her are the mysteries of God’s knowledge,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and she inspires all his works.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>5 </b>If wealth is desirable in life,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> who is wealthier than Wisdom, from whom all things arise?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>6 </b>If intelligence is revealed in action,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> who of all beings is a greater artist than she?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8:17</b> Considering these things in myself,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and pondering them in my heart,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I realized that in kinship with Wisdom lies immortality,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>18</b> and that in her friendship is pure delight.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8:21</b> But I saw there was no way to receive Wisdom</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> except by God’s gift—</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and it was a sign of intelligence</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to know from whom that gift must come—</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> so I asked the Lord, and prayed to Him,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and said with all my heart:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>9:1</b> God of my ancestors, merciful Lord,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> who made all things by your Word,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>2 </b>and in your Wisdom fashioned man,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to be the guardian of creation,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>3</b> as steward of the world in holiness and justice,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and to rule fairly with sincerity of heart,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>4 </b>grant me Wisdom, who sits beside your throne,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and do not refuse me a place among your servants.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>5</b> I am your slave, your handmaid’s son,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> a man weak and short-lived,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> too feeble to comprehend justice and law;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>6 </b>for let a man be perfect in the eyes of his fellow men,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> if the Wisdom that comes from you is lacking,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> he will be of no account.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>9</b> With you is Wisdom, familiar with your works,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and present at the creation of the world by you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> She knows what is pleasing in your sight,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and what is right in your commandments.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>10</b> Send her forth from the holy heavens,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and from your glorious throne bid her come down,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> that she may be present at my side,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> so that I may learn what pleases you;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>11 </b>for she knows and understands all things,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and she will guide me well in all I do,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and guard me in her glory;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>12</b> so shall my life’s work be acceptable.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>13</b> How can any man learn God’s plan?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> How can one perceive the Lord’s will? </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>14 </b>The reasoning of men is feeble,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and our plans are fallible;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>15</b> for a perishable body weighs down the soul,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and its clay burdens the mind full of thoughts.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>16 </b>With difficulty we guess even at things on earth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and struggle to find out what lies at our feet.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> And who has traced out what is in heaven?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>17</b> Who learned your purposes, unless you gave them Wisdom,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and sent down your Holy Spirit from heaven?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>18</b> Thus it was that those on earth were set upon the right path,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and were taught what pleases you;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> thus were they healed by Wisdom.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><em>From </em><b>The</b><b> Book of Proverbs</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8:22</b><b> </b>The Lord brought me forth in the beginning of His ways,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> before His works of old.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>23</b> I was there from eternity, in the beginning, before the earth was.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>24</b> When there were no oceans, I was brought forth.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> When there were no springs abounding with water.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>25</b> Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I was brought forth.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>26</b> While as yet the earth and the fields were not made,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> nor the first of the dust of the world.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>27</b> When the Lord established the heavens, I was there.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>28</b> When He marked out the vault over the face of the deep,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> when He made firm the skies above, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>29</b> When He fixed fast the foundations of the earth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> when He assigned to the sea its limit</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> so that the waters might not transgress His command,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>30</b> Then I was with Him as His master artisan,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I was daily His delight,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> rejoicing always before Him,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>31</b> rejoicing and playing on the surface of the earth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I found my delight in all humankind.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8:32</b> So now, my dear child, listen to me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>33</b> For happy are they who keep my ways.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>34</b> Hear my teachings and be wise. Do not turn away from me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>35</b> Happy are they who listen to me,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> watching every day at my gate, waiting beside my door.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>36 </b>For those who find me find life, and receive favour from the Lord.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> But those who ignore me hurt themselves;</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> all those who hate me love death.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><i>From </i><b>The Book of Sirach</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>1:7</b> The Lord Himself created Wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> He poured her out upon all His creation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>8</b> She dwells with all beings according to His gift,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and He has given her to those who love Him.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>4:11</b> Wisdom breathes life into her children,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and cares for those who seek her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>12</b> Whoever loves her loves life,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and those who search for her will be filled with happiness.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>13</b> Whoever holds her close will inherit honour,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and the Lord will bless the place she enters.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>14</b> Those who serve her will be servants to the Holy One,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and God loves those who love her.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>17</b> For though Wisdom takes them at first through winding ways,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> bringing fear and faintness to them,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>18</b> plaguing them with her discipline until she can trust them,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and testing them with her ordeals until their heart is fully with her,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>19</b> in the end Wisdom will return to bring them happiness,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and reveal her secrets to them.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>6:26 </b>Come to Wisdom with all your heart,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and keep her ways with all your power.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>27</b> Search for her, and she will reveal herself to you,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and when you have found her, do not let her go.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>28</b> For in the latter end you will find rest in her,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and she will be your joy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>30</b> For in her is the beauty of life, and her bands are purple lace.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>31</b> You will put her on as a robe of glory,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and set her upon you as a crown of joy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>14:20</b> Blessed are those who meditate on Wisdom</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and reflect on holy things.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>21 </b>Those who ponder her ways in their heart</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> will also have understanding in her secrets.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>15:1 </b>He that is faithful and just will come to Wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>2</b> Like a honourable mother she will come to meet him,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and like a virgin bride she will embrace him.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>3 </b>She will nourish him with the bread of meaning,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and offer him living water from her spring to drink.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>6 </b>She will heap upon him a treasure of joy and gladness,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and clothe him with a robe of glory.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>24:1</b> Wisdom praises herself, and finds honour in God.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>2 </b>In the midst of her people she proclaims her glory.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>3</b> In the assembly of the Most High she opens her mouth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and glorifies herself in the sight of His power:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>4</b> I came forth from the Most High, the firstborn before all creatures:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never fails,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I covered the earth like a mist. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>5 </b>Alone I circled the vault of the sky</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and walked on the bottom of the deeps.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>6 </b>Over the waves of the sea and over the whole earth</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and over every people and every nation I have held sway.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>9</b> From eternity, in the beginning, God created me,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and for eternity I shall remain.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>24:18 </b>I am the mother of fair love, and of awe,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and of knowledge, and of holy hope.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> In me is all grace of the way and of the truth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> in me is all hope of life and virtue.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>19</b> Come to me, you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>20</b> For my spirit is sweeter than honey,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and my inheritance more delightful than the sweetest honeycomb.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>21</b> Those who eat of me will hunger for more,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and those who drink of me will thirst for more.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>24:28</b> The first man did not know Wisdom fully,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> nor will the last one fathom her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>29</b> For her thoughts are more abundant than the sea,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and her counsel deeper than the great abyss.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>24:40 </b>I, Wisdom, have poured out rivers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>41</b> I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>42</b> I, like a channel of a river,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and like an aqueduct, came out of Paradise.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>43 </b>I said to myself: I will water my garden of plants,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>44</b> And behold, my brook became a great river,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and my river came near to a sea:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>45</b> For I make Truth to shine forth like the dawn,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I will send forth her light afar off. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>46 </b>I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and will behold all that sleep,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and will awaken all that yearn in the Lord.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>47 </b>I will yet pour out teachings like prophecy,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and will instruct all those that search for knowledge,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and I will not cease to enlighten their offspring,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> even to the holy age.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>51:13</b> In my youth I desired Wisdom openly in my prayers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>14</b> She came to me in her beauty, and until the end I will cultivate her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>15</b> From the first blossom to the ripening grape,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> my heart delighted in her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> My foot walked on the right path,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> because from my youth I sought after her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>16</b> I became resolutely devoted to her,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and earnestly I followed that which is good.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>17 </b>I burned with desire for her, never turning back.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I became wholly immersed in her presence,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> never weary of extolling her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>18</b> I stretched forth my hands to the heavens above,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and bewailed my ignorance of her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I directed my soul to her, and in purity I attained to her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>19</b> She opened her gate, and revealed her secrets to me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> At first acquaintance with her</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> I gained knowledge such that I will never forsake her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>20 </b>My whole being was stirred as I beheld her.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Thus she became my beloved companion.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-78372370414820155052014-02-02T18:29:00.004-05:002019-12-06T17:19:48.987-05:00From Miskawayh’s “Treatise on the Deliverance from the Fear of Death”<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Scholars have distinguished two kinds of life and death: a volitional (<i>i.e.</i> according to will) life and death, and a natural life and death. The volitional death is the mortification of mundane desires, whereas the volitional life is the satisfaction of all sensual desires. As for the natural life, it consists in focusing one’s attention towards preserving the eternal soul from ignorance with the help of knowledge, according to Plato’s saying: “Die volitionally, you will live naturally</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">”</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">. He who fears natural death fears all that he should love and hope for, since for rational living beings death is the end of earthly life and its fulfillment, after which the soul ascends to the highest heaven. Every living being must necessarily undergo the dissolution of the parts that compose it, and there is no worse ignorance than that which inspires in us the fear of perfecting our nature and which causes us to confuse the true life with annihilation, and progression with disintegration. Whoever has the weakness of fearing that which would perfect him ignores the nature of his own soul. As for the sage, he loves all that contributes to making him more perfect and to making him gradually rise in dignity, and so he turns away from everything that tends to reinforce the bonds that tie him to matter and that reinforces his composite nature. He believes that his spiritual substance, divested through death of the impurities inherent to the body, will ascend to the eternal heavens and rejoice in the beatitude of the celestial realm, intimate with the Lord, and surrounded by the elect souls that preceded him. But the ignorant fears abandoning his body, and he is thereby plunged into misery and torment, seeking rest in a place where rest is impossible. [...] Whoever fears death fears the wisdom and justice of God as well as His mercy, for death is not an evil to be feared; rather, fear of death is an evil to be avoided. Those who are troubled by fear ignore both the nature of death and the conditions of their own existence. At death the soul leaves the body, but the soul’s substance remains intact, possessing eternal existence. Since the soul is incorporeal, not occupying any location in space, it is not bound by the conditions that govern the body and the accidents that affect it. [...] Freed from the limitations of time, the soul no longer needs to yearn for eternal life. Rather, after having developed itself by means of the body’s senses and having attained its perfection once it has been separated from the body, the soul passes to the celestial realm, in the presence of the Lord, its Creator.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><b>[my translation-paraphrase]</b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-55878565319083674382014-01-08T16:57:00.002-05:002019-12-09T21:05:56.245-05:00One and Two<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“one’s not half two. It’s two are halves of one</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">”</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">There is so much wisdom compressed into this opening verse to a sonnet by the American poet e. e. cummings. In this simple line, he suggests that unity is not achieved by cutting off one side and keeping the other; it is not achieved by eliminating the darkness and keeping only the light, nor by cutting off the irrational and keeping only the rational, nor by devaluing the feminine and exalting the masculine, nor </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">again</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">by avoiding winding ways and following only straight lines (and is the Straight Path—the <i>sirāt al-mustaqīm—</i></span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">really, literally devoid of any curves? is it really possible at all, on this earthly plane, to ever follow only a rigid, straight line?); unity is not achieved by renouncing this world altogether and valuing only the Hereafter, nor by despising the profane and confining oneself solely to the sacred, nor by rejecting idleness for progress, folly for wisdom, laughter for severity, doubt for belief, spontaneity for ritualism, blasphemy for faith. This unity which is formed by the rejection of the <i>other </i>is only a seeming unity, and will never become entirely free from its opposite. When there are two, the silencing of one behind the </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">voice of the other does not mean that only one is speaking. This unity is merely a surface appearance; </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">eventually, </span>the suppressed voice always breaks through.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">one’s not half two. It</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">s two are halves of one.</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">”</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">True unity is not achieved by abstracting and elevating one side of a duality, and cutting off the other: rather, it is found through the conjunction of opposites, passing through contraries to that which exists beyond them both. Consider this quatrain of Awḥadudd</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ī</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">n </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Kirmānī</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> (13th century): </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><i> Every heart that falls prey </i></span><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to the pain of longing for You</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">leaves behind both </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the idol-temple and the Ka‘ba. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">In love</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">s way, blasphemy </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and faith are alike; </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">this way passes by both </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> the idol-temple and the Ka‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba.</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">That Higher Unity is not found by utterly renouncing the idol-temple and utterly dedicating oneself to the Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba. For the idol-temple and the Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba, when sought for themselves, both are an object of worship from which a gain is sought, apart from God, and that object is still an idol, before which one is still </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">a mercenary who seeks gain from a source of power and bounty, in exchange for the performance of ritual acts of worship. But when God is sought, when the Beloved is sought for the Beloved</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">s sake alone, then both the idol-temple and the Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba are transcended. Even as one goes <i>to </i>them, one</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">s worship passes <i>through</i> them to the Beloved that exists beyond both the </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">idol-temple and the Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">. Even the idol-worshipper, if his/her end is that Beloved, will reach God through the idol. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> This does not mean that one has to reject both the forms of the idol-temple and the Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba altogether. It does, however, entail detachment from man-made forms (detachment, not rejection), so that they are no longer sought in and of themselves, but merely </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as </span>different pathways to the Higher Unity which exists beyond them both. In this sense, the idol-temple and the </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba both are alike. Hence, another quatrain of Kirmānī: </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">By God, only in annihilation </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> do you truly exist; </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">by God, my sober friends, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> how sweet is this drunkenness! </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">And if perchance one day </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> you worship an idol for God, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I swear that from the idol </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> you will attain to the One. </span></i><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">A typical response to the notion of “reconciliation of opposites</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">”</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> is that it is surely awkward and repulsive to imagine something like the conjunction of good and evil. But this Higher Unity beyond opposites does not signify that the duality is to be fused (or <i>con</i>fused) into one, that light and dark, </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">fire and water, mind and heart,</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">day and night, man and woman, etc. should become uniform, behave in the same way and reach their end by the same means, in a truly depressing compromise where fire no longer</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> burns and water is no longer fresh, where day and night are both a dim glow without any variation of light, where there is no summer and no winter, just an even climate that feels like nothing, where thoughts are muddled up with emotions, and feelings squared out by the principles of reason. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> This is not what is meant by the conjunction of opposites, </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">“</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">it</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’s</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> two are halves of one.</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">”</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> That is merely a <i>con</i>fusion<i> </i>of opposites, occurring on the plane of duality; as for the Higher Unity, it exists on a higher plane than that of duality: the One is not the one that is opposed to two. It is One, and there is no other beside it. It is not that there is one true God while all other gods are false gods. That God is not the One opposed to the Many. It is the One beyond both one and two.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> The idol-house and the </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">, as opposite creeds (symbols of plurality and unity respectively), will always remain opposites on this plane, and whoever lives according to the laws of the realm of duality will always go to either one or the other, never both (unless they are indeed <i>con</i>fused). But the one whose heart has been seized with longing for that Higher Unity, for the God beyond forms, sees that both the idol-house and the </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Ka</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">‘</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ba reach to the same end, whenever it is God, and nothing else, that is sought through them, and beyond them. As Aynulquḍāt Hamadānī wrote in the 12th century:</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">I will set this creed </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and religion on fire,</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and put</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Your love </span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> in their place. </span></span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">How long must I hide </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Your love in my heart? </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">My goal is You, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> not a creed or religion. </span></i><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">Evil and good constitute together the very symbol and archetype of duality. Evil and good can never be conjoined, only <i>con</i>fused, on the plane of duality. But when one</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">s heart rises beyond duality, moved by existential love for that Transcendent Being who is Pure Unity beyond all opposites, then beyond these two extremes a reconciling Unity is discovered. A Unity which appeases the war that reigns between extremes</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> in whoever and whatever exists according to the rules of this plane of duality, and to whom and which a radical choice between opposites is demanded</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> Opposites both participate in a common reality, as day and night balance together the diurnal cycle, as male and female participate together in human nature. Without the possibility for evil, what would be the meaning of good? How could we even apprehend it? But is the good which is the opposite of evil truly the good we are meant to pursue? Is the light which is the opposite of darkness the True Light? Is the belief which is the opposite of doubt true certitude (<i>yaq</i></span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">ī</span>n</i>)? Is there not a Higher Good that transcends the duality of both good and evil, and reconciles them on a higher plane, where evil is understood as </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as a means of learning</span> what goodness is, and goodness as a means of learning</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"></span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">what evil is?</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> The solution to this tension is neither to live in a never-ending quest for the liberation of good from the clutches of evil, for the elimination of all evil, crookedness, darkness, doubt, impurity, and so on; nor is it to embrace both equally in confused carelessness as to what is what. The solution is not to make this relative good, which is the opposite of evil, one</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">s aim and goal. For this relative good is never free from mixture with evil, and the battle between them will never end so long as we conceive them as enemies. The solution is not to seek one opposite and deny the other. Rather, looking beyond them both, having become a lover of that Pure Good that has no opposite, it is to live for that Pure Peace beyond both war and peace that reconciles all enmities, for that Pure Oneness which exists beyond both one and two. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297744579707638197.post-44162695108866698102013-12-27T17:52:00.001-05:002019-12-06T17:20:15.344-05:00we humans do not need (if ever you ask me)<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">we humans do not need </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> (if ever you ask me) </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">more sustained dialogue, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> more voicing of opinions, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">more inclusive debates, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> more elaborate theories, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">overturning of dogmas, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> and shifting of paradigms –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">as much as we need </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> to let our heart </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">be inhabited by silence, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> a quiet and simple awareness </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">of things as they are, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> as they manifest,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">beyond words, simply</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> in their being present to us –</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">a silence wherein </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> we can see, and listen, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">and only listen, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> without having to answer, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">assent or disagree. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> simply to listen </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;">to the silence of life </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"> that needs no words to be. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0