Blind Reunion - Call and I will Answer

 

It’s a mystery, 

This Reunion with the Beloved.

We don’t have to know her, 

we just have to long for her.

Then when we call her name,

She can hear us and will come!

As it is said: “Call and I Will answer!”

In The End

In the end,

When we are given eyes of clear sight,

                                    We will be judged;

Not by some lofty God,

                                    By our own conscience.

Here, it may seem forgiveness 

is not close by,

            But she will come, 

                                   if she sees you crying,

             to dry your tears.

 

Hey, I have an idea, 

Why not cry now,

Cry hard,

Feel your soul shaking

                For all you’ve loved,

                                            and lost and harmed;             

Did you know, 

    you can dry these tears, 

                        with your own forgiveness?

But who would think that forgiving ourself,

                is harder than forgiving another!

To dry these tears, 

                    The sleeve of a robe filled with a broken heart

Seems to work best! 

Now, if you have consider all this,

I think you will find, that in the end    

            You will not be judged,

                     You will be loved.

  And love is stronger than death!

Brave Enough

There are times
when I’m trying to become whole
            and feel brave enough
                        to allow the door
                                    of love’s pain to open,
and watch
            what comes out.

 Something always comes,
            one way or another
filling me with guilt,
            or the loss of things I can’t repair,
                            or change,
                                         or fix.

It shreds my heart, and
                        almost takes away
the desire to live;
                        almost,
                            but not quite.
 
So, I stand with it
                        face to face,
Brave enough to not run
                 I ask it
                        what can I do for you?
It answers:
            accept me
                and I will accept you.

Yearning

"There is some kiss we want with our whole lives" - Rumi

You think you yearn

                         for things you don’t have,

When

         In reality

                       You yearn for something you already possess

                                                                     but have forgotten.

Rumi says go ahead and yearn, 

            As hard as you can, yearn

                           As if your LIFE depended on it.

Finally, you will be exhausted,

              so tired you can't even think of yearning.  

Then, in that stillness 

                                  behind yearning

                                                          something gives up: 

The pain of separation

                                    from that 

                                                  which we yearn.

Funny how 

                   no one ever sees 

                                            yearning as a veil

                                                                    hiding 

                            That Kiss we want with our whole lives.  

 

Song of the Mureed

 

Song of the Mureed

 

Part I: Love Everlasting

Said the Murshid:

Give me thy hand,

I will walk with thee through the valley of death,

That thou might know, as I know, life everlasting.

For I was born

that thou may have eternal life.

Part II: A Drop in Thy Ocean

When I feel myself as a drop in the ocean of your heart,

Wherein the whole universe is reflected,

Then truly do I know there is only One Being.

Lost in the embrace of thy ecstasy, 

I become one with

All the rhythms of life,

and the stillness beyond.

 

Part III: Heaven on Earth

Beloved Murshid

Thy humanity calls my soul to Earth,

And thy divinity transforms

Earth into Heaven.

Part IV: Oh Holy One

 Ya Quddus, Ya Quddus

Sings the mureed’s heart

In the presence of the murshid;

Eyes attentive,

Lips closed,

Heart Open.

Ya Quddus, Ya Quddus

Through the murshid, the most holy one is present.

The sacred gate of God’s light upon Earth,

An answer to the yearning of the mureed’ s heart and soul.

Ya Quddus, Ya Quddus

Veiled to the world,

The murshid becomes unveiled to the mureed

And thereby

ushers the mureed into the presence of the Divine.

Ya Quddus, Ya Quddus,

Oh Holy One.

This poem is dedicated to my beloved Murshid, Sufi Amin Sherdil Richard Macko Chishti, Peace be Upon Him! 

The Mureed is a seeker, who seeks spiritual realization and guidance from the God-Realized Teacher or Murshid.

There are many friendships in this world, but the friendship between murshid and mureed is in the path of God, in the path of Light and Truth." Therefore, every earthly relation may have a chance to break, but the relation between murshid and mureed is not for the life on earth only. It is this belief which keeps their souls together, helping each other along the spiritual path. - Hazrat Inayat Khan

Ya Quddus means the most holy or sacred one.

Mirror of Remembrance

It is said that the eye is the mirror of the Soul, so 

I ask you, oh Friend, how does the eye see itself , and how does the soul come to know itself - eye and soul being one, as it were?

Of course, the eye is born for seeing, and seeing is filled with the desire for knowing.

But how can the eye truly know what it is, if all it sees is 'everything else but itself' - when all “that”, which is constantly reflected upon its tender surface, is nothing but a reflection of 'otherness', of seer and seen.

To see itself, the soul must find a true mirror upon which to gaze, and by some powerful allure, turn away from 'otherness'.

If you are fortunate enough to find such a mirror, that shines brilliantly in the light of Truth, perhaps your eye will feel some intangible nostalgia, recognizing that reflection as its own.

Then will your 'seeing' be transformed into recognition.  

When Rumi recognized Shems, with all his heart, he was gone in an instant! May your eye too, recognizing itself in that reflection, lose itself;

When this happens, your eye will see truly, remembering it is not alone, and if that remembering becomes persistent, and strong with surrender, it too will become lost in the Sun of Truth.

Now when your soul looks upon the world, it no longer sees 'everything else' as 'other', it sees everything else as it truly is - a reflection of itself, and you eye will know the full measure by which 'self is other', and 'other is self'.

 

Mother Nature's Healing Touch

 When you hurt,

Find a flower, and let it share its joy;

Listen to a bird sing, and let them lift your spirit;

Feel the Earth heal your body, Sit on some grass

And let it share its vitality;

Sit by flowing water, its sound can sooth a broken heart;

Press your spine against the trunk of a tree,

And feel its strength;

Let the breeze at dawn dry your tears;

Let the moon wrap your heart in her love;

Look to the night sky, and let

the vastness of space carry you away from this place.

The Other Shore

The great sea of life

Crashes against the shore of eternity,

It will never flood this land;

Seek refuge here from

The ravages of sickness, old age and death;

Admittance is open to all,

Its entrance as close as the awareness of the 

pause between two breaths.

The Tale of Finding By Not Seeking

 

My Friend, I must let you in on a secret of great worth...

Your True-Self is a Beloved which your heart longs to find, yet cannot find by seeking; for when you seek, it hides - your seeking, as it were, is a veil over that which is sought.

Unlike worldly seeking, this seeking of Self is different, for that which is sought, is also that which seeks - how does the eye see itself?

Yet know that without seeking, the sought will never be found.

Seeking indeed is looking, and looking attracts the alluring beauty of the sought; Seeking is calling, and calling indeed draws one near - but 'nearness' is not finding!

Find in your seeking, Love.  It will feel like a deep desire to find something lost, like a beloved calling to be known. Let that love fill your seeking, for when love fills your seeking, a veil to finding is rent; and when love becomes surrender, yet another veil dissolves. 

And if by surrendering you feel lost, remember only that the Beloved is found when you are lost - do you really expect the Beloved to embrace you in a room crowded with 'i-me-mine'. As the lovers say: 'either the lover exists or the beloved, not both.' 

You will experience arrival of the beloved unexpectedly, like a surprise kiss from a longing known only in a dream, bringing tears of joy, and a sense of all pervading love and divine intimacy.

Sadly, you cannot yet take this intimacy as permanent, for that feeling of awakening in the arms of Oneness will leave, and leave you bereft, but worry not, for now you know the way by which the beloved will return. 

Remember, this union is like two rivers joining to become one, and then merging in the Ocean of Unity - it takes time for the memory of two, to dissolve in the flowing of One; and it takes yet a little more time to fully forget what you were, and be what you are. 

So my Friend, stop seeking, be optimistic and patient, keep remembering and surrendering in love; and the rest we can leave to Grace from the One Above!

The Eye that Sees Itself

 I ask you, oh Friend, how does the eye see itself?

Of course, the eye is born for seeing, and seeing is filled with a desire for knowing; but how can the eye truly know itself, if all it sees is 'everything else' but itself; when what is constantly reflected upon its tender surface, is nothing but an image of 'otherness' - of seer and seen?

To see itself, it must find a Truth mirror upon which to gaze, and by some powerful allure, turn away from 'two'.

If you are fortunate enough to find such a mirror, that shines so brilliantly with the light of One; then perhaps you will feel some intangible nostalgia, to draw your eye to its own reflection. 

Upon this reflection, let your eye be focused, your gaze persistent and your remembering constant; allow the unifying power of sight to fill you with the magic of surrender - then your remembering will transform into becoming, and becoming into the light of true knowing.

Just as Rumi remembered Shems with all his heart, and was lost in that Sun of Truth; so too, in this brilliant reflection will your eyes be blinded to 'another' and lost in Oneness.  

The eye sees itself when it loses itself in the reflection of its own Unity, then everything it sees is nothing but itself.

The eye is the light of thy being. If thine eye be single, thy whole being shall be full of light. 

Jesus

The Mirror (from The Secret Rose Garden

Your eye has not strength enough

to gaze at the burning sun,
but you can see its burning light
by watching its reflection
mirrored in the water.

So the reflection of Absolute Being
can be viewed in the mirror of Not-Being,
for nonexistence, being opposite Reality,
instantly catches its reflection.

Know the world from end to end is a mirror;
in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.
If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water, from it will flow a hundred clear oceans; if you look intently at each speck of dust, in it you will see a thousand beings.
A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;
in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.
In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.
Within a millet-seed a world exists.
In an insects wing is an ocean of life.

A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye. The core at the center of the heart is small, yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.

by Shabistari

We do not see things as they are; we see them as we are. Oh Allah, show me the reality of all things as it (truly) is.

Dua of Prophet Muhammed PBUH