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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3218, Saturday, July 5, 2008, Editor: Mark
This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness
Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence:
This place made from our love for that emptiness!
Yet somehow comes emptiness,
this existence goes.
Praise to that happening, over and over!
For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness.
Then one swoop, one swing of the arm,
that work is over.
Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear,
hope,
free of mountainous wanting.
The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw
blown off into emptiness.
These words I'm saying so much begin to lose meaning:
Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:
Words and what they try to say swept
out the window, down the slant of the roof.
- Rumi, posted to AdvaitaToZen
As Lakewater Rises in Mist
The singer sings about love, until
the Friend appears in the doorway.
Kitchen smoke drifts up into clouds
and becomes a thousand-year-old wine.
I am here, not reckoning the credit
accumulated or future speculation.
I am the vineyard and the barrel
where the grapes are crushed, the
entire operation, whose transaction
pours this glass of wine, this moment,
this poem. A man stumbles by with
baggage, papers from the house, regret
and wishing, not knowing which to
tend to. Neither. After you see
the face, concerns change, as
lakewater rises into mist.
- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 2394,
version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin, from The
Glance, posted to Sunlight
A Star Without a Name
When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
it easily forgets her
and starts eating solid food.
Seeds feed awhile on ground,
then lift up into the sun.
So you should taste the filtered light
and work your way toward wisdom
with no personal covering.
That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights.
- Rumi, Mathnawi III, 1284-1288,
version by Coleman Barks. from Say I am You
Tonight we go to that place of eternity.
This is the wedding night -
a never-ending union
of lover and Beloved.
We whisper gentle secrets to each other
and the child of the universe
takes its first breath.
- Rumi, Quatrain 168,
version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva, from A
Garden Beyond Paradise, posted to Sunlight
What if everything is always happening through you; not yours,
not something you created? But is being created through you? What
if it's not up to you? What if it's not even a little up to you?
The magic of true wording, true speaking, is that it carries a
scent of the world of heaven inside, right to the earth.
It's possible to turn our faces and our hearts completely toward
the Holy and just say "Yes."
Magic exists. Its name is Holiness. And It is calling to you all
the time.
In my religion, instead of saying Amen, we say Yum. The religion
of Yum. Dare to not return to your small self. Dare to stay here
just as This. Dare to speak just as This. Just have a big, fat,
wide grin for no reason.
That's the beauty of this coming together. We get to remember. We
get to remind each other what's real. That's why we gather like
this. This is food.
I would speak all day and all night, just to break your heart in
two. That's what I'm here for - to break your heart open. Yes,
break in half. Break in 85 million pieces. Yes, yes. Take your
time.
Maybe we're here just for that kiss. Somebody opened the door for
you - kiss. You're tender with yourself when you used to be harsh
- kiss. You hand a homeless man some money - kiss. You give
yourself a break and you let yourself do with your life what you
really want to do with your life - kiss. You refuse to abuse
yourself - kiss. You refuse to abuse your child - kiss. Namaste -
kiss. Oh I forgot, oh I remembered - kiss.
Why am I here? Why do I get up in the morning? As we are lucky
enough to uncover that, what we came here for, and as we set it
right in the middle of our lives, on the altar of our lives, as
we say "Yes, this" and we turn our faces fully toward
It, It takes over our lives. It wants us. The want that we feel
in our hearts is It wanting us.
Let that longing and fullness be there together. You don't need a
strategy; you just need to notice what you already are. Just
right here. Keep that yum. Let yourself completely have it in
this moment. It will start spilling out your ears. You won't be
able to keep it in.
If we stay Home, if we stay Home in this one, it spills out. We
don't have to figure out how to bring it out there. We don't have
to help anyone. We just stay home. We just stay right here.
- Jeannie Zandi, from her monthly newsletter, which you can
subscribe to by emailing info@jeanniezandi.com