Rumi, Thief Of Sleep And Other Poems, You Tube

 

 

“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”  Jalaluddin Rumi.

 

 

Hot of the press my new YouTube dedicated to all great Teachers of Truth. Like Rumi says, come, come, come whoever you are, come!  Life is short and there’s so much to learn about love. So Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come! (I like that. 😉 ) eve   

 

In 1976 the poet Robert Bly handed Coleman Barks a copy of Cambridge don AJ Arberry’s translation of Rumi and said, “These poems need to be released from their cages.” Barks transformed them from stiff academic language into American-style free verse.  Since then, Barks’ translations have yielded 22 volumes in 33 years, including The Essential Rumi, A Year with Rumi, Rumi: The Big Red Book and Rumi’s father’s spiritual diary, The Drowned Book, all published by HarperOne.  They have sold more than 2m copies worldwide and have been translated into 23 languages.

A new volume is due in autumn. Rumi: Soul-fury and Kindness, the Friendship of Rumi and Shams Tabriz features Barks’ new translations of Rumi’s short poems (rubai), and some work on the Notebooks of Shams Tabriz, sometimes called The Sayings of Shams Tabriz.  “Like the Sayings of Jesus (The Gospel of Thomas), they have been hidden away for centuries,” Barks notes, “not in a red urn buried in Egypt, but in the dervish communities and libraries of Turkey and Iran. Over recent years scholars have begun to organise them and translate them into English.”

800 years ahead of the times

“Just now,” Barks says, “I feel there is a strong global movement, an impulse that wants to dissolve the boundaries that religions have put up and end the sectarian violence.  It is said that people of all religions came to Rumi’s funeral in 1273. Because, they said, he deepens our faith wherever we are.  This is a powerful element in his appeal now.”

“Rumi was an experimental innovator among the Persian poets and he was a Sufi master,” says Jawid Mojaddedi, a scholar of early and medieval Sufism at Rutgers University and an award-winning Rumi translator. “This combination of mystical richness and bold adaptations of poetic forms is the key to his popularity today.”

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140414-americas-best-selling-poet

Indescribable Presence – Flowers For The Soul

Hibiscus

 

 

“God is without form, without quality as well as with form and quality.
Watch and see with what endless variety of beautiful forms
He plays the play of his maya with Himself alone.
The lila of the all pervading One goes on and on in this way in infinite diversity.
He is without beginning and without end.
He is the whole and also the part.
The whole and part together make up real Perfection.”

Sri Anandamayi Ma

 

All photos taken with a Lumix XL7 camera on macro setting. Click on each image to enlarge for details. thanks.

 

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Divine Mother,  “When flowers are brought to you, how do you give them a significance?
By entering into contact with the nature of the flower, its inner truth. Then one knows what it represents. ( The Divine Mother, from her timeless words on nature and flowers. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.)

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Gentle and lovely, flowers share their beauty with us and bring us a touch of eternal things. According to the Mother, each variety of flower has its own special quality and meaning. By establishing an inner contact with the flower, this meaning can be known. “Flowers speak to us when we know how to listen to them,” The Mother said. “It is a subtle and fragrant language.” As if to provide a key to this language. She identified the significances of almost nine hundred flowers.

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“It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one’s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the “ineffable Presence” it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. That is always the fundamental significance, — the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.” ~ SRI AUROBINDO

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Schelling’s CLARA – Inspirational Quotations

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Port de Carhaix – Fr.

 

 

 

I find myself every once in a while, searching through quotations for something to inspire and to light up my day. Here’s several such quotations from Schelling. I hope you enjoy them. Photos are from this Fall, and what an enchanting Fall it was too.

 

Schelling’s,   –  “CLARA”

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One of the characters in this book says:

Oh, the true ruins are not those of ancient human splendor which the curious seek out in Persian or Indian deserts; the whole Earth is One great ruin, where animals live as ghosts and humans as spirits and where many hidden powers and treasures are locked away, as if by an invisible strength or by a magician’s spell.

And this:

Even in your own opinion nature is suffering from a hidden poison that she would like to overcome or reject, but cannot. Doesn’t she mourn with us? We are able to complain, but she suffers in silence and can talk to us only through signs and miens. What a quiet wistfulness lies in so many flowers, the mourning dew and in the evening’s fading colors.

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All Fall down!

 

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Orchids

 

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“Certainly one who could write completely the history of their own life would also have, in a small epitome, concurrently grasped the history of the cosmos. Most people turn away from what is concealed within themselves just as they turn away from the depths of the great life and shy away from the glance into the abysses of that past which are still in one just as much as the present.”

“I now need friends who are not strangers to the real seriousness of pain and who feel that the single right and happy state of the soul is the divine mourning in which all earthly pain is immersed.”

Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph

 

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Sweet Williams

 

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Cyclamen

 

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“A tree that draws strength, life, and substance into itself from the earth may hope to drive its topmost branches hanging with blossom right up to heaven. However, the thoughts of those who think from the beginning that they can separate themselves from nature, even when they are truly spiritually and mentally gifted, are only like those delicate threads that float in the air in late summer and that are as incapable of touching heaven as they are of being pulled to the ground by their own weight.”

-Schelling, “Clara”

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Can anyone tell me: Does Word Press have an automatic “like” button feature anywhere? I am beginning to feel there has to be one, judging by the fast speed of the first few likes on each and every post, sometimes before I have published!   ...

 

chrysanthemum

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Cyclamen

Seedlings – Inspirational

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Whichever angels guide us toward wakefulness, we must be prepared to do our part. Our immediate labour is to ready the ground for ourselves so that the seeds of truth, spoken by our teachers, spouse, or stranger, may find fertile soil in which to grow. Here are several seedlings in the form of quotes that may inspire. I hope so. Eve

I have included this beautiful you tube here. I am sure you will enjoy the magical photos along with the mystical and sublime Rumi poem. 🙂 

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“One who is invisible cannot shake hands or converse with another until he becomes visible. An angel or spirit could have no intercourse with a man, even if standing close to his body and before his face. Neither can any one’s soul converse with another or act with another except by means of his body.”

– Emmanuel Swedenborg

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 “There is a bridge between Time and Eternity; and this bridge is Atman, the Spirit of Man. Neither day nor night cross that bridge, nor old age, nor death nor sorrow.

Evil or Sin cannot cross that bridge, because the world of the Spirit is pure. This is why when this bridge has been crossed, the eyes of the blind can see, the wounds of the wounded are healed, and the sick man becomes whole from his sickness.

To one who goes over the bridge, the night becomes like unto day; because in the worlds of the Spirit there is a Light which is everlasting.”

– the Chandogya Upanishad

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“Thy light has illuminated the dark chambers of my mind; Thy love is rooted in the depths of my heart; Thine eyes are the light of my soul; Thy power worketh behind my action; Thy peace alone is my life’s repose; Thy will is behind my every impulse; Thy voice is audible in the words I speak; Thine own image is my countenance. My body is but a cover over Thy soul; my life is Thy very breath, my Beloved, and my self is Thine own being.

Thou pourest wine into my empty cup wherever we meet, on hills and dales, on the tops of high mountains, in the thick forests and in the barren deserts, on the shores of the roaring sea and on the banks of the gentle river; and there ariseth in my heart the unearthly passion and the heavenly joy.

Thou hast won my heart a thousand times over; Thou comest veiled under many and varied guises, and in every guise thou art unique. Who is not attracted by the splendour Thou hast so skillfully produced on the face of the earth? In this beauty fair Thou shinest, adorned in myriad garbs. Thine own is all the beauty, and Thou shinest and yet are not Thyself attracted by it. Thou in this stage of life actest as friend and foe, and Thou alone seest the play performed so wonderfully. I sought Thee so long, my Beloved, and now I have found Thee at last, O Winner of my heart, and in finding Thee I have lost myself.

Let me feel Thine arms around me, my Beloved, while I am wandering away from home. Let my heart become Thy lute. Hearing Thy song my soul cometh to life. Let my virgin soul dance at Thy Court, my Indra; the passion it hath is for Thee alone. O, let me lean my head on Thy breast; Thine arms enfolding me, my feet touch paradise.

Wherever I look, I see Thy beloved face, covered under many different veils. The magic power of my ever-seeking eyes lifted the veil from Thy glowing countenance, and Thy smile won my heart a thousand times over. The lustre of Thy piercing glance hath lightened my darkened soul, and lo! now I see the sunshine everywhere…”

 

~Hazrat I. Khan

Beautiful Reflections Sathya Sai – More Sathya Sai Memories

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Folks, I plan on being away for a couple of months in India. I am going back to visit Sai Baba’s Ashram. I  need a break and some release from the bitter cold, lack lustre days of winter. Also some time away from a computer and blogging. I hope to return with some new travel stories and, of course, photos. Here is one of my favourite memories from many years ago while on a visit to Whitefield, in Bangalore. I don’t visit Whitefield anymore because the Bangalore traffic is too congested nowadays to make the trip. I miss the enchantment of Whitefield, and of course the  darshans in Sai Ramesh Hall. Luckily, people have created beautiful you tubes, like the one above to savor our memories forever.

Sorry for mistakes in this post, I have had quite a few computer glitches this morning.

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“Blessed Sweets” – I remember the day well, like yesterday!

It was during one summer in the early 1990’s at Brindavan that I noticed Swami was blessing more than the usual number of silver sweet platters.

One particularly happy afternoon I watched with interest two ladies seated on the aisle holding their bright silver platters high while waiting for his attention. Swami came to darshan walking from side to side in his usual fashion but eventually stopped in front of the ladies then blessed their platters, which contained not only toffees but also photos, vibuthi and lockets. I sat thinking to myself, I wish I too, had a silver platter to hold high for such a blessing.

Before darshan the following morning, I plucked up enough courage to buy a silver platter, a huge bag of sweets (Mango Melodies), and three packets of little golden lockets, each one with a small picture of Swami with his hand held in the ’Abhaya Mudra – ( the ‘WHY FEAR, I AM HERE’ blessing ) and one yellow rose. I wasn’t quite sure how to prepare my platter nor did I know where to place the lockets. After some thought I placed them under the toffees and then placed the rose on top. Ah, it looked pretty, I felt sure that Swami would bless my offering.

But Swami did not bless the dish on my first attempt and by the second day I lost confidence and gave the dish to an Australian colleague to offer but Swami would not bless the sweets. On the third attempt I was happy to be seated on the carpet’s edge of block two where Swami always walked. He stopped, looked, and blessed the sweets forcefully. I’d felt him taking a large swipe of the contents into his hand then he threw them, showering what seemed like a good portion of devotees. I could hear loud whoops of joy as the sweets were thrown. Puzzled, I wondered why.

After Swami had passed by, I glanced at my platter for the 3 packets of lockets but only one remained. Apparently Swami had thrown two packets of lockets with the toffees! No wonder there had been such loud whoops of joy from devotees in block two.

A few days later I learned that the lockets had been thrown without their clear wrappers. In fact they had been dispersed individually with no trace of the wrapper anywhere. One of the lockets had fallen to a lady with cancer and two others had gone to another lady with a serious illness! What I do know is the lockets made a lot of people very happy.

·**•.♥LOVE♥.•**·life·**•.♥LIFE♥.•*

Here’s a link to an interesting talk given in July last year in Puttaparthi Ashram.

http://media.radiosai.org/journals/vol_12/01JUL14/TO-FOLLOW-SWAMIS-WISH-OR-NOT-part-01.htm

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 Sathya Sai Baba – photo and  a few of my favourite quotes.

“Do not be misled by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live in a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world.”

  ~ Sathya Sai Baba

When a person asserts that he is low and mean and that he knows but little, he becomes low and mean and his knowledge shrinks.We become what we believe we are. We are children of Almighty God, endowed with Supreme, Power, Glory and Wisdom.We are children of Immortality.When we dwell in this thought, how can we ever be low and ignorant?

– Sathya Sai Baba

Earth Does Not Belong To Man Alone – Inspirational Quotations

Another and probably my last –  time lapse 3D you tube from the same Film Creator,  together with an important message from  mycologist, Paul Stamets where he discusses the important role mushrooms play in the survival and health of the earth and human species. Also included in this post, the wonderful talk  “Living Spirit”  by Chief Seattle.     

Amanita muscaria

 

How precious Is Our Earth?

Chief Seattle has become well known for his impassioned speech when asked to ‘sell’ his land to the European settlers. Although there has been some recent debate about who actually wrote the words, the message still stands. ‘How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land?’ he pleaded. ‘If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?’

All the memories and identity of his people were linked to the relationship they felt with this land. Was it so easy to give this up for beads and blankets? He realized the inevitable truth, however, that his people had been broken by starvation and war, and that they were going to lose their ancestral homeland to the mad rush of European settlers passing themselves off as the legitimate government of a country which they had, for the most  part, stolen. But before resigning himself to sign the treaty, he offered to them the natural wisdom of his people. His speech is a beautifully poetic and a haunting reminder of what most of us have forgotten. ‘This we know.’ he finally concluded. ‘The Earth does not belong to Man. Man belongs to the Earth. We are all connected, like the blood that unites one family.’

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The Living Spirit

 

‘Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, even mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters, the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man – all belong to the same family.

For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

The red man has always retreated before the advancing white man, as the mist of the mountains run before the morning sun. But the ashes of our fathers are sacred. Their graves are holy ground, and so these hill, these trees, this portion of the earth is consecrated to us.

 You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

 This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All thing are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all; we shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover – our God is the same God.’

– Chief Seattle – from an oration given at the tribal assembly of 1894

preparatory to the Indian Treaties. (translated by Dr. John Smith)

 

 

 

Recommendation From Thich Nhat Hanh – Inspirational Quotations

Thay

 

In light of the terrible violence all around the world to both human and animals, I thought I would share this poem, with a friend’s encouragement. It’s called “Recommendation” and was written by this wonderful heart teacher Thich Nhat Hanh in 1965 during the Vietnam War, which was ripping his country apart and would only go deeper into violence in the decade ahead.

With his life and teachings, Thay has proved again and again that non-violence does “not” mean non-action, or “idiot compassion,” and that by rejecting violence we *can* skilfully and compassionately deal with even the most difficult issue of life, individually and collectively.

 

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RECOMMENDATION
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Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:

Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred and violence;
even as they step on you and crush you
like a worm,
even as they dismember and disembowel you,
remember, brother,
remember:
man is not our enemy.

The only thing worthy of you is compassion –
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
the beast in man.

One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind,
untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile
will bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.

Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun and the moon
will continue to shine.

I do hope this poem, short as it is, touches you as deeply as it has others with whom it has been shared..

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The glorious rendition of The Chant For Metta by Emee Ooi is gentle and soothing. It speaks of the need to spread love all through the world.  –  Metta, also means “Loving Kindness” which is the focused teaching of Thay.

Say I Am You – Inspirational Quotations and Poem

threading flowers for garlands, she is lost in contemplation

 

Here is the second in the photography series, Say I am you.  I don’t know how many of you read Rumi, I find his poems irresistible and this one in particular.   Rumi’s poems elegantly and consistently touch our inner being and inspire us to go beyond our limitations towards the Divine.  He is expressing once more in this  poem how he is in everything, and everything is in him. He ends with these few words,  “Jelaluddin, You the one in all, say who I am. Say I am You.”

 

The Hari Krishna ladies, Bangalore

 

 

the street vender – I wonder what she is thinking?

SAY I AM YOU

I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.

I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

 

Getting Ready for xmas-Bangalore

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering

in metal. Both candle,
and the moth crazy around it.

Rose, and the nightingale
lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,

and the falling away. What is,
and what isn’t. You who know

 

little boy in Andra Pradesh village. He is stepping into his home, away from me and the camera –

Jelaluddin, You the one
in all, say who

I am. Say I
am You.

 

~rumi

 

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The poem “I am You” to soothing but apt music. Heavenly!

 

The photographs here are from my Indian Collection.  

Visits 2012 and 2013. thank you!