[thesongcelestial]

My Beloved Lord Is Within

Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves, and within it is the Creator: Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the unnumbered stars. The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within; And within this vessel the Eternal soundeth, and the spring wells up. Kabir says: “Listen to me, my Friend! My beloved Lord is within.”

Kabir Songs Of Kabir

[thesongcelestial]

From Nothing To Nothing To Nothing

They kept coming, they kept coming, now they’ve got to go. They’ve got to keep moving, day or night, and where they came from, there they’ve got to go. From nothing to nothing to nothing and why?

Lalla I, Lalla

[thesongcelestial]

The Long String

The Mouse asks the Beloved Frog, Do you know what you are to me? During the day, you’re my energy for working. At night, you’re my deepest sleep. But could we be together outside of Time as well as inside?

Physically, we meet only at breakfast. Your absence during the rest of the day enters all my cravings! I drink five hundred times too much. I eat like a bulemic trying to die. Help me!

I know I’m not worth it, but your generosity is so vast!

Let your sunlight shine on this piece of dung, and dry it out, so I can be used for fuel to warm and light up a bath-house.

Look on the terrible and stupid things I’ve done, and cause herbs and eglantine to grow out of them.

The sun does this with the ground. Think what glories God can make from the fertilizer of sinning!

The Mouse continues to beg, My Friend, I know I’m ugly to you. I’m ugly to me! I’m perfectly ugly! But look, you’ll be sad when I die, won’t you? You’ll sit by my grave and weep a little? All I’m asking is, be with me that little bit of time while I’m still alive! Now, I want you NOW!

A certain rich man was accustomed to honor a Sufi by giving him pieces of sliver.

“Would you like one piece of silver now, O Lord of my Spirit, or three at breakfast tomorrow morning?"

The Sufi answered, “I love the half a coin that I have already in my hand from yesterday more than the promise of a whole one today, or the promise of a hundred tomorrow. A Sufi is the child of this moment.”

Back to the Mouse, who says, The slap of Now has cash in its hand. Give me slaps, on the neck, anywhere!

Soul of my Soul of the Soul of a hundred universes, be water in this Now-river. So jasmine flowers will lift on the brim, and someone far off can notice the flower-colors and know there’s water here.

“The sign is in the face.” You can look at an orhard and tell if it rained last night. That freshness is the sign.

Again, the mouse, Friend, I’m made from the ground, and for the ground You’re of the water.

I’m always standing on the bank calling to you. Have mercy. I can’t follow you into the water. Isn’t there some way we can be in touch? A messenger? Some reminder?

The two Friends decided that the answer was a long, a longing! string, with one end tied to the Mouse’s foot and the other to the Frog’s, So that by pulling on it their secret connection might be remembered and the two could meet, as the Soul does with the Body.

The Frog-like Soul often escapes from the Body and soars in the happy water. Then the Mouse-body pulls on the string, and the Soul thinks, Damn. I have to go back on the riverbank and talk with that scatterbrained Mouse! You’ll hear more about this when you really wake up, on Resurrection Day!

So the Mouse and the Frog tied the string, even though the Frog had a hunch some tangling was to come. Never ignore those intuitions. When you feel some slight repugnance about doing something, listen to it. These premonitions come from God.

Remember the story of the military elephant who would not move toward the Kaaba. Paralyzed in that direction, yet swift if pointed toward Yemen. It had some In-knowing from the Unseen.

So the Prophet Jacob, when his other sons wanted to take Joseph out in the country for two days, had a heart-sickness about their going, an it was true, though Divine Destiny prevailed, despite his foreboding, as It will. It’s not always a blind man who falls in a pit. Sometimes it’s one who can see,

A Holy One does sometimes fall, but by that tribulation, he or she ascends, escapes many illusions, escapes conventional religion, escapes being so bound to phenomena.

Think of how PHENOMENA come trooping out of the Desert of Non-Existence into this materiality. Morning and night, they arrive in a long line and take over from each other, “It’s my turn now. Get out!”

A son comes of age, and the father packs up. This place of phenomena is a wide exchange of highways, with everything going all sorts of different ways. We seem to be sitting still, but we’re actually moving, and the Fantasies of Phenomena are sliding through us like ideas through curtains. They go to the well of deep love inside each of us. They fill their jars there, and they leave.

There is a Source they come from, and a fountain inside here. Be generous. Be grateful. Confess when you’re not.

We can’t know what the Divine Intelligence has in mind!

Who am I, standing in the midst of this thought-traffic?

Rumi Mathnawi VI

[thesongcelestial]

Polish Into Gold

I give my heart without fear to the Beloved: As the polish goes into the gold, I have gone into him. Through many lives, I heard only the outer music. Now the teacher has whispered into my ears, And familiar ties have gone the way of weak thread. Mira has met the Energy That Lifts Mountains— That good luck now is her home.

Mirabai

[thesongcelestial]

He Himself Is Brahma, Creature And Maya

When He Himself reveals Himself, Brahma brings into manifestation That which can never be seen. As the seed is in the plant, as the shade is in the tree, as the void is in the sky, as infinite forms are in the void— So from beyond the Infinite, the Infinite comes; and from the Infinite the finite extends.

The creature is in Brahma, and Brahma is in the creature: they are ever distinct, yet ever united. He Himself is the tree, the seed, and the germ. He Himself is the flower, the fruit, and the shade. He Himself is the sun, the light, and the lighted. He Himself is Brahma, creature, and Maya. He Himself is the manifold form, the infinite space; He is the breath, the word, and the meaning. He Himself is the limit and the limitless: and beyond both the limited and the limitless is He, the Pure Being. He is the Immanent Mind in Brahma and in the creature.

The Supreme Soul is seen within the soul, The Point is seen within the Supreme Soul, And within the Point, the reflection is seen again. Kabir is blest because he has this supreme vision!

Kabir Songs Of Kabir

[thesongcelestial]

A Rope Of Sand

Brother, what’s the point of twisting a rope of sand? You couldn’t tow a boat with that line. The course that Nārāyana has charted for you, no one can turn that around.

Lalla I, Lalla

[thesongcelestial]

The Mouse And The Camel

A mouse caught hold of a camel’s leading-rope in his two forelegs and walked off with it, imitating the camel drivers. 

The camel went along, letting the mouse feel heroic.

“Enjoy yourself,” he thought. “I have something to teach you, presently.”

They came to the edge of a great river. The mouse was dumbfounded.

“What are you waiting for? Step forward into the river. You are my leader. Don’t stop here.”

”I’m afraid of being drowned.”

The camel walked into the water. “It’s only just above the knee.”

“Your knee! Your knee is a hundred times over my head!”

Well, maybe you shouldn’t be leading a camel. Stay with those like yourself. A mouse has nothing really to say to a camel.”

“Would you help me get across?”

“Get up on my hump. I am made to take hundreds like you across.”

You are not a prophet, but go humbly on the Way of the Prophets, and you can arrive where they are. Don’t try to steer the boat. Don’t open a shop by yourself. Listen. Keep silent. You are not God’s mouthpiece. Try to be an ear, and if you do speak, ask for explanations.

The source of your arrogance and anger is your lust and the rootedness of that is in your habits.

Someone who makes a habit of eating clay gets mad when you try to keep him from it. Being a leader can also be a poisonous habit, so that when someone questions your authority, you think, “He's trying to take over.” You may respond courteously, but inside you rage.

Always check your inner state with the Lord of your Heart. Copper doesn't know it's copper, until it's changed to gold.

Your loving doesn't know its Majesty, until it knows its helplessness.

Rumi Mathnawi II

[thesongcelestial]

The Fish And The Crocodile

When Nand’s son with his dark face appeared to me, I forgot about the world and its duties. I went out of my mind. A crown of peacock feathers opened on his forehead, And I saw the spot of saffron which made my eyes glad. Light caught on his earring; his hair curls fell over his cheek, Like fish who crawl out of a pond to meet a crocodile. My Lord has entered the play, and the world is amazed. Mira says: I dedicate myself to every arm and leg of this Lord.

Mirabai

[thesongcelestial]

His Works Are As Naught

The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it: The moon is within me, and so is the sun. The unstuck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it. So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine, his works are as naught: When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done. For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge: When that comes, then work is put away. The flower blooms for the fruit: when the fruit comes, the flower withers. The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass.

Kabir Songs Of Kabir

[thesongcelestial]

The Day Faded

The road I came by wasn’t the road I took to go. As I stood on my mind’s embankment, the day faded. I looked in my purse and couldn’t find Shiva’s name to give the ferryman.

Lalla I, Lalla

[thesongcelestial]

The Force Of Friendship

A sea-cow, a dugong, finds a special pearl and brings it up on land at night. By the light it gives off the dugong can graze on hyacinths and lilies. 

The excrement of the dugong is precious ambergris because it eats such beauty. Anyone who feeds on Majesty becomes eloquent. The bee, from mystic inspiration, fills its rooms with honey.

So the dugong grazes at night in the pearl-glow. Presently, a merchant comes and drops black loam over the pearl, then hides behind a tree to watch.

The dugong surges about the meadow like a blind bull. Twenty times it rushes at nothing, passing the mound where the pearl is. So Satan couldn’t see the spirit-center inside Adam. God says, Descend, and a huge pearl from Aden gets buried under dirt. The merchant knows, but the dugong doesn’t.

Every clay-pile with a pearl inside loves to be near any other clay-pile with a pearl, but those without pearls cannot stand to be near the hidden companionship.

Remember the mouse on the riverbank? There’s a love-string stretching into the water hoping for the frog. Suddenly a raven grips the mouse and flies off. The frog too, from the riverbottom, with one foot entangled in the invisible string, follows, suspended in the air. Amazed faces ask, “When did a raven ever go underwater and catch a frog?” The frog answers, “This is the force of Friendship.” What draws Friends together does not conform to Laws of Nature. Form doesn’t know about spiritual closeness. If a grain of barley approaches a grain of wheat, an ant must be carrying it. A black ant on black felt. You can’t see it, but if grains go toward each other, it’s there. A hand shifts our birdcages around. Some are brought closer. Some move apart. Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious of who draws you and who not.

Gabriel was always there with Jesus, lifting him above the dark-blue vault, the night-fortress world, just as the raven of longing carries the flying frog.

Rumi Mathnawi VI

[thesongcelestial]

Mira The Milkmaid

Friend, look— She is wandering the pathways and alleys, a pot on her head. She is calling, “Who will take the beautiful Dark One?” The Gopi has forgotten the name for the curds she carries And cries only, “Taste Hari! Taste Hari!” Mira has given herself to the One Who Takes All, She is his slave, asking no payment. The milkmaid has seen his radiant body, and all she can do now is babble.

Mirabai

[thesongcelestial]

The True Path Is Rarely Found

Tell me, Brother, how can I renounce Maya? When I gave up the tying of ribbons, still I tied my garment about me: When I gave up tying my garment, still I covered by body in its folds. So, when I give up passion, I see that anger remains; And when I renounce anger, greed is with me still; And when greed is vanquished, pride and vainglory remain; When the mind is detached and casts Maya away, still it clings to the letter. Kabir says, “Listen to me, dear Sadhu! The true path is rarely found.”

Kabir Songs Of Kabir

[thesongcelestial]

I Weep For You, My Soul

Gently, gently I weep for you, my soul. You’ve lost your heart to Mr. Illusion. You’ve forgotten who you are. And this iron anchor, not even its shadow will remain behind when the time comes.

Lalla I, Lalla

[thesongcelestial]

A Mouse And A Frog

A mouse and a frog meet every morning on the riverbank. They sit in a nook of the ground and talk.

Each morning, the second they see each other, they open easily, telling stories and dreams and secrets, empty of any fear or suspicious holding-back.

To watch, and listen to those two is to understand how, as it’s written, sometimes when two beings come together, Christ becomes visible.

The mouse starts laughing out a story he hasn’t thought of in five years, and the telling might take five years! There’s no blocking the speech-flow-river-running-all-carrying momentum that true intimacy is.

Bitterness doesn’t have a chance with those two.

The God-Messenger, Khidr, touches a roasted fish. It leaps off the grill back into the water.

Friend sits by Friend, and the tablets appear. They read the mysteries off each other’s foreheads.

But one day the mouse complains, “There are times when I want sohbet, and you’re out in the water, jumping around where you can’t hear me.

We meet at this appointed time, but the text says, Lovers pray constantly. Once a day, once a week, five times an hour, is not enough. Fish like we are need the ocean around us!”

Do camel-bells say, Let’s meet back here Thursday night? Ridiculous. They jingle together continuously, talking while the camel walks.

Do you pay regular visits to yourself? Don’t argue or answer rationally.

Let us die, and dying, reply.

Rumi Mathnawi VI

[thesongcelestial]

It’s True I Went To The Market

My friend, I went to the market and bought the Dark One. You claim by night, I claim by day. Actually, I was beating a drum all the time I was buying him. You say I gave too much; I say too little. Actually, I put him on a scale before I bought him. What I paid was my social body, my town body, my family body, and all my inherited jewels. Mirabai says: The Dark One is my husband now. Be with me when I lie down; you promised me this in an earlier life.

Mirabai

[thesongcelestial]

The Infinite Beauty

Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.

Kabir Songs Of Kabir