“The principal teaching of Sufism is that the heart of man is the shrine of God, to recognize God in one's own heart, to feel His existence, presence, virtue, goodness, all manner of beauty. It must be remembered that the whole life around us is a life of falsehood. The more you see and experience the more you see how very false it is, how much disillusionment there is. The only way of getting over it is to light the lamp in the darkness of night, and all will be cleared. The secret of life is this: to produce beauty in ourselves. When beauty is produced in the heart, then all that breaks the heart vanishes and the whole universe becomes one single vision of the sublimity of God.” ~~~ "Religious Gatheka 13, The Message of Christ", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)
posted by:
|
New York City
|
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sat, November 24, 2007 - 2:34 AMExcerpted from the quote above for emphasis:
“The secret of life is this: to produce beauty in ourselves. When beauty is produced in the heart, then all that breaks the heart vanishes and the whole universe becomes one single vision of the sublimity of God.” - Hazrat Inayat Khan
-
poem by Hafez - Absolutely Clear
Sat, November 24, 2007 - 2:49 AMHere's a poem by the great Persian mystic and poet Hafez:
Absolutely Clear - by Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez Shirazi (1321-1389)
Don't surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,
My need of God absolutely clear. -
-
Re: poem by Hafez - Absolutely Clear
Wed, December 12, 2007 - 9:58 PMtouching,
true,
thanks for sharing,
Best, -
-
Re: poem by Hafez - Absolutely Clear
Fri, December 21, 2007 - 4:30 AMEvery loss in life I consider as the throwing off of an old garment in order to put on a new one; and the new garment has always been better than the old one.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Gayan -
-
Rabi'a
Fri, December 21, 2007 - 5:20 PMO God,
Whenever I listen to the voice
of anything You have made—
The rustling of the trees
The trickling of water
The cries of birds
The flickering of shadow
The roar of the wind
The song of the thunder,
I hear it saying:
God is One!
Nothing can be compared with God!
-Rabi'a -
-
Hafiz
Wed, January 9, 2008 - 1:52 AMHow did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all of its beauty? It felt the encouragement of Light against its being; otherwise we all remain too frightened.
Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Love Poems from God -
-
Re: Hafiz
Wed, January 9, 2008 - 12:37 PMI LOVE this poem, Ln!
American contemporary folk singer-songwriter David Wilcox and his wife made a benefit album (for Partners in Conflict and Partners in Peace-builiding at the University of Maryland) of mystic poems set to music. It is a beautiful album. This poem, "How Did the Rose Ever Open" is the first song on the album. The CD is called "Out Beyond Ideas". It is available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Out-Beyond...pd_bbs_sr_1 -
-
Contemporary sufis...
Sat, January 12, 2008 - 2:17 PMWhat is real prayer? Praise to God. And the meaning of praise? Appreciating; thus opening the heart more and more to the divine beauty one sees in manifestation.
Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
Bowl of Saki -
-
Rumi
Sat, January 12, 2008 - 3:18 PM"Awe is the salve that will heal our eyes."
-Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks -
-
This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
-
-
Re: Rumi
Sat, January 12, 2008 - 7:23 PMsly biblical reference there, passenger... ;) -
-
-
Re: Rumi
Fri, January 18, 2008 - 5:36 PMBeneath all the words is the cry of the heart, the primal cry of the soul separate from God, the “reed torn from the reed bed.” And from this longing the lover is turned away from himself back to God, back to the Source. This is the great mystery of love, the way in which our heart is awakened to its divine nature. Love burns away the impurities that cover our heart and soul, until gradually we begin to taste the truth of who we really are: not a separate self or dysfunctional ego, but part of a cosmic dance in which every cell praises and glorifies God…
excerpt from the articlen Divine Intoxication: an article about Rumi by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
www.ascentmagazine.com/articles.aspx -
-
Re: Rumi
Sat, January 19, 2008 - 2:21 PMThe Guest House - Rumi
This being human is a guesthouse
Every morning a new arrival
A joy, a depression, a meanness
Some momentary awareness
Comes as an unexpected visitor
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture
Still treat each guest honorably
He may be cleaning you out
For some new delight!
The dark thought, the shame, the malice
Meet them at the door laughing
And invite them in
Be grateful for whoever comes
Because each has been sent
As a guide from the beyond -
-
Re: Rumi
Sun, February 10, 2008 - 3:12 PMHunger, not sweetmeats, gives pleasure
Hunger gives pleasure, not fresh sweetmeats--
Hunger makes barley bread better than sugar. . . .
Pain renews old medicines and
lops off the branch of every indifference.
Pain is an alchemy that renovates--
where is indifference when pain intervenes?
Beware, do not sigh coldly in your indifference!
Seek pain! Seek pain, pain, pain!
-- Jalal al-Din Rumi
Mathnawi VI: 4296, 4302-04
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983 -
-
Re: Rumi
Tue, February 12, 2008 - 3:25 PMI searched for God and found
only myself. I searched for
myself and found only God
-Sufi Proverb -
-
Fakhruddin Iraqi
Mon, February 18, 2008 - 4:23 PMAs sunlight is attributed to the moon,
so is the Beloved's form ascribed to the lover;
but in truth
each image painted
on the canvas of existence
is the form
of the artist himself.
Eternal Ocean
spews forth new waves.
"Waves" we call them;
but there is only the Sea.
By Fakhruddin Iraqi
(? - 1289)
English version by William Chittick and Peter Lamborn Wilson
-
-
Sufi poem from the Qur'an...
Thu, March 27, 2008 - 7:31 AM
His light may be compared to a niche
wherein is a lamp
the lamp in a glass
the glass as it were a glittering star
kindled from a Blessed tree
an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West
whose oil would almost shine forth
though no fire touches it
light upon light
-- LIGHT SURA (QUR'AN 24:35)
-
-
Re: Sufi poem from the Qur'an...
Thu, March 27, 2008 - 7:36 AMEnter in through the narrow gate -
-
Re: Sufi poem from the Qur'an...
Sat, April 5, 2008 - 5:55 AM*There is an old Sufi story where 2 painters are challenged to paint the best painting.
One painter paints a whole wall....so beautiful that it looks like the sun itself.
The other painter has a curtain covering his wall, opposite. "Where is your painting?" he is asked.
"Here," he says, and pulls the curtain aside to reveal a mirror which completely reflects the painting opposite.
It is EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL than the first painting!*
In Sufism, the Heart is seen as a Mirror that reflects the light of the Spirit and shines it back
so people can recognize the Spirit in themselves.....
-
-
-
-
Re: Rumi
Sun, May 11, 2008 - 3:01 AM"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." - Jalalud'din Rumi -
-
Re: Rumi
Sun, May 11, 2008 - 3:39 PM"Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, "I'll do nothing until I can be sure". Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don't be one of those merchants who won’t risk the ocean." - Jalalud'din Rumi -
-
Re: Rumi
Mon, May 12, 2008 - 2:18 AM"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy." - Jalalud'din Rumi -
-
Re: Rumi
Tue, May 13, 2008 - 3:50 AM"Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged." - Jalalud'din Rumi
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sat, November 24, 2007 - 2:52 AM"Love is the essence of all religion, mysticism, and philosophy, and for the one who has learnt this, love fulfills the purpose of religion, ethics, and philosophy, and the lover is raised above all diversities of faiths and beliefs." - Hazrat Inayat Khan
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sat, November 24, 2007 - 2:56 AM"To the question, "Are you a Christian?", "Are you a Muslim?", "Are you a Jew?", the Sufi's answer would be 'yes' rather than 'no', for the Sufi opposes no religion but sympathizes with all. In fact Sufism cannot be called a religion, for it does not impose either belief or principle upon anyone, considering that each individual soul has its own principles best suited for it, and a belief which changes with each grade of evolution. ... A Sufi does not dispute on spiritual subjects with everyone, for this reason: the spiritual evolution of each one differs from that of the other, the knowledge of one cannot be the knowledge of the other, nor is the understanding of one the understanding of the other. ... at every step in spiritual evolution a person's belief changes until one arrives at a final belief which words cannot explain." ~~~ "Gathekas for Candidates", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished) -
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sun, November 25, 2007 - 3:13 PMMy religion is love.
Whichever the route love's caravan shall take,
that path shall be the path of my faith.
Ibn Arabi
born 1165, Murcia, Spain
Some of my favorite lines from Rumi...
Teach only love for that is what you are.
Close your eyes and see with your other eyes.
If you want to be held, open up your arms.
Quit acting like wolves and let the shepherd's love fill you.
We're not here to seek approval but disgrave and celebration. -
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sun, November 25, 2007 - 3:22 PMfrom my teacher, Irina Tweedie...
"Be free of all desires except "the One".
To call it "God" is to limit the limitless" Guruji
From the sign that was in her entryway
Give me freedom to sing without an echo,
Give me freedom to fly without a shadow,
and to love without leaving traces.
From her book Daughter of Fire, the chapter called Surrender...
"The realization that every act, every word, every thought of ours not only influences out environment but for some mysterious reason forms an intergral and important part of the Universe, fits into it as if by necessity so to say, in the very moment that we do, or say, or think it-is an overwhelming and even shattering experience.
The tremendous responsibility of it is terrifying.
If all of us only knew that the smallest act of ours, or a tiny though, has such far reaching effects as to set in motionn forces which perhaps could shatter a galaxy....
If we know it deeply and absolutely, if this realization becomes engraves permanently on our hearts, on our minds, how careful we would act and speak and think.
How precious life would become in its integral oneness......."
For more from Mrs. Tweedie...
www.goldensufi.org/articles...hor634893 -
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sun, November 25, 2007 - 11:41 PM"Love not anyone, not even God! Our picking and choosing love brings misery. Instead, let God love you. Be Love itself." ~ Swami Nirmalananda (1863 - 1938), a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna -
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Wed, December 12, 2007 - 5:00 PMPain is as frost is to some plants: it strengthens them. Pain is very important in the transformation of a person.
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
The gardener uses both roses in the flowerbed and thorns in making fences.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Live at the empty heart of paradox.
I'll dance with you there, cheek to cheek."
-Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
-
-
-
-
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Fri, January 18, 2008 - 8:10 PM"The innermost being of man is the real being of God; man is always linked with God. If he could only realize it. It is by finding harmony in his own soul that he finds communion with God. All meditation and contemplation are taught with this purpose: to harmonize one's innermost being with God, so that He is seeing, hearing, thinking through us, and our being is a ray of His light. In that way we are even closer to God than the fishes are to the ocean in which they have their being." - Hazrat Inayat Khan
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sun, January 20, 2008 - 1:09 AM"Hidden things are manifested by their opposites, but as God has no opposite He remains hidden." - Hazrat Inayat Khan -
-
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sun, January 20, 2008 - 1:27 AMThe Guest House
Yes...I do agree
The Body is a Temple
Thank you
-
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Sun, January 20, 2008 - 8:51 PMZero Circle
Be helpless, dumbfounded,
Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.
We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we're lying.
If we say No, we don't see it,
That No will behead us
And shut tight our window onto spirit.
So let us rather not be sure of anything,
Beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness.
~ Rumi
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Wed, January 23, 2008 - 5:09 PMIn truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there
While looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
'O Beloved, where is the Beloved?'
~ Jalalud'din Rumi -
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Thu, January 24, 2008 - 4:27 PMKnow that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved.
There is no other sercet to be learnt and more than this is not known to me.
Ansari of Herat
-
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Thu, January 24, 2008 - 11:44 PM"Man wants something in life upon which he can rely; and this shows, whether he believes in a deity or not, that he is constantly seeking for God. He seeks for Him not knowing that he is seeking for God. Nevertheless, every soul is pursuing some reality, something to hold on to; trying to grasp something which will prove dependable, a beauty that cannot change and that one can always look upon as one's own, a beauty that one feels will last forever. And where can one find it? Within one's own heart. And it is the art of finding that beauty, of developing, improving, and spreading that beauty through life, allowing it to manifest before the inner and outer view, which one calls the art of the mystic." - Hazrat Inayat Khan
-
Re: quotes on Sufism
Thu, January 31, 2008 - 2:16 AM"I do not accept retaliation to be prescribed by the Qu'ran. If one understands the Qur'an that exists within one's self, then he will never retaliate." - M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
"People with wisdom know that it is important to correct their own mistakes, while people without wisdom find it necessary to point out the mistakes of others. People with strong faith know that it is important to clear their own hearts, while those with unsteady faith seek to find fault in the hearts and prayers of others. This becomes a habit in their lives. But those who pray to Allah with faith, determination, and certitude know that the most important thing in life is to surrender their hearts to Allah." - M. R. B