Here is another “found” poem I have created.  This time I’ve brought Rumi and Rilke together.  No small task!  Great poets they were but not contemporaries as are Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry in my previous found poem.  This particular found poem starts with two lines from a Rumi poem and then alternates with Rilke’s words on the next two lines. This pattern is repeated with Rumi’s words then Rilke’s. No more than 1-3 lines from any one poem is used. There are many ways to create a found poem – this is one way. Below I list the eight poems that were used to accomplish this.

At first I thought: I really can’t do this.  This could be tantamount to blasphemy on some level.  However I’ve recently discovered that God is a cat lover.  When I get to the pearly gates, I’ve got extra credit as well as he’s grading on a curve, so blasphemy I can do a little and still not risk the fantasy suite and hot tub that awaits me.  :)

And now without further adieu, I bring you Rumi and Rilke, together at last.

There’s a surge up from the surface
into what is beyond dying

Like dew from the morning grass,
what is ours floats into the air

It is sunlight slicing the dark
The way the night knows itself with the moon.

Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another’s life that’s wide and timeless

If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together,
we could see it.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.

Inside this new love, die
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.

The Vigil – Rumi
The Second Elegy – Rilke
All Rivers at Once – Rumi (note: “I am” replaced with “It is”)
In the Arc of Your Mallet – Rumi (note: it is sunlight… and the way the night…, two separate Rumi poems put together in this one verse)
The Book of Monastic Life I,5 – Rilke
Elephant in the Dark – Rumi
The Book of Pilgrimage, II,1 – Rilke
Quietness – Rumi

I thought it fitting since we are at the end of the month, to write about beginning at the end.  It goes like this: begin at the end and stay there.  This is something I was taught at The Field Center and Neville Goddard as well, has spoken on this topic.  What does it mean?  The end that you begin at is to embody the feeling, the sense that you already have whatever it is you were wanting.

Passing through a wrinkle in time, time now collapses in on itself, the veil is pulled back and your heart’s desire has already unfolded.  What does it feel like in your heart, your body to know that what you longed for is no longer at arm’s length but it’s here right now?  Note what it feels like because this is a feeling you can come back to again and again.

It sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?  I never really understood that it took a bit of commitment on my part to actually stay there.  That commitment flows out of falling in love with your heart’s desire so that it is no longer a desire, it’s a given.  You just know it and no fact that shows up in your now can sway you from this knowing.  It’s that kind of faithfulness and commitment that I am referring to.

The one who taught me about committing myself to “staying there” is my son.  Those who know me personally, know that I have a special needs son.  There were times in the past that his needs seemed to exceed what we could provide for him and for many reasons we thought he might have to live in an environment outside of our home where he could obtain the supports he needed.  More than anything, I didn’t want this to happen and I suffered a good bit over it for awhile.

One day I made a decision.  I would fast forward to the ending that I wanted.  He stays here with us throughout his childhood and we have the supports that we need to provide for him.  I could see it in my mind’s eye, even though he is still a child today, here he was a young adult.  He had grown up and he’d stayed living with us in our home the whole time.  I could feel the feelings, the joy and contentment of raising him.  No more would I worry, will it happen?  It did happen — in my mind’s eye, my heart, my body it happened; I knew it was real and it was the truth.  I had peeled back the veil and saw and felt all that I needed to know.

Now my work is only to stay there.  By staying there, this means that nothing that happens day to day counts against my happy ending.  Why?  Because I don’t let it.  I don’t let myself come to any conclusions about anything that happens today.  I don’t take it seriously and I don’t allow it to have any importance.  That’s the commitment of staying there.  Only once since I experienced my happy ending have I given myself to a conclusion that counted against that happy ending.  On that day, I suffered and I suffered enough to renew my commitment again.

Ultimately children, pets, loved ones become our greatest teachers.  What we might not do for ourselves, we will do for them.  And what we do for love, we essentially do for ourselves, too.  It does not matter what path we take to get to alignment, only that we do get there.

Rumi, of course, said it best:

Close your eyes

Fall in love

Stay there.

Who can find a trace of you?
There isn’t even a bit of dust from your track.
Who could find your home?
You have no home.

How can I praise you?
What can I say about you?
Foam is the only form in the sea of meaning.

A great, unseen town
lies just behind that curtain
Our world is nothing compared to that.

Don’t lower yourself.
Don’t knock on every door.
You yourself are what you’re looking for.

O heart, raise your tent up to the sky.
Don’t say, “I can’t.”
Sure you can. Just do it.

~The Forbidden Rumi~
The Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intoxication
Translations and Commentary by Nevit O. Ergin & Will Johnson

I’m the slave of the Moon. Talk of nothing but moon,
or brightness and sweetness. Other than that, say nothing.

Don’t tell of suffering, talk of nothing but blessings.
If you know nothing about them, no matter.  Say nothing.

Last night I went wild. Love saw me and said:
I’m here. Don’t shout, don’t rip your shirt, say nothing.

I said: O Love, what I fear is something else.
—There’s nothing there. Say nothing.

I’ll whisper secret words in your ears. Just nod yes.
Except for that nod of your head, say nothing.

A moon pure as spirit rose on the heart’s pathway.
How delightful, to travel the way of the heart. Say nothing.

I said: O Heart, what is this moon? Heart beckoned:
For now, it’s not for you to know. Say nothing.

I said: Is this face angel or human?
Neither angel nor human. It is other, say nothing.

I said: What’s this? I’ll lose my mind if you don’t tell me.
He said: Then lose your mind, and stay that way. Say nothing.

You who sit in this house filled with images and illusions,
get up, walk out the door. Go, and say nothing.

I said: O Heart, tell me kindly: Isn’t this about God?
He said: Yes it is, but kindly say nothing.

~Rumi: Say Nothing~
Poems of Jalal al-Din Rumi in Persian and English
Translated by Iraj Anvar & Anne Twitty

*my gratitude to Terri C. for introducing me to this poem and these two translators.

I had often felt the words: “the world is a mirror” sounded like another spiritual cliche and I would almost bristle at hearing it.  It’s one of those things I asked myself: what the hell does that mean?!

Now I have someone in my life that does appear to be a mirror of sorts.  Let’s call her Rea, short for reality.  I realized she is the outpicturing of me.  The me of two minds on a subject that is near and dear to my heart.

There is the me who believes in the happy ending.  I’ve even seen and felt that happy ending, in my mind’s eye.

Then there is the me who gives myself to the “reality” of what appears to be, in the moment, an undesirable unfolding.  Something that I take to count against my happy ending.  I put my spiritual stock in that other consciousness, the me who gives up her faith in lieu of what looks like the facts before her.

Now my friend Rea is often given to saying things like “let’s face reality here”.  Abraham says don’t face any reality you don’t want to create more of.  I’m sure Seth would chime in similarly and the Field Center states that facing reality is an invitation to counterintend which loosely means to run counter to what you would like to intend about a thing.

I am the one of two consciousnesses, of two minds and Rea is the stark image and reflection, the mirror of what this other mind gives its allegiance to.

Yet I have other examples in my life of people who reflect my consciousness that carries faith in the desired outcome.  But who do I pay more attention to but the one who pisses me off with her “let’s face reality” spewings.  I’m mad that she might be right yet I’m mad at my own reflection, my own outpicturing of one part of my consciousness.  Mad at my own ability to create such a good mirror of myself.

Why is it so easy to be seduced by a mindset I don’t want?  It’s a question I’m not even going to answer.  The why doesn’t matter and answering it won’t provide me with greater consistency.  The practice matters and the consistency of it matters most of all.  If I’m going to be inconsistent, of two minds, I’m going to see lots of people and circumstances outpicturing my inconsistencies.  I should thank them, they tell me exactly where I’m vibe-ing.  They invite me to be restored again to One Mind.  I accept the invitation willingly and gladly.

I am free to be seduced by outer conditions and I am free to remain faithful to that which is not yet seen in the “flesh”.  I’ve seen it in my mind’s eye, I’ve felt it, I’ve lived it there.  It lives, it breathes, it walks, it talks.  This is what I choose to be captivated and enamored with.

No one says it better than Rumi:

Close your eyes.

(see it in your mind’s eye)

Fall in love.

(let yourself fall in love with the ideal, let yourself be captivated by it)

Stay there.

(stay consistent)

And if I should see the outpicturing of inconsistency again, I won’t shoot the messenger.  I will thank them, truly, for the invitation to fall in love again with what I believe in.  Should I be held spellbound by anything, let it be by that which is my heart’s desire.  Let me lose myself inside that inner world where it already exists and let the outer world do what it does, I have my own world to attend to.

“This being human is a guest house.  Every morning a new arrival.  A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…” excerpt from the Guest House by Rumi

Such a beautiful expression Rumi makes here.  What if we treated everything that we experienced as a welcome guest?  What if we did this even and especially with the contrast, the challenges we experience and the so called “negative” emotion that often comes with it?  What if we treated it all like a guest, a visitor and a welcome one at that?  Why a welcome one?  Because everything at its core has something to offer us and when left unresisted, a new expansion lies within easy reach on the horizon.

Thich Nhat Hanh also said: “Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind.  I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.”

Thich Nhat Hanh and Rumi are centuries and countries apart and yet each with a similar viewpoint, one calls it all sacred, the other a welcome guest. Imagine if you were feeling irritation, if you regarded it as sacred.  Just take a breath into it or whatever it is you are feeling, no pushing it away, it’s sacred now.  You’re alive, this alive-ness, this human-ness is so sacred.  You get to experience it all, anything and everything.  Now, know that none of it is wrong.  You may bring compassion, wisdom and understanding to all that you experience at any time.  And the moment that you do, is the instant that you know none of this life of yours is wrong.  All of it is sacred.  All of it is holy.  Can you feel that – how soft, how easy, how self-honoring that is?  I sure do.  Now, imagine bringing this awareness to all your sacred guests.   Welcome them, as Rumi said: “be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”

]]> http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/08/30/sacred-guest/feed/ 5 Beth/Bethie Horizon http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/08/29/quietness-rumi/ http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/08/29/quietness-rumi/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:08:40 +0000 heartsdeesire http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/?p=1031 ]]> Today I’ve been asking myself this question:

What would wholeness say?

I love asking the question; it seems to prompt a feeling of slipping my arms into the sleeves and cloak of wholeness.   Wholeness spoke quietly and tenderly just a few things to me -

You are a blessed being.
You are perfect just as you are.

And perhaps if Rumi were by my side right now, he’d peer over my shoulder and whisper in my ear:

inside this new love, die.  Your way begins on the other side.

In my last found poem, combining Rumi and Rilke, Rumi’s Quietness comprised the last verse.  Here it is, in it’s entirety, the words below and the words, set to music and images by Rahmama at youtube.  It is absolutely spectacularly, breathtakingly beautiful!

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You’re covered with thick clouds.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon
comes out now.

Image by Rassouli

Come close to me,
I will whisper in your ear

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes
around in another form.

For there is so much More to this life
Than you now understand

Observe the wonders as they occur around you
Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry
moving through, and be silent

For the Truth has been Divinely Conceived
Deeply within each of us

Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole in that way

This Union you want with the earth and sky
This Union we all need with love

Stay here quivering like a drop of mercury

I thought I would let you read that poem through before I told you that
until now this poem never existed and yet it was written by two poets
a century apart.  They are the words of Rumi and Hafiz, as translated
by Coleman Barks and Daniel Ladinsky respectively.  What I have done
is create a found poem.  Each verse is excerpted from a different poem
starting with Hafiz and followed with Rumi.  This pattern repeats throughout.
This is now my fourth found poem.  The first was combining Mary Oliver and
Wendell Berry, the second was Rumi and Rilke and the third was a compilation
of eight Mary Oliver poems.  Below I cite the poems used in this creation.

Hafiz – Turn Left A Thousand Feet From Here
Rumi – Unmarked Boxes
Hafiz -  I Will Hire You As A Minstrel
Rumi -  Body Intelligence
Hafiz -  Of Course Things Like That Can’t Happen
Rumi -  Elephant in the Dark
Hafiz -  This Union
Rumi -  The Waterwheel

]]> http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/08/26/this-union/feed/ 1 Beth/Bethie melodiesofdivineunity2 http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/07/04/fresh-and-wild/ http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/07/04/fresh-and-wild/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:45:20 +0000 heartsdeesire http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/?p=2036 ]]>

Make me sweet again

fragrant and fresh and wild

and thankful for any small event

~Rumi~

]]> http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/07/04/fresh-and-wild/feed/ 2 Beth/Bethie Single_Flower http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/05/29/the-friend/ http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/05/29/the-friend/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 00:39:00 +0000 heartsdeesire http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/?p=1896 ]]> Image Locale

Today,  I recognized
that the jewel-like beauty
is the Presence,

Our loving confusion
the glow in which
watery clay gets
brighter than fire,
the One we call the Friend.

I begged, “Is there a way into you, a ladder?”
“Your head is the ladder,
bring it down under your feet.”

The mind, this globe of awareness,
is a starry Universe that when you push off
with your foot,
a thousand new roads
become clear,
as you yourself do
at dawn, sailing
through the light.

~Jelaluddin Rumi~
The Illuminated Rumi
Translation Coleman Barks

I love both the images this Rumi poem evokes and the metaphor for the way into Presence – that it can’t be found at the level of the thinking mind.  You must abandon the thinking mind, “push off of it”, to discover the true clarity in Presence.  Love that.