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As promised, more poetry. First some Rumi. It’s so very difficult to select which of his delicious verses to quote. As a true mystic, ecstatic verses poured out of him like a great, surging river. His work is prodigious, and it may surprise you to know he’s America’s best-selling poet, this realized soul who was born in the 13th century!

To help you know him there’s one video embedded here, an excerpt from the PBS film on his life and work (email/rss readers need to click back to the original post to view video), and a link to another one of an interview with the film’s producer/director Haydn Reiss.

The essence of Rumi is pure divine love. He exemplifies poetry as spiritual vehicle and expression. Get to know his work. You’ll never be disappointed and will always leave enriched.

You are Joy!

Oh my God, our intoxicated eyes
Have blurred our vision
Our burdens have been made heavy,
Forgive us.

You are hidden and yet
From east to west you have filled the world with Your radiance
Your Light is more magnificent
Than sunrise or sunset
And you are the inmost ground of consciousness
Revealing the secrets we hold.

You are an explosive force
causing our dammed up rivers to burst forth.

You whose essence is hidden
While Your gifts are manifest
You are like water
and we are like millstones
You are like wind and we are like dust;
The wind is hidden while the dust is plainly seen.
You are the invisible spring
and we are your lush garden
You are the spirit of life,
And we are like hand and foot;
Spirit causes the hand to close and open.

You are intelligence,
And we are your voice
Your intelligence causes this tongue to speak.
You are joy and we are laughter,
For we are the result
of the blessing of Your joy
All our movement is really
A continual profession of faith
Bearing witness to Your eternal power
Just as the powerful turning of the millstone
professes faith in the rivers existence.

Dust settles upon my head and upon my metaphors
For You are beyond anything we could ever think or say
And yet this servant cannot stop trying
to express Your beauty in every moment,
let my soul be Your carpet.

Mathnawi V: 3307-3319

Translated by Kabir and Camille Helminski

Phil Cousineau speaks with filmmaker Haydn Reiss about his award-winning film “Rumi, Poet of the Heart.”

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There are only two previous posts here that are poetry, and its place in contemplative life, despite my good intentions to highlight spiritually significant verses. With this next one, I’m doing something about it. Ellen Bass’ poem spoke to me the first time I read it. It also fits well with one of the first posts on this blog from over two years ago. Here’s a little quote from it, then the poem:

The original prayer is creation itself. As created beings we are a prayer onto our own. Prayer here means the lived experience of sacredness, not its usual religious context. Sacredness isn’t confined to one aspect of life. Sacredness has always been the single thread that runs through life.

Pray for Peace

Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekhina, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.

Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.

Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.

To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.

Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.

Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.

If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.

When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else’s legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.

And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas–

With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.

Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.

Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

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Way back when, at the inception of this blog two years ago (light years in blog time!), there was the intention to include haiku and spiritually significant poetry. It didn’t quite pan out that way. There was one post sampling the haiku of Mitsu Suzuki.

With this post this is going to be remedied. A new category is added to find similar posts in the future, and below is another sampling of Mitsu Suzuki’s haiku.

What has always impressed me about haiku is its unique way of distilling time, in a way stopping time. The reading, contemplation and experience of haiku creates greater awareness, opens the senses and imagination, and deepens stillness.

Spiritual practice is a way of moving outside of time. When time isn’t a factor, there’s stillness, a return to our true nature. The mind isn’t busy with concepts, there is no projection, and peace is found. That’s what meditation does for us.

Similarly, when you read these haiku, take one and sit with it. Let it reveal all its has to offer. And savor its deliciousness.

These were all written during different autumn seasons in Mitsu Suzuki’s life.

by RobW

Morning glories
bloom in one breath
winter is close
__

Neither hindering
nor being hindered
under autumn light
__

Dusk surrounds the canyon
the wooden mallet’s clack
signals zazen
__

Evening chill
lake water cupped in my hands
heart journey
__

Haiku mind
soaking through
red grass
__

Temple bell resounds
settles
autumn trail

Dusk surrounds the canyon
the wooden mallet’s clack
signals zazen

Haiku is a Japanese poetic form written with seventeen syllables. Zazen is sitting meditation. Mitsu Suzuki was married to Suzuki Roshi, wrote many haiku, taught Tea Ceremony, and was influential in the establishment of Zen Buddhism in the West.

Monastery gate
huge wooden bolt
fragrant wind