03 Monday Feb 2020
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Who are we for the world? I just opened Daniel Ladinsky’s book, Love Poems from God, for a quick word for the day. Here is what I saw – just this brief message from the mystic, Hafiz. Put yourself into its picture, let yourself go and see if you are willing to act on it today.
I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath moves through — listen to this music.
(And if you are brave and sing it, you might want to add a dance…)
04 Friday Aug 2017
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be not afraid, curious, end of life, fear, Hafiz, human, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, positive, present, spiritual tradition, Sufi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
As often happens lately on Friday mornings, I sit down to write and wonder where the week went. Time seems to pass more quickly as we get older. People have told me that for years and I accepted it but now I know it from the inside. As a consequence of that thought, next comes a wondering about the stretch of life before me. How long will I be here? What will be my experiences, accomplishments, abilities? Will I maintain the health I have been blessed with? How will I face the end of my life?
To be honest, I rarely worry about the answers to those questions, primarily because I am trying to live in the present and because I trust that, whatever happens, divine grace will accompany me. I raise the topic today because of conversations I have had with older friends and with frequent reports of accidents and illnesses of others. As well, I opened Meg Wheatley’s book, Perseverance, this morning at random and the page that stared back at me was a reflection entitled Fear.
Normally I would shy away from talking about what are considered negative emotions because I prefer to stay in a positive mode of thinking, yet given the state of our country and my awareness of all the fear that is manifesting in personal and communal encounters lately I decided to read Wheatley’s comments and pass on what I found to be of value. As usual, I could just copy the entire entry – Meg Wheatley has a way of making good sense – but even the first few lines will do, I think. She says:
Fear is just part of human life. It’s so common that every great spiritual tradition includes the injunction: “Be not afraid.” If fear is this fundamental to being human, we can expect that we’ll feel afraid at times, perhaps even frequently. Yet when fear appears, we don’t have to worry that we’ve failed, or take it as a sign that we’re not as good as other people. In fact, we’re just like other people. Fear is simple evidence that we’re human. What’s important to decide is what to do with our fear…(p. 71)
The author suggests moving toward our fear, being curious about it, not asking why we’re afraid but rather investigating the feeling itself which can often dissipate the strength of the emotion in the process. Whether or not this is the way to proceed, my intent was simply to bring the topic to our consciousness for examination in our own lives, having been reminded that fear is, in fact, just part of living on earth. To conclude, I do want to add the quote that is a standard feature of every topic in Wheatley’s book, this one a short word from the 14th century Sufi poet Hafiz. It made me smile. He says:
Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.
29 Monday May 2017
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Today as we pray for lasting peace while recognizing that our world is in peril on many fronts, and as we give thanks for those who have served and sacrificed for that goal, may we remember that it is up to each one of us to create peace in our own hearts as a first step to the achievement of universal peace.
The Sufi poet, Hafiz, has a pithy poem that creates what I see as a perfect image for our consideration as we strive toward peace today. He writes: Complaint is only possible while living in the suburbs of God.
30 Thursday Mar 2017
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I’m so glad I live in a time when poetry and literature from times and cultures other than my own have been made available. Especially do I love reading translations of mystical poetry like that of Hafiz (1320-1389) which express in a few words deeply felt spiritual truths or ways of relating to God that touch the cerebral western mind with new images of wild abandon. I was looking for something to wake me up with “oomph” today and was stopped by something less flowery but more thought-provoking than I expected from my search. Here it is: my advice for the day.
Everyone is God speaking. Why not be polite and listen to him? (The Gift, p. 269)
19 Sunday Mar 2017
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gift, God, Hafiz, harmony, love, Love Poems From God; Twelve Voices from the East and West, St. Thomas Aquinas, stars, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, theologian, war
Yesterday’s celebration was for me a great – and surely lasting – gift, a “love fest” of sorts where energy is high and everyone is happy for everyone else. Late in the day I opened a gift from a friend and found a book that I was thrilled to receive entitled Love Poems From God; Twelve Voices from the East and West. The book fell open to the poem I will type below that I assumed was written by the mystical poet, Hafiz, because of what it sounded like. This morning I was surprised to find the author to be St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the great (but in my acquaintance usually cerebral) theologian of the Roman Catholic Church. I have been softening to Thomas lately and will surely have a broader appreciation for his spirituality by the time I finish this book! Because it’s a book of poems, I suspect it will be a companion of mine for many years to come.
WE ARE FIELDS BEFORE EACH OTHER
How is it that they live for eons in such harmony – the billions of stars – when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their mind against someone they know.
There are wars where no one marches with a flag, though that does not keep casualties from mounting.
Our hearts irrigate this earth. We are fields before each other.
How can we live in harmony?
First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
27 Monday Feb 2017
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centering prayer, chanting, chosen, consciousness, God, grace, Hafiz, inner chatter, reflection, retreat, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
After eight days of virtually no speaking, I am clear about the difficulty of stopping inner chatter – at least for me. I realized somewhere during the past eight days how many thoughts flow through my head (several often at the same time) without my consciousness recognizing each or any of them. I began to wonder when I began to multi-task so much that the practice invaded my inner state as well as my outer daily life. One good place to start a reversal was at meals. Because we did not talk at meals, we just ate. I came to a renewed awareness of the awkwardness of spearing raw carrots or grape tomatoes in a salad as well as the fact that I often switch hands for guiding a spoonful of soup to my mouth. (Being very left-handed, I was taught that it was only proper to eat with one’s right hand, so as a child it was necessarily a conscious practice to do so. Now I know that even very early unconscious habits die hard.)
The week was filled with grace in small and great ways. Having thought I was in need of total solitude I realized early on that I would find more benefit in the communal silence which I found in several periods of centering prayer daily, in body awareness and movement sessions, in chanting and chopping vegetables and in daily worship. These practices enhanced the ample personal time for reflection that filled most of the afternoon and shorter spaces in between.
I would love to have taken a survey of the other participants to see if my sense that all the introductory short readings, poems and chants were really chosen just for me. God is funny in that we can all feel that way sometimes – but I was sure of it in this experience. How could everyone feel as “chosen” as I was for the word that was given each time we gathered? On the first morning, the first words I heard were from the mystical poet Hafiz, in a poem that sounded like a personal message for me. I write it in prose form below, just as it was spoken by Allen, God’s messenger, to set the tone for my response all week. See if God would speak to you this way – if God were able to catch your full attention.
This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you. Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move against the earth and the sky, the Beloved has bowed there. Our Beloved has bowed there, knowing you were coming. The place where you will be in a year, our Beloved is bowing there now, setting the table for the feast, knowing you are coming.
28 Sunday Aug 2016
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Here’s a little Sufi wisdom from the mystical poet, Hafiz, that opened to me first thing this morning. See what you think…
FAITHFUL LOVER
The moon came to me last night with a sweet question. She said, “The sun has been my faithful lover for millions of years. Whenever I offer my body to him brilliant light pours from his heart. Thousands then notice my happiness and delight in pointing toward my beauty. Hafiz, is it true that our destiny is to turn into Light Itself?” And I replied, Dear Moon, now that your love is maturing, we need to sit together close like this more often so I might instruct you how to become Who you Are! (THE GIFT, 159)
05 Tuesday Jul 2016
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Daniel Ladinsky, freedom, Hafiz, heart, joy, light, love, play, rejuvenate, spirits, Sufi, surrender, The Gift, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vacation, wings
The fireworks have stopped booming in the nearby locations – and probably everywhere for now – after yesterday’s celebration of Independence Day. Today most of us will be heading back to work or at least to responsibilities that were suspended in many cases for the long holiday weekend. But school is out and the atmosphere is warmer and slower, portending vacation for many during these next two months – an ocean beach, a mountain lake or a pool, at least, for the lucky ones. For all of us – especially those of us who have trouble taking time to rejuvenate because there is always so much to accomplish – I just found some advice from Hafiz, a 14th century Sufi poet, in a book called The Gift by Daniel Ladinsky. I hope to follow it, at least for today.
WE HAVE NOT COME TO TAKE PRISONERS
We have not come here to take prisoners, but to surrender ever more deeply to freedom and joy.
We have not come into this exquisite world to hold ourselves hostage from love.
Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings. Run like hell my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart.
We have a duty to befriend those aspects of obedience that stand outside of our house and shout to our reason “O please, O please, come out and play.”
For we have not come here to take prisoners or to confine our wonderful spirits, but to experience ever and ever more deeply our divine courage, freedom and Light!
21 Tuesday Jun 2016
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Hafiz, love, party, planets, solstice, spring, strawberry moon, Sufi, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thunderstorm
I get confused sometimes about the summer solstice. Is it the 20th or the 21st of June? Added to that this year was the title “Strawberry Moon” which I had never heard before. It turns out that I basically missed the whole (very rare) event as there was some cloud cover last night and it took me until this morning to read that the June moon got its name simply because it’s the season of strawberries in the USA. What I did not miss at 2:00AM, however, was a wild thunder and lightning event, with heavy rain drenching our bit of earth very quickly and moving on. I was awake just long enough to close my windows and to recognize the power of natural forces before I sank back into the oblivion of sleep. Maybe the storm actually lasted longer than I did in observing it…
Not drawn to the Scripture readings this morning, I opened The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. These are the poems I found on two successive pages. (My apologies to Hafiz and his translator, Daniel Ladinsky, for typing them here in prose form.)
SOME OF THE PLANETS ARE HOSTING The ear becomes alert when music says, “I am over here.” The eye goes on duty, becomes viable, when beauty whistles and points to her dress on the ground. God has sent out ten thousand messengers announcing a great bash tonight some of the planets are hosting where the lead singer is God, Himself. But most of those courtiers have become drunk, got waylaid, disoriented to the hilt with such exalted news, and can no longer remember the time and the place. What does that have to do with you? Plenty. Hafiz will fill you in later if need be.
WHAT IS THE ROOT? What is the root of all these words? One thing: love. But a love so deep and sweet it needed to express itself with scents, sounds, colors that never before existed.
I guess I should try to pay more attention to this day. I wouldn’t want to miss another big bash!
06 Friday May 2016
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Moving one day closer to the feast of Pentecost, I was drawn to pick up the book, The Gift, by the great Sufi mystic, Hafiz. What I opened to was a surprise (as usual) and I thought it a great preparatory reflection for this weekend. It was titled “Why Not Be Polite” and said only this: Everyone is God speaking. Why not be polite and listen to Him?
Enough said!
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 