[Sunlight] You Are Not a Single You

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You Are Not a Single YOU

You're a common rhyme-word now,
dependent on some other for your emotional force,
but real life will come.

As when a baby stops nursing and grows interested
in solid food. As when seeds break open in the ground
and act differently.

There is a hidden love-center
in human beings that you will discover and savor
and nourish yourself with. That will be your food.

There's a way of going that's like the stars.
No,
even freer than they are, completely unconditioned,
unlocated, unpathed. A journey without a sky!

You came from Non-existence into being.
How did that happen? Tell me about it!
You were a little drunk when you arrived,
so you can't remember exactly?

I'll give you
some secret hints. Let your mind go, and be mindful.
Close your ears, and listen.

But maybe I shouldn't tell,
if you're not ripe. You're still in early Spring.
July hasn't happened yet in you.
This world is a tree,
and we are green, half-ripe fruit on it.
We hold tight to the limbs, because we know
we're not ready to be taken into the palace.

When we mature and sweeten,
we'll feel ashamed
at having clung so clingingly.
To hold fast
is a sure sign of unripeness.
To drink and enjoy
blood is fine for an embryo.

More needs to be said on this, but the Holy Spirit
will tell it to you when I'm not here.

*You'll* tell it
to *yourself*. Not I, or some other "I," You
who are Me!
As when you fall asleep and go
from the presence of your self to the Presence
of your Self. You hear That One and you think,
"Someone must have communicated telepathically
in my sleep."
You are not a single You,
good Friend, you are a Sky and an Ocean,
a tremendous YHUUUUUU, a nine hundred times huge
drowning place for all your hundreds of you's.

What are these terms *wakefulness* and *sleep*?
Don't answer. Let God answer.
Don't speak, so the Speakers can.
Not a word, so Sun-Light can say
what has never been in a book, or said.
Don't try to put it into words,
and the Spirit will do that through you,
in spite of you,
beside you,
among you.
Stop swimming so hard,
and climb in the boat with Noah.

-- Mathnawi, III, 1283-1307
Version by Coleman Barks and John Moyne
"This Longing"
Shambhala, Boston & London, 2000

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[Sunlight] You Are Not a Single You

[Sunlight] Reading from the page of his heart

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When Adam became the theater of Divine inspiration and love,
his rational soul revealed to him the knowledge of the Names.*
His tongue, reading from the page of his heart,
recited the name of everything that is.
Through his inward vision his tongue divulged the qualities of each;
for each it bestowed an appropriate name.
Nine hundred Noah walked in the straight way,
and everyday he preached a new sermon.
His ruby lip drew its eloquence from the precious jewel
that is within the hearts of prophets:
he had not read Qushayrî's Risâlah or the Qût al-Qulûb of Abû Tâlib.
He had not learned to preach from pouring over commentaries;
no, he learned from the fountain of revelations and the spirit--
from the wine that is so potent that when it is quaffed
the water of speech gushes from the mouth of the dumb,
and the new-born child becomes an eloquent divine
and, like the Messiah, recites words of ripened wisdom.

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Chon shod dam maz'har-e vahy o vedâd
nâteqeh-ye u `allama al-asmâ'* goshâd
Nâm-e har chizi chonânkeh hast ân
az sahifeh-ye del ruy gashtesh zabân
Fâsh mi gofti zabân az ro'yatesh
jomleh-râ khâsiyat o mâhiyatesh
nchonân nâmi keh ashyâ-râ sazad
nah chonânkeh chiz-râ khvânad asad
Nuh nohsad sâl dar râh-e savi
bud har ruzish tazkir-e navi
La`l-e u guyâ ze yâqut al-qolub
nah Risâlah khvândeh nah Qût al-Qulûb
Va`z-râ na-âmukhteh hich az shoruh
balkeh yanbu`-e koshuf o sharh-e ruh
Z-ân mayi k-ân may cho nushideh shavad
âb-e notq az gong jushideh shavad
Tefl-e nawzâdeh shavad habr-e fasih
hekmat-e bâlegh be-khvânad chon Masih

-- Mathnawi VI:2648-2656
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

*al-Baqarah, 29

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[Sunlight] Reading from the page of his heart

[Sunlight] Show Thy Face to us -- Ghazal 1160

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Show Thy Face to us! Conceal it not, oh Thou
who like the moon art famous throughout the seven heavens!
We are a group of lovers whom desire has
brought from a distant place on a journey--
Oh Thou who hast within Thine own Spirit
hundreds of thousands of paradises and houris and palaces!
Look down from the roof and behold with
kindliness this congregation of afflicted lovers!
Oh Saki of the Sufis! Give us a wine that does
not come from vat or grapes!
Give that wine whose ferment's fragrance pulls
the dead out of their graves!

-- Ghazal (Ode) 1160
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

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[Sunlight] Show Thy Face to us -- Ghazal 1160

[Sunlight] Let go of all distractions -- Ghazal 563

~

Today, Sunlight offers two translations of Ghazal (Ode) 563,
from Rumi's "Divan-e Shams" ("The Collection of Shams") -- one by Kolin and Mafi, and one by Professor Arberry:

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My heart, sit only with those
who know and understand you.
Sit only under a tree
that is full of blossoms.
In the bazaar of herbs and potions
don't wander aimlessly
find the shop with a potion that is sweet
If you don't have a measure
people will rob you in no time.
You will take counterfeit coins
thinking they are real.
Don't fill your bowl with food from
every boiling pot you see.
Not every joke is humorous, so don't search
for meaning where there isn't one.
Not every eye can see,
not every sea is full of pearls.
My heart, sing the song of longing
like nightingale.
The sound of your voice casts a spell
on every stone, on every thorn.
First, lay down your head
then one by one
let go of all distractions.
Embrace the light and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.
There you will find a spring and
nourished by its sweet waters
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.

--Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
"Rumi: Hidden Music"
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

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My heart, be seated near that person who has experience of
the heart, go under that tree which bears fresh blossoms.
Go not in every direction as do idlers in this druggists'
market; sit in the shop of someone who has sugar in his shop.
If you have no balance, then every one waylays you; one
man adorns a counterfeit coin, and you imagine that he has
gold;
Cheatingly he sets you by the door, saying, "I am coming"
- do not sit expectant at the door, for that house has two doors.
Do not bring your cup to every pot that seethes, and do not
sit there, for every seething pot has within in something else.
Not every reed holds sugar; not every under has an over;
not every eye has sight; not every sea holds pearls.
Lament, singing nightingale, because the drunkard's lament
has some effect, some effect even on rocks and stones.
Put aside your head if you have no room, for if the thread is
not contained in the eye of the needle that is because it has a head.
This wakeful heart is a lantern; hold it under your skirt; pass
away from this wind and air, for the air puts it into commotion.
When you have passed away from the wind you have become a
dweller in a fountain, you have become companion to a confederate
who pours cooling water on the heart.
When you have water on your heart, you are like a green
tree which constantly yields new fruit, and journeys within the Heart.

-- Translation by A.J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
The University of Chicago Press 1968/1991

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[Sunlight] Let go of all distractions -- Ghazal 563

[Sunlight] The idol of your self

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The idol of your self is the mother of all idols.
The material idol is only a snake;
while this inner idol is a dragon.
It is easy to break an idol,
but to regard the self as easy to subdue is a mistake.

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Mâdar-e bot-hâ bot-e nafs-e shomâst
zânke ân bot mâr va in bot azhdahâst
Bot shekastan sahl bâshad nik sahl
sahl didan nafs-râ jahlast jahl

-- Mathnawi I: 772-778
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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~

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[Sunlight] The idol of your self