Wu Hsin - Lost writings (some)

These words are
The transmission of Wu Hsin.
Thanks be to Heaven for
Granting their approval.
They transcend time and
Therefore are beyond time.
They will be as valid in
Five thousand years as
They are in this moment.
In the absence of a resonance,
They will have no meaning nor
Create any interest.
This resonance cannot be willed into being.
It is either inherent by nature or
It is not.
These words come out from
A place devoid of
Concepts and doubts.
As such, they are not only spontaneous, but
Natural and true.
They are not intended to
Create new concepts,
But, to instead,
Dispel old ones.
The words of Wu Hsin are
Not meant for discussion which only
Distorts and pollutes.
Take them in and
Move on.

 download some Wu Hsin writings HERE

Ilie Cioara - Nothingness

art maandersen

 “Nothingness is the void, nonexistence, the nothing, the non-thing.
Simultaneously, It is also the Infinite, the Existence which permeates All that exists in the Boundless Universe. It has no limits, therefore it is Boundlessness.

Each time we realize the State of Being, we also experience Boundless Thinking, which is, in fact, the same Immensity we can also call Nothingness. This Nothingness holds all the planets, stars, galaxies and universes in orbit, as well as all their content.

Therefore, in a simple state of No-mind we encounter the eternal State of Being, which is, in fact, the Infinite Energy or God. Practically, we are in a state of Boundless Thinking; in a split second we can place a Thought on the Moon, the Sun or any galaxy.

When we truly encounter the State of Being through personal experience, we realize our Godliness, for in that sublime Moment we and God are in a perfect communion, manifested as eternal Love.

Therefore, each of us – woman or man – is endowed with this natural functional capacity. It is attained with the help of lucid and all-encompassing Attention, which instantly dissipates the mechanism of the delusive, illusory mind. As soon as this "Psychological Void" or Peace of the Soul appears, the New Man affirms his existence and sublime behavior as unconditional Love, Joy and Happiness, free from any external motivations.”

http://thesilencebook.blogspot.gr/ 

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Gilbert Schultz - Psychological suffering is unnecessary

It would seem that 'personal suffering' is the last thing anyone wants to give up. 

What am l without this 'story of me'? The energy that is expressed everyday, 

in every major city in the world, expressed through the 'personal drama', 

could power up the city for a few hours probably. 

Is anything truly achieved by all the story-telling, the angst and the unnecessary

suffering? Is any of it real? Truly? It is very simple to reveal that the story of me is just a bunch of ideas, ideas that have no actual foundation in reality. 

 

 What is real? The fact that you truly ARE, that you EXIST, is real.

How that is explained by the mind is just concepts.

 

The nature of everything is equal in essence and totally 

uniquely diverse in expression.

 

Everything occupies its own unique 'place' without being fixed in time or space. 

Not one atom can be anywhere other than where it is. 

The space which surrounds each particle is the same space that is everywhere, completely beyond the apparent limits of dimensional measurement. 

There are no fixed reference points in space or time. All phenomena is

transient, immediate, and its true nature is not separate from the emptiness (space) 

which suffuses everything. 

 

The cutting-through insight which reveals our true nature is like space. 

The causeless joy of 'self-discovery' is beyond the intellects ability to explain. 

The genuine insight is not accompanied by any belief in being an entity. 

The pristine absence of an individual identity is beyond description. 

It is like pure wisdom, pure knowing, where there is an obvious clarity

devoid of any 'knower'. The entire manifestation is known to be an appearance 

that does not actually touch the true essence of knowing. 

It is neither within nor without – it is formless knowing. 

Even though the body still appears to be the host of this consciousness, 

it is known as no more than an appearance – a living appearance

that has no substance apart from the activity of immediate cognition. 

 

This 'presence' of undoubtable knowing is our true nature. It is nature itself. 

The old way of thinking, the mind (the me) of memory is transcended totally. 

Even though this idea of 'me' returns in the appearance, it has no belief attached to it. 

The 'pathway' of energy that once supported that belief has been cut off. 

Of course this suggests that 'something' has 'happened'. Nothing has truly happened and never did.

 

 

There is no one to claim anything. The nature of language implies many things that don't

actually exist. Yet such implications have no substance and merely belong to the nature of

appearance. All this appearance is actually emptiness appearing as the diversity of life. The joy of seeing everything in this 'way' cannot be described. 

 

Many popular teachers claim all sorts of things about themselves, either openly or by

inference. None of it is true. None of it. There is no separate individual anywhere. 

All is abiding as equanimity. The diversity of differences is only of the appearance of things, There is only one thing, which is no thing. When this truth is revealed, one is left speechless. Speech returns, but belief has been completely overthrown.

 

The contriving mind is restless and the 'wanting-to-impress' impulses, so apparent in so many teachers and gurus, is obvious. So-called 'spirituality' is nothing but contrived mind; there is nothing in it. It may assist in stepping away from apparent harmful beliefs, but it is nothing but appearance. There is only one spirit and THAT is what you ARE

. Nothing can take you there -because you have always been That. 

It is only the mind (me) of memory and learned 'data' that suggests otherwise. 

Belief must be vanquished once and for all. The cost of freedom is

seeing that there was never anyone who was actually bound.

That cost is often accompanied by habitual 'fear' and that so-called fear 

of being nothing keeps the apparent 'seeker' bound to belief. 

 

 

Psychological suffering is unnecessary. No one can 'do it' for you. 

No amount of praying, repeating a mantra, or service to a guru can truly

bring about the revelation of one's own true nature. It may appear

to do that, but it is only just another appearance. What you truly ARE,you have 

ALWAYS been. The simple everyday activity of knowing this consciousness, this

being present and aware, is all that is required and THAT is always present; 

it is the true nature of everything. There is nothing other than THAT

.

Whatever your background is, whatever religion you 'belong to', 

whatever place you find yourself in, the unchanging true essence of being 

is the same. You are that One-without-a-second. 

 

 

 PDF download HERE

 

 http://seeing-knowing.com/

Jan Frazier - Looking at thought

Not ideas about the thing
but the thing itself.

 
See the difference between the felt encounter with momentary reality
and anything the mind makes of it.


The idea of the thing becomes
the thing itself.

 
This is what the ego does with ideas. They are mistaken for life itself.
So suffering continues. Time keeps seeming real. Life itself is missed.
The seeming-reality of the self (which is made of ideas) persists.


 When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes.

 
“You” (your ego) have to “come online” in order for egoic thought to form.
When your mind is free of egoic thought, “you” literally are not there.
This is because you (the egoic self) are constructed of thought and maintained by it.
The mind creates a self, which then tells itself stories.
The self lives in these stories and ideas as if they were reality.


Thought gains its dominance and control
by a simple device:
not being observed.

 
As soon as you become aware that you are thinking, rather than engaging with the content of the thought,
the power of the thought diminishes. You see that thought is not reality.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It may take the rest of your life to “get” this. Be patient!
Revisit it every so often. It will bear fruit.
Don’t try (only) to understand it. Observe it operating, as you live.
Let it play like a song in the background of your awareness.

http://janfrazierteachings.com/ 

Sources of quotations:

“Not ideas about the thing but the thing itself.” – Wallace Stevens (20th century American poet)

“The idea of the thing becomes the thing itself.” – Thomas Lynch (contemporary American poet and essayist; also an undertaker)

“When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes.” – Third Zen Patriarch

“Thought gains its dominance and control by a simple device: not being observed.” – Red Hawk (contemporary spiritual author)

 

Mary Oliver - Day off

pic Martin Stranka

 “Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.”

 

A. S. Kline - Reductio

(from)The Other Side of Silence

It is an aspect of the world: imagine

that the unwatched mirror is empty;

that things inside the room, the room

itself, vanish, when the door is closed;

that there are no words inside the books

till we open them, nor behind the screen;

that the sun dies each night and is reborn;

that the universe, its billion-fold light show

is a darkness that the mind populates;

that non-existent gods spring into being

whenever the faithful say their prayers.

plenty of readings and free downloads 

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/index.html 

 

Steve Taylor - The wave

The ocean sighed with pleasure
as the wind caressed and stroked her
and soon the wave was born.

The wave came from the ocean
and was always a part of the ocean.
But shortly after he was created
the wave watched himself, as he began to rise and roll,
saw his own smooth and graceful motion,
the beautiful bubbling foam which sprayed around him
and fell in love with himself.

He started to believe that he was his own master
that it was his own strength that was propelling him
that he was directing his own flow
and could change direction if he wanted.

The wave forgot the ocean, and saw himself as separate –
a self-sufficient, sealess wave
who felt proud of his power, exhilarated by his autonomy
as he rolled faster and rose higher.

But then he looked around, and saw the other waves
who had already peaked and crashed
and were beginning to dip and to disperse
and the others who were already dissolving, disappearing.
And he felt afraid, realising that his form was temporary
that his speed and power would ebb away
and soon he would dissolve and disappear as well.

And he felt alone, as he sensed the empty space around him,
the distance between him and the other waves.
And he felt threatened by the ocean’s vastness,
now that he seemed to be separate from it.

The wave resisted and rebelled –
he tried to build up more momentum, to collect more water,
to roll more smoothly, to foam more spectacularly
to make himself so powerful that he would never dissolve away
to make his form so perfect that he could escape decay.

But soon the wave realised he had no choice
that he had less control than he thought, less strength than he thought
that he couldn’t interfere with the forces that had shaped him
so he stopped grasping and pushing
and felt the relief of letting go
and the freedom of no longer trying.

And so after the majestic foaming rush, the glorious crescendo of his breaking
he gave himself up to his ebbing, fading flow
to the ease of his descent
and he was filled with the joy of acceptance.

He allowed his boundaries to soften
and felt his connection to every other wave
and his oneness with the whole of the sea.
He felt the vast wholeness of the sea
within his own being
then as his own being.

And then the wave dipped, slowed down and began to dissipate.
Quietly and serenely, without fear or resistance
he gave himself to the tide, and became the sea again
knowing that he had never been anything else.

 https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/

 

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee - Mysticism: Living Love’s Oneness

What is mysticism? How is it different to spirituality? And why is mysticism important at this moment in time?

The spiritual journey can be most simply described as a way to access the light of our soul — the beautiful light with which we came into the world. On this journey we make an inner relationship with this light of our divine nature — the spirit that is within each of us. Through this relationship we come to know our true self and be nourished by the deeper meaning of our soul.

Spiritual paths and teachings give us access to the tools and guidance to do this inner work. For example, the practice of meditation can help to still the mind so that we are no longer distracted by its continual chatter. Psychological inner work can free us from the traumas, anger, anxiety and other feelings that may cover our light. Gradually we come to know more of our true nature, learn to live in the light of our real self. It is said that the goal of every spiritual path is to live a guided life, guided by that within us which is eternal.

The mystical journey may begin with making a relationship with one’s inner light, but the mystic is drawn on a deeper journey toward love’s greatest secret: that within the heart we are one with the divine. The fire of mystical love is a burning which destroys all sense of a separate self, until nothing is left but love Itself. While the spiritual seeker is drawn to the light of this fire, the mystic is the moth consumed by it’s flames. Rumi, love’s greatest mystical poet, summed up his whole life in two lines:

And the result is not more than these three words:
I burnt, and burnt, and burnt.

The mystical path takes us into the center of the heart where this mystery of love takes place. Initially this love is often experienced as longing, a deep desire for God, the Beloved, Divine Truth, or simply an unexplained ache in the heart. Mystics are lovers who are drawn toward a love in which there is no you or me, but only the oneness of love Itself. And they are prepared to pay the ultimate price to realize this truth: the price of themselves. In the words of the 13th century Christian mystic Hadewych of Antwerp:

Those who were two, at first,
are made one by the pain of love.

Gradually we discover that this love and longing slowly and often painfully destroy all our outer and inner attachments, all the images we may have of our self. The Sufis call this process being taken into the tavern of ruin, through which we are eventually made empty of all except divine love, divine presence.

This is an ancient journey in which the heart is awakened to the wonder and beauty, as well as the terror, of divine love. It is celebrated in the Bible in the Song of Songs: “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” And over the centuries mystics of all faiths have written their love stories. Some mystics have been persecuted, like the Sufi al-Hallaj who was crucified for publically proclaiming the secret of divine oneness, “I am the Truth.” Known as the prince of lovers, he expressed the mystical reality: “I am He whom I love, He whom I love is me.”

Mystics may be drawn inward, but the oneness of the divine also embraces the outer world. When the eye of the heart is open all of creation reveals its divine nature; everything is seen as an expression, a manifestation of the One Being. Mystics are also involved in the demands of everyday life. One of Christianity’s most loved mystics, St. Teresa of Avila, worked tirelessly founding nunneries and looking after her nuns, while at the same time mystical prayer took her into ever deepening states of inner absorption, oneness and ecstasy. Mysticism does not mean to retire from life, but to live the unitive life. “God,” St. Teresa would say, “lives also among the pots and pans.”

The truth of mystical love is one of humanity’s great heritages. It should not be confused with its cousin, spiritual life. The spiritual journey is a wonderful way to come closer to what is sacred. It a way to live in the light of our divine nature, to be nourished by the mystery and meaning of the soul. It opens the door to what really belongs to us as sacred beings. But mysticism is quite different. The moth who feels the warmth of the fire is on a very different journey to the moth drawn into the flames themselves. This is the ancient journey from separation back to union, from our own self back to a state of oneness with God. Step by step we walk along the path of love until finally we are taken by love into love; we are taken by God to God, and there is no going back, only a deepening and deepening of this love affair of the soul.

Even if we are not all drawn to tread the path of the mystic, we need to be reminded that this note of divine love belongs to all of us. In a time of so much division in the world, it is important to reclaim this primal truth that belongs to our heritage: this great song of the soul that celebrates the oneness that is within the heart of each of us and underlies all of creation. This has particular relevance when we confront our present ecological crisis. We can no longer afford to think of the environment as something separate, outside of us. We need an awareness of the “oneness of being” of which we are all a part, and actions that come from this awareness. This awareness of unity is one of the most important contributions of the mystic at this moment in time.

Within the heart of each of us, within the heart of humanity, is this song of mystical love. It has been present for millennia celebrating the divine unity that is our real nature, and the deepest secret of our relationship with God. Hearing the many voices that today so easily consume our attention, it is easy for us to forget this quiet voice of divine love. And yet it is one of the great secrets of humanity, passed down from lover to lover, needing to be embraced, to be known, to be lived.

Read plenty more here:

The Golden Sufi center 

Kabir - Neither am I...

Neither am I righteous nor non-righteous
Neither am I an ascetic nor a sensualist
Neither do I speak nor do I listen
Neither am I a servant nor a master

Neither am I constrained nor liberated
Neither am I sad nor jubilant
Neither am I distinctly isolated from anything
Nor am I identified completely with anything

Neither do I go to the world of hell
Nor do I proceed to the world of heaven
All actions are really my actions
But yet I am distinct from the actions

This truth only a rare exceptional one realizes
Such a person sits in quiescence
Oh Kabir don't bring forth any creation
And don't efface anything either.

 

 

 

Clare Blanchflower - Stay Close

art Dirk Wuestenhagen

 Stay close
so close
to experience
Rest in presence
Hurry not
to think
to express
to share
to conceptualise
Give not this moment
to the mind

Be with your Self
Feel the resonance of
Here Now
Watch the landscape
of consciousness
with curious eyes
as the
I of awareness

Allow happening
to happen
Be with it
Never leave
the moment
for a fantasy future
or dramatic past
Be with the aliveness
of Now
Feel your heart beat
with life’s
rich flow


Stay close
and see
every tender thread
of life
is the warp and weft
of your own
wholeness
Your true
radiant
Self
Here
Now
Flawlessly
Unbounded

http://clareblanchflower.com/ 

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Try it!

"Sir, try it. Live for one day, one hour, as though you were going to die, actually going to die the next hour. If you knew you were about to die, what would you do? You would gather your family together, put your money, your little property in order, and draw up a will; and then, as death approached, you would have to understand all that you had been. If you were merely frightened because you were dying, you would be dying for nothing; but you would not be frightened if you said, “I have lived a dull, ambitious, envious, stupid life, and now I am going to wipe all that totally from my memory, I am going to forget the past and live in this hour completely.” Sir, if you can live one hour as completely as that, you can live completely for the rest of your life. But to die is hard work - not to die through disease and old age, that is not hard work at all. That is inevitable; it is what we are all going to do, and you cushion yourself against it in innumerable ways. But if you die so that you are living fully in this hour, you will find there is an enormous vitality, a tremendous attention to everything because this is the only hour you are living. You look at this spring of life because you will never see it again; you see the smile, the tears, you feel the earth, you feel the quality of a tree, you feel the love that has no continuity and no object. Then you will find that in this total attention the ‘me’ is not, and that the mind, being empty, can renew itself. Then the mind is fresh, innocent, and such a mind lives eternally beyond time."

 

Lee van Laer - I have a suitcase

I have a suitcase
Packed with many things.
But myself, I’m empty,
Without a clue, no place to go,

No ticket.

No tag to mark a destination.

It’s a fine suitcase
With good things in it;
Paid for with hard-earned cash.
Others are impressed.

In the morning, the suitcase
Is ready to go anywhere I go;
Just zip it up. I carry it
From place to place.

But I’m still me; still empty
Nothing fills me but my life
Which cannot be fit
In suitcases.

Despite this understanding,
I think to myself:
I should have bought larger.
Much, much larger.

It doesn’t matter, though,
I suddenly remember.
I’m emptiness;
Will stay that way

Forever.

 Lee van Laer, Senior Editor of Parabola holds a degree in fine art and is a professional in the textiles industry. He is also a writer and a musician. For more information, please visit 

http://zenyogagurdjieff.blogspot.gr/ 

Laughing Buddha ~ I Can't Find My Mind!

art Reza Badrossama

Jane Cook Barne - Springbrook Prairie Summer Night

A bank of purple cloud presses the sunset
down, down into fire and golden light.
Up from the land rises Darkness. 
At the horizon there is a little string
of highway lights, commercial buildings
marking their place against the oncoming night
But here in the overlook I am encompassed by it.

The color of the bee balm standing straight
along the mowed edge of the meadow
fades to lavender gray and then to
no color I can see.  The shapes of plants
and a single tree hold their own
against the burning sky.  Lightning bugs
appear. Their signaling occurs in the margins of my view: 
I turn to them and they are gone, to wink again
in another place.
 
I am sending out my signal, too,
into the universe like they are,
to a face I only imagine, one
I hope into existence, who will see and love
my light, little though it is,
tentative and timid in the dusk,
but trusting the power of the darkness
to let it shine.

 Jane Cook Barnes lives and teaches in Naperville, Illinois (USA), where the midwestern landscape and the

lives of her family give energy to her poetry.

 

Via Interreligious insight

 

Unmani - Freedom With..., Not Freedom From...

art Dirk Wuestenhagen

On the spiritual path we tend to be waiting or hoping for a time when we will be free from all pain and suffering, or any unpleasant and unwanted experiences. We might have picked up ideas about how it should be or how you should feel, when you are 'awakened', or 'free'. We take any uncomfortable sensations as 'proof' that I haven't got it yet, and hope for a 'one day' when it will all be cleaned up, and be perfectly peaceful, without any human disturbances. And even if your hopes and dreams are not that extreme, there can still be the idea that there is something, however small, still missing, based on the ever-critically high standards of thought. There can be the belief that I will only be truly free, when I am free from my whole list of 'faults'. This is what leads us to spend so much time and energy, in trying to control, fix, heal, improve, become, and more. We are so busy with this endless effort to clean it all up, that we overlook the simple fact that in putting so much effort into a future dream, we are imprisoning ourselves even more.
Real Freedom does not need it all to be cleaned up. The Freedom that you are, is the freedom that includes it all just as it is. It is the freedom to be a mess. It is the freedom to be human. It is not dependent on everything being cleaned up, or there being no human conditioning, emotions, thoughts or sensations.  Real freedom is not dependent on a particular experience or state, in order to be free.
This means that there is nothing to wait for or hope for in the future. There is no 'one day' when you will be free. There is no mummy or daddy out there that will grace you with the gift of freedom in reward for your efforts. Freedom is here right now. Truly acknowledging that, can seem frightening because it means letting go of your need to be free. Letting go of your identity of someone who is working hard to be free. Losing your hopes and dreams, and coming back down to earth.
This is the Freedom with, whatever is here right now. Freedom with the highs and the lows. Freedom with all the seeming prisons. Even if it feels uncomfortable. Even if it doesn't fit your ideas about how it should be. Even if it doesn't feel free. Freedom includes it all, and is not disturbed by anything that happens. No matter what happens, this is never proof that you are not free. The thinking can never understand this kind of freedom. It doesn't make sense. It is too free to make sense.

http://www.die-to-love.com/ 

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Mansur Hallaj - Ana L' Haq

Separation is for the realization.
Realization to the true way of love.
The love that wants nothing,
The love that needs none,
Not even the beloved.
Because in such a state of reality
lover and beloved is not two,
Separate? Never!
but two becomes one.
Together, ever!
Behold! that is the secret of sufi
Mansur al Hallaj's saying,
'Anal Haq',
Lo! A true lover in total submission and annihilation.
Merged in Divine Love of the ultimate Beloved

crucifixtion of Hallaj

 

Aisha Salem - The Invitation

When You Come to Me

Come to Me Wild,
Driven by your Passion
for Truth more Naked than Naked,
Love Purer than Pure,
Being Supreme,
Willing Extreme
No Denial, No Trial…
Just Surrender, Meet Me Here.

Come Sincere,
Attachment will Hinder,
Yet You not are freed,
Reality Streaming
or lost in Dreaming?
No story needs Told,
For Love to unfold,
Pretending always Amiss,
Sincerity Serene
Love Extreme
Let Go to Reality Supreme.

Come Bearing Gifts,
The Gift of Your Soul,
Your Heart in your Hand,
The Drift of your Goal,
Your Honesty, Thrill,
Your Backbone and Kill…

Come Naked, Come Free
Expectations Will Slow Us,
Compromise Throw Us,
Soaring the Skies,
Diving The Earth,
Meeting in Truth,
Reality Birth…

http://aishasalem.com/

John Astin - Two poems

pic Martin Stranka

 The Innkeeper

Everything is
welcomed here.
The innkeeper
refuses no visitors
but beckons
all to enter -
every thought,
every sensation,
everything
that appears
and then disappears
all are invited
to the dance,
this endless play
of emptiness
loving form,
and wave
loving sea.
   
           
Is It True?

Is it true?
Are you really lost,
caught up in the currents
of the thinking mind?

Or can you feel
the cool splash of water
and wind upon your face
as the river rushes by?

Is it true?
Are you really lost,
stumbling along
in some dark forest
of worry or fear?

Or is something here,
something that knows
just how black the night
really is?

Is it true?
Are you really lost,
wandering the shore
in some hazy fog
of forgetfulness?
Or have you always
been here
drinking in the fresh sea air
and marvelling at the wonder
of the grey night?

http://www.johnastin.com/ 

James Eaton - The Fool

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It

 

Why is it that Chinese Emperors, Egyptian Pharaohs and English Kings and Queens reputedly consulted with fools and court jesters? Because the fool is unburdened by the expectations and conventions of society, is unconstrained by the shoulds and shouldn’ts, the need to keep up appearances, is entirely free to cut through our man-made-up concepts and beliefs to expose the unmodified truth.

So what if we are the fool, what if we dare to step outside our mental framework of ideas and explore the sensual reality of the moment?

Through the eyes of the fool we discover that we have no eyes, that what we are is not an isolated person looking out at the world but rather this entire colourful image of life happening, that a computer keyboard is no less ourSelf than the fingers that dance across its keys, that the cry of a bird, the image of open sky, the sound of children playing, the taste of peppermint tea, the fizzing aliveness of sensations, the wonder of unbridled joy, the intense sorrow of grief, every experience experiencable is our infinitely creative Self shapeshifting into ever fresh, ingenious compositions.

It’s in this fool’s wisdom, which our thought-made version of reality regards as pure madness, that we discover the magical homecoming for which we’ve always longed.

jameseaton.org 

Amma - Love

"Love is our true essence."


"You can only feel love by expressing it."


"The more you give, the more your heart is filled. Love is a never ending stream."


“Real love is the complete absence of any negative feelings towards anyone.”


"Be like the honeybee who gathers only nectar wherever it goes. Seek the goodness that is found in everyone."


"When love overflows and is expressed through every word & deed, we call it compassion. That is the goal of religion."


“Love is the only medicine that can heal the wounds of the world.”


"If we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter.”


"May your thoughts, words and actions arise from love.”


“Love one another without any expectations. Then,there is no need to go anywhere in search of heaven.”

http://amma.org/ 

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari - Absorbed in Him

From the un-manifest I came,
And pitched my tent, in the Forest of Material existence.
I passed through mineral and vegetable kingdoms,
Then my mental equipment carried me into the animal kingdom;
Having reached there I crossed beyond it;
Then in the crystal clear shell of human heart
I nursed the drop of self in a Pearl,
And in association with good men
Wandered round the Prayer House,
And having experienced that, crossed beyond it;
Then I took the road that leads to Him,
And became a slave at His gate;
Then the duality disappeared
And I became absorbed in Him.

 Sheikh Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Sheikh Ansari Jabir ibn 'Abdullah al-Ansari, also known as Ansari of Herat, was born in Herat, in western Afghanistan.

Some of Sheikh Ansari's works include Kashf al-Asrar "Unveiling of the Secrets" (Commentary of the Qur'an), Tabaquat al-Sufiyya (The Generations of the Sufis),� "Munajat" (Intimate Invocations) which is incorporated into the Kashf al-Asrar and in the Tabaqat.��

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari died in Herat the year 1088, and his burial place in Herat is still a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Sufis and the faithful every year. 

Source 

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee - Longing

"..Longing is the feminine side of love—the cup waiting to be filled. Love has a masculine side, “I love you,” and a feminine side, “I am
Longing is the feminine side of love—the cup waiting to be filled. Love has a masculine side, “I love you,” and a feminine side, “I am waiting for you. I need you.” Sadly our culture has forgotten this doorway of devotion, and the lover is often left stranded, not ever knowing the real nature and purpose of the longing that tugs at the heart. It is easy to think that this discontent of the soul is a psychological problem or the result of an unhappy relationship. But the Sufi knows this pain is the sweetness of love’s poison, and is often the most direct way Home, as it bypasses the mind and all of its distractions and arguments. It is a call direct to the heart."

From: Within the Heart of Hearts: A Story of Mystical Love
Chapter: Longing 

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Kahlil Gibran - On Love

art Kahlil Gibran

 When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north winds
lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he
is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become
sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall ove do unto you that youmay know the secrets
of your heart, and in tht knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass
out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all
your laughter, and weep, but not all your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Loves possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love,
if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire fut to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these
be your desires:

** To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
** To know the pain of too much tenderness.
** To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
** And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
** To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
** To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's esctasy;
** To return home at eventide with gratitude;
** And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

 The Prophet