~Evolutionary Intelligence

This groggy time we live, this is what it is like:

A man goes to sleep in the town

where he has always lived, and he dreams

he is living in another town.

He believes the reality of the dream town.

The world is that kind of sleep.

The dust of many crumbled cities

settles over us like a forgetful doze,

but we are older than those cities.

We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life

and into the animal state. Then into being human,

and always we have forgotten our former states,

except in early spring when we almost

remember being green again.

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,

through this migration of intelligences,

and though we seem to be sleeping,

there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream.

It will eventually startle us back

to the truth of who we are.

~ Rumi

(translated by: Coleman Barks in: A Year With Rumi )

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~Start Knowing

Stop learning.

Start knowing.

The rose opens… and opens…

and when it falls,

falls outward.

…

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
(Translated by Andrew Harvey)

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~God is One

Our death is our wedding with eternity.

What is its secret?

God is One.

The sun divides itself

Streaming through the different openings of the house;

But when these openings are closed,

multiplicity vanishes.

 

Multiplicity exists in the separate grapes

But cannot be found in the juice that springs from the grape.
…
- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

(Translated by Andrew Harvey)

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~Love Drives You Mad

Love drives you mad

from revelation to revelation

through ordeal after ordeal

until humble and broken

you are carried tenderly

into the heart of the rose.

Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

(Translated by Andrew Harvey)

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~The Infinite Rose Garden

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~I am the Pen in His Fingers

If He makes of me a cup,

I am a cup;

I am a dagger

if He makes me a dagger.

If he makes me a fountain,

water pours out of me;

Heat dances from me

if He makes me a fire.

If He makes me rain,

I give birth to rich fields;

If He makes me an arrow,

I pierce hearts;

If he makes me a serpent,

poison flames from me.

If He makes me a friend,

I serve my friends.

He is the Writer;

I am the pen in His fingers.

Who am I to obey or disobey?

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
(Translated by Andrew Harvey)

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~The Art of Surrender

The Goal Is One

There are a myriad different ways to search,

but the object of the search is always the same.

Don’t you see that the roads to Mecca are all different?

One comes from Byzantium, another from Syria,

still others wind through land or across the sea.

The roads are different; the goal is one.

Jalal-ud-Din Rumi (translated by Andrew Harvey)

What does it mean to surrender? If I type in a thesaurus search for the word “surrender” it reveals the following: give in, give up, admit defeat, lay down your arms, submit, yield, capitulate, submission, forfeit, hand over etc. I do not resonate with those words. They feel limiting, constricting. Surrender, to me, feels expansive therefore, which part of the self is the part that surrenders? Is it the ego, or perhaps another area of our psyche, or is it our soul?

I feel surrender can be summed up in the phrase, “Let go, let God.” This type of surrender is letting that which is greater than I guide me in my life. Surrender is something I have had to repeatedly learn throughout the course of my life. There have been times when I believed I had learned “how” to surrender, how to end resistance, only to discover another layer of resistance present.

Each decade of my life has brought a new layer, a new level of understanding in the art of surrender. I have had to learn to surrender to the experience of pain in my body as it reverberated throughout, caused by endometriosis. Once I surrendered to the pain I discovered many areas of my life were out of balance, possibly causing the disease. I have also had to learn how to surrender to the pain of migraine headaches, of quieting my thoughts, taking time to nurture myself when I had pushed myself too hard for too long. These are physical forms of surrender, surrender to the innate wisdom of my body.

The wisdom of my body led me to other areas of surrender within my being. Perhaps the pain I endured was necessary, it enabled me to learn the art of surrender, it enabled my ego to relinquish some of it’s control. This has required me to learn trust. I have learned that I can trust the events of my life will work out-there is a greater meaning to the suffering I endured. This is similar to the Sufi story of the stream in the book “The World’s Religions”. The stream is trying to cross the desert, but soon discovers the sand absorbs it, therefore it is prevented from crossing. A voice instructs the stream that it must trust, and allow the wind to change its form in order for it to cross the desert. In order to trust, my ego must first be transformed, change-form, this is surrender.

The Beloved

In all the worlds and heavens not a bird moves a wing
not a straw trembles but by God’s eternal law.

No one can explain this and no one should try.

Who can number the roses in the Almighty’s rose garden?

How could the Beloved be snared in a net of words?

Jalal-ud-Din Rumi (Translated by Andrew Harvey)

Daily, it seems, I must relearn the art of surrendering. I relearn how to surrender my thoughts of separation from the Divine. As Rumi states above, how can the awesomeness of the Divine, the Beloved, God, be known through the limits of language? When thoughts of separation are not present I am able to surrender into the Love that is within. Surrendering thought allows me to experience the innate Love of the Divine within.

I also must relearn how to surrender the identity of who I think I am. I am a daughter-yes, and so much more; I am a sister-yes, and so much more; I am a mother, a friend, a free thinking independent woman-yes, and so much more. The latest form of identity surrender came when I completed my undergraduate degree program. I am no longer a student, I am a graduate. I must relearn how to surrender an identity, that of a student, so I can expand into the so much more of who I am.

So, to answer my own question: which part of the self is the part that surrenders? Is it the ego, or perhaps another area of our psyche, or is it our soul? I feel it is all of it, the many guises of our being must learn surrender in all of its multifaceted forms.

Liisa 2/2010

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~Balancing Your Humanity With Your Divinity

Over two years ago, during orientation at Bastyr University, a question was posed to us: How are you going to remain balanced while in school? This question intrigued me, not only because it was one I had not considered before, but I also perceived that held within the question was permission for us to take care of ourselves while we journeyed forward in our education. I remember being deeply grateful for the question and the reminder to put myself at the top of my priority list and keep myself there.

Initially I thought our professors meant how do we plan on maintaining balance with school, work, family and health. Now, as I come to the end of my program, I see how that one simple question has reverberated within, and how ripples have extended to all aspects of my life.

So, when the question below was asked of us in a recent class, I could feel those ripples gently washing over my consciousness…ahh yes, another area to be mindful of…

How Do You Balance Your Humanity With Your Divinity?

Always in His Service

I said to my heart, “How, my heart, can you be so crazy
as to swerve from the service of the One you bless?”

My heart replied,

“It is you who are mad to see me wrongly –
I am always in His service,
It is you that stray.”
Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

I believe we have the Divine within and balancing our innate Divinity with our humanness is a lifelong endeavor. For myself, I view it as walking a tightrope, I must remain focused and concentrate on each step that is placed. I must also keep my thoughts in the present, otherwise it is very easy to lose balance and get caught in an endless cycle of negative, catastrophic, or other senseless thoughts. The negative thoughts are what distance me from the Divine within.

By far, the easiest way for me to remain connected and find balance with the Divine is when I am outdoors in Nature. Walking in Nature is my form of communion. I had a profound heart awakening that took place in Nature; a few days after that Bodhichitta moment I had an epiphany when a gust of wind blew around me. I understood on the deepest levels that even the air we breathe is due to Divine grace, the Love of the Creator. Our human form, as well as many other sentient beings, must have oxygen; it is the Love of the Creator, in the form of oxygen that enables us to live. This oxygen is ever-present and we would not survive very long without it. When I had this epiphany I was filled with awe that touched the core of my being, awakening and stirring something within- complete gratitude for the Creator.

In the chapter on Christianity in the book World Religions by Houston Smith, it is discussed how Jesus appealed to the innate truth within the heart of each individual. He tried to convey the profound and unconditional Love of God by showing humanity how to allow it into their being as well as how to give it to others when it overflowed within. I felt this love when I experienced the epiphany of oxygen.

I currently strive to feel the unconditional Love of the Divine by maintaining awareness of the Divine within. I also strive to share the unconditional Love that flows through me with others, not only those people I find are easier to like, but also with those whose personalities are challenging. For those moments when I stray, or deny myself Love, I remind myself that I am also loved unconditionally and the Love of the Divine is always available when I am ready to connect once again—thus balancing my humanity with my Divinity.

Liisa 2/2010

So in keeping with the theme of this posting, how do you maintain balance in your life, between you and the Sacred, your responsibilities, your health and your desires?

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~Drunk on Love

Drunk on Love

Be drunk on love,

because love is all that exists;

Without love, no one has the right to enter His house.

They ask, “What is love?”

Reply: “Giving up your self-will.”

He who hasn’t given up his will isn’t chosen.

The lover’s an emperor, the two worlds are at his feet:

Does an emperor notice what is thrown in his path?

It is Love and the Lover that live eternally –

Don’t lend your heart to anything else; all else is borrowed.

How long will you go on and on embracing a corpse?

Embrace the soul that is embraced by nothing else.

…

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
(Translated by Andrew Harvey)

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~Be Awake Always

Be Awake Always

There are many whose eyes are awake

And whose hearts are asleep;

Yet, what can be seen

By mere creatures of water and clay?

But he who keeps his heart awake

Will know and live this mystery:

While the eyes of his head may sleep

His heart will open hundreds of eyes.

If your heart isn’t yet illumined

Be awake always, be a seeker of the heart,

Be at war continually with your carnal soul.

But if your heart is already awakened,

Sleep peacefully, sleep in the arms of Love,

For your spiritual eye is not absent

From the seven heavens and seven directions.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
(Translated by Andrew Harvey)

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