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Thursday, December 30, 2004 |
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Don't miss today's post at Dick Jones's Patteran Pages for an excellent quoted article and series of links related to the tsunami disaster.
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Today's guest poet is Jelaluddin Rumi. I received a used copy of Coleman Barks's The Essential Rumi in the mail this week--at last!--and I opened it at random last night and found this, so appropriate for me personally right now, and wanted to share it: THE PHRASING MUST CHANGE Learn about your inner self from those who know such things but don't repeat verbatim what they say. Zuleikha let everything be the name of Joseph, from celery seed to aloes wood. She loved him so much she concealed his name in many different phrases, the inner meanings known only to her. When she said, the wax is softening near the fire, she meant, My love is wanting me. Or if she said, Look, the moon is up or the coriander seeds have caught fire or The roses are opening or The king is in a good mood today or isn't that lucky? or The furniture needs dusting or The water carrier is here or It's almost daylight or These vegetables are perfect or The bread needs more salt or The clouds seem to be moving against the wind or My head hurts or My headache's better, anything she praises, it's Joseph's touch she means, any complaint, it's his being away. When she's hungry, it's for him. Thirsty, his name is a sherbet. Cold, he's a fur. This is what the Friend can do when one is in such love. Sensual people use the holy names often, but they don't work for them. The miracle Jesus did by being the name of God, Zuleikha felt in the name of Joseph. When one is united to the core of another, to speak of that is to breathe the name Hu, empty of self and filled with love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what is in it. The saffron spice of connecting, laughter. The onion smell of separation, crying. Others have many things and people they love. This is not the way of Friend and friend. 10:08:01 AM  comment []
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