one winter afternoon

one winter afternoon

(at the magical hour
when is becomes if) 

a bespangled clown
standing on eighth street
handed me a flower. 

Nobody,it’s safe
to say,observed him but 

myself,and why?because 

without any doubt he was
whatever(first and last) 

mostpeople fear most:
a mystery for which i’ve
no word except alive 

—that is,completely alert
and miraculously whole; 

with not merely a mind and a heart 

but unquestionably a soul-
by no means funereally hilarious 

(or otherwise democratic)
but essentially poetic
or ethereally serious: 

a fine not a coarse clown
(no mob, but a person) 

and while never saying a word 

who was anything but dumb;
since the silence of him 

self sang like a bird.
Mostpeople have been heard
screaming for international 

measures that render hell rational
—i thank heaven somebody’s crazy 

enough to give me a daisy 

~ E. E. Cummings

 art by Chagall

the sight which regards the ebb and flow of good and ill

 

Through love bitter things seem sweet,

Through love bits of copper are made gold.

Through love dregs taste like pure wine,

Through love pains are as healing balms.

Through love thorns become roses,

And through love vinegar becomes sweet wine.

Through love the stake becomes a throne,

Through love reverse of fortune seems good fortune.

Through love a prison seems a rose bower,

Without love a grate full of ashes seems a garden.

Through love burning fire is pleasing light,

Through love the Devil becomes a Houri.

Through love hard stones become soft as butter,

Without love soft wax becomes hard iron.

Through love grief is as joy,

Through love Ghouls turn into angels.

Through love stings are as honey,

Through love lions are harmless as mice.

Through love sickness is health,

Through love wrath is as mercy.

Through love the dead rise to life,

Through love the king becomes a slave.

Even when an evil befalls you, have due regard;

Regard well him who does you this ill turn.

The sight which regards the ebb and flow of good and ill

Opens a passage for you from misfortune to happiness.

Thence you see the one state moves you into the other,

One opposite state generating its opposite in exchange.

~ Rumi

from The Spiritual couplets of 

Maulana Jalalu-'D-Din Muhammad Rumi

translated and abridged by

E.H. Whinfield

with thanks to No Mind's Land

the soul's awakening. freedom from the snares

 

Every night Thou freest our spirits from the body 

And its snare, making them pure as rased tablets. 

Every night spirits are released from this cage, 

And set free, neither lording it nor lorded over.

 At night prisoners are unaware of their prison,

At night kings are unaware of their majesty. 

Then there is no thought or care for loss or gain, 

No regard to such a one or such an one. 

The state of the "Knower" is such as this, even when awake. 

God says, 4 "Thou wouldst deem him awake though asleep, 

Sleeping to the affairs of the world, day and night,

Like a pen in the directing hand of the writer.

 He who sees not the hand which effects the writing 

Fancies the effect proceeds from the motion of the pen.

 If the "Knower" revealed the particulars of this state,

'Twould rob the vulgar of their sensual sleep. 

His soul wanders in the desert that has no similitude; 

Like his body, his spirit is enjoying perfect rest;

 Freed from desire of eating and drinking, 

Like a bird escaped from cage and snare. 

But when he is again beguiled into the snare, 

He cries for help to the Almighty.

~ Rumi

from Masnavi e Ma'navi (BOOK I)

Translated & Abridged by E. H. Whinfield

a person is not

 

First prevent what is lacking in merit,

Next prevent [ideas of a coarse] self;

Later prevent views of all kinds.

Whoever knows of this is wise.

...

A person is not earth, not water,

Not fire, not wind, not space.

not consciousness, and not all of them.

What person is there other than these?

Due to being set up in dependence upon an

aggregation of the six constituents

A person is not established as its own reality,

So due to being set up in dependence upon an aggregation

Each of the constituents also is not established as its own reality.

...

Through the elimination of karma and affliction there is nirvana.

Karma and affliction come from conceptual thought.

These come from mental fabrication.

Fabrication ceases through (realizing) emptiness.

~ Nagarjuna

from The Precious Garland of Advise

wherever our lives intersect the dimension of the holy

 

It is difficult to probe the inward awareness of another being.

 The realm of what one mystic called “the interior castle” 

is wholly private and wrapped in solitude.

 But when we look into another’s eyes — 

even into the eyes of an animal — 

we may find a small window into that inner sanctum,

 a window through which our souls can hail

 and greet one another.

...

The act of making eye contact with another being 

presupposes a conscious self behind either pair of peepers: 

I see you seeing me, 

and I am aware that you are aware 

that we are looking at each other.

...

For me, soul resides at the point where our lives

 intersect with the timeless, in our love of goodness, 

our passion for beauty, our quest for meaning and truth.

 In asking whether animals have souls, 

we are inquiring whether they share in the qualities

 that make life more than a mere struggle for survival, 

endowing existence with dignity and élan.

...

Many people think of soul as the element of personality

 that survives bodily death, but for me it refers to something 

much more down-to-earth. Soul is the marrow of our existence

 as sentient, sensitive beings. It’s soul that’s revealed in great works of art, 

and soul that’s lifted up in awe when we stand in silence

 under a night sky burning with billions of stars.

 When we speak of a soulful piece of music,

 we mean one that comes out of infinite depths of feeling. 

When we speak of the soul of a nation, 

we mean its capacity for valor and visionary change… 

Soul is present wherever our lives intersect 

the dimension of the holy: in moments of intimacy, 

in flights of fancy, and in rituals that hallow the evanescent

 events of our lives with enduring significance. 

Soul is what makes each of our lives a microcosm — 

not merely a meaningless fragment of the universe, 

but at some level a reflection of the whole.

There is an inwardness in other living beings that awakens 

what is innermost in ourselves. I have often marveled,

 for instance, watching a flock of shore birds. 

On an invisible cue, they simultaneously rise off the beach

 and into the air, then turn and bank seawards in tight formation.

 They are so finely coordinated and attuned in their aeronautics

 it is as though they share a common thought, or even a group mind, 

guiding their ascent. At such moments, I feel there are depths 

of “inner space” in nature that can never be sounded.

 And it is out of those same depths, in me, that awe arises

 as I contemplate the synchronicity of their flight.

 To contain such depths is to participate in the realm of spirit.

~ Gary Kowalski

from The Souls of Animals

with thanks to The Marginalian

 by Maria Popova

causing and bearing each other's burden

 

We are the creators and creatures of each other, 

causing and bearing each other's burden.

...

I find that somehow, by shifting the focus of attention, 

I become the very thing I look at, 

and experience the kind of consciousness it has; 

I become the inner witness of the thing.

 I call this capacity of entering 

other focal points of consciousness, 

love; 

you may give it any name you like.

 Love says "I am everything". 

Wisdom says "I am nothing".

 Between the two, my life flows. 

Since at any point of time and space 

I can be both the subject and the object of experience,

 I express it by saying that I am both,

 and neither, 

and beyond both.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

from  I Am That