Showing posts with label Lalla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lalla. Show all posts

Thursday, March 2, 2023

always new









The soul, like the moon,
is new, and always new again.

And I have seen the ocean
continuously creating.

Since I scoured my mind
and my body, I too, Lalla,
am new, each moment new.

My teacher told me one thing.
Live in the soul.

When that was so,
I began to go naked,
and dance.



~ Lalla
from Naked Song
translation by Coleman Barks





awareness is










Don't talk of different religions.
The one reality is everywhere,
not just in a Hindu, or a Muslim,
or anywhere else! Realize:

your awareness is
the truth about God.




~ Lalla


Saturday, May 16, 2020

giving up all trying





I wearied myself searching for the friend
With efforts beyond my strength
I came to the door
And saw how powerfully the locks were bolted
And the longing in me became that strong
And then I saw that I was gazing from within the presence
Only after that waiting and giving up all trying
Did Lalla flow out from where I knelt


Gently I weep for my mind,
caught in its illusion of ownership.
Mind,  you're not who you think you are.
You're dancing over a pit.
Soon you'll fall through,
And these things,  you've valued
And collected will be left behind.




~ Lalla

Monday, April 27, 2020

your way of knowing







Your way of knowing is a private herb garden.
Enclose it with a hedge of meditation,
and self-discipline, and helpfulness to others.

Then everything you've done before
will be brought as a sacrifice
to the mother goddess.

And each day, as you eat the herbs,
the garden grows more bare and empty.




~ Lalla
translation by Coleman Barks
 from The Soul is here for its own Joy, Sacred Poems from Many Cultures
edited by Robert Bly
  


Tuesday, December 31, 2019

who yawns





It is God who yawns and sneezes
and coughs, and now laughs.

Look, it's God doing ablutions!
God deciding to fast, God going naked
from one New Year's Eve to the next.

Will you ever understand
how near God is
to you?


~ Lalla
from Naked Song
translations by Coleman Barks



Friday, October 18, 2019

I began as a bloom of cotton






I began as a bloom of cotton,
outdoors.  Then they brought me to a room
where they washed me.  Then the hard strokes
of the carder's wife.  Then another woman
spun thin threads, twisting me
around her wheel.  Then the kicks
of the weaver's loom made cloth, 
and on the washing stone, washermen
wet and slung me about
to their satisfaction, whitened me
with earth and bone,
and cleaned me to my own 
amazement.  Then the scissors
of the tailor, piece by piece,
and his careful finishing work.

Now, at last, as clothes,
I find You and freedom.
This living is so difficult
before one takes your hand.


~Lalla
from Naked Song


nothing pouring into Nothing






With repeated meditation practice
the expanse of the visible universe
with all its qualities dissolves
to nothing, to where there is 
only health and great joy.

All teaching comes to this.

*

With passionate practices
I held the reins secure on my mind
and made breath one column.

Then the new moon's clear 
nectar descended into me,
nothing pouring into Nothing.

*

When will my shame fall away?
When will I accept being mocked
and let my robe of dignity burn up?

When the wandering pony inside
comes calm to my hand.

*

It is God who yawns and sneezes
and coughs, and now laughs.

Look, it's God doing ablutions!
God deciding to fast, God going naked
from one New Year's Eve to the next.

Will you ever understand 
how near God is
to you?



~ Lalla
from Naked Song
translations by Coleman Barks

Lalla described herself as "a somewhat something moving dreamlike on a fading road."


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

the teaching









Enlightenment absorbs this universe of qualities.
When that merging occurs, there is nothing
but God. This is the only doctrine. 

There is no word for it, no mind
to understand it with, no categories
of transcendence or non-transcendence,
no vow of silence, no mystical attitude. 

There is no Shiva and no Shakti
in enlightenment, and if there is something
that remains, that whatever-it-is
is the only teaching. 




~ Lalla


Tuesday, April 19, 2011

when you see





When you see yourself
and someone else
as one being,

when you know the most joyful day
and the most terrible night
as one moment, then

awareness is alone
with its Lord.


~ Lalla
art by Klimt



Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I melted in it and came home







I exhausted myself, looking.
No one ever finds this by trying.

I melted in it and came home,
where every jar is full,
but no one drinks.



~ Lalla
from Naked Songs
translations by Coleman Barks




Friday, March 4, 2011

I was passionate



.




I was passionate,
filled with longing,
I searched
far and wide.

But the day
that the Truthful One
found me,
I was at home.



~ Lalla
translated by Jane Hirshfield


Monday, February 28, 2011

a pile of ashes





Your pride in yourself and your wanting,
these steal your energy along the road.

If you can kill these robbers
and become the servant of everyone,
you'll meet the Lord in meditation
and see what you used to protect
as just a pile of ashes.


~ Lalla
from Naked Song
translations by Coleman Barks



Saturday, November 20, 2010

I wearied myself searching





I wearied myself searching for the friend
With efforts beyond my strength
I came to the door
And saw how powerfully the locks were bolted
And the longing in me became that strong
And then I saw that I was gazing from within the presence
Only after that waiting and giving up all trying
Did Lalla flow out from where I knelt


~ Lalla