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

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

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

  

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

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."

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

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

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

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

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

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