Your essence is gold hidden in dust. To reveal its splendour, you need to burn in the fire of love.

The time has come to turn your heart
into a temple of fire.
Your essence is gold hidden in dust.
To reveal its splendour
you need to burn in the fire of love.

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Fern Lake Burn; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; December 28, 2012

I burn away; laugh, my ashes are alive!

I burn away; laugh, my ashes are alive!
I die a thousand times:
My ashes dance back-
A thousand new faces

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Fern Lake Burn, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; December 28, 2012

Human loneliness is actually God's loneliness.

 

I am like an addict

In my longing for a sublime state,

For that ground of Conscious Nothing

Where the Rose ever

Blooms 

. . . Now that the heart has held

That which can never be touched

My subsistence is a blessed 

Desolation

And from that I cry for more loneliness.

 

I am lonely.

I am so lonely, dear Beloved,

For the quintessence of

Loneliness,

For what is more alone than God?

Hafiz

Photo: Sunset on the Loch, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, March 10, 2012

Enjoy the night of this life as much as you can, for the daylight Sun will eventually turn you back into Spirit

 

It rained during the night

And two puddles formed in the dark

They began chatting.

One said,

"It is so nice to at last be upon this earth

And to meet you as well,

But what will happen when

The brilliant Sun comes

And turns us back into spirit again?

Dear ones,

Enjoy the night as much as you can.

Why ever trouble your heart with flight,

When you have just arrived

And your body is so full of warm desires?

Hafiz

Photo: Frozen puddles, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT, November 25, 2010

God's eyes are painting fields again

 

The sun's eyes are painting fields again.

 Its lashes with expert strokes

Are sweeping across the land

 A great palette of light has embraced

This earth . . .

God's eyes are painting fields again . . .

Hafiz

14th century

I am because You look at me . . .

Life eternal is nothing other than that blessed regard

with which You never cease

most lovingly to behold me . . .

With You, to behold is to give life . . .

 Feed me with Your gaze, O Lord . . .

For with You to see is to cause.

Nicholas of Cusa

15th century

To sit and look at light-filled leaves

May let us see, or seem to see . . .

Time when the Maker's radiant sight

Made radiant every thing He saw,

And every thing He saw was filled

With perfect joy and life and light.

Wendell Berry

Photo:  Feathery Mountain-mahogany seeds glow silver in last light, Lory State Park, CO, February 21, 2012

The great world religions are like ships, and every sane person eventually jumps overboard into the lifeboat of poetry.

 

The 

Great religions are the

Ships,

Poets the life

Boats.

Every sane person I know has jumped

Overboard.

That is good for [the poetry] business

Isn't it

Hafiz?

Hafiz, 14th century

Photo: Trinidad Harbor, CA, July 31, 2011

Throwing Things at God

 

All day long

The earth shouts

"Gee, thanks."

Such an exuberant gee,

It starts throwing

Things

As if God were passing by in a parade encouraging

Rowdy behavior

By looking so beautiful -

That a whole avalanche of mania swoops in!

I like this idea of throwing thing at God,

And especially - His making us rowdy!

Thus, as soon as Hafiz is out of bed

I start stuffing large sacks

With old shoes, cucumbers,

And

Prayers

[To throw]

For the upcoming

Consecrated

Free-for-all -

And who knows 

What else.

Hafiz

14th century

Photo: A rowdy wind tossing snow crystals around; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 24, 2012

A love unconcerned with reciprocity never says "You owe me!"

 

Even

After

All this time

The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe 

Me."

Look

What happens

With a love like that,

It lights the

Whole

Sky

Hafiz, 14th century

Photo: Sunrise near Craters of the Moon, ID, August 7, 2011

Sometimes it's better to HOLD ON to Divine Union than to TALK about it!

My love hides on the path where the Love-thief goes

and catches that One by the hair with my teeth.

"Who are you?" the Love-thief asks, but as I open

my mouth to say, he escapes into the desert!

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Trickster-Raven in the desert, Arches National Park, UT, April 16, 2011.  Sometimes it's better to hold on to Divine Union than to talk about It!

Become crumbled soil, so wildflowers will come up where you are

 

There's a necessary dying, 

and then Jesus is breathing again.

Very little grows

on jagged rock.
Be ground.

Be crumbled,
so wildflowers will come up
where you are.

You've been stony for too many years.
Try something different.
Surrender.

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Spring Beauty blooming in crumbled rocks, Denali National Park, AK, June 24, 2010

In springtime we begin to recall our own greenness

 

"We began as a mineral.  We emerged into plant life and into the animal state, and then into being human.  And always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall 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, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are."

Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th Century

Photo:  Springtime in Moab, Utah; LaSal Mountains in the background, April 17, 2011

Give up excessive wealth, and you will be sweet and fragrant and wild and fresh and thankful for any small event.

"Once in the city of Saba, there was a glut of wealth.  Everyone had more than enough.  Even the bath-stokers wore gold belts . . . Everyone was fat and satiated with all the extra.  There were no robbers.  There was no energy for crime, or for gratitude.  And no one wondered about the unseen world.  The people of Saba felt bored with just the mention of prophecy.  They had no desire of any kind . . . This over-richness is a subtle disease . . . The city of Saba can not be understood from within itself!  But there is a cure, an individual medicine, not a social remedy: Sit quietly, and listen for a voice within that will say, 'Be more silent.'  As that happens, your soul starts to revive.  Give up talking, and your positions of power.  Give up the excessive money.  Turn toward the teachers and the prophets who don't live in Saba.  They can help you grow sweet again, and fragrant and wild and fresh and thankful for any small event."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Tiger lilies at sunset, Redwood National Park, CA, August 1, 2011.  This rich lighting lasted only about one minute.

Be melting snow; wash yourself of yourself

 

" 'Lo, I am with you always,' means when you look for God,

God is in the look of your eyes,

in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,

or things that have happened to you.

There's no need to go outside.

Be melting snow.

Wash yourself of yourself."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Lichen-covered rock in a snowstorm just before dusk, Lory State Park, CO, February 3, 2012

Without ignorance, there could be no learning

 

"The Beloved needs both good and evil, but only welcomes and blesses the good . . . God is like a teacher who wants to teach; what can he teach if the pupil is not ignorant?  To desire something is also to desire what makes it possible. The teacher does not, however, bless the pupil's ignorance, otherwise he would not teach him.  Doesn't a doctor need people to be ill for him to be able to heal them?  Yet he doesn't bless the fact that people are ill, otherwise he wouldn't attend to them with such care.  A baker requires people to be hungry, otherwise how would she sell her bread and support her family?  But she doesn't bless hunger and want it to continue, otherwise why would she sell bread at all?"

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: A spot of sunlight illuminates a dark mountainside, Mummy Range, CO, September 16, 2011

The prophet's duty is to concentrate and condense a divine Splendor which is invisibly diffused throughout the world

 

"Everything visible is visible because of concentration.  The breath in hot weather cannot be seen; in cold it can.  Cold concentrates it.  A prophet's duty is to concentrate and so manifest the splendor of God."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Concentrated water vapor appearing as snow on Mills Lake; Long's Peak, Keyboard of the Winds and Pagoda Peak in the background, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 5, 2012

Quit being sad; hear blessings dropping their blossoms all around you!

"Don't ask questions about longing.  Look in my face.  Soul drunk, body ruined, these two sit helpless in a wrecked wagon.  Neither knows how to fix it.  And my heart, I'd say it was more like a donkey sunk in a mudhole, struggling and miring deeper.  But listen to me: for one moment, quit being sad.  Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.  God."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Wild Plum Blossoms against a backdrop of red rock, Lory State Park, CO, May 9, 2011

Don't say "Yes" or "No"; let bewilderment guide you

 
                                     "Have you seen beyond duality what is before and behind?
                                      How could a clay bird soar into the heaven of Vision?
                                      The highest place it can soar is still only air . . .
                                      Stay, then, astounded and bewildered; don't say 'yes' or 'no.'
                                      Then Mercy can stretch out Its hands to help you.
                                      How could you begin to understand His wonders?
                                      If you said 'yes' glibly you would be lying,
                                      And if you say 'no,' that 'no' will behead you
                                      And force severity to slam shut your soul's window.
                                      So stay in bewilderment, in wonder, so God' succor
                                      Can run to you from every side and direction.
                                      When you are really bewildered, maddened and annihilated,
                                      Then your whole being prays, without words, 'Guide me!' "

                                      Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Limber Pine and a finger of rock in the mist pointing to the sky, beyond "yes" and "no"; Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 28, 2012

The body is a just a shadow of a shadow, yet it somehow contains the entire Universe!

 

"An invisible bird flies over, but casts a quick shadow.  What is the body?  The shadow of a shadow of your Beloved, that somehow contains the entire universe."

"The heavens cannot contain Me, or the void,

Or winged exalted intelligences, or souls;

Yet I am contained, as a guest, in the heart of the true believer.

And without any qualification, definition, or description,
From this blazing mirror, every second spring
Fifty wedding feasts for the spirit."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Tree shadows on frozen Zimmerman Lake, Mummy Range, CO, December 16, 2011

We can only find true salvation by giving up our own personal salvation!

"Really to experience the day of Resurrection
You have to die first, for 'resurrection' means
'Making the dead come back to life.'
The whole world is racing in the wrong direction
For everyone is terrified of non-existence
That is, in reality, the only certain refuge
How should we try to win real awareness?
By renouncing all knowing.
How should we look for salvation?
By giving up our personal salvation.
How should we search for real existence?
By giving up our existence.
How should we search for the fruit of the spirit?
By not always greedily stretching out our hands."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Oregon Holly-grape poking up through the snow, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 20, 2012

Self-Death in exchange for the Divine Kiss; what a bargain!

I would love to kiss You.
"THE PRICE OF KISSING IS YOUR LIFE!"

Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
"What a bargain, let's buy it!"

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Dead Bristlecone Pine, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, White Mountains, CA, July 25, 2011