Kabir Wept

Every waking moment of our sleeping life

we are confronted with our impending mortality,

fixed in time yet neither being here nor being now.

Eliot gave us the best English has to offer on this,

Kabir wept on seeing in the miller’s grains how we

resemble in fate the seeds on his stone wheel turning,

getting pounded by the stick as it churns and churns.

The miller’s response became grist for the Hindi verses

which were to follow long after he took the miller’s advice:

"Consider the grains which stay close to that stick’s action -

they just bounce there and remain whole, they don’t fall through;

that stick is the Guru, and yours is living down that way there - so GO!"

It’s been said, "Guru is the grace-bestowing power of God;"

it’s been said, "Guru is that which alone can change the course of your destiny."

And it’s been said, "The root of meditation is the Guru’s form,

the root of worship is the Guru’s feet, the root of mantra is the Guru’s word,

the root of liberation is the Guru’s grace."

Whether appearing as monk or as mendicant, neighbor or wise uncle,

he is no person and no form, though taking on both to serve Liberation.

Principle as person, Formless as form to be met, in humility, in effacement. 

There are finally, no words for it, nothing can describe what Guru is.

When the heart has been touched by his grace, love flows.

When the crown has been opened by his shakti, death’s shadow goes.

When the entire question of life or death, hereafter, has lost its sting:

then can all things Body and Mind in action celebrate, relax - and sing!

Brick of Possibilities

Religion reminds one of a brick.
You take a fine, sturdy, dumb brick.
Paint it in your best hand, make that
Christ or Cross, Krishna or Kabir,
inscribe the entire Qur'an or Torah there,
or Siri Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikhs –
literally, it's all been done.

And it's still a brick, but what a brick!
If you paint on it that which binds you
with your most sincerely cherished Love,
then please do it, I'll weave garlands with you
and we'll place them there together.

Knowing that a brick is a brick,
we'll contemplate together and open our hearts
to what's creatively imaged into that brick;
knowing that as what was painted came from within,
so is the very Love and Source being depicted –
and the intimate Knowledge of That – entirely within,
to be merely, albeit strongly, reminded, directed there again.

But shall this be the brick of Cain or of Cathedral?
The brick of Egypt or of the Bridge which bonds us
in mutual sovereignty?

If it's to whack another in the chops or break windows
or be more bric-à-brac to keep you off-track –
then we have a problem, then a brick really is just a brick.

Let each have their brick most suitable or exchange them –
you can't exchange the Self anyway, there is only one of That.
Yes, a brick's a brick – but oh, what a fine looking brick indeed!

Thoughts After First Advent

"Belief" or "unbelief / disbelief" in "God" remains for me a superfluous curiosity.  Superfluous because it has more than anything else to do with, not God, but "God" – that is, someone else’s conception of God which you don’t want to buy into – or which you do.  Curious is, why so much energy is expended in a) wanting others to believe in your God, b) cajoling, even forcing others to believe in your God, c) rejecting / denying God at all and copping an Attitude over this, d) worrying about God, or e) spreading death and destruction on account of your God.

This believing or not believing in God is as superfluous to – well, God – as we would naturally see any notion of belief or unbelief / disbelief/ nonbelief in our own Body, our own organs, our own circulation, our own respiration and respiratory system.  This body functions;  as this body is so, God is so.  As these organs, this circulation, this respiration are so, God is so.  Try this:  stop believing that your heart pumps blood through the arteries which carry nourishment throughout the body and the lungs, which blood returns for nourishment and reinforcement of oxygen through the lung passages – all of this functioning, entirely indifferent to your knowing or believing or denying it.  So stop believing in that going on without let-up, and stop believing that those lungs draw in all that life-reinforced fresh air into themselves, to go through the conversions and transferences which make your Body a rich tapestry of perfectly orchestrated harmony and wholeness, well-Being, with or without your being consulted; that your brain is in constant coordination with all functions, that your glands and your tracts, from growth and development to consuming, digesting and expelling, from over all defense to activity and rest and the in-joyment of both.  All this is there.

Now, here’s a catch:  believing, you give attention to, offer your attention to, perhaps even your concentration and even devotion to, that which is being consciously contemplated – that’s contemplated, folks, not complicated – by doing this with your Body you become no longer the indifferently passive non-participant, you become the active, creative participator, you are now with your Body, and in it by being conscious of it.  Does it mean becoming a "Vegan" from another planet?  Or hitting the fitness center like a fanatic, or jogging your guts out?  Or preaching granola?  None of this, it means just being with yourself, with your body, loving this Body merely by knowing it and validating it and being in it.  This kind of attention already wards off illness, this kind of attention is entirely oriented toward your health because it addresses the wholeness.  When you are bending, talk with your back, through your breath, ask it if it’s alright with what you’re doing, let it suggest something better.  If you are eating, does your stomach have a vote?  Every single part of you is indispensable, and part of every other part of you.

Be clear in your Mind that you are not about illness, that you don’t need sick leave to feel whole about yourself. And as this makes the question of belief, for me, so superfluous - because Body is so - likewise and even more does this apply toward God - because God is so.  When you love you have every reason and power to believe, and as this belief develops into faith and into devotion and into Knowledge, then you become the active, creative participator of that inner life which expresses outward in all directions.  Kabir, as rendered by Robt. Bly, tells us:  "What is God: he is the breath inside the breath."

Making that subtle, you become subtle.  Becoming subtle in that, you meet with the subtle.  Meeting with that, you come into contact with That, about which we bandy about words like "belief" in the first place – which then makes the latter superfluous.

That This Beauty Shall Prevail

In the humble expression of this poor servant,

let this be known:

Better to fall on the battlefield

than choke on my steak in the War Room.

For it is my intention, in this my lifetime,

here-now and in reality, as in eternity,

that Sufism shall defeat Islam, prevail over and replace it entirely

with knowledge of God, with love of God.

That the Sovereignty of Love shall prevail over

and replace Muslim bigotry, racism, misogyny, hypocrisy.

That the prayers of the Great Ones and faith of the Heart

shall prevail over and replace Muslim arrogance, ignorance,

aggression, and its most primitive brutality.

That music and dance, creative literature, reason,

beauty in all its variations, shall prevail over and replace

the Muslim's native bent toward pronouncing death-fatwas,

toward pathologically underdeveloped, grossly self-conscious

phobias against any nonconformity, as against all freedom

of self-expression, against any notion of critical self-reflection,

of maturity in relation to the rest of the world:

over this shall prevail the nectar of Rumi, the fragrance of Hafiz;

the madness of Kabir and of Rabi'a shall prevail over and replace

a Muslim mentality which shuns pork but evidently not cannibalism.

That the creative openness of Sufism which embraces all faiths

and all paths toward God shall prevail over and replace this Islam

of domination, delusions of supremacy, of bludgeoning with Shari'a

every Muslim who is "other" and every culture which is not of itself.

Verily, the song and movement of Dervishes,

the Movement and the Message of Sufism through the Ages

cannot be annihilated, it is here in spite of historic repression,

and shall prevail over an Islam which never could appreciate

Sufis, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Jews, Buddhists - and murders them

century for century.

O Beloved Lord and Cherisher of the worlds:

let these words not prove empty, no -

let this love be active, this harmony penetrate through hearts:

that this beauty shall prevail.

Let it so Be as I, Sheikh Samuel Inayat-Chisti, have said,

who shall raise the banner of Love on that battlefield

in whichever form that comes,

and shall not fall, after so many lifetimes of this, but shall prevail.

Insha'llah.

Pulse and Breath

Take two fingers, either hand, and place them on your neck, either side. Right there on your carotid artery. Feel something? God is closer to you than that – every beat.

Now take a breath, inhale once, hold it for just one second, and exhale. Easy enough? God is closer to you than that.

Need I say more? Good - I'll hand this back over to Kabir, version by Robt. Bly:

"I laugh when I hear the fish in the water is thirsty.

You don't grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is
inside your own house;
and so you walk from one holy city to the next with a confused look!

Kabir will tell you the truth: Go wherever you like,
to Calcutta or Tibet;
If you can't find where your soul is hidden, for you the world will
never be real!"