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#3592 - Monday, July 13, 2009 - Editor: Gloria Lee

The Nonduality Highlights
- The first periodical publication on nonduality - Submissions welcome

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights    

The central work of my life is to get poetry to as many people as possible in whatever world they live in because it’s such a life saver… It gives you a language that makes you able for the world, large enough for it, and not to hide from it.

- David Whyte

Video: Interview with David Whyte

This is an excerpt from an interview with the poet David Whyte on New Dimensions Radio. Short, but worth listening to. He reads his poem, “Everything is Waiting for You.”

 



  The Sufi Way

By Seyh Ibrahim Efendi
(1591 - 1651)

English version by Jennifer Ferraro & Latif Bolat

They say the Sufi way
          is to give one's life away.

The Sufi way is to become a sultan
          on the throne of the soul.

In the station of the Path,
          it is to destroy appearances.
In the station of Reality,
          it is to become a guest
in the innermost palace of the heart.

They say it is to be pure of body,
          the light of the Beloved.
The Sufi way is to gradually take off
          the dress of earth and water.

They say it is to burn up in Love's fire--
The Sufi way is to be utterly inflamed
          with the light of the Beloved.

They say it is to believe and follow the rules--
The Sufi way is to discover the rules
          of the multitude of heavens.

They say it is to become a medicine for every ailment--
The Sufi way is to know and become all the secrets
          of creation.

They say it is to destroy the illusion of bodies--
The Sufi way is to open the secrets of the body
          with the key of the Divine Names.

O Sufi, to comprehend it, one must be it.
The one who gets lost in words
          will never be their meaning.

They say it is to become the secret of God
          within one's innermost heart--
The Sufi way is to read the outer signs
          and know the inner meanings.

They say it is to be in wonder
          at the greatness of creation--
The Sufi way is to be constantly amazed
          by the nature of Reality.

They say it is to make each heart
          the throne of God--
The Sufi way is to remove all else but God
          from the heart's dwelling.

They say it is to watch over all humanity--
The Sufi way is to cover East and West
          with every breath.

They say it is to shine as brightly as the sun--
The Sufi way is to perceive God
          in every minute thing.

They say it is to be in harmony
          with every kind of person--
The Sufi way is to appear
in a hundred thousand forms daily.

They say it is to be like Solomon
          to the whole universe;
The Sufi way is to understand
          and speak in every language.

They say it is to become an ocean
          from a single drop--
The Sufi way is to make your heart a cellar
          to hold the wine of the Truth.

They say it is to become a human being
          illuminated with the light of Being--
The Sufi way is to destroy Being utterly
          in the light of Non-Being.

They say it is to become a life
          for each particle of life--
The Sufi way is to die a thousand times
          and return to life each moment.

They say it is to become a master
          of wisdom and eternal justice--
The Sufi way is to become an eye
          looking out from every hair.

They say it is to surrender
          your soul to the Beloved--
The Sufi way is to become
          the soul of the Beloved.

They say it is the proof
          of Muhammad's message--
The Sufi way, O Ibrahim,
          is to embody God
                    as one's own self.

-- from Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey, Translated by Jennifer Ferraro / Translated by Latif Bolat

Amazon.com


/ Photo by M.Omair /

============

Thought for the Day:

Let every action
be a perfect stillness
in the heart.

============

Here's your Daily Music selection --

I'nia

Voices of Pilgrims

Listen - Purchase

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Hi Gloria -

Aksaray Seyh Ibrahim Efendi was a member of the Helveti dervishes and the spiritual head of the Aksarayi Sufi lodge in Istanbul in the early part of the 17th century.

His poem "The Sufi Way" has inspired some prominent commentaries.

---

Regardless of your religious or spiritual tradition, this poem is one worth contemplating deeply. Re-read it. This is one of the reasons I started the Poetry Chaikhana: While so many in religion bog down in the minutia of the tradition, mystics are never satisfied with mere form. They know one must get down to the real ground. The mystic is content with nothing less than to touch the truth in its most universal purity. Merely following the rules never satisfies the heart or soul.

O Sufi, to comprehend it, one must be it.

Ivan

Share Your Thoughts on today's poem or my commentary...

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