This is a repeat of issue #3265. By mistake, YahooGroups sent out the
same issue twice. In order to keep the numbering system on
nonduality.com the same as the numbering system on YahooGroups,
this issue has to be assigned a separate issue number, namely
3266.
If you are eager to be nothing
before you know who you are,
you rob yourself of your true being.
Until you understand nothingness
you will never know true Faith.
- Rumi
"Rumi - Whispers of the
Beloved"
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
posted to Along The Way
Starlight and Non-being (from Thomas Merton's "The Way of Chuang-tzu")
Starlight asked Non-being: "Master, are
you? Or are you not?"
Since he received no answer whatever,
Starlight set himself to watch for Non-Be-
ing. He waited to see if Non-Being would
put in an appearance.
He kept his gaze fixed on the deep Void,
hoping to catch a glimpse of Non-Being.
All day long he looked, and he saw
nothing. He listened, but heard nothing.
He reached out to grasp, and grasped
nothing.
Then Starlight exclaimed at last, "This
is IT!"
"This is the furthest yet! Who can reach it?
I can comprehend the absence of Being
But who can comprehend the absence of
Nothing?
If now, on top of all this, Non-
Being IS,
Who can comprehend it?"
This is not really a poem in the
normal sense. It is actually a translation into verse
form of a Kabbalistic meditation image, the Kabbalistic
Tree of Life envisioned as a circle. It is a mandala of
Hebrew characters drawn in the shape of a wheel with the
writing forming spokes and a rim.
