She walks in beauty

By Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

The Soul that Walks in Love

 

"The soul that walks in love neither tires others nor grows tired... 

In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God... 

In the twilight of life, God will not judge us by our worldly possessions, 

and human success, but rather on how much we have loved." ~ St. John of the Cross

God is the astrolabe of God's mysteries

RUMI poem

Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.

A lover may be drawn to this love or that love,

but finally he is drawn to the Sovereign of Love.

However much we describe and explain love,

when we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.

Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear,

but love unexplained is clearer.

When the pen came to the subject of love, it broke.

When the discourse reached the topic of love,

the pen split and the paper tore.

If intellect tries to explain it,

it falls helpless as a donkey on a muddy trail;

only Love itself can explain love and lovers!

The proof of the sun is the sun itself.

If you wish to see it, don’t turn away from it.

Again and Again

Again and again, however we know the landscape of love

and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,

and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others

fall: again and again the two of us walk out together

under the ancient trees, lie down again and again

among the flowers, face to face with the sky. 

Rainer Maria Rilke

Hear me O Venus

Hear me O Venus

Goddess of Conscious Love

I prostrate myself in your temple

I remove all the veils of my vanity

all the veils of my base desires and needs

I am here pure and naked in front of you

asking for only one desire of the Heart

To Love

To Love with all my Being

To Love and Melt into Nothingness

To be Embraced by the state of Divinity

To Merge with Another Soul

To soar towards the Gods

And return with the Flame of Love in my soul

Blazing til the end of my days

Serving You

Serving God

To Love from my Soul

To Be Loved by A Soul Reflector

That is the greatest desire of my heart 

Fayina Cohen

You Seek Me

You seek Me with fervor, dear one
You travel on so many journeys, looking for Me
Yet you will not find Me
in the far away corners of the world
or at the top of the highest mountain
Nor in the teachings of a monk from Tibet
Until you first find Me living inside your own heart.
Let us spend time together
In presence, wherever you are
This state is your rightful inheritance

All you have to do is create the opening
Breathe in your sacred rememering
And you will be gifted with My love for you
This love is not just a word
or a fleeting emotion
or the fire of passion
It is a state ignited by the spark in your soul
and kept aflame by your humble surrnder
into My infinite light.

by Fayina Cohen

Love your solitude

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

"Love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away...

and this shows that the space around you is 
beginning to grow vast...

be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't

take anyone with you and be gentle with those who stay behind:

be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith and joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter

when you yourself change over and over again: when you see them,

love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust... 
and don't expect any understanding: but believe in a love that is being store up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it. " 
Rainer Maria Rilke

From Letters to a Young Poet

 

Your Heart Knows

Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.

But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.

You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.

You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.

The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;

And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.

But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.

For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."

Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, 

"I have met the soul walking upon my path."

For the soul walks upon all paths.

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless petals.

Khalil Ghibran

Love flows from God

Love flows from God to man without effort

As a bird glides through the air

Without moving its wings --

Thus they go whithersoever they will

United in body and soul

Yet in their form separate --

As the Godhead strikes the note

Humanity sings,

The Holy Spirit is the harpist

And all the strings must sound

Which are strung in love.

Metchilde de Magdeburg

The Dancing Cry Of The Soul

Love is the dancing cry of the soul, calling the body to worship

Like a shining whirlpool, or a spinning mayfly

So is love among the skies.

I leap across the mountaintops, madly singing the song of all songs

I float through the ether, intoxicated, thrilled

I think only of your love, your calling to me

And I dance the thousand dances of love, all returning to you.

It is not the play of children, nor the detached unity of wise sages

Unreal! Unnecessary!

Where is the beauty?

When I, like a glowing comet, may flash around your sun

Laughing, singing, with the joy of loving you!

Wine makes drunk the mind and body

But it is love which thrills the soul

When I approach you, I feel the mad pounding of love

The singing wonder

The joy which opens blossoms on the trees of the world.

Come to me, and I shall dance with you

In the temples, on the beaches, through the crowded streets

Be you man or woman, plant or animal, slave or free

I shall show you the brilliant crystal fires, shining within

I shall show you the beauty deep within your soul

I shall show the path beyond Heaven.

Only dance, and your illusions will blow in the wind

Dance, and make joyous the love around you

Dance, and your veils which hide the Light

Shall swirl in a heap at your feet.

~Rumi

The Root of Roots

The Root of the Root of Your Self

Don't go away, come near
Don't be faithless, be faithful.
Find the antidote in the venom.
Come to the root of the root of
your self.

Molded of clay, yet kneaded
from the substance of certainty,
a guard at the Treasury of Holy Light—
come, return to the root of the root of
your self.

Once you get hold of selflessness,
you'll be dragged from your ego
and freed from many traps.
Come, return to the root of the root of
your self.

You are born from the children of
of God's creation,
but you have fixed your sight too low.
How can you be happy?
Come, return to the root of the root of
your self.

Although you are a talisman protecting
a treasure,
you are also the mine.
Open your hidden eyes
and come to the root of the root of
your self.

You were born from a ray of God's
majesty
and have the blessings of a good star.
Why suffer at the hands of things that
don't exist?
Come, return to the root of the root of
your self.

You are a ruby embedded in granite.
How long will you pretend it isn't true?
We can see it in your eyes.
Come to the root of the root of
your self.

You came here from the presence of
that fine Friend,
a little drunk, but gentle, stealing our
hearts
with that look so full of fire; so
come, return to the root of the root of
your self.

Our master and host, Shamsi Tabrizi,
has put the eternal cup before you.
Glory be to God, what a rare wine!
So come, return to the root of the root
of your self

Rumi, translated by Kabir Hilminski

Gently, gently

Gently, gently

open your eyes

and look

at the face of Love,

look at

her intoxicating eyes.

Her smile has lured

thousands of hearts

into her infinite garden.

Come and let your lips taste

the sweetness of her fruit.

You will become drunk

on the scent of her roses

and dance like a willow

swaying in the wind.

Turn your eyes

from the world’s hunger

for pleasure

there is a deeper fulfillment

in the infinite mystery

of Love.

~ Rumi

They Have Different needs

They Have Different Needs
St John of the Cross

Some seeds beneath the earth are dormant

They fell the last time the cool air turned the leaves gold

Those seeds have different needs than we do

Let them go about their life

completely unharmed by your views

We have cracked open

we sensed even beneath the earth

the holy was near,

and reaching up to know

and claim light

as our self.

God Speaks to Each of Us

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

First Love Story

“The minute I heard my first love story,

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.

They're in each other all along.”

Rumi

Dark Night of the Soul

The Dark Night

One dark night, fired with love's urgent longings - ah, the sheer grace! - I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. In darkness, and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, - ah, the sheer grace! - in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled. On that glad night in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything with no other light or guide than the One that burned in my heart. This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me - him I knew so well - there in a place where no one appeared. O guiding night! O night more lovely than the dawn! O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the Beloved into his Lover. Upon my flowering breast, which I kept wholly for him alone, there he lay sleeping, and I caressing him there in a breeze from the fanning cedars. When the breeze blew from the turret, as I parted his hair, it wounded my neck with its gentle hand, suspending all my senses. I abandoned and forgot myself, laying my face on my Beloved; all things ceased; I went out from myself, leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

I can not sleep

Rumi

I cannot sleep in your presence.
In your absence, tears prevent me.
You watch me My Beloved
On each sleepless night and
Only You see the difference
Looking at my life

I see that only Love

Has been my soul’s companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love.

If you can’t smell the fragrance

Don’t come into the garden of Love.
If you’re unwilling to undress.Don’t enter into the stream of Truth.
Stay where you are.
Don’t come our way.
Unkempt, lovesick and in disgrace.
Without love there is nothing but grief.
In love… what else matters?

The way of our Prophet.Yet it is in our nature.
To fight with Love.We can’t see you, mother,
Hidden behind dark veilsWoven by ourselves.
To walk the path of TruthYou need the grace of God.
We all face death in the end.
But on the way, be careful. Never to hurt a human heart!“

Come follow me and you will find the way.
Your mistakes can also lead you to the Truth.
When you ask, the answer will be given.”
Is so drunk with love, he’s oblivious.“
Will you give me some of your sweetness?”
“I have none,” he says,unaware of his richness.
It is all kindness, generosity.

Disharmony prevails when You confuse lust with love, 
while The distance between the twoIs endless.
But his banner is hidden.
The Koran speaks the Truth.
But its miracle is concealed.
Love has pierced with its arrow
The heart of every lover.
Blood flows but the wound is invisible.

All year round the lover is mad,

Love is our Mother and

Do you want to enter paradise?

Do you know what the music is saying?

The Master who’s full of sweetness

You know what love is?

This Love is a King

On Presence

Presence is standing in awe at the threshold of a great temple recognizing the possibility of our divine expansion. It is a moment of recognition that there is a world that is greater than the world of the ego and personality that we have called home. Then when we are summoned to enter, the great temple of our inner being and recognize that within there exists a hallway where the divine presence is felt. We feel the inner quiet, a sanctified presence of grace a sense of wonderment. And as we enter even deeper we are greeted by the divine mother, embraced and bathed in love. Tears of recognition come, this is the real home. An opening of the heart and an outpouring of divine love, nothing that can compare to any earthly experience can be described here. Deep awe and yearning for greater bliss. This is where we are ready to die to ourselves, to let go of the old self, to surrender the ego and be returned to the origins of our being. Yet this is just a visit, there is so much more to learn and uncover, this is just the beginning of the understanding. 

Love your Solitude

“Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” 
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Love is the Fountain

"Love is the fountain of life-giving water. No one and no thing can live without love. Its expression varies according to the capacity of the receiver and the giver, and in its highest form, love is divinity.

To love is to live. You cannot really live without love. The omnipotent laws of nature have this power in its divine potency pervading the universe. The right to strike at the chord of love only belongs to the brave and sturdy at heart.

Hectic search for exhilarating experiences should not be mistaken for love. They are the forerunners of grim, relentless penalties and intense suffering.

Love from its lowest to its highest expression has its ups and downs. Love suffers the pangs of separation, the stings of jealousy, and all the little pricks that a lover has to endure are the different helpmates in disguise. They stir you up and bring forward to life the most important parts of your nature. Then they no longer maintain their individual life, but merge in one common longing for the beloved.

One in love tastes the glories of life to the full. The blissful heights of joyousness and the buoyant feelings of heavenly delights are the steady steps towards divine oneness. Love surrenders to the will of the beloved, gives all to the beloved, sacrifices all for the beloved, lives for the beloved, dies for the beloved. This supreme state of love is the God-state, for what is God but love - infinite, unbounded, eternal love?

Love annihilates the lower self, and expresses the higher self. So, dear soul, long for your divine beloved till you become one with your beloved. " Meher Baba, 1937