I have Loved

"I have loved in life and I have been loved. I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar ... and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow.

My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it. My heart has been rent and joined again; My heart has been broken and again made whole; My heart has been wounded and healed again; A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet."

--Hafez

In Your Body is the Garden

"Do not go to the garden of flowers!

O Friend! go not there;

In your body is the garden of flowers.

Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus,

and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty."



--Kabir

When Love Beckons You

When love beckons to you follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall Love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart


--Kahlil Gibran

Your Mystery

"Belief brings me close to You
but only to the door.
It is only by disappearing into
Your mystery
that I will come in."
Hakim Sanai

Stay Close, My Heart

STAY CLOSE, MY HEART
Rumi

Stay close, my heart, to the one who knows your ways;
Come into the shade of the tree that allays has fresh flowers.
Don't stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers:
Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller.
If you don't find true balance, anyone can deceive you;
Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw,
And make you take it for gold
Don't squat with a bowl before every boiling pot;
In each pot on the fire you find very different things.
Not all sugarcanes have sugar, not all abysses a peak;
Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls.
O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting!
Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock's hard heart!
Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend,
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn't want to go through the needle's eye!
The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the him of your robe!
Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad.
And when you've left this storm, you will come to a fountain;
You'll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul.
And with your soul always green, you'll grow into a tall tree
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior.

Meher Baba on Love VIII

What is love? To give, and never to ask. 
What leads to this love? Grace. 
What leads to this grace? Grace is not cheaply bought. It is gained by being always ready to serve, and reluctant to be served. There are many points which lead to this grace: 
Wishing well for others at the cost of one's self. 
Never backbiting. 
Tolerance supreme. 
Trying not to worry. Trying not to worry is almost impossible - so try. 
Thinking more of the good points in others, and less of their bad points. 
What leads to this grace? Doing all the above. If you do one of these things perfectly, the rest must follow. Then grace descends. Have love - and when you have love, the union with the beloved is certain. 
When Christ said, 'Love your neighbor,' he did not mean fall in love with your neighbor. When you love, you give; when you fall in love, you want... 
Love is pure as God. It gives and never asks. That needs grace....


Trying leads to grace. What is God ? Love. Infinite Love is God.

Meher Baba on Love VII

"Love is a mighty force. It not only enables one to put the ideal of selfless service into practice, but would transform one into God. With love, one can follow any of the yogas most suitable to his or her temperament. It will enable an aspirant to follow the rigid principles underlying the spiritual Path, and where and when necessary, make him turn his back to the worldly pleasures for the sake of union with the beloved. Where there is love, there is oneness, and there can be no question of any particular religion or caste or system, superiority or inferiority, and touchability or untouchablity. That these distinctions are not real has been proved, in a way, by the recent earthquake tragedy. The earthquake in Bihar was simply a manifestation of one of the laws of nature. And that disaster spared none, rich or poor, high or low. belonging to this religion or that. It was not divine wrath. It is an eye-opener to the fact that where God and his laws are concerned, there is no question of caste, creed or country. But to realise this natural equality permanently, one has to submit to the greatest law of God, which is love. It holds the key to all problems, inasmuch as under this law the Infinite is realised completely at all times, in every walk of life, be it science, art, religion or beauty. May the world realise this highest aspect of divinity more and more."

Meher Baba on Love VI

The aim of life is to realize God. How? By making the highest ideal of religion our conduct in life. This noble ideal is love. Only the way of love is the best and easiest path. It means to love only God, and none besides him.

Material love is good, but it should be selfless and desireless. Love should be absolutely devoid of lust, and it should be steadfast and unchanging.

If a woman is in the mood, she will be after one man today, another tomorrow, and a third the day after. This is not love, it is lust. Mind's tendency is that it always hankers after change - from one thing to another, one person to another, one place to another. Have love for only one and one alone.

Meher Baba on Love V

People pray to me to solve their difficulties, saying that they love me. But there is a vast difference between love and prayer. In Persian to pray means to beg, to want, to desire something, even the blessings of God. But when a person really loves, he gives himself over to his beloved completely. This is true love. In that there is no begging, no wanting, and no room for desires. Only the longing to unite with the beloved remains. Love means the renunciation of the self. Prayer means selfishness, no matter how high the prayer may be. So there is a vast difference between when one prays and when one loves.

Meher Baba on Love IV

"Love is the divine gift given by the Sadgurus. Even if the whole world wants to, it can never bestow such a gift. And once it is granted, not even all of humanity can snatch it away, no matter how hard it strives to do so. Love is the divine gift. Once you know how to love, there is no trouble. Once you have adapted yourselves to the way, your hardships disappear."