The Spiritual Journey, Week 10

Peace, one and all…

 

This week’s readings explore the themes of ‘the passion of the way’ and ‘supplication’.

Text One

The real work belongs to someone who desires God
and has severed himself from every other work.
The rest are like children who play together till it gets dark
for these few short days.
Or like someone who awakes and springs up, still drowsy,
and then is lulled back to sleep by the suggestion of an evil nurse:
‘Go to sleep, my darling, I won’t let anyone disturb your slumber’.
If you are wise, you, yourself, will tear up your slumber by the roots,
like the thirsty man who heard the noise of the water.
God says to you, ‘I am the noise of the water in the ears of the thirsty;
I am rain falling from heaven.
Spring up, lover, show some excitement!
How can you hear the sound of water and then fall back asleep!’
(6.586-592)

Text Two

O You who make demands within me like an embryo,
since You are the one who makes the demand,
make its fulfillment easy;
Show the way, help me,
Or else relinquish Your claim
and take this burden from me!
Since from a debtor You’re demanding gold,
give him gold in secret, O rich King!
(3.1490-1492)

You can also download this week’s readings: SJ Week 10 Readings

The Spiritual Journey, Week 9

Peace, one and all…

In this week’s readings we explore the ‘passion of the way’.

Text One

Don’t strive so much to complete your worldly affairs;
don’t strive in any affair that’s not sacred.
Otherwise at the end, you’ll leave incomplete,
your spiritual affairs damaged and your bread unbaked.
The beautifying of your grave isn’t done
by means of wood and stone and plaster;
no, but by digging your grave in spiritual purity
and burying your own selfhood in His,
and becoming His dust, buried in love of Him,
so that from His breath, yours may be replenished
(3. 128-132)

Text Two

Someone says, ‘I can’t help feeding my family.
I have to work so hard to earn a living’.
He can do without God, but not without food;
he can do without religion,
but not without idols.
Where is one who’ll say,
‘If I eat bread without awareness of God,
I will choke’
(2.3071-3079)

You can also download this week’s readings: SJ Week 9 Readings

The Spiritual Journey, Week 8

Peace, one and all…

This week’s theme is ‘surpass your self’.

Text One

This world is like a tree,
and we are the half-ripe fruit upon it.
Unripe fruit clings tight to the branch
because, immature, it’s not ready for the palace.
When fruits become ripe, sweet and juicy,
then biting their lips, they loosen their hold.
When the mouth has been sweetened by felicity,
the kingdom of the world loses its appeal.
To be tightly attached to the world signifies immaturity;
as long as you’re an embryo,
blood-drinking is your business
(3. 1293-1297)

Text Two

 Don’t pay attention to your weakness,
but to the intensity of your longing.
For this search is God’s promise within you,
because every seeker deserves to find something of which she seeks.
Increase this search,
that your heart may escape from this bodily prison.
If your spirit shall not live without the body,
for whom is the blessing promised in the words:
in Heaven is your provision? (Quran 52:22)
(5.1731-1735, 1742)

This week’s readings can also be downloaded: SJ Week 8 Readings

Here is a traditional Sufi song from Turkey.

The Spiritual Journey, Week 7

Peace, one and all…

This week’s theme is ‘surpass your self’.  We will explore two readings from the Masnavi together.

Text One

I’m the devoted slave
of anyone who doesn’t claim
to have attained dining with God
at every way station.
Many inns must be left behind
before you reach your home
(1.3259-3261)

Text Two

By God, don’t linger
in any spiritual benefit you have gained,
but yearn for more – like one suffering from illness,
whose thirst for water is never quenched.
The Divine Court is the Plane of the Infinite.
Leave the seat of honour behind;
let the Way be your seat of honour
(3.1960-1961)

You can also download a copy of this week’s reading: SJ Week 7 Readings

The Spiritual Journey, Week 6

Peace, one and all…

This week’s meeting turns to explore the theme of surpassing the self.

Text One

Where is the nurse for the thirsty infant
who with kindness would offer the taste of inner sweetness?
Where is she who would bar the way to her self
in order to open the way to a hundred gardens of delight?
For the breast has become a barrier between the infant
and other delicious tastes and countless nourishments.
Our life depends on weaning.
Strive to wean yourself little by little.
Wean yourself from this world’s food
and become a healing sage like Luqman.
Become a hunter of the hidden game.
(2.46-49, 52)

Text Two

Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls,
something borrowed which we mistake as our own.
Ignorance is better than this; clutch at madness instead.
Always run from what seems to benefit your self:
sip the poison and spill the water of life.
Revile those who flatter you;
lend both interest and principal to the poor.
Let security go and be at home amid dangers.
Leave your good name behind and accept disgrace.
I have lied with cautious thinking;
Now I’ll make myself mad.
(2.2327-32)

This week’s readings can also be downloaded: SJ Week 6 Readings

The Spiritual Journey, Week 5

Peace, one and all…

This week’s readings focus on the theme of ‘the glory of non-existence’.  There are two short readings from the Masnavi.

Text One

 

The most secure place to hide a treasure of gold
is in some desolate, unnoticed place.
Why would anyone hide treasure
in plain sight?
And so it is said,
‘Joy is hidden beneath sorrow’
(3.1133-1134)

 

 Text Two

The lover’s food is the love of the bread;
no bread need be at hand:
no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.
Lovers have nothing to do with existence;
lovers have the interest without the capital.
Without wings they fly around the world;
without hands they carry off the polo ball from the field.
That dervish who caught the scent of Reality
used to weave baskets even though his hands had been cut off.
Lovers have pitched their tents in non-existence
they are of one quality and one essence, as non-existence is.
(3.3020-3024)

This week’s readings can also be downloaded: SJ Week 5 Readings

The Spiritual Journey, Week 4

Peace, one and all…

In this week’s meeting we will continue our exploration of the Divine Initiative.  We also consider a reading from Mevlana on the glory of non-existence.

Text One

What wisdom was this, that the Object of all desire
caused me to leave my home joyously on a fool’s errand,
so that I was actually rushing to lose the way
and at each moment being taken farther from what I sought -
and then God in His beneficence made that very wandering
the means of my reaching the right road and finding wealth!
He makes losing the way a way of true faith;
He makes going astray a field for the harvest of righteousness,
so that no righteous one may be without fear
and no traitor may be without hope.
The Gracious One has put the antidote in the poison
so that they may say He is the Lord of hidden grace.
(6.4339-4344)

 

 Text Two

Listen, open a window to God
and begin to delight yourself
by gazing upon Him through the opening.
The business of love is to make that window in the heart,
for the breast is illumined by the beauty of the Beloved.
Gaze incessantly on the face of the Beloved!
Listen, this is in your power, my friend!
(6.3095-3097)

This week’s readings can also be downloaded: SJ Week 4 Readings