What Have I Ever Lost By Dying?

Portrait IV, 1938 by Joan Miro

I lived for hundreds of thousands of years as a mineral,

And then I died and was reborn as a plant.

I lived for hundreds of thousands of years as a plant,

And then I died and was reborn as an animal.

I lived for hundreds of thousands of years as an animal,
And then I died and was reborn as a human being.

What have I ever lost by dying?

- Rumi ( version by Robert Bly) 

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

- Rumi

A fairytale

As Spring Passes By by A.Ramachandran 

Alas, mountains of imagination were nothing but a house.
And this grand life of mine was nothing but an excuse.
You've been hearing my story so patiently for a lifetime.
Now hear this … It was nothing but a fairytale.

- Rumi

Whoever you are

Whirling dervishes by Alison Wiklund

Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, idolater, worshiper of fire,
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.

- Rumi

Who am I?

"Spring" by Neha

What is to be done ? for I do not recognize myself,

I am neither Christian nor Jew, nor Gabr nor Muslim,

I am not of the east, nor of the west, nor of the land, nor of the sea.

I am not of nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;

I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity,

I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin;

I am not of the kingdom of Iraqain, nor of the country of Khorasan,

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell.

I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the placeless, my trace is the traceless,

’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved,

I have put quality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;

One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call,

He is the first, he is the last, he is the outward, he is the inward;

I know none other except ‘Ya Hu’ and ‘Ya man Hu’.

If there be any lover in the world, —’tis I.

If there be any believer, infidel, or hermit,— ’tis I.

The wine-dregs, the cup-bearer, the minstrel, the harp, and the music,

The beloved, the candle, the drink and the joy of the drunken,—’tis I.

The two-and-seventy creeds and sects in the world

Do not really exist: I swear by God that every creed and sect—’tis I.

Earth and air and water and fire, knowest thou what they are?

Earth and air and water and fire, nay, body and soul too—’tis I.

Truth and Falsehood, good and evil, ease and difficulty from first to last,

Knowledge and learning and asceticism and piety and faith—’tis I.

The fire of Hell, be assured, with its flaming limbs,

Yes, and Paradise and Eden and the Houris—’tis I.

This earth and heaven with all that they hold,

Angels, Peris, Genies and Mankind—’tis I.

-Rumi

Whoever brought me here

"The Keeper" by Neha

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

- Rumi , Translation by Coleman Barks

Start Knowing

Stop learning.
Start knowing.
The rose opens, and opens,
and when it falls,
falls outward.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi ( Translation by Andrew Harvey)

Image in the Mirror

"The Window" by Neha

The image in the mirror seems different

But sublime days arrive when you know

Viewer, image, and mirror are one: the same

Silent calm eternal shimmering.

-Rumi ( Translation by Andrew Harvey)

Through love

" The Streak" by Neha

Through love bitter things seem sweet.
Through love scraps of copper are turned to gold.
Through love dregs taste like clear wine.
Through love agonies are healing balms.
Through love thorns become roses.
Through love vinegar becomes rich wine.
Through love the scaffold becomes a throne.
Through love disaster becomes good fortune.
Through love a prison becomes a rose garden.
Through love burning fire is a fragrant light.
Through love the devil becomes an angel.
Through love stones become soft as butter.
Through love grief is like delight.
Through love demons become servants of God.
Through love stings are like honey.
Through love lions are harmless as mice.
Through love sickness is health.
Through love the dead are resurrected.
Through love the emperor becomes a slave.

- Rumi ( Translation by Andrew Harvey)

The Heart

" At my heart" by Neha

What is there in the jar that isn't also in the river?
What can you find in the house that is not in the city?
This world is the jar, the Heart the river;
This world is the house, the Heart the city of miracles.

- Rumi ( Translation by Andew Harvey)

Garden of Love

"Many flowers in this garden" by Neha

The garden of
Love
is green without
limit
and yields many
fruits
other than sorrow
and joy.
Love is beyond either
condition:
without spring,
without autumn,
it is always fresh.

- Rumi

Garden of Miracles

" My Garden by Neha"

Garden of miracles,
what kind of garden are you?

- Rumi ( Translation by Andrew Harvey, A Year of Rumi, Daily Om)

There is a way

A Thousand Steps by Neha

The intellect says: "The six directions are limits: there is no way out."
Love says: "There is a way. I have traveled it thousands of times."
The intellect saw a market and started to haggle;
Love saw thousands of markets beyond that market.

- Rumi

(Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi )

Dive Today

Tomorrow you'll be brave, you say? Fool! Dive today
From the cliff of what you know into what you can't know.
You fear the rocks? Better men than you have died on them;
Dying on Love's rocks is nobler than a life of death.

- Rumi ( Translation by Andrew Harvey)

The cup of your life..

"Image: Beholder by Neha"

Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon;
How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.
Grant a great dignity, my friend, to the cup of your life;
Love has designed it to hold eternal wine

- Rumi

Generations have passed

" Image : Transient by Neha"

Generations have passed and this is a new generation. The moon is always the same, only the water changes. Justice remains the same justice, learning the same learning, as people and nations change.

Generations have passed; the true meanings stay constant and are eternal. The water in the stream may have changed a million times – the reflection of the moon and stars stays the same.

- Rumi

The Eternal Idea

You may seem to be the microcosm;
In fact, you are the macrocosm.
The branch might seem like the fruit's origin:
In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit.
Would the gardener have planted the tree at all
Without a desire and hope for fruit?
That's why the tree is really born from the fruit
Even if it seems the fruit is created by the tree.
The idea which comes first comes last in realization—
Particularly that idea which is eternal.

- Rumi

Gazing at the Light

"Image: Eternal flame by Neha"

The lamps are different,
But the Light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain’s lamp-show,
Forget about them.
Concentrate on the essence, concentrate on the Light.
In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
The Light streams towards you from all things,
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil, thought, passion.
The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
Endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond,
One, one, one.
Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
To blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
You are gazing at the Light
With its own ageless eyes.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi