Lately, I’ve been unable to hold a cohesive thought and bring it to any kind of conclusion, logical or otherwise. Instead, I’ve had a string of thoughts – prompted by a number of isolated quotes – come to my attention. These quotes are fragments I had saved with the thought that I would use them one day to punctuate a longer piece of writing. I hope you find them inspiring or thought-provoking in some small way. Perhaps you will feel urged to seek out more writings by their authors, who have been fortunate enough to reach the end of their searching and attain true wisdom through Enlightenment.
These first are by the Sufi poet Hafiz (given name Shams-ud-din Muhammad, c.1320-1389) – (taken from “the Gift” Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master – translations by Daniel Ladinsky- published by Penguin, 1999) I love the dedication page. It reads, “ To God’s magnificent masquerade ~~as us!”
The Sun Never Says
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe
Me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.
And there is this fragment from another of his poems:
“…..I saw two birds this morning
Laughing with the sun.
They reminded me of how
We will one day exist….”
And now a couple of quotes by another great Sufi poet, Rumi (Jalaluddin Rumi – 1207-1273):
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
~
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
And finally, a quote I came across when I was in the 5th grade while reading a book, Step to the Music, by Phyllis A. Whitney. It is a quote by Henry David Thoreau – (Transcendentalist, 1817-1862 from his book, “Walden”) – Even then I knew it would sum up my life:
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
Namaste.
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