Sunrise123's inspirations and ruminations

[sun rise]

There are many things which are as a breath of fresh air and lift my spirits. Perhaps some of these might do the same for some of you. I look for and honor that which helps me cut through the miasma of the daily news and which helps me remember my focus in my interactions with people and with nature.

One thing I've found is that figures from many different religious and spiritual traditions have the same basic message albeit often expressed differently. For those associated with a religion, sayings about rituals, clothing, ceremonies and so forth are not what I'm focused on.

Since my background is Jewish, I'll start with sayings from Jewish figures. There is a facebook group Kabbalah which has many such sayings, some from non-Jews and not all of which I find inspirational. But many do call to me. Here's one:

“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Why? Because every human being has a root in the Unity, and to reject the minutest particle of the Unity is to reject it all.”

Baal Shem Tov

 

[sun rise]

Another:

That truth and wisdom is "right under your nose!"

The following story comes from the Talmud:

Before we're born, while in our mother's womb, the Almighty sends an angel to sit beside us and teach us all the wisdom for living we'll ever need to know. Then, just before we're born, the angel taps us under the nose (forming the philtrum, the indentation that everyone has under their nose), and we forget everything the angel taught us.

What does this story teach? That truth and wisdom is "right under your nose!"

We can look inside ourselves to learn what life is about. Buried within the subconscious mind, in the farthest corner of our memory, lies the knowledge of everything we need to know: The purpose of life, how to love, how to reach our potential. Our task is to bring that knowledge to the conscious mind ~V i.e. to make the effort to remember!

Nobody can ever teach you anything new. They can only help you get in touch with what you already intuitively know to be true.

"Education" means drawing out what is already inside the student. Beware of educators who try to impose their position on you.

Rabbi Noah Weinberg

 

[Revoltingest]

You are not a ruminant.
So this is cultural appropria.....uh oh....it's a journal.
OK, I'm leaving.

 

[PureX]

"Deserves got nothin' to do with it" - William Munny

 

[sun rise]

The quote from the Baal Shem Tov and this one from an atheist science-fiction author illustrates what I really love - the universality of some ideas. This was written by J. MIchael Straczynski. For those unfamiliar with that great SF series, substitute nations or religions for that list of alien races:

The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
The language is not Narn or Human or Centauri or Gaim or Minbari.

It speaks in the language of hope. It speaks in the language of trust.
It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion.
It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.
But always it is the same voice.

It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us.
And the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born.
It is the small, still voice that says we are One.

No matter the blood, no matter the skin,
No matter the world, no matter the star,
We are One.
No matter the pain, no matter the darkness,
No matter the loss, no matter the fear.
We are One.

Here, gathered together in common cause
We agree to recognize this singular truth and this singular rule:
That we MUST be kind to one another.

Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us,
And each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation,
The fire that will light the way to a better future.

We are One.

 

[sun rise]

A few short quotes:

"Balance means responding to criticism and to applause in the same ways -- not to be controlled by either."
Baal Shem Tov

"Let the good in me connect with the good in others, until all the world is transformed through the compelling power of love.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

"HaShem is concealed from our minds but revealed in our hearts."
The Zohar

"You don't become happy by pursuing happiness. You become happy by living a life that means something."
Rabbi Harold S Kushner

"To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens."
Rebbe Menachem M Schneerson (Lubavitcher Rebbe)

 

[Geoff-Allen]

"You don't become happy by pursuing happiness. You become happy by living a life that means something."
Rabbi Harold S Kushner

I like his stuff!

Harold S. Kushner Quotes (Author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People)

Keep them coming ...

 

[sun rise]

These two views on the Moses/Egypt story represent close to my perspective when looking at scriptural stories. Whether or not there is any historical basis to such stories, a teaching element can be found:

The Torah is a historic tale about the exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. But in fact, it unfolds man's exit from a state of corporeal lowness, called Egypt, to his ascent to the state called The Land of Israel.

Moses, the author of the Torah, used a language named: The Language of the Branches. He used names of objects, feelings and actions of our world, but intended to point to objects in the spiritual world: supreme powers, secret forces, exits and entries of power, information and effects, including harmful ones. All that is portrayed as a historic tale about human development. In fact, human evolution corresponds to the Torah. The Torah describes a certain era in human development, but it actually refers to spiritual roots.

Rav Michael Laitman

"In every generation, and on each day, we need to envision as if we are leaving Egypt (slavery)" Inwardly, slavery, and being enslaved means to live as the Effect of life, and not its Cause. If someone insults you, and you feel hurt that you are living the effect of someone else's choice, but if you choose not to react, you become the cause of your life. A Free person lives as a cause; an Enslaved person lives as the effect. The choice is ours."

Rav DovBer Pinson

 

[sun rise]

Taking a break from the written word, the Mutts cartoons often have an uplifting message.

 

[sun rise]

A view on what the word "creator" means:

The Creator - Come and See

Various religions depict the Creator as something outside of us. But Kabbalah explains that it is forbidden to imagine the Creator as an image of any kind, that the Creator is a quality that exists within each of us.

The Creator is the quality of love and bestowal. The meaning of the word "Creator" (Borre in Hebrew) is "Come and See" (Bo u Re~Re), meaning come and discover this quality within you.

There is no external, foreign element for whom we work! We work on correcting ourselves, on attaining the qualities of love and giving, the Creator.

Around two thousand years ago, we lost the feeling of the Creator - we were exiled and lost the true picture of the world. We began to think that the Creator was someone who existed separately from us, rather than a quality that appeared within us.

Instead of depicting the Creator as the primary and foremost quality of Creation, which clothes within us, we began to think of Him as a separate and foreign entity.

Rav Michael Laitman

Yod Hay Vav Hay

"The letters of the name of G-d in Hebrew are yod, hay, vav and hay. They are frequently mispronounced as "Yahveh." But in truth they are unutterable. Not because of the holiness they evoke, but because they are all vowels and you cannot pronounce all the vowels at once without risking respiratory injury. This word is the sound of breathing. The holiest Name in the world, the Name of the Creator, is the sound of your own breathing.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

 

[sun rise]

I think this is the last post from this source at least for now. This is a wonderful note about judging who to follow whether it be a zaddik, spiritual director, guru, Murshid or any other such figure.

"A true leader does not seek followers, he wants to teach others how to be leaders. He does not want control, he wants the truth. He does not impose his leadership on others, nor does he take away anyone's autonomy. He inspires by love, not coercion. When it comes time to take credit, he makes himself invisible; but he is the first to arrive at the time of need, and he will never shrink away in fear. He is so passionate about your welfare that when you consult him for guidance, it is like coming face to face with yourself for the first time."

Rebbe Menachem M Schneerson (Lubavitcher Rebbe)

 

[sun rise]

Turning from mystical Judaism to sufism, there's some history that not everyone knows. Sufism is often associated with Islam because of the history of the past centuries but that supposition is not accepted by many sufis. To start with Hazrat inayat Khan of the Chisti lineage who brought sufism to the West and from whom many groups descend, his "The Freedom of the Sufi" discourse includes this (which helps explain why the fanatics hate sufism, even sufism which "wears" an Islamic face):

Sufism cannot be called a religion because it is free from principles, distinctions and differences, the very basis on which religions are founded; neither can it be called a philosophy, because philosophy teaches the study of nature in its qualities and varieties, whereas Sufism teaches unity. Therefore it may best be called simply the training of the view. The word Sufi implies purity, and purity contains two qualities. Pure means unmixed with any other element, or in other words that which exists in its own element, unalloyed and unstained. The second quality of purity is great adaptability.
...
The Sufi shows his universal brotherhood in his adaptability. Among Christians he is a Christian, among Jews he is a Jew, among Muslims he is a Muslim, among Hindus he is a Hindu; for he is one with all,...

In addition wikipedia has this:

Inayat Khan set forth ten principles that formed the foundational principles of his Universal Sufism:[17]

1. 
   
   • There is one God; the Eternal, the Only Being; None exists save He.
   • There is one master; the guiding spirit of all souls that constantly leads all followers toward the light.
   • There is one holy book; the sacred manuscript of nature, the only Scripture that can enlighten the reader.
   • There is one religion; unswerving progress in the right direction toward the Ideal, which fulfills every soul's life purpose.
   • There is one law; the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience, together with a sense of awakened justice.
   • There is one brotherhood; the human brotherhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the fatherhood of God. This was later adapted by followers to; "There is one Family, the Human Family, which unites the Children of Earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God."
   • There is one moral; the love which springs forth from self-denial and blooms in deeds of beneficence. ... (later alternative; "which springs forth from a willing heart, surrendered in service to God and Humanity, and which blooms in deeds of beneficence").
   • There is one object of praise; the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
   • There is one truth; true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of Wisdom.
   • There is one path; annihilation of the false ego in the real (later alternative; "the effacement of the limited self in the Unlimited"), which raises the mortal to immortality, in which resides all perfection.

 

[sun rise]

Pulling myself away from my attachment to politics for the moment (sigh), I started thinking about Rabia of Basra, a sufi woman from hundreds of years ago. She famously said about motivation for belief:

"O Allah! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship You for Your Own sake,
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.”

And there's a classic story about those who are attached to miracles and powers. One version is:

One day Hazrat Hassan Basri saw Hazrat Rabia near a lake. He threw his prayer rug on top of the water and said, “Rabia, come! Let us pray two rakats here.” She replied, “Hassan, when you are showing off your spiritual goods in the worldly market, it should be things which your fellow men cannot display.” Then, she threw her prayer rug into the air and flew up onto it saying, “Come up here, Hassan, where people can see us.” Then she said, “Hassan, what you did fishes can do, and what I did flies can do. But the real business is outside these tricks. One must apply oneself to the real business.”

 

[sun rise]

When I've read different translations of the poetry of sufis, it's clear to me how impossible it is in certain cases. If a poem, for example, uses the word 'light' to mean, at the same time, weight and illumination, another language might have two separate words and the poetic sense of being weightless and full of illumination is lost because only one meaning is chosen.

Some sufi poets like Hafiz are very hard to translate where much gets lost. Daniel Ladinsky took another tack which was to take a poem and "render" it into another poem. I think it's fair to say that a poem such as the following was inspired by something Hafiz wrote:

A Golden Compass

Forget every idea of right and wrong
Any classroom ever taught you

Because
An empty heart, a tormented mind,
Unkindness, jealousy and fear

Are always the testimony
You have been completely fooled!

Turn your back on those
Who would imprison your wondrous spirit
With deceit and lies.

Come, join the honest company
Of the King’s beggars -
Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns
And those astonishing fair courtesans
Who need Divine Love every night.

Come, join the courageous
Who have no choice
But to bet their entire world
That indeed,
Indeed, God is Real.

I will lead you into the Circle
Of the Beloved’s cunning thieves,
Those playful royal rogues -
The ones you can trust for true guidance -
Who can aid you
In this Blessed Calamity of life.

Hafiz,
Look at the Perfect One
At the Circle’s Center:

He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,
Beyond all that is Rational,

To show this dear world

That Everything,
Everything in Existence
Does point to God.

 

[sun rise]

From the same source, Ladinsky's rendering of Hafiz, I love this description of a poet: A Poet is someone who can pour light into a spoon Then raise it To Nourish Your beautiful parched, holy mouth.

And this poem:

If It Is Not Too Dark

Go for a walk, if it is not too dark.
Get some fresh air, try to smile.
Say something kind
To a safe-looking stranger, if one happens by.

Always exercise your heart's knowing.

You might as well attempt something real
Along this path:

Take your spouse or lover into your arms
The way you did when you first met.
Let tenderness pour from your eyes
The way the Sun gazes warmly on the earth.

Play a game with some children.
Extend yourself to a friend.
Sing a few ribald songs to your pets and plants –
Why not let them get drunk and wild!

Let's toast
Every rung we've climbed on Evolution's ladder.
Whisper, "I love you! I love you!"
To the whole mad world.

Let's stop reading about God -
We will never understand Him.

Jump to your feet, wave your fists,
Threaten and warn the whole Universe
That your heart can no longer live
Without real love!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

From the same source, Ladinsky's rendering of Hafiz, I love this description of a poet: A Poet is someone who can pour light into a spoon Then raise it To Nourish Your beautiful parched, holy mouth.

Love the poems!

Did a little search of my own and found ths site -

The Poetry of Hafiz

Cheers!

 

[sun rise]

Rumi's poetic works have been best sellers for a good reason. Unlike others, I find many translations of Rumi to speak to me including these three. One speaks to evolution/reincarnation and death, one about spiritual practices and one about finding Truth in one's own heart.

1. I died to being mineral and growth began.
I died to vegetable growth and attained to the state of animals.
I died from animality and became Adam:
why then should I fear?
When have I become less by dying?
Next I shall die to being a human being,
so that I may soar and lift up my head among the angels.
Yet I must escape even from that angelic state:
everything is perishing except His Face.
Once again I shall be sacrificed, dying to the angelic;
I shall become that which could never be imagined
I shall become nonexistent.
Nonexistence sings its clear melody,
Truly, unto Him shall we return!

2. Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument;
Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

3. Cross and Christians, end to end, i examined. He was not on the Cross. I
went to the Hindu Temple, to the ancient pagoda. In none of them there was any sign. To the heights of Herat I went and to Kandhar, I looked. He was not on the elevation not on the low lands.

Resolutely I went to summit of the fabulous mountain of Ka'af. There was
only the dwelling of the Anqa bird.I went to Kaaba at Mecca. He was not
there. I asked him from Avicenna the philosopher. He was beyond the range of Avicenna, I looked into my own heart. In that place I saw him.

He was in no other place.

 

[sun rise]

When it comes to Christianity, I know of no better exemplar for what it means to be a disciple of the Christ than St. Francis of Assisi. And the wonderfully movie "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" perfectly illustrates the difference between a follower of the Christ and "churchianity" than the symbolic scene where St. Francis meets the Pope. The history is of course different but what counts here is the symbolism.

And I also take the symbolism of his external poverty as a way of achieving internal "poverty" meaning at least wishing to discard the "chains of self".

 

[sun rise]

There are many other Christians who appeal to me. I experience them as having focused on the two "Greatest Commandments", the law of love, as their root motivation. And I love the humor of St. Teresa of Avila who is thought to have an experience like this although the story is told differently by different people:

St. Teresa of Avila:

As she founded and visited convents, Teresa often traveled the rugged roads of Spain. One time her saddle slipped, and she found herself head down under the belly of a donkey as she crossed a stream. Complaining to the Lord of her treatment, she heard him reply, “Teresa, whom the Lord loves, he chastises. This is how I treat all my friends.” She replied tartly, “No wonder you have so few!”

Meister Eckhart:

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.

“Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.”

God is equally near in all creatures.

St. John of the Cross:

My sole occupation is love.

“In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.”

 

[sun rise]

There are many many people in India who I get inspiration from - male and female. One is Sri Ramakrishna. I picked two selections - one about his vision of Jesus and one a poem I particularly love:

Vision of Christ | How Sri Ramakrishna Saw Jesus Merge Into His Body

As soon as the Master saw that person, he knew that he was a foreigner. He saw that his long eyes had produced a wonderful beauty in his face, and the tip of his nose, though a little flat, did not at all impair that beauty. The Master was charmed to see the extraordinary divine expression of that handsome face, and wondered who he was.

Very soon the person approached him and from the bottom of the Master’s pure heart came out with a ringing sound, the words, “Jesus! Jesus the Christ, the great Yogi, the loving Son of God, one with the Father, who gave his heart’s blood and put up with endless torture in order to deliver men from sorrow and misery!”

Jesus, the god-man, then embraced the Master and disappeared into his body and the Master entered into ecstasy (Bhav Samadhi), lost normal consciousness and remained identified for some time with the Omnipresent Brahman (God, the Ocean of Consciousness) with attributes.

Sri Ramakrishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali (Divine Mother), Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman (Absolute Ocean of Consciousness), and Mohammed.

Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others – Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.

The other a song of praise to the Divine Mother as sung by his disciple Narendra:

In Wisdom's firmament the moon of Love is rising full,
And Love's flood-tide, in surging waves, is flowing everywhere.
O Lord, how full of bliss Thou art! Victory unto Thee!

On every side shine devotees, like stars around the moon;
Their Friend, the Lord All-merciful, joyously plays with them.
Behold! the gates of paradise today are open wide.

The soft spring wind of the New Day raises fresh waves of joy;
Gently it carries to the earth the fragrance of God's Love,
Till all the yogis, drunk with bliss, are lost in ecstasy.

Upon the sea of the world unfolds the lotus of the New Day,
And there the Mother sits enshrined in blissful majesty.
See how the bees are mad with joy, sipping the nectar there!

Behold the Mother's radiant face, which so enchants the heart
And captivates the universe! About Her Lotus Feet
Bands of ecstatic holy men are dancing in delight.

What matchless loveliness is Hers! What infinite content
Pervades the heart when She appears! O brothers, says Premdas,
I humbly beg you, one and all, to sing the Mother's praise!