Listen, O Soul

Listen, O soul, to my advice.
Do not become a den for foxes and snakes,
nor a hole for serpents and asps,
nor a lair for lions,
nor a shelter for vipers.
When these things happen to you,
O soul, what will you do?
For these are the Powers of the Adversary.
You were a temple.
You made yourself a tomb.
Stop being a tomb, and become a temple again,
so that uprightness and divinity may remain in you.
Light the light within you.
Do not put it out.

(from the Teachings of Silvanus, a Gnostic Christian text in the Nag Hammadi Libary)

Friends, don't remain asleep

Friends, don’t remain asleep at the time of dawn.
This is the time of opening the doors, the time of nearness.
Those who are awake at dawn, find the Benevolence of God.
This is the time when soothing light of Truth pours forth.

Makhtumkuli (1733-late 1790s), Sufi poet and Turkmen nationalist.
This poem can be read both literally and metaphorically.

Yusuf Islam

Don't you feel the day is coming

Don't you feel the day is coming, and it won't be too soon
When the people of the world can all live in one room
When we shake off the ancient,
shake off the ancient chains of our tomb
We will all be born again of the eternal womb.

Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, Don't you feel a change a coming? (1971)

There is a Water

There is a Water that flows down from Heaven
To cleanse the world of sin by grace Divine.
At last, its whole stock spent, its virtue gone,
Dark with pollution not its own, it speeds
Back to the Fountain of all purities;
Whence, freshly bathed, earthward it sweeps again,
Trailing a role of glory bright and pure.

This Water is the Spirit of the Saints.
Which ever sheds, until itself is beggared,
God’s balm on the sick soul; and then returns
To Him who made the purest light of Heaven.

(Rumi)

I entered not knowing where

I entered not knowing where.
And I remained not knowing.
Beyond all science knowing.

I did not know where I entered,
But when I saw myself there,
Not knowing where I entered,
Many things I suddenly learned;
I will not say what these things were,
For I remained not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.

It was peace, it was love,
It was the perfect knowledge,
In deep loneliness
I saw with wisdom;
It was a thing so secret
I was left babbling and trembling,
Beyond all science knowing.

I was so far beyond,
So lost and absorbed,
I lost all my senses
I was of all sensing dispossessed;
And my spirit was filled
With knowledge not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.

Whoever truly reaches there,
To himself he is lost;
All he knew before
Now appears very base;
But his knowledge grows,
And he remains not knowing
Beyond all science knowing. …

This knowing by not knowing,
Is of such high power,
That the arguments of the wise
Are unable to grasp it;
For their knowledge does not explain
Not to know knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.

And this exalted wisdom
Is of such excellence,
That no faculty of science
Can hope to reach it;
But he who learns to conquer himself
With this knowledge of not knowing,
Will always go beyond all science knowing.

(In this song, found in a manuscript of his works, Juan de la Cruz (a.k.a. John of the Cross)(1542-1591) described his entry into nirvikalpa-samadhi)

The great mystery

The primary matter of all things is the “great mystery” … Like children are born to the mother, from the “great mystery” issues all things, with or without feelings, as well as the other things, all in the same manner. The “Great mystery” is the only mother of all mortal things.

(Paracelsus (1490-1541), Swiss spiritual alchemist)

When realisation came

When realisation came to me, I was filled with joy and all fear departed from me.
I found pure deliverance in the realm of the unapproachable, the unthinkable.
The Unapproachable has come near, the message of the Unthinkable abides with me always, the Unutterable find utterance.
From separation I have come to Union.
The bonds of self are loosened, all error has fled, and the light of the Brahman shines upon my soul.

(Dadu Dayal (1544-1603) Rajasthan, India)