This moment this Love comes to rest in me,

many beings in one being.

In one wheat grain a thousand sheaf stacks.

Inside the needle's eye a turning night of stars.

-Rumi

Nigel Lott teaandzen.org

ALL I KNOW IS LOVE

A billion times God has turned manInto Himself

You stand in line for theHighest giftFor His generosity cannot end.

But best to bring an instrument alongWhile waiting in the cold desert

And make some dulcet soundsTo accompany the palms’ swaying armsThat are casting silhouettesAgainst the sky’s curtainFrom our fire.

Remind the Friend of your desireAnd great patience.

A billion times God has turned manBack into Herself.

We all stand in lineFor the highestGift.

Love is the breath of the soul, the eternal current that flows through us, guiding us home. When we root ourselves in Love….pure, unconditional, infinite….we become vessels for creation, and everything we touch begins to reflect that light.

Nigel Lott teaandzen.org

In the morningWhen I began to wake,It happened again—

That feelingThat you, Beloved,Had stood over me all nightKeeping watch,

That feelingThat as soon as I began to stir

You put Your lips on my foreheadAnd lit a Holy LampInside my heart

Hafiz.

Little by little,You will turn into stars.Even then, my dear,You will only beA crawling infant,Still skinning your knees on God.Little by little,You will turn intoThe whole sweet, amorous UniverseIn heatOn a wild spring night,And become so freeIn a wonderful, secretAnd pour LoveThat flowsFrom a conscious,One-pointedInfinite need for Light.Even then, my dear,The Beloved will have fulfilledJust a fraction,Just a fraction!Of a promiseHe wrote upon your heart.When your soul beginsTo Ever bloom and laughAnd spin in Eternal Ecstasy -O little by little,You will turn into God.

teaandzen.org

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

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…In life after life, in age after age, forever.My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,In life after life, in age after age, forever.Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain,Its ancient tale of being apart or together.As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:You become an image of what is remembered forever.You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.At the heart of time, love of one for another.We have played alongside millions of lovers, shared in the sameShy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in youThe love of all man’s days both past and forever:Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –And the songs of every poet past and forever.

Love itself does not hurt. It is the illusion of its absence that brings pain. Love is always here, always flowing, seen or unseen. The paradox is that we grieve for what has never left.

Nigel Lott teaandzen.org

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Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about 'His great visions of God,' he felt he was having.He asked me for confirmation, saying 'Are these wondrous dreams true?'

I replied, 'How many goats do you have?'

He looked surprised and said, 'I am speaking of sublime visions and you ask about goats?'

And I spoke again, saying, 'Yes brother -- how many do you have?'

'Well, I have sixty two.'

'And how many wives?'

Again he looked surprised, then said, 'Four.'

'How many rose bushes in your garden? How many children? Are your parents still alive? Do you feed the birds in winter?'

And to all he answered.

Then I said, 'You asked me if I thought your visions were true. I would say that they were if they made you become more human, more kind to every creature and plant that you knew.'"

-- Hafiz