something for everyone from Lalla...

[Guest guest]

Something for everyone...all from Lalla, the 14th century Kashmiri Saint.

 

one

 

 

Loosen the load of sweetness I'm carrying.

The sling-knot is biting into my shoulder.

 

This day has been so meaningless.

I feel I can't go on.

 

When I was with my teacher, I heard a truth

that hurt my heart like a blister,

 

the tender pain of seeing

something I loved as an illusion.

 

The flocks I tended are gone.

I am a shepherd without even a memory

 

of what that means, climbing this mountain.

I feel so lost.

 

This was my inward way, until I came

into the presence of a Moon, this new knowledge

 

of how likenesses unite. Good Friend,

everything is You. I see only God.

 

Now the delightful forms and motions

are transparent. I look through them

 

and see myself as the Absolute. And here's

the answer to the riddle of this dream:

 

You leave, so that we two

can do One Dance.

 

 

two

 

 

 

Your pride in yourself and your wanting,

these steal your energy along the road.

 

If you can kill these robbers

and become the servant of everyone,

you'll meet the Lord in meditation

and see what you used to protect

as just a pile of ashes.

 

 

three

 

 

Fearful, always-moving mind,

the One who has no beginning

is thinking of how hunger

may fall away from you.

 

No ritual,

no religion,

is needed.

 

Just cry out one

unobstructed cry.

 

 

four

 

 

My body caught fire like an ember,

as I brought the syllable OM,

the one that says You are That,

into me. I moved through

the six chakra centers

that urge human beings to action

and out into the lightedness

where Lalla lives now.

 

 

Five

 

 

Everything is new now for me.

My mind is new, the moon, the sun.

The whole world looks rinsed with water,

washed in the rain of I am That.

 

Lalla leaps and dances inside the energy

that creates and sustains the universe

 

 

And one from Madhya,

 

You feed me small bites, Beloved,

teaching me to savor

each morsel of delicious Emptiness,

while saving the best for last!