Friday, September 24, 2010

A Basket of Fresh Bread (1)


If you want to learn theory,
talk with the theoreticians. That way is oral.

When you learn a craft, practice it.
That learning comes through the hands.

If you want dervishhood, spiritual poverty,
and emptiness, you must be friends with a sheikh.
Talking about it, reading books, and doing practices
do not help. Soul receives from soul that knowing.

The mystery of spiritual emptiness
may be living in a pilgrim's heart,
but the knowing of it might not yet be his.

Wait for the illuminating openness,
as though your chest were filling with light.

Do not look for it outside yourself.
There is a milk fountain inside of you.
Do not walk around with an empty bucket.

You have a channel into the ocean,
yet you ask for water from a little pool.
Beg for the love-expansion.
The Qur'an says, And he is with you. (57:4)