You've no idea how hard I've looked
for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What's the point of bringing gold
to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with
was like taking spices to the Orient.
It's no good giving my heart and my soul
because you already have these.
So- I've brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.
- Jalaluddin Rumi
4 comments:
It's clear Rumi speaks to you in deep places -- and with a wonderful love poem like this its easy to see why.
So. How do you see this being put into practice? What does it mean in practical terms to hold a mirror up to the Divine?
I sigh in complete and utter admiration for this piece. The ending seems to have exploded somewhere within the recesses of my soul. ^_^
Hullo. My first time here. I've been reading previous poems, and all have led me into a state of sweet meditation. My top three faves:
"Light Rising." I have relished reading this piece out loud. There are two lines here that rendered me breathless with their beauty:
We are not-two, my Beloved and I
Both viewer and view, not two
"Into Waiting Arms."
"Open Sky."
^_^ I shall drop by again for more soul-food.
How beautiful. With a mirror we may reflect our own Buddha nature of the Divine within. This is the ultimate gift that we can give ourselves or anyone else.
"The foreigners are not so well in prayers and expression of love or meditation compared to Indians but they sacrifice their money for the sake of God with full vigor. Therefore God blesses the foreign countries with wealth and prosperity."
Shri Datta Swami,
Thank you for your words. Please help me to understand your words more fully. When you say the above I am reminded that although the west has abundant amounts of money, it seems the giving is at times brought about by a certain amount of coercion from the pulpit, or from a sense that there will be something to gain by the giving. In my opinion, the west most always determines what is the gain- before the giving and therefore always seems to “watch the other hand” knowing exactly the amount and hoping for a fuller return in either recognition from others or a propping up of the ego through gifting.
The west is indeed blessed with wealth, but I will argue the prosperity side of the equation in saying there is an abundance of emptiness prevalent in the ‘soul’ that no amount of giving through conscious means can fulfill.
The west was founded and is nourished through ego gratification. We are taught either today holds no value and that our happiness and promise is beyond us waiting in some place in the heavens or that we are what we possess and how we are perceived by others. How can one truly give with full vigor, not feeding the ego with thoughts of return and yet live with the teaching we must postpone the gratification and promise of being here, now by believing our reward is someplace other than here, now?
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