saidevo
19 May 2008, 05:41 AM
Poetry is a great form of expression for Non-Duality (Advaita). Most parts of our Hindu Scriptures for that matter are in poetry. Expressed properly, the light of the Truth immanent in the rigours of metre and rhythm, shines beyond the form, brilliant and appealing, as from a piece of diamond.
A Yahoo! Group named NondualitySalon (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NondualitySalon/) is thriving for nearly ten years now, with active participation from many of its members. The groups discusses Non-Duality which is "not centered around one teacher, group of teachers, practice, institution, religion, or school of thought", as its mission statement explains.
We have a collection here of Non-Duality poetry, obtained chiefly from some of the pointers in this Group. Members may add their own entries and foster this thread into a source of knowledge and inspiration.
We start with this poem by a famous American Poet.
E.E.Cummings (1894-1962): If freckles were lovely...
If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie,
Life would be delight,--
But things couldn't go right
For in such a sad plight 5
I wouldn't be I.
If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I'd be in suspense 10
For on such a pretense
You wouldn't be you.
If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,-- 15
Yet they'd all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn't be we.
*********
Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973): Too Many Names
Mondays are meshed with Tuesdays
and the week with the whole year.
Time cannot be cut
with your weary scissors,
and all the names of the day
are washed out by the waters of night.
No one can claim the name of Pedro,
nobody is Rosa or Maria,
all of us are dust or sand,
all of us are rain under rain.
They have spoken to me of Venezuelas,
of Chiles and of Paraguays;
I have no idea what they are saying.
I know only the skin of the earth
and I know it is without a name.
When I lived amongst the roots
they pleased me more than flowers did,
and when I spoke to a stone
it rang like a bell.
It is so long, the spring
which goes on all winter.
Time lost its shoes.
A year is four centuries.
When I sleep every night,
what am I called or not called?
And when I wake, who am I
if I was not while I slept?
This means to say that scarcely
have we landed into life
than we come as if new-born;
let us not fill our mouths
with so many faltering names,
with so many sad formallities,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much of yours and mine,
with so much of signing of papers.
I have a mind to confuse things,
unite them, bring them to birth,
mix them up, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the oneness of the ocean,
a generous, vast wholeness,
a crepitant fragrance.
*********
Adyashanti (Steven Gray)
(http://www.adyashanti.org/)
From The Shape of Love
All things seen depend
upon the Unseen.
All sounds depend upon Silence.
All things felt depend
upon what is not felt.
*********
So Cheap
I am all hollowed out now
Like a reed.
I gave everything for this.
And still I laughingly wonder:
How could it have been so cheap?
*********
The Calling
I heard You call,
answered and became the calling...
I thought I wanted love
but instead became the loving...
How was I to know
that desire awakens and
becomes the desired?
*********
Total stillness of being comes when
all resistance to movement is absent.
When all resistance is absent,
there is complete stillness, an alive stillness,
a vital stillness which is pure movement
without resistance.
*********
Everything is a spark of that eternal radiance.
Why flee from the world in order to find it,
when you yourself are already on fire?
*********
There's a great space
in which this moment takes place.
There's a great silence
that is listening to the thoughts.
*********
The true I is I-less
While remaining as I.
*********
Never define yourself,
and you will see that everything everywhere
is an extension of yourself.
*********
Don't look to make good decisions
or the best decision or even the right decision.
Make the decision that best expresses and manifests
who and what you know yourself to be.
*********
Papaji (H. W. L. Poonja): Always remember
The thieves of Peace
are thieves in an empty house
because only imagination suffers.
You are Peace,
That which remains Untouched.
*********
A Yahoo! Group named NondualitySalon (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NondualitySalon/) is thriving for nearly ten years now, with active participation from many of its members. The groups discusses Non-Duality which is "not centered around one teacher, group of teachers, practice, institution, religion, or school of thought", as its mission statement explains.
We have a collection here of Non-Duality poetry, obtained chiefly from some of the pointers in this Group. Members may add their own entries and foster this thread into a source of knowledge and inspiration.
We start with this poem by a famous American Poet.
E.E.Cummings (1894-1962): If freckles were lovely...
If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie,
Life would be delight,--
But things couldn't go right
For in such a sad plight 5
I wouldn't be I.
If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I'd be in suspense 10
For on such a pretense
You wouldn't be you.
If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,-- 15
Yet they'd all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn't be we.
*********
Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973): Too Many Names
Mondays are meshed with Tuesdays
and the week with the whole year.
Time cannot be cut
with your weary scissors,
and all the names of the day
are washed out by the waters of night.
No one can claim the name of Pedro,
nobody is Rosa or Maria,
all of us are dust or sand,
all of us are rain under rain.
They have spoken to me of Venezuelas,
of Chiles and of Paraguays;
I have no idea what they are saying.
I know only the skin of the earth
and I know it is without a name.
When I lived amongst the roots
they pleased me more than flowers did,
and when I spoke to a stone
it rang like a bell.
It is so long, the spring
which goes on all winter.
Time lost its shoes.
A year is four centuries.
When I sleep every night,
what am I called or not called?
And when I wake, who am I
if I was not while I slept?
This means to say that scarcely
have we landed into life
than we come as if new-born;
let us not fill our mouths
with so many faltering names,
with so many sad formallities,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much of yours and mine,
with so much of signing of papers.
I have a mind to confuse things,
unite them, bring them to birth,
mix them up, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the oneness of the ocean,
a generous, vast wholeness,
a crepitant fragrance.
*********
Adyashanti (Steven Gray)
(http://www.adyashanti.org/)
From The Shape of Love
All things seen depend
upon the Unseen.
All sounds depend upon Silence.
All things felt depend
upon what is not felt.
*********
So Cheap
I am all hollowed out now
Like a reed.
I gave everything for this.
And still I laughingly wonder:
How could it have been so cheap?
*********
The Calling
I heard You call,
answered and became the calling...
I thought I wanted love
but instead became the loving...
How was I to know
that desire awakens and
becomes the desired?
*********
Total stillness of being comes when
all resistance to movement is absent.
When all resistance is absent,
there is complete stillness, an alive stillness,
a vital stillness which is pure movement
without resistance.
*********
Everything is a spark of that eternal radiance.
Why flee from the world in order to find it,
when you yourself are already on fire?
*********
There's a great space
in which this moment takes place.
There's a great silence
that is listening to the thoughts.
*********
The true I is I-less
While remaining as I.
*********
Never define yourself,
and you will see that everything everywhere
is an extension of yourself.
*********
Don't look to make good decisions
or the best decision or even the right decision.
Make the decision that best expresses and manifests
who and what you know yourself to be.
*********
Papaji (H. W. L. Poonja): Always remember
The thieves of Peace
are thieves in an empty house
because only imagination suffers.
You are Peace,
That which remains Untouched.
*********