the lame goat finds herself in front

stefano zocca

 

Thought of worldly things

is an enemy to the sweetness of spiritual

consciousness. Silence your thoughts. Bewilder

yourself with God. Your mind will fall away

and your heart will open.

 

Forwardness in worldly

ways is backwardness in reality.

When the herd turns back toward God,

its leaders end up in the rear! The lame goat

that was hindmost finds herself in front, and the

ones who worried about her are ecstatic now.

How do saints and prophets get to

be  that way? By breaking

their own legs.

 

They make themselves

lame by renouncing expertise in

the ways of the world. Understanding that

it’s not the way home, they wash their hearts clean

of such knowledge. If you want to reach heaven,

follow the branches that lead to that root.  

Be the lame goat here, and

lead the herd home.

 

Jalal al-Din Rumi

 

after we resume our original nature

papaji

 

When the water returns

to its original oneness with the river,

it no longer has any individual feeling to

it; it resumes its own nature, and finds

composure. How very glad the

water must be to come

back to the original

river!

 

If this is so,

what feeling will we have

when we die? I think we are like the water

in the dipper. We will have composure then, perfect

composure. It may be too perfect for us, just now, because

we are so much attached to our own feeling, to our

individual existence. For us, just now, we have

some fear of death, but after we resume

our true original nature,

there is Nirvana.

 

Shunryu Suzuki

zen mind, beginner’s mind

remember you are inside the presence

 

Whatever state you’re in,

remember you are inside the presence.

Out looking for pleasure, there especially —

I have found no delight better than the mix of touch

with love. That taste is the sweetest. When you are tranced

in that, recall who gave you these pleasurable forms and

inclinations. Even when having a brain seizure,

remember how earthquake energy pries

apart mountains and zigzags a stone

wall. Let that core-energy break

your convulsion.

 

When you’re afraid

of a certain man in power, of some

authority binding you, in these anxieties,

as well as in prostration prayer,

taste the presence.

 

Bahauddin, father of Rumi

The Drowned Book