friendship among brothers and sisters

a buddha was born

 
Real friendship among brothers and sisters on the Sufi path includes the following eight responsibilities:

  1.  Material aid. Help your companions with food, or money, or other things they need for their own survival or development.
  2. Personal support. If they are sick, visit them; if they are busy, help them, if they have forgotten, remind them.
  3. Respect. Do not complain of their faults to them or to others. Do not give advice when you know it can not be acted upon.
  4. Praise and attention. Praise the good qualities of your companions, and let them know that you care for them.
  5. Forgiveness. Forgive your companions for their failings.
  6. Prayer. Pray for the well-being of your companions with the same fervor you pray for your own well-being.
  7. Loyalty. Be firm in your friendships so that you can be depended on by those who put their trust in you.
  8. Relief from discomfort. Do not create awkward or difficult situations that involve your companions. Do not be a burden to others.

 

al-Ghazali

stanford encyclopedia of philosophy

 

you are already realized

it is not handed on by written words

 

You are

already realized.

It is critical to understand this.

Enlightenment is less a matter of charging

forward to achieve something, and more

one of doing non-doing — of leaning

slightly back and silently

accepting its constant

presence.

 

Once you have

done this, go on practicing.

Without straining, continually pour the

emptiness of your being into the

emptiness of existence, and

drink what comes back:

emptiness.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 17

Paperback / Kindle here

iPad/iPhone

iBooks

 

brian browne walker taoist app bundle ios ipad iphone

You

can now buy

Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a

five-app bundle of Taoist classics 

for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

 

quietude whatever you are doing

courage, virtue, emptiness

 

Return the mind

to quietude whatever you are doing,

not imagining what is yet to come and not thinking

about what has already passed. After a long time at this, spirit and

energy merge, feelings and objects are forgotten; spirit solidifies,

energy congeals, and there is just one breath in the belly,

revolving without going out or in.

This is called womb

breathing.

 

The Cultivator of Realization

love comes with a knife

this love is beyond

 

Love comes with a knife, not some shy question,

and not with fears for its reputation.

I say these things disinterestedly.

Accept them in kind.

Love is a madman,

 

working his wild schemes,

tearing off his clothes, running through the mountains,

drinking poison, and now quietly choosing annihilation.

 

A tiny spider tries to wrap an enormous wasp.

Think of the spiderweb

woven across the cave where Muhammad slept.

There are love stories,

and there is obliteration into love.

 

You have been walking the ocean’s edge,

holding up your robes to keep them dry.

 

You must dive naked under and deeper under,

a thousand times deeper. Love flows down.

The ground submits to the sky and suffers what comes.

Tell me, is the earth worse for giving in like that?

 

Do not put blankets over the drum.

Open completely.

Let your spirit listen

to the green dome’s passionate murmur.

 

Let the cords of your robe be untied.

Shiver in this new love beyond all above and below.

The sun rises, but which way does the night go?

I have no more words.

 

Let the soul speak with the silent articulation of a face.

 


 

Someone who does not run

toward the allure of love walks

a road where nothing lives.

 

But this dove here senses

the love hawk floating above,

and waits, and will not be driven

or scared to safety.

 

Jalal al-Din Rumi

the book of love