Late in life I’ve lost my country.
Everywhere there is the malice of unearned
power, top to bottom, bottom to top,
nearly solid scum. Very few can read or write.
Lucky for me we winter in this bamboo thicket
near a creek with three barrels of bird food.
With first light things seem a little better.
It is useless to
discuss the peace of the world.
What is necessary just now is to create peace
in ourselves that we, ourselves, become examples of
love, harmony and peace. That is the only
way of saving the world
and ourselves.
The heart is
The thousand-stringed instrument.
Our sadness and fear come from being
Out of tune with love.
All day long God coaxes my lips
To speak,
So that your tears will not stain
His green dress.
It is not that the Friend is vain,
It is just your life we care about.
Sometimes the Beloved
Takes my pen in hand,
For Hafiz is just a simple man.
The other day the Old One
Wrote on the Tavern wall:
“The heart is
The thousand-stringed instrument
That can only be tuned with
Love.”
do good for the sake of goodness
Three things in
human life are important:
the first is to be kind; the second
is to be kind; and the third
is to be kind.
This dharma
is such that it cannot be attained
by groping or searching about. In the realm
of seeing, knowledge perishes. At the
moment of attaining, mind
is surpassed.