Monthly Archives: January 2009

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Posted on January 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

Not a believer inside the mosque, am I
Nor a pagan disciple of false rites
Not the pure amongst the impure
Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not in the holy Vedas, am I
Nor in opium, neither in wine
Not in the drunkard`s intoxicated craze
Niether awake, nor in a sleeping daze

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

In happiness nor in sorrow, am I
Neither clean, nor a filthy mire
Not from water, nor from earth
Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not an Arab, nor Lahori
Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri
Hindu, Turk, nor Peshawari
Nor do I live in Nadaun

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Secrets of religion, I have not known
From Adam and Eve, I am not born
I am not the name I assume
Not in stillness, nor on the move

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

I am the first, I am the last
None other, have I ever known
I am the wisest of them all
Bulleh! do I stand alone?

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

– Bulleh Shah

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Posted in Bulleh Shah, Poetry

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Posted on January 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

Not a believer inside the mosque, am I
Nor a pagan disciple of false rites
Not the pure amongst the impure
Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not in the holy Vedas, am I
Nor in opium, neither in wine
Not in the drunkard`s intoxicated craze
Niether awake, nor in a sleeping daze

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

In happiness nor in sorrow, am I
Neither clean, nor a filthy mire
Not from water, nor from earth
Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not an Arab, nor Lahori
Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri
Hindu, Turk, nor Peshawari
Nor do I live in Nadaun

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Secrets of religion, I have not known
From Adam and Eve, I am not born
I am not the name I assume
Not in stillness, nor on the move

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

I am the first, I am the last
None other, have I ever known
I am the wisest of them all
Bulleh! do I stand alone?

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

– Bulleh Shah

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Posted in Bulleh Shah, Poetry

The Form of Beauty

Posted on January 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

‘Now try, she said, ‘to concentrate as hard as you can. Anyone who has been educated this far in the ways of love, viewing beautiful things in the right order and way, will now reach the goal of love’s ways. He will suddenly catch sight of something amazingly beautiful in its nature; this, Socrates, is the ultimate objective of all the previous efforts. First, this beauty always is, and doesn’t come into being or cease; it doesn’t increase or diminish. Second, it’s not beautiful in one respect but ugly in another, or beautiful at one time but not at another, or beautiful in relation to this but ugly in relation to that; nor beautiful here and ugly there because it is beautiful for some people but ugly for others. Nor will beauty appear to him in the form of a face or hands or any part of the body; or as a specific account or piece of knowledge; or as being anywhere in something else, for instance in a living creature or earth or heaven or anything else. It will appear as in itself and by itself, always single in form; all other beautiful things share its character, but do so in such a way that, when other things come to be or cease, it is not increased or decreased in any way nor does it undergo change.’

– Plato, The Symposium (trans. C. Gill)

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Posted in Plato

Us and them

Posted on January 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

– Montaigne

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Posted in Montaigne

Us and them

Posted on January 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

– Montaigne

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Posted in Montaigne

Fire

Posted on January 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

It is the same as when the fire wants to draw the wood into itself and, again, itself into the wood; then it finds first that the wood is unlike itself. Hence it needs time. First it makes the wood warm and hot, and then the latter smokes and cracks because it is unlike the fire. Now the hotter the wood grows the quieter and calmer it becomes, and the more like the fire it is, the more peaceful it is, until it is itself wholly fire.

– Master Eckhart

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Posted in Master Eckhart

Gargoyles

Posted on January 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

Then I realised there was no trial, he said. I’d turned the judges and jailors and all the mythical nightmare-creatures I’d arranged around me into stone. Now they sit here like gargoyles on a cathedral, protecting me.

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Posted in Writing

How else would we be growing?

Posted on January 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

‘At first’ writes Pursewarden ‘we seek to supplement the emptiness of our individuality through love, and for a brief moment enjoy the illusion of completeness. But it is only an illusion. For this strange creature, which we thought would join us to the body of the world, succeeds at last in separating us most thoroughly from it. Love joins and then divides. How else would we be growing?’
   How else indeed? But relieved to find myself once more partnerless I have already groped my way back to my dark corner where the empty chairs of the revellers stand like barren ears of corn.

– Lawrence Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet

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Posted in Lawrence Durrell

Trust

Posted on January 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

I don’t blame them for not trusting me, he said. Neither do I, I said. I wouldn’t trust myself either, he said, in fact I don’t. Neither do I, I said. It would be stupid, he said. Stupid, I said. He glared at me.

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Posted in Writing

Cheating

Posted on January 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

I cheated them, he said, I cheated them all. No you didn’t, I said. What do you mean, he said. We all saw you, all the time, I said. Hiding your head in the sand.

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Posted in Writing