Poems

Death

Transformation

Lyric Poem

Quietness - fact Summary

From Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

This short poem, from Rumi’s Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, presents a clear Sufi teaching: renounce the ego, break free from inner confinement, and seek silence as evidence of spiritual transformation. The voice issues urgent imperatives that equate dying to the old self... See more

Quietness by Rumi

On the cushion, we begin to get the hang of not indulging or repressing and of what it feels like to let the energy just be there. That is why it’s so good to meditate every single day and continue to make friends with our hopes and fears again and again. This sows the seeds that enable us to be more awake in the midst of everyday chaos. It’s a

Pema Chodron • When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics)

The deepest things that you need are not elsewhere. They are here and now in that circle of your own soul.

John O'Donohue • Anam Cara: 25th Anniversary Edition

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

Written by Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated and read by Joanna Macy

Listen

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move

Buddha in Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,

almond self-enclosed and growing sweet–

all this universe, to the furthest stars

and beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;

your vast shell reaches into endless space,

and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.

Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion... See more

Buddha in Glory - Rainer Maria Rilke