The Invitation

The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty every day.
And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be doneto feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

© Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book The Invitation

Skating over thin ice

In skating over
thin ice,
safety is in our speed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you can keep your head when all about you....

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Am I free

Am I free, not free, or neither?
Am I awake, non awake, or neither?
Am I enlightened, unenlightened, or neither?
Am I the body, not the body, or neither?
Am I happy, not happy, or neither? Am I stressed, not stressed, or neither?
Am I alone, not alone, or neither?
Am I worried, not worried, or neither?
Am I angry, not angry, or neither?

Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Poem from the book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Autobiography in Five Chapters

1) I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost... I am hopeless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I'm in the same place. But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in... it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am, It is my fault. I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.

Sometimes i find myself in a hole, feeling lost and helpless. Sometimes i just walk another street! Depends on the subject i am dealing with, if i am making progress or not.... Being independant or impatiënt.... This text is on the wall of my toilet... many times a day to pause and reflect on which level i am operating...

Wisdom

For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 1:17-8

bare feet

The foot treads a very small area of the ground but although the area is small, the foot must rely upon the support of the untrod ground all around before it can go forward in confidence. The understanding of man is paltry, but although it is paltry, it must rely upon all those things that it does not understand before it can understand what is meant by Heaven.

Chuang Zu

Before he sent his children to earth

Monument

God, before He sent His children to earth, gave each of them a very carefully selected package of problems. "These," He promised smiling, "are yours alone and no one else, may have the blessings these problems will bring to you.And only you have the special talents and abilities that will be needed to make these problems your servants.
"Now go down to your birth and to your forgetfulness.Know that I love you beyond measures.These problems that I give you are a symbol of that love.The monument that you make of your life, with the help Of these problems, will be a symbol of your love for me,Your Father."

The heart shall be prepared

The heart shall be prepared
to say goodbye
and embrace a new beginning
whenever life may call.
To enter new and different relations
in bravery and of all mourning free
thus dwells the magic force in each beginning
that will protect us and help us live.

We must move on space to space,
not clinging to a single one like home
the cosmic spirit dose not seek to tie us
nor restrain,
but lifts us stage by stage beyond.
No sooner nestled into homelike circumstances
and truly habit forming life,
when we must face the threat of sagging indolence.

But it is he that is prepared to move and travel
that may escape the laming permanence.
Perhaps the hour of death
will speed us young to newer spaces
the call of life will never cease
move on then heart
and say farewell
and find your very health again

Come, come

Come, come! Whatever you are... Whether you are infidel, idolater or fireworshipper. Whether you have broken your vows of repentance a hundred times. This is not the gate of despair, this is the gate of hope. Come, come again...
Mevlana Jelaluddin RUMI