Lalla

[Guest guest]

If you're wise, be foolish.

If you can see, squint.

 

Though you can hear, sit

dumb as an old rock.

 

Whatever anyone says,

listen and agree.

 

This is a friendly practice,

and it leads to some truth.

 

***

 

I have not really known myself,

or anyone else.

 

I've tried to do good, and not

just what my appetities wanted,

 

but that was all infatuation

with this precious, isolated, body.

 

That you and I were constantly joining,

I didn't know. I didn't know

 

that even to ask "What are You?"

or "Who am I" breaks the harmony.

 

***

 

There is no "You" or "I," no object

to contemplate, no contemplation!

Everything is That lost in That.

 

The blind theologians didn't understand.

Then they saw, and their seven levels

of attainment dissolved to nothing.

 

***

 

Self inside self, You are nothing but me.

Self inside self, I am only You.

 

What we are together

will never die.

 

The why and how of this?

What does it matter?

 

***

 

Meditate within eternity.

Don't stay in the mind.

 

Your thoughts are like a child fretting

near its mother's breast, restless

and afraid, who with a little guidance,

can find the path of courage.

 

 

 

 

- Lalla

14th Century North Indian mystic

 

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