Poetry by Indian Mystic and Saint Kabir (January 2024)

Susan’s Thursday Morning Note January 11, 2024
Poetry by Indian Mystic and Saint Kabir

Good morning! Strong coffee trying to not freeze on its voyage towards my fingertips.  My angel of dawn has faithfully arrived shivering at my doorstep this morning.  How grateful I am for her arrival.  Another day to experience this word called life.  Beautiful moments regardless of what is hard.  Beautiful above in the expanse of the skies.  Beautiful below in the details of snowflakes and mittens.  Beautiful around in the eyes of those I get to look into.  This gift called life.

This last week I reopened a book of “100 Best Poems” – so many different books by the same title, with different selections. Whenever I take the time to open the cover of any of these collections I know that within a few minutes I will find words that will make the journey into my soul. A journey that only few words and people are able to traverse. Poetry seeming to have an easier path. One poem was so beautiful to me. The poet’s name…Kabir. I had never heard of his writings, so ordered his poetry to read for all of us. He was a mystic poet and saint from India who lived 600 years ago approx. 1440-1518. Below are some of his most beautiful poems in my mind that I’ve had the opportunity to read the last few days. I hope you find the peace and beauty in them as I did. Words to carry you through this week.

“Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas,
not in Indian shrine rooms,
nor in synagogues,
nor in cathedrals:
not in masses,
nor kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me,
you will see me instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.”

“…But if a mirror ever makes
you sad
you should know
that it does
not know
you.”

“Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you.
The one no one talks of speaks the secret sound to himself,
and he is the one who has made it all.”

“There is dew on these poems in the morning,
and at night a cool breeze may rise from them.
In the winter they are blankets, in the summer a place to swim.”

“The sun is within me and so is the moon.”

“Slowly slowly O mind…
Everything in own pace happens,
Gardner may water a hundred buckets…
Fruit arrives only in its season.”

“Whether I be in the temple or in the balcony,
in the camp or the flower garden,
I tell you truly that every moment
my Lord is taking His delight in me.”

“Just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.”

“Listen, my friend. He who loves understands.”

Another Thursday. Thank you for letting me enter yours. The sands went through our timers so quickly again this week. Thoughts entering our minds as we enter another week of sand constantly running. Can we stop a few moments mentally to think of wisdom read from years ago? Stop and think about words which will help make the moments worthy of living? Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you…truly that every moment my Lord is taking His delight in me…stand firm in that which you are……Everything in own pace happens...Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath.” Again we are given the jewel to enter another beautiful day. Day with so much going on outside in our lives. Will we have the ability to see life in the eternal perspective? To keep wisdom at the forefront of our minds? To realize “there is nothing new under the sun…” That we do have others who have lived before us to help us keep the perspective of what is so precious. This day. This day handed to us by our angels.

Tonight we will have the tools handed to us to carve into our stones. Our epitaphs. Will we have words worthy of inscription? Thank you for letting me enter your world again today. Thank you for letting me have this beautiful store and bringing your books to help us give books to those who need a gift. I hope you can enter our world soon. We’ll have the coffee, the smiles, and a peaceful world for you to possibly find a book with a paragraph with a sentence with a thought which could possibly change your life. Susan

Latin for this week:
Deus tecum. May God be with you.
Unum Deum – I believe in one God.
anima – breath
animus – courage, vivacity, bravery, will, spirit, soul
et animam scire cupio; nihil aliud – I want to know God and the soul, nothing more. (Augutine).
ab intra – from within, from the inside
Deus, lumen cordis mei et panis oris intus animae meae et virtus maritans mentem meamet sinum cogitationis meae – God, light of my heart and the bread of my mouth deep in soul and the strength that ties my mind and boxom of my thoughts. (St. Augustine Confession)
Nec ego ipse capio totum, quod sum – not even I understand everything I am. (Augustine)
Noverim me, noverim Te – Let me know myself, let me know You. (St. Augustine)