8.10.2016

be foolishly in love, because love is all there is

Day 10: "Looking up". 
A couple of lifetimes ago--or so it seems--I was chasing around another state, struggling to figure out the combination to my incredibly complicated life. 

It took a while, but eventually I figured it out: I simply needed to let it be less complicated.

That whole time, though, I was taking a lot of photographs. The one above is from a day where there were at least 250 in a folder, tucked away on a hard drive, just taking up space and taunting. Some of the memories that they bring back are not so positive (that day, in itself, sucked) but the pictures are some of my best. My art, for what it's worth, seems to be of the cactus variety; it flowers most prolifically in harsh conditions.



A spirit that lives in this world
and does not wear the shirt of love,
such an existence is a deep disgrace.

Be foolishly in love,
because love is all there is.

There is no way into presence
except through a love exchange.

If someone asks, But what is love?
answer, Dissolving the will.

True freedom comes to those
who have escaped the questions
of freewill and fate.

Love is an emperor.
The two worlds play across him.
He barely notices their tumbling game.

Love and lover live in eternity.
Other desires are substitutes
for that way of being.

How long do you lay embracing a corpse?
Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.

Anything born in spring dies in the fall,
but love is not seasonal.

With wine pressed from grapes,
expect a hangover.

But this love path has no expectations.
You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount. Travel lighter.
Wings will be given.

Be clear like a mirror
reflecting nothing.

Be clean of pictures and the worry
that comes with images.

Gaze into what is not ashamed
or afraid of any truth.

Contain all human faces in your own
without any judgment of them.

Be pure emptiness.
What is inside that? you ask.
Silence is all I can say.

Lovers have some secrets
that they keep.

[Rumi (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī ) {1207-1273}, ‘No Expectations’]

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