leaves of faith (Earth, paradise, hell, genesis, churches)

[lilithu]

If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt;
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven,
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

[lilithu]

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone
enough
to truly consecrate the hour.
I am much too small in this world, yet not small
enough
to be to you just object and thing,
dark and smart.
I want my free will and want it accompanying
the path which leads to action;
and want during times that beg questions,
where something is up,
to be among those in the know,
or else be alone.

I want to mirror your image to its fullest perfection,
never be blind or too old
to uphold your weighty wavering reflection.
I want to unfold.
Nowhere I wish to stay crooked, bent;
for there I would be dishonest, untrue.
I want my conscience to be
true before you;
want to describe myself like a picture I observed
for a long time, one close up,
like a new word I learned and embraced,
like the everday jug,
like my mother's face,
like a ship that carried me along
through the deadliest storm.

-Ranier Maria Rilke

[lilithu]

Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere
Its temple, all space
Its shrine, the good heart
Its creed, all truth
Its ritual, works of love
Its profession of faith, divine living.

-Unitarian theologian, Theodore Parker

[lilithu]

Look at yourself, trembling, afraid of nonexistence:
know that nonexistence
is also afraid
that God might bring it to existence.
If you grasp at worldly dignities,
it’s from fear, too.
Everything, except love of the Most Beautiful,
is really agony. It’s agony
to move towards death and not drink the water of life.

-Jalaluddin Rumi

[lilithu]

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow --
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

[lilithu]

As a doe longs
For running streams
So longs my soul,
For you, my God...

My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God:
when can I go and meet with God?

My tears have sustained me
day and night,
while they continually say me,
Where is your God?

When I remember these things
I pour out my soul:
for I used to go with the multitude,
to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and praise,
among the festive throng.

Why so downcast, my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Put your hope in God:
for I shall praise God yet,
My savior, my God.

- Psalm 42:1-5

[lilithu]

The Heart is right to cry

Even when the smallest drop of light,
Of love,
Is taken away.

Perhaps you may kick, moan, scream
In a dignified
Silence,

But you are so right
To do so in any fashion

Until God returns
To
You.

- Hafiz

[lilithu]

The sum of human wisdom is not contained
in any one language, and no single language
is capable of expressing all forms
and degrees of human comprehension.

- Ezra Pound


The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.

- Tao te Ching