We are worthy of asking a direct question and receiving a direct answer. If we keep asking the same questions and just get crickets, perhaps it isn't our question that is the problem. Perhaps it is who we are asking.
It is said that as humans we are brilliant, lucid and energetic beings. We are star stuff. If that is true, why are we unable to pull ourselves together and be the loving and compassionate beings we intend? One of those reasons may be that we look outside ourselves for authority. We begin life doing this as infants and we have never seemed to get beyond the habit of it and evolve into a true state of sovereignty. Sovereignty does not mean independent of others. It means standing firm in our own identity to share with others. It may be that our time of looking to others to save our bacon or to deliver us answers is coming to a close and we must cultivate what we have forgotten of our luminous selves. It is finally obvious that thoughts and prayers from the great beyond are not delivering the goods. There are rumors in enlightenment circles that now is the time to know what we know. To put that in poetic terms, the climate is ripe for changing our tactics for resolve.
I'm a practical person. When I look within, I knock at the door three times with an inquiry and if there is no answer, I move on with any number of narratives about why and why not. The only salve I have found for confusion is allowing the spill I take in trying and taking the medicine left in the wake of my attempts. It may be awful going down but the benevolence of living a life being willing to understand my own hand in all that happens to me has been healing and strengthening. When I am sincere, I receive answers,
In this poem Hafiz seems to be suggesting that begging endlessly for answers outside the self is a fools errand and if all we get for our efforts is a bite on our ass (if we even get that!) perhaps we might consider forsaking blame and empty reverence. Perhaps we can take some personal responsibility for this amazing, luminous and powerful life force we have been bestowed with and can draw upon that for the answers we seek. Perhaps we can understand that the mistakes we make when we stumble are lessons and we can learn that these things have meaning and consequence. We have the strength to meet all of that trips us up to find clarity.
Thank you for listening.
Serge Quadrado Music https://pixabay.com/music/world-muslim-way-181261/
Music: Indigo Girls singing Closer to Fine are lamenting their fate with seeking answers to their questions about the meaning of life and settle on lightening up to the mystery.
There's more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line.
And the less I seek my source for some definitive,
Closer I am to fine
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz (including an addendum regarding the authenticity of these poems) can be found here. Also, my thoughts on this series a year into these poems, HERE.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.
My book can be purchased HERE. E-book HERE. The Season Two blogcasts with audio excerpts from my book begin HERE: in Behind The Lines. This reading of the book excerpts in a mixed media format is Season Two of this blog. These recorded excerpts are outside the chronological order in which the book was written. Podcasts with audio only beginning with episode 22 can be found HERE.
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