“The poise of a dying man” - Hsu Yun (1840-1959) /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

“Beyond meditation practice, there is attitude. A beginner must learn to cultivate what is called, “the poise of a dying man”. What is this poise? It is the poise of knowing what is important and what is not, and of being accepting and forgiving. Anyone who has ever been at the bedside of a dying man will understand this poise. What would the dying man do if someone were to insult him? Nothing. What would the dying man do if someone were to strike him? Nothing. As he lay there, would he scheme to become famous or wealthy? No. If someone who had once offended him were to ask him for his forgiveness would he not give it? Of course he would. A dying man knows the pointlessness of enmity. Hatred is always such a wretched feeling. Who wishes to die feeling hatred in his heart? No one. The dying seek love and peace.”

- Hsu Yun (1840-1959) pictured below

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuyun

So Thou be sweet... /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

فليتك تحلو والحياة مريرة            وليتك ترضى والأنام غضاب

وليت الذي بيني وبينك عامر              وبيني وبين العالمين خراب

إذا صح منك الود فالكل هين             وكل الذي فوق التراب تراب

So Thou be sweet, let life run bitterly;

So Thou be pleased, let men be wroth with me;

So all things flourish between me and Thee,

Let all between me and the world in ruins be.

-Abu Firas al-Hamdani

Full translation:

As long as you’re sweet, let life be bitter

As long as you’re pleased, let all men be wroth

As long as there’s a bond between me and you

Let all between me and the worlds be in ruins

If truly you love me, then all things are easy

And let all that’s over the dust, be dust

...absolute liberty and autonomy /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

"Our modern civilization is essentially individualistic and self-assertive, even our educational systems being more and more designed to foster 'self-expression' and 'self-realization' [...] On the other hand, in the words of Meister Eckhart, 'Holy scripture cries aloud for freedom from self. In this unanimous and universal teaching, which affirms an absolute liberty and autonomy, spatial and temporal, attainable as well here and now as anywhere else, this treasured 'personality' of ours is at once a prison and a fallacy." - 'Akimcañña: Self-Naughting', A.K. Coomaraswamy, 1п. 88-9.

metanoia /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

“One important thing to bear in mind, in all this, is that the Buddha’s mercy is providential, but does not, for this very reason, suspend the Law of Karma: if beings will persist in ignoring that law while coveting the things mercy might have granted them, that mercy itself will reach them in the guise of severity; severity is merciful when this is the only means of provoking a radical metanoia (change of outlook), failing which wandering in samsâra must needs continue indefinitely. The nembutsu is our ever-present reminder of this truth; if, in reliance on the Vow, we abandon all wish to attribute victory to ourselves, the unfed ego will surely waste away, leaving us in peace.”

(Marco Pallis, Nembutsu as Remembrance; http://studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/Nembutsu_as_Remembrance-by_Marco_Pallis.aspx)

asleep /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

People are asleep, they wake up when they die.

الناس نيام فإذا ماتوا انتبهوا.

—

"Realize you know nothing and you are nobody. It is no easy thing to attain this realization. It does not come with teaching and instruction, nor can it be sewn on with a needle, or tied with a thread. This is a gift from God and a question of whom He bestows it on and whom He causes to experience it."

–– Abu Sa'id (early Sufi)

—

_In the traditional philosophy it is emphasized that "per-sonalities" are inconstants, ever changing and never stopping to "be"; "we" are not entities, but processes. Dr. Sullivan's words are-whether or not by intention— an admirable summary of the Buddhist doctrine of anattà. An attachment of permanent value to personality will be impossible for anyone who has seen things "as become" — yatha-bhutam, objectively, as causally determined processes. The first step on the way to a liberation from "the mother of illusions," and so toward an "infinite happiness," is to have realized by a demonstration that "this (body and mind) is not my Self," that there is no such thing as a "personality" anywhere to be found in the world. Life in a world of time and space is a condition of incessant change; and, as Plato asks, "How can that which is never in the same state be any-thing?" —Cratylus 439 E. Almost the first step in clear thinking is to distinguish becoming from being. The important thing is to know what "we" really are; but this is a knowledge that can only be acquired to the extent that "we" eliminate from our consciousness of being, all that "we" are not.” - AK Coomaraswamy

...have mercy on my weeping! /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

O my God, [You] are my Creator, have mercy on my weeping!

Receive my repentance and forgive my mistakes!

إلٰهى خالقى وارحم بُكائى

تقبل توبتى واغفر خطائى

ilāhī khāliqī wa-rḥam bukāʾī

taqabbal tawbatī wa-ghfir khaṭāʾī.

---included among the litanies compiled by the Naqshbandi shaykh, Ahmed Ziyaeddin Gümüşhanevi, Majmu'at Awrad wa Ahzab al-Tariqa al-Naqshbandiya, p. 110.

Ey Allah'ım! Yaratıcım! Ağlamama merhamet et, tevbemi kabul et, hatamı bağışla

Supplication in Arabic, calligraphed in 1319/1901-02, in the bold thuluth (celi sülüs) script, by Bakkal Arif Efendi. Signed 'Arif عارف

Original image and Turkish translation from

https://ketebe.org/eser/8309?ref=artist&id=170

THANKFULNESS, ALERTNESS - Rumi /  by Mustafa Gouverneur

THANKFULNESS, ALERTNESS - Rumi

Giving thanks for abundance

is sweeter than the abundance itself:

Should one who is absorbed with the Generous One

be distracted by the gift?

Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence;

abundance is but the husk,

for thankfulness brings you

to the place where the Beloved lives.

Abundance yields heedlessness;

thankfulness, alertness:

hunt for bounty with the snare of gratitude to the King.

MATHNAWI III, 2895-97