ALI IN BATTLE

Learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.

God's |Lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.

Once in battle he got the best of a certain knight
and quickly drew his sward. The man,
helpless on the ground, spat
in Ali's face. Ali dropped his sword,
relaxed, and helped the man to his feet.

"Why have you spared me?
How has lightning contracted back
into its cloud? Speak, my prince,
so that my soul can begin to stir
in me like an embryo."

Ali was quiet and then finally answered,
"I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion.
The sun is my lord. I have no longing
except for the One.
When a wind of personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.

There are many winds full of anger,
and lust and greed. They move the rubbish
around, but the solid mountain of our true nature
stay where it's always been.

There is nothing now
except the divine qualities.
Come through the opening into me.

Your impudence was better than any reverence,
because in this moment I am you and you are me.

I give you this opened heart as God gives gifts:
the poison of your spit has become
the honey of friendship."
                                           RUMI

THE MISER WHO BECOME A MOUSE

A miser died, leaving a cache of gold;
And in a dream what should the son behold
But his dead father, shaped now like a mouse
That dashed distractedly about the house,
His mouse-eyes filled with tears. The sleeping son
Spoke in his dream:"Why, father, must you run
About our home like this?" The poor mouse said:
"Who guards my store of gold now I am dead?
Has any thief found out its hiding-place?"
The son asked next about his mouse-like face
And heard his father say: "Learn from my state;
Whoever worship gold, this is his fate-
To haunt the hidden cache for evermore,
An anxious mouse that darts across the floor";

                                                                 ATTAR





A GRAVEDIGGER

A man who lived by digging graves survived
To ripe old age. A neighbour said: "You've thrived
For years, digging away in one routine-
Tell us the strangest thing you've ever seen."
He said:"All things considered, what's most strange
Is that for seventy years without a change
That dog, my Self, has seen me digging graves,
Yet neither dies, nor alters, nor behaves;"

                                                             ATTAR