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January 24, 2012

sermon 12

When God gave Ali victory over the enemy at the Battle of Jamal one of his comrades said on that occasion: 'I wish my brother so-and-so had been present and he too would have seen what success and victory God has given you.' Ali responded:
'Did your brother hold me as a friend?'
He said: 'Yes'
Then Ali said: 'In that case he was with us. Rather in this army of ours even those persons were also present who are still in the loins of men and wombs of women. Shortly, time will bring them out and faith will get strength through them.'

The Peak of Eloquence

Posted by amin at 3:43 PM

January 23, 2012

suicide

I once stood on a bridge in Paris and saw from a distance on a road leading down to the river a suicide victim wrapped in oilcloth. He had just been pulled dead from the Seine. Suddenly I heard someone next to me say something. It was a young blond carter in a blue jacket, very young, strawberry blond, with a smart, clever, pointed face. On his chin was a wart from which sprouted almost exuberantly a stiff bunch of red hairs like a paintbrush. Since I turned toward him, he pointed with a nod of his head toward the object that elicited our attention and said, winking at me: “Don’t you think, this one over there, since he was able to manage that, he surely could have done still other things as well.” I followed him with my gaze, astonished, while he was already walking back to his enormous cart filled with rocks, for truly: what would one not be able to achieve with exactly that strength that is necessary to untie the strong and mighty bonds of life! Since that day, I know with absolute certainty that even the worst turn of events, that even despair is only abundance, that it is an onslaught of our being that could be forced in the opposite direction with one single decision of the heart. Where something becomes extremely difficult and there we also stand always already quite near its transformation.

Rilke - Letters on Life

Posted by amin at 3:20 PM

January 21, 2012

the great bridgebuilding of god

Catch only what you've thrown yourself, all is
mere skill and little gain;
but when you're suddenly the catcher of a ball
thrown by an eternal partner
with accurate and measured swing
towards you, to your center, in an arch
from the great bridgebuilding of God:
why catching then becomes a power—
not yours, a world's.

[ Rilke ]

Posted by amin at 11:55 AM

January 20, 2012

majnun

Increase the remembrance of God until they call you a madman (majnun).

[ The Prophet ]

Posted by amin at 11:59 AM

a respite from death

I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man that is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino hunters I know, or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds until it returns, as it does, to all men. And then you must make really good love again.

[ Hemingway ]

Posted by amin at 11:50 AM