Home→Forums→Spirituality→Poem by Hafiz
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June 17, 2016 at 4:20 pm #107547SannParticipant
I just thought it would be nice to share this poem here. Probably most of you people here know a lot more poems than me, and probably much more interesting ones (here is the self-diminishing Sann again.. 😉 ), but I just had a feeling that I’d like to share a nice poem here, one that I had hanging besides me bed for the past months in my last house, and that I would like to live by more. For me it is giving a lot at the moment.
Any thoughts or reflections are always welcome, I might write some more later on but now it is bedtime and have a few busy days ahead.
Anyone feeling to share other poems are also always welcome, of course.TRIPPING OVER JOY – by Hafiz
What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with GodAnd that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic MoveThat the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, “I Surrender!”Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
You have a thousand serious moves.June 17, 2016 at 8:21 pm #107557AnonymousGuestDear Sann:
What an interesting poem! My goodness… the saint is bursting out I laughter saying ‘I surrender’ while most people think they still have a thousand serious moves to make, before, I suppose they can laugh. Is this what you understand of these last six lines of the poem?
Following reading your last two posts on your other thread, I am thinking: the thousand serious moves are all the … well, thousand serious moves you’ve been ruminating about doing regarding the colleague at work (call him, not to call him, go to the place of work, not to, what you should have done, should have said, what you said instead, what…)
The thing is, instead of those thousand pondered moves, if you do what the saint did, you would say ‘I surrender!’ which for me, at this point, would mean to let go of the hope of love with that particular man and instead do the practicing you did at the beach and garden, reaching out to other people, being authentic, expressing yourself as someone that matters!
Thank you for this poem. I would like to read it again, it is excellent. There is more there to see.
anita
June 18, 2016 at 2:54 am #107576SannParticipantDear Anita,
Thank you for your comment.
How I feel about it, is that it tells us, that way take ourselves very seriously. We think that we are in control, that we have serious moves to make. That I can actually plan something and then do it and then I have achieved something, then I am succesful. But the saint knows, that it doesn’t work that way. That God (or the Universe, or Life, or however you would like to call it) is in charge, not we, and that we can just undergo (saying I surrender), so he is laughing at the beauty and the mystery of Gods moves. It takes a lot of courage to let go of our wanting to be ‘in control’. I think the saint has let go of his ego and now just enjoys what comes his way, because he has faith, and he knows there is a plan with it, that he doesn’t need to understand it, but he knows God had a reason for it, whatever it is. That is what I would like to learn in life, and i know it will take me time.
You can see why I like the poem so much, because I am having so much difficulties with it. I want to keep in control, I want to decide what happens in my life, and I want to keep making moves, and I would just like to be at peace and let go of that clinging, accept what comes in my life. Yes, that man was a perfect example for it. First of all, I got to meet him, when we were together I couldn’t just be myself, and get on with him with all the warmth and tenderness I felt for him. I couldn’t allow it to be there and kept locking myself of for him, even though I wanted to open up. But I did get to work with him and I did learn things from him, without talking or anything. Now I left there (I did it myself, even thought it happened a bit in a blur), on a moment that I found the worst timing in relation to our contact, and I feel lost, which might be a good thing because now I feel so lost that I am really challenged to get closer to myself and te learn self-acceptance, and acceptance of reality. To go deeper into mindfulness and into being authentic, because I have experienced so painfully the result of not being authentic. Ok I am writing too much again. But, yes, the whole year, I have been overthinking, overanalysing, overinterpreting, never managing to be in the moment. Wondering what I would say, what I would do, trying to figure out in my mind, what he thinks about me, if he is married, etc. Instead of living in the moment and enjoying whatever happens, WHEN it is happening. And I have nothing now, because of all the planning my serious moves.
Ok, I didn’t mean this poem to be about myself, to analyse my own situation, I just wanted to share it because I think it’s really interesting.
June 18, 2016 at 6:22 am #107581AnonymousGuestDear Sann:
I wish other people would comment on this poem, not only me. It will be interesting to read others’ understandings of it.
More thoughts about the poem after reading your point about control, and I won’t relate it to your life or mine directly, but more generally: it is not All or Nothing, the issue of control. We have some controlling to do. For example, if I want something to happen, I can start it happening, make a move for it to happen and then wait for a response. Then, if I am still very interested in that something to happen, I may ask questions so to understand why it is not happening and once I get the answers, and figure: oh, there is nothing for me to do at this point, then I let go. No more efforts to control. I don’t believe there is a plan for me, by god/ universe/ some version of good-old-god. There is no plan. Things don’t happen for a reason. We can make our lives meaningful and learn from our experience- and others’ experience- but there is no predetermined reasons to random occurrences.
anita
June 18, 2016 at 6:52 am #107584SeaislandParticipantOk–I will take that challenge
I loved the poem. For me it was telling me to be still and be in the moment, to find joy in the moment. That to rush-boggle the mind with a thousand thoughts would accomplish no more happiness-than to connect.
I have trouble concentrating and am too easily distracted. I interpret my soul and physical would be more joyous connecting–not letting outside stimuli easily distract me.(from the stillness of enjoying the moment) So the poem is a tool I could use to relax and not forget that.
I may not be saying this well-but its different parts of me coming together as one. What I know to be true-the wise in me being joyful and the outer me going inward and being wise also. (not getting caught up in the thousand thoughts-directions)
Sann-thanks for the post–and Anita thanks for the challenge (I think lol)
Seaisland
June 18, 2016 at 6:56 am #107585AnonymousGuest* You are welcome, Seaisland and thank you for your valuable sharing! Good to read from you anytime.
anitaJuly 14, 2016 at 10:10 am #109666annabelleParticipantwow beautiful poem <3
July 15, 2016 at 3:31 am #109714AuthorgirlParticipantgreat poem : )
July 15, 2016 at 4:13 am #109721AuthorgirlParticipant.
August 15, 2016 at 10:34 am #112410Mangesh ParadkarParticipantThe poem is asking us to surrender. Surrender to what? The What is whatever comes in the consciousness. It also mentions that it is a sublime game of chess. With God.
It talks of the two stages. One is the oridinary human being who does not surrender and is waiting for the thousand moves. These thousand moves will make him suffer so much that finally he will be ready for surrender.
So the poem is describing the need to surrender. However the Saint doesnt seem to be the ‘Realised one’. He is still a seeker. Else he would not say I surrender. Or he would not think that this is a game of chess with God. For him the God is still the Other. And God is still an opponent.
The poem doesnt describe the third state. The one where one does not even surrender. Because there is no other. So whom to surrender.
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