Posts by boldgull19

neonowl93 said:"I existed before there were names, or things given names;
names and the objects they represent vanished in relation to us,
back when the ego hadn't even become individualized
and there were no questions about 'Me' versus 'You.'
I looked for God among Christians and on the cross, but I didn't find Him there.
I went to the ancient temples of idolatry: no luck.
I entered the caves of hir (where Gabriel appeared to the messenger) and traveled all the way to Kandar,
but I couldn't find God there either—not in the lower realms, nor the higher ones.
I climbed to the peaks of the Caucasus and found nothing but the dwelling of the 'anqa.'
Then I headed toward the Kaaba, the place everyone turns to, young and old; yet even there, God was not to be found.
I turned to philosophy, searching for Him in Avicenna, but He wasn't there.
Then I made my way to the place of the messenger's great experience of Divine manifestation,
but God was not present even in that exalted court.
Finally, I peered into my own heart, and there I saw Him. He was nowhere else."

Rumi

Charles White11 said:I don't sit around weeping for anyone, my friend. I don't walk around pitying the people in my life.
My heart isn't feeling particularly "soft" today, nor are those around me some group of helpless victims waiting on my charity.
If it weren't for me, how on earth would they manage to survive?
The heart isn't some non-profit organization where you just stay quiet and do the work.
To truly have a heart means touching the world around us through the ganuće.
When you touch the world that way, everyone you encounter becomes your kin; you experience every person as a brother or a sister, a father or a mother. There is no room for pity there—only the pure joy of giving, without motive or reason, without a paycheck or an expectation of repayment. And besides, if you happen to feel compassion for someone along the way, what is the harm in that?

Every interaction with the people surrounding you, every act of generosity—even the most efficiently organized charity drive—will eventually lose its soul and become nothing more than shallow human emotion if it isn't rooted in what I am saying.
(you actually touched on something similar in a few lines earlier)

And one more thing; it would be a real shame to turn this forum into a game of "Pokémon."
I'll hit you with my "blue flame" card, then you strike back with a devastating "Sleeping Buddha" move, and once I've recovered, Bam! I counter with the power of the "green ram.".....

Just stay calm, guys!

Go ahead, share some inspiration or tell us about your experiences. You have a grateful audience here ready to listen with enthusiasm.

I am a Catholic, yet also a Muslim lover, and yet here we are, tuned into the same frequency... sharing something meaningful.

slydriver17 said:There isn't much more to explain. It is quite fascinating when you consider that it is the only organ in the human body that produces its own sound. It beats. Now, we won't get sidetracked by discussing stomach growls while you're hungry, but the awakening is, hopefully, as clear as the sound itself. It is always there, pulse-steady, yet whether I actually perceive it depends entirely on myself. Therein lies the paradox: I must silence everything else just to hear it. Something like that, anyway.😍

slydriver17 said:Where indeed? And whose shadow are you even casting?🙄 😍

slydriver17 said:Fine, that is essentially the core issue here. But I have zero interest in ideological posturing. Truly experiencing things is like constantly poking at the surface of the water (even if there is a reason for doing so😕 ), yet the water simply levels itself out again. It’s like someone punching me in the face and then complaining about the bruise. It is a raw fact. Our entire visible existence is plastered over with advertisements. When you peel them off, you just discover the layer they were stuck to. And that layer is merely a foundation for something else... and all this supposed wisdom😬
As a historical figure who shaped an entire era, Jesus, or rather Christ later on, represented the necessary balance required by the religious communities of that time. To a man who has achieved true unity, it does not matter how the masses reflect upon him. He might, perhaps, hold a flicker of hope regarding how many souls he might lead toward the path.

Charles White11 said:It’s only when things truly get difficult that you actually take a look at what's inside your heart.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
The heart is like a mother; she only touches you gently once you start weeping for her, and you can't fake that kind of grief because a mother knows her child. As long as you’re sleeping soundly in your cradle—she’ll leave you be, just so she doesn't wake her precious gold!

When you strike your foot
with an axe while splitting wood
you aren't thinking about poetry
or great masterpieces
or politics
you aren't defying God
you feel small as a grain of sand
just waiting for the pain
to subside
When the artillery shells
tear through you from a mortar blast
you aren't worrying about the impression
you leave on women or the national anthem
you scramble under a rock and
wait for the pain to stop
When the doors of the federal prison
finally slam shut behind you
that is when you think about freedom
(Tom Brady - from the collection "Southern Cross", 1998.)

P.S. I’ll let you in on a little secret, just between us... A mother always looks secretly, constantly checking on the cradle, torn between wanting to wake her treasure and waiting patiently for a tiny stir, just so she can pull them into her arms sooner!
Take my word for it!

boldnomad59 said:

Blessed is the one who has mastered their own soul;
who can truly feel where the winds of divine grace blow.

Their heart is filled with the Beloved, nothing else remains within,
He flows through their very veins, and in them, He breathes!

The Dervishes cannot sense the scent or color of their own being,
for they belong entirely to Him, intoxicated by His presence!

Their heart is emptied of all desire for crowns or worldly power,
greed and vanity left their essence long ago.

They speak only with Him, they live only for Him;
they seek only from Him, and only to Him do they bow.

Long ago, they lost all sense of self,
living solely for the sake of Love.

They set out on a raw, rugged path, and now they are refined;
having lost their ego, they are consumed by the heart's fire!

Does that work!
That’s just how it is!
If anyone wants more, help yourself!🙂 😘

Take a deep breath, clear your mind,
speak ALLAH from the depths of your heart.
Don't tell anyone your state!
For your secret is His secret, and it belongs to you alone!
😉

neonowl93 said:The heart holds two burning fires:
joy and strife.
When one boils over,
the other simply vanishes.

More?😕

neonowl93 said:There’s one specific organ in the body that dictates everything. When it’s functioning right, you’re good to go. When it fails, everything else follows suit. That organ is the Heart.

Charles White11 said:Look, everything you said stands. Life is brutal; there's no debating that. You step out with the raw honesty of a child, and you get smacked upside the head for it. You end up feeling like a lamb surrounded by "predators." If you don't learn how to swim, you're almost certainly going to sink. I'll sign my name to that.
But, strangely enough—despite all that logic and the realization that I'm bound to take a hit—I’ve come to realize that the heart isn't "awakened" by making compromises with the relentless world around us. Instead, it’s awakened by a persistent, selfless naivety that refuses to do any math. This kind of sincerity I'm talking about doesn't come cheap. You don't trade it away, my friend. I'd go as far as to say: "If it weren't for that quality, we wouldn't even exist."

I wouldn't call what you wrote "nonsense"—even if you try to mask it. I have a feeling that what you're writing here is deeply sincere.

I can see it clearly in your reaction to that cheesy bit of fluff: "The weak-hearted drift away on poetry, writing verses and reciting rhymes..."
If it makes you feel any better—it hurt me to write it, too!

Charles White11 said:My dear, they just bubbled up from Serena in a matter of two minutes while I was pondering what to write (and no, she isn't "him" just yet).

To all you wonderful people who felt moved to respond—here is my take:

We all seem to equate the heart with religion, or poetry, or our own grasp of the sublime, or cheap little bursts of emotion, or even just the way we experience love... But I suspect we're missing the mark. The heart is so much more than that. The heart is... well, without it, there wouldn't even be an "us" to speak of.

Charles White11 said:My dear, they just bubbled up from Serena in a matter of two minutes while I was pondering what to write (and no, she isn't "him" just yet).

To all you wonderful people who felt moved to respond—here is my take:

We all seem to equate the heart with religion, or poetry, or our own grasp of the sublime, or cheap little bursts of emotion, or even just the way we experience love... But I suspect we're missing the mark. The heart is so much more than that. The heart is... well, without it, there wouldn't even be an "us" to speak of.

Charles White11 said:If we didn't have hearts beating in our chests, how on earth would we express any emotion at all?
For those with a truly resilient heart, even the most overwhelming passions can be mastered;
they won't be allowed to consume them from within like some bitter, wasting disease.
Those with weaker hearts tend to get swept away by poetry—writing verses and reciting rhymes just to cope...
But the heart remains our only true sanctuary.
Without it, we wouldn't even exist.

Charles White11 said:If we didn't have hearts beating in our chests, how on earth would we express any emotion at all?
For those with a truly resilient heart, even the most overwhelming passions can be mastered;
they won't be allowed to consume them from within like some bitter, wasting disease.
Those with weaker hearts tend to get swept away by poetry—writing verses and reciting rhymes just to cope...
But the heart remains our only true sanctuary.
Without it, we wouldn't even exist.

mistyfox812 said:The old-school way you write that word, heart (you still see it hanging on in words like heartfelt), actually keeps this link to the roots mid, middle, center.
Basically, the heart is the center (of a person).