Aspire...

This last Friday evening was spent most beautifully, the arrival of spring in the bay area being only the start of a blissful arrangement of events this entire weekend. A beautiful walk at the foothills around campus was folloowed by a most enlivening disussion with my SG. One of the many insightful threads we followed, I shall touch upon here.

What we wish to become requires some knowledge as to what is worth becoming. That presents a loopy problem. Take heart, there is a solution. A sincere desire to elevate oneself from whatever state one is in presently is the most important step in the process of elevation itself. That desire is what allows one to see opportunities for growth and seek them fervently in every step forward. It is the desire that brings courage to to set fear aside and face every new trial. It is the desire that allows the mind to soak in the knowledge that each new trial contains, hidden beneath its wrappers. And so, you see, the desire to learn brings knowledge to the desirous. Indeed, the goal enables the process. And the world conspires in it.

In this the month of sacrifice, of shedding our lower selves for the higher, in dissolving our attachment to identity for unity, of firmly choosing the right path at forks where the choice is clear, the ascent steep and road unpaved...may we set ourselves only the most lofty of ideals, may we only aspire to give more than we receive, may we desire most fervently to be tested by fire and strengthened thereby.

And, so I share these words of Rumi that struck a chord deep within.

--

Make real the sublime words of the Prophet:

"We are the last and the foremost."

The fresh and perfect fruit is the last thing to come into existence

For although the fruit is the last thing to come into existence,

It is, in fact, the first, for it was the goal.

--

An excerpt from 'Heroes'

Anyone, to the degree of his enlightenment,

sees as much as he has polished himself.

The more he polishes, the more he sees,

the more visible do the forms become.

If you say purity is by the grace of God,

this success in polishing is also through that Generosity.

That work and prayer is in proportion to the yearning:

People have nothing but what they have striven for.

--

With will, fire becomes sweet water;

and without will, even water becomes fire.