Tao Te Ching 

By Lao Tsu, translated by Hua-Ching Ni

(Adler, Carlberg, Kim, Takeishi)

Look at it, but you cannot see it.

Because it is formless, you call it invisible.

Listen to it, but you cannot hear it.

Because it is soundless, you call inaudible.

Grasp it, but it is beyond your reach.

Because it is subtle, you call it intangible.

These three are indescribable and imperceptible,

                but in the mystical moment

                you see it, hear it and grasp it,

                the Unseen, Unheard and Unreachable

                presents itself as the indefinable essence.

Confront it, and you do not see its face.

Follow it, and you do not see its back.

It does not appear bright as viewed at the zenith.

Nor does it appear dark when viewed at the nadir

There is nothing that can make this subtle essence

                of the universe distinct.

When you try to make it clear to yourself,

it evasively reverts to Nothingness.

You may call it the Form of the Formless

                or the Image of the Imageless.

Yet the elusive, subtle essence remains nameless.

If you hope to meet it,

                it has no part you can call front.

If you hope to follow it,

                it has no place you can call behind

Yet it can be observed

                in the constant regularity of the universe

The constancy of the universe of antiquity

                is the constancy of the present time.

If one knows the Primal Beginning,

                one may thus know the truth

                of the universal subtle Way.

(once like a spark)

By E.E. Cummings

(Adler)

(once like a spark)

if strangers meet
life begins-
not poor not rich
(only aware)
kind neither
nor cruel
(only complete)
i not not you
not possible;
only truthful
-truthfully,once
if strangers(who
deep our most are
selves)touch:
forever

(and so to dark)

The Guide  

By Issa, Translated by Stephen Mitchell

(Adler)

The man pulling radishes

pointed the way

with a radish.

Everywhere  

By Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

(Kim)

There's a strange frenzy in my head,
of birds flying,
each particle circulating on its own.
Is the one I love everywhere?

Rumi Suite

By Rumi, translated by Jonathan Star

(Adler)

Suffering:

When we were bound, He added another chain.

When we were suffering, He added another grief.

When we were lost in a house of mirrors

     He spun us round and round

     and added another mirror.

Blindfolded:

We’re not ahead we’re behind.

We’re not above we’re below….

Like a brush in the painter’s hand,

we have no idea where we are.

You Are That:

The living word of pure consciousness- you are That.

The reflection of the King’s Face- you are That.

There is nothing outside of yourself,

     Look within,

Everything you want is there- you are That.

La ilaha il Allah  

Sufi Remembrance

(Traditional)

Translation:
There is no reality except the reality that is - beyond the forms, beyond the IS and the IS NOT - pure Being.