When you neglect your meditation,
you contract with pain.
This is God’s way of telling you
that your inner pain can become visible.
Don’t ignore it.
Your spiritual wincing affects your love.
A thief carrying off someone’s property
feels a twinge of conscience.
“What’s this ?” he asks. Tel him,
“It’s the hurt of the one you’ve hurt,
hurting you.” A conscience-seizure
changes easily to a seizure by the police.
Thoughts display themselves.
A pang for being forgetful
is a root. Roots produce branches.
Your inner opening and closing
is the underworld, the ground
that feeds the manifest world.
Tear out the thorn-roots quickly.
When you feel held in, find out why.
Dig for the cause.
When you feel expanded, water thant.
When fruits appear, give them to friends.
by Rumi/Coleman Barks in “Feeling the shoulder of the Lion” Boston:Shambala press.
