Lalla

1:I turned around, and there God was inside me. ~ Lalla,

2:The only offering you can make to God is your increasing awareness. ~ Lalla, trans. Coleman Barks

3:Going on a pilgrimage is like falling in love with the greenness of faraway grass. ~ Lalla 1320-1392,

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1:I mean, I was first offered Princess Astra. ~ Lalla Ward,

2:I was quite happy with the way I went, I think. ~ Lalla Ward,

3:I had an awful lot to say in what I wore as Romana. ~ Lalla Ward,

4:Don't ask me who my favourite monster was because I'm sick of saying Tom Baker. ~ Lalla Ward,

5:Oh, I have to say Romana; she was much more fun to do but I did enjoy the Princess when she was turning bad. ~ Lalla Ward,

6:I've seen [Lalla Ward] episodes of "Doctor Who." They're good, at least partly because the scripts were written by Douglas Adams. ~ Richard Dawkins,

7:The name of the One who is known by No-thing’, Tired and exhausted was I, asking time and again; Out of Nothing emerged; Something, bewildering and great! — Lalla Ded ~ Anonymous,

8:I like that totally mixed up kind of eclectic group of personal props and bits of costume and I think the fun of doing that is where I was very lucky with Doctor Who. ~ Lalla Ward,

9:We were only there for five days and during that time Tom was a bit annoyed that the French were more interested in me and my schoolgirl outfit than him and his long scarf. ~ Lalla Ward,

10:People who use dirty methods to hurt others... will be destroyed with methods that are even dirtier than theirs!! That's what I call justice!! Not to mention... journalism!" - Wolfgangina Lalla Getto ~ Tite Kubo,

11:I think the kind of unexpected I really love is when you open books and the actual way of writing is different and interesting. Like reading Virginia Woolf for the first time or Lawrence Durrell for the first time. ~ Lalla Ward,

12:Playfully, you hid from me. All day I looked. Then I discovered I was you, and the celebration of That began. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, Playfully, you hid from me
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13:Wear the robe of wisdom, brand Lalla's words on your heart, lose yourself in the soul's light, you too shall be free. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, Wear the robe of wisdom
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14:Although the French were very friendly and helpful. On one location we were to film at the top of the Eiffel Tower but we couldn't, as it was so misty with four inches of snow on the ground. We couldn't see a thing but we finally got it done. ~ Lalla Ward,

15:I think Douglas [Douglas Adams] was a real one-off. He was so clever and so intelligent and so well read in real science that he could make science fiction work as well as it did. And just such fun to have around, he was just such a lovely man. ~ Lalla Ward,

16:New mind, new moon. I've seen the great ocean made new. Ever since I've scoured my body and mind, I, Lalla, have been as new as new can be! [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, New mind, new moon
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17:Don't flail about like a man wearing a blindfold. Believe me, He's in here. Come in and see for yourself. You'll stop hunting for Him all over. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, Dont flail about like a man wearing a blindfold
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18:If you've melted your desires in the river of time, choose to be a recluse, or choose a family, the village job. If you know the pure Lord within you, you'll be That, wherever. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, If youve melted your desires
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19:Dance, Lalla, with nothing on but air: Sing, Lalla, wearing the sky. Look at this glowing day! What clothes could be so beautiful, or more sacred? [1831.jpg] -- from Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty, Edited by Alan Jacobs

~ Lalla, Dance, Lalla, with nothing on
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20:Coursing in emptiness, I, Lalla, dropped off body and mind, and stepped into the Secret Self. Look: Lalla the sedgeflower blossomed a lotus. [1469.jpg] -- from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

~ Lalla, Coursing in emptiness
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21:The way is difficult and very intricate. Lalla discarded her books that told about it, and through meditation saw the truth that never comes to anyone from reading words. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, The way is difficult and very intricate
,

22:It's so much easier to study than act, to philosophise than go looking for the Self. Losing the scriptures in the thick fog of my practice, I stumbled on second sight. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, Its so much easier to study than act
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23:Day will be erased in night. The ground's surface will extend outward. The new moon will be swallowed in eclipse, and the mind in meditation will be completely absorbed by the Void inside it. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, Day will be erased in night
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24:Meditate within eternity. Don't stay in the mind. Your thoughts are like a child fretting near its mother's breast, restless and afraid, who with a little guidance, can find the path to courage. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, Meditate within eternity
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25:Neither You nor I, neither object nor meditation, just the All-Creator, lost in His dreams. Some don't get it, but those who do are carried away on the wave of Him. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, Neither You nor I, neither object nor meditation
,

26:As a child, my wife hated her school and wished she could leave. Years later, when she was in her twenties, she disclosed this unhappy fact to her parents, and her mother was aghast: ‘But darling, why didn’t you come to us and tell us?’ Lalla’s reply is my text for today: ‘But I didn’t know I could. ~ Richard Dawkins,

27:To learn the scriptures is easy, to live them, hard. The search for the Real is no simple matter. Deep in my looking, the last words vanished. Joyous and silent, the waking that met me there. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, To learn the scriptures is easy
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28:At the end of a crazy-moon night the love of God rose. I said, It's me, Lalla. The Beloved woke. We became That, and the lake is crystal-clear. [1469.jpg] -- from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

~ Lalla, At the end of a crazy-moon night
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29:Fool, you won't find your way out by praying from a book. The perfume on your carcass won't give you a clue. Focus on the Self. That's the best advice you can get. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, Fool, you wont find your way out by praying from a book
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30:Dying and giving birth go on inside the one consciousness, but most people misunderstand the pure play of creative energy, how inside that, those are one event. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Holy Fire: Nine Visionary Poets and the Quest for Enlightenment, Edited by Daniel Halpern

~ Lalla, Dying and giving birth go on
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31:I hacked my way through six forests until the moon woke up inside me. The sky's breath sang through me, dried up my body's substance. I roasted my heart in passion's fire and found Shankara! [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, I hacked my way through six forests
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32:I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat: a lamp blazed up inside, showed me who I really was. I crossed the darkness holding fast to that lamp, scattering its light-seeds around me as I went. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat
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33:O infinite Consciousness, brimming with elixir, You live within my body, and I worship only You. I do not care if I die, take birth, or pass into some other state. These things are so ordinary now. [2319.jpg] -- from Lalleshwari: Spiritual Poems by a Great Siddha Yogini, Translated by Swami Muktananda

~ Lalla, O infinite Consciousness
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34:A thousand times I asked my guru, 'The name of the One who is known by No-thing', Tired and exhausted was I, asking time and again; Out of Nothing emerged Something, bewildering and great! [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Ascent of Self: A Reinterpretation of the Mystical Poetry of Lalla-Ded, by B. N. Paramoo

~ Lalla, A thousand times I asked my guru
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35:I wore myself out, looking for myself. No one could have worked harder to break the code. I lost myself in myself and found a wine cellar. Nectar, I tell you. There were jars and jars of the good stuff, and no one to drink it. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, I wore myself out, looking for myself
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36:When my mind was cleansed of impurities, like a mirror of its dust and dirt, I recognized the Self in me: When I saw Him dwelling in me, I realized that He was the Everything and I was nothing. [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Ascent of Self: A Reinterpretation of the Mystical Poetry of Lalla-Ded, by B. N. Paramoo

~ Lalla, When my mind was cleansed of impurities
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37:I made pilgrimages, looking for God. Then I gave up, turned around, there God was inside me! Oh Lalla, why do you keep on wandering, and begging? Make just a little effort. Act! And God will appear in the form of a love that fills your heart. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, I made pilgrimages, looking for God
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38:Word, Thought, Kula and Akula cease to be there! Neither silence nor yogic postures gain you admission there; Neither Shiva, nor Shakti abide there! Whatever remains is That; this is the Lesson! [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Ascent of Self: A Reinterpretation of the Mystical Poetry of Lalla-Ded, by B. N. Paramoo

~ Lalla, Word, Thought, Kula and Akula cease to be there!
,

39:A few crows shop the furrowed rows for worms, weevils, and grasshoppers. One hops over to inspect the truck I'm lying under, cocks a beady black eye, probably attracted to the shiny metal police-issued handcuffs, my hand in one of the cuffs, dangling from wrist to arm, and finally down to me, Lalla Bains, aero-ag pilot, sometime busybody, meddling where I shouldn't—again. ~ R P Dahlke,

40:The soul, like the moon, is now, and always new again. And I have seen the ocean continuously creating. Since I scoured my mind and my body, I too, Lalla, am new, each moment new. My teacher told me one thing, live in the soul. When that was so, I began to go naked, and dance. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, The soul, like the moon
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41:Forgetful one, get up! It's dawn, time to start searching. Open your wings and lift. Give like the blacksmith even breath to the bellows. Tend the fire that changes the shape of metal. Alchemical work begins at dawn, as you walk out to meet the Friend. [1831.jpg] -- from Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty, Edited by Alan Jacobs

~ Lalla, Forgetful one, get up!
,

42:I searched for my Self until I grew weary, but no one, I know now, reaches the hidden knowledge by means of effort. Then, absorbed in Thou art This, I found the place of Wine. There all the jars are filled, but no one is left to drink. [1469.jpg] -- from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

~ Lalla, I searched for my Self
,

43:I traveled a long way seeking God, but when I finally gave up and turned back, there He was, within me! O Lalli! Now why do you wander like a beggar? Make some effort, and He will grant you a vision of Himself in the form of bliss in your heart. [2319.jpg] -- from Lalleshwari: Spiritual Poems by a Great Siddha Yogini, Translated by Swami Muktananda

~ Lalla, I traveled a long way seeking God
,

44:One shrine to the next, the hermit can't stop for breath. Soul, get this! You should have looked in the mirror. Going on a pilgrimage is like falling in love with the greenness of faraway grass. [2652.jpg] -- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger

~ Lalla, One shrine to the next, the hermit cant stop for breath
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45:I, Lalla, willingly entered through the garden-gate, There, O Joy! I found Siva united with Sakti; There and then I got absorbed drinking at the Lake of Nectar. Immune to harm am I, dead as I am to the world, though still alive. [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Ascent of Self: A Reinterpretation of the Mystical Poetry of Lalla-Ded, by B. N. Paramoo

~ Lalla, I, Lalla, willingly entered through the garden-gate
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46:There is neither you, nor I; neither the object of meditation, nor the process of meditation; The Father of all action forgot Himself there. The blind did not see any relationship and support there, The devout merged with Him, the moment they saw the Lord! [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Ascent of Self: A Reinterpretation of the Mystical Poetry of Lalla-Ded, by B. N. Paramoo

~ Lalla, There is neither you, nor I
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47:When Siddhanath applied lotion to my eyes, the cataracts that covered them dissolved. I saw an astonishing sight. Wherever I looked and whatever I beheld, I saw my own Self, I saw God. Wherever I looked, I saw my own Self! O Lalli! This is the true seeing. [2319.jpg] -- from Lalleshwari: Spiritual Poems by a Great Siddha Yogini, Translated by Swami Muktananda

~ Lalla, When Siddhanath applied lotion to my eyes
,

48:Your way of knowing is a private herb garden. Enclose it with a hedge of meditation, and self-discipline, and helpfulness to others. Then everything you've done before will be brought as a sacrifice to the mother goddess. And each day, as you eat the herbs, your garden grows more bare and empty. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, Your way of knowing is a private herb garden
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49:Just for a moment, flowers appear on the empty, nearly-spring tree. Just for a second, wind through the wild thicket thorns. Self inside self, You are nothing but me. Self inside self, I am only You. What we are together will never die. The why and how of this? What does it matter? [1831.jpg] -- from Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty, Edited by Alan Jacobs

~ Lalla, Just for a moment, flowers appear
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50:Drifter, on your feet, get moving! You still have time, go look for the Friend. Make yourself wings, take wing and fly. You still have time, go look for the Friend. Charge your bellows with breath like the blacksmith taught you. That's how you turn your iron to gold. You still have time, go look for the Friend. [2579.jpg] -- from I Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

~ Lalla, Drifter, on your feet, get moving!
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51:Learning the scriptures is easy; but living them, that's hard. Far easier to read words on a page than to seek the living heart of things. Fumbling through the fog of study, stumbling, I lost my last words. -- And my vision cleared. Oh the sight that met me then! [2652.jpg] -- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger

~ Lalla, Learning the scriptures is easy
,

52:In one of the verses of Lal Ded, or Lalla, a fourteenth-century mystic from Kashmir, Lalla says: “At the end of a crazy-moon night the love of God rose. I said “It’s me, Lalla.”
“It’s me, Lalla,” becomes “It’s me…whoever you are,” proclaiming that we no longer stand on the sidelines but are leaping directly into the center of our lives, our truth, our full potential. No one can take that leap for us; and no one has to. This is our journey of faith. ~ Sharon Salzberg,

53:Intense cold makes water ice. Then the hard ice turns to slush and back to water, so there are three forms of consciousness: the individual, the world, and God, which in the sun of True Awareness melt to one flowing: Lalla is that. In meditation, I entered the love furnace, burned impurities away, and as the sun of a new knowing rose, I realized that the words "Lalla" and "God" point to this peacefulness. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks

~ Lalla, Intense cold makes water ice
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54:What is worship? Who are this man and this woman bringing flowers? What kinds of flowers should be brought, and what streamwater poured over the images? Real worship is done by the mind (Let that be a man) and by the desire (Let that be a woman). And let those two choose what to sacrifice. There is a liquid that can be released from under the mask of the face, a nectar which when it rushes down gives discipline and strength. Let that be your sacred pouring, Let your worship song be silence. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Holy Fire: Nine Visionary Poets and the Quest for Enlightenment, Edited by Daniel Halpern

~ Lalla, What is worship? Who are this man
,

55:Chapter One: The world is flat. I know it is, because for the last five hours the view has been exactly the same. Only the sun has done any traveling, working its long shadows through straight lines of harvested cotton. A few crows shop the furrowed rows for worms, weevils, and grasshoppers. One hops over to inspect the truck I'm lying under, cocks a beady black eye, probably attracted to the shiny metal police-issued handcuffs, my hand in one of the cuffs, dangling from wrist to arm, and finally down to me, Lalla Bains, aero-ag pilot, sometime busybody, meddling where I shouldn't—again. I'm dirt smeared and sweaty, thinking if I get out of this alive, if the killer doesn't return to finish me off, I'll foreswear all future sleuthing. My dad, Caleb my fiancé, my best friend Roxanne, and half of Stanislaus County will be pleased to bear witness to that promise. ~ R P Dahlke,

56:Lalla Ruk
Dearest dream, my soul's enchantment
Lovely guest from heav'n above,
Most benevolent attender
To the earthly realm below,
You gave me blissful satisfaction
Momentary but complete:
Bringing with you happy tidings -
Like a herald from the skies.

I dreamed dreams of life eternal
In that Promised Land of peace;
I dreamed dreams of fragrant regions,
Of a tranquil, sweet Kashmir;
I could witness celebrations,
Festivals of roses vernal
Honoring that lovely maiden
From lands strange and far away.

And, with glistening enchantment
Like an angel from above, -
This untainted, youthful vision
Came before my dreaming eyes;
Like a veil, a shining shroud
Screened her lovely face from view,
Tenderly she did incline
Her shy gazes toward the earth.

All her traits - her timid shyness
Underneath her shining crown,
Childlike her animation,
And her face's noble beauty -
Glowing with a depth of feeling,
Sweet serenity and peace -
All of these completely artless
Indescribably sublime!

As I watched, the apparition
(Captivating me in passing)
Never to return, flew by;
I pursued - but it had gone!
T'was a vision merely fleeting,
Transient illumination
Leaving nothing but a legend
Of its passing through my life!

T'is not ours to harbor
Beauty's spirit - Ah, so pure!
It comes nigh but for a moment
From its heavenly abode;
Like a dream, it slips away,
Like an airy dream of morning:
But in sacred reminiscence
It is married with the heart!

Only in the purest instants
Of our life does it appear
Bringing with it revelations
Beneficial to our hearts;
That our hearts may know of heaven
In this earthly shadow realm,
It allows us momentary
Glimpses through the earthly veil.

And through all that here is lovely,
All that animates our lives,
To our souls it speaks a language
Reassuring and distinct;
When it quits our earthly region
It bestows a gift of love
Glowing in our evening heaven:
"Tis a farewell star for all to see. ~ Vasily Zhukovsky,

57:Se convertir d’une religion à une autre, c’est non seulement changer de concepts et de moyen, mais aussi remplacer une sentimentalité par une autre. Qui dit sentimentalité, dit limitation : la marge sentimentale qui enveloppe chacune des religions historiques prouve à sa manière la limite de tout exotérisme et par conséquent la limite des revendications exotériques. Intérieurement ou substantiellement, la revendication religieuse est absolue, mais extérieurement ou formellement, donc sur le plan de la contingence humaine, elle est forcément relative ; si la métaphysique ne suffisait pas pour le prouver, les faits eux-mêmes le prouveraient.

Plaçons-nous maintenant, à titre d’exemple, au point de vue de l’Islam exotérique, donc totalitaire : aux débuts de l’expansion musulmane, les circonstances étaient telles que la revendication doctrinale de l’Islam s’imposait d’une façon absolue ; mais plus tard, la relativité propre à toute expression formelle devait apparaître nécessairement. Si la revendication exotérique — non ésotérique — de l’Islam était absolue et non relative, aucun homme de bonne volonté ne pourrait résister à cette revendication ou à cet « impératif catégorique » : tout homme qui lui résisterait serait foncièrement mauvais, comme c’était le cas aux débuts de l’Islam, où on ne pouvait pas sans perversité préférer les idoles magiques au pur Dieu d’Abraham. Saint-Jean Damascène avait une fonction élevée à la cour du calife de Damas (4) ; il ne s’est pas converti à l’Islam, pas plus que ne le fit Saint-François d’Assise en Tunisie ni saint Louis en Egypte, ni saint Grégoire Palamas en Turquie (5). Or, il n’y a que deux conclusions possibles : ou bien ces saints étaient des hommes foncièrement mauvais, — supposition absurde puisque c’étaient des saints, — ou bien la revendication de l’Islam comporte, comme celle de toute religion, un aspect de relativité ; ce qui est métaphysiquement évident puisque toute forme a des limites et que toute religion est extrinsèquement une forme, l’absoluité ne lui appartenant que dans son essence intrinsèque et supraformelle. La tradition rapporte que le soufi Ibrāhīm ben Adham eut pour maître occasionnel un ermite chrétien, sans que l’un des deux se convertît à la religion de l’autre ; de même la tradition rapporte que Seyyid Alī Hamadānī, qui joua un rôle décisif dans la conversion du Cachemire à l’Islam, connaissait Lallā Yōgīshwari, la yōginī nue de la vallée, et que les deux saints avaient un profond respect l’un pour l’autre, malgré la différence de religion et au point qu’on a parlé d’influences réciproques (6). Tout ceci montre que l’absoluité de toute religion est dans la dimension intérieure, et que la relativité de la dimension extérieure devient forcément apparente au contact avec d’autres grandes religions ou de leurs saints.
---- Notes en bas de page ----
(4) C’est là que le saint écrivit et publia, avec l’acquiescement du calife, son célèbre traité à la défense des images, prohibées par l’empereur iconoclaste Léon III.
(5) Prisonnier des Turcs pendant un an, il eut des discussions amicales avec le fils de l’émir, mais ne se convertit point, pas plus que le prince turc ne devint chrétien
(6) De nos jours encore, les musulmans du Cachemire vénèrent Lallā, la Shivaïte dansante, à l’égal d’une sainte de l’Islam, à côté de Seyyid Alī ; les hindous partagent ce double culte. La doctrine de la sainte se trouve condensée dans un de ses chants : « Mon gourou ne m’a donné qu’un seul précepte. Il m’a dit : du dehors entre dans ta partie la plus intérieure. Ceci est devenu pour moi une règle ; et c’est pour cela que, nue, je danse » (Lallā Vākyāni, 94) ~ Frithjof Schuon,

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