Kabir in Springtime

There is little known about Kabir, the great poet of India, who was born on or near 1398 to a Muslim family on the outskirts of Benares. He was a bit of an iconoclast to both the Muslim and Hindu communities during his life, claiming that direct access to the Divine is most desirable, not one's theology or religious practice per se.

The following quote is rather Buddhist, but has been well-echoed in the writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan:

"Life is a field and you are born to cultivate it. And if you know how to cultivate this field you can produce anything you like. All the need of your life can be produced in this field. All that your soul yearns after and all you need is to be gotten from the field, if you know how to cultivate it and how to reap the fruit."

In the mental purification of the Sufis, or the clear mind of the Buddhist, we replace what is troubling or disturbing to the waters of the mind not by excessively focusing on what is wrong but by stilling the mind and choosing the qualities we would like to cultivate. This is not to condone denial of what is but rather directing our energies to create what we desire in life and that creates harmony and beauty for oneself and others.

One of the Songs of Kabir:

I have stilled my restless mind and my heart is radiant:

for in Thatness I have seen beyond Thatness,

in company I have seen the Comrade Himself.

Living in bondage, I have set myself free:

I have broken away from the clutch of all narrowness.

Kabir says: "I have attained the unattainable,

and my heart is colored with the color of love."

What would you like to cultivate in your garden this springtime? What flowers, trees, bushes or birds would you like to live to be living there? The choice is yours....