I have heard it said - and I've said it myself - that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to human behavior. Not much has changed with civilized humans while every consequence of civilization has changed everything around us. We have found the same laments scrawled by people in the pyramids in Egypt that can be found in the comments on social media sites today. Shakespeare had the entire European cultural canon nailed in the 1590's! No doubt there are similar storytellers from the Eastern and Asian "civilized" cultures that I'm not familiar with. We created religions designed to comfort and contain us. We have constructed laws in an attempt to keep us decent. I'm giving a pass to native and aboriginal cultures regarding these constructs, though they too have all the human responses to stimuli that they have to work out tribally. Their modern work has been the heavy lifting in having to retrieve what was destroyed of their teachings regarding being a decent human being by colonization. They certainly did not create colonization, "civilization" did that.
There are wonderful things about being loving beings. We will always be human as some of our basic wiring is directly related to the entire planet. What is earth about ourselves will not change while we are being hosted here. What is celestial about us will have to be consciously chosen and aligned with sustainable ways of living to support our host. We'd best chose wisely.
Hafiz is told that religion does not necessarily lead to love or any salvation. It is total immersion in life experience that feeds the soul and creates love and abundance in the world. We are all on a trajectory towards this evolution that includes our current dimension and cultivating a new reality. This poem is reminding me that the game of life has changed in the last few decades, even if the humans have not...yet. We will open ourselves step by step. We may have to be forced into it.
Music: I was clearly led to this beautiful dance piece. It suggests that all of this human evolving and sustainable living is going to take awhile existing as it is, in the shadow of civilization. We can see by the sun but the moon casts our shadows and guides our feelings. "...Clair de lune - Claude Debussy: the beloved French piano classic in a gravity-defying performance that reaches for the stars. Piano: Alexandre Tharaud (Warner Classics/Erato) Choreography/dance: Yoann Bourgeois, acrobat. Filmed and edited by Raphaël Wertheimer ..."
Image by © Géraldine Aresteanu
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz (including an addendum regarding the authenticity of these poems) can be found here.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.
Clair de lune (Debussy): Alexandre Tharaud, Yoann Bourgeois - piano & dance
2:03 / 4:26
Clair de lune (Debussy): Alexandre Tharaud, Yoann Bourgeois - piano & dance
Photo by Kurt Gordon Photography
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz can be found here.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.