I was just in Asheville, NC teaching my Awakening the
Ecstatic Body: Opening the Path to Bliss workshop. Everyone at it had a
powerful, transformational experience. One of the journeys I took people on, was to
meet their Inner Lover. The Inner Lover helps you to cultivate your ability to
love yourself and others unconditionally. (Learn about my upcoming events at TantraForAwakening.org .)
I also taught another powerful tool
for “awakening the beloved within,” the timeless art of eye gazing. This simple practice allowed, Jallaludin Rumi, the 13th
century Sufi poet, to become fully awakened. His life was radically changed
when he met Shams of Tabriz. Immediately, they recognized they were destined to
dive deep into the pool of the Beloved together. They went into a private retreat and both emerged several months later in a state of ecstatic bliss. Rumi’s
poems tell us that this awakening occurred through their shared experience of
eye gazing. Below are some examples of these poems.
The minute I heard my first love
story,
I started looking for you, not
knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,
they're in each other all along.
From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks
Suddenly the drunken
sweetheart appeared out of my door.
She drank a cup of ruby wine
and sat by my side.
Seeing and holding the
lockets of her hair
My face became all eyes, and
my eyes all hands.
From Thief of Sleep
by Shahram Shiva
The Freshness
When it's cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.
And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.
The inner secret, that which was
never born,
you are that freshness, and I am
with you now.
I can't explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly,
and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.
From Soul of Rumi
by Coleman Barks
With the Beloved's water of
life, no illness remains
In the Beloved's rose garden
of union, no thorn remains.
They say there is a window
from one heart to another
How can there be a window
where no wall remains?
From Thief of Sleep
by Shahram Shiva
Some Kiss We Want
There is some kiss we want
with
our whole lives, the touch of
spirit on the body. Seawater
begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling! At
night, I open the window and ask
the moon to come and press its
face against mine.
Close the language- door and
open the love window. The moon
won't use the door, only the window.
From Soul of Rumi
by Coleman Barks
When your chest is free of
your limiting ego,
Then you will see the ageless
Beloved.
You can not see yourself
without a mirror;
Look at the Beloved, He is
the brightest mirror.
From Thief of Sleep
by Shahram Shiva
Above poems from the books, Essential
Rumi and Soul of Rumi both translated
by Coleman Barks and Thief
of Sleep translated by Shahram Shiva.