Do not go to the garden of flowers!
O Friend! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there
gaze on the Infinite Beauty.
O Friend! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there
gaze on the Infinite Beauty.
Rabindranath Tagore translated that beautiful song written by Kabir, an Indian mystic poet. Kabir's imperative call should not be missed by anyone making their list of New Year's resolutions. Let us look at the keywords again, it might be helpful in the last hectic hours of the disappearing year : garden, flowers, petals, Infinite Beauty.
However, if you still find the translation a little bit too vague, why not read another one, by Robert Bly, whose interpretation of the original song is a little longer and has a title:
A Place to Sit
Don't go outside your house to see flowers.
My friend, don't bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.
Now the laborious and responsible process of making resolutions might seem to be a bit easier to imagine what we want to achieve in the nearest future: see our own inner gardens of beauty. I am sorry but I think that is not enough! We cannot stop here and just gaze in astonishment. The key phrase we have to concentrate on is: "inside the body and out of it". The moment we discover the unique gardens of our souls we must not keep it for ourselves, we must share it and... create a garden in reality, a place to sit for us and others, a place to meet. Believe me, it is not difficult and can be done anytime and anywhere. There will be a lot of opportunities for practical advice later when we have got accustomed to the precious images we carry within ourselves. Having seen the first ones, how about some inspirational piece of great concerto in statu nascendi? Watching and hearing music in the state of being born is a precious example of the way gardens are being born. No surprise they are alike!
However, if you still find the translation a little bit too vague, why not read another one, by Robert Bly, whose interpretation of the original song is a little longer and has a title:
A Place to Sit
Don't go outside your house to see flowers.
My friend, don't bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.
Now the laborious and responsible process of making resolutions might seem to be a bit easier to imagine what we want to achieve in the nearest future: see our own inner gardens of beauty. I am sorry but I think that is not enough! We cannot stop here and just gaze in astonishment. The key phrase we have to concentrate on is: "inside the body and out of it". The moment we discover the unique gardens of our souls we must not keep it for ourselves, we must share it and... create a garden in reality, a place to sit for us and others, a place to meet. Believe me, it is not difficult and can be done anytime and anywhere. There will be a lot of opportunities for practical advice later when we have got accustomed to the precious images we carry within ourselves. Having seen the first ones, how about some inspirational piece of great concerto in statu nascendi? Watching and hearing music in the state of being born is a precious example of the way gardens are being born. No surprise they are alike!
Jarek
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