So You Can Plant More Wheat

That is the title: “So You Can Plant More Wheat” to the Hafiz poem of mine in the Penguin publication: A Year With Hafiz. The poem is the second poem in the book, on page 4.  The commentary of the poem, in this link http://yearwithhafiz.blogspot.com/2013/11/so-you-can-plant-more-wheat.html?m=1 is not mine, but I like it. And I do not at all know the person who posted this, but was glad to see it there. Hundreds of my poems from my books with Penguin get posted around the world without any kind of direct attribution to me or my copyright; and many poems even become commercialized. I consider this a thankful problem. And sometimes my agent wades into fixing stuff.

This poem, in some ways, is very much about the vital transformation (empowerment) process that has been happening for thousands of years when a younger person, or even an adult, spends time with a True Teacher, with a Wise Elder, with a True Medicine Woman or Man. And I feel a Real Teacher (or just a great intelligent vital mentor) can often be found in exceptional books, in exceptional art, and in the beauty of nature, and of course in the beauty and care and love one can receive from someone's eyes, and sounds and touch.

The Moon Is Really A Zen Master, Haiku & Chat

Is a playful little (at least) e-book I found in my saddlebags, I hope to someday get to the market to help feed the wonderful munchkins. And so feed myself in doing it; pack-horsing that. Some haiku (and chat) for that, just coming to mind now could be:

that bird's song

  was all i needed

     to hear

Or going even deeper, really deeper in a way, and could offer a fine annotation for, but will save for the book. But that little haiku being:

buddha stopped talking

  when that bird

      sang ...

because as much as buddha could offer— the bird was more.

That just popped out/in. The morning caffeine, organic brownie, and prayers for breakfast— seem to be working. 

But now back to this:

So You Can Plant More Wheat. Isn't that why one might go to college, or endure high school long enough to graduate? Or why one might go to a church or to a temple or a mosque, or do yoga, or jog; or doing anything— any healthy exercise or diet? So you can find more wheat growing in a field in your heart or in the sky— see/find/imbibe more nourishment, more of the golden grit-sustenance (and a purpose) of your life, and be able to share that wheat, that manna, it could become—with others.

Some religions support the doctrine of reincarnation. I understand the Bible even once did; but regardless of that, it does very much appear to be a fact: we are all involved in an evolutionary process— a process of transformation. Even if that transformation is just growing—evolving—from being for months in a womb, and then someday what you are now.

But the real transformation to a True Teacher is: becoming all the True Teacher is, aka: cranking the party way up. Cranking the knowing way up. So way up the sun and the mountains might say to you:

                              Thanks for creating me. And lets sing together from this sacred branch 

                             of existence where the universe is perched. And help this world to dance! 

To me that is the great wonder and vital utility in great poetry, like that of Hafiz and Rumi. They help us to dance, to love more our self and others. And to plant more wheat to help feed the so many hungers we can have … until we Know, until we can reach into our pocket and pull out Buddha— laughing.  

They are really living Alchemy Stones— Rumi & Hafiz. Touch them often if you can. And reading some of their poems slowly and out loud will surely aid your transformation. And as Hafiz says in the closing words of the poem I offered a link to above:  

                     " And the world, and the world then, will come to taste your riches."

Green at first our wheat then gold— our life, with the help of a True Teacher. And/or just smooching more with the miraculousness of Existence!

In closing, some words of eshq (love) from Hafiz when he says in the very opening lines of this poem you now have a link to…. those lines from one of history's greatest spiritual friends and Teachers, being:

                'I would like to remove some rocks from your field

                so you can plant more wheat*.  And those hills I see ...'

               —Hafiz

* "plant more wheat”: enrich thyself. Aka: as the famous ancient Greek aphorism says:

                           “KNOW THYSELF” more and fly. Know your golden wings again. 

And as the rocks are removed from our fields of vision, therein is the Amazement. Therein the standing ovation of the heart that we live for. And the party gets cranked so high you roll laughing through the sky's meadows, and can help someone else get there, too: that kingdom of heaven within and without. The precious vital freedom & joy in your soul says: let’s dance; and while in Her arms you know ...

           the standing ovation of thanks and adoration for this magnificent performance of Existence.