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Love Poems from God
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West
Author: Daniel Ladinsky
Published by Penguin Compass 2002
ISBN: 0-14-219612-6

Daniel Ladinsky is probably best known for his translations of the great Persian Sufi, Hafiz. In this treasure trove Ladinsky offers three hundred poems he 'stole from God', bringing together twelve of the world's finest mystic poets-six from the East and six from the West; and including four women. He sets the tone in the preface:

'I hope a few of these poems will reach in deep enough to cure what separates us from each other, and from the beautiful. I hope you fall into this wine barrel (this book) and crawl out legally drink, and get arrested for doing something that makes God proud of you, like being too happy.'

The twelve poets represented are Rabia, St Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Meister Echkart, St Thomas Aquinas, Hafiz, St Catherine of Siena, Kabir, Mira, St Theresa of Avila, St John of the Cross and Tukaranam. And although the most recent of them died over three hundred years ago, Ladinsky renders their poems so deftly into today's language and idiom that it's hard not to imagine these writers as thoroughly modern mystics, sporting jeans and a website.

As the cover suggests, this is a 'rich and luminous collection'; the writing is playful, intimate and audacious. Like eating a chocolate liqueur, the poem melts and there is a sudden explosion of insight or laughter or longing.

Love Poems from God has become one of my great favourites, revisited often. For me these renderings are-variously-uplifting, amusing, moving, inspiring, provoking, humbling, searing… They reveal the possibility of a radically new way of relating with God, and they bring forth in me a deep, deep yearning to experience it.

I am sure that anyone consciously engaged on the path of Christ Consciousness will love this book. It also makes a great gift, as my friends keep discovering!

Where to buy it

Love Poems from God is readily available from bookshops. Or if you'd like a taster, search the book title on the internet and you'll find several sites which have some of the poems reproduced online.


Moon
Shakuhachi Flute
Artist: Bronwyn Kirkpatrick
Published by Eternity Ink (the publishing arm of the Brahma Kumaris)

First light. I became increasingly aware that my nose was strangely cold; that the bed I was inhabiting was not my own; and that I was being charmed from sleep into wakefulness by… no, surely not… yes!… the haunting tones of a shakuhachi flute. The rest of the story suddenly caught up: I was staying in the Blue Mountains for a weekend programme at the bushland retreat centre of the Brahma Kumaris. Through the window I watched a young women slowly making her way among the eucalypts and log cabins, playing a bamboo flute in the chilly grey air-our early morning wake-up call.

That was the first time I heard Bronwyn Kirkpatrick play. She is a shihan (master) of the shakuhachi and has been a student of shakuhachi grand-master Dr Riley Lee since 1997. She made history in Japan by being the first non-Japanese person ever to receive a prize at the 2005 final of the prestigious All-Japan National Music (Hogaku) Competition (for traditional Japanese instruments).

Moon is a musical essay created in a meditative state, and this CD is one of my favourites to play as background music for meditation. I find shakuhachi music is soooooo helpful for sitting in stillness because it doesn't 'resolve' in the same predictable way that western music tends to, and so the mind can't rush ahead to the ending. (Ha!)

The organic unfolding of this CD is lovely, evocative of an unhurried evening walk in a Japanese garden-water flowing, bamboo moving softly in the breeze, the rocks deeply still and in relationship with each other, the moon shimmering her way upwards. Spacious, calm, soulful-good medicine for busy minds!

Where to listen to tracks

Visit Bronwyn's website. Except for the home page every page features a different track. www.users.bigpond.com/bronwyn.kirkpatrick

Where to buy it

From Bronywn directly: details are on her website, see above. Or from the publisher at www.eternityink.com.au (search for Moon or Bronwyn)

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