Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Search the Poetry Chaikhana site:

| View All Poems by Granum Sinapis (Anonymous) |
Granum Sinapis by Granum Sinapis (Anonymous) (14th Century) Timeline English version by Karen J. Campbell Original Language German Christian 14th Century In the beginning high above comprehension is the word, eternally. O rich treasure, where the beginning eternally bore the beginning! O paternal bosom, out of which, in bliss, the word flowed forth eternally. Yet the womb still held fast to the word, truly. Of the two, one flowing forth, ember of love, binding both, known to both, so flows the sweetest spirit in complete symmetry, inseparable. The three are one: do you know, what? No, it alone knows itself completely. The enmeshment of the three harbors deep terror. No reason has ever comprehended this circle: here is a depth without bottom. Check and mate to time, to shapes, to space! The circle of mysteries is a source of everything; its point of origin rests, completely immutable, in itself. Leave your doings and climb, insight, the mountain of this point! The way leads you into a wondrous desert which extends wide and immeasurably far. The desert knows neither time nor space. Its nature is unique. Never has a foot crossed the domain of the desert, created reason has never attained it. It is, and yet no one knows what. It is here, there, far, near, deep, high, so that it is neither the one nor the other. Light, clear, completely dark, nameless, unknown, without beginning and also without end, it rests in itself, unveiled, without disguise. Who knows what its dwelling is? Let him come forth and tell us of what shape it is. Become as a child, become deaf, become blind! Your own substance must become nothingness; drive all substance, all nothingness far from you! Leave space, leave time, eschew also all physical representation. Go without a way the narrow foot-path, then you will succeed in finding the desert. O my soul, go out, let God in! Sink, my entire being, into God's nothingness, sink into the bottomless flood! If I flee from you, you come to me, if I lose myself, I find you: O goodness extending over all being.     -- from German Mystical Writings: Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others, Edited by Karen J. Campbell Amazon.com   / Photo by Hamed Saber /	Themes   Bliss   Light   Lover and Beloved   Mountain   Womb Recommended Books German Mystical Writings: Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others, Edited by Karen J. Campbell
| More Poems by Granum Sinapis (Anonymous) |

Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

There is so much to explore and meditate upon with this poem, but let's particularly look at the references to the experience of God as a desert.

This language almost has a Buddhist feeling to it, a sense of a great spiritual vastness, a living emptiness, "God's nothingness." You could say that the desert is what the Buddhists would call Nirvana.

The desert is eternal, "The desert knows / neither time nor space." It is unlike anything else (since all of creation emerges from its emptiness), "Its nature is unique."

"Never has a foot / crossed the domain of the desert..." Not only does this line tell us that the desert is not a physical location; it is also revealing the more subtle truth that you -- the little you, the ego you -- cannot enter the desert. The desert cannot be comprehended by the logical mind ("created reason / has never attained it"), it can only be directly experienced.

What a haunting riddle:

It is, and yet no one knows what.
It is here, there,
far, near,
deep, high,
so that
it is neither the one nor the other.

You can say that the desert is what it is, beyond the ability of the conceptual mind to define it. It is everywhere and always. It is not limited by the duality of this as opposed to that; it is the living harmony of all things at once.

I love the truth of the lines: "it rests in itself, / unveiled, without disguise." There is no effort in its existence, and for us to perceive it, we too must become truly effortless, natural, stepping free from the constant work of the ego-mind's distractions. To do this we must, "Become as a child, / become deaf, become blind!" We must "Leave space, leave time..." We must be completely open and free from the safe limitations of preconceptions, we must even "Go without a way..." "Then you will succeed in finding the desert."

It is only when we leave behind the little self that we can finally discover the vast Self of God. "O my soul, / go out, let God in!" "...if I lose myself, / I find you" Then and only then do we find the "goodness extending over all being."

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.