{"id":6514,"date":"2019-08-09T08:30:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6514"},"modified":"2019-08-20T08:40:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T15:40:22","slug":"lalla-learning-the-scriptures-is-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/09\/lalla-learning-the-scriptures-is-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lalla – Learning the scriptures is easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning the scriptures is easy
\nby Lalla<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Ivan M. Granger<\/font><\/p>\n

Learning the scriptures is easy;
\nbut living them, that\u2019s hard.
\nFar easier to read words on a page
\nthan to seek the living heart of things.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em>Fumbling through the fog of study,
\nstumbling, I lost my last words.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 And my vision cleared.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh the sight that met me then!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology)<\/a>, Edited by Ivan M. Granger<\/font><\/p>\n

It has been a heartrending week if you follow the news. Here in the US, we had two mass shootings in a row last weekend perpetrated by racist right-wing extremists. The governmental response has been one of dogged inaction, despite huge support among the population for reinstating the assault weapons ban.<\/p>\n

To heighten the sense of cruelty this week, there have also been a series of brutal raids on immigrant families by ICE in several US states.<\/p>\n

I tend to feel these public traumas in very personal, physical ways. More than once I have woken up in the middle of the night flooded with a nameless agitated energy just hours before one of these events. It happened to me on the morning of 9\/11. It has happened with several previous mass shootings. Needless to say, it has been a restless week.<\/p>\n

I tend to see public violence like these events as dark rituals. They evoke darkness in the cultural consciousness, summoning fear in most and vicious exhilaration in a few. Each of these public rituals of violence and cruelty makes similar actions more conceivable, as if a doorway is being forced opened. The way to respond is not through fear but through engaged compassion. Feeling compassion in the midst of trauma, feeling anything<\/i> in the midst of trauma, can be excruciating at first and requires immense courage \u2014 but it is the way of life, to keep life flowing within us and within the world. Preventing the heart from shutting down is just the first step. Our compassion must be engaged. It must be active. The energy of compassion naturally wants to act, to move through us and reach out into the world in order to help, to heal, and to protect the vulnerable. As more and more people light up with this compassion and offer their hands in genuine service, that doorway to violence and cruelty is again closed.<\/p>\n

I have been talking about American events, but let\u2019s not overlook the ratchetting up of tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which is perhaps the most concerning on the global stage. While the two nations have been skirmishing over the region since Partition, a genuine war between the two would be catastrophic, not just for them but for the planet.<\/p>\n

I thought some words of clarity and wisdom from the great Kashmiri poet-saint Lalla might help\u2013<\/p>\n

Learning the scriptures is easy;
\nbut living them, that\u2019s hard.<\/i><\/p>\n

Too often people slip into the bad habit of fundamentalism, confusing the ability to quote scripture and rules with actually embodying that truth in their daily lives. Memorization and carefully controlled behavior doesn\u2019t do the job. It keeps things safely in the intellect and then we never have to truly confront the heart\u2019s urge to open.<\/p>\n

But Lalla reminds us:<\/p>\n

Far easier to read words on a page
\nthan to seek the living heart of things.<\/i><\/p>\n

Not only is it not easy to seek the deep reality, it\u2019s messy. We are confronted by aspects of ourselves that are frightening and frightened, hidden even from our own awareness. History, hopes, angers, ambitions\u2026<\/p>\n

Each human life is far too rich and multi-layered to be truncated into the safe, neat, predefined stories we are told to live out. The human soul is not a cartoon, without depth or detail. No, a full spirituality incorporates all that we are. To be holy is to be whole \u2014 nothing left out. The map of the human soul is a topographical map, with mountains and valleys, and rivers of life everywhere. Until we\u2019ve acknowledged that entire landscape, we only have an incomplete sense of all that we are, and all that humanity is \u2014 that\u2019s when compassion collapses, the world appears fragmented, and the vision of the the living heart of things is lost in the cracks.<\/p>\n

Fumbling through the fog of study,
\nstumbling, I lost my last words.<\/i><\/p>\n

After learning the scriptures, Lalla has swept her mental space clean. Now that\u2019s real work! Instead of just memorizing the words of scripture, she has become the blank page that effortlessly displays them.<\/p>\n

\u2014 And my vision cleared.
\nOh the sight that met me then!<\/i><\/p>\n

Sending love out into the world in the form of awakening empathy and compassion and self-awareness\u2026 and the will to act in their service.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Lalla<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nWomen in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nPoetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThis Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nNaked Song<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\"Lalla,<\/a><\/td>\n\nLalla<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Kashmir (India\/Pakistan) (14th Century) Timeline<\/a>
\nYoga \/ Hindu<\/a> : Shaivite (Shiva)<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em><\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Lalla, also affectionately called Lalli, Lal Ded, Lal Diddi (\u201cGranny Lal\u201d), or Lalleshwari, was born near Srinagar in Kashmir in northern India\/Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Little is known with certainty about her life, other than hints that come to us through her poetry and songs.<\/p>\n

She was a young bride, married, tradition says, at the age of twelve. After moving into her husband\u2019s family home, she was abused by her mother-in-law and ignored by her husband.<\/p>\n

A story is told about \u201cLalla\u2019s Lake\u201d \u2014 one day when returning from the well with a clay water jug on her head, her husband lost his temper over her delay and struck the jug in his anger. The clay vessel broke but, miraculously, the water held its shape above her head. This becomes an important symbol of the heavenly nectar that rains down from the crown.<\/p>\n

Finally, Lalla could endure no more mistreatment and, in her early 20s, she left. She became a disciple of a respected saint in the Kashmir Shaivism tradition of yoga and she took up the life of a holy woman dedicated God in the form of Shiva. Lalla began wandering about, village to village, going naked or nearly naked, and singing songs of enlightenment.<\/p>\n

Lalla\u2019s songs are short, using the simple, direct language of the common people, yet she touches on complex yogic techniques and the most elevated states of awareness.<\/p>\n

The name Lalla can be translated as either \u201cseeker\u201d or \u201cdarling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lalla is deeply loved by both Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir today, even amidst the terrible fighting ravaging the land. There is a saying that in Kashmir only two words have any meaning: Allah and Lalla.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Lalla<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning the scriptures is easy by Lalla English version by Ivan M. Granger Learning the scriptures is easy; but living them, that\u2019s hard. Far easier to read words on a page than to seek the living heart of things. Fumbling through the fog of study, stumbling, I lost my last words. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 And my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[416,14,2285,1613,256,2286,628],"class_list":["post-6514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-compassion","tag-hindu-poetry","tag-kashmir","tag-kashmiri-poetry","tag-lalla","tag-mass-shootings","tag-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6517,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514\/revisions\/6517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}