Kabir was a Sufi Poet

The Iraq war has exposed us to these deep divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims. But there are other branches of Islam. Thomas Merton, the Catholic, mystic, social activist monk studied and honored the Sufi tradition within Islam. One of the Sufis that Merton quoted had written --'if Jesus cannot find the wound within you, how will he apply the cure?'

The poet Rumi was a Sufi and continues to be one of the best selling ports in the US. Kabir was also a Sufi, writing in fifteenth century India. Robert Bly translates his poetry into English. Here is a Kabir poem.


Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive.
Think... and think...while you alive.
What you call'salvation' belongs to the time before death.

If you don't break your ropes while you are alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten--
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City
of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life
you will have the face of satisfied desire.


While I love that poem, I still believe that the next reality includes the blessing and burden of change. In the next reality, memoryandspirit continue to simmer.