If you need a dose of poetic inspiration to cultivate passion, confront fear, and awaken your gratitude for life let the ancient wisdom of Hafiz lead you on your way. These phrases, cribbed from Daniel Ladinsky’s The Gift, have been re-imagined in the context of your everyday life.
“Run my dear from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings. Run like hell my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart”
Hafiz is urging us to reject the people and circumstances that would stifle our growth and to be in constant search for those that would nourish our spirits. Though we should not neurotically fear adversity we should be attentive to the avoidable situations that we involve ourselves in. Life is difficult enough without voluntarily condemning ourselves to empty friendships, tense working relationships and unfulfilling daily choices.
It is extremely troubling, however, that the current socio-economic regime involves people in traps of poverty, debt, and daily anguish over healthcare, housing, and education. I do not want to negate the often intractable difficulties that so many of us face and suggest that we can just wilfully avoid anything we don’t like the look of in life. If only. But this lesson still allows room for us to choose productive friendships and surroundings and if possible, to carve out space for passion and self-realization in the course of our harried lives.
“For we have not come here to take prisoners, or to confine our wondrous spirits”
I interpret this quote as having a twofold meaning. Hafiz is imploring us to seek out the wonder and curiosity that is at the heart of the human spirit and to make its treasures manifest in our earthly life. Reimagined in a modern context it suggests that we make room in our lives for work, relationships, and passions that allow us to access the deep well within. It suggests that many of us are neglecting our potent, creative selves because we live in a society captivated by busywork, corporate timekeeping, parasitic consumerism, and soulless urban design. These are fetters restraining the more vital and energized qualities of our inner selves.
‘We have not come here to take prisoners’, in my reading, suggests that we are not here to compete or to compare. Malicious gossip, cynical criticism and self conscious comparison succeeds every single time in making us feel empty, restless, compromised. Focusing on cultivating our own purpose, rather than disparaging the lives of others, is the only proven way to fix what needs fixing in our own lives.
“Time, space, and boredom are just passing fads. All your pain, worry, sorrow will someday apologize and confess they were a great lie.”
This is some transcendental material here. Rather Buddhist in its sentiments, this quote speaks to the eternal, infinite stillness behind all forms and phenomena. In a more practical sense it reminds us of Shakespeare’s admonition that ‘this too shall pass’. This doesn’t suggest a nihilistic approach to life but rather invites us to regard circumstances and emotional states as passing phenomena rather that insurmountable, permanent features of our lives. Allowing space for our emotions and thoughts to just be, without excessive self-criticism, enables us to react more openly and compassionately to the experiences we encounter.
“Is your caravan lost? It is, if you no longer weep for gratitude or happiness or weep from being cut deep with the awareness of the extraordinary beauty that emanates from the most simple act and common object”
Open your eyes to how astonishingly unlikely this life is. We’re all spinning in space and held together by mysterious forces and none of us have any sound reason why. Get off your phone, stop comparing yourself to photoshopped people on Instagram, and open a book or open your eyes. Life is happening right now and it’s all too weird and wacky and improbable not to appreciate. You don’t need to go walking shoeless in the forest or stare at the veins of a leaf for an entire afternoon. Although you could and maybe you should depending on how closed-off you are to the fascinating happenings occurring all around you. Read a challenging book about the nature of things, watch a sunset or two, contemplate your heartbeat.
“There are different wells within us. Some fill with each good rain, others are far, far too deep for that”
This quote suggests that our desires and needs cast a wide net, and have a dynamic range. Some wells within us will be satisfied with food, drink, and social pleasures. We should nourish and fill this well often; I advocate incorporating hedonistic tendencies into our lives. Fine films, music, and aesthetic appreciation are valid and vital elements of a well lived life. But if we neglect our deeper well, the one quenched with meditation, reflection, and stillness, then we run the risk of overfilling our shallow well, and still going thirsty. We need to prioritize values such as integrity, gratitude, and courageousness lest our lives become a charade of style without substance. We must cultivate an attentive, curious mind and be honest and respectful of our selves, lest we become one-dimensional.
“Our life dance is only for a few magic seconds”
Life doesn’t last long and none of us know how long our individual run will be. Speaking for myself, my mental world is inhabited by needless fears, constant anxieties, and dramatized reactions to everyday occurrences. I think most of us take everything, ourselves most especially, too seriously and we replay negative scenarios and hurtful memories over and over. We neglect opportunities to be grateful. Get out of your thoughts and into your life. Do more. Act more. Make decisions. My life improves markedly when I take breaks from self-involved mental melodramas and make a tangible effort to experience life without the filter of constant mental chit chat.
“Few things are stronger than the mind’s need for diverse experience”
Comfort and repetition lull us into a sweet sleep. But when we open our eyes, life has passed us by. Our minds are kept sharp and stimulated by a constant interaction with the new and the novel. As strong as our need for comfort is, so too is our desperation for diversity of experience. This speaks to the restlessness within; the constant urge that never lets us out of its grip. Dance with it. Explore new terrain, expand your interests, forge new friendships outside of your comfortable milieu. We need to be like magnets, attracting rather than repelling the unfamiliar. Many people get into a rut because their habits and choices begin to stifle them and they have lost a sense of purpose. They reflect on their years and they wonder where the time went. Embracing new challenges and allowing room for spontaneity will break up the days.
“Your spirit needs to leave the bed of fear”
Fear is the big equalizer, no? I’m scared, you’re scared. Everything has the capacity to lull us right back into our comfort zone. This subject has been discussed in great depth in literature and popular culture: there is no greatness without a degree of fear. Fear is something of a bedfellow to all good things: travel, change, risk, adventure, emotional courage. Oftentimes we can not truly encounter the novel, compelling experiences that would elevate our lives without calmly confronting fear. We should not seek to become fearless or put on a show of bravery to gain acclaim from others; rather, we should allow fear to exist in our lives without bowing to its every wish and command.
“Don’t die again with that holy ruby mine inside, still unclaimed”
Speaking closely to Hafiz’s insistent theme that we must activate and actualize our deepest gifts this quote reminds us that the choice to unleash our talents and passions is all our own. Just because talent, skill, or aptitude exist does not mean that they can’t lie dormant, or that they won’t eventually atrophy with neglect. It is indeed our responsibility to recognize and apply our natural passions and gifts. If we choose to spend our lives pursuing busywork and dulling ourselves with monotonous past-times than that is our choice and we must live with the consequences.
I don’t personally subscribe to the belief that we have to turn our passion into a job or that our life is empty if we do not become ‘self-made’ or an ‘entrepreneur’ or a ‘passion-driven digital nomad’. It is naive and arrogant to assume that people working dull jobs, or long hours are not tapping into their true potential. As I mentioned above, debt, health, and family obligations exist and are all pertinent factors in our lifestyle design. I believe that carving out a few hours a day, or week, to strengthen and sharpen a talent or skill is valuable and should not be invalidated. You don’t need to be published or get a scholarship or a research grant to indulge your individual passion for writing, learning, or scientific inquiry, for example.
“Don’t surrender your loneliness so quickly, let it cut more deep”
This has Rilke written all over it. Allow yourself to embrace solitude. Accept loneliness as a valid emotion and sit with it, asking yourself what you can learn from it. This is a far more productive albeit far more difficult way of interacting with loneliness. Repelling it with empty diversions does not allow you to come to an actionable solution. It is only when we investigate the source of our emotions that insights can come to light.
As for solitude, learning to enjoy your own company is a salient skill that will serve you in every aspect of life. Becoming content with your own company allows you room to be more creative, inquisitive, and introspective. You may surprise yourself with your new discoveries. True, some of them may be painful to confront and perhaps avoiding this discomfort is the driver of your constant need to be surrounded by others. But the only way out is through and spending time in your own company can provide you with the realizations that will improve your life. Coming face to face with our shortcomings is a very positive experience and is the only way we can make practical changes that will allow us to grow in our desired direction.
“What we speak becomes the house we live in.”
Our dialogue has the capacity to be a source of inspiration and self-reckoning but so to does it have the ability to become a prison. Our inner words become our thoughts and our thoughts become the frame of reference through which we judge the world. We can not underestimate the value of speaking to ourselves in an empowering and emancipating way. Small, helpless thoughts will make victims of us and hostile, bitter words will foster nothing but discontent. We are unable to be successful in our chosen endeavor without thoughts that feed our ambitions. You don’t need to repeat affirmations in front of a mirror. Tweak the assumptions and judgements you make about yourself and others. Adjust your language and empower, rather than victimize, yourself.
“Wayfarer, now is no time to sit still”
I love procrastination but I hate how it makes me feel: powerless, guilty, shameful. Procrastination takes on a more insidious meaning in our adult lives when we put off making actionable changes, travelling, being authentic with ourselves, pursuing hidden interests. I have always admired those figures that go through life with an unbridled energy and vivaciousness. People who are curious, alert, and bold and who pursue a diversity of interests. Now is the best time to start any new endeavor, even if you are only capable of keeping your goals in the dreaming stage at the moment. I love reading articles that debunk our most common excuses: lack of money, contacts, talent. We may never be as popular, wealthy, or talented as we feel we ‘need’ to be to begin getting things done. I like that saying that if you’re waiting for the right time, or for your life to start, you’ll be waiting forever.
