Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke. And recovered. She speaks of her experience and recovery. It's startlingly similar to the experience of the mystics.

A KING INSIDE WHO LISTENS

There are many people with their eyes open
whose hearts are shut. What do they see?
Matter.
But someone whose love is alert,
even if the eyes go to sleep,
he or she will be waking up thousands of others.

If you are not one of those light-filled lovers,
restrain your desire-body's intensity.
Put limits on how much you eat
and how long you lie down.

But if you are awake here in the chest,
sleep long and soundly.

Your spirit will be out roaming and working,
even on the seventh level.

Muhammad says, I close my eyes and rest in sleep,
but my love never needs rest.

The guard at the gate drowses.
The king stays awake.

You have a king inside who listens
for what delights the soul.

That king's wakefulness
cannot be described in a poem.

Rumi

Blessings to you, President Obama

THE GRASP OF YOUR HAND

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling
Your mercy in my success alone; but let me find
the grasp of Your hand in my failure.

Rabindranath Tagore

ACCEPT ME

Accept me, dear God, accept me for this while.

Let those orphaned days that passed without You be forgotten.

Only spread this little moment wide across Your lap, holding it under Your light.

I have wandered in pursuit of voices that drew me, yet led me nowhere.

Now let me sit in peace and listen to Your words in the soul of my silence.

Do not turn away Your face from my heart's dark secrets, but burn them till they are alight with Your fire.

Rabindranath Tagore

With That Moon Language

Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them,
"Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud:
Otherwise,
Someone would call the cops.

Still though, think about this,
This great pull in us
To connect.

Why not become the one
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
That is always saying,

With that sweet moon
Language,

What every other eye in this world
Is dying to
Hear.

Hafiz

The Holy Longing

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
Because the massman will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
What longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,
Where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
A strange feeling comes over you
When you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught
In the obsession with darkness,
And a desire for higher love-making
Sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter,
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
And, finally, insane for the light,
You are the butterfly and you are gone.

And so long as you haven't experienced
This: to die and so to grow,
You are only a troubled guest
On the dark earth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

For Sara