<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Lockdown Nights in Oxford</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(11, 76, 180);" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class="">
Last night, I walked the streets of Oxford with Kabir.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The night before, it was Jesus.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And the night before, Rumi visited uninvited.<br class="">
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Every night a different companion, but always the same friend. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Why go anywhere when the Beloved always comes to you?<br class="">
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I pointed out the smiling houses to Kabir. “Have you ever noticed that houses have a face?” </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“It is I who am smiling,” he said.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“I'm happy to see you,” I said to <span style="color: #040404; background-color: #f7f7f7" class="">Atmananda</span> the next night.<br class="">
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“You are happiness itself,” he replied </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I stood outside the chapel and listened to a choir with brother Lawrence.<br class="">
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“Our love for God is God's love for us,” he said. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And the next night Meister Eckhart.<br class="">
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“There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself.”<br class="">
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“Know nothing,” Socrates said the following night. “Be everything,” added Parmenides.<br class="">
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I showed Plotinus the gardens, but he said, “I see only one thing.”<br class="">
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I talked with the Buddha, but he remained silent.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I was silent with Moses, but he started to sing.<br class="">
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I uttered the word “I” but <span style="color: #040404; background-color: #f7f7f7" class="">Balyani</span> held his hand to my mouth.<br class="">
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I asked <span style="color: #040404; background-color: #f7f7f7" class="">Huángbò</span> if he could hear the stream.<br class="">
</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“There is only the hearing,” he said. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I found William Blake naked in the park.<br class="">
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“Do you see how through perception the infinite gives birth to itself?” he asked. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“He’s right,” Ramana said, “the universe appears every moment through the portal, “’I am.’” </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And later, when I suggested we rest: “I am always at rest,” he smiled.<br class="">
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“Dying this universal frame thus wondrous fair, thy Self how wondrous then,” Milton asked, ecstatically, as we looked at the night sky.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“Everything shines with being,” Wordsworth said. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I offered a drink to Jesus. “I Am the Water of Life,” he said.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I walked in silence with Francis.<br class="">
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“My silence is my question,” I said. “My silence is my answer,” he replied.<br class="">
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I walked alone one night with the World for my friend.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The next night, I found Hafiz drunk on a bench. “Come taste this wine,” he called.<br class="">
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Shams came to join us. “I'm looking for the friend,” he sighed.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I love these nighttime walks,” I said to <span style="color: #040404; background-color: #f7f7f7" class="">Anandamayi Ma. </span> “Love, only love,” she said. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I listened to barking dogs with Abhinavagupta. “No, only knowing,” he said. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“I am …” “Shhhh… don’t add anything to it,” Sri Nisargadatta exclaimed. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I danced down the street with Mozart.<br class="">
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I prayed in every step with Bach.<br class="">
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I listened with Beethoven and he showed me everything as the crystallized form of a great Cosmic Pulsation.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I leaned with Primo Levi against the wall watching friends and lovers and strangers.<br class="">
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“Each of us,” he said, “bears the imprint of a friend met along the way – in each the trace of each.”<br class="">
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Yeats joined us. “There are no strangers here,” he said, “only friends we haven't yet met.”<br class="">
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And Rembrandt agreed. “If you look at anyone for long enough,” he said, “they will eventually become your friend.”<br class="">
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I watched the sunset with Shelley one night. “The One remains. The Many change and pass,” he said.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And then, as the moon arose… “Heaven’s light forever shines. Earth shadows fly. Life, like a dome of many colored glass, stains the white Radiance of Eternity, until Death tramples it to fragments. Die if thou wouldst be with That which Thou dost seek.” </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And last night Rumi followed me home. “Kiss the ground with every step,” he said.<br class="">
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“Goodnight,” I said, without words.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">“We part without parting,” he smiled.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Rupert Spira</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Calibri; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: normal;" class=""><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DybzmWASPkE&t=9s" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;" class="">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DybzmWASPkE&t=9s</a></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div>
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