ELMAR SALMANN

THE THEOLOGY OF ELMAR SALMANN

BIOGRAPHY

Elmar Salmann, born May 12 1948 in Hagen (Germany), has studied philosophy, literature and theology at Paderborn, Vienna and Münster. He became a Benedictine Monk of the Abbey of Gerleve (Westphalia) in 1973.
Since 1981 he is professor of philosophy and systematic theology at the Pontifical University St. Anselm (Rome), at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome) and at the Hochschule für Philosophie (München).
He Deals with poetry and theology, Judaism and Christian faith, modernity and Christianity. And participates in many forums and discussions, even outside the ecclesiastical circles, including The Normale di Pisa, which is a study group on ethics and advertising sponsored by Mediaset.
Salmann is a Christian thinker, modern theologian; lecturer and writer… his major studies focus on the relationship between human experience and symbolism, Christianity and modern culture, mysticism and philosophy, theory of Grace and psychology: Through a comparison between philosophers (Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Levinas... ), theologians (Thomas Aquinas, Rahner, de Lubac, Barth, von Balthasar, Drewermann, Jüngel...), without renouncing the grace of poets (Caproni, Montale, Sbarbaro, Borges, Pessoa…).
Salmann makes a brilliant evocative statement, able to touch many aspects, but to dissolve few knots. Christianity is presented as the religion of the broken body and it is made an excursus into the Scripture and Tradition to highlight this aspect. Some hints focus also on the body's ambiguity and some attempts to integrate, into theology, the body's reality, which remains more mysterious than of the spirit.
Salmann's theology is an attempt to verify the possibility of a style of life and thought inspired by Christianity, yet without the abandonment to be Men of our time. In other words: the central "mysteries" of Christianity may still emerge as fertile grounds of culture in a society such as this, in which the claim to live and think according to the criteria of the Christian faith seems unthinkable or cannot be proposed? This question is still of avail today and in all countries of the world, at a time when economic globalization seems to be the new religion of humanity. Salmann launches his challenge to a lifestyle that is proper to the Christian and at the same time humanly valid, and shows how theology is meant to build culture. Faith: the relationship between Man and God, studied in gestures, in symbols, in language that are used to express the unending pursuit of truth by man, and the offer of salvation that God never tires of offering to Man.

PUBLICATIONS

Anna Katharina Emmerick - ihre mystische Existenz aus nachmoderner Sicht. 2007. (collaboration with: von Clemens Engling, Günter Scholz, Nicole Priesching, Carl Möller, Wolfgang Frühwald).
Contro Severino. Incanto e incubo del credere. Casale M. 1996.
Cur Deus Homo: Atti Del Congresso Anselmiano Internazionale Roma, 21-23 Maggio 1998. (collaboration with: Paul Gilbert, Helmut Karl Kohlenberger).
Der geteilte Logos: Zum offenen Prozess von neuzeitlichem Denken und Theologie. Roma 1992.
Die Vernunft Ins Gebet Nehmen: Philosophisch-Theologische Betrachtungen. 2000. (collaboration with Joachim Hake).
Emmerick und Brentano: Dokumentation eines Symposiums der Bischöflichen Kommission "Anna-Katharina Emmerick". 1983. (collaboration with: von Wolfgang Frühwald, Peter Hünermann, Winfried Woesler, Bernd Wacker, Renate Moering, Hubert Larcher, Basilius Senger, Clemens Engling, Heinrich Schleiner).
Filosofia E Mistica: Itinerari Di Un Progetto Di Ricerca. Roma 1997. (collaboration with: Aniceto Molinaro).
La teologia è un romanzo. Milano 2000.
La Teologia mistico-sapienziale di Anselm Stolz. Roma 1988. (collaboration with: Gerardo J Bekes, Benedetto Calati, Anselmo Lipari).
L'Attualità filosofica di Anselmo d'Aosta. Roma 1990. (collaboration with: von Carlo Huber, Aniceto Molinari).
Le ragioni della fede. Come credere oggi. 1997. (collaboration with: Colzani Gianni; Giustiniani Pasquale).
Le ragioni della fede. Come credere oggi. Milano 1997.
Mysterium Christi: Symbolgegenwart und theologische Bedeutung. Festschrift für Basil Studer. Roma 1996. (collaboration with: Magnus Löhrer).
Neuzeit und Offenbarung. Studien zur trinitarischen Analogik des Christentums. Roma 1986.
Passi e passaggi nel Cristianesimo. 2009.
Patrimonium Fidei: Traditionsgeschichtliches Verstehen Am Ende? Festschrift Für Magnus Löhrer Und Pius Ramon Tragan. Roma 1997 (collaboration with: Magnus Löhrer, Pius-Ramon Tragan, Marinella Perroni).
Presenza di spirito. Il cristianesimo come gesto e pensiero. Padova 2000.
Scienza e spiritualità. Affinità elettive. 2009.
Wir sehen jetzt im Spiegel rätselhaft: Otto von Simson zum Gedächtnis. 1996. (collaboration with: von Reiner Hausherr, Wieland Schmied, Gottfried Boehm).
Zwischenzeit: Postmoderne Gedanken zum Christsein heute. 2004.

The FUNDAMENTAL PERSPECTIVES OF SALMANN'S THEOLOGY

1. The Faith can't be comprehended anymore by itself. It needs at the end of modern times a reinterpretation of the Christian mystery 'from outside' that reconstitutes its laws, its physiognomy and saves the best of tradition and today's intelligence: theology as school of restoration and rescuing.
2. Each idea is developed in a dual perspective, that of fundamental theology that explores the path to plausibility of a mystery for the reason, it captures the outside light; and the dogmatic view that shows the intrinsic light, the aesthetics of the nexus between the mysteries and the logic of kenotic revelation. Theo-logy is the interlacement between the auto-exploration of experience of life, the reason and the revelation. 
3. Such theology needs several starts: trying to reconcile the transcendental style (Rahner), Trinitarian-kenotic (Balthasar), the ontological-classical view (Greeks), and the historic-dramatic (the Jews); history as the exegesis of the spirit (Hegel) and concrete-eidetic glance (Goethe).Basically, one always is wondering: what is happening? What is phenomenologically true in this context? And how a given phenomenon is interdependent with others, namely with its large field (structuralism)?: Theology is a school of watching. 
4. All is gravitating about an ontological Trinitarian with strong pneumatological emphasis. It seeks to highlight the formal and dramatic nexus between Trinity, Incarnation, Cross, Creation, structural ontology of the Christ's Body, mystical and psychological interiority of man. 
5. Salmann does not 'administer' a scientific closed system, but stimulates the scholar/student/reader that she/he will find, in own language, a harmony between culture and faith, the kind of personal intelligence and the world of mystery. Hence the method of his examination: everyone can and must prepare a paper/perspective which concerning the matter in question. 
6. Such theology of 'wisdom' implies some formal laws:

6.1. No phenomenon is completed by itself, comprehended by itself, but it results in itself para-doxical, polar, a part of an elliptical field, and a dialectic of closeness and detachment from others. Everything is rediscovered in view of its opposite: the grace through the abyss of sin, guilt has its measure only in the grace... First and last barycentre: the mystery of the Trinity, extreme unity and extreme diversity of Persons; and Christology: the same person is constituted by the mean of two primordial relationships. For this we need an exquisite touch that does not separate nor confuses the phenomenon, but distinguishes, differentiates and unites them at the same time. The Law of Chalcedon marks the ontology and theological epistemology. So Salmann moves his theology in spiral, he closes to the centre, which is in itself polar, from different complementary angles.
6.2. Each phenomenon is epiphanic and symbolic, opening for the presence of an entire world, and the presence of the divine absence, a point of transition for the Pascha of the Logos. God appears in everything, thinker... which the presence of non-aliud, and in this totally other. Hence the relativity, the lightness and specific weight/burden, the originality and the transparency of every being. Everything may be a sacrament which is inspired, where my freedom emerges. The sacred history, the Bible is the paradigmatic case for this process, which he tries to extend and trace in the history of the spirit, of the Church.
6.3. Nothing is fixed; everything may only be understood in a path of permanent transformation towards/on love, the primordial image, the space that includes us, all is a process of transfiguration. The theology endeavours to follow this process to make it plausible, and to understand the love that comprehends us.

THE OPEN SIDE OF HUMANITY - THE CREASES OF THE INFINITY

CULTURAL ENGINES OF ELMAR SALMANN'S THEOLOGY

Some categories to give a physiognomy at the intersection between finite and infinite, human existence and a possible acknowledgment of/with the divine or with some reasons that the Christian mystery in this way might appear – precisely as a reason:

1. Luxuriant, mythological, magical - the sinister charm of metamorphosis: STEFANO D'ARRIGO (Horcynus Orca) - on the trails of HERMAN MELVILLE, GESUALDO BUFALINO(Kalendas Graecas, especially the poem beginning of 'Curriculum' and the description of the birth; The Night's Lies). It takes into account the fascination of The Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, the novels of GABRIEL GARCÍA MARQUEZ, the personage 'baroque-polifrenic' of FERNANDO PESSOA, of CEES NOOTEBOOM (Lost Paradise, angels! All Souls Day). 
2. Skeptical-laconic-aporical: agnostic agonic poems of EUGENIO MONTALE (All the poems, Mondadori 1984, 827-876); GIORGIO CAPRONI and FERNANDO PESSOA (e.g. Una sola moltitudine 11 79 ff). 
3. Skeptical-political-documentary-essay: The life as a suffered essay, open..., LEONARDO SCIASCIA (Black on Black, Crossword, In Partibus Infidelium...); CLAUDIO MAGRIS (Danube, Utopia and Disenchantment, Microcosms, The Dramas); GESUALDO BUFALINO (Bluff of Words). 
4. Apocalyptic: The world in the dim light of Judgement, ELSA MORANTE (History, Aracoeli); SALVATORE SATTA (The Mystery of The Process; The Day of Judgment). It remains
   immeasurable the background of FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT. The question of theodicy emerges in touching way in: GIOVANNI D'ALESSANDRO (If A Pitiful God). 
5. Phenomenological-biographical dryness with a opening to an another piety: LALLA ROMANO (In Extreme Seas; The Man Who Spoke Alone; A Dream of The North); GIUSEPPE PONTIGGIA (The Great Night, Born Twice, First Person and his essays...); the mytho-biographical musical's sequence of poetic collections of GIUSEPPE UNGARETTI, LUIGI DALLAPICCOLA, UMBERTO SABA (e.g. the poem The goat). 
6. Melancholic, looking from below, doubtful-delirious: NATALIA GINZBURG (Never
   Must You Ask Me, on believing and not believe in God; The Little Virtues, Family Sayings), and the poems of CAMILLO SBARBARO (Shavings, Scampoli...). 
7. Metaphysical, boundless, enigmatic: The novels of GIUSEPPE. O. LONGO (The acrobat, The
   hierarchy of Ackermann, On few footprints on the snow: Eros-death-math, Central-Europe); and the background of FRANZ KAFKA, and of DINO BUZZATI; the grim and
   incontrovertible side of the right according to SALVATORE SATTA. 
8. Gnostic-agnostic: ROBERTO CALASSO (The Ruin of Kasch, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony); MASSIMO CACCIARI (The Necessary Angel; Icons of The Law; By Steinhof). 
9. Prophetic-anguished, mystagogic: MARIO LUZI (The Book of Hypatia, For the Baptism of Our Fragments); DAVID MARIA TUROLDO and his poems (The Last Songs), MICHELE RANCHETTI and his poems (Verbal, The Musical Mind) and his essays (The Last Priests, Different Writings).

The Christianity appears as a motive, contested and contextualised perspective; and as a mine, prick and ferment, which needs to be read over again at against the light and in the wrong way- that serves Christianity to read over again the world at against the light. The reality appears as a trace of a past god, and faithful as dowser, the landscape of mystery, as mine, discovery, which can enrich the interpretation and management of life.

THEOLOGICAL ENGINES OF THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ELMAR SALMANN

Preamble
Salmann looks and sees Christ as figure and event, and as a reflective-projected representative of the reconciliation between love and freedom, finite and
infinite. The (kenotic) absolute and historic project. Only in this soteriological context his figure can be individuated. Salmann tries to reconstruct the physiognomy of Christ through different "lenses" of modern Christology.

1. Christ, who are you towards God?
Christ in the logic of Epiphany: the figure of Christ as alienating exposition of the Blessed, and the freedom of man as a gift of love (Balthasar).

2. Christ, who are you towards humans?
Christ in the prophetic human logic: the logic of his existence: Christ as a model of a liberated and liberating freedom (Boff, Schillebeeckx, Küng).

3. Who are you in yourself? You who can do everything!Christ with a transcendental ontological logic, and the laws of reconciliation between nature and person, infinite and finite in the intrinsic structure of the mystery of the person of the Logos: Logic of the Incarnation. Theological issues: Virginity… (Thomas of Aquino, Rahner).

4. Christ, who are you to us?Christ with historical-universal logic. The eschatological meaning of the Christological event, and the history as process of liberation and harmonization, logic of the resurrection (Forte, Pannenberg, Teilhard de Chardin).

5. Logic of the crossChrist in dramatic-transformer logic: the conflictual crisis between God and humans, freedom and love and a starting point of redemption in the mystery of the offspring (Balthasar, Moltmann).

6. Logic of missionChrist with a pneumatic universal logic: as a pot and inspiration of the Spirit and representative of the Alliance (Kasper, Mühlen, Hegel).

Summary
Structural Principles of Christianity: Salmann tries to reconstruct theology and Christology, through a process of reconstruction. He does not hesitate to use any form of arts (musicians, painters, poets...) to understand the mystery, so does not feel ashamed to go to seek help or any form of culture!
He starts at the same moment, as in theology, from culture and cult, philosophy and theology, the human data and the data of revelation... mixes everything but in distinguishing, and distinguishes all but uniting... to be able then to create a mosaic, a picture, a brilliant, bright, crisp, clear, tidy… vision!

Theology

29

Theology

Many, many years ago, back in the middle Ages, the Pope was urged by his advisors to banish the Jews from Rome.
It was unseemly; they said that these people should be living unmolested in the very centre of Catholicism.
An edict of eviction was drawn up and promulgated much to the dismay of the Jews who knew that wherever else they went they could only expect worse treatment than was meted out to them in Rome.
So they pleaded with the Pope to reconsider the edict.
The Pope, a fair-minded man, offered them a sporting proposition:
Let the Jews appoint someone to debate with him in pantomime. If their spokesman won the Jews might stay.
The Jews met to consider this proposal.
To turn it down was to be evicted from Rome.
To accept it was to court certain defeat, for who could win a debate in which the Pope was both participant and judge?
Still, there was nothing for it but to accept.
Only, it was impossible to find someone to volunteer for the task of debating with the Pope.
The burden of having the fate of the Jews on his shoulders was more than anyone man could bear.
Now when the synagogue janitor heard what was going on he came before the Chief Rabbi
and volunteered to represent his people in the debate.
"The janitor?" said the other rabbis when they heard of this.
"Impossible!"
"Well," said the chief Rabbi, "None of us is willing. It is either the janitor or no debate."
Thus for lack of anyone else the janitor was appointed to debate with the Pope.
When the great day arrived, the Pope sat on a throne in St Peter's square surrounded by his cardinals, facing a large crowd of bishops, priests and faithful.
Presently the little Jewish delegation arrived in their black robes and flowing beards, with the janitor in their midst.
The Pope turned to face the janitor and the debate began.
The Pope solemnly raised one finger and traced it across the heavens.
The janitor promptly pointed with emphasis towards the ground.
The Pope seemed somewhat taken aback.
Even more solemnly he raised one finger again and kept it firmly before the Janitor's face.
The janitor thereupon lifted three fingers and held them just as firmly before the Pope who seemed astonished by the gesture.
Then the Pope thrust his hand into his robes and pulled out an apple.
Whereupon the janitor thrust his hand into his paper bag and pulled out a flat piece of matzo.
At this the Pope explained in a loud voice, "The Jewish representative has won the debate.
The edict of eviction is hereby revoked."
The Jewish leaders promptly surrounded the janitor and led him away.
The cardinals clustered around the Pope in astonishment.
"What happened, your Holiness?" then asked.
"It was impossible for us to follow the rapid thrust and parry of the debate."
The Pope wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "That man is a brilliant theologian, a master in debate.
I began by sweeping my hand across the sky to indicate that the whole universe belongs to God.
He thrust his finger downward to remind me that there is a place called Hell where the devil reigns supreme.
I then raised one finger to signify that God is one.
Imagine my shock when he raised three fingers to indicate that this one God manifests Himself equally in three persons, thereby subscribing to our own doctrine of the Trinity!
Knowing that it was impossible to get the better of this theological genius I finally shifted the debate to another area.
I pulled out an apple to indicate that according to some new-fangled ideas the earth is round.
He instantly produced a flat piece of unleavened bread to remind me that, according to the Bible, the earth is flat.
So there was nothing to do but concede the victory to him."
By now the Jews had arrived at their synagogue.
"What happened they asked the janitor in bewilderment?
The janitor was indignant.
"It was all a lot of rubbish," he said.
"Look. First the Pope moves his hand like he is telling all the Jews to get out of Rome.
So I pointed downwards to make it clear to him that we were not going to budge.
So he points a finger to me threateningly as if to say.
Don't get fresh with me.
So I point three fingers to tell him he was thrice as fresh with us when he arbitrarily ordered us out of Rome.
The next thing, I see him taking out his lunch.
So I took out mine."

THE PRAYER OF THE FROG 1

Anthony de Mello

Time

Time

I clasp the stem of time

My head a fiery tower

What, then, is this blood

Ever rooted in the sand?

Flaming instants nullify our words

My soul's forgotten its passion's

Purpose, forgotten its heritage

Hidden in house of forms

Forgotten what the rain recounts

What the trees ink inscribes

What cleaves me from myself?

Might I be more than one?

My history, my ruination?

My promised land, my pyre?

Might I be several?

Each interrogating the other?

Who are you and where from?

In this be madness

Then let madness edify

Let madness be my guide

Adonis

Ali Ahmad Said Asbar (Arabic: علي أحمد سعيد إسبر‎; transliterated: alî ahmadi sa'îdi asbar or Ali Ahmad Sa'id) born January 1930, also known by the pseudonym Adonis or Adunis (Arabic: أدونيس), is a Syrian poet and essayist who has made his career largely in Lebanon and France. He has written more than twenty books in his native Arabic.
Adonis is a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry. He is often seen as a rebel, an iconoclast who follows his own rules. "Arabic poetry is not the monolith this dominant critical view suggests, but is pluralistic, sometimes to the point of self-contradiction."
Adonis was considered to be a candidate for the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, but the awards went to British playwright Harold Pinter, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, British novelist Doris Lessing and French novelist J.M.G. Le Clezio.
In 2007 he was awarded the Bjørnson Prize.

Labels-identities 4

Labels-identities (4)

A little girl who says to a little boy,

"Are you a Presbyterian?"

And he says, "No, we belong to another abomination!"

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Labels-identities 3

Labels-identities (3)

I remember hearing about a man who asks his friend,

"Are you planning to vote Republican?"

The friend says, "No, I'm planning to vote Democratic.

My father was a Democrat, my grandfather was a Democrat, and my great-grandfather was a Democrat."

The man says, "That is crazy logic.

I mean, if your father was a horse thief, and your grandfather was a horse thief, and your great-grandfather was a horse thief, what would you be?"

"Ah," the friend answered, "then I'd be a Republican."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

The danger of Religion

The danger of Religion

The danger of what religion can do is very nicely brought out in a story told by Cardinal Martini, the Archbishop of Milan.


The story has to do with an Italian couple that's getting married.

They have an arrangement with the parish priest to have a little reception in the parish courtyard outside the church.

But it rained, and they couldn't have the reception, so they said to the priest,

"Would it be all right if we had the celebration in the church?"

Now Father wasn't one bit happy about having a reception in the church, but they said,

"We will eat a little cake, sing a little song, drink a little wine, and then go home."

So Father was persuaded.

But being good life-loving Italians they drank a little wine, sang a little song,

then drank a little more wine, and sang some more songs,

and within a half hour there was a great celebration going on in the church.

And everybody was having a great time, lots of fun and frolic.

But Father was all tense, pacing up and down in the sacristy, all upset about the noise they were making.

The assistant pastor comes in and says, "I see you are quite tense."

"Of course, I'm tense.

Listen to all the noise they are making, and in the House of God! for heaven's sake!"

"Well, Father, they really had no place to go."

"I know that! But do they have to make all that racket?"

"Well, we mustn't forget, must we, Father, that Jesus himself was once present at a wedding!"

Father says, "I know Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet,

YOU don't have to tell me Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet!

But they didn't have the Blessed Sacrament there!!!"


You know there are times like that when the Blessed Sacrament becomes more important than Jesus Christ.
When worship becomes more important than love, when the Church becomes more important than life.
When God becomes more important than the neighbor.
And so it goes on.
That's the danger.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Labels-identities 2

Labels-identities (2)

Paddy was walking down the street in Belfast

and he discovers a gun pressing against the back of his head and a voice says,

"Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

Well, Paddy has to do some pretty fast thinking.

He says, "I'm a Jew."

And he hears a voice say,

"I've got to be the luckiest Arab in the whole of Belfast."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Like water

Like water

The heart is like water

Passions agitate its surface

Rippling water in water

Creature-like, an utterance

Commingles both the good and bad

Like time, human beings body forth

As much of darkness as of light

Just as day illuminates before the night

So an extinguished star begets

Another brilliance

Similar to our vanished forbears

So we, similarly, must disappear

Time alone ensures its own endurance

As plainly as you can plainly see

Strangers in their native land are

Ardent practitioners of good

Whose intimates sever ties and turn

Frequentation to a widening gulf

Remember, should you have sealed

Friendship in the throes of poverty

Should prosperity arrive, remember

Al Ma'arri

Al-Ma'arri (full name in Arabic: أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري, Abu al-'Alā Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn Sulaimān al-Tanūkhī al-Ma'arri, December 26, 973–May 10 or May 21, 1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer. He was a controversial rationalist of his time, he attacked the dogmas of religion, and rejected the claim that Islam possessed any monopoly on truth.

Abu 'Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi (Tanukhi) was born in Syria and lost his sight at the age of four due to smallpox. He hailed from the city of Ma'arra (المعرة) in Syria from which his name derives. He then went on to study in Aleppo, Antioch, and other Syrian towns pursuing a career as a freethinker, philosopher and poet before returning his native town of Ma'arrat al-Numan, where he lived the rest of his life, practicing asceticism and vegetarianism.

He briefly travelled to the center of Baghdad where he drew a great following of both male and female disciples to listen to his lectures on poetry, grammar and rationalism. One of the recurring themes of his philosophy was the rights of reason against the claims of custom, tradition and authority.

Although an advocate of social justice and action, Al-Ma'arri suggested that women should not bear children in order to save future generations from the pains of life.

Al Ma'arri was exerting a notable influence on Dante's "The Divine Comedy". His collection of poems "Unnecessary Necessity" charts the tragic dimension of human experience.

Labels-identities 1

Labels-identities (1)

There was a man who went to the priest and said,

"Father, I want you to say a Mass for my dog."

The priest was indignant.

"What do you mean, say a Mass for your dog?"

"It's my pet dog," said the man.

"I loved that dog and I'd like you to offer a Mass for him."

The priest said, "We don't offer Masses for dogs here.

You might try the denomination down the street.

Ask them if they might have a service for you."

As the man was leaving, he said to the priest,

"Too bad. I really loved that dog.

I was planning to offer a million-dollar stipend for the Mass."

And the priest said,

"Wait a minute, you never told me your dog was Catholic."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Between yesterday and tomorrow

Between yesterday and tomorrow

Keep yourself from worries and sorrows

Seize with all your might

This fleeting life

Yesterday is already far

Tomorrow not yet arrived

Be happy for a moment

This moment is your life

Fill the bountiful cup

Life is disgrace

Drunkenness is grace.

Omar Khayyam

***

Omar Khayyam

(May 18, 1048 - December 4, 1122)

Was a Persian polymath: mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and above all poet.

As a poet, he is the most famous poet of the East in the West through various adaptations of his rather small number of quatrains (rubaiyaas) in Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

He has also become established as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period. Recognized as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before modern times as reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. He also contributed to calendar reform and may have proposed a heliocentric theory well before Copernicus.

His significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works have not received the same attention as have his scientific or poetic writings. Zamakhshari referred to him as "the philosopher of the world". Many sources have also testified that he taught for decades the philosophy of Ibn Sina in Nayshapur where Khayyam lived most of his life, breathed his last, and was buried and where his mausoleum remains today a masterpiece of Iranian architecture visited by many people every yea.

THE EGG

44

THE EGG

Nasruddin earned his living selling eggs.

Someone came to his shop one day and said,

"Guess what I have in my hand."

"Give me a clue," said Nasruddin.

"I shall give you several:

It has the shape of an egg, the size of an egg.

It looks like an egg, tastes like an egg and smells like an egg.

Inside it is yellow and white.

It is liquid before it is cooked,

becomes thick when heated.

It was, moreover laid by a hen..."

"Aha! I know!" said Nasruddin.

"It is some kind of cake!"


The expert misses the obvious!

The Chief Priest misses the Messiah!

THE SONG OF THE BIRD

Anthony de Mello

The law of life

The way the world is!

A little boy was walking along the bank of a river.

He sees a crocodile that is trapped in a net.

The crocodile says, "Would you have pity on me and release me? I may look ugly, but it isn't my fault, you know. I was made this way.

But whatever my external appearance, I have a mother's heart. I came this morning in search of food for my young ones and got caught in this trap!"

So the boy says, "Ah, if I were to help you out of that trap, you'd grab me and kill me."

The crocodile asks, "Do you think I would do that to my benefactor and liberator?"

So the boy is persuaded to take the net off and the crocodile grabs him.

As he is being forced between the jaws of the crocodile, he says, "So this is what I get for my good actions."

And the crocodile says, "Well, don't take it personally, son, this is the way the world is, this is the law of life."

The boy disputes this, so the crocodile says, "Do you want to ask someone if it isn't so?"

The boy sees a bird sitting on a branch and says, "Bird, is what the crocodile says right?"

The bird says, "The crocodile is right. Look at me. I was coming home one day with food for my fledglings.

Imagine my horror to see a snake crawling up the tree, making straight for my nest. I was totally helpless. It kept devouring my young ones, one after the other.

I kept screaming and shouting, but it was useless.

The crocodile is right, this is the law of life, this is the way the world is."

"See," says the crocodile.

But the boy says, "Let me ask someone else."

So the crocodile says, "Well, all right, go ahead."

There was an old donkey passing by on the bank of the river.

"Donkey," says the boy, "this is what the crocodile says. Is the crocodile right?"

The donkey says, "The crocodile is quite right.

Look at me. I've worked and slaved for my master all my life and he barely gave me enough to eat.

Now that I'm old and useless, he has turned me loose, and here I am wandering in the jungle, waiting for some wild beast to pounce on me and put an end to my life.

The crocodile is right, this is the law of life, this is the way the world is."

"See," says the crocodile. "Let's go!"

The boy says, "Give me one more chance, one last chance. Let me ask one other being. Remember how good I was to you?"

So the crocodile says, "All right, your last chance."

The boy sees a rabbit passing by, and he says, "Rabbit, is the crocodile right?"

The rabbit sits on his haunches and says to the crocodile, "Did you say that to that boy?

The crocodile says, "Yes, I did."

"Wait a minute," says the rabbit. "We've got to discuss this."

"Yes," says the crocodile.

But the rabbit says, "How can we discuss it when you've got that boy in your mouth?

Release him; he's got to take part in the discussion, too."

The crocodile says, "You're a clever one, you are. The moment I release him, he'll run away."

The rabbit says, "I thought you had more sense than that. If he attempted to run away, one slash of your tail would kill him."

"Fair enough," says the crocodile, and he released the boy.

The moment the boy is released, the rabbit says, "Run!" And the boy runs and escapes.

Then the rabbit says to the boy, "Don't you enjoy crocodile flesh?

Wouldn't the people in your village like a good meal?

You didn't really release that crocodile; most of his body is still caught in that net.

Why don't you go to the village and bring everybody and have a banquet."

That's exactly what the boy does. He goes to the village and calls all the men folk.

They come with their axes and staves and spears and kill the crocodile.

The boy's dog comes, too, and when the dog sees the rabbit, he gives chase, catches hold of the rabbit, and throttles him.

The boy comes on the scene too late, and as he watches the rabbit die, he says, "The crocodile was right, this is the way the world is, this is the law of life."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Wandering

Wandering

In life I see a treasure

Dilapidated with each night

Days escape this ruination

Only time is undermined

Such days shatter all deception

The man denied a crust of bread

A shirt to close, a time to meet

Will prove himself a hard binger

I rise to combat or for pleasure

Can your opprobrium immortalize?

In your impotence to say my death

Let me contemplate it with my means

Never will I cease to drink

And savor pleasure

In reckless squandering

Of property and heritage

Tarafah ibn al 'Abd (c. 543-569)

Tarafa, or Tarafah ibn al 'Abd ben Sufyan ben Malik al Bakri (Arabic: طرفة بن العبد بن سفيان بن سعد أبو عمرو البكري الوائلي‎), was a 6th century
Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr.

After a wild and dissipated youth spent in Bahrain, left his native land after peace had been established between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib and went with his uncle Al-Mutalammis (also a poet) to the court of the king of Hira, 'Amr ibn-Hind (died 568-9), and there became companion to the king's brother. Hira was as the time a vassal of the Persian
Sasanian Empire. Having ridiculed the king in some verses he was sent with a letter to Dadafruz Gushnasban, the Persian Governor of Southern shores of the Persian Gulf, but Tarafa and his uncle managed to escape underway.

One of his poems is contained in the Mo'allakat.

His Diwan has been published in Wilhelm Ahlwardt's The Diwans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets (London, 1870). Some of his poems have been translated into Latin with notes by B. Vandenhoff (Berlin, 1895).

Competition

Competition

When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills;

when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous;

when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets,

and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him.

He cares! He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power."

Isn't that an image of what most people are?

When you're living for nothing, you've got all your skills,

you've got all your energy, you're relaxed,

you don't care, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose.

Tranxu (a.k.a. Zhuangzi)

(369 B.C. - 286 B.C.)

Zhuangzi (simplified Chinese: 庄子; traditional Chinese: 莊子; pinyin: Zhuāng Zǐ; Wade-Giles: Chuang Tzŭ) was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical summit of Chinese thought. His name is sometimes spelled Chuang Tsu, Chuang Tzu, Zhuang Tze, Chouang-Dsi, Chuang Tse, Chuangtze or – in English – Master Chuang.

And I suggest to award athletes-winners by paper medals

Woman

Woman

First creature, perpetual knowledge

Crystal-clear water, primeval desire

Everlasting fire

Primitive thrill

Woman, you are the tender secret

If you disappear, the earth will wither

Goodness will fade away from the universe

Source of fertility, means of all life

Woman, you defeated death

Daughter of Canaan, Babylonian melody

Star of the morning, child of the moon

Sister of the sun.

Woman, you are the mother of men

In your hands, you hold the reins of mystery

Your word is a promise,

your promise is virility

Wedding among men

Woman, there I am, signing your glory

Cluster of grapes, taste of the fig

Savour of feast and festivity

Spirit of adventure in us

Celebration of the soul,

near and far

Woman, you are the present and the forever

Despair that haunts us

You are the wise one

Mouth of life

Place of birth

In your hands, you hold will

And carry destiny

Smiling jewel, perfumes shell

Woman, you are ornament and fragrance

Inhabited place, wind and tempest

Violence among men

You are the familiar being

Woman, you are the forgotten prophecy

Abed Azrie
(1945-)

It is also written as Abed Azrié (Arabic: عابد عازرية), is a Syrian singer who performs Arab classical music, although he claims to belong to no particular music tradition.
In his work he sets ancient and modern Arabic texts to traditional instruments (such as the ney, kanun, darbuka, violin, flute and lute), and synthesizers.
He was born in Aleppo, and after living for a time in Beirut moved to Paris at the age of 22 where he studied Western classical music.
While there he translated classical poetry, such as the Sumerian
Epic of Gilgamesh, into French.

Dizziness

Dizziness

Let the rock fertilise to protect us from the fever of dizziness

Fix the moment into eternity

Freeze the wave that hurts us

Into the ogre's belly

If you truly are

The god of all seasons

A voice then will whisper:

"What use is it to throw a purple veil

Over this cursed vision"

My soul cried with pain

As cold and dead I walked

Across the markets of the city

While crowds were consumed by a ring of fire

How could I protect them from fire, from dizziness?

Dig more deeply, gravedigger

Dig the grave, dig

Khalil Hawi

(1919 – 1982)

One of Lebanon's best-known twentieth-century poets.

Born in Huwaya (Syria), Khalil Hawi grew up in Shwayr (Lebanon).

He studied philosophy and Arabic at the American University of Beirut, and he obtained a scholarship to enroll at Cambridge University, in England, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1959.

He then became a professor of Arabic literature at the American University in Beirut.

Within a few years, he established himself as one of the leading avant-garde poets in the Arab world.

His poetry relies heavily on symbols and metaphors and images, and it frequently has political and social overtones.

An Arab nationalist at heart, he repeatedly expressed his sense of shame and rage at the loss of Palestine in 1948 and at subsequent Arab defeats at the hands of Israel.

He lamented what he saw as the Arab world's political and cultural decay, and he expressed deep pessimism about the possibility of a true Arab cultural and political revival.

After 1975, Khalil Hawi experienced the desperation felt by all Lebanese who had to watch their country's slow descent into chaos, internal disintegration, and manipulation by outside powers.

He was outraged by Lebanon's inability to stand up to the Israeli army when the latter invaded on 3 June 1982, and he deeply resented the other Arab governments' silence about the Israeli invasion.

He committed suicide on 6 June 1982.

How Dr Chung saved my life?

38

How Dr Chung saved my life?

"Thank God we took a mule with us on the picnic

because when one of the boys was injured we used the mule to carry him back."

"How did he get injured?"

"The mule kicked him!"


"Could you recommend a good doctor?"

"I suggest Dr. Chung. He saved my life."

"How did that happen?"

"Well. I had this serious illness and went to see Dr. Ching.

I took his medicine and felt worse.

So I went to Dr. Chang.

I took his medicine and felt I was dying.

So I finally went to Dr. Chung- and he wasn't in."

PRAYER OF THE FROG PART 2

Anthony de Mello

WHO AM I?

74

WHO AM I?

A tale from Attar of Neishapur.

The lover knocked at his Beloved's door.

"Who knocks?" said the Beloved from within.

"It is I," said the lover.

"Go away. This house will not hold you and me."

The lover withdrew and pondered for years on the words the Beloved had said.

Then he returned and knocked again.

"Who knocks?"

"It is you."

The door was immediately opened.

THE SONG OF THE BIRD

Anthony de Mello

Finding Yourself!

Finding Yourself!

The great masters tell us that the most important question in the world is:

"Who am I?" Or rather: "What is 'I'?" What is this thing I call "I"? What is this thing I call self?

You mean you understood everything else in the world and you didn't understand this?

You mean you understood astronomy and black holes and quasars and you picked up computer science, and you don't know who you are?

My, you are still asleep. You are a sleeping scientist.

You mean you understood what Jesus Christ is and you don't know who you are? How do you know that you have understood Jesus Christ?

Who is the person doing the understanding? Find that out first. That's the foundation of everything, isn't it?

It's because we haven't understood this that we've got all these stupid religious people involved in all these stupid religious wars - Muslims fighting against Jews, Protestants fighting Catholics, and all the rest of that rubbish. They don't know who they are, because if they did, there wouldn't be wars.

Like the little girl who says to a little boy, "Are you a Presbyterian?" And he says, "No, we belong to another abomination!"

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Geniality

Geniality

I speak to myself,

then I interpret what I told to myself,

hence I act and execute…

therefore I am genius or saint or whatever… Geniality!