Those who became complete

I once interviewed a Quaker who wrote about prayer and spiritual disciplines. When I asked him "Isn't it a bit dangerous to dive into the deep spirituality you recommend?" -- he said "The greater danger is to jump in where it's too shallow."

Trying to finish a little poem on patience and looking a number of places for some breakthroughs,I simply gave up for awhile. Then this poem showed up at the top of my Inbox and felt like just the right poem for tonight.

Those who became complete
by Yunus Emre

Those who became complete
didn’t live this life in hypocrisy,
didn’t learn the meaning of things
by reading commentaries.

Reality is an ocean; the Law is a ship.
Many have never left the ship,
never jumped into the sea.

They might have come to Worship
but they stopped at rituals.
They never knew or entered the Inside.

Those who think the Four Books
were meant to be talked about,
who have only read explanations
and never entered meaning,
(haven't begun.*)

Yunus means “true friend”
for one whose journey has begun.
Until we transform our Names,
we haven’t found the Way.

— from The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre,
Translated by Kabir Helminski / Translated by Refik Algan

*(I replaced an outdated phrase)

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