Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold is firm. Consider it well, O my heart! Go not elsewhere.

- #Kabir

'Yes’ doesn’t quite catch it
‘No’ is not quite right
Between ‘yes’ and ‘no’
My true guru hides.

- #Kabir

The mind made you scamper
You ran, as far as the mind could fare
Tired of its flight the mind grew still
And the object was right there.

- #Kabir

In this body, a market bustles
Strike a good bargain
Of each instant

- #Kabir

Within the heart a mirror, but no face shows.
You'll see the face when the heart's doubleness goes.

- #Kabir

Remembering the empty, the easy,
a light broke out.
I offer myself to a being
based on nothing.

- #Kabir

In this body,
the sound of the universe and fountains of elation,
in this body,
yet you search in the dark!

- #Kabir

O slave, liberate yourself.

Where are you, and where's your home?
Find it in your lifetime, man.

If you fail to wake up now,
you'll be helpless when the end comes.

Says #Kabir, listen, O wise one,
the siege of Death is hard to withstand.

Chewing slowly,
Only after I’d eaten
My grandmother,
Mother,
Son-in-law,
Two brothers-in-law,
And father-in-law
(His big family included)
In that order,
And had for dessert
The town’s inhabitants,

Did I find, says #Kabir,
The beloved that I’ve become
One with.

Seeker, the entrance to salvation
is smaller than a mustard seed.

The mind remains a lumbering elephant:
how will it ever get in?

- #Kabir

Now the lake is dry,
the lotus leaves have given up
their waterdrops,
the lotuses have lost their freshness.

#Kabir says,
after parting this time,
when will we meet again?

PARTING
By #Kabir

Dear Swan,
where will you go
when you've left the lake?

You who picked up pearls
with your beak
in the middle of the lake,
I've helped you find
so many moments,
so many shades
of pleasure and play.

This is the house you're in,
this is where you search
and eat what you find–
don't go visiting
someone else's house.

- #Kabir

The god becomes sugar
and scatters himself
in the sand.

No elephant can sift
the crystals from the grains.

Turn into an ant,
instead–
pick the sugar from the sand
and eat.

- #Kabir

The One is one with the All, the All is one with the One. Kabir is one with the knowledge without duality.

- The #Bijak of #Kabir

What's visible isn't real–
what's real is ineffable.

What can't be seen can't be known–
what hasn't been said can't be believed.

The man who knows uses words and signs–
an ignoramus gapes in astonishment.

- #Kabir

A few in a million can grasp this notion–
they sit in poise, ensconced in immortality.

Such is the creed of #Kabir–
some things it builds, some it destroys.

NEITHER THIS NOR THAT
By #Kabir

I'm neither pious nor impious–
I'm neither an ascetic nor a hedonist.

I don't dictate and I don't listen–
I'm neither a master nor a servant.

I'm neither captive nor a free man–
I'm neither involved nor indifferent.

The world's embroiled in illusion, error:
this is the process always in motion.
Man attains a human birth:
why does he waste and destroy it?

- #Kabir

MOTH
By #Kabir

Joy is brief.
Sorrow and grief are endless.
The mind's an elephant,
mad, amnesiac.

Air and flame burn as one,
just as when the moth, its eye enchanted by light,
flies straight into the lamp,
and wing and fire flare together.