.
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
.
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
.
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
.
am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
.
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
.
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.
.
There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows.
.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes.
.
~ Rumi
translation by Coleman Barks
.