Category: The Jewelled Garden

Although Wu Ts’ailuan is an admired and revered poet of the Taoist tradition, it not possible to say anything certain about her life. She may have lived in the 9th Continue Reading →

Fariduddin Attar told the following tale, that a non-believer arrived at the door of Abraham’s house and asked to be fed. Abraham said that he would feed him provided that Continue Reading →

Lü Dongbin was a legendary scholar and poet of the Tang dynasty (ca. 7th – 10th c. CE) in China. In Taoism he is one of the best known of Continue Reading →

Sun Bu’er (1124? – 1182? CE) is one of a group of female Taoist masters referred to as the Immortal Sisters. She was intelligent, well educated, wealthy and the mother Continue Reading →

Akka Mahadevi was an important figure in the 12th c. CE Bhakta movement. For more about her, see this earlier post. People,male and female,blush when a cloth covering their shamecomes Continue Reading →

The Prophet Mohammed is quoted as saying, “If you were to commit no sins, you might commit something worse.” He was asked, “What might that be?” The Prophet replied, “The Continue Reading →

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006 – 1088 CE) was from Herat in western Afghanistan. For more about him, see this post. Between praying and nearnessis the same distance as between acquaintance Continue Reading →

It is related that a certain man had dug his own grave, and had been sitting by it for thirty years, emaciated and sick, waiting to die. The great devotee Continue Reading →

Tulsi Sahib was a mystic and poet of the Shabd or Sacred Sound tradition. Listen, O friend, to the thunderous roar of Shabd,Which reverberates throughout the firmament.Water, which becomes turbid Continue Reading →

For more about this 18th c. CE Hindu mystic, poet and devotee of the Goddess Kali, see this post. O wavering mind,awaken your upward-flowing awareness.Become the sublime warrior Goddess Kali,who Continue Reading →