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Coleman Barks
37 quotes
“All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say. I don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a community of the spirit Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Quit acting like a wolf, and feel the shepherd's love filling you.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is the body? That shadow of a shadow of your love, that somehow contains the entire universe.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about language, ideas, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Counselling Psychology: Integration of Theory, Research and Supervised Practice (1998) by Petruska Clarkson
“Spring is Christ, Raising martyred plants from their shrouds. Their mouths open in gratitude, wanting to be kissed. The glow of the rose and the tulip means a lamp is inside. A leaf trembles. I tremble in the wind-beauty like silk from Turkestan. The censer fans into flame. This wind is the Holy Spirit. The trees are Mary.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We talk about this and that. There’s no rest except on these branching moments.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no reality but God, says the completely surrendered sheik, who is an ocean for all beings.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Disputational knowing wants customers. It has no soul.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded. Someone sober will worry about events going badly. Let the lover be.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can't stop pointing to the beauty.Every moment and place says, "Put this design in your carpet!”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From Hallaj, I learned to hunt lions, but I became something hungrier than a lion.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This dance is the joy of existence. I am filled with you. Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul. There's no room for lack of trust, or trust. Nothing in this existence but that existence.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The place that Solomon made to worship in, called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom and mystical conversation and compassionate action.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This heart sanctuary does exist, but it can't be described. Why try! Solomon goes there every morning and gives guidance with words, with musical harmonies, and in actions, which are the deepest teaching. A prince is just a conceit until he does something with generosity.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not believe in an absurdity no matter who says it.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river.When the ocean is searching for you, don't walk into the language-river. Listen to the ocean, and bring your talky business to an endTraditional words are just babbling in that presence, and babbling is a substitute for sight.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Teachers of Wisdom (2010) by Igor Kononenko, p. 134
“Every object and being in the universe is a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth more shining, as though covered in satin.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You knock at the door of Reality. You shake your thought wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christ is the population of the world, and every object as well. There is no room for hypocrisy. Why use bitter soup for healing when sweet water is everywhere?”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lovers think they are looking for each other, but there is only one search: wandering This world is wandering that, both inside one transparent sky. In here there is no dogma and no heresy.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The miracle of Jesus is himself, not what he said or did about the future. Forget the future. I'd worship someone who could do that.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cure for pain is in the pain. Good and bad are mixed. If you don't have both, you don't belong with us.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learn from Ali how to fight without your ego participating. God's lion did nothing that didn't originate from his deep center.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion.... I have no longing except for the One. When a wind of personal reaction comes, I do not go along with it. There are many winds full of anger, and lust and greed. They move the rubbish around, but the solid mountain of our true nature stays where it's always been.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This that we are now created the body, cell by cell, like bees building a honeycomb.The human body and the universe grew from this, not this from the universe and the human body.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Unmarked boxes" / Ode#1937
“Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God's joy moved from unmarked box to unmarked box, from cell to cell.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through, and be silent.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Come to the orchard in Spring. There is light and wine, and sweethearts in the pomegranate flowers.If you do not come, these do not matter. If you do come, these do not matter.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He says, "There’s nothing left of me. I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise. Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance to sunlight."This is how Hallaj said, I am God, and told the truth!The ruby and the sunrise are one. Be courageous and discipline yourself.Completely become hearing and ear, and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.”
Coleman Barks (1937–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source