Retreat

My retreat starts tomorrow.  Here is a poem I find fitting.

FOR THREE DAYS

Not many teachers in this world

Can give you as much enlightenment

In one year

As sitting all alone, for three days,

In your closet

Would

Do.

That means not leaving.

Better get a friend to help with

A few sandwiches

And

The chamber

Pot.

And no reading in there or writing poems,

That would be cheating:

Aim high - for a 360 degree

Detox.

This sitting alone, though, is

Not recommended

If you are normally

Sedated

Or have ever been under a doctor's

Surveillance because of your

Brain.

Dear one,

Don't let Hafiz fool you-

A ruby is buried

Here.

From The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.