States of Ecstasy

These are a series of posts from Ed Clifford who sent them to be posted on the blog. The exemplify the strange and paradoxical state of ecstasis--that is, moving outside the egoic self to stand in some new place of knowing and seeing.

When I am with You, we stay up all night.
When You're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise You for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

-- Rumi's Quatrain 36
Version by Coleman Barks
Open Secret
Threshold Books, 1984 


A bedouin was asked, "Do  you acknowledge your Lord?"
He replied, "How could I not acknowledge Him/Her who has sent me hunger,
made me naked and impoverished, and caused me to wander from country
to country?"
As he spoke thus, he entered a sate of ecstasy.