The Wayfarer's Inn Courtyard/Three The mind is a strange wayfarer. It knows no rest, no fixed dwelling. From one thought to another, from one feeling to another, from one memory to another—it wanders endlessly. Sometimes it seems to pause at some shelter, thinking it has found its home. But no sooner does it settle than restlessness stirs again. The mind sets out once more on its journey. This restlessness of the mind is not always a curse. Sometimes it becomes the very source of creativity. The mind that refuses to be confined, that will not accept any final answer—this mind discovers new paths, new possibilities. The static mind grows stagnant; the wandering mind remains alive. But there is a difference between restlessness and search. Restlessness is blind motion; search has direction. The mind that merely wanders achieves nothing. But the mind that wanders in search of truth, in search of beauty, in search of meaning—that mind, even in its wandering, moves toward some destination. Perhaps the wayfarer's inn is not a place of permanent residence, but a temporary shelter. The wayfarer pauses here, rests a little, shares stories with other wayfarers, and then sets out again. But in that brief pause, in that momentary sharing, something meaningful happens. Life is enriched. The mind too needs such wayfarer's inns. Places where it can pause for a moment, reflect, and then journey on refreshed. Books, music, art, nature, friendship—these are the wayfarer's inns of the mind. They do not bind us, but they restore us for the next stage of our journey.

 What a burden it is to live in this vast world! Death scattered all around, yet life finds no place!
At day's end, only peace in the heart's chamber, there I live hiding my true face!
For centuries I walk searching only for the path, the path comes while walking,
Beckoning of wine or melody chases me always.........I pause only when I find the nectar pure.

Friend, think no more, I am here, nothing will happen---finish what you must!
The tavern itself is the prayer hall, here the heart-deity spreads its seat, you must seek it out!
Let prayer be silence and offering be feeling, when clamor comes only pretense gathers!
The lover knows, at which window, in which light the heart pulls how, what it means!
Where the Lord dwells, that chamber is not built of brick and stone but fashioned in the heart---misunderstand and the mistake reveals itself!
There's no time to lose heart, the hour of meditation lies just ahead,
Though centuries pass, moments awaken by their own law---keep count, or you'll lose them, see!
O thirsting for meditation, break your trance today and come to work---let prayer be the altar of action!
Hindu and Muslim alike drink the wine's fancy from one cup,
The more religions tremble in doubt, the more actions rejoice in unity,
Let prayers differ, yet we know the heart's language is one!
The tavern is a strange platform......people of all creeds, all paths---living by one way alone!
Whatever remains in the wine cup, intoxication takes hold even before that much is consumed!
If there's no love in the heart, wine's dance awakens in the body with deadened eyes,
Whoever wanders in the tavern understands a different birth---no longer seeks life's story in heaps of corpses.
The heart understands and bows its head, such a mood cannot be bound by muscular force!
Intoxication doesn't build in one gulp, sip and empty the cup,
Don't finish---before finishing! Don't burn---before burning!
If someday by a moment's obligation you enter the stone temple, you spread your seat as an eternal deity!
The devotee of daily comings and goings remains a devotee still---by what practice does one become a deity in a single day and live as stone?
How my beloved glances sideways through the veil's gap with such magic,
If that veil is removed the bride's heart weeps, yet laughs caught in time's snare!
Night's honey plays in the storm of greed by day itself,
The boundless joy and all the honey that follows, everything is lost!
Sparks fly in the fire of pure wine, tattooed magic burns in the heart,
In wine's stupor another melody's spell mingles, when day ends only wine intoxicates in the cup-bearer's guise.
When former times return in ritual or religious form, then I see, waves rise in time's current,
Time changes, time comes---how true is this feeling, can truth really be understood?
Right here the heart laughs!---don't speak like that ever again.
One cup is enough!---don't listen to that, all cups are not the same!
As many heads, that many words. Along with this, chatter continues, and drinking continues.
Only one head works, the rest just babble away, live uselessly!
In labor, crisis, or anger you err in other understanding,
What you've learned, what you've taken in your own grasp or hand, lies there......wine's madness binds you!
Your birth was meant to be fragile!---though listen, keep faith on your own shoulders! Whoever has life is a soldier!
Let that dwelling that gives no shade as the mind desires remain abandoned! In another home with another voice your care---live in that!
Everyone pulls at the heart somehow.........wine's meaning, honey's song,
Not today, I'll come tomorrow......however much I explain,
The cup-bearer laughs and says, run away then! If I don't bind you, pursue the cup---what will you live on!
Melody comes to tuneless nature, wine in hand, the heart revels in love's swing.
Not today, tomorrow---such vows are false vows.
The wise move with cash in hand,
let whatever remains fill the cup — wine on credit from the cupbearer's hand is mere deception!
Lift your goblet, drink deep with your eyes, when time runs out quench your heart's thirst for tomorrow, let regret be damned!
Even if we never return to this tavern again, our eyes won't burn from wine's intoxication.
When opportunity comes, shake off sleep, seize what's hidden and make it manifest,
when the moment arrives, hide behind armor, let wine's fragrance make melody dance.
When beauty's riddle clouds the cupbearer's judgment and worth loses its value,
know yourself and make yourself known, set fire, dance wildly in life's caravan!
I tell you, beloved, live today, fill your cup and mold your heart!
These lips never grow stale — taste them like wine, never forget!
I imagine my death in the deep cords of those tender arms,
in that very death I seek liberation... O Lord of wine, heed my prayer, bind me in union!
How beautiful, how luminous, how enchanting that smiling face,
I know its terrible worth — whether seeing with eyes or tasting,
I have poured wine, I have drunk wine, day has ended and night has fallen... no one beside me, there was darkness — and that was good!
Who are you and from where did you come into my being? In which wine's web did you reveal yourself?
For two days now, honey pleads sweetly... pour out the wine, pour me instead!
Before me lie wine and honey — both are magic, which shall I leave? Which shall I take?
Even in sleep's haze I chase away sleep, honey or wine — I multiply my thoughts to get drunk!
How much can I take in one life, how much give... I measure in dualities! I see all this and tremble only in doubt!
Such a small life! How much can I possibly take!
A life where the whole world becomes familiar — such a life, I know, is lived in pain!
Arrival itself sets the pattern for departure — such is time!
Beginning doesn't necessarily mean ending; only endings happen, endings witness — my life, my time!
Don't actually drink false comfort, don't become foolish in momentary delusion, don't consume poison thinking it wine,
if you can't find pure people on pure paths, in this one life grasp the gray times and live magnificently alone!
The more fear of loss protects you, the more you'll die; what's meant to be lost will be lost anyway,
clinging tight, binding in chains — no worry can secure what will surely be lost!
When fear of losing comes, even the joy of having becomes pale!
In my room so many things come and pile up, my space only shrinks,
the more I drink thirst's water to fill my throat, why oh why doesn't my heart fill?
In my room a full pitcher, yet I pour tears into the pitcher! In your room an empty glass, yet the glass holds a garland of laughter!
Don't stay home, come outside, see the wine garlands and flower fairs arranged,
when thirst comes what else is needed? In wine-melody's wine-guard's union-nectar the heart floats in streams of ambrosia.
Whatever's in the cup, that's fortune's decree — take quickly what you can keep,
friend, however many paths you've crossed, your address remains the inn where your weary feet will rest when you arrive!
Take care — what you've received is a jewel — guard it well; I too will take what you've given in various whims,
even a grain you give is great, I keep it on my head like gem's ornament, who knows when it's needed!
Because I exist today you don't know my worth, when lost you'll die of regret, what good will worship do then?
Why do people, setting aside ready cash, seek value in future dust — when the body is lost they make idols!
When present to the eye, the heart doesn't call, when present to the heart, the eye calls — how foolish, isn't it?
When life is present, death beckons, when death comes, life binds — only thirst is invoked by sacrifice!
When trying to walk, stumbles come, when trying to stop, duty arrives, and when frozen still, evening calls,
when the cupbearer takes back the goblet, life's nectar runs short, trying to fulfill that want exhausts the soul in death's wound.
The light mind's terrible speed, soaking the cup with lowly force for no reason — while there's time, no one understands!
Death pays life's debt; the truth is cruel, yet it's sweet — what must be taken, that calls itself honey!
The festival proceeds — when death comes! Does life end? Let it not end!
The cruel cupbearer grants no respite to the thirsty soul!
Time marches on with bold steps in immortal decay.........one who forgets time in untimely moments, forgets time when time arrives---this, indeed, is life!