“The quickest way to put your consciousness
in the heart of God is to sing HU. Just sing HU to yourself
a few times with love. You’ll notice that something changes.“
Sri Harold Klemp, The Sound of Soul, p. 6.
“When one is united to the core of another,
to speak of that is to breathe the name HU,
empty of self, filled with love.”
Jalal al-Din Rumi
This page is lovingly dedicated to preserving all the
references to HU found in the literature of the world.
This is NOT an official Eckankar web site.
Listen to a 5-minute HU song:
The HU in Rumi’s Poetry
In sufi circles they say, “There’s prayer, and a step up from that
is meditation, and a step up from that is sohbet, or conversation.”
Who is talking to HU! (The pronoun for divine presence.) Lover
to beloved, teacher to disciple. The Friendship of Rumi and Shams
became a continuous conversation, in silence and words, presence
talking to absence, existence to non-existence, periphery to center.
Rumi’s poetry may be heard as eavesdropping on that exchange.”
Coleman Barks, May 2, 1994
Say I am You – RUMI
Mathnawi, Book VI, 4038-4044
[Open Secret – Versions of Rumi
by John Moyne and Coleman Barks]This is what the Friend can do
when one is in such love. Sensual people use the holy names
often, but they don’t work for them.
The miracle Jesus did by being the name of God,
Zuleika felt in the name of Joseph.When one is united to the core of another, to speak of that
is to breathe the name HU, empty of self and filled
with love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what is in it.
The saffron spice of connecting, laughter.
The onion-smell of separation, crying.
Others have many things and people they love.
This is not the way of Friend and friend.____________
[The Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi
by Reynold A. Nicholson]This, this (is what) the Beloved’s name can do (when one is) in love.
The vulgar are always pronouncing the Holy Name, (but) it does not do this work (for them) since they are not endowed with (true) love.
That (miracle) which Jesus had wrought by (pronouncing) the Name of HU (God) was manifested to her through the name of him (Joseph).
When the soul has been united with God, to speak of that (God) is (to speak of) this (soul), and to speak of this (soul) is (to speak of) that (god).
She was empty of self and filled with love for her friend (Joseph), and (as the proverb says), “A pot drips what is in it.”
The scent of the saffron of union produces (happy) laughter; the smell of the onion of absence (produces) tears.
Every (other) one has in his heart a hundred objects of desire, (but) this is not the way of love and fondness.
Mathnawi, Book I, 3445-3454
[RUMI – We Are Three
by Coleman Barks]Recognize that you imagination and your thinking
and your sense-perception are reed canes
that children cut and pretend are horsies.The Knowing of mystic Lovers is different.
The empirical, sensory, sciences
are like a donkey loaded with books,
or like the makeup woman’s makeup.
It washes off.But if you lift the baggage rightly, it will give you joy.
Don’t carry your knowledge-load for some selfish reason.
Deny your desires and willfulness,
and a real mount may appear under you.Don’t be satisfied with the name of HU,
with just words about it.Experience That Drunkenness.
From books and words come fantasy,
and sometimes, from fantasy
comes UNION.____________
[The Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi
by Reynold A. Nicholson]Come, recognise that your imagination and reflection and sense-perception and apprehension are like the reed-cane on which children ride.
The sciences of the mystics bear them (aloft); the sciences of the sensual men are burdens to them.
When knowledge strikes on the heart (is acquired through mystical experience), it becomes a helper; when knowledge strikes upon the body (is acquired through the sense), it becomes a burden.
God hath said, “(Like an ass) laden with his books”: burdensome is the knowledge that is not from Himself.
The knowledge that is not immediately from Himself does not endure, (it is) like the tirewoman’s paint.
But when you carry this burden well, the burden will be removed and you will be given (spiritual) joy.
Beware! Do not carry this burden of knowledge for the sake of selfish desire (but mortify yourself), so that you may ride on the smooth-paced steed of knowledge,
So that you may mount the smooth-paced steed of knowledge, (and that) afterwards the burden may fall from your shoulder.
How wilt thou be freed from selfish desires without the cup of HU (Him), O thou who hast become content with no more of HU than the name of HU?
From attribute and name what comes of birth? Phantasy; and that phantasy shows the way to union with Him.
Mathnawi, Book IV, 2613-2622
[One-Handed Basket Weaving – RUMI
by Coleman Barks]Muhammed is said to have said,
“Whoever belongs to God, God belongs to.”Our weak, uneven breathings,
these dissolving personalities,
were breathed out by the eternal
Huuuuuuuu, that never changes!
A drop of water constantly fears
that it may evaporate into the air,
or be absorbed by the ground.It doesn’t want to be used up
in those ways, but when it lets go
and falls into the ocean it came from,
it finds protection from the other deaths.Its droplet form is gone,
but its watery essence has become
vast and inviolable.Listen to me, friends, because you
are a drop, and you can honor yourselves
in this way. What could be luckierthan to have the ocean come
to court the drop?For God’s sake, don’t postpone your yes!
Give up and become the giver.____________
[The Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi
by Reynold A. Nicholson]Kana lillah is the giving of thy groat, in order that kana ‘llah lahu may come into (thy) hand;
For this weak unstable Hu (personality) was brought into being by the steadfast (permanent) HU of the Lord.
When the Hu that passes away has surrendered itself to Him, it becomes everlasting and never dies.
(‘Tis) like a drop of water (which is) afraid of wind (air) and earth; for by means of these twain it is made to pass away and perish.
When it has leaped (thrown itself) into the sea, which was its source, it is delivered from the heat of the sun and from wind and earth.
Its outward form has disappeared into the sea, but its essence is inviolate and permanent and goodly.
Hark, O (thou who art like a) drop, give thyself up without repenting, that in recompense for the drop thou mayst gain the Ocean.
Hark, O drop, bestow on thyself this honour, and in the hand of the Sea become safe from destruction.
Whom indeed should fortune like this befall? A Sea has become the suitor for a drop.
In God’s name, in God’s name, sell and buy at once! Give a drop, and take (in return) the Sea which is full of pearls.
Mathnawi V, 2887-2911
[Say I Am You RUMI
by Coleman Barks]A man was wandering the marketplace at noon
with a candle in his hand, totally ecstatic.“Hey,” called a shopkeeper. “Is this a joke?
Who are you looking for?” “Someone breathing Huuuuuu,
the divine breath.” “Well, there are plenty
to choose from.” “But I want one who can be
in anger and desire and still a true human being
in the same moment.” “A rare thing! But maybe
you’re searching among the branches for what appears
only in the roots.”There’s a river that turns these millstones.
Human will is an illusion. Those
that are proud of deciding things and carrying out
decisions are the rawest of the raw! Watch the thought-
kettles boiling and then look down at the fire.God said to Job, “You value your patience well.
Consider now that I gave you that patience.”Don’t be absorbed with the waterwheel’s motion.
Turn your head and gaze at the river. You say,“But I’m looking there already.” There are several signs
in eyes that see all the way to the ocean. Bewilderment
is one. Those who study foam and flotsam near the edge
have purposes, and they’ll explain them at length!Those who look out to sea become the sea,
and they can’t speak about that. On the beach
there’s desire-singing and rage-ranting,
the elaborate language-dance of personality,but in the waves and underneath there’s no volition,
no hypocrisy, just love forming and unfolding.
Divan-i Kebir Poem 147 (verse 1938)
[Divan-i Kebir Meter 1
by Nevit O. Ergin]If you go to the garden of the Heart,
You’ll have beautiful perfume like a rose.
If you fly to the sky,
Your face will turn into a moon like the angels.You’ll turn into light
Even if He burns you like oil.
You’ll become like hair because of grief,
But they’ll put you at the head of the table.
Like a candle, you’ll illuminate the assemblies.You’ll become a Sultan.
You’ll become a supreme sovereignty,
Heaven, and an angel at the door of heaven.
You’ll become sky and faith.
You’ll turn into a lion
And, at the same time, a gazelle.You’ll leave place.
You’ll go to the land of Absence.
You’ll separate from yourself.
You’ll go alone, walking without riding,
Without feet, like water in the river.You’ll become One like Heart and Soul,
You’ll keep appearing even if you are invisible.
You’ll become bitter-sweet, like wine.You’ll be free from the qualities
Of wetness and dryness, like Jesus.
You’ll pierce the turbulence
And make a road of it.
You’ll be free of dimensions;
Every side will become one for you.You’ll be free from desires
And the fancy of your insides.
You’ll become empty.
You’ll stay alive without breath.
You’ll be plunged into the sea of Ya Hu,
And then you’ll quit saying, “Ya Hu.”You’ll turn sweet into bitter
And hear all, from a distance.
When you reach the ninth level of the sky,
You won’t be a curtain to the light.Be a Sultan with a kingdom.
Reach the height. Become a moon.
How long will you keep searching
By saying, “Coo-coo,” like the dove?You’ll become a window for every house.
You’ll be a rose garden in every field.
If you leave your self, drop your existence,
You’ll become Me without me.Don’t take the lead. Don’t brag.
Be joyful, bend your head,
Like a branch of the peach tree.
Smile. Be beautiful.You won’t ask for light.
You won’t need your self.
You’ll look after
The feeding and care of the poor,
Like the Sultan.
You’ll look for darkness, like the moon.You won’t look for Soul;
You’ll give Soul.
You’ll find a remedy for every ill.
Don’t look for salve for your wounds.
You’ll be salve for all wounds.
#1826
[Like This RUMI
By Coleman Barks]If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of all our sexual wanting
will look, lift your face
and say,
Like this.When someone mentions the gracefulness
of the nightsky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,
Like this?If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like this.When someone quotes the old poetic image
about clouds gradually uncovering the moon,
slowly loosen knot by knot the strings
of your robe.
Like this?If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,
don’t try to explain the miracle.
Kiss me on the lips.
Like this. Like this.When someone asks what it means
to “die for love,” point
here.If someone asks how tall I am, frown
and measure with your fingers the space
between the creases on your forehead.
This tall.The soul sometimes leaves the body, then returns.
When someone doesn’t believe that,
walk back into my house.
Like this.When lovers moan,
they’re telling our story.
Like this.I am a sky where spirits live.
Stare into this deepening blue,
while the breeze says a secret.
Like this.When someone asks what there is to do,
light the candle in his hand.
Like this.How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob?
Huuuu.How did Jacob’s sight return?
Huuuuu.A little wind cleans the eyes.
Like this.When Shams comes back from Tabriz,
he’ll put just his head around the edge
of the door to surprise us.
Like this.
[Love is a Stranger RUMI
by Kabir Helminski]What shall I do, O Muslims?
I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian nor Jew,
nor Magian, nor Muslim.
I am not of the East, nor the West,
not of the land, nor the sea.
I am not from nature’s mine,
nor from the circling stars.
I am neither of earth nor water,
neither of wind nor fire.
I am not of the empyrean,
nor of the dust on this carpet.
I am not of the deep, nor from behind.
I am not of India or China,
not of Bulgaria, nor Saqsin;
I am not of the kingdom of Iraqain,
nor of the land of Khorasan.
I am not of this world nor the next,
not of heaven, nor of purgatory.
My place is the placeless,
my trace is the traceless.
It is not the body nor is it the soul,
for I belong to the soul of my love.
I have put duality away
and seen the two worlds as one.
One I seek, One I know.
One I see, One I call.
He is the First, He is the Last.
He is the outward, He is the Inward.
I know of nothing but Hu, none but him.
Intoxicated with the cup of love,
two worlds slip from my hands.
I am occupied with nothing
but fun and carousing.
If once in my life I pass a moment without You,
I repent my life from that moment on.
If once in this world
I should win a moment with You,
I will put both worlds under my feet
and dance forever in joy.
O Shams of Tabriz, I am so drunk in the world
that except for revelry and intoxication
I have no tale to tell.
“Jelaluddin Rumi has revealed in his Masnavi
the mystery of profound revelation.”
Hazrat Inayat Khan
The HU in Secular Texts
from the Oxford English Dictionary
The word “God” can be plausibly derived from the Sanskrit word “HU.” Thanks to James Davis for pointing this out.
“god (___). Also 34 godd. [Com. Teut.: OE. god (masc. in sing.; pl. godu, godo neut., godas masc.) corresponds to OFris., OS., Du. god masc., OHG. got, cot (MHG. got, mod.Ger. gott) masc., ON. goð, guð neut. and masc., pl. goð, guð neut. (later Icel. pl. guðir masc.; Sw., Da. gud), Goth. guÞ (masc. in sing.; pl. guÞa, guda neut.). The Goth. and ON. words always follow the neuter declension, though when used in the Christian sense they are syntactically masc. The OTeut. type is therefore *gu_om neut., the adoption of the masculine concord being presumably due to the Christian use of the word. The neuter n., in its original heathen use, would answer rather to L. numen than to L. deus. Another approximate equivalent of deus in OTeut. was *ansu-z (Goth. in latinized pl. form anses, ON. oss, OE. Ós- in personal names, ésa genit. pl.); but this seems to have been applied only to the higher deities of the native pantheon, never to foreign gods; and it never came into Christian use. The ulterior etymology is disputed. Apart from the unlikely hypothesis of adoption from some foreign tongue, the OTeut. *guðom implies as its pre-Teut. type either *ghudho-m or *ghutó-m. The former does not appear to admit of explanation; but the latter would represent the neut. of the passive pple. of a root *gheu-. There are two Aryan roots of the required form (both *g”heu, with palatal aspirate): one meaning ‘to invoke’ (Skr. hu), the other ‘to pour, to offer sacrifice’ (Skr. hu, Gr. _____, OE. _éotan yete v.). Hence *g”hutó-m has been variously interpreted as ‘what is invoked’ (cf. Skr. puru-huta ‘much-invoked’, an epithet of Indra) and as ‘what is worshipped by sacrifice’ (cf. Skr. hutá, which occurs in the sense ‘sacrificed to’ as well as in that of ‘offered in sacrifice’). Either of these conjectures is fairly plausible, as they both yield a sense practically coincident with the most obvious definition deducible from the actual use of the word, ‘an object of worship’. Some scholars, accepting the derivation from the root *g”heu- to pour, have supposed the etymological sense to be ‘molten image’ (= Gr. _____), but the assumed development of meaning seems very unlikely. From a desire to utter the name of God more deliberately than the short vowel naturally allows, the pronunciation is often (____) or even (____), and an affected form (___) is not uncommon: see gud. (For the variations in oaths see 10 and 11.) In Sc. the usual pron. is (___), but Gude (___), i.e. good a., is frequently substituted in such expressions as Gudesake, Gude keep’s, etc.]”
from The Flaming Door: Mission of the Celtic Fold Soul
by Eleanor C. Merry, 1936“And that which came to meet the soul (as light and sound come to meet our outer eyes and ears) was called HU, the spiritual world.” (p. 137)
“The God HU was the all-ruling Divinity of Western Celtic mythology. He represented the power and the glory of the spiritual world.” (p. 153)
“The Mysteries of HU revealed the other pole of human life: the ascent out of the body into the ‘glorified’ state of expansion of the consciousness in the spiritual world.” (p. 153)
“And HU could bring music to the consciousness of waking man and teach it to him, because he himself could hear in sleep the harmonies of the spheres, and his passage from waking to sleeping to waking was unbroken by any obliteration of consciousness. This was always the summit of initiation experience.” (p. 165)
from The Religions of Tibet
by Giuseppe Tucci
“The figure of the creator, who corresponds to the Isvara of certain Saivite schools, bear various names, among them sNang ba ód Idan, Kun snang khyab pa and khri khug rgyal po. That which he creates has two aspects, the exterior world (phyi snod) and that contained within it (bcud), a division that corresponds to that between the Indian bhajana-loka and sattva-loka. The cosmology which is attached to this is surely very old, and is throughout constructed on a dualist basis. From the breath which streamed out of the creator there emerged two syllables HU HU, and progressively, the entire universe.”
from The Book of Druidry
by Ross Nichols
“HU or Heu’c’, who is also Hu Gadarn and Hesus or Esus. The Heu’c sound seems to identify with the name or sound for spirit, identified with breath, very general and coming from very far in time and space.” (p. 124)
“HU or He was the seed or essence, the form of deity that like littel Gwion is transformed from least to greatest: HU, the unpronounced either with a light i-sound as he or heu’h, is the creative word, the seed of fire, the first sound.” (p. 128)
from The secret teachings of all ages:
an encycklopedic outline of Masonic, Hermetic,
Cabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy
by Manly P. Hall
“Their temples wherein the sacred fire was preserved were generally situate on eminences and in dense groves of oak, because a circle was the emblem of the universe; oval, in allusion to the mundane egg, from which issued, according to the traditions of many nations, the universe, or, according to others our first parents; serpentine, because a serpent was the symbol of HU, the Druidic Osiris; cruciform because a cross is an emblem of regeneration; or winged, to represent the motion of the divine spirit.*** Their chief deities were reducible to two – a male and a female, the great father and mother – HU and Cridwen, distinguished by the same characteristics as belong to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme goddess representing the two principles of all Being.”
“Godfrey Higgins states that HU, the Mighty, regarded as the first settler of Britain, came from a place which the Welsh Triads call the summer country, the present site of Constantinople. Albert Pike says that the Lost Word of Masonry is concealed in the name of the Druid god HU. The meager information extant concerning the secret initiations of the Druids indicates a decided similarity between their Mystery school and the schools of Greece and Egypt. HU, the sun God, was murdered and, after a number of ordeals and mystic rituals, was restored to life.”
In the beginning was Brahman, with whom was the Word. And the Word is Brahman. – Vedas
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – Gospel according to St John.
As the religions of East and West so strikingly agree: in the beginning was the Word. But exactly what was — or, to use the present tense of the Vedic quotation, is — the Word? The above scriptures describe it as being a part of God, or Brahman. Further, the quotation from the opening of the gospel of St John continues, pregnant with meaning:
The same (the Word) was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
We have, in these famous, deeply mystical lines from St John, then, yet another example of the universal ancient belief that God, or a Divine Being, created the universe, and did so by means of a vibratory emanation. This sacred vibration is usually referred to in early Christian texts as the Word (this meaning of the term having been forgotten or overlooked by most Christians today). In Hinduism the divine vibration is, as we have seen, more usually referred to as OM. Nevertheless, the Word and the OM are one and the same thing. Moreover, a great variety of other terms stemming from the different cultures of ancient times also refer to this same universal, eternal phenomenon. Cosmic Sound, infused with the essence of Consciousness, has been known variously as AUM, AMN, AMEN, AMEEN, OMEN, OMON, I AM, HU, YAHUVAH, the Logos, the Lost Word, and by other names besides. (p. 205)
____________
In Persia the name of the fabulous huma bird is derived from the root, Hum, which is related to OM. And tradition has it that should the huma bird alight for a moment upon the head of any person, then it is a sign that the person is destined to become a ‘king’. Incidentally, the root, HU, is a direct reference to the Word of God; and this is most interesting, for this same root is also a part of the Word human. In ‘human’, the man portion comes from the Sanskrit Mana, or ‘mind of the ordinary man’. So the term ‘human’ is therefore an eternal reminder of the ancient doctrine: that God is even now in all men, and can be more fully realized by all. Even as Jesus was also the Christ, demonstrating the unification of the principles of earth and heaven as both the Son of Man and the Son of God, so are all men hu-man; God-man. (p. 215)
from The Sirius Connection
by Murry Hope
____________
From the aforegoing, it may be seen that the leonine archetype assumed great significance in all Egyptian thinking, from the cosmological to the everyday. Lion gods and spirits were therefore looked upon as the guardians of all places and property, and the heads were often carved to represent members of the family, priests, priestesses, or Pharaohs and their wives. The Greeks called these ‘sphinxes’. One of the names of the Egyptian Sphinx was HU, ‘the protector’; another was Hor-em-akhet or ‘Horus of the Horizon’which immediately connects its erection with those enigmatical ‘Sons (or Followers) of Horus’ the Shemsu-Hor. Curiously enough, the name ‘HU’ also occurs in the Celtic myth of Hu Gadam, an Atlantean person from the sea who guided a band of settlers to the prehistoric shores of Wales. There is also an uncanny similarity of sound between the names Hu Gadam and the Tuatha de Danaans (pronounced Tuar-de-Danans), those strange fairy people with magical powers who, according to legend, landed on the shores of prehistoric Ireland. (p. 197)
from The Message of The Sphinx
by Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval
“When speaking of the Sphinx, the Ancient Egyptians frequently made use of the Harranian derivation Hwl, but they also knew it by many other names: HU, for example…” (p. 5)
from A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
by George Hart
HU – The god who personifies the authority of a word of command.
Hu came into being from a drop of blood from the phallus of the sun-god Re.
When, according to the theology of the Pyramid Age, the king becomes a lone star, his companion is Hu. The royal authority is maintained in the Afterlife by Hu acknowledging the king’s supremacy and allowing the monarch to cross the waters of his canal.
It is tempting to correlate Hu with the power of the tongue of Ptah in the Memphite creation legend, commanding the universeinto existence, at the instigation of Ptah’s heart. (p. 97)
SourceText.com 