This Dance of Bliss is an inspiring collection of poems and wisdom stories from the world’s great sacred traditions. Rumi, St. John of the Cross, Lalla, Goethe, Hildegard von Bingen, Dogen, Khayyam, and many others gather together within these pages to sing their ecstatic songs. Ivan M. Granger accompanies each poem with his own reflections and meditative commentaries, inviting us to explore the insights and private raptures of these mystics, seers, and saints–until we too are swept up in this dance of bliss!
= Praise for This Dance of Bliss =
This book is a treasure, a feast, an oasis. Ivan M. Granger’s profound gift for selecting the kind of poetry that lights up the cave of the heart and melts the boundaries between the soul and the Divine is fully met by his lucid reflections on the soul-transfiguring power of each piece in this magnificent collection.
MIRABAI STARR author of God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity & Islam, and Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation
Ivan M. Granger writes as though God is looking over his shoulder. He inspires appreciation of the literature of awakening as he inspires the reader’s own heart awakening. This anthology features poetic masterpieces from around the world, each one revealing the profound interconnectedness of all things. The comments accompanying each selection are direct and engaging, unfolding layers of meaning, further enhancing the themes of union, interconnection, and non-separation.
JERRY KATZ editor of One: Essential Writings on Nonduality
In the midst of the tumult and heartbreak of history’s headlines, Ivan M. Granger has tended his online Teahouse, the Poetry Chaikhana, where countless lucky sojourners can share a moment of sanity through the communion of sacred poetry. In This Dance of Bliss, his latest anthology, he graces us with mystical poems from across time and around the world that return us to the placeless, timeless truth of being. Each page offers a doorway of words into the miraculous beyond words. Each of his companion meditations is a key to that door. These days I hold these poems closer than ever, and they are life-saving.
KIM ROSEN author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words
Ivan M. Granger’s work is seva, selfless service offered joyously for the upliftment of all. We as readers are invited to step out of the confines of the ordinary mind and into the dance of bliss unfolding in this collection. Ivan’s careful selection of poems, his translations of some, and his commentaries and reflections on them, all serve to invite us into the unitive experience that is the dance of creation, the dance of life, This Dance of Bliss!
LAWRENCE EDWARDS, PH.D. founder and director of the Anam Cara Meditation Foundationauthor of Kali’s Bazaar (as Kalidas), The Soul’s Journey: Guidance from the Divine Within, and Awakening Kundalini: The Path to Radical Freedom
In this rich and profound book Ivan M. Granger is your mature mystic guide, drawing out the inherent wisdom in each poem and bringing deep relevance to our contemporary minds and hearts. I will be highly recommending This Dance of Bliss to everyone I know.
MEGHAN DON author of The New Divine Feminine: Spiritual Evolution for a Woman’s Soul
