Rumi Read online

  There is nothing outside of yourself, look within. Everything you want is there. You are That.

  Where lowland is, that’s where water goes. All medicine wants is pain to cure.

  You think because you understand ‘one’ you must also understand ‘two’, because one and one make two. But you must also understand ‘and’.

  All your anxiety is because of your desire for harmony. Seek disharmony, then you will gain peace.

  Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.

  Even when tied in a thousand knots, the string is still but one.

  Clean out your ears, don’t listen for what you already know.

  If something makes you happy in this world, you should think of what will happen to you if that thing were taken away.

  When you reach the bottom of the well of your own nature, then you will know that the vileness was from yourself.

  If you want money more than anything, you’ll be bought and sold your whole life.

  A soul which is not clothed

  with the inner garment of Love

  should be ashamed of its existence.

  Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise. Whoever feels himself walking on the path, and refuses to praise—that man or woman steals from others every day—is a shoplifter! The sun became full of light when it got hold of itself. Angels only began shining when they achieved discipline. The sun goes out whenever the cloud of not-praising comes. The moment the foolish angel felt insolent, he heard the door close.

  Being desirable means being comfortable with your own ambiguity. The most ambiguous reality is that we are flesh and spirit at the same time. Within everyone there is light and shadow, good and evil, love and hate. In order to be truthful, you must embrace your total being. A person who exhibits both positive and negative qualities, strengths and weaknesses is not flawed, but complete.

  Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.

  People of the world don’t look at themselves, and so they blame one another.

  If you become a helper of hearts, springs of wisdom will flow from your heart.

  Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

  We all face death in the end. But on the way, be careful never to hurt a human heart!

  Wisdom tells us we are not worthy;

  Love tells us we are.

  My life flows between the two.

  Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love, which linger and continue to uplift others long after your sharing.

  There is a city in which you find everything you desire-handsome people, pleasures, ornaments of every kind-all that the natural person craves. However, you cannot find a single wise person there.

  Wash the dust from your Soul and Heart with wisdom’s water.

  When someone criticizes or disagrees with you, a small ant of hatred and antagonism is born in your heart. If you do not squash that ant at once, it might grow into a snake, or even a dragon.

  A seeker of Truth looks beyond the apparent and contemplates the hidden.

  Quit acting like a wolf, and feel the shepherd’s love filling you.

  Finding faults is for those with tired minds.

  Practice patience; it is the essence of praise. Have patience, for that is true worship. No other worship is worth as much. Have patience; patience is the key to all relief.

  The illuminated life can happen now, in the moments left. Die to your ego, and become a True Human Being.

  Know that a word suddenly shot from the tongue is like an arrow shot from the bow. Son, that arrow won’t turn back on its way; you must damn the torrent at its source.

  The beginning of pride and hatred lies in worldly desire, and the strength of your desire if from habit. When an evil tendency becomes confirmed by habit, rage is triggered when anyone restrains you.

  The world’s flattery and hypocrisy is a sweet morsel: eat less of it, for it is full of fire. Its fire is hidden while its taste is manifest, but its smoke becomes visible in the end.

  I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.

  Friendship of the wise is good; a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.

  The one who has a good friend doesn’t need any mirror.

  People are distracted by objects of desire, and afterwards repent of the lust they’ve indulged, because they have indulged with a phantom and are left even farther from Reality than before. Your desire for the illusory is a wing, by means of which a seeker might ascend to Reality. When you have indulged a lust, your wing drops off; you become lame and that fantasy flees. Preserve the wing and don’t indulge such lust, so that the wing of desire may bear you to Paradise. People fancy they are enjoying themselves, but they are really tearing out their wings for the sake of an illusion.

  The eye goes blind when it only wants to see why.

  Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that.

  When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home.

  Before death takes away what you are given, give away what there is to give.

  Be grateful for your life, every detail of it,

  and your face will come to shine like a sun,

  and everyone who sees it will

  be made glad and peaceful.

  Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world. The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.

  Peaceful is the one who’s not concerned with having more or less. Unbound by name and fame, he is free from sorrow from the world and mostly from himself.

  Humankind is being led along an evolving course, through this migration of intelligences, and though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth.

  When the remedy you have offered only increases the disease, then leave him who will not be cured, and tell your story to someone who seeks the truth.

  No better love than love with no objective, no more satisfying work than work with no purpose. If you could give up tricks and cleverness, that would be the cleverest trick!

  Quotes on God and Religion

  Be silent, Only the Hand of God Can remove The burdens of your heart.

  All creatures, day and night, make manifestation of Allah. Some of them know what they are doing and are aware of their manifesting, while others are unaware. However it may be, Allah’s manifestation is confirmed.

  All Religions. All This Singing. One Song. Peace Be With You.

  Those who are pure in heart achieve God-consciousness; they are truly and actually aware of God at the center of their being (their heart). These sanctified individuals are said to be Possessors of the Heart.

  God’s purpose for man is to acquire a seeing eye and an understanding heart. God gave you life and bestowed upon you his attributes; eventually you will return to him.

  There are many ways to the Divine. I have chosen the ways of song, dance, and laughter.

  Love’s nationality is separate from all other religions,

  The lover’s religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).

  The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes

  Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.

  God’s purpose for man is to acquire a seeing eye and an understanding heart.

  All religions, all this singing, one song. The differences are just illusion and vanity. The sun’s light looks a little different on this wall than it does on that wall, and a lot different on this other one, but it’s still one light.

  Make everything in you an ear, each atom of your being, and you will hear at every moment what the Source is whispering to you…you are -we all are-the beloved of the beloved, and in every moment, in every event of your life , the Beloved is whispering to you exactly what you need to hear an
d know. Who can ever explain this miracle? It simply is.

  Many prayers are declined because of the rank odor of a corrupt heart rising through the beautiful words. Let the words be wrong, but the meaning right. That flawed utterance is dearer to God.

  We may know who we are or we may not. We may be Muslims, Jews or Christians but until our hearts become the mould for every heart we will see only our differences.

  In every religion there is love, yet love has no religion.

  God writes spiritual Mysteries on our heart, where they wait silently for discovery.

  God looks not at your form, nor at your deeds, but at your Heart.

  God has planted in your heart the desire to search for Him. Do not look at your weaknesses but focus on the search. Every seeker is worthy of this search. Strive to redouble your efforts, so that your soul may escape from this material prison.

  God works in mysterious ways. Things may look good outwardly, but there may be evil contained inside. Let no one be deluded by pride that he himself has conceived good ideas or done good deeds. If everything were as it seemed, the Prophet would not have cried out with such illuminated and illuminating perspicacity, Show me things as they are! You make things appear beautiful when in reality they are ugly; You make things appear ugly when in reality they are beautiful. Show us therefore each thing as it is lest we fall into a snare and be ever errant.

  Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.

  Oh Beloved, take me. Liberate my soul. Fill me with your love and release me from the two worlds. If I set my heart on anything but you let fire burn me from inside. Oh Beloved, take away what I want. Take away what I do. Take away what I need. Take away everything that takes me from you.

  Whenever you are alone, remind yourself that God has sent everyone else away so that there is only you and Him.

  I made an oath to myself: as long as I live as long as my soul remains in this body I won’t deviate from the right way but later I looked to my left and then to my right and I saw our beloved everywhere how could I make a wrong turn?

  Sometimes in order to help He makes us cry

  Happy the eye that sheds tears for His sake

  Fortunate the heart that burns for His sake

  Laughter always follow tears

  Blessed are those who understand

  Life blossoms wherever water flows

  Where tears are shed divine mercy is shown

  Selected Lines and Poetry

  Hear this if you can:

  If you want to reach him

  You have to go beyond yourself

  And when you finally arrive at the land of absence

  Be silent

  Don’t say a thing

  Ecstasy, not words, is the language spoken there

  A strange passion is moving in my head.

  My heart has become a bird

  which searches in the sky.

  Every part of me goes in different directions.

  Is it really so

  that the one I love is everywhere?

  I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.

  Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

  Heart is a sea, language is the shore. Whatever is in a sea hits the shore.

  The Silk Worm

  I stood before a silk worm one day.

  And that night my heart said to me,

  I can do things like that, I can spin skies,

  I can be woven into love that can bring warmth to people;

  I can be soft against a crying face,

  I can be wings that lift, and I can travel on my thousand feet

  throughout the earth, my sacs filled with the sacred.

  And I replied to my heart,

  Dear, can you really do all those things?

  And it just nodded Yes in silence.

  So we began and will never cease.

  The minute I heard my first love story,

  I started looking for you, not knowing

  how blind that was.

  Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

  They’re in each other all along.

  This silence, this moment, every moment, if it’s genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There’s nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty.

  Are you searching for the river of your soul?

  Then come out of your prison.

  Leave the stream

  and join the river

  that flows into the ocean.

  Live in the nowhere that you come from

  even though you have got an address Here.

  I want that love that moved the mountains.

  I want that love that split the ocean.

  I want that love that made the winds tremble.

  I want that love that roared like thunder.

  I want that love that will raise the dead.

  I want that love that lifts us to ecstasy.

  I want that love that is the silence of eternity.

  You are a volume in the divine book

  A mirror to the power that created the universe

  Whatever you want, ask it of yourself

  Whatever you’re looking for can only be found

  Inside of you

  What in your life is calling you,

  When all the noise is silenced,

  The meetings adjourned…

  The lists laid aside,

  And the Wild Iris blooms

  By itself

  In the dark forest…

  What still pulls on your soul?

  What was said to the rose that made it open, was said to me, here in my chest.

  The world is a mountain, in which your words are echoed back to you.

  Forget safety.

  Live where you fear to live.

  Destroy your reputation.

  Be notorious.

  You and I have spoken all these words, but for the way we have to go, words are no preparation. I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean.

  Silence

  is an ocean. Speech is a river.

  When the ocean is searching for you, don’t walk

  into the language-river. Listen to the ocean,

  and bring your talky business to an end.

  Traditional words are just babbling

  in that presence, and babbling is a substitute

  for sight.

  When I am with you, we stay up all night.

  When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.

  Praise God for those two insomnias!

  And the difference between them.

  I am so close, I may look distant.

  So completely mixed with you, I may look separate.

  So out in the open, I appear hidden.

  So silent, because I am constantly talking with you.

  I come to you without me, come to me without you.

  I merged so completely with love, and was so fused,

  that I became Love and Love became me.

  Let go of your worries

  and be completely clear-hearted,

  like the face of a mirror

  that contains no images.

  If you want a clear mirror,

  behold yourself

  and see the shameless truth,

  which the mirror reflects.

  If metal can be polished

  to a mirror-like finish,

  what polishing might the mirror

  of the heart require?

  Between the mirror and the heart