“
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
What you seek is seeking you.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Within tears, find hidden laughter
Seek treasures amid ruins, sincere one.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Not only the thirsty seek the water, the water as well seeks the thirsty.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Why am I seeking? I am the same as he. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless ;
'Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
If it is bread that you seek, you will have bread.
If it is the soul you seek, you will find the soul.
If you understand this secret, you know you are that which you seek.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and watch how the pattern improves."
"You suppose you are the trouble
But you are the cure
You suppose that you are the lock on the door
But you are the key that opens it
It's too bad that you want to be someone else
You don't see your own face, your own beauty
Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours."
"Only from the heart Can you touch the sky."
"People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another."
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Love asks us to enjoy our life
For nothing good can come of death.
Who is alive? I ask.
Those who are born of love.
Seek us in love itself,
Seek love in us ourselves.
Sometimes I venerate love,
Sometimes it venerates me.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Love: The Joy That Wounds: The Love Poems of Rumi)
“
Do not seek water, get thirst.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
What can I do, Muslims? I do not know myself.
I am neither Christian nor Jew, neither Magian nor Muslim,
I am not from east or west, not from land or sea,
not from the shafts of nature nor from the spheres of the firmament,
not of the earth, not of water, not of air, not of fire.
I am not from the highest heaven, not from this world,
not from existence, not from being.
I am not from India, not from China, not from Bulgar, not from Saqsin,
not from the realm of the two Iraqs, not from the land of Khurasan.
I am not from the world, not from beyond,
not from heaven and not from hell.
I am not from Adam, not from Eve, not from paradise and not from Ridwan.
My place is placeless, my trace is traceless,
no body, no soul, I am from the soul of souls.
I have chased out duality, lived 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 outer, he is the inner.
Beyond He and He is I know no other.
I am drunk from the cup of love, the two worlds have escaped me.
I have no concern but carouse and rapture.
If one day in my life I spend a moment without you
from that hour and that time I would repent my life.
If one day I am given a moment in solitude with you
I will trample the two worlds underfoot and dance forever.
O Sun of Tabriz, I am so tipsy here in this world,
I have no tale to tell but tipsiness and rapture.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Leave that which is not,
but appears to be. Seek that which is,
but is not apparent.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Mystical Poems of Rumi 1: First Selection, Poems 1-200)
“
Your task is not to seek for love but merely to seek & find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
If you are seeking, seek us with joy
For we live in the kingdom of joy.
Do not give your heart to anything else
But to the love of those who are clear joy,
Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.
For there are hopes: they are real, they exist –
Do not go in the direction of darkness –
I tell you: suns exist.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
The thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi is said to have written, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
”
”
Robert Wright (Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment)
“
The inspiration you seek is already within you. Be silent and listen.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Why should I seek more?
I am the same as he.
His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing)
“
EPITAPH OF JALALUDIN RUMI
When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.
”
”
Idries Shah (The Way of the Sufi (Compass))
“
If light is in your heart, you will find your way home. Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. Dance until you shatter yourself.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Know then that the body is merely a garment. Go seek the wearer, not the cloak.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
rumi said: “your task is not to seek for love but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself you have built up against it
”
”
Cleo Wade (Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life)
“
What can I do, Dear Ones ?
I do not know myself.
I am neither Christian nor Jew,
neither Magian nor Muslim,
I am not from east or west,
not from land or sea,
not from the shafts of nature
nor from the spheres of the firmament,
not of the earth, not of water,
not of air, not of fire.
I am not from the highest heaven,
not from this world,
not from existence, not from being.
I am not from India, not from China,
not from Bulgar, not from Saqsin,
not from the realm of the two Iraqs,
not from the land of Khurasan.
I am not from the world, not from beyond,
not from heaven and not from hell.
I am not from Adam, not from Eve,
not from paradise and not from Ridwan.
My place is placeless, my trace is traceless,
no body, no soul, I am from the soul of souls.
I have chased out duality, lived 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 outer, he is the inner.
Beyond He and He is I know no other.
I am drunk from the cup of love,
the two worlds have escaped me.
I have no concern but carouse and rapture.
If one day in my life I spend a moment without you
from that hour and that time I would repent my life.
If one day I am given a moment in solitude with you
I will trample the two worlds underfoot and dance forever.
O Beloved , I am so tipsy here in this world,
I have no tale to tell but tipsiness and rapture.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Essential Rumi)
“
I lamented in every gathering;
I associated with those in bad or happy circumstances.
(But) everyone became my friend from his (own) opinion;
he did not seek my secrets from within me.
My secret is not far from my lament,
but eyes and ears do not have the light (to sense it.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
The saying, "He is with you," means in your search for Him, He is with you,
closer to you than yourself, why seek outside?
Melt like snow, wash yourself from yourself,
and let love grow in your soul, silent as a lily.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit)
“
When you seek Love
with all your Heart,
you shall find its echoes in the universe.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
I eliminated duality with joyous laughter
Saw the unity of here and the hereafter
Unity is what I sing, unity is what I speak
Unity is what I know, unity is what I seek
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (دیوان كلیات شمس تبریزی)
“
If you have no inner peace of mind, it is futile to seek peace outside.
”
”
Debasish Mridha
“
All of your anxiety is because of your desire for harmony. Seek disharmony and you will gain peace
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
What you seek is seeking you.
”
”
null
“
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.” –Rumi
”
”
Carrie Jolie Dale (The 2 Choices: A Soulful & Spiritual Guide to Living Your Truth, Following Your Path & Feeling Good)
“
There is a Force within That gives you life Seek that. —Rumi
”
”
Sadhguru (Midnights with the Mystic)
“
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames – Rumi
”
”
Anonymous
“
When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
A poet I am not!
My verses aren’t worth
a piece of bread.
I don’t seek praise,
I don’t run from blame—
both are worthless to me.
All my skill and poetry
fit into a single cup—
Unless the wine comes from the Beloved’s hand
I will not drink one sip of it!
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved)
“
Rumi says:
O seeker of the Truth! Be happy if you have sorrows!
They are the tricks of reunion that the Beloved has set for you since one remembers Allah and seeks refuge in Him when one is overcome by sorrow.
Sorrow is a treasure. Your illnesses and the
other troubles you face are all treasures.
Likewise, sorrow is as a blessed wind that blows on the mirror of the heart to clear the dust from it; never compare it with harmful winds.
In this path of love, no one but grief remembers me, thousands of thanks to it.
”
”
Osman Nuri Topbaş (Tears of the Heart)
“
Where there is pain, cures will come;
where there is poverty, wealth will follow.
Where there are questions, answers will be
given; where there are ships, water will flow.
Spend less time seeking water and acquire thirst! Then water will gush from above and below.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
With what work at you occupied,
and for what purpose are you purchased?
What sort of bird are you,
and with what digestive are you eaten?
Pass up this shop of hagglers
and seek the shop of Abundance where God is the purchaser [Quran 9:111].
There Compassion has bought
the shabby goods no one else would look at.
With that Purchaser no base coin is rejected,
for making a profit is not the point.
Masnavi 6.1264 – 1267
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Your flesh is the burden of your being,
Seek the soul that wears it,
So that you may receive
Mercy.
”
”
Bzam
“
What you seek is seeking you
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Make dance the mission every moment seeks to accomplish.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Give up the drop. Become the ocean.” – Rumi
”
”
Brian Tracy (What You Seek Is Seeking You)
“
There is a secret hidden
in the heart of God’s people
That secret even Gabriel cannot find
Seek it
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Set your life on fire
Seek those who fan your flames
”
”
-Rumi
“
Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune; every success depends upon focusing the heart
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Come, seek for search is the foundation of every fortune: every success depends on focusing on the heart.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Rumi says: ‘die before you die’. It means live each moment fully. Then, when the moment dies, there is no pain or regret because you’d already lived it completely,” said Zoya.
”
”
Brian Tracy (What You Seek Is Seeking You)
“
You have the habit of walking slowly holding grudges and resentments. Ill-tempered and greedy, small-minded, and with so many attachments how do you expect to attain union? Leave this muddy water and seek clarity. Being so weak, you need all the help and the grace of God to overcome the waves and reach the shore to safety. Take shelter with those who need no shelter. Only on the horse of love can you go beyond the sun and moon to behold the Perfect One.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit)
“
While eyes are shut the pain will not subside,
They yearn to join with light that is outside;
It’s due to your eyes’ light’s attracting pull,
Which seeks light rays as soon as possible.
If your eyes feel some pain while open, then
When blocked of transient light, pain fills your eyes,
So you should open them, if you are wise...
”
”
Jawid Mojaddedi (The Masnavi, Book Two)
“
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. —RUMI
”
”
Jenny Taitz (How to Be Single and Happy: Science-Based Strategies for Keeping Your Sanity While Looking for a Soul Mate)
“
Come back my soul, do not waste
time with the cold-hearted
they do not know your worth.
Why do you seek water
when you are the stream?
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
There is a Force within
That gives you life
Seek that
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.
”
”
Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
“
Be relentless in your looking,
because you are the one you seek.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition)
“
Whether slow or speedy, he that seeks will find. Always apply with both hands the pursuit. For search is an excellent guide.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
What You Seek Is Seeking You” —Rumi
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Mevlana)
“
But these are merely words. You have caught that Light but still have not found humanity. Seek humanity: that is your true purpose. The rest is mere long-windedness. When words are elaborately decorated, their purpose is forgotten.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (It Is What It Is: The Personal Discourses of Rumi)
“
You who seek God, apart, apart The thing you seek, thou art, thou art. If you want to seek the Beloved’s face. Polish the mirror, gaze into that space. These words were written by Rumi as a tribute for his master guru Shams of Tabriz.
”
”
Wayne W. Dyer (I Can See Clearly Now)
“
Do not be stressed if the thought of worry cuts the path of joy because the worry that comes to the heart prepares other joys for you. Sorrow thoroughly sweeps and cleans the house of the heart so that a new joy and happiness arrives.
”
”
Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
“
For beloved cross every pass
Worldly affairs slow their pace
A flowing brook amidst the grass
Flowing tears his face shall trace
His ego is shattered glass Self-estranged, himself deface
Sense the Divine in spirit and mass
If he is truly seeking grace
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (دیوان كلیات شمس تبریزی)
“
The Jesus Trajectory Love is recklessness, not reason. Reason seeks a profit. Loves comes on strong, consuming herself, unabashed. Yet in the midst of suffering, Love proceeds like a millstone, hard-surfaced and straight forward. Having died to self-interest, she risks everything and asks for nothing. Love gambles away every gift God bestows. The words above were written by the great Sufi mystic Jalalludin Rumi.6 But better than almost anything in Christian scripture, they closely describe the trajectory that Jesus himself followed in life.
”
”
Cynthia Bourgeault (The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind)
“
What else are mirrors meant for then
But so each knows himself from other men!’
Your mirrors show the husk and not the kernel;
The soul-revealing mirror is eternal:
This mirror for the soul is the saint’s face,
The one who is beyond all time and space—
‘Heart, seek a mirror of this type!’ I’d scream,
‘Reach for the ocean, and not a mere stream!
”
”
Jawid Mojaddedi (The Masnavi, Book Two)
“
Let your eyes
get used to light. Don't miss your own splendor! Don't stay in the batlike
mind that loves complexity and doubt, the unlit niches. Bats seek those to live
in, because there a bat's accomplishments seem greater than they are. He can impress
as he confuses you with cave ramifications. Little by little accustom yourself to your own light,
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems)
“
Absorbed in this world, you've made it your burden. Rise above this world. There is another vision. All your life you've paid attention to your experiences, but never to your Self. Are you searching for your Soul? Then come out of your prison. Leave the stream and join the river that flows into the Ocean. It will not lead you astray. Let the beauty you seek be what you do.
”
”
Nico Neruda (Rumi: 365 Profound Quotes from the Poet of Universal Love)
“
You that change the dull field,
who give conversation to damaged ears,
make dying alive, award guardianship
to the wandering mind,
you who erase the five senses at night,
who give eyes allure and a blood clot wisdom,
who give the lover heroic strength,
you who hear what Sanai said,
Lose your life, if you seek eternity.
The master who teaches us
is absolute light, not this visibility.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Bridge to the Soul: Journeys Into the Music and Silence of the Heart)
“
What excuses have you to offer, my heart, for so many shortcomings? Such constancy on the part of the Beloved, such unfaithfulness on your own!
So much generosity on his side, on yours such niggling contrariness! So many graces from him, so many faults committed by you!
Such envy, such evil imaginings and dark thoughts in your heart, such drawing, such tasting, such munificence by him!
Why all this tasting? That your bitter soul may become sweet. Why all this drawing? That you may join the company of the saints.
You are repentant of your sins, you have the name of God on your lips; in that moment he draws you on, so that he may deliver you alive.
You are fearful at last of your wrongdoings, you seek desperately a way to salvation; in that instant why do you not see by your side him who is putting such fear into your heart?
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Mystical Poems of Rumi)
“
There are two intellects! One is acquired from teachers and books, from repetition and sciences, granting a sense of superiority yet the effort to sustain it becomes a great burden. It ends just as the water supply coming from outside a house stops once the source has dried up. The other intellect is God's gift. With a fountainhead in the heart of Spirit the water of knowledge bubbling from within can never become stagnant or old. Seek that fountain within yourself!
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit)
“
show me your face
i crave
flowers and gardens
open your lips
i crave
the taste of honey
come out from
behind the clouds
i desire a sunny face
your voice echoed
saying "leave me alone"
i wish to hear your voice
again saying "leave me alone"
i swear this city without you
is a prison
i am dying to get out
to roam in deserts and mountains
i am tired of
flimsy friends and
submissive companions
i die to walk with the brave
am blue hearing
nagging voices and meek cries
i desire loud music
drunken parties and
wild dance
one hand holding
a cup of wine
one hand caressing your hair
then dancing in orbital circle
that is what i yearn for
i can sing better than any nightingale
but because of
this city's freaks
i seal my lips
while my heart weeps
yesterday the wisest man
holding a lit lantern
in daylight
was searching around town saying
i am tired of
all these beasts and brutes
i seek
a true human
we have all looked
for one but
no one could be found
they said
yes he replied
but my search is
for the one
who cannot be found
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Rumi: Fountain of Fire)
“
One Whisper of the Beloved
Lovers share a sacred decree –
to seek the Beloved.
They roll head over heels,
rushing toward the Beautiful One
like a torrent of water
In truth, everyone is a shadow of the Beloved –
Our seeking is His seeking,
Our words are His words.
At times we flow toward the Beloved
like a dancing stream.
At times we are still water
held in His pitcher.
At times we boil in a pot
turning to vapor –
that is the job of the Beloved.
He breathes into my ear
until my soul
takes on His fragrance.
He is the soul of my soul –
How can I escape?
But why would any soul in this world
want to escape from the Beloved?
He will melt your pride
making you thin as a strand of hair,
Yet do not trade, even for both worlds,
One strand of His hair.
We search for Him here and there
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side we ask,
"O Beloved, where is the Beloved?"
Enough with such questions! –
Let silence take you to the core of life.
All your talk is worthless
When compared to one whisper
of the Beloved.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
In the second story, which reminds me to look inward for solutions to what may be troubling me, the ninth-century sage Rabia was looking for a lost key under a streetlight. Her neighbors turned out to help, but without success. Finally, they asked where she might have dropped the key, so that they could better focus their search. “Actually,” said Rabia, “I lost it in my house.” Bemused, they asked her why she didn’t look for it there. “Because,” she said, “there’s no light in my house, but out here the light is bright!” The neighbors laughed, and Rabia seized the moment to make her point. “Friends,” she said, “you are intelligent people and that is why you laugh. But tell me: When you lose your joy or peace of mind because of some disappointment or hardship, did you lose it out there [gesturing around her] or in here [gesturing to her heart]?” We tend to lay blame on our external circumstances and seek superficial solutions, but the truth is that we lost our peace and joy inside ourselves. We avoid looking inside us, where the light is dim. When we make it a lifelong practice to shine the light of compassionate awareness on ourself, our shadow gently begins to diminish, and we come closer to discovering our radiant, divine Self.
”
”
Jamal Rahman (Spiritual Gems of Islam: Insights & Practices from the Qur’an, Hadith, Rumi & Muslim Teaching Stories to Enlighten the Heart & Mind)
“
Ten years ago a book appeared in France called D'Une foi l'autre, les conversions a l'Islam en Occident. The authors, both career journalists, carried out extensive interviews with new Muslims in Europe and America. Their conclusions are clear. Almost all educated converts to Islam come in through the door of Islamic spirituality. In the middle ages, the Sufi tariqas were the only effective engine of Islamisation in Muslim minority areas like Central Asia, India, black Africa and Java; and that pattern is maintained today.
Why should this be the case? Well, any new Muslim can tell you the answer. Westerners are in the first instance seeking not a moral path, or a political ideology, or a sense of special identity - these being the three commodities on offer among the established Islamic movements. They lack one thing, and they know it - the spiritual life. Thus, handing the average educated Westerner a book by Sayyid Qutb, for instance, or Mawdudi, is likely to have no effect, and may even provoke a revulsion. But hand him or her a collection of Islamic spiritual poetry, and the reaction will be immediately more positive. It is an extraordinary fact that the best-selling religious poet in modern America is our very own Jalal al-Din Rumi. Despite the immeasurably different time and place of his origin, he outsells every Christian religious poet.
Islam and the New Millennium
”
”
Abdal Hakim Murad
“
O Friend! we are near you in friendship, Wherever you set foot, we prostrate ourselves like earth. How is it permissible, in the religion of love, That we should see your Creation and neglect to see You? That Friend brought me up with great care and attention; He sewed me a garment from skin and veins. The body is like a cloak and my heart in it like a mystic, The world is like a monastery and He is my Guide. Seek knowledge which unravels mysteries Before your life comes to close Give up that non-existence which looks like existence, Seek that Existence which looks like non-existence! There is a world outside Islam and Disbelief, We are enamoured of the atmosphere therein. The mystic lays down his head when he reaches there. There is neither Islam nor Disbelief in this place. Whenever I prostrate my head He is the one to whom I bow; In six directions or outside the six, he is the one I worship. The garden, the rose, the nightingale, music and the beauteous maiden Are a mere excuse and He alone is the real object. From"Life and Work of
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
The state of emancipation toward which we are journeying can be described as freedom from the fear of loss. It is understood that Life flows to us from an unstinting Source of grace that will never lessen its giving as long as we are open to receiving. The people and things that are so precious to us are embodiments of qualities, and these qualities are derived from this beneficent Source. What we are so afraid of losing are qualities that we have invested in the particular forms we are attached to. We have confused these qualities with the forms we have discovered them in. Their beauty is like the beauty of sunlight that falls upon a brick wall:
„Sunlight fell upon the wall;
the wall received a borrowed splendor.
Why set your heart on a piece of earth, simple one?
Seek out the source which shines forever.“
Rumi, Mathnawi II: 708-09
The wall may crumble or be torn down, but the sun will always return to shine. To be spiritually mature is to be free of the fear of loss, knowing that we are connected to the Source of all generosity. (p. 161)
”
”
Kabir Helminski (Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self)
“
In times of distress everyone calls for help; in times of toothache, and earache, in doubt, fear and insecurity. In secret everyone calls out hoping that One will hear and grant their requests. Privately, secretly, people perform good deeds to ward off weakness and restore their strength, trusting that Life will accept their gifts and efforts. When they are restored to health and peace of mind, then suddenly their faith leaves, and the phantom of anxiety soon returns.
“O God,” they cry again, “we were in such a terrible state when, with all sincerity, we called upon you from our prison corner. For a hundred prayers you granted our requests. Now, freed of the prison, we are still as much in need. Bring us out of this world of darkness into that world of the prophets, the world of light. Why can freedom not come without prisons and pain? A thousand desires fill us, both good and deceitful, and the conflict of these phantoms brings a thousand tortures that leave us weary. Where is that sure faith that burns up all phantoms?”
God answers, “The seeker of pleasure in you is your enemy and My enemy. When your pleasure-seeking self is imprisoned, filled with trouble and pain, then your freedom arrives and gathers strength. A thousand times you have proved that freedom comes to you out of toothache, headache and fear. Why then are you chained to bodily comfort? Why are you always occupied with tending the flesh? Do not forget the end of that thread: unravel those bodily passions till you have attained your eternal passion, and find freedom from the prison of darkness.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (It Is What It Is: The Personal Discourses of Rumi)
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Reason says, I will beguile him with the tongue;" Love says, "Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul."
The soul says to the heart, "Go, do not laugh at me and yourself. What is there that is not his, that I may
beguile him thereby?"
He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivion that I may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure.
The arrow of his glance needs not a bow that I should beguile the shaft of his gaze with a bow.
He is not prisoner of the world, fettered to this world of earth, that I should beguile him with gold of the
kingdom of the world.
He is an angel, though in form he is a man; he is not lustful that I should beguile him with women.
Angels start away from the house wherein this form is, so how should I beguile him with such a form and likeness?
He does not take a flock of horses, since he flies on wings; his food is light, so how should I beguile him with bread?
He is not a merchant and trafficker in the market of the world that I should beguile him with enchantment of gain and loss.
He is not veiled that I should make myself out sick and utter sighs, to beguile him with lamentation.
I will bind my head and bow my head, for I have got out of hand; I will not beguile his compassion with sickness or fluttering.
Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning; what’s hidden from him that I should beguile him with anything hidden.
He is not a seeker of fame, a prince addicted to poets, that I should beguile him with verses and lyrics and flowing poetry.
The glory of the unseen form is too great for me to beguile it with blessing or Paradise.
Shams-e Tabriz, who is his chosen and beloved – perchance I will beguile him with this same pole of the age.
”
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Mystical Poems of Rumi)
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Last Night My Soul Cried O Exalted Sphere Of Heaven
Last night my soul cried, “O exalted sphere of Heaven, you hang indeed inverted, with flames in your belly.
“Without sin and crime, eternally revolving upon your body in its complaining is the indigo of mourning;
“Now happy, now unhappy, like Abraham in the fire; at once king and beggar like Ebrahim-e Adham.
“In your form you are terrifying, yet your state is full of anguish: you turn round like a millstone and writhe like a snake.”
Heaven the blessed replied, “How should I not fear that one who makes the Paradise of the world as Hell?
“In his hand earth is as wax, he makes it Zangi and Rumi , he makes it falcon and owl, he makes it sugar and poison.
“He is hidden, friend, and has set us forth thus patent so that he may become concealed.
“How should the ocean of the world be concealed under straws? The straws have been set adancing, the waves tumbling up and down’
“Your body is like the land floating on the waters of the soul; your soul is veiled in the body alike in wedding feast or sorrow.
“In the veil you are a new bride, hot-tempered and obstinate; he is railing sweetly at the good and the bad of the world.
“Through him the earth is a green meadow, the heavens are unresting; on every side through him a fortunate one pardoned and preserved.
“Reason a seeker of certainty through him, patience a seeker of help through him, love seeing the unseen through him, earth taking the form of Adam through him.
“Air seeking and searching, water hand-washing, we Messiah-like speaking, earth Mary-like silent.
“Behold the sea with its billows circling round the earthy ship; behold Kaabas and Meccas at the bottom of this well of Zamzam!”
The king says, “Be silent, do not cast yourself into the well, for you do not know how to make a bucket and a rope out of my withered stumps.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Seven Versions"
1. The Kiss
Massive languor, languor hammered;
Sentient languor, languor dissected;
Languor deserted, reignite your sidereal fires;
Holier languor, arise from love.
The wood’s owl has come home.
2. Beyond Sunlight
I can’t shakle one of your ankles
as if you were a falcon, but
nothing can prevent me
from following, no matter how far, even
beyond sunlight where Jesus becomes visible:
I’ll follow, I will wait, I will never give up
until I understand
why you are going away from me.
3. A Man Wound His Watch
In the darkness the man wound his watch before secreting it under his pillow. Then he went to
sleep. Outside, the wind was blowing. You who comprehend the repercussions of the faintest
gesture—you will understand. A man, his watch, the wind. What else is there?
4. For Which There Is No Name
Let me have what the tree has
and what it can never lose,
let me have it
and lose it again,
blurred lines the wind draws with the darkness
it gets from summer nights, formless
indescribable darkness. Either
give me back my gladness, or
the courage to think about how it was lost to me.
Give me back, not what I see, but my sight.
Let me meet you again owning nothing
but what is in the past. Let me inherit
the very thing I am forbidden.
And let me continue to seek,
though I know it is futile, the only heaven
that I could endure:
unhurting you.
5. The Composer
People said he was overly fond of the good life and ate like a pig. Yet the servant who brought
him his chocolate in bed would sometimes find him weeping quietly, both plump pink hands
raised slightly and conducting, evidently, in small brief genuflective feints. He experienced the
reality of death as music.
6. Detoxification
And I refuse to repent of my drug use. It gave me my finest and happiest hours.
And I have been wondering: will I use drugs again?
I will if my work wants me to. And if drugs want me to.
7. And Suddenlty It’s Night
You stand there alone, like everyone else, the center of the world’s
attention,
a ray of sunlight passing through you.
And suddenly it’s night.
Franz Wright, iO: A Journal of New American Poetry, Vol I Issue I . (May 15th, 2011)
The individual sections of “Seven Versions” ia based, loosely—some very loosely—on poems by Rene Char, Rumi, Yannis Ritsos, Natan Zach, Günther Eich, Jean Cocteau, and Salvatore Quasimodo.
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Franz Wright
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THE BEYOND Sufi, seek not to understand The mind or will of he who planned This universe before which our Whole world is but a speck of sand.
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Farrukh Dhondy (Rumi: A New Translation of Selected Poems)
“
What you seek is seeking you.” —RUMI
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Timothy Ferriss (Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World)
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The intellect is luminous and seeks justice so why does the dark ego prevail over it? Because the ego is at home in the body while the intellect is only a visitor, the ego-dog at his own door is like a lion.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit)
“
Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it. Rumi
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Arielle Ford (The Soulmate Secret: Manifest the Love of Your Life with the Law of Attraction)
“
As the Eastern mystic Rumi said, “What you seek is seeking you.
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Benjamin P. Hardy (Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation)
“
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. — attributed to JALALUDDIN RUMI
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Linda Carroll (Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Lasting Love)
“
Our task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. —Rumi
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Kristin Neff (The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook: A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive)
“
Don't take me for a stranger, I'm from here.
The home I seek is somewhere very near.
I'm not an enemy, however I may look.
I speak like an Indian, but like you I'm a Turk.
******
அந்நியன் என்று
எண்ணாதே என்னை
உள்ளூர்க்காரன்தான்.
நான் தேடிக்கொண்டிருக்கும்
என் வீடு
இங்கேதான் பக்கத்தில்
எங்கோ ஒரு தெருவில்.
எதிரியைப் போன்று
தெரிகிறேன் எனினும்
பகைவன் அல்லன் யான்.
இந்தியனைப் போல்
பேசுகிறேன் எனினும்
உண்மையில் துருக்கன்தான்.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
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There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life. There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine. O traveler, if you are in search of That Don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek That. Rumi
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Kathleen Rolenz (Sources of Our Faith: Inspirational Readings)
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XLIX. GOOD WORDS1 The mother is always seeking her child: the fundamentals pursue the derivatives. If water is confined in a tank, the wind sucks it up; for the wind is an elemental spirit, powerful and free. It frees the water and wafts it away to its source, little by little, so that you cannot see it wafting; And our soul likewise the breath of our praise steals away, little by little, from the prison of this world. The perfumes of our good words ascend even unto Him, ascending from us whither He knoweth.2 Our breaths soar up with the choice words, as a gift from us, to the abode of everlastingness; Then comes to us the recompense of our praise, a recompense manifold, from God the Merciful; Then He causes us to seek more good words, so that His servant may win more of His Mercy. Verily the source of our delight in prayer is the Divine Love which without rest draws the soul home.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Selected Poems of Rumi)
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Tuesday Whether one is slow or speedy in movement, he that is a seeker will be a finder. Always dedicate yourself with both hands (with all your might) to seeking, for search is an excellent guide on the way.
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Ergin Ergül (365 Days with RUMI)
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Sunlight fell upon the wall; the wall received a borrowed splendor. Why set your heart on a piece of earth, O simple one? Seek out the source which shines forever.
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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. RUMI
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Sara Foster (Shallow Breath)
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But detachment saves us from such stress. Once we do not attach ourselves and stop identifying ourselves with possessions and desires. These possessions only become mere tools to aid us in achieving our higher cause.
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Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
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Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison When the door is so wide open?
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Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
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Passion makes the old medicine new: passion lops of the bough of weariness. Passion is the elixir that renews: how can there be weariness when passion is present? Oh, don’t sigh heavily from fatigue: seek passion, seek passion, and seek passion!” Rumi
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Young (Unbridled (A Harem Boy's Saga, #2))
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Why are you so afraid of silence, silence is the root of everything.If you spiral into its void, a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.
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Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
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We lose peace of mind when we indulge in the materialistic things. We see our reflections in these possessions and properties and attach ourselves to the point of becoming saddened by them. These possessions gradually become our identity and these identities start disturbing us with time.
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Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
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Never lose hope my dear heart, miracles dwell in the invisible
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Ryan Foret (Stress Free Living & Rumi: Seek What Is Seeking You)
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Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” – Rumi
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Brian Tracy (What You Seek Is Seeking You)