For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself. From within, I couldn't decide what to do. Unable to see, I heard my name being called. Then I walked outside.
RumiIn this mob of I's inside, which one is me? Hear me out. I know I'm wandering, but don't start putting a lid on this racket. No telling what I'll do then. Every moment I'm thrown by your story. One moment it's happy, and I'm singing. One moment it's sad, and I'm weeping. It turns bitter, and I pull away. But then you spill a little grace, and just like that, I'm all light. It's not so bad, this arrangement, actually.
RumiIt may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home.
RumiPoems reach up like spindrift and the edge of driftwood along the beach, wanting! They derive from a slow and powerful root that we can’t see. Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.
RumiI don't want learning, or dignity, or respectability. I want this music, and this dawn, and the warmth of your cheek against mine.
RumiThe light which shines in the eye is really the light of the heart.. The light which fills the heart is the light of God, which is pure and separate from the light of intellect and sense.
RumiLove is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken. But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever.
RumiYou left and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. Its not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry?
RumiStay with friends who support you in these. Talk with them about sacred texts, and how you are doing, and how they are doing, and keep your practices together.
RumiBitter your acts, bitter am I, Kindness your deeds, kindness am I, Pleasant and gentle, so you are, Fine honeyed lips and sweet talker.
RumiGod picks up the reed-flute world and blows. Each note is a need coming through one of us, a passion, a longing pain. Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated, and let your note be clear. Don't try to end it. Be your note.
RumiAnd so it is, that both the Devil and the angelic Spirit present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.
RumiDear soul, don't set a high value on someone before they deserve it; You either lose them or ruin yourself...!
RumiThere is a way between voice and presence, where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens; with wandering talk it closes.
RumiLittle by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of invisible game.
RumiThe ground submits to the sky and suffers whatever comes. Tell me, is the Earth worse for giving in like that?
Rumi