SOMEONE DIGGING IN THE
GROUND
An
eye is meant to see things.
The soul is here for its own joy.
A head has one use: for loving a true love.
Legs: to run after.
Love is for vanishing into the sky. The mind,
for learning what men have done and tried to do.
Mysteries are not to be solved. The eye goes blind
when it only wants to see why.
A lover is always accused of something.
But when he finds his love, whatever was lost
in the looking comes back completely changed.
On the way to Mecca, many dangers: thieves,
the blowing sand, only camel's milk to drink.
Still each pilgrim kisses the black stone there
with pure longing, feeling in the surface
the taste of the lips he wants.
This talk is like stamping new coins. They pile up,
while the real work is done outside
by someone digging in the ground.......RUMI
Rumi was asked by his son:
'Why is the dervish hidden? Is this a self-concealment:
done by means of clothing? Is there something within him
which he disguises?'
The Master said: 'It might be in any way. Some write
love-poems, and people think that they mean ordinary
love. The calling sometimes conceals the real position in
the Way: there are traders, like Baba Farid; some write
literature. Others pursue other external activities.
'This may be done for defense against worldly people.
Some deliberately act in a way which society might
disapprove, to gain peace. The Prophet has therefore
said: "God has hidden the Men of Greatest
Knowledge."
'Any stratagem may be adopted by the Followers of the Way
to gain peace when they might otherwise be hindered.'
The Master then recited:
Ever-knowing, as they hide they seek.
To the ordinary man, they appear other than they are.
In inward light they roam: making miracles come to pass.
-Yet none knows who they are.
RUSH NAKED
A lover looks at creek water and wants to be that quick
to fall, to kneel, then all
the way down in full prostration. A lover wants to die of
his love like a man with
dropsy who knows that water will kill him,
but he can't deny
his thirst. A lover loves
death, which is God's way of helping us evolve from
mineral
to vegetable to animal, the one
incorporating the others. Then animal becomes Adam, and
the
next will take us beyond what
we can imagine, into the mystery of which we are all
returning.
Don't fear death. spill your
jug in the river! Your attributes disappear, but the
essence
moves on. Your shame and fear
are like felt layers covering coldness. Throw them off,
and
rush naked into the joy of death.
RUMI
In this
world you have become clothed and rich,
but when you come out of this world, how will you be?
Learn a trade that will earn you forgiveness.
In the world beyond there's also traffic and trade.
Beside those earnings, this world is just play.
As children embrace in fantasy intercourse,
or set up a candy shop, this world is a game.
Night falls, and the child
comes home hungry, without his friends.
Rumi
Do not
despair, my soul! See, hope is arriving!
The hope of all souls has come from the Invisible.
Do not despair, although Mary is not here;
The light that took Jesus to heaven has come!
Do not despair, my soul, in the shadows of this prison
The King who ransomed Joseph from prison has come!
Jacob has left the tent where he was hiding;
Joseph who tore Zuleikla's veil has come.
You spent all night crying, "My Lord! My Lord!"
He who heard your "My Lord! My Lord!" has come.
Your grief lasted so long! Look, healing is here:
Your door was locked, look, here is the key.
You mourned and fasted before the Table of Heaven:
Break your fast now, for the new moon is born.
Be silent, be silent, for by the command of God
The shock of amazement annihilates all words.
Rumi
Your
eyes must complete their course of Love
For you to beat a path to courteous truth;
Spend not your time with cold faces in dead places
Or else your breath will freeze your breast and heart.
From the pulp of yearning go beyond its form to seek
More than solace in the natural suffering called Love.
If you're obtuse and heavy as burdened clay enclosed
By gravity, you'll never lift off and circle the sky;
Come as fine as a thousand dancing particles of dust,
So float and find your feet in the silken path of light.
Choose to break or else be broken by the epic
Of your maker; for death will break your fleeting self
Like an empty shell without a pearl. When a leaf
Withers, in season new roots duly restore it green;
Why then flirt with rootless loves
That steal your eyes from the Unseen?
(Rumi
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