I spent millons of years in the world of inorganic things as a star, as a rock... Then I died and became a plant-- Forgetting my former existence because of its otherness Then I died and became an animal-- Forgetting my life as a plant except for inclinations in the season of spring and sweet herbs-- like the inclination of babes toward their mother's breast Then I died and became a human My intelligence ripened, awakening from greed and self-seeking to become wise and knowing I behold a hundred thousand intelligences most marvelous and remember my former states and inclinations And when I die again I will soar past the angels to places I cannot imagine Now, what have I ever lost by dying?
|
I died a mineral, and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
|
Reason is like an officer when the king appears. The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; Go is the sun.
|
I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there I went to the Temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valleys but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Caaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and philosophers but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him He was nowhere else to be found.
|
Silence is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay attention to it. There is no substitute for the creative inspiration, knowledge, and stability that come from knowing how to contact your core of inner silence. The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote, Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.
|
God is never seen immaterially; and the vision of Him in [a] woman is the most perfect of all.
|
I died a mineral, and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an animal and I was man. Why should I fear When was I less by dying
|
Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
|
Come out of the circle of time And into the circle of love.
|
Ask a difficult question, and the marvelous answer appears.
|
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
|
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.
|
Whoever finds love
beneath hurt and grief
disappears into emptiness
with a thousand new disguises.
|