Last Words

"The vulgar do not see God working, and therefore never rest from toil.
On whichever side the Gracious One may be, go, and for God's sake, for God's sake, may you be also on that side!
And make patience a ladder to climb upward towards the ascending stages: patience is the key to success.
The speech in my heart comes from that auspicious quarter, for there is a window between heart and heart."

Rumi (Vol.6 4883-4915)

Commentary: The last line in the Mathnawi:"there is a window between heart and heart."
Thank you for traveling with Rumi's great heart through his masterpiece. Rumi has been called the "Shakespeare of spirituality". What I am most grateful for is the way he reminds us of "The Gracious One." Reading this poem for the second time (after a 31 year absence) I am newly horrified as to where Rumi believes the life of the spirit develops. He claims it happens in the very midst of human depravity. He uses misogyny, and racism, and pornography, and political intrigue and violence, and the abuse of animals, and the worst kind of religious bigotry as his working materials. (He also refers to springtime gardens, and young lovers, and faithful servants and beautiful jewels: but that is to be expected.)But in the very worst of existence, admitting the worst, he then turns the direction of the reader's attention towards God. For Rumi there is nothing "pretty" about the struggles that go on here. He doesn't portray spirituality as something that only the delicate and the sensitive ought to explore. Whatever your character or circumstances, may you find yourself on the side of the "Gracious One" today, and everyday.
(Personal note: I do plan to do another "spiritual classic" blog next fall...Simone Weil? Thomas Merton? Hafiz? I haven't decided... you can e-mail me at bmerritt@firstunitarian for updates...

The One Who Gives Life, and Takes It Away

"The King wept in mourning for the one that was slain, for the King is all; The King is both the slayer and the next of kin.
The King is both the slayer of humanity, and a mourner for them.
Meanwhile, the pale faced martyr was thanking God that the arrow had killed his body, and had not killed that which is real.
The visible body is doomed to go at last, but that which is real, the pure spirit, shall live rejoicing for ever.
If that punishment were inflicted, yet it fell only on the skin: the lover went unscathed to the Beloved.
Although he laid hold of the mercy of the King's saddle strap, yet in the end he was only admitted to union with his Beloved by the eye of perfection, the eye whose glances kill the mind's self-conceit."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4870-4875)

Commentary: Rumi asks us to imagine that there is something more real than our bodies. Rumi asks us to imagine that there is a "Beloved" who cares for us more than anyone on earth cares for us. Rumi even wants us to believe that the Goodness, (that gave us life), will also take that life from us; and that God not only celebrates our birth, but also mourns our death. (The last quote from the Mathnawi will appear tomorrow, God willing.)

Wickedness (Close By)

"Assuredly, your wicked carnal mind is a rapacious wolf: why are you laying the blame on every friend and neighbor?
In its misguidedness, the foul, disbelieving, unconscionable, carnal mind is like a hat for concealing the diseased condition of a hundred bald heads.
For this reason, O poor child of God, I am always saying, "Do not remove the collar from the neck of the cur."
Even if this cur should become a teacher, it is a cur still: be the one whose carnal mind is abased, for its nature is towards evil.
Go around the Saint, and absorb His light...
In order that the Saint may redeem you from the vices of your corporeality, and that you may fit the foot of the Beloved like a boot.
From generation to generation, the wickedness of the undisciplined carnal mind was the cause of the world being suddenly set on fire..."

Rumi (Vol. 6, 4856-4864)

Commentary: Even at the close, Rumi offers his truth, without any sugar-coating. This journey was never intended to be easy, and we should never let our guard down, as long as our "carnal minds", (our egotistical, selfish, delusional, controlling minds) are alive and kicking.

The House of Darkness

"How should the sea of the King, to which every water returns, be ignorant of what is contained in the torrent and river?
The King said to himself, "Look how I have dealt with you, in lavishing a precious treasure! Look how you have dealt with Me in your mean-spiritedness!
You have acted disloyally to the King who answers every call for help."
Then the disciple came to himself, and asked pardon of God...
The pain that arises from the dread of losing one's faith - take pity (on the one who is thus afflicted) for this is the irremediable pain.
You are helpless and unable to understand the cause of this helplessness: your helplessness is a reflection of the day of retribution.
Happy is the one whose spiritual food is this helplessness and bewilderment, and who in both worlds is sleeping in the shadow and the protection of the Beloved.
Life depends on dying to the self, and on suffering tribulation: the water of life is in the land of darkness."

Rumi (Vol.6 4771-4830)

Commentary: In the last 5 pages of the Mathnavi, Rumi admits that God isn't surprised by how often we fall. The ego has to go. Eventually we will learn that the only place to rest is in the palm of the Beloved.

Do Not Despair

"How long will you follow the glittering phantom reflected from another? Strive to make the Divine experience actual for yourself.
So that your words will be prompted by your immediate feelings, and your flight will be made by your own wings and pinions...
I have no hope from any quarter, but that Divine Bounty is saying to me, " Do not despair!"
Our Emperor had made a perpetual feast for us: God is always pulling our ears, drawing us close and saying, "Do not lose hope!"
Although we are in the ditch and overwhelmed by this despair, let us go dancing since He has invited us.
Let us dance along like mettlesome horses, galloping towards a familiar pasture.
Let us toss our feet, though no foot is there; let us drain the cup, though no cup is there.
Because all things there, are spiritual: it is reality, on reality, on reality.
Form is the shadow, reality is the sun."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4664-4747)

Commentary: As the Mathnawi draws to a close, Rumi invites us to dance all the way home. We are invited. We are being pulled. Reality is determined to win us over.

The Real Garden

"That seeker felt within his heart a sublime emotion...
Courtyard and wall and mountain woven of stone seemed to split open before him like a laughing and bursting pomegranate.
One by one, the atoms of the universe were momentarily opening their doors to him, like tents, in a hundred diverse ways.
The door would become now a window, now the sunbeams; the earth would become now the wheat, now the bushel.
In human eyes, the heavens are very old, and threadbare; in his eye, there was a new creation every moment.
The flowers that bloom from the earth become faded; the flowers that bloom from the heart-oh, what a joy!
Know that all the delightful sciences known to us are only two or three bunches of flowers from that garden.
We are devoted to these two or three bunches of flowers, because we have shut the Garden door on ourselves."

Rumi (Vol.6 4639-4652)

Commentary: Rumi admits that our small bunches of flowers are beautiful. But he invites us to experience a whole garden full of magnificent flowers, where that beauty never fades. We "shut the garden gate" when we refuse to even consider the possibility that such a wondrous garden exists.

Not Just Clay

"The Saint is a hundred thousand human beings, concealed in a single person, a hundred bows and arrows enclosed in a single blow-pipe.
A Saint is a sun, hidden in a mote: suddenly the mote opens its mouth and reveals the sun.
O body, that has become the spirit's dwelling place, this is enough: how long can the Sea abide in a water skin?
O thou, who are a hundred Gabriels in the form of a person: O thou, who are many Messiahs inside the donkey of Jesus,
O thou, who are a thousand Ka'bas concealed in a church.
They ask, "How should I pay homage to this clay? How should I bestow on a mere form, a title signifying my obedience and adoration?"
The Saint is not the form in which he appears; rub your eyes well, that you may behold the Saint in the radiance of the light of Divine Glory!
Here is the mystery: to behold the Seven Heavens in a handful of clay."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4577-4589)

Commentary: Perhaps we are all, much more than our current form, and the clay of this material body. The mystics teach us that the "seven heavens" are within everyone.

Crying for Help

"There is no way for you to pass beyond the sky, save by Divine authority and by inspiration from heaven.
Know that the mark of one who apprehends this is his crying for help.
Veil the faults of others, in order that a similar veiling may be vouchsafed to you: do not deride anyone, until you see yourself in security.
Inflict upon another only the pain and injury that you would wish and approve for yourself.
Who is the "protector"? The one that sets you free and removes the fetters of servitude from your feet.
Do you, like the gay, colored garden, give unspoken thanks at every moment to the Water?
The cypresses and the green orchard silently thank the water that nourishes them, and show silent gratitude for the blessings of Spring.
Clad in fresh robes, and trailing their skirts, drunken and dancing and jubilant and scattering perfume,
Every part of them is impregnated by the royal Spring."

Rumi (Vol.6 4514-4546)

Commentary: What we have in common is our need for help and nourishment and forgiveness. And a glimpse of our divine destiny is revealed in the beauty and the joy of Spring.

The Delay

"The cause of this delay in coming (into God's presence) was lack of capability, and defect of skill.
If one who cannot smell were to enter into a garden, how should his brain be delighted by the fragrant herbs?
If one who has no wheat goes to a mill: nothing will be given to him except the whitening of his beard and hair with flour.
The celestial mill bestows on those who have no wheat, only the whiteness of hair...
But on those who bring wheat with them, this mill bestows empire, and gives them sovereign power.
You must first be qualified for Paradise, in order that from Paradise the everlasting life may be born to you.
These parables have no limit: do not seek more words of this kind: go and acquire ability!
The one who goes to hunt the King's prey, becomes the King's prey.
Whosoever goes in chase of a quarry like God, does not catch his quarry until he himself is caught."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4424-4440)

Commentary: What are we to bring to the celestial mill? I suspect humility, and effort, and our failures, and our broken hearts, and our hope in mercy and grace. None of this beautiful poetry is a substitute for capacity and ability. (sigh)

The Journey Within

"You must know that safety is concealed in danger.
The hidden grace consists in this, that the Lord shows the recipient of grace a terrible fire, but it is really a gracious light.
In our souls are answers to all our arguments, like stars in the sky.
The form is outside, and the spirit inside; the spirit, the real nature of the soul's Beloved, is in the soul, like blood is in the veins.
The one whose scout is the inward eye, this eye will behold with the very highest clairvoyance.
That soul is not content with traditional authority; no, his feeling of absolute certainty comes from the inward eye.
Lovers are devoted to the everlasting kingdom of Love."

Rumi (Vol.6 4359-4421)

Commentary: The certainty we seek can only be found in our own experience of the truth; and the ultimate truth is the Love that have birth to the sun, and the stars, and you...and Rumi tells us that this Love can be found within your own soul.

A Hidden Grace

"When did God make me hopeful, and when did God shower money and profit on me?
What wisdom was this that the Object of all desire caused me to go forward from my home on a fool's errand?
So that I was hastening to lose the way, and at every moment was being further removed from what I was seeking?
And then God, in his munificence, made that very abberation the means of my reaching the right road and gaining wealth.!"
God makes losing the way an avenue to true faith; God makes going wrong a field for the harvest of righteousness.
To the end that no righteous one may be without fear, and that no sinner may be without hope.
The Gracious One has put an antidote in the poison in order that they may say that God is the Lord of a hidden grace."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4338-4344)

Commentary: We all lose our way. But we won't know the end of this story (of our lives), until the story ends. There are less than 600 verses left in the 6 volumes of the Mathnavi. (The whole work contains over 24,000 verses.) How interesting that at the conclusion of this masterpiece, Rumi is emphasizing the universality of confusion.

Real Treasure

Every piece of counterfeit gold prevents you from recognizing the genuine gold, wherever it is to be found.
The counterfeit gold cuts off your feet, and clips your wings; the impostor says, "I am what you seek: take me, O seeker."
Go, always be fleeing from the false remedy.
Deem me foolish or contemptible, as you please: the real treasure is mine, say what you like."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4308-4327)

Commentary: The real wealth is of the spirit. The other distractions sparkle, but will prove to be ultimately worthless.

A Mixed Market

"Who shall knock at this door, from which mercy is showered, without gaining in response a hundred springs, a hundred seasons of spiritual refreshment?
The heart is comforted by true words, just as a thirsty person is comforted by water...
There is a spirit increasing sea, and a distressful sea: these lips are where the seas meet, but do not mingle.
It is like a great market situated between towns: in this market comes goods from all directions.
Damaged, spurious and swindling commodities: and also valuable commodities, highly esteemed, like pearls.
The shrewdest traders in this mart carefully inspect the genuine and the spurious wares.
To such a one the market is a place of gain, while to the others, in their blindness, it is a place of loss.
Every particle of the world, one by one, is a fetter for the fool, and a means of deliverance for the wise.
It is sweet as candy for one, and bitter as poison for another: it is as beautiful as mercy for one, and terrible as wrath for another."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4239-4288)

Commentary, Imagine today as holding all the gain, and sweetness, and mercy and deliverance that we need. Rumi claims that it does, if we shop with discrimination.

Constant Dissapointment

"The angels beseech God piteously, saying,"O Thou, who answers every prayer, and O Thou, whose protection is invoked,
A faithful servant of yours is making humble entreaty: he knows none but You on whom to rely.
You bestow Your bounty even on strangers: every ardent wisher gains his desire from You."
God says," It is not that he is despicable in my sight, no, the very deferment of the bounty is for the sake of helping him.
Need caused him to turn towards Me from his former state of forgetfulness: it dragged him by the hair into My presence.
If I satisfy his need, he will go back and again become absorbed in that idle play.
Although he is now crying with all his soul, "O Thou whose protection is invoked" let him continue to moan with a broken heart and a wounded breast."
Know for sure that this is the reason why the true believers suffer disappointment, whether in seeking good, or in avoiding evil."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4219-4238)

Commentary: On a spiritual path, you never really know what is going on...

The Touch of God's Hand

"There was once a man who inherited money and estates: he squandered all and was left destitute and miserable.
Inherited wealth does not indeed remain constant to its new owner, since it was parted against its will from the deceased one.
O such-an-such, you do not know the value of your soul, because God bountifully gave it to you for nothing.
The man's ready money went, and his furniture and houses went; he was left alone like owls in the desert.
When he became empty, he began to call onto God; he started the tune of, "O Lord!" and "O Lord, protect me!"
Since the Prophet has said that the true believer is like a lute, which makes music only at the time that it is empty,
Do not become full, for sweet is the touch of God's hand.
Become empty and stay happily between God's two fingers..."

Rumi (Vol.6 4206-4215)

Commentary: Having nothing to rely on, but God and grace: an enviable, if difficult, position.

Another Place

"God puts in your heart the fear of losing a certain position, in order that no other position may be an object of hope to you.
O thou, who has fixed your hopes firmly on one quarter saying, "The fruit will come to me from that lofty tree."
Your hope will not be fulfilled from there: no, the bounty will come from another place.
Why, then, did God implant in you that hope, since God would not give you the desired thing from that quarter?
It is for a wise purpose and contrivance; and also in order that your heart may be in a state of bewilderment
It is that your heart may be bewildered, O learner, wondering from where the object of your desire will come to you.
It is that you may know your weakness and your ignorance and that consequently, your faith in the unseen may be increased."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4188-4195)

Commentary: Who, but Rumi, can reassure us that our frustration, our confusion, and our heartbreaking inability to satisfy our desires, are all a kind of grace?

Contrariwise

"Either this desire of mine will be fulfilled on this journey, or when I return from the journey.
It may be that the fulfillment of my desire depends on going abroad, and that only after I have gone to distant lands shall I attain it at home.
How should the mystery of God, being with me, enter into my spiritual ear unless I wander around the world?
God has said that "God is with us", but the Holy One sealed the heart, in order that the truth and real meaning may enter the heart's ear contrariwise, and indirectly.
When the seeker has made many journeys, and performed the duties of the Way, after that, and not before, the seal is removed from one's heart."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4175-4181)

Commentary: This is one sweet explanation for why I've spent so much of my life traveling, and wandering around lost...

Seek the Saint

"You are fleeing from a gnat to a scorpion, you are fleeing from a dewdrop into an ocean.
You are fleeing from your father's unkindness into the midst of scoundrels, and mischief and trouble.
Jesus says to him, "O blind man, cling to me with both hands.
If you are blind, you will obtain light from me."
The real fortune and highway of success lies in the business that comes after utter defeat and self abasement.
Give up the business that has no head, no foot, no permanence.
What is required is self surrender, not long toil: it is useless to rush about in error.
Henceforth I will not seek the way to the highest celestial sphere: I will seek the Saint, I will seek the Saint, the Saint, the Saint!
The Saint is the ladder to Heaven: by whom is the arrow made to fly? By the bow, and the Archer."

Rumi (Vol.6,4109-4125)

Commentary: It is not enough to be moving fast. You need to be going in the right direction. We, who are metaphorically and spiritually blind, need the grace of a Saint.

Nothing But Lightning

"All selfish pleasures are a deceit and fraud: round the lightning flash is a wall of darkness.
The lightning is but a brief gleam, false and fleeting, surrounded by darkness, and your way is long.
By its light you can neither read a letter, nor ride to your destination.
But, as a penalty for being enthralled by the lightening, the beams of the sunrise withdraw themselves from you.
Mile after mile, through the night, the lightning's deception leads you on, without a guide in a dark wilderness.
Now, you fall off a mountain, now, into a river; now you wander in this direction, now in that.
O seeker of worldly estate, you will never find the guide, and if you do find him, you will avert your face from him.
Yes, you have journeyed far, but only in opinion, as unsubstantial as lightning:
come, make a tenth part of that journey for the sake of Divine inspiration, as glorious as the sunrise.
By a lightning flash, you have been blind to a rising sun."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4094-4105)

Commentary: What if, even just for today, we gave a tithe (one tenth of our attention) to God? Turning away from the bright flashes of lightning, that leave us in the dark, and turning our faces toward the sun, towards God's love?

A Warning...

My plight is a warning to all lovers...
My religion is to be kept alive by Love.
The sword of Love sweeps away the dust from the lover's soul...
For ages, O Adored One, I have been beating my drum of love for You, to the tune of "Lo, my life depends on my dying to my selfishness."
One must rely on the intelligence of the guide.
Either be victorious, or be in search of a victor: either have insight, or be seeking one who has insight.
Without the possession of the key, namely intelligence, this knocking at the door is prompted by self-will and selfishness, not by right motives.
See a whole world ensnared by self-will and by wounds and harmful things, that look like remedies."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4056-4078)

Commentary: To win at this Love, it all comes down to the grace of the guide...otherwise we spend all our time pursuing remedies that aren't remedies.

A Love Story: Zalikha and Joseph

"Zalikha had applied to Joseph the name of everything...
If she praised, it was Joseph's caresses that she meant, and if she blamed, it was separation from him that she was referring to.
If she piled up a hundred names, her meaning and her intention was always Joseph.
Were she hungry, as soon as she spoke his name, she would be filled with spiritual food, and intoxicated by his cup.
Her thirst would be satisfied by his name: the name of Joseph was a sherbet to her soul.
And if she was in pain, her pain would immediately be turned into profit by that exalted name.
In cold weather it was a fur to her. This, this is what the Beloved's name can do, when one is in love."

Rumi (Vol.6, 4021-4037)

Commentary: One day, God will be our comfort, our sherbet, our food and our drink.

A Mutual Embrace

"This is the practice of everything that is loved and loves,
A mutual embracing...is Divinely ordained between eternal and non-eternal and between substance and accident.
Love banished them from the throne and made them footless and headless and destitute.
Love is honey for the grown up, and milk for children: for every boat it is like the last freight loaded, which causes the boat to founder.
Many kings, beyond number, has Love torn from their kingdoms and families.
A hundred thousand heads go for a farthing at the moment when Love strings his bow...
But may the soul's pasture be the ransom for Love's lion, who is killed by this Love and his scimitar.
It is a killing better than a thousand lives: all sovereignties are mortally enamored of this servitude."

Rumi (Vol. 6, 3951-4006)

Commentary: Do not assume that Love's embrace will always feel sweet and easy...

The Master Player

"If a fire should dart its flames at the kernel, know that it is in order to cook it, not to burn it.
So long as God is Wise, know that this law is perpetual, both in the past and in the time to come.
The pure kernels and even the husks are pardoned by God; then how should God burn the kernel? Far be it from Him!
If, in God's grace , he beats the head of one who resembles the husk, such a one will feel an eager desire for the red wine of grace.
Over every mind there is a hidden Ruler, who cunningly diverts (from his or her purpose) whomsoever God wills.
The sun in the East, and the sun's radiance, are bound like captives in God's chain.
God is the Master-player."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3929-3938)

Commentary: Even the way we think! It is all God's play...

Hardships

"We used to say, " Do not bewail your hardships: be patient for patience is the key to the relief of pain."
What has now become of this key? Wonderful! This rule, which we laid down for others, is null and void for us: what has become of it?
Didn't we always say, " In the hour of struggle, laugh happily, like gold in the fire?"
We said... " Do not lose courage."
We preached fortitude to all the world, because such strength is a lamp and a light in the breast.
Now it is our turn. Now we have become distracted...
O heart that did inspire others with passion, inspire yourself with ardor, and be ashamed of yourself.
O reason, where is your eloquent and persuasive counsel? Now, that it is your turn: what has become of your former admonitions?
Since you were once a cure for the pain of others, how is that you are now silent, when pain has become your guest?"

Rumi (Vol.6, 3894-3909)

Commentary: It is oh, so much easier, to offer consoling words, than it is to walk through the valley yourself...

The Expert Swimmer

"Real intelligence is in being safe, and in the desire to act justly towards every woman, and every man; but where is such intelligence to be found?
One atom of the protection of Divine favor, is better than a thousand efforts by the devout pietist.
The quiet of the expert swimmer, is better than the violent exertions, the wild movements of hands and feet of one who is unable to swim.
The one that cannot swim, desperately flails with his hands and feet and drowns; while the practiced swimmer moves quietly and smoothly, with a steadfastness like that of pillars.
Knowledge is an ocean without bound or shore: the seeker of knowledge is like a diver in those seas.
Though his life be a thousand years long, never will that one become tired of seeking."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3861-3882)

Commentary; As another poet wrote "Lie back daughter, and let the sea hold you..."

Not So Smart

"We are all fallen into the moat, killed and wounded by an affliction without combat.
We relied on our own intelligence and wisdom, so that this tribulation has come to pass.
A single feeling of contentment is better than a hundred feasts and trays of food.
Half a mite of God's favor is better than three hundred expedients devised by the intellect.
Abandon your own cunning...nothing avails until you die to all your contrivances.
Except dying to your ego, no other skill avails with God, O artful schemer.
One Divine favor is better than a hundred kinds of personal effort."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3780-3839)

Commentary: According to Rumi's mathematics, everything our minds come up with has little or no value. What counts is grace and God's mercy.

Behind the Form...

"Know that the form of the roof and the walls of every dwelling is a reflection of the thought of the architect.
Assuredly, the Absolute Agent is formless: form is a tool in God's hand.
Sometimes the Formless One graciously shows His face, from the concealment beyond existence,
In order that every form may thereby be replenished with some perfection, and beauty and power.
Why then , O confused one, are you submitting your need to another needy creature?
Seek God in humility and in selflessness, for nothing but forms is produced by thinking.
Suppose it is the form of the city to which you are going: you are drawn there by a formless feeling of pleasure, O dependent one;
Therefore you are really going to that which has no locality, for pleasure is different from place and time.
Suppose it is to the form of a friend to whom you would go: you are going for the sake of enjoying her society:
Therefore, in reality you go to the formless world, though you are unaware of that being the object of your journey.
In truth, then, God is worshiped by all, since all wayfaring is for the sake of joy, of which God is the source,"

Rumi (Vol.6, 3740-3755)

Commentary: God is defined by Rumi as the source of perfection, and beauty and power and joy. We see evidence of the Formless One more than we think.

Who Else?

"You have shot an arrow to the right, and have seen your arrow go to the left.
You have rode in chase of a deer, and have made yourself the prey of a wild hog.
You have run after some gain for the purpose of filling yourself: the gain has not reached you and you have been cast into prison.
You have dug pits for others, and you have seen yourself fall into them.
Since the Lord has disappointed you in regard to the means of obtaining your desire, then why do you not become suspicious of the means?
Many a one has become an emperor, by dint of toil, while many another has been made destitute by that very same toil.
Since God is the one who turns our eyes, who else should be turning the heart and the thoughts?
This is not skepticism, It is God's turning: it shows where the realities are."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3683-3696)

Commentary: Who did you think was in charge here? Why am I always surprised that reality has the upper hand?

The Abode of Delusion

"How good is the Conduit which is the source of all things!
There is no nourishment for them in the world from seasons, except perhaps the Spring of the Beloved's face in the soul.
The earth is entitled "the Abode of delusion" because she draws back her foot and deserts you on the day of passage.
Before that time she was running right and left, saying, "I will take away your sorrow"; but she never took anything away.
In the hour of anxieties she would say to you, "May pain be far from you, and may ten thousand mountains stand between suffering and you!"
Then, when the army of pain arrives, she holds her breath and remains silent. She will not even say," I have seen and been acquainted with you."
All will be far from God, except those who turn back from that deception, come forth from the autumn, and enter into the springtime of Divine grace."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3596-3623)

Commentary: Which invitation do we answer? Happiness and sorrow are woven together tightly in this world. But Rumi promises that there is a realm within every child of God, where it is always spring, and where there is nothing but grace.

Concealment

"You have concealed richness in the lowliness of poverty.
Contrary is secretly concealed in contrary: fire is concealed in boiling water.
A delightful garden is concealed in Nimrod's fire: revenues grow from giving and spending.
Riches were never diminished by alms giving...
The poor tax is the keeper of your purse, the ritual prayer is the shepherd that saves you from the wolves.
The sweet fruit is hidden in boughs and leaves, the everlasting life is hidden in death.
Manure, by way of assimilation, becomes nutriment for the earth, and by means of that a fruit is born of the earth.
An existence is concealed in non-existence, being adorable is hidden in the nature of adoration.
The steel and flint are externally dark, but inwardly resplendent with light and a world illumining candle.
In a single fear are enclosed a thousand securities; in the black pupil of the eye are ever so many brilliant stars.
A treasure has been deposited in a ruin"

Rumi (Vol.6, 3569-3581)

Commentary: No wonder we are confused...

Discernment

"The work and business of the prophets and Divine Messengers is beyond the skies and the stars.
Whatsoever the sun of God's grace shines upon, whether it be a dog or a horse, that being is endowed with the glory of Divine protection.
Yet deem not the radiance of God's grace to be uniform: it has given a distinctive character to the pebble and the ruby.
From that radiance the ruby has a borrowed treasure, while the pebble has only heat and brightness.
The radiance of the sun falling on a wall is not the same as when the sun is reflected upon the water in shimmering movement...
At this time, when you are healthy and well fed, you are giving up the Truth for a phantom.
You are constantly selling the pearls from the spiritual mine, and taking walnuts in exchange, like a child."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3447-3466)

Commentary: Walnuts and pearls have a different value. Walnuts are tasty and provide immediate satisfaction. Nevertheless, Rumi urges us to collect pearls and rubies.

Hidden

"If anything other than God appears to you, it is the effect of God's illusion: and if all other than than God vanishes from your sight, it is the effect of God awakening you to the reality.
What is the attracting power, hidden in what is most hidden? What is it that shines forth in this world from its source in the other world?
The intellect is barred, and the spirit is also barred from access to this ambush; I cannot see it: see it if you can!"

Rumi (Vol.6, 3356-3361)

Commentary: I'm with Rumi on this one... we see miracles, all the time. But who understands where they originate?

Being Worked On

"God is the assembly place where all the generations of humanity are gathered under the Divine banner.
Moment by moment, that traceless One is setting down what God wills on the page of their thought, and then obliterating it.
God is putting anger there, and taking acceptance away: God is putting stinginess there, and taking generosity away.
Never for even half a wink of an eye, at evening or morning, are my ideas exempt from this process of imprinting on the mind, and obliterating.
The potter works at the pot to fashion it: how should the pot become broad and long of itself?
The wood is kept constantly in the carpenter's hand: else how should it be hewn and put into the right shape?
The garment, while being cut, is in the hands of a tailor: else how should it sew and cut itself?
You are being filled and emptied at every moment: know then that you are in the hand of God's working...
If you have an ear, listen with your own ear: why be dependent on the ears of blockheads?
Make a practice of seeing for yourself, without blindly following any authority: think in accordance with the view of your own reason."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3331-3344)

Commentary: This explains a lot...We need to think for ourselves, and then realize that our thinking will keep changing in ways we cannot begin to fathom.

Acceptance

"Your grace is the loving shepherd of all who have been created, You guard them from the wolf of pain...
I live in hope of your open hand, as bountiful as the ocean, and relying on Your giving me a stipend, and discharging my obligations in full.
I recklessly incurred debts, amounting to nine thousand pieces of gold: where are You, that these dregs may become clear?
Where are You, that laughing like the verdant garden You would say, " Receive that sum, and ten times as much from me"?
Where are You, that You may take me into Your treasury and make me secure from debt and poverty?
While I am continually saying, "Enough!" and You, my bountiful Friend, are replying, "Accept this too, for my heart's sake."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3280-3303)

Commentary: No matter what it is we ask from God, it is not nearly as much as what God wants to give to us.

In Mourning

O Thou, who were the support and refuge of the righteous, and the hope and helper of every wayfarer,
O You, on whose heart the care and means of our livelihood lay constantly,
O You, whose beneficence and charity were like a universal provision of sustenance,
O You, who were as kinsfolk and parents to the poor; paying their taxes and expenses and discharging all debts,
O You, who like the sea, gave pearls to those near to you, and who sent rain as a gift to those who were far away,
Our backs were warmed by You, O Sun, who was the splendor in every palace, and the treasure in every ruin.
O You, in whom in every month and year, I, and a hundred like me, had become a family, tenderly cared for like your own children.
You were our ready money, and our moveables, and our furniture, our fame and glory and our fortune.
You are not dead, but our luxury and good fortune are dead, our happy life is dead, and the sustenance that was provided in full measure."

Rumi (Vol. 6, 3264-3274)

Commentary: Rumi is telling a story of a man who has just learned that his Master and benefactor has died. I think he is also describing the universal loss of those who have blessed us. Their love lives on in us, but our lives are changed forever.

Thank You Notes

"At the resurrection God will say to his servant," Tell me, what have you done with that which I bestowed on you?"
The servant will reply," O Lord, I gave thanks to You with all my soul, since the source of my daily bread and provision was in You."
Then God will say to him, " No, you did not give thanks to Me, inasmuch as you did not give thanks to the ones who made a practice of generosity.
You have done wrong and displayed injustice to those who were generous with you: did not my bounty come to you through their hands?"

Rumi (Vol.6 3259-3263)

Commentary; I need to be writing more thank you notes; especially as I learn who is behind all this giving and generosity...

Seeing Double

"Since the squinter who sees two, instead of one, is deprived of the enjoyment of delicious food, your case is worse, for you are seeing ten, O you, who would sell your mother!
Because of seeing double, you wander to and fro...
In this ruined monastery the man who sees double is continually removing himself from one nook to another: O you, who say to yourself, "The good which I seek is to be found there."
But if you get two eyes that can recognize God, you will see that the entire expanse of both worlds is full of the Beloved."

Rumi (Vol.6 3231- 3234)

Commentary: Especially on Mother's Day, Rumi urges us not to sell ourselves short, not to sell our Mothers, not to wander looking for something that is far away. We are instructed to develop the capacity to focus, so that we might see our Beloved.

Benevolent Creatures and the Generosity of the Creator

"O Maker, I am confused: I was setting my hopes on Your creatures.
Though my benefactor and friend had shown great generosity, yet that was never a match for Your bounty.
He gave the cap, but You the head filled with intelligence.
He gave me gold, but You the hand that counts the gold; he gave me a horse for riding, but You the mind that rides it.
The friendly benefactor gave me a candle, but You gave me a bright and cheerful eye that sees; My benefactor gave me dessert, but You gave me the stomach that receives the food.
He gave me the stipend, but You gave life and animate existence; his promise was gold, but Your promise is for the pure things of the spirit.
He gave me a house, but You the sky and earth: in Your house he, and a hundred like him, grow fat.
You also gave my friend and benefactor generosity and pity, and his joy was increased by showing that generosity."

Rumi (Vol.6. 3124-3132)

Commentary: The generosity of God and the generosity of our friends flow from the same Love. We need to give some credit at the source.

The Generous One

"The spiritual warrior first gives away his bread; but when the light of devotion strikes on him, he gives away his life.
Open a window towards God, and begin to delight yourself by looking at him through the aperture.
The business of Love is to to make that window in the heart, for the breast is illumined by the beauty of the Beloved.
Therefore, gaze incessantly on the face of the Beloved! This is in your power.
Make a way for yourself in the innermost parts: banish the perception that is concerned with anything other than God.
The Beautiful One will deliver the spirit from unfriendliness.
God's grace is moisture and nourishment for the garden of the spirit; God's breath revives the one who has died of anguish.
God does not only bestow onto you the entire kingdom of the base world; God bestows a hundred thousand kingdoms of diverse kinds."

Rumi (Vol. 6, 3086-3102)

Commentary: What God has to give us is beyond our imagining. Our work, it seems to me, is to develop the capacity to receive.

The Sweetheart

"Say, "First the neighbor, then the house." If you have a heart, go seek the sweetheart.
When my eye beheld the face of that spiritual emperor, all plurality vanished from my sight.
Know that the Saint's bodies are the lamp niche, and their hearts the glass; this lamp illumines the empyrean and the heavens.
Heaven's light is dazzled by this Light, and vanishes like the stars in this radiance of morning.
"I am not contained in the heavens or in the void or in the exalted intelligence...
But I am contained, as a guest, in the true believer's heart, without qualification, or definition or description.
To the end that by the meditation of that heart all, above and below, may win from Me sovereignty and fortune.
Without such a mirror neither earth nor time could bear the vision of My beauty.
I caused the steed of my mercy to gallop over the two worlds: I fashioned a very spacious mirror,
From this mirror appear at every moment fifty spiritual wedding feasts: hearken to the mirror, but do not ask Me to describe it."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3010-3077)

Commentary: The love Rumi points to, cannot be described. But you can see it in the eyes and in the smile of Saints.

Redeeming the Helpless

"O Thou who watches over us in heat and cold.
O Thou who gives us intimations in gladness and woe, even though our hearts are unaware of Your intimations,
O Lord, who daily and nightly sees us, but whom we do not see.
O Lord, make our light complete in the plain of resurrection, and deliver us from shameful and overwhelming indignities!
Do not let your night companion be banished from Your presence in the daytime, do not inflict separation in the soul that has experienced nearness.
Absence from You is a grievous and tormenting death, especially the absence that comes after the enjoyment of Your favor.
Do not drive from Your face the one who once beheld Your face!
O Lord who knows the secret, preserve us from these distractions and attractions, by the attraction of Your grace.
Thou, O Purchaser, are dominant over all attractors: it would be fitting if You would redeem the helpless."

Rumi (Vol.6 2887-2905)

Commentary: All we can do is ask...

Truly Holy

"Self-interest is a veil upon the eye of the heart.
The self-interested man does not see the whole of the creation, in all its various aspects: your love of created things makes you blind and deaf.
God has not created anything, in the earth, or in the lofty heaven, that is more holy than the spirit of a human being.
The object of God's regard, in both worlds, is a pure heart."

Rumi (Vol. 6, 2871-2883)

Commenatary: For better vision, remove the veils of ego.

Towards the Future

"What devise can our mental perceptions employ, I wonder, against the ebb and flow of the trackless sea?
It is like the King's highway--travelers departing and arriving, one going in this direction, another in that direction.
Consider well! We, though apparently standing still, are really marching: don't you see we are bound for a new place?
You do not earn and spend your capital for any present need; No, you keep it for your ultimate purposes.
The traveler then, O devotee of the Way, is the one whose march and face are turned toward the future."

Rumi (Vol.6, 2770-2779)

Commentary: Our spiritual work has all been put in a high-yield savings account. We are poor now, but someday we may have resources beyond our imagining.

Hidden Rain

"O soul of my soul, O You who are the soul of a hundred worlds, gladly take the opportunity of seizing the cash of the present moment.
Do not withdraw your self from this river-bed, O flowing water.
But flow in order that the river-bank may laugh, and may be made to blossom by the running water, and that jasmines may rear their heads on each brim of the river.
The verdant orchard tells a tale of rain.
If it rains during the night, no one sees the rain, for then every soul and breath is asleep;
But the freshness of every beautiful rose garden is clear evidence of the rain that was hidden from view."

Rumi (Vol.6, 2719-2725)

Commentary: You can't see a lot of grace? And yet you are here, and still turning towards Love. What nourishes and sustains us remains hidden from view , as long as we are asleep. Rumi urges us to "wake up" and grab the cash that is being freely distributed by God.

Oneness

"Visit the water once a week" is not the ration for fish, since they feel no spiritual joy without the Sea.
To the lover, one moment of separation is as a year; to that one a whole year's uninterrupted union is as a fleeting fancy.
Never for one instant do lovers cease from seeking; never for one moment do they cease from pursuing each other.
In the heart of the Beloved, the lover is all.
That of which I speak is not the sort of oneness that reason apprehends: the apprehension of this oneness depends on a person dying to oneself.
God gives us that which no eye has beheld, that which is not comprehensible to any tongue or language.
Who are we to aspire to this?"

Rumi (Vol.6 2672-2703)

Commentary: Love can not be explained, described, or understood. What we need to do is to want it, and then, we are told, we will someday know.

Commentary:

Silence...

"Abandon eminence and worldly energy and skill: what matters is service rendered to God, and a goodly disposition...
The heart that has seen a sweetheart, how should it remain bitter? When a nightingale has seen the rose, how should it remain silent?
To a friend, when you are seated besides your Friend, a hundred thousand tablets of mystery are made known.
My Companions are like the stars...
The star shows the way in the desert and on the sea: fix your eye on the spiritual Star, for he is the One to be followed.
Keep your eyes always focused on His face: do not stir up dust by way of discussion and argument,
Because the Star will be hidden by that dust: the eye is better than the stumbling tongue.
Be silent, in order that the One may speak, whose innermost garment is Divine inspiration, which settles the dust, and does not stir up trouble."

Rumi (Vol.6, 2500-2647)

Commentary: Today's challenging assignment: be silent (again), offer your service to God, and attempt a good disposition.

Clever Philosophers

"Abandon trust in strength, and seek the gold in piteous supplication.
That which is real is closer than the artery in your neck.
The farther one shoots the arrow, the farther away and more separated he is from the treasure that lies close by.
The philosopher exhausted himself with thinking: let him run on in vain, for his back is turned towards the treasure.
Let him run on; the more he runs, the more remote does he become from the object of his heart's desire.
That Divine King said,"those who have striven for Us": God did not say, "those who have striven away from Us", O restless one.
How often have knowledge and keen wits and understanding been as deadly as the ghost or thief to the wayfarer!
Most of those destined for Paradise are simple, so that they escape from the mischief of philosophy.
Strip yourself of useless learning and vanity, in order that the Divine Mercy can descend on you every moment.
Why should the pure devotee wish to be clever?"

Rumi (Vol. 6, 2352-2373)

Commenatry: Rumi was head of the philosophy department at the university in Tehran. He knew that being smart, or clever or strong would not bring you closer to God.

Only Mercy

"Night has wrecked the sea of my understanding and senses: no hope is left, nor fear, nor despair.
God has borne me into the sea of Mercy; I do not know with what specialty He will fill me, and send me back to the world.
In as much as my hand is made empty by this sovereign power of God's to loose and bind, oh, I wonder, from whom comes this self-conceit of mine?
I possess nothing. O Gracious One, except a heart constricted with anguish.
Do not lay another nothing, upon a nothing like this.
Truly the state of "I possess nothing" suits me better, since these hundred troubles arise from my imagining that I possess something.
I have suffered pain; do Thou increase my pleasure.
I will just stand naked in a flood of tears at your gate, since I have no sight.
O friend, do not refrain from calling on God: what business have you with God's acceptance or rejection of your prayer?"

Rumi (Vol. 6 2321-2339)

Commentary: "No hope and no fear": Rumi seems to be telling us that our empty hands and our tears are enough.

Repenting of Haste

"O Knower of the secret, I have run about in vain for the sake of this treasure.
The devil of greed and desire and hurry sought neither deliberation, or calmness.
I have not gained a morsel from any pot: I have only blackened my hand and burnt my mouth."
"O hard-faced impudent seeker, the knot which God tied, God will also loose; the die that God cast, He Himself will take off.
The seeker said, " O Lord, I repent of this haste; since You have shut the door, do Thou also open the door."
Through God's hand the unworthy and the worthy are freed by mercy from the bonds of servitude.
"O You, who has made every stranger Your friend, and O You, who has given the rose as a robe of honor to the thorn,
Sift our dust a second time, make our nothing to be something once more."

Rumi (Vol. 6 2288-2317)

Commentary. This is not about us. Not even about our efforts and our worthiness. This is about mercy, and grace, and trusting in the One who can make all things new.

A Marvelous Game of Backgammon

"Even if all the forests should become pens, and all the oceans ink, there is no hope of bringing the Mathnawi to an end...
The time has come for that righteous Beloved, and dear friend of God, to pull my ear and lead me.
God, in His mercy, has played a marvelous game of backgammon: God has made the essence of ingratitude to be a turning in repentance towards Him.
Even from the ill-fated unrighteousness of the people of the world, that Bounteous One has caused two hundred fountains of Love to flow.
He gives to the rose-bud a source of growth in the thorn.
God brings forth day from the darkness of night, and makes ease and plenty to form in the hand of the one who suffers from hardship and poverty.
The mountains become an accompanist to David.
The solitary mountain amidst the cloud of darkness opens to the music of the harp and the tones of treble and bass."

Rumi (Vol.6, 2253-2286)

Commentary: With God, all things are possible. Even for you. Even for me.

Everything Is Perishing...

"God put the fear of pain in us, to the end that good results might be achieved in consequence of our fear.
Everyone seeks a bandage for his pain, and in consequence the whole world is set in order.
God made of fear the pillar and support of this world: because of fear everyone has devoted himself to work.
All these people are afraid of losing what is good...
At every moment, O you of little means, God has conjoined with your grief and gladness an ark, to save you, and a flood, to destroy.
I will speak of God's arks, which are the spiritual counsel given by the Saints; I will speak of the whole: the part is included in the whole.
Know every Saint to be a Noah and captain of the ark; know companionship with these worldly people to be the flood.
Do not flee from lions and fierce dragons, but beware of friends and kinsmen.
They waste your time, when you are face to face with them, and when you are absent from them, your recollections of them devour your time.
Everything is perishing except His Face."

Rumi (Vol. 6, 2198-2238)

Commentary: Rumi is not all nightingales and rose-gardens. We, who love our families and friends, and who give them most of our attention, are advised to turn to that reality which is not perishing; the ark to depend on is God's love.

The Hour for Mumbling

"If the Saint did not exist, the earth would not have gained treasure within, and jasmine without...
This garment that protects you from the cold--God gives it the temperature of intense frost,
So that this garment of the body becomes cold as ice and biting as snow.
This, God does in order that you might flee from the fox-fur and silk, and take refuge with Him.
The Divine artist who depicts thought is saying, "Consider deeply, O my servant.
O you, who are as hard as steel, devote yourself...
If your body is dead, resort to resurrection...if your heart is frozen, repair to the sun of the Spirit.
Inasmuch as you have wrapped yourself in the garment of fantasy, lo, you will soon reach the position of the destructive minded skeptic.
Truly, he was dispossessed of the kernel which is reason; he was dispossessed of true perception; and deprived of immediate experience.
When this poor soul speaks, it is the hour of mumbling."

Rumi (Vol.6 2106-2186)

Commentary: What is ultimately false and transitory is taken from us. (What used to keep us warm and happy, no longer does.) The Saints beg us to turn in the direction of true perception, and real experience. Anything less, is just mumbling. (mumbling is something I am good at...)

Choices...

"Either drink in and absorb and be satisfied by duality,(you who see double), or close your mouth and be very silent.
Or, do both in turn, now silence, now speech.
When you see a confidant, declare the mystery of the Spirit: if you see the rose, sing loud, like nightingales.
Patiently endure the punishments inflicted by the ignorant ones: give them fair words, and dissemble towards them with the reason that is divinely inspired.
Patience shown to the unworthy, is the means of polishing the worthy: wherever a heart exists, patience purifies it."

Rumi (Vol.6 2035-2041)

Commentary: Today, I'll attempt to choose silence and patience. I'm not good at either.

No Duality...

"How should there be room for self assertion (wind in the mustache) and personal reputation (water in the face) in the wine in which there is no room for even a single hair of self existence?
Go to the sea of whose fish you are born: how have you fallen, like rubbish,into distraction?
You are not rubbish--far be it from you! You are an object of envy to the pearl; you have the best right to dwell among the waves and the sea.
It is the Sea of Unity: where there is no fellow or consort.
In this Sea there is no partnership or complexity; but what can I say to the one that sees double? Nothing, nothing.
O idolater, that Unity is beyond description and condition: nothing comes into the arena of speech except duality."

Rumi (Vol.6. 2021-2034)

Commentary: Words, no matter how eloquent, will not take us where we want to go. In order to experience the "Sea of Unity" we're going to have to learn to swim and dive.

The Source of the Music

"You have no kinsmen, but yourself, O distraught one.
The seeker was always praying intently, without receiving any overt response, but he was seeking in secret from the Divine Grace.
Although neither a heavenly voice, nor a Divine Messenger was ever beside him, yet the ear of his hope was filled.
His hope was always saying, without words, "Come!" and that call was sweeping away all weariness from his heart.
Saying, "Come to the moon, and leave the dust behind; Love, the King, calls you: return with all speed!"
Let the pearl shedding sea of God break into surge: today ask kindly after this ailing seeker.
This Mathnawi is only the wailing music that the author has uttered;
Yet everyone that has insight knows that the lamentations issuing at this end, are inspired from that end.
The noise of this reed is from God's breaths; the spirits outcry is from God's outcry.
If the reed had no contact with That lip, the reed could not fill the world with music sweet as sugar.
The rubies in the mountains heart are brokers and advertisers of God: the orchards in their laughter of full blown beauty are filled to the brim with the Divine One."

Rumi (Vol. 6 1983-2012)

Commentary: If you long for God, and truth and reality, Rumi tells us that God truth and reality are calling to us. And the music that we love, and the beauty that we see, are all invitations from the Beloved.

More Gambling...

"The victims of this melancholy madness expect grass to grow from iron.
This path needs a person with a stout heart, like you.
If you cannot find this treasure you will never weary of seeking for it; and if you find it, you will be granted the right of possession.
Love is reckless, not reason: reason seeks that from which it may get some profit.
The lover gambles everything clean away, he seeks no reward, even as he receives everything as a free gift from God.
Gambling oneself clean away in pure self sacrifice transcends every religion.
Religion seeks grace or salvation. Those who gamble everything clean away are chosen favorites.
They do not put God to any test, nor do they knock at the door of any profit or loss.
The medicine of all intellects is but a picture of Love, the faces of all sweethearts are but a veil of God."

Rumi (Vol. 1963-1982)

Commentary: The path of Love is not one that can be understood by reason. Still, we keep seeking...

Slow Progress

"You are still in the same state with which you were born: you have not taken one step forward.
You are still like the unbaked dough in a pot of clay: though you have been a whole lifetime in a fiery oven.
You are like an herb on a hill: your foot is fixed immovably on the earth, though your head is tossed to and fro by the winds of passion.
Like the people of Moses wandering in the heat of the desert, you have remained forty years in the same place, O foolish one.
Daily, you march rapidly until nightfall and find yourself, still in the first stage of your journey.
You will never traverse this three hundred year's distance, so long as you have love for the golden calf...
While praying, a pauper would at times become distrustful on account of the postponement of the recompense and reward.
And then again, the gracious Lord's deferment of his hopes would bring a message of joy to his heart,
For whenever, in his earnest supplication, weariness caused him to despair, he would hear from the presence of God, the call, "Come!"
This Divine Maker is the One who abases and exalts: without these two attributes no work is accomplished.
One half is day, the other, night...now health, and now sickness...
By means of these two wings this world is kept up like a bird in the air: by means of these two, all souls are inhabiting fear and hope."

Rumi (Vol.6 1784-1853)

Commentary: The way Rumi describes it, the spiritual journey is very long, and takes us up and down, high and low, from hope to despair and then back to hope. No wonder we are confused!

The Game of Love

"You are reviling on account of affliction and poverty and distress and tribulation.
No doubt the renunciation of sensuality gives bitter pain, but it is better than the bitterness that comes from being far from God.
How should pain endure for a single moment when the Giver of favors says to you,"How are you, O My sick one?"
And even if you can not hear God saying this, because you do not have the needed understanding and knowledge, yet your inward feeling of longing, is God inquiring after you.
Those beautiful Ones, who are spiritual physicians, turn toward the sick to inquire after them;
No beloved is unaware and forgetful of his lover.
O you, who desires to hear a wondrous tale, read the story of those that play the game of love."

Rumi (Vol.6, 1767-1775)

Commentary: A baffling game it is!

Without Painful Toil?

"What would it matter if the Bounteous One should bestow on his servant the desire of his soul, without painful toil?"
The teacher said, "Were there no bitter stern Commandments from God, and were there no good and evil, and no pebbles and no pearls,
And there were no flesh and Devil and passions, and were there no blows and battle and war,
Then by what name and title would the King call His servants?
How could he say, "O steadfast one, and "O forbearing one"? How could He say, "O brave one" and "O wise one"?
How could there be steadfast and sincere and generous souls, without a brigand and a thief?
Knowledge and wisdom would be annulled and utterly demolished.
Knowledge and wisdom exist for the purpose of distinguishing between the right paths and the wrong paths: when all paths are the right path, knowledge and wisdom are devoid of meaning.
The cruelty of time and fortune and every affliction that exists are lighter than farness from God , and forgetfulness of God.
Because these afflictions will pass, but the forgetfulness will not. Only the one who brings his spirit to God, awake and mindful, is possessed of happiness."

Rumi (Vol.6, 1745-1757)

Commentary: In this world, some things are true, and others false. There is no alternative to the struggle.

The Source of Hope

"God whose help is invoked has the power to make our trading free from loss.
The One who turns fire into roses and trees is also able to make the fires of this world harmless.
The One who brings forth roses from the very midst of thorns is also able to turn this winter into spring.
The One by whom every cypress is made free and evergreen, has the power, if He would, to turn sorrow into joy.
The One who gives the body a soul, that it may live, How would God be a loser, if God did not cause that body to die?"

Rumi (Vol.6, 1739-1744)

Commentary: There is an old hymn, "All My Hope on God is Founded". The One who gives us life can be depended on to give us more life and more joy than we can now imagine...

Upside Down

"The Tailor, who is Worldly vanity, takes away the fabric of your life, bit by bit, with his scissors, which are the months.
You wish that your star might always jest, and that your happiness might continue forever.
You are very angry with its divisive aspects, and its disdain, and enmity and mischief;
You are very annoyed with its silence and inauspicious severity and its attempts to show hostility.
But consider that in spite of all the World's bitterness, you are mortally enamored of it and recklessly devoted to it.
Deem bitter tribulation to be a Divine mercy...
In the Way of the search for God, everything is upside down."

Rumi (Vol.6, 1720-1738)

Commentary: The life of the spirit sure seems to be upside down, inside out, and utterly confusing.

Ruined Places

"The King deposits the royal treasure in ruined places.
Open your spiritual ear very wide.
Whatever blows come to you from Heaven, always be expecting to receive a gift of honor afterward.
For God is not the king to slap you, and then not give you a crown and throne on which to recline.
The whole world has but the value of a gnat's wing; but for one slap, there is infinite reward.
Nimbly slip your neck out of this golden collar, which is the world, and take the blows that come from God."

Rumi (Vol.6, 1634-1641)

Commentary: It's nice to ponder about the mercy and the kindness of the Creator. But who among us has not also received blows and slaps? Rumi seems to believe that some of the harder lessons contain mercy and kindness and treasure ...

Spiritual Poverty

"Consort with the One with whom your trusts are safe from loss and violation...
Reason's beginning is constraint, but its end is a hundred expansions of the spirit.
"O Giver of all understanding, come to my help; no one wills anything, unless You will it.
Both the desire for good, and the good action itself proceed from You: who are we? You are the First. You are the Last.
Increase our desire for worship: do not send upon us the sloth and the stagnation of fatalism."
Every shop has a different kind of merchandise: the Mathnawi is a shop for spiritual poverty.
Therefor do not complain of affliction, for it is a smooth paced horse carrying you toward enlightenment.
The Friend is the support and refuge on the Way: when you consider well, you will see that the Friend is the Way."

Rumi (Vol.6,1419- 1591)

Commentary: According to Rumi, what distracts us from God is no blessing. And every event that turns us toward what is true and eternal, is grace.

The Waters of Grace

"You say to me, "For the sake of the Divine reward, do not go into the water-tank without having washed."
But outside of the tank there is nothing but earth, no one who does not enter the tank is clean.
If the waters have not the grace enough to receive filth continually,
Alas for the lover's longing and hope! O sorrow, for the lover's everlasting sorrow!
In truth, the water has a hundred graces, a hundred noble compassions, for it receives the defiled ones and purifies them, and bestows peace.
Mount beyond this shop of hagglers to the shop of Bounty where God is the purchaser.
There, the Gracious One has purchased the piece of goods that no one would even look at, on account of its shabbiness.
With God, no base coin is rejected...
How long will you steal the words of the Saints of God, that you may sell them and obtain applause from the crowd?
Stop talking...Polish your heart for a day or two with silence: make that mirror your book of meditation.
That fortunate disciple, who has devoted herself to a blessed Saint, has become the companion of God.
You make friends with things because of the effect which they produce; why then are you ignorant of the One who produces all effects?
You make friends with people on the ground of fantasy: why do you not make friends with the King of west and east?"

Rumi (Vol.6, 1297-1319)

Commentary: We need to get friendlier with that ocean of grace...

New Fortune

"Have mercy upon the failure of our minds to comprehend You. O thou, who are beyond all understandings and conceptions.
O lovers, new fortune has arrived from the old World, that makes all things new.
From the World that is seeking a remedy for them that have no remedy: hundreds of thousands of wonders of the present world are contained in it.
Rejoice, O people, since the relief has come; be glad, O people, since the distress is removed.
The announcer of glad news is shouting in the ear of every sorrowful one, "Arise, O unlucky one, and take the road to fortune."
How should you keep silence now, O my beloved, when a drummer has appeared from the root of every hair in the body.
The One whom you seek in your slumbers, this is God! Open your eye, you will see that auspicious Moon.
Tribulations were laid more heavily upon God's dear ones, because the Beloved showed more playfulness towards the beauteous lovers.
God sports with the beauteous ones in every path."

Rumi (Vol.6, 1094-1109)

Commentary: You don't have to really understand Rumi's love songs, to appreciate the delight and the fragrance of a soul that enjoys this "sport", and has found his fortune.

Cat in a Bag (Part II)

"Sometimes it is spring and summer, delicious as honey and milk; sometimes the world is a place of punishment by snow and piercing cold.
How should you, O heart, which are but one of a hundred thousand particulars, not be in restless movement by God's decree?
Be at the disposal of the Prince, like a horse, now confined on the stable, now going out on the road.
When he fastens you to a peg, be fastened, be quiet and submissive; when he frees you to go, be exultant, and prance and bound.
Whether you are good or bad, or open or secret, God is the One that overhears and sees all things.
From drinking the ruby-wine of the life giving spirit, we are ruby, within ruby within ruby.
Once more the assembly place has become flourishing and heart-illuminating."

Rumi (Vol.6 925-945)

Commentary: According to Rumi, our moods will shift and change. Our devotion will appear and disappear. Sometimes we will feel constrained and trapped, and then, surprisingly soon thereafter, we'll be liberated and dancing. The life of the spirit keeps moving us forward.

Cat in the Bag (Part 1)

O fierce Wind, before You I am but a straw: how can I know where I shall fall?
Any one who offers to make a settlement with the Divine destiny is mocking at his own mustache.
A straw in the face of the wind, and then the idea of a settlement!? A Resurrection is on, and then the resolve to act independently!?
In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a bag, now lifted high, and now flung low by Love.
God is whirling me around His head: I have no rest either below or aloft.
The lovers of God have fallen into a fierce torrent: they have set their hearts on the ordinance of Love.
They are like the millstone turning day and night, in continual revolution and moaning incessantly.
The turning is evidence for those who seek the River, lest anyone should say that the River is motionless.
If you do not see the hidden River, see the perpetual turning of the celestial water wheel.
Since the heavens have no rest from being turned by Love, be thou, O heart, like a star, and seek no rest."

Rumi (Vol.6, 903-914)

Commentary: Only Rumi; he tells us that our restlessness, confusion, and bewilderment, and even our moaning, is all a gift, and a sign of God's presence. Nice to know...

For God's Sake!

"People hazard their lives in the line of battle and in fighting for the Creator's sake,
One is like Job in tribulation, another like Jacob in patience.
Hundreds of thousands of people, thirsty and sorrowful, are doing some sore trial for God's sake in desire of pleasing Him.
I too, for the merciful Lord's sake, and in hope of Him, am drumming the call at the gate.
If you want a customer from whom you will get gold, how should there be a better customer than God, O my heart?
God buys a dirty bag from your stock of goods, and gives you in return an inner light that borrows its splendor from Himself.
God receives the dissolving ice of this mortal body, and gives a kingdom beyond our imagination.
God receives a few tear drops, and gives a river in Paradise that sugar shows jealousy for, because of its sweetness.
God receives sighs full of melancholy and vaporous gloom, and gives for every sigh a hundred gainful dignities.
Pay attention, sell your old rags in this brisk incomparable market, and receive the real and genuine sterling kingdom in exchange."

Rumi (Vol.6, 875-885)

Commentary: The market will never be better...and the offer is available every moment.

The House of the Beloved

"O best Helper, only You can make the eye that now only regards what is non-existent, to regard that which in reality is existent.
The capital required for the market of this world is gold; there, in the next world, the capital is love, and two eyes wet with tears.
"Become a buyer, that My hand may move to sell to you, and that My pregnant mine may bring forth the ruby."
Preform an act of service for the Creator's sake: what have you to do with being accepted or rejected by the people?
Although in your opinion the hour is midnight, in my view the dawn of delight is near at hand.
In my sight every defect has been turned to victory, in my eyes all the nights have been turned to day.
To you the mountain is exceedingly heavy and solid and inanimate, but to David it is a master musician.
To the vulgar the particles of the world seem dead, but before God they are possessed of knowledge and submissive to God's commands.
The one that is illumined by the Light of God deems the House of the Beloved to be full of Him.
How should the form of the Perfect Teacher, which is splendid and sublime, ever be absent from the House of God?
God is always present there, exempt from exclusion, while the rest of humanity are there only on account of their occasional need."

Rumi (Vol.6, 828-870)

Commentary: "What have we to do with being accepted or rejected by the people?" Well, obsessing about it can sure pass the time! Meanwhile, Rumi suggests that the mountains are singing to us, and that what we want and need is close by, right now.

More Than a Grain of Wheat

In your countenance, where is the happiness which is the effect of the wine of true religion? If you have beheld the ocean of Bounty, where is your generous hand?
The one that has beheld the River does not begrudge water to the thirsty, especially one that has beheld that Sea and those Clouds...
The ant trembles for a grain of wheat, because it is blind to the goodly threshing floors.
It drags a grain along greedily and fearfully, for it does not see such a noble stack of wheat as is there.
The Owner of the threshing floor is saying to the ant, "Hey, you who in your blindness deems nothing to be something,
Have you regarded that alone, as belonging to my threshing floor, so that you are devoted, with all your soul, to that single grain?"

Rumi (Vol.6, 804-809)

Commentary: If we are moving along with fear and greed, perhaps we need to improve our vision and our perspective?

A Split Drum

"Incapacity is a chain: God laid it upon you: you must open your eye to behold the One who lays the chain.
Therefore, make a humble entreaty, saying, "O Guide in the ways of life, I was free, and now I have fallen into bondage: what is the cause of this?
I have planted my foot in evil more firmly than ever, for even in the midst of Your omnipotence, truthfully, I am engaged in a losing business all the time.
I have been deaf to Your admonitions: while professing to be an idol breaker, I have really been an idol maker.
Is it now more incumbent on me to think of Your works, or of death? Death is like autumn, and You are the the origin of the green leaves."
For years this death has been beating the drum, but only when it is too late, is your ear moved to listen.
In his agony, the heedless man cries from his innermost soul, "Alas, I am dying!" Has death made you aware of itself only now?
Death's throat is exhausted with shouting: his drum is split with the astounding blows with which it has been beaten.
But you enmeshed yourself in trivialities: only now have you apprehended the mystery of dying."

Rumi (Vol.6, 768-776)

Commentary: We are all "short-timers". Maybe today would be a good day to turn away from all the trivialities, and to remember what we are called to do, while we are here on earth.

Resurrection

"When you grow up, your childhood dies.
When sorrow becomes joy, the thorn of sorrowfulness does not remain.
This mystery is understood only by dying, not by using one's reason.
Do thou then, become the spiritual resurrection, and thereby see and experience the resurrection...
Until you become it, you will not know it completely, whether it be light or darkness.
If you become reason, you will know reason perfectly.; if you become Love, you will know Love's flaming fire."

Rumi (Vol.6, 739-758)

Commentary. Happy Easter! We are invited to know a joy that will last forever.

Extreme Proximity

"The person who judges on appearance is misled by the form of the expressions used in the Mathnawi, while these expressions guide the seeker of reality to the Truth.
Extreme proximity is a mystifying veil.
You have come nearer to me than the artery in my neck: how long shall I say, "Oh?" "Oh" is a call to one who is far off...
To utter words concerning God is to shut the window through which the Divine reveals Himself: the very act of expression is the concealment of God.
It is marvelous that You are not separate from me, and yet, where I am,and where You are, I know not.
"You have suffered much agony, but you are still in the veil, because dying to the self was the fundamental principle, and you have not fulfilled it.
You cannot reach the roof without competing the ladder.
When the last two rungs out of a hundred are waiting to be climbed, the one who strives will be forbidden to set foot upon the roof.
Be extinguished in the dawn, O candle of beauty.
Know that the sun of the world is hidden until our stars have become hidden.
Shatter egoism to pieces."

Rumi (Vol.6, 655-732)

Commentary: So very close, and yet until we separate from our small selves, and our huge egos, we cannot meet the Beloved.

Only Derangement and Madness

"In the end the seeker is a finder, for from patience joy is born.
Our King is entirely truth and loyalty; that disgrace which is visiting us is from ourselves alone.
Our walnuts are being crushed in this mill: whatever we may tell of our anguish, is but a little.
I will not listen to deceitful talk of separation from the Beloved: I have experienced it: how long shall I experience it?
In this Way, everything except derangement and madness is a cause of distance and alienation from God.
Though you bring two hundred fetters, I will snap them all except the curls of God's auspicious Beauty.
Love and reputation, O brother and sister, are not in accord: do not stand at the door of reputation, O lover.
O You, who by your magic has spell-bound the spirit's sleep, O hard-hearted Beloved that You are in the world....
How should God's heart be happy until I burn? O my heart is God's home and dwelling place....
Come, leave off saying "this is not" and "that is not": bring forward the One who is Real Being.
Bodies are like pots with the lids on: look and see what is in each pot.
The bodily eye is always seeing the body: the spiritual eye sees the elusive soul."

Rumi (Vol 6, 595-654)

Commentary: Rumi recommends patience, and then gets frustrated and impatient with God! Apparently it is expected that we will praise and blame, surrender and rail, experience anguish and joy. Madness, indeed.

Help Me! (even in these circumstances...)

"At the time when greed and desire have stirred in your heart, at that time keep saying, "Help me, O You who comes at the cry for help.
Do not take away your protection from my head: I am restless, restless, restless.
Though I am not deserving of Your favor, what does it matter, if for a moment You ask after an unworthy one, who is in great anguish?
What right to your favor had non-existence, to which Your grace opened such doors?
Your bounty touched the mangy earth, and put in its bosom ten pearls of the light of sensation...
O You, by whom my shop and my dwelling is ruined, how shall I not wail when you shake my heart?
How shall I flee from You, since without You none live?"
O Comrades, the Beloved has barred the ways; we are lame deer and God is a hunting lion.
For one who is in the clutch of a fierce and bloodthirsty lion, where is any resource except resignation and acquiescence?"

Rumi (Vol.6, 535-577)

Commentary: We are to ask for help, even if we are faithless and distracted and restless. Are we seeking God, or is God hunting us?

Five Day Friends

"From the pure souls and intelligences there is coming to the spirit a letter, saying, "O Faithless one,
You have found some miserable five day friends and have turned your face away from your friends of old."
Although the children are happy in their play, yet at nightfall they are dragged off and taken Home.
Half of your life has been lost to the ones who capture your heart, the other half of life is lost in anxieties caused by foes...
The road to God is self-sacrifice, and in every thicket is a tribulation to drive back any one whose soul is as brittle as a glass bottle.
The road of religion is full of trouble and suffering for the reason that it is not the road for any one whose nature is cowardly."

Rumi (Vol.6, 456-508)

Commentary: Rumi recognizes and acknowledges the pleasures of this material world. He just reminds us that all our worldly happiness is short lived. And then he invites us to travel a spiritual path that he promises will be painful and constantly challenging. Truth in advertising...

God Always Wins

"Since you have apprehended the fact that God will overpower you, and beat the mace of tribulation on your head,
Like a Nimrod, repel God by war, if you can! Launch an arrow of hard poplar wood into the air against the Divine!
Like the Mongol soldier, shoot an arrow at heaven to prevent your soul from being torn from your body!
Or flee from God, if you can, and go your way; but how can you go, since you are a pawn in God's hand?
When you were in non-existence, you did not escape from God's hand; how will you escape from His hand now, O helpless one?
To seek one's own desire is to attempt to flee from God...
This world is a trap, and desire is its bait: flee from the traps, and quickly turn your face towards God. Abandon desire, in order that God may shower mercy on you.
Since you cannot escape, do service to God, that you may go from His prison into His rose garden"

Rumi (Vol.6, 372-383)

Commentary: Can God blame us for trying? We attempt to declare our independence and autonomy, but it simply isn't true. How lovely it will be, to live in that rose garden...

Parables...

"The mystics use comparison and illustration, in order that a loving feeble minded person may apprehend the truth.
It is a parable for the purpose of melting the frozen intellect.
What is soul? Soul is rejoicing on account of kindness, weeping on account of injury.
Since consciousness is the innermost nature and essence of soul, the more aware one is, the more spiritual one is...
O Thou, who are the help of those who seek help, help me to escape from this prison of my wicked acts of free-will.
By the heart's deceit and guile, I have been so disoriented that I am left, unable even to lament.
Who am I? Heaven with its hundred affairs, cried out for help against the ambush of arrogance and selfishness.
O gracious One, this duality is agonizing to the spirit.
This perplexity is like the heart at war.
In perplexity the fear of failure and the hope of success are always in conflict with one another, now advancing, and now retreating.
From You first, came this ebb and flow within me...
From the same source from where you gave me this perplexity, graciously now make me unperplexed.
Bestow on me one path, do not make me follow ten paths!
What is the means of ascension to heaven? This not-being. Humility, and selflessness is the creed and the religion of the lovers of God."

Rumi (Vol 6, 117-233)

Commentary: Speaking as one of the feeble minded...the war can seem quite real. I suspect God will free us from our selfishness and our perplexity when the time is right. Until then, we can only ask for help...

The Scent of Apples

"Now, O spiritual one, I bring to you as an offering the Sixth part to complete the Mathnawi.
These Six Books give light to the Six Directions...
Love has nothing to do with the five senses and the six directions: its goal is only to experience the the attraction exerted by the Beloved.
The command to call the people to God comes down from the Maker: what has the Saint to do with their acceptance or non-acceptance?
If you are thirsting for the spiritual Ocean, make an opening in the island of the Mathnawi.
Behold the fresh branches of coral, behold the fruits grown from the water of the spirit.
When the Mathnawi is made single, and stripped of words and sounds and breaths, it leaves all that behind and becomes the spiritual Ocean.
The speaker of the words and the hearer of the words, and the words themselves- all three become spirit in the end.
The Holy Transcendent One who makes the reality of the apple orchard, conceals the apples in a mist of words.
From this mist of sound and words and talk arise such a screen that nothing of the apple comes into our perception, but the scent.
At least, inhale this scent in greater quantity with your intelligence, that, taking you by the ear, it may lead you towards your origin."

Rumi (Vol.6, 3-86)

Commentary: In this, the last of the six books of the Mathnawi, Rumi lets us know that all this poetry is a mysterious part of God pulling us closer.

Every Spring

"This new springtime after the fall of leaves is a proof of the existence of the Resurrection.
In spring the secrets are revealed; whatsoever this earth has eaten comes into view.
It shoots up from her mouth and lips, in order that she may bring to mind her hidden mind and way.
The secret of the root of every tree and its nutriment- the whole of that is plainly brought forth on its leafy top...
To whomsoever God has announced victory and triumph, to that one success and unsuccess are one.
To whosoever the favor of the Friend has become a surety-what fear should he have of defeat and painful combat?
When it has become certain that he will checkmate his opponent, the loss of a knight and a bishop is a trifle to him.
You perceive that in the past you have sown lentils: you know now what the crop will be.
Formerly, you had feelings from God of fear and hope:the fear has passed away, and the hope has come into clear view."

Rumi (Vol. 5 3971-4070)

Commentary: The spring is a perfect time to remember that new life has already won the game.

A Safe Refuge

"Love is an infinite ocean, on which the heavens are but a flake of foam.
Know that the wheeling heavens are turned by waves of Love: were it not for Love, the world would be frozen and inanimate.
Every mote is in love with that Perfection, and hastening upward like a sapling...
Suppose the empire is the empire of the West and East: since it will not remain, deem it to be as fleeting as a lightening flash.
O you, whose heart is heedless and slumbering, know that the kingdom that does not remain until eternity is but a dream.
Consider what you will do with all your vanity and glory; for ultimately it will grip your throat like an executioner.
Know that even in this world there is a safe refuge...
A rational person does not see the various aspects of Love, yet the auspicious moon of Love does not wane."

Rumi (Vol.5, 3835-3932)

Commentary: Heedless and slumbering we may be. Love will wake us up.

Entertaining Guests

"This body is a guest house: every morning a new guest comes running into it.
Beware, do not say, "This guest is a burden to me," for presently he will fly back into non-existence...
Every day, too, at every moment, a different thought comes, like an honored guest, into your heart.
O dear soul, regard every thought as a person, since every person derives his worth from thought and spirit.
If the thought of sorrow is waylaying joy, yet it is also making preparations for joy.
It violently sweeps your house clean of all else, in order that a new joy, from the source of goodness, may enter in.
It scatters the yellow leaves from the bough of the heart, in order that continual green leaves may grow.
It uproots the old joy, in order that a new joy may march in from the Beyond...
Good and ill fortune become guests in your heart, like the stars that move from one planet in the zodiac to another."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 3644-3686)

Commentary: The rule of spiritual hospitality: graciously welcome reality.

The Root of All Afflictions

"He has suffered pain, but has never seen the gain that comes from the Beloved: he has done many works of devotion, but has never seen the wages for his work.
Either the essential thing was not in his work at all, or by Divine decree the hour of his reward has not yet arrived.
The recompense has been deferred until the appointed season...
He is making a great effort with the help of conjecture and opinion: the matter rests in "maybe" until it turns out well.
Far is the road he must travel before he can see the Beloved...
At one moment he is engaged in reproach, saying to God, "The portion allotted to me from this calculation of mine is nothing but pain."
At another time, he is engaged in a quarrel with his own luck, saying. "All the others are flying, and we have our wings cut off."
Whoever is imprisoned in the worldly vanities, his spirit is oppressed, even though he is occupied in the practice of spirituality.
Until he comes forth from his narrow resting place, how should his spirit be happy, and his heart expand with joy?
This separation from God is the root of all affliction: how should anyone endure it?
O my generous friends, have pity on those who have taken vows of Love...
Pardon their violence: consider their sorrow and ill-fortune,
In order that God may pardon your sins likewise, and heap forgiveness on your faults.
Pardon, that you may win pardon in return."

Rumi (Vol. 5 3521-3552)

Commentary: God bless Rumi! He offers solace to all of us who are unsuccessful seekers. He understands, and even excuses our complaints. He tells us that we are not the only disciples to suffer and question: it is apparently a long tradition and goes back centuries.

A True Profession of Faith

"O my God, our eyes have become intoxicated. Forgive us: our burdens have been made heavy.
O concealed One, who has filled the world from East to West with Your radiance, and who is exalted above the light of the place of sunrise and sunset,
You are the inmost ground of consciousness revealing our innermost thoughts. You are the force that causes our damned up rivers to burst forth.
O You, whose essence is hidden, while Your gifts are perceived by the senses, You are as the water, and we are as the millstone.
You are the wind and we are the dust: the wind is hidden, while the dust blown by it is plainly visible.
You are the spring, we are fair as the verdant orchard: the spring is hidden while its bounty is manifest.
You are as the Spirit, we are like hand and foot: the opening and the closing of the hand is due to the spirit.
You are like the joy, and we are the laughter, for we are the result of Your blessed joy.
All our actions are really a continual profession of faith, which bears witness to the Eternal Almighty One.
You are beyond my conception and utterance."

Rumi (Vol.5, 3307-3318)

Commentary: Rumi's prayers sound more like love letters...imagine, imagining yourself as God's laughter!

Love's Gamble

"How long will you set up a show on the public road? You are footsore with travel and no desre of yours has been fulfilled.
When you enjoy good health, all are your friends and comrades, but in the hour of pain and sorrow, where is any familiar friend but God?
In the hour of eye ache or toothache will any take your hand to help, except the One who comes at the hour of distress?
Become a lover, seek a fair follower, hunt a waterfowl from river to river.
In Love, which is glorious and resplendent, you will find new intelligible things, other than what you now consider intelligible things.
For by your individual intelligence you procure the means of subsistence, while by that other, universal intelligence, you make the tiers of heaven a carpet under your feet.
When you gamble away and sacrifice your intelligence, in love of the Lord, God gives you ten like it, or seven hundred.
Love, which is the cup bearer of life, takes away your intelligence in one moment: then you drink your fill of wisdom for all the rest of your life.
O dear Soul, Love alone cuts disputation short, for it alone comes to the rescue when you cry for help against arguments.
Eloquence is dumbfounded by Love."

Rumi (Vol.5, 3205-3240)

Commentary: This kind of Love is worth betting your whole life on....

The Purchasers of Words

"These sayings have come down in order to make people ardent in serving God, that God may take the hands of those who have lost hope and deliver them.
You continually work yourself to death in the service of worldly kings, yet they are ignorant of the difference between treachery and honesty...
If anyone gives you a tiara, yet God gave you the head that bears it.
Abandon the state of being loved by the audience, and adopt the practice of loving God, O you, who think you are excellent and pre-eminent.
O you, who are really more silent than night, how long will you seek a purchaser for your words?
Your hearers nod their heads in your presence for the purpose of assenting to you; your time is wasted in the passionate desire of attracting them.
Instruct yourself in love of God and spiritual insight; for that is like a design engraved on a solid mass of stone.
Your own self is the only pupil that is really faithful to you; all the others perish; where will you seek them, where?
Behold your true lovers behind the veil of the Divine Bounty, crying aloud to you continually.
Be the lovers of those unseen lovers: do not cherish the lovers who last no more than five days."

Rumi (Vol.5 3127-3203)

Commentary: The spiritual work that matters is between you and God...and it is not a performance...

Free Will

"God's universal power of choice brought our individual powers of choice into existence: God's power of choice is like a rider, hidden within the dust that he raises.
The carpenter has authority over a piece of wood, and the artist has authority over beauty;
The iron-smith is a superintendent of iron; the builder is a ruler over his tools.
This is extraordinary; for all this human free will is bowing low, like a servant, in homage to God's free will...
An oxen is forced, if it refuses the yoke: is an ox ever beaten by blows because it refuses to fly?
Since you are not ill, don't bandage your head: you have free will, don't make a fool of yourself, (by claiming everything is destined).
Endeavor to gain freshness and spiritual grace from God's cup of love, then you will become selfless and obedient.
The saying of the servant,"Whatever God wills will come to pass"does not signify "be lazy and inactive in that matter."
No, it is an incitement to complete devotion and exertion, meaning, "Make yourself exceedingly ready to preform that service."
The interpretation that makes you ardent and hopeful and active and reverent is the true one."

Rumi (Vol.5,3087-3125)

Commentary: Spiritually speaking, there are no excuses. Rumi wants us to get up out of bed, and walk.

Anxiety and Grace

"In God's bounty there is no retrenchment or reduction...
(God says)"Give the hidden pearl to everyone who desires it.
Scatter the daily bread recklessly.
Release those in debt from their responsibility: like rain make the carpet of the earth green."
What is this feverish trembling for fear of hunger? In possession of trust of God one can live full-fed.
There is in the world a green island, where a sweet-mouthed cow lives alone.
She feeds on the whole field until nightfall, so that she grows fat and big as a mountain crag.
During the night she becomes thin as a hair from anxiety, because she thinks, "What shall I eat tomorrow?"
At the rise of dawn the field becomes green: the green blades and the grain have grown up as tall as a man's middle.
The cow eats ravenously from her hunger; til night she feeds on that vegetation and devours it entirely.
Again she becomes fat and stout and bulky: her body is filled with fat and strength.
Then, again at night, she is stricken by panic, and falls into a fever of anxiety, so that from the fear of vainly seeking for fodder she becomes lean.
Thinking, "What shall I eat tomorrow at noon time?" This is what the cow does for many years.
She never thinks, " All these years...my nourishment has never failed, even for a day: what then is this fear and anguish and heart burning of mine?"
You have eaten for years, and the food has never failed: leave the future and look at the past....do not be miserable."

Rumi (Vol.5, 2791-2869)

Commentary: I must give up this diet of anxiety! All this grace, for so many years.. and still I wonder whether I will be fed!

Beyond This World

"Love is reckless: beware!
Love makes the sea boil like a kettle: Love crumbles the mountains like sand.
Those firm set mountains represent to you the state of lovers in steadfastness.
Lover's souls are on the watch for the beloved.
Beyond this world is a world where if you take a handful of earth, it will turn to gold;
If a dead man enters it, he will become living;
If the most ill-starred enters it, he will become the most fortunate;
If infidelity enters therein, it will become faith; if poison enters in, it will become an antidote to poison.
That world is neither inside of this world, or outside;
Neither beneath it, or above it;
Neither joined with it, nor separate from it;
It is devoid of quality and relation. At every moment, thousands of signs and types are displayed by Divine Love in this world."

Rumi (Vol.5, 2734-2786)

Commentary: It helps me to imagine a place where there are no obstacles to God's love.