A Prayer for This Year

"O Thou, who transformed one clod of earth into gold, and another clod into the Father of humanity,
Thy work is the transformation of essences and the showing of generosity; my work is mistake and forgetfulness and error.
Change mistake and forgetfulness into knowledge: I am all peevishness and anger, make me into patience and forbearance.
O You, who make the distracted soul to be a guide, and O You, who make the wayless wanderer to be a prophet,
You make a piece of earth to be heaven, You give increase to the earth from the stars...
God gives a hundred thousand states of existence, one after another , each one better than the one before.
Our bewilderment gives us admission to the Divine Presence...
O stubborn, disobedient one, you have experienced a hundred thousand resurrections at every moment from the beginning of your existence until now...
Take the new and surrender the old, for every "this year" of yours is superior to three "Last years."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 780-809)

Commentary: Rumi is all about miracles. Those of us whose work is all mistake and error and forgetfulness, those of us who excel at peevishness, distraction, stubbornness and getting lost are promised transformation...this year.

In Flight from Oneself

"In the case of temptations, I am like a child or a drunken man: the sword is unsuitable in my hand.
Since I do not possess a resplendent intellect, and righteousness in religion, why, then, should I not throw my weapons in the well?
I now throw my sword and shield into the well; for otherwise, they will become the weapons of my advesary.
Since I do not possess strength and aid and support, the adversary will seize my sword and smite me with it...
I will continue to flee as long as my nerves are vibrating, but how should it be easy to escape from one's self?
He who is in flight from another obtains rest when he has been separated from his pursuer.
I, who am the adversary of myself, it is I that I am in flight from: rising and departing is my occupation forever.
The one whose adversary is his own shadow is not safe in either India or Khutan."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 656-671)

Commentary: If we fall into temptation, if our own mind is often an untrustworthy guide, then disarmament makes sense. We'll need to take refuge with the One who can focus our attention and our mind.

Early Death

"The wise prophet has said that no one who dies and dismounts from the steed of the body
Feels grief on account of departure and death, but only grieves because of having failed in good works, and missed opportunities.
In truth, every one that dies wishes that the departure to his destination had been earlier:
If he be wicked, in order that his wickedness might have been less; and if devout, in order that he might have come home sooner...
Tears were trickling to the earth: in every drop were contained a hundred answers.
Sincere weeping touches the souls of all, so that it makes even the sky and heaven to weep."

Rumi (Vol. 5 604-628)

Commentary: Some mysteries cannot be understood by the mind.

Opposites

"When there is no enemy, the Holy War is inconceivable; if you have no lust, there can be no obedience to the Divine command.
Chastity depends on the existence of lust...
Heroism cannot be displayed against the dead...
Since God has given the command, "Refrain yourselves," there must be some desire from which you should divert your face.
For His lovers, God alone is all their joy and sorrow; God alone is their wages and hire for service.
Love is that flame, which when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved.
The lover drives home the sword of NOT in order to kill all other than God; therefore consider what remains after NOT.
There remains God: all the rest is gone.
Truly, God is the first and the last...
Oh, wonderful! Is there any beauty except from the refection of the Divine?
The human body has no movement, except from the spirit...
No opposite can be known, except through its opposite: only when anyone suffers blows will he know the value of kindness.
Consequently the present life has come first, in front, in order that you may appreciate the realm that comes at the last.
When you are delivered from this place, and go to that place, you will give thanks to God in the sugar-shop of everlastingness."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 575-601)

Commentary: Until we get to that ultimate "sweet-shop", in some weird way we can be grateful for all that opposes us...or so says Rumi...

The Topsy-Turvy Game

"It is a topsy-turvy game , and a formidable move by the Queen; do not try to escape by cunning: it is all a matter of Divine favor and fortune.
Do not weave threads in vain imagination and cunning; for the Self-sufficient One does not give way to the contriver.
Contrive in the way of following the guidance of one who serves God well..
Contrive that you may be delivered from your own contrivance; contrive that you may become detached from envy...
Play for love!
Renounce power, and adopt piteous supplication: the Divine mercy comes toward piteous supplication.
The piteous supplication of one who is sorely distressed and thirsty is real...
Lift up in prayer a broken hand: the loving kindness of God flies toward the broken.
When your contrivance is annihilated in the contrivance of the Lord, you will open a most marvelous hiding place,
In this hiding place the least treasure is everlasting life, occupied in ascending and mounting higher."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 467-497)

Commentary: To win this game bring your brokenness, your need, your distress, your truly pitiful attempts to move closer to reality, and your love.

This Bewildered Heart

"Ease is accompanied by difficulty; come, do not despair: through this death you have the way into life....
Illusion bars the way of every seeker, saying, "There is no admission", every delusion confronts the seeker and says "Stop!"
Except, indeed, that person of sharp hearing and keen intelligence who possesses enthusiasm...
He does not recoil from the illusions which bar the way, nor is he checked: he shows the King's token; then a way is made for him to enter.
O God, bestow forethought on this bewildered heart, and bestow the arrow of resolution, on these bows bent double.
From that hidden goblet of Yours, you have poured out of the cup of the Saints, a drink over the dusty earth.
It is the drinking in of Divine beauty, mingled in the lovely earth--that you are kissing with a hundred hearts, day and night.
Since this drop, when mingled with dust, makes you mad, think how its pure essence would affect you!
One drop is poured on gold and rubies and pearls; one drop is poured on wine and dessert and fruits;
One drop on the face of the charming and fair; consider then, how marvelous must be that pure wine!
Inasmuch as you rub your tongue, even on this earthly drink, how enamored of it will you be, when you taste it without the clay!"

Rumi (Vol. 5, 361-382)

Commentary: Rumi insists that there is much more joy ahead, for all of us.

In What Direction?

"Since the true object of the soul has been hidden, everyone has turned his face to a different direction.
Like divers under the depth of the sea water, every one picks up something in haste:
In hope of getting precious jewels and pearls, they fill their bags with that and this;
When they come up from the floor of the deep sea, the possessor of the great pearls is discovered,
And, also, the other, who got the small pearls, and the other, who got only pebbles and worthless shells...
Your profits have become a loss and a penalty: you complain bitterly to God of your blindness.
How excellent are the spirits of sisters and brothers who are trustworthy, self-surrendering, believing, obeying!
Every one else has turned their faces in some direction, but those holy ones have turned towards that which transcends direction."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 328-350)

Commentary: Every day, every moment, we decide in what direction we will turn our faces. If we want God, we will have to look within.

A Waft of Perfume

"O God, who is without peer, show favor! Since you have bestowed on our ear this discourse as an ear-ring,
Take hold of our ear and draw us along to the assembly where the joyous assemblers drink of Your wine.
For as much as You have caused a waft of its perfume to reach us, do not stopple the mouth of that wine skin..
Whether they are male or female, all of Your creatures drink from Thee: O thou whose help is besought, You are limitless in giving.
O You, by whom the unspoken prayer is answered, who bestows, at every moment, a hundred bounties on the heart...
At each moment You shape beautiful, pictured forms of fantasy, subtle to every thought, on the page of non-existence.
On the tablet of fantasy, You inscribe wondrous letters: eye and profile and cheek and mole.
I am drunk with desire for what is beyond existence, not for the existent, because the Beloved of the world of non-existence is more faithful."

Rumi (Vol.5, 305-315)

Commentary: Our hearts (and souls) are being pulled by the One who answers our unspoken prayers...and sometimes God pulls us along by the ear...

The Test

"Know that the honesty and goodness of your witnesses must be established: the means of establishing it is a great sincerity: you are dependent on that.
In the case of the word-witness, it is keeping your word that is the test; in the case of the act-witness, it is keeping your covenant.
The word-witness is rejected if it speaks falsely, and the act-witness is rejected if it does not run straight.
You must have words and acts that are not contradictory, in order that you may meet with immediate acceptance.
Your efforts are diverse, you are in contradiction: you are sewing by day, and tearing up what you have sown by night.
Who, then, will listen to testimony that contradicts itself, unless indeed the Judge graciously shows a great forbearance?
O recalcitrant one, so long as you contend with the holy Saints, they will contend with you. Lie in wait for them, then! Truthfully, they are lying in wait for you."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 252-260)

Commentary: I think I'd prefer a multiple choice...a test that is a little more abstract, and intellectual, not one that demands integrity, sincerity in all things, and humility.

The Divine Washing

"God's mercy takes precedent over God's wrath, and bestows on your hypocrisy a light that the full moon does not possess.
God cleanses your efforts of contamination: the Divine Mercy washes us clean of our folly.
In order that His great forgiveness may be made manifest, a helmet of forgiveness will cover the hypocrite's baldness.
The water rained from heaven, that it might cleanse the impure of their defilement.
Such is His work...The Lord of all created beings is the beautifier of the world.
This Grace stole purses of gold from the certain One, then it runs in every direction, crying, "Where is an insolvent?"
Either it sheds the treasure on a blade of grass that has grown, or it washes the face of the one whose face is unwashed.
Or, porter like, it takes on its head the ship that is without hand or foot, that is helplessly tossing in the seas.
The soul of every pearl, the heart of every grain, goes into the river of healing, as onto a shop of salves.
From this Grace comes nourishment to the orphans of the earth; from it comes growth and movement to them that are tied fast, the parched ones."

Rumi (Vol.5, 196-216)

Commentary: Rumi describes the Holy, as that which makes us beautiful, that which "cleans up our act", that which restores us to wholeness... that must mean that our poverty, our hypocrisy and our helpless distraction are not a serious barrier.

Shedding Tears

"There are many acts of enmity, which are really friendship, many acts of destruction which are really restoration...
Till the cloud weeps, how should the garden smile? Till the babe cries, how should the milk begin to flow?
Do you not know that the Nurse of all nurses gives no milk gratis, without your crying?
The cloud's weeping, and the suns burning are the pillar of this world: twist these two strands together.
How would these four seasons be flourishing, unless this glow and weeping were the origin?
Since the burning heat of the sun, and the weeping of the clouds in the world are keeping the world fresh and sweet,
Keep the sun of your intelligence burning, keep your eye glistening with tears like a cloud!"

Rumi (Vol.5, 106-142)

Commentary: Rumi's weather report: a mix of clouds and sun..both, apparently essential.

Speaking the Truth

"Speak softly, but do not speak anything but the truth: do not offer temptation in the mildness of your address.
Do tell the clay-eater that sugar is better: do not show injurious softness, do not give him clay.
Speech should be a spiritual garden to the soul...
that the inhabitant of the earth may become one in aim and in nature with the sublime celestial.
Then, separation and polytheism, and duality will disappear: in real existence there is only unity.
The mirror that keeps hidden the defects of the face to flatter every cuckold
Is not a true mirror; it is hypocritical. Do not seek such a mirror as long as you can help it."

Rumi (Vol. 4 3817-3855)

Commentary: Sweet and comforting words are not always true... conversely, behind Rumi's harsh words, is a great love. On to Volume 5!

A Hundred Thousand Veils

"Know, O beloved, that the world of the command is without direction:
No created being is unconnected with God: that connection is indescribable.
Because in the spirit there is no separating and uniting, while our thought cannot think, except of separating and uniting.
Pursue that which is without separation and union, by the aid of a spiritual guide; but the pursuit will not allay your thirst.
Still, pursue incessantly, if your are far from the Source...
On the way to God there are a hundred veils.
When the one that beholds the the wonders of God, abandons pride and egotism from contemplating God's work, he will know his proper station, and will be silent concerning the Maker.
Therefore, be dumbfounded, without yea, or nay, in order that a litter may come from the Divine Mercy, to carry you.
Be then, only dumbfounded, and distraught, nothing else; that God's aid may come in from before and behind.
When you have become dumbfounded and crazed and annihilated, you have said with mute eloquence, "Lead me."
The mighty shape of God is for terrifying the unbeliever; when you become helpless, God's form is mercy and kindness."

Rumi (Vol.4, 3693-3754)

Commentary: Being "dumbfounded, crazed, distraught and annihilated"; finally a spiritual assignment that is do-able!

Rumi's Prayer

"O God, who knows the manifest and the hidden,
To whom but Thee, should your servant lift his hand? Both the prayer and the answer to the prayer are from You.
You, at first, give the desire for prayer, and You, at last, likewise give the compensation for prayers.
You are the First and the Last: we between are nothing..."
God said, "I am all sufficing,: I will give you all good, without the intervention of a secondary cause,
I will give you fullness without bread, I will give you sovereignty without soldiers and armies.
I will give you narcissus and wild roses without the spring, I will give you instruction without a book and teacher.
I am all sufficing: I will heal you without medicine, I will make a grave and the pit a spacious playing field.
To a Moses, I give a heart of courage.."

Rumi (Vol. 4, 3498-3521)

Commentary: Maybe the words we use, are not all that important...

Outward and Inward

"How should bread restore to health the spirit that averts its heart from the command of the Beloved Spirit?
Or did you suppose that when you read the words of the Mathnawi you heard them gratis, without you having to give anything in return?
The discourse of wisdom and the hidden mystery comes in, but like fables, it shows only the husk, not the kernel of the berries.
The difference between truth and falsehood is visible at the moment when the collyrium of Divine favor opens the eye.
If you become really acquainted with this pure water, which is the Word of God and spiritual,
All distress will vanish from your soul, and the heart will find its way to the rose garden.
Because every one who catches a scent of the mystery of the Divine scriptures, flies into an orchard with a running brook.
Or did you suppose that we see the face of the Saints as it is in reality?
God does not nod his head to you outwardly, but He makes you a prince over the princes of this world.
Just as he gave the stone such virtue that it was honored as His creatures; that is to say, it became gold,
If a drop of water gains the favor of God, it becomes a pearl..."

Rumi (Vol.4, 3458-3490)

Commentary: The spiritual words and poetry of the Mathnawi are beautiful, but not sufficient. What Rumi points to, will cost "everything".

The Limitations of the Intellect

"Go, become quit of this intellect: seek the eye appertaining to the invisible, inward eye and enjoy contemplation.
From scholastic study and this intellect comes nothing but vertigo...
Do not seek spiritual eminence from disputation; for the one who is expectant of Divine inspiration, listening is better than speaking.
The office of teaching is a sort of sensual desire...
The sick man's intellect leads him to the physician; but his intellect is not successful in curing him...
God drove the particular intellect from its autonomy,
Saying," Do not domineer, you are not autonomous; no, you are a pupil of the heart and predisposed to learn from it.
Go to the heart. You are a part of the heart..."
Go therefore, be silent in submission beneath the shade of the command of the Master;
Otherwise, though you are predisposed and capable, you will become deformed, boasting of your perfection.
You strive much, and at last even you yourself say in weariness that the intellect is a fetter...
In the spiritual sea, swimming is of no avail: here is no resource but the ark of Noah...
Unless you desire this incessant lying down, and rising up, and stumbling on the way, sharpen your eye with the dust on the foot of a holy man."

Rumi, (Vol. 4, 3313-3372)

Commentary: Silence is better...(?!)

How Rumi Sees the World

"When anyone shows ingratitude to Universal Reason, the form of the universe appears to him as mean; accordingly,
Make peace with this Father, abandon disobedience, that the water and clay of the world may appear to you to be a carpet of gold...
At every moment appears a new form and a new beauty, so that from seeing the new visions, boredom dies away.
I see the world to be full of bounty- the waters constantly gushing from the springs.
I see the boughs dancing like those who have newly entered the mystical life, the leaves clapping their hands like minstrels...
Your intelligence is distributed over a hundred important affairs, over thousands of desires and great matters and small.
You must unite the scattered parts by means of love, to the end that you might become sweet..
When you become united, grain by grain, after your dispersion in perplexity, then it is possible to stamp upon you the King's die;
So that the Beloved will be to you both bread and water and lamp and minion and dessert and wine.
Unite yourself- union is a Divine mercy...
Silence is best; it gives peace to the spirit."

Rumi (Vol. 4, 3260-3297)

Commentary: Rumi has endless names for God; the Universal Reason, the Beloved, the King, the Father, the One. What is ultimately nameless, can only be reached by love.

As Soon As Possible

"Union with this world, is separation from that world.
Hard is the separation from this transitory abode: know that the separation from the permanent abode is even harder.
Since it is hard for you to be separated from the form, how hard must it be to be separated from its Maker!
O You, who has not the patience to do without this vile world, How, O friend, do you have the patience to do without God?
Since you do not have the patience to to do without this black water, how have you the patience to do without God's pure fountain?
If for one moment you were to behold the beauty of the Loving One, and cast your soul and existence into the fire of love...
You would obtain your Beloved. Then you would draw out from your foot the thorn of self.
Strive for selflessness, find your true self, as soon as possible."

Rumi (Vol 4, 3209-3219)

Commentary: The Saints say that we are destined to experience a love and a joy, that exceeds any happiness we have experienced thus far...

Arrogance and Humility

"If by degrees you do not run away from worldly fortune, autumn will come over this spring of yours.
After all, how should East and West, which are not permanent, make any one enduring?
You take pride in the fact that people, from fear and bondage, have become your flatterers for a few days.
When people bow in adoration to any one, they are really pouring poison into his soul.
When his adorer turns away from him, he knows that adoration was poisonous and destructive to him.
Alas for the one who became like a mountain from arrogance!
Know that this pride is a killing poison; that fool was intoxicated by a poisonous wine...
When an unhappy wretch drinks the poisonous wine, he nods his head in delight for one moment.
After one moment, the poison falls on his spirit: the poison exercises complete sway over his spirit.
When one King gains the upper hand over another King, he kills him, or confines him to a dungeon.
But if he find a fallen, wounded man, the King will make a bandage for him, and bestow gifts on him.
Why did he kill the vanquished King?... How did he treat the helpless man so kindly?
No highwayman ever attacked a beggar...
The broken, contrite one will be saved. Be thou broken. Safety lies in poverty: enter into poverty.
How should anything that is level with the earth become a target for arrows? Consider!
But if it raises its head from the earth, then, like targets, it will suffer irremediable blows.
This egoism is the ladder climbed by the creatures of God: they must fall from this ladder in the end.
The higher any one goes, the more foolish you are, for your bones will be more broken."

Rumi (Vol.4 2740-2764)

Commentary: "Pride goeth before the fall"

The Promise

"Do you understand at all what the promise is and what the gift is? God is showing solicitude for the rebel.
When that gracious One called you back so kindly, oh, it is a wonder how your heart remained unmoved.
Who, really, can find bazaars where with a single rose you are buying whole fields of roses;
Where a hundred groves are offered to you in exchange for one seed, a hundred mines in exchange for one coin?
When indeed should fortune like this befall? A Sea has become the suitor for a drop. In God's name, in God's name, sell and buy at once! Give a drop and take in return a sea which is full of pearls.
...do not make any postponement, for these words come from the Sea of Grace."

Rumi (Vol 4, 2604-2623)

Commentary: Apparently the spiritual "market value" of our attention and prayers, will not offer any better return, than they will today. Sell and buy!

Always Open

"Through God's bounty the door of repentance is open.
From the quarter of the West, a door of repentance is open to humanity until the Resurrection.
Til the sun lifts up and rises from the West, that door is open: do not avert your face from it.
By the mercy of God, Paradise has eight doors: one of these eight is the door of repentance, O son. O daughter.
All the others are sometimes open, sometimes shut; yet never is the door of repentance anything but open.
Come seize the opportunity: the door is open."

Rumi (Vol.4, 2503-2508)

Commentary: If that door is always open, I wonder why we hesitate to enter?

Suffering and Grace

"In appearance I am ruining your work, but in reality, I am making a thorn into a rose garden.
A certain man was plowing the soil: a fool cried out and could not control himself,
Saying, "Why are you ruining this soil, and cleaving and scattering it?"
"O fool" said he, "begone, do not interfere with me: recognize the difference between cultivation and devastation.
How should this soil become a rose garden, or a cornfield unless the soil becomes ugly and ruined?
How should it become crops and leaves and fruits until its arrangement is turned up-side down?
When a tailor cuts the cloth for a garment, piece by piece, will anyone strike that expert tailor,
Saying, " Why have you torn this choice satin? What can I do with a torn garment?"
Until you crush wheat in the mill, how will our table be garnished with bread?"

Rumi (Vol.4, 2340- 2353)

Commentary:When it is your own heart that is getting broken open, the difference between cultivation and devastation can be hard to grasp. Maybe when the roses come up after a long, hard , snowy winter, we will know.

A Secret Place

"Behold humankind, how unenlightened they are, and how they are perishing in desire of a perishable piece of goods.
On account of pride, they are all in separation from God, dead to the Spirit, living in trickery.
It is wonderful that the spirit is in prison, and then, all that time the key of the prison is in the prisoner's hand!..
The Divine light is hidden and the search is the evidence of its existence, for the heart does not seek shelter in vain...
Separation is secretly in quest of union."

Rumi (Vol.4, 2032-2041)

Commentary: The last place you might have thought to look for God, is within your own heart.

The Divine Physician

"The perfect divine physicians will hear your name from afar, and quickly penetrate into the deepest ground of your being and existence;
No, they will have seen you years before your birth- you, together with all the circumstances connected with you...
You are inhaling scent, and no flowers are visible: doubtless it is from the Unseen, and from the garden of the Universal...
Show kindness; O You who knows, and can tell us the mystery...
How should a Sufi be grieved on account of poverty? The very essence of poverty becomes his nurse and his food,
Because Paradise has grown from things disliked, and Mercy is the portion of one who is helpless and broken."

Rumi (Vol. 4, 1800-1856)

Commentary: The good divine Doctor, sends some surprising medicines: like poverty, and the annoying and irritating disappointments of the day. The only lasting cures will be brought about by mercy and grace.

Exterior and Interior

"God has said, "I do not look at the exterior, I am regarding the interior."
A certain man came home from Iraq, clad in a tattered cloak: his friends inquired concerning his separation from them.
"Yes" he replied, "there was the sorrow of separation, but the journey was very blessed and fortunate for me.
For the Caliph gave me ten robes of honor, may a hundred praises and laudations ever accompany him."
He was reciting expressions of gratitude and praise till he carried gratitude beyond bound and limit.
Then they said to him, "Your wretched clothes bear witness to your mendacity.
You are naked, bare-headed, consumed with afflictions: you have either stolen these expressions of gratitude, or learned them by rote."
He replied, " I gave them away, what he bestowed..I received all the presents from the prince,and distributed them among the orphans and the poor."
Then they said to him, " Where are the signs of love and charity and being pleased with God, if what you said has passed is true?
Where are the signs of self-sacrifice, O sour one? The smell of false and empty words is coming from you: be silent!"
Charity, for God's sake, has a hundred signs within the heart: the good deed has a hundred tokens.
A sowing of pure seeds in God's earth, and then no income? That is impossible."

Rumi (Vol.4 1738-1759)

Commentary: What we do, and who we are is visible and communicated; much more than we might think, or want.

With Both Eyes

"O you, who bites your lip in admiration at the beauty of spring, look on the coldness and paleness of autumn.
In the daytime you deem the countenance of the sun to be beautiful: remember its death in the moment of setting.
If the body of those in the fresh bloom of youth has made you its prey, after it has come to old age, behold a body bleached like a cotton plantation.
O you, who have enjoyed rich and wonderful food, arise and see the residue thereof in the latrine...
The acute, far seeing, artful genius, behold it at last as an imbecile...
Observe the world's existence, how at first it is pleasing and joyous; and then observe its shamefulness and corruption in the end...
Reckon every particle of the world to be like this: bring its beginning and its end into consideration...
O you, who have put firm confidence in the vain words and flattery of a scoundrel.
You have raised up a tent of bubbles: in the end you will find that the tent has exceedingly weak ropes...
Seek the applause and the renown that does not die away, the splendor of a sun that does not sink....
Everyone pretends to excellence and elegance: the stone of death is the touchstone for these qualities...
See the beginning and the end with both eyes. "

Rumi (Vol. 4 1596- 1709)

Commentary: Mystics are frequently accused of being romantics and idealists, and otherworldly. But Rumi insists that we look at this world without illusions, without deception, without wishful thinking. It is a bracing assignment; to look at existence with both eyes open.

The Pharaoh and His Adviser

"How many times did Pharaoh soften and become submissive when he was hearing the Word from Moses?..From that incomparable Word, a rock would have yielded milk.
(Yet) whenever the King took counsel with Haman, who was his adviser, and whose nature was to hate,
Then Haman would say, "Until now you were a King, would you become, through deception, the slave of a wearer of rags?"
All that the Moses of sweet address built up in a hundred days, the adviser would destroy in one moment.
Your intellect is the adviser, and is overcome by sensuality; in the realm of your being is a thief who attacks you on the Way to God.
If someone holy gives you good advice, the intellect will artfully put those words aside,
Saying,"These words are not well founded: take heed, don't be carried away by them, they are not worth so much; come to yourself, be sensible; don't be crazed."
I have not seen anything but misery in the vile: if you have seen anything else, convey to them felicitations from me.
The King is as the spirit, and the adviser is as the corrupt intellect. When the angelic intellect becomes the adviser, it becomes a teacher...
The two eyes of the soul, are fixed on the end of things: it endures the pain of the thorn, for the sake of that Rose which does not fade and drop in autumn.
...flee from title and from name, and enter into reality.
If I find in the company, one who draws the discourse from me towards God, I, like the garden, will grow hundreds and thousands of roses.
And if at that time I find there the scoundrel who kills the discourse, the deep sayings will flee like a thief, from my heart."

Rumi (Vol. 4, 1240-1320)

Commentary: The mind, especially the corrupt sensual mind, is not a trustworthy adviser. Rumi, on the other hand, is almost always very good company...

Asking

"Seek greed, seek to be eager in the practice of religion and in good works: they are still beautiful, even when the greed and eagerness are gone...
Unless the intelligent had experienced God's beneficence more than a thousand times, how should they have moved themselves towards God?
No, all the fish in the waves of the sea, all the birds in the lofty regions of the sky,
The elephant and the wolf, and also the hunting lion, the huge dragon, and also the ant and the snake,
No, earth and wind and water and every spark of fire gains subsistence from God, both in December and spring.
This heaven and earth is making entreaty unto the One incessantly, "Do not forsake me, O God, for a single moment!"...
Come, ask of God, not of anyone except God, seek water in the sea, do not seek it in the dry river bed.
And if you ask another, it is God that gives; it is God that lays generosity on the open hand of that other one's inclination."

Rumi (Vol.4, 1130-1183)

Commentary: We have to ask. And it is God who is always giving. But do we notice that generosity?