poetry: rumi

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to sleep.</div> <div> You must ask for what you really want.</div> <div>  Don't go back to sleep.</div> <div> People are going back and forth across the doorsill</div> <div>  where the two worlds touch.</div> <div> The door is round and open.</div> <div>  Don't go back to sleep.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Two Kinds of Intelligence</b></div> <bR> <div> There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired,</div> <div> as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts</div> <div> from books and from what the teacher says,</div> <div> collecting information from the traditional sciences</div> <div> as well as from the new sciences.</div> <bR> <div> With such intelligence you rise in the world.</div> <div> You get ranked ahead or behind others</div> <div> in regard to your competence in retaining</div> <div> information. You stroll with this intelligence</div> <div> in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more</div> <div> marks on your preserving tablets.</div> <bR> <div> There is another kind of tablet, one</div> <div> already completed and preserved inside you.</div> <div> A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness</div> <div> in the center of the chest. This other intelligence</div> <div> does not turn yellow or stagnate. It's fluid,</div> <div> and it doesn't move from outside to inside</div> <div> through the conduits of plumbing-learning.</div> <bR> <div> This second knowing is a fountainhead</div> <div> from within you, moving out.</div> <bR> <div> <B>You Are the Only Student You Have</b></div> <bR> <div> You are the only faithful student you have.</div> <div> All the others leave eventually.</div> <bR> <div> Have you been making yourself shallow</div> <div> with making other eminent?</div> <bR> <div> Just remember, when you're in union,</div> <div> you don't have to fear</div> <div> that you'll be drained.</div> <bR> <div> The command comes to speak,</div> <div> and you feel the ocean</div> <div> moving through you.</div> <div> Then comes, Be silent,</div> <div> as when the rain stops,</div> <div> and the trees in the orchard</div> <div> begin to draw moisture</div> <div> up into themselves.</div> <bR> <div> <I><B><U>The Life and Spiritual Milieu of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi</U></b></I></div> <bR> <div> In the last decades of the Twentieth Century the spiritual influence of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi is being strongly felt by people of diverse beliefs throughout the Western world. He is being recognized here in the West, as he has been for seven centuries in the Middle East and Western Asia, as one of the greatest literary and spiritual figures of all time.</div> <bR> <div> Different qualities of Rumi have been brought forth by a variety of new translations that have appeared during the nineteen-eighties. He has been presented as both refined and sensual, sober and ecstatic, deeply serious and extremely funny, rarefied and accessible. It is a sign of his profound universality that he has been so many things to so many people.</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Rumi's Life</U></b></div> <bR> <div> Jalâluddîn Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh in what is today Afghanistan. At an early age his family left Balkh because of the danger of the invading Mongols and settled in Konya, Turkey, which was then the capital of the Seljuk Empire. His father Bahauddin was a great religious teacher who received a position at the university in Konya.</div> <bR> <div> Mevlâna's early spiritual education was under the tutelage of his father Bahauddin and later under his father's close friend Sayyid Burhaneddin of Balkh. The circumstances surrounding Sayyid's undertaking of the education of his friend's son are interesting: Sayyid had been in Balkh, Afghanistan when he felt the death of his friend Bahauddin and realized that he must go to Konya to take over Jalâluddîn's spiritual education. He came to Konya when Mevlâna was about twenty-four years old, and for nine years instructed him in "the science of the prophets and states," beginning with a strict forty day retreat and continuing with various disciplines of meditation and fasting. During this time Jalâluddîn also spent more than four years in Aleppo and Damascus studying with some of the greatest religious minds of the time.</div> <bR> <div> As the years passed, Mevlâna grew both in knowledge and consciousness of God. Eventually Sayyid Burhaneddin felt that he had fulfilled his responsibility toward Jalâluddîn, and he wanted to live out the rest of his years in seclusion. He told Mevlâna, "You are now ready, my son. You have no equal in any of the branches of learning. You have become a lion of knowledge. I am such a lion myself and we are not both needed here and that is why I want to go. Furthermore, a great friend will come to you, and you will be each other's mirror. He will lead you to the innermost parts of the spiritual world, just as you will lead him. Each of you will complete the other, and you will be the greatest friends in the entire world." And so Sayyid intimated the coming of Shams of Tabriz, the central event of Rumi's life.</div> <bR> <div> At the age of thirty-seven Mevlâna met the spiritual vagabond Shams. Much has already been written about their relationship. Prior to this encounter Rumi had been an eminent professor of religion and a highly attained mystic; after this he became an inspired poet and a great lover of humanity. Rumi's meeting with Shams can be compared to Abraham's meeting with Melchizedek. I owe to Murat Yagan this explanation: "A Melchizedek and a Shams are messengers from the Source. They do nothing themselves but carry enlightenment to someone who can receive, someone who is either too full or too empty. Mevlâna was one who was too full. After receiving it, he could apply this message for the benefit of humanity." Shams was burning and Rumi caught fire. Shams' companionship with Rumi was brief. Despite the fact that each was a perfect mirror for the other Shams disappeared, not once but twice. The first time, Rumi's son Sultan Veled searched for and discovered him in Damascus. The second disappearance, however, proved to be final, and it is believed that he may have been murdered by people who resented his influence over Mevlâna.</div> <bR> <div> Rumi was a man of knowledge and sanctity before meeting Shams, but only after the alchemy of this relationship was he able to fulfill Sayyid Burhaneddin's prediction that he would "drown men's souls in a fresh life and in the immeasurable abundance of God... and bring to life the dead of this false world with... meaning and love."</div> <bR> <div> For more than ten years after meeting Shams, Mevlâna had been spontaneously composing odes, or ghazals, and these had been collected in a large volume called the Divan-i Kabir. Meanwhile Mevlâna had developed a deep spiritual friendship with Husameddin Chelebi. The two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside of Konya one day when Husameddin described an idea he had to Mevlâna: "If you were to write a book like the Ilahiname of Sanai or the Mantik'ut-Tayr'i of Fariduddin Attar it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would fill their hearts form you work and compose music to accompany it."</div> <bR> <div> Mevlâna smiled and took from inside the folds of his turban a piece of paper on which were written the opening eighteen lines of his Mathnawi, beginning with:</div> <bR> <div> Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,</div> <div> how it sings of separation...</div> <div> Husameddin wept for joy and implored Mevlâna to write volumes more. Mevlâna replied, "Chelebi, if you consent to write for me, I will recite." And so it happened that Mevlâna in his early fifties began the dictation of this monumental work. As Husameddin described the process: "He never took a pen in his hand while composing the Mathnawi. Wherever he happened to be, whether in the school, at the Ilgin hot springs, in the Konya baths, or in the Meram vineyards, I would write down what he recited. Often I could barely keep up with his pace, sometimes, night and day for several days. At other times he would not compose for months, and once for two years there was nothing. At the completion of each book I would read it back to him, so that he could correct what had been written."</div> <bR> <div> The Mathnawi can justifiably be considered the greatest spiritual masterpiece ever written by a human being. It's content includes the full spectrum of life on earth, every kind of human activity: religious, cultural, political, sexual, domestic; every kind of human character form the vulgar to the refined; as well as copious and specific details of the natural world, history and geography. It is also a book that presents the vertical dimension of life -- from this mundane world of desire, work, and things, to the most sublime levels of metaphysics and cosmic awareness. It is its completeness that enchants us.</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>His Spiritual Milieu</U></b></div> <bR> <div> What do we need to know to receive the knowledge that Rumi offers us?</div> <bR> <div> First of all, it needs to be understood that Rumi's tradition is not an "Eastern" tradition. It is neither of the East nor of the West, but something in between. Rumi's mother-tongue was Persian, an Indo-European language strongly influenced by Semitic (Arabic) vocabulary, something like French with a smattering of Hebrew.</div> <bR> <div> Furthermore, the Islamic tradition, which shaped him, acknowledges that only one religion has been given to mankind through countless prophets, or messengers, who have come to every people on earth bearing this knowledge of Spirit. God is the subtle source of all life, Whose essence cannot be described or compared to anything, but Who can be known through the spiritual qualities that are manifest in the world and in the human heart. It is a deeply mystical tradition, on the one hand, with a strong and clear emphasis on human dignity and social justice, on the other.</div> <bR> <div> Islam is understood as a continuation of the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic tradition, honoring the Hebrew prophets, as well as Jesus and Mary. Muslims, however, are very sensitive to the issue of attributing divinity to a human being, which they see as the primary error of Christianity. although Jesus is called the in the Qur'an "the Spirit of God," it would be thought a blasphemy to identify any human being exclusively as God. Muhammad is viewed as the last of those human prophets who brought the message of God's love.</div> <bR> <div> In Rumi's world, the Islamic way of life had established a high level of spiritual awareness among the general population. The average person would be someone who performed regular ablutions and prayed five times a day, fasted from food and drink during the daylight hours for at least one month a year, and closely followed a code which emphasized the continual remembrance of God, intention, integrity, generosity, and respect for all life. Although the Mathnawi can appeal to us on many levels, it assumes a rather high level of spiritual awareness as a starting point and extends to the very highest levels of spiritual understanding.</div> <bR> <div> The unenlightened human state is one of "faithlessness" in which an individual lives in slavery to the false self and the desires of the materials world. The spiritual practices which Rumi would have known were aimed at transforming the compulsiveness of the false self and attaining Islam or "Submission" to a higher order of reality. Without this submission the real self is enslaved to the ego and lives in a state of internal conflict due to the contradictory impulses of the ego. The enslaved ego is cut off from the heart, the chief organ for perceiving reality, and cannot receive the spiritual guidance and nourishment which the heart provides.</div> <bR> <div> Overcoming this enslavement and false separation leads to the realization and development of our true humanity. spiritual maturity is the realization that the self is a reflection of the Divine. God is the Beloved or Friend, the transpersonal identity. Love of God leads to the lover forgetting himself in the love of the Beloved.</div> <bR> <div>  Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi</div> <bR> <div> <B>A Prayer</b></div> <bR> <div> May God have mercy on those who lead the way</div> <div> and those who come behind and those who fulfill their vows,</div> <div> and those who seek to fulfill them,</div> <div> with His Grace and bounty, His great benefits and favors!</div> <div> For He is the best object of petition and the noblest object of hope;</div> <div> and God is the best protector and the most merciful</div> <div> of those who show mercy, and the best of friends and the best of heirs</div> <div> and the best replacer of what has been consumed</div> <div> and provider for those devoted who sow</div> <div> and till the soil of good works.</div> <div> And God bless Muhammad and all the Prophets and Messengers!</div> <div> Amen, O Lord of created beings!</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Journey</b></div> <bR> <div> Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:</div> <div> every success depends upon focusing the heart.</div> <div> Unconcerned with the business of the world,</div> <div> keep saying with all your soul, "Ku, ku," like the dove.</div> <div> Consider this well, o you whom worldliness veils,</div> <div> God has tied "invocation" to "I will answer."</div> <div> When weakness is cleared from your heart,</div> <div> your prayer will reach the glorious Lord.</div> <bR> <div> Even though you're not equipped,</div> <div> keep searching:</div> <div> equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord.</div> <div> Whoever you see engaged in search,</div> <div> become her friend and cast your head in front of her,</div> <div> for choosing to be a neighbor of seekers,</div> <div> you become one yourself;</div> <div> protected by conquerors,</div> <div> you will yourself learn to conquer.</div> <div> If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon,</div> <div> don't smile contemptuously upon its quest.</div> <div> Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,</div> <div> wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?</div> <bR> <div> O God, You who know all that is hidden</div> <div> You who speak with compassion,</div> <div> don't hide from us the errors of our wrong pursuits;</div> <div> nor reveal to us the lack within the good we try to do,</div> <div> lest we become disgusted and lose the heart</div> <div> to journey on this Path.</div> <bR> <div> On Resurrection Day God will ask,</div> <div> "During this reprieve I gave you,</div> <div> what have you produced for Me?</div> <div> Through what work have you reached your life's end?</div> <div> Your food and your strength, for what have they been consumed?</div> <div> Where have you dimmed the luster of your eye?</div> <div> Where have you dissipated your five senses?</div> <div> You have expended eyes and ears and intellect</div> <div> and the pure celestial substances;</div> <div> what have you purchased from the earth?</div> <div> I gave you hands and feet as spade and mattock</div> <div> for tilling the soil of good works;</div> <div> when did they by themselves become existent?</div> <bR> <div> The Prophet said, "I am like an Ark in the Flood of Time.</div> <div> I and my companions are as the Ship of Noah:</div> <div> whoever clings to us will gain spiritual graces."</div> <div> When you are with the Sheikh you are far removed from evil:</div> <div> day and night you are a traveller in a ship.</div> <div> You are under the protection of a life-giving spirit:</div> <div> you are asleep in the ship and proceeding on the way.</div> <div> Don't break with the prophet of your day:</div> <div> don't rely on your own skill and footsteps.</div> <div> Lion though you are, to go on the way without a guide</div> <div> is arrogant, foolish, and contemptible.</div> <div> Step aboard the ship and set sail,</div> <div> like the soul going towards the soul's Beloved.</div> <div> Without hands or feet, travel toward Timelessness</div> <div> just as spirits flee from non-existence.</div> <bR> <div> O Muslim, while you are still engaged in the quest,</div> <div> good manners are nothing but forbearance</div> <div> with everyone who is unmannerly.</div> <div> When you see anyone complaining</div> <div> of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper,</div> <div> know that the complainant is bad-tempered,</div> <div> forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person,</div> <div> because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing</div> <div> towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured.</div> <bR> <div> By God, don't linger</div> <div> in any spiritual benefit you have gained,</div> <div> but yearn for more like one suffering from illness</div> <div> whose thirst for water is never quenched.</div> <div> This Divine Court is the Infinite Plane.</div> <div> Leave the seat of honor behind:</div> <div> the Way is your seat of honor.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The World</b></div> <bR> <div> This world is like a tree,</div> <div> and we are the half-ripe fruit upon it.</div> <div> Unripe fruit clings tight to the branch</div> <div> because, immature, it's not ready for the palace.</div> <div> When fruits become ripe, sweet and juicy,</div> <div> then biting their lips, they loosen their hold.</div> <div> When the mouth has been sweetened by felicity,</div> <div> the kingdom of the world loses its appeal.</div> <div> To be tightly attached to the world signifies immaturity;</div> <div> as long as you're an embryo,</div> <div> blood-drinking is your business.</div> <bR> <div> When a man is busy in earnest,</div> <div> he is unconscious of his pain.</div> <div> I mention this insensibility to pain</div> <div> so you may know how much the body resembles a garment.</div> <div> Go, seek the one who wears it;</div> <div> don't kiss a piece of cloth.</div> <bR> <div> Our body is our veil in the world:</div> <div> we are like a sea hidden beneath a straw.</div> <bR> <div> The saint's greeting of peace has become God's greeting,</div> <div> because the saint has set fire to the household of self.</div> <div> He has died to self and become living through the Lord,</div> <div> so the mysteries of God flow from his lips.</div> <div> The death of the body in self-discipline is life:</div> <div> the sufferings of the body are the cause of everlastingness to the spirit.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Spirit</b></div> <bR> <div> Day and night there is movement of foam on the Sea.</div> <div> You see the foam, but not the Sea. Amazing!</div> <div> We are dashing against each other like boats:</div> <div> our eyes are darkened though we are in clear water.</div> <div> O you who have gone to sleep in the body's boat,</div> <div> you've seen the water,</div> <div> but look at the Water of the water.</div> <div> The water has a Water that is driving it;</div> <div> the spirit has a Spirit that is calling it.</div> <bR> <div> Time is limited, and the abundant water is flowing away.</div> <div> Drink, before you fall to pieces.</div> <div> There is a famous conduit, full of the Water of Life:</div> <div> draw the Water, in order that verdure may grow up from you.</div> <div> We are drinking the water of Khidr</div> <div> from the river of the speech of the saints:</div> <div> Come, O heedless thirsty man!</div> <div> Even if you don't see the water, artfully, like the blind,</div> <div> bring the jug to the river and dip it in.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Vision</b></div> <bR> <div> The one who is ruled by Mind,</div> <div> without sleeping, puts her senses to sleep,</div> <div> so that unseen things may emerge from the world of the Soul.</div> <div> Even in her waking state, she dreams dreams,</div> <div> and opens thereby the gates of Heaven.</div> <bR> <div> During prayer I am accustomed to turn to God like this:</div> <div> that's the meaning of the words of the Tradition,</div> <div> 'the delight felt in the ritual prayer.'</div> <div> The window of my soul opens,</div> <div> and from the purity of the Unseen World,</div> <div> the Book of God comes to me straight.</div> <div> The Book, the rain of Divine Grace, and the Light</div> <div> are falling into my house through a window</div> <div> from my real and original source.</div> <div> The house without a window is Hell:</div> <div> to make a window is the foundation of true religion.</div> <div> Don't thrust your axe upon every thicket:</div> <div> come, use your axe to cut open a window.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Heart</b></div> <bR> <div> The deliciousness of milk and honey is the reflection of the pure heart:</div> <div> from that heart the sweetness of every sweet thing is derived.</div> <div> The heart is the substance, and the world the accident:</div> <div> how should the heart's shadow be the object of the heart's desire?</div> <div> Is that pure heart the heart that is enamored of riches or power,</div> <div> or is submissive to this black earth and water of the body,</div> <div> or to vain fancies it worships in the darkness for the sake of fame?</div> <div> The heart is nothing but the Sea of Light:</div> <div> is the heart the place of vision of God--and then blind?</div> <bR> <div> On Resurrection Day God will ask,</div> <div> "During this reprieve I gave you,</div> <div> what have you produced for Me?</div> <div> Through what work have you reached your life's end?</div> <div> Your food and your strength, for what have they been consumed?</div> <div> Where have you dimmed the luster of your eye?</div> <div> Where have you dissipated your five senses?</div> <div> You have expended eyes and ears and intellect</div> <div> and the pure celestial substances;</div> <div> what have you purchased from the earth?</div> <div> I gave you hands and feet as spade and mattock</div> <div> for tilling the soil of good works;</div> <div> when did they by themselves become existent?</div> <bR> <div> You know the value of every article of merchandise,</div> <div> but if you don't know the value of your own soul,</div> <div> it's all foolishness.</div> <div> You've come to know the fortunate and the inauspicious stars;</div> <div> but you don't know whether you yourself are fortunate or unclean.</div> <div> This, this is the essence of all sciences -</div> <div> that you should know who you will be when Judgment Day arrives.</div> <bR> <div> Surely there is a window from heart to heart:</div> <div> they are not separate and far from each other.</div> <div> Two earthenware lamps are not joined,</div> <div> but their light is mingled as it moves.</div> <div> No lover seeks union without the beloved seeking;</div> <div> but the love of lovers makes the body thin as a bowstring,</div> <div> while the love of loved ones makes them comely and plump.</div> <div> When the lightning of love for the beloved</div> <div> has shot into this heart, know that there is love in that heart.</div> <div> When love for God has been doubled in your heart,</div> <div> there is no doubt that God has love for you.</div> <div> [III, 4391-6]</div> <bR> <div> Know that between the Faithful is an ancient union.</div> <div> The Faithful are numerous, but the Faith is one:</div> <div> their bodies are numerous, but their soul is one.</div> <div> Besides the understanding which is in the ox and the ass,</div> <div> the human being has another intelligence and soul;</div> <div> Again, in the saint, the owner of Divine breath,</div> <div> there is a soul and intelligence other than human.</div> <div> The souls of wolves and dogs are separate, every one,</div> <div> but the souls of the Lions of God are in union.</div> <div> [IV, 407-10;414]</div> <bR> <div> There are two kinds of intelligence.</div> <div> One is like that acquired by a child at school,</div> <div> from books and teachers, new ideas and memorization.</div> <div> Your intelligence may become superior to others,</div> <div> but retaining all that knowledge is a heavy load.</div> <div> You who are occupied in searching for knowledge</div> <div> are a preserving tablet,</div> <div> but the preserved tablet is the one who has gone beyond all this.</div> <div> For the other kind of intelligence is the gift of God:</div> <div> its fountain is in the midst of the soul.</div> <div> When the water of God-given knowledge gushes from the breast,</div> <div> it doesn't become fetid or impure.</div> <div> And if its way to the outside is blocked, what harm is there?</div> <div> For it gushes continually from the house of the heart.</div> <div> The acquired intelligence is like the conduits</div> <div> which run into the house from the streets:</div> <div> If those pipes become blocked, the house is bereft of water.</div> <div> Seek the fountain from within yourself.</div> <div> [IV, 1960-68]</div> <bR> <div> In the orchard a Sufi inclined his face Sufi fashion upon his knee,</div> <div> and sank deeply into mystical absorption.</div> <div> An rude man nearby became annoyed:</div> <div> "Why are you sleeping?" he exclaimed.</div> <div> Look at the vines, behold the trees and the signs of God's mercy.</div> <div> Pay attention to the Lord's command:</div> <div> Look ye and turn your face toward these signs of His mercy."</div> <div> The Sufi replied, "O heedless one, the true signs are within the heart:</div> <div> that which is external is only the sign of the signs."</div> <div> The real orchard and vineyards are within the very essence of the soul:</div> <div> the reflection upon that which is external</div> <div> is like a reflection in running water.</div> <div> In the water only a reflected image of the orchard</div> <div> quivers with the water's subtle movement.</div> <div> The real orchards and fruit flourish within the heart:</div> <div> the reflection of their beauty</div> <div> falls upon the water and earth of this world.</div> <div> If this world were not merely the reflection</div> <div> of that delectable cypress, the heart of the saint,</div> <div> then God would not have called it the abode of deception.</div> <div> Oh happy is the one who has died before death,</div> <div> for he has become acquainted with the origin of this vineyard.</div> <div> [IV, 1358-66;72]</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Grace</div> <bR> <div> O You who make demands within me like an embryo,</div> <div> since You are the one who makes the demand,</div> <div> make its fulfillment easy;</div> <div> show the way, help me,</div> <div> or else relinquish Your claim</div> <div> and take this burden from me!</div> <div> Since from a debtor You're demanding gold,</div> <div> give him gold in secret, O rich King!</div> <div> [III, 1490-2]</div> <bR> <div> You can't bear the bite of a flea:</div> <div> how will you endure the bite of a snake?</div> <div> In appearance I am ruining your work,</div> <div> but in reality I am making a thorn into a rose-garden.</div> <div> [IV, 2339-40]</div> <bR> <div> It was Mary's painful need that made such a babe as Jesus</div> <div> begin to speak from the cradle.</div> <div> Whatsoever grew has grown for the sake of those in need,</div> <div> so that a seeker may find the thing he sought.</div> <div> If God most High has created the heavens,</div> <div> He has created them for the purpose of satisfying needs.</div> <div> Wherever a pain is, that's where the cure goes;</div> <div> wherever poverty is, that's where provision goes.</div> <div> Wherever a difficult question is,</div> <div> that's where the answer goes;</div> <div> wherever a ship is,</div> <div> water goes to it.</div> <div> Don't seek the water; increase your thirst,</div> <div> so water may gush forth from above and below.</div> <div> Until the tender-throated babe is born,</div> <div> how should the milk for it</div> <div> flow from the mother's breast?</div> <div> [III, 3204;3208-13]</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Non-Existence</b></div> <bR> <div> The light of the senses and spirit of our fathers</div> <div> is not totally perishable like the grass,</div> <div> but, like the stars and moonbeams,</div> <div> they vanish in the radiance of the Sun.</div> <div> It's like the naked man who jumped into the water,</div> <div> so that he might escape from the hornets' stings:</div> <div> the hornets circled above him, and whenever</div> <div> he put out his head they would not spare him.</div> <div> The water is recollection of God,</div> <div> and the hornet is the thought, during this time,</div> <div> of such-and-such a woman or man.</div> <div> Hold your breath in the water of remembrance and show strength,</div> <div> so you may be freed from old thoughts and temptations.</div> <div> After that, you yourself will assume</div> <div> the nature of that pure water, entirely from head to foot.</div> <div> As the noxious hornet flees from the water,</div> <div> so will it be afraid of approaching you.</div> <div> After that be far from the water, if you wish;</div> <div> for in your inmost soul you are of the same nature as the water,</div> <div> Those persons then, who have passed from the world</div> <div> are not non-existent, but they are absorbed in the attributes of God,</div> <div> even as the star disappears in the presence of the sun.</div> <div> [IV, 432-3;435-43]</div> <bR> <div> The speaker said, "There is no dervish in the world;</div> <div> and if there be a dervish, that dervish is really non-existent."</div> <div> He exists in respect of the survival of his essence,</div> <div> but his attributes have become non-existent within God's.</div> <div> [III, 3669-70]</div> <bR> <div> If you don't have sovereignty over your own beard,</div> <div> how will you exercise sovereignty over good and evil?</div> <div> Without your wish, your beard grows white:</div> <div> be ashamed of your beard, O you whose hopes are perverse.</div> <div> God is the Possessor of the Kingdom:</div> <div> whoever lays his head before Him,</div> <div> to him he gives a hundred kingdoms without the terrestrial world;</div> <div> but the inward savour of a single prostration before God</div> <div> will be more sweet to you than a hundred empires:</div> <div> then you will cry in humble entreaty, "I desire not kingdoms:</div> <div> commit unto me the kingdom of that prostration."</div> <div> [IV, 662-6]</div> <bR> <div> For lovers, there is a dying at every moment:</div> <div> truly, the dying of lovers is not of one kind.</div> <div> The lover has two hundred lives from the Soul of Guidance,</div> <div> and he is sacrificing those two hundred at every instant.</div> <div> For each life he receives ten as its price:</div> <div> read from the Qur'an "ten like unto them."</div> <div> If my blood were shed by that friendly Face,</div> <div> dancing triumphantly I would lavish my life upon Him.</div> <div> I have tried it: my death consists in life:</div> <div> when I escape from this life, it is to endure forever.</div> <div> "Kill me, kill me, O trusty friends!</div> <div> For in my being killed is life upon life."</div> <div> O You who make the cheek radiant,</div> <div> O Spirit of everlastingness, draw my spirit to Yourself</div> <div> and generously bestow upon me the meeting with You.</div> <div> [III, 3834-40]</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Love</div> <bR> <div> For lovers, the only lecturer is the beauty of the Beloved;</div> <div> their only book and lecture and lesson is the Face.</div> <div> They are silent outwardly,</div> <div> but their penetrating remembrance rises</div> <div> to the high throne of their Friend.</div> <div> Their only lesson is enthusiasm, whirling, and trembling,</div> <div> not the fine points of jurisprudence.</div> <div> [III, 3847-9]</div> <bR> <div> That which God said to the rose,</div> <div> and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,</div> <div> He said to my heart,</div> <div> and made it a hundred times more beautiful.</div> <div> [III, 4129]</div> <bR> <div> Many have been led astray by the Qur'an:</div> <div> by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well.</div> <div> There is no fault in the rope, O perverse man,</div> <div> for it was you who had no desire to reach the top.</div> <div> [III, 4210-11]</div> <bR> <div> Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=40 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <img src="HTMLobj-2938/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="400" height="20">  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id192.htm" TARGET="_top" 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