With every breath the sound of love surrounds us...by Rumi

With every breath the sound

of love surrounds us,

and we are bound for the depths

of space, without distraction.

We've been in orbit before

and know the angels there.

Let's go there again, Master,

for that is our land.

Yet we are beyond all of that

and more than angels.

Out beyond duality,

we have a home, and it is Majesty.

That pure substance is

different from this dusty world.

What kind of place is this?

We once came down; soon we'll return.

A new happiness befriends us

as we work at offering our lives.

Belovedd, the jewel of the world,

is our caravan's chosen guide.

The sweetness we breathe on the wind

is from the scent of his hair,

and the radiance of our thought

is from the light of his day.

His face once caused

the moon to split in two.

She couldn't endure the sight of him.

Yet how lucky she was,

she who humbly received him.

Look into your heart and see

the splitting moon within each breath.

Having seen that vision,

how can you still dream?

When the wave of "Am I not?" struck,

it wrecked the body's ship;

when the ship wrecks again,

it will be the time of union.

The Human Being, like a bird of the sea,

emerged from the ocean of the soul.

Earth is not the final place of rest

for a bird born from the sea.

No, we are pearls of that ocean;

all of us live in it;

and if it weren't so, why would

wave upon wave arrive?

This is the time of union,

the time of eternal beauty.

It is the time of luck and kindness;

it is the ocean of purity.

The wave of bestowal has come.

The roar of the sea is here.

The morning of happiness has dawned.

No, it is the light of God.

Whose face is pictured here?

Who is this shah or prince?

Who is this ancient intelligence?

They are all masks . . .

and the only remedy is

this boiling ecstasy of the soul.

A fountain of refreshment

is in the head and the eyes -

not this bodily head

but another pure spiritual one.

Many a pure head has been spilled

in the dust. Know the one from the other!

Our original head is hidden,

while this other is visible.

Beyond this world is a world

that has no boundaries.

Put your water skin away, brother,

and draw some wine from our cask!

The clay jug of perception

has such a narrow spout.

The sun appeared from the direction of Tabriz,

and I said, "This light is at once joined

with all things, and yet apart from everything."

Rumi

My love, you are closer to me than myself,

you shine through my eyes.

Your light is brighter than the Moon.

Step into the garden

so all the flowers, even the tall poplar

can kneel before your beauty.

Let your voice silence the lily

famous for its hundred tongues.

When you want to be kind you are

softer than the soul but when you withdraw

you can be so cold and harsh.

Dear one, you can be wild and rebellious but

when you meet him face to face

his charm will make you docile like the earth.

Throw away your shield and bare your chest

there is no stronger protection than him.

That's why when the dervish withdraws

from the world he covers all the cracks in the wall,

so the outside light cannot come though.

He knows that only the inner light

illuminates his world.

~ Rumi