Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu ,Buddhist, sufi, or zen.......by Rumi

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,
not Hindu ,Buddhist, sufi, or zen.

Not any religion
or cultural system.

I am not from the East or the West,
not out of the ocean or up from the ground,
not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all.

I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or in the next,

did not descend from Adam and Eve 

or any origin story.

My place is placeless,
a trace of the traceless.
Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved,
have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

~ Rumi

From The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks

What makes the Sufi ?...by Rumi

What makes the Sufi ?
Purity of heart;

Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse
Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name.

He in all dregs discerns the essence pure:
In hardship ease, in tribulation joy.

The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn
Guard Beauty's palace-gate and curtained bower,

Give way before him, unafraid he passes,
And showing the King's arrow, enters in.

~ Rumi
Translated by R. A. Nicholson
'Persian Poems' an Anthology of verse
translations edited by A.J.Arberry,
Everyman's Library, 1972

To be a sufi...by Rumi

To be a Sufi, 
forget the past, 
put it all away;

Turn a brand new page, 
rescue your being from yesterday;

Become a child of the present age,
of youth, of wisdom,

Never leave this bountiful moment,
this eternal day

~ Rumi

My soul wants to fly away...by Rumi

My soul wants to fly away 
when your presence calls it so sweetly. 

My soul wants to take flight, 
when you whisper, “Arise.” 

A fish wants to dive from dry land into the ocean,
when it hears the drum beating “Return.”

A Sufi, shimmering with light,
wants to dance like a sunbeam
when darkness summons him.

~ Rumi.