Where roads are made I lose my way.....by Rabindranath Tagore

Where roads are made 
I lose my way.

In the wide water, in the blue sky 
there is no line of a track.

The pathway is hidden by the birds' wings,
by the star-fires,
by the flowers of the wayfaring seasons.

And I ask my heart
if its blood carries
the wisdom of the unseen way.

~ Rabindranath Tagore
Art by Mario Sanchez Nevado

O My restless Heart ! Tell the truth ! What substance are you ?.......by Rumi

O My restless Heart ! Tell the truth !
What substance are you ?
Are you fire or water ?
Are you Human or pure spirit ?

From what direction have you come ?

What food have you eaten ?

What have you witnessed in annihilation ?
And why are you flying toward annihilation ?

Why are you uprooting me ?
Why are you planning to erase me ?
Why are you ambushing my intellect ?
And why are you defaming yourself ?

All animals and creatures
are afraid of nonexistence,
except you who are setting off
toward nonexistence.

Wayfaring with such energy
intoxicated , completely drunk
when do you heed any warning ?
Or buy anyone's sweet talk ?

O , My Heart Listen

If gold yells two thousand times " I AM GOLD !"
it won't find a buyer
as long as does not get out of the mine.

~ Rumi

But it is a heart, my beloved. Where are its shores and its bottom ?...by Rabindranath Tagore

Your questioning eyes are sad. 
They seek to know my meaning 
as the moon would fathom the sea.

I have bared my life before your eyes from end to end, 
with nothing hidden or held back. 

That is why you know me not.

If it were only a gem I could break it into a hundred pieces
and string them into a chain to put on your neck.

If it were only a flower, round and small and sweet,
I could pluck it from its stem to set it in your hair.

But it is a heart, my beloved.
Where are its shores and its bottom ?

You know not the limits of this kingdom,
still you are its queen.

If it were only a moment of pleasure
it would flower in an easy smile,
and you could see it and read it in a moment.

If it were merely a pain it would melt in limpid tears,
reflecting its inmost secret without a word.

But it is love, my beloved.
Its pleasure and pain are boundless,
and endless its wants and wealth.

It is as near to you as your life,
but you can never wholly know it.

~ Rabindranath Tagore
The Gardener
Art by Nik Helbig

Do not keep to yourself the secret of your heart, my friend...by Rabindranath Tagore

Do not keep to yourself 
the secret of your heart, 
my friend !

Say it to me, 
only to me, in secret.

You who smile so gently, softly whisper,
my heart will hear it,
not my ears.

The night is deep, the house is silent,
the birds' nests are shrouded with sleep.

Speak to me through hesitating tears,
through faltering smiles,
through sweet shame and pain,
the secret of your heart !

~ Rabindranath Tagore
The Gardener

Seek the owner of the Heart...BY RUMI

The Beloved said, 
"God doesn't pay attention to your outer form:
so in your improvising, seek the owner of the Heart."

God says, 
"I regard you through the owner of the Heart,
not because of prostrations in prayer
or the giving of wealth in charity."

The owner of the Heart becomes a six-faced mirror:
through him God looks out upon all the six directions.

~ Rumi
Mathnawi V, 869-870, 874
The Rumi Collection
By Jelaluddin Rumi,
translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski

The Ruler of all hearts is waiting for a heart filled with light and goodness’ ~ Rumi

If a wealthy person brings 
a hundred sacks of gold,

God will only say,
“Bring the Heart, you who are bent double.

If the Heart is pleased with you, I am pleased;
and if the Heart is opposed to you, I am opposed.

I didn’t pay attention to “you”; I look to the Heart:
bring it, poor soul, as a gift to My door!

Its relation to you is also mine:
Paradise is at the feet of the mothers“.

The heart is the mother and father
and origin of all creatures:
the one who knows the heart from the skin is blessed.

You will say, “Look, I have brought a heart to You”.
God will respond,
“The world is full of these hearts.
Bring the heart that is the axis of the world
and the soul of the soul of the soul of Adam”.

The Ruler of all hearts is waiting for a heart
filled with light and goodness’

~ Rumi
Mathnawi V.881-888
The Rumi Collection
By Jelaluddin Rumi,
Kabir Helminski, Andrew Harvey

When the heart becomes whole...by Rumi

When the heart becomes whole, 
it will know the flavors of falsehood and truth. 

When Adam's greed for the forbidden fruit increased, 
it robbed his heart of health. 

Discernment flies
from one who is drunken with desire.

He who puts down that cup
lightens the inner eye,
and the secret is revealed.

~ Rumi
Mathnawi II: 2738-2743
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994

I carry your heart with me...by E. E. CUMMINGS

I carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
I am never without it
(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

I fear no fate
(for you are my fate,my sweet)
I want no world
(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

And it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart
(i carry it in my heart)

~ E. E. CUMMINGS

Love is the great work.....by Hafiz

Love
Is the great work

Though every heart is first an apprentice
That slaves beneath the city of Light.

This wondrous trade,
This magnificent throne your soul
Is destined for
you should not have to think
Much about it,

Is it not clear
An apprentice needs a teacher
Who himself
Has charmed the universe
To reveal its wonders inside his cup.

Happiness is the great work,
Though every heart must first become
A student
To one
Who really knows
About Love.

~ Hafiz

The Gift
versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

Copper doesn't know it's copper, until it's changing to gold..by Rumi

Always check your inner state 
with the lord of your heart. 

Copper doesn't know it's copper, 
until it's changing to gold. 

Your loving doesn't know its majesty,
until it knows its helplessness.

~ Rumi

open the window of your heart and let the spirit speak. ~ Rumi

Do not worry if our harp breaks
thousands more will appear.

We have fallen in the arms of love 
where all is music.

If all the harps in the world were burned down,
still inside the heart
there will be hidden music playing.

Do not worry if all the candles
in the world flicker and die
we have the spark that starts the fire.

The songs we sing
are like foam on the surface of the sea of being
while the precious gems lie deep beneath.

But the tenderness in our songs
is a reflection of what is hidden in the depths.

Stop the flow of your words,
open the window of your heart and
let the spirit speak.

~ Rumi
Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
“Rumi: Hidden Music”
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

You are the only One. ~ Rumi

O Friend, 
You made me lovingly

You clothed me
in a robe of skin and blood

Then planted deep inside me
a seed from Your heart.

You turned the whole world
into a sanctuary where

You are the 
only One.

~ Rumi 

My heart will never seek another heart..by Rumi

My heart 
will never seek another heart,

Or smell another flower, 
knowing you.

Your love has made
heart's field a desert waste;

No love other than yours
grows in that place !

~ Rumi

Sour, Doughy, Raw, and Numb....by Rumi

If we are not together in the heart
what is point ?

When body and soul are not dancing,
there is no pleasure in colorful clothing.

Why have cooking pans
if there is no food in the house?

In this world full of fresh bread,
amber, and musk, what are they
to someone with no sense of smell?

If you stay away from fire,
you will remain sour,
doughy, raw, and numb.

You may have lovely just-baked loaves
around you, but those friends cannot help.
You have to feel the oven fire yourself.

~ Rumi
(Sour, Doughy, Raw, and Numb)
A Year with Rumi
Daily Readings
By Coleman Barks

A hundred flames shine in the eyes...by Rumi

A hundred flames 
shine in the eyes. 

They come from 
this finest part of the heart 
where fire dwells. 

How strange!
In this burning place

There are so many roses,
so much greenery,
so much jasmine.

Through this fire,
the garden cools down
And water weds the flame.

~ Rumi
Ghazal (Ode) 685
Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi
Selected and Translated by Muriel Maufroy
Sanyar Press - London, 1997

In the sweetness of the Heart Lies the Secret of Surrender..via Belle Heywood

In the sweetness of the Heart 
Lies the Secret of Surrender

In the Flavors of Feelings 
Blooms the Flower of Love

Oh my foolish heart
pull out the lie of hope and fear

Oh my insane heart
give up the fruitless path..

Burn like incense crazy heart,
and stain these clothes with tears of sadness.

Be a fire of passion"s longing,
drunk on flames of loves" perfume.

Oh my mind, be like a woman,
tied by the thread of truly loving.

Be a room of invitation.
Be the space of emptiness.

Oh friend what use your endless prayer
if you have no love for the one
who"s next to you

What is real is you and my love for you.
It drives me mad with sweet embrace

Oh foolish mind, give up your fear
and drown within the swelling sea.

In the sweetness of the Heart
Lies the Secret of Surrender

In the Flavors of Feelings
Blooms the Flower of Love..!

~ Sweetness of the Heart: a song for yogis
Via Belle Heywood

It is a sign of intimate friendship...by Rumi

It is a sign 
of intimate friendship

when speech flows 
freely from the heart

Without intimacy,
the flow is blocked.

When the heart
has seen the sweetheart
how can it remain bitter ?

When a nightingale
has seen the rose

How can it keep
from singing ?

~ Rumi
Mathnawi VI:2638-2639
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
“Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance”
Threshold Books, 1996

Art by Frederick Morgan

Spring is here, friends. Let’s stay in the garden And be guests to the strangers of the green.....by Rumi

Spring is here, friends.
Let’s stay in the garden
And be guests to the strangers of the green.

We’ll fly from one flower to the other,
Like bees making the six corners
Of this earth’s hives prosperous.

An envoy came from this fortress
And said, “Don’t beat the drum secretly.
With our yells, we would tear down the place
Where that Love’s drum is beating.”

Hear that voice which comes from the sky,
“Rise, all insane ones.
I sacrifice my Soul to the insane.
Let’s scatter our Soul today.”

Let’s break all the chains.
Every one of us is a blacksmith.
Let’s go to the fireplace where the pincers are.

Let’s fan the flame of the Heart’s fire
Like the furnace of blacksmiths.
So we can have iron Hearts
Under our control with breath.

We’ll put fire in this universe,
Incite riots in the sky,
Make his sober, resisting mind
Turn around, become dizzy like ours.

We are like a ball, without hands and feet,
Sometimes at the end
And sometimes at the beginning of the square.

Who told you we could do what we want?
Who told you we are independent?

No, no. We are like a club
In the hand of the Beloved 
We send hundreds of thousands of balls
To His feet.

Let’s be silent. Silence is made
With some material like craziness.

His mind is such a fire
That we hide this fire 
by wrapping it in cotton.

~ Rumi 
Translation by Nevit O. Ergin
“Divan-i Kebir” — Meter 1
Walla Walla, Washington: Current, 1995.
Art by Mary Leslie