When love itself comes to kiss you, don't hold back......by Rumi

When love itself
comes to kiss you,

don't hold back!


When the king

goes hunting, the forest smiles.

Now the king has become the place

and all the players, prey, bystander,

bow, arrow, hand and release.
How does that feel?


Last night's dream

enters these open eyes.


When we die

and turn to dust, each particle will

be the whole.

You hear a mote whirl

taking form?


My music.  Love, calm,

patient.


The Friend has waded down

into existence,
gotten stuck, and will not be seen
again outside of

this.


We sometimes make spiderwebs

of smoke and saliva, fragile thought -

packets.


Leave thinking to the one

who gave intelligence .


In silence

there is eloquence.


Stop weaving,

and watch how the pattern improves.

~ Rumi

from the soul of Rumi

translations by Coleman Barks

What a blessing ! What a blessing !.........by Rumi

Don’t hide.
The site of your face
is a blessing.

Wherever you place your foot 
there rests a blessing.

Even your shadow passing over me like swift bird,
is a blessing.

The great Spring has come.
Your sweet air blowing through the city,
the country, the gardens and the desert,
is a blessing.

He has come with love to our door,
his knock is a blessing.

We go from house to house asking of him,
any answer is a blessing.

Caught in this body
we look for a sight of the soul.

Remember what the Beloved said,
one sight is a blessing.

The leaf of every tree brings
a message from the unseen world.

Look,
every falling leaf is a blessing.

All of nature swings in unison
singing without tongues
listening without ears,
what a Blessing.

O Soul
the four elements are your face
Water, wind, fire and earth
Each one is a blessing.

Once the seed of faith takes root,
it cannot be blown away,
even by the strongest wind
Now that's a blessing.

I bow to you
for the dust of your feet
is the crown on my head

And as i walk towards you
every step i take is a blessing.

His form appeared before me
just now as i was singing this poem

I Swear
What a blessing ! What a blessing !

Every vision born of earth is fleeting
Every vision born of heaven is a blessing

For People
the sight of spring warms their hearts

For Fish
the rhythm of ocean is blessing

The brilliant sun that shines in every heart
for heaven's earth and all creatures
What a blessing !

The heart can't wait to speak of this ecstasy
The soul is kissing the earth saying
Oh God what a blessing !

Fill me with shine of your silence
Let it soak my every pore

For the inner splendor it reveals
Is a blessing
Is a blessing.

~ Rumi
From The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi
By Andrew Harvey

Sorrow prepares you for joy.......by Rumi

Sorrow
prepares you for joy.

It violently sweeps 
everything out of your house,
so that new joy can find space to enter.

It shakes the yellow leaves
from the bough of your heart,
so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place.

It pulls up
the rotten roots,
so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow.

Whatever sorrow
shakes from your heart,
far better things will take their place.

~ Rumi

Having nothing and wanting nothing............by Rumi

Last night 

my teacher taught me the lesson of Poverty
Having nothing and wanting nothing.

I am a naked man
standing inside a mine of Rubies
clothed in red silk

I absorb the shining
and now i see the ocean

billion of simultaneous motions
moving in me

A circle of lovely quite people
becomes the ring on my finger

Then the wind and thunder of rain on the way
I have such a teacher.

~ Rumi

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

The Light is the soul's food....by Rumi

Intelligence is the feast, not bread and roast meat:
the light of intelligence, my son, is the soul’s food.
Man has no food but the Light
the soul doesn’t obtain nourishment from anything but that.

Little by little cut yourself off from these material foods—
for they are the food of an ass, not that of a free man—
so that you might become capable
of absorbing that original food
and become accustomed to eating delicate morsels of Light.

It’s from the reflection of that Light
that this bread has become bread;
it’s from the overflowing of that rational soul
that this animal soul has become soul.

Once you eat of the Light
you won’t be attached to the bread and oven.

~ Rumi
( Mathnawi IV : 1954-1959 )
From The Rumi Daybook

My heart, sit only with those who know and understand you......by Rumi

My heart, sit only with those
who know and understand you.

Sit only under a tree
that is full of blossoms.

In the bazaar of herbs and potions,
don't wander aimlessly --
find the shop with a potion that is sweet.

If you don't have a measure
people will rob you in no time.

You will take counterfeit coins
thinking they are real.

Don't fill your bowl with food
from every boiling pot you see.

Not every joke is humorous, so don't search
for meaning where there is none.

Not every eye can see,
not every sea is full of pearls.

My heart, sing the song of longing
like nightingale.

The sound of your voice casts a spell
on every stone, on every thorn.

First, lay down your head
then one by one
let go of all distractions.

Embrace the light and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.

There you will find a spring
and nourished by its sea waters
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.

~ Rumi
Rumi. "The Hidden Music."
Trans. by Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin

In the realm of lovers There is only one beloved.....by Rumi

In the realm of lovers
There is only one beloved

In this realm of lovers
There is no coming nor going

Lovers wander
Looking for each other

There is no need for this wandering
The soul of lovers Lives in a place beyond time

The one beloved
Searching for herself in the other

Let us become passionate lovers

Lovers in life
Lovers in death
Lovers in the tomb
Lovers on the day of resurrection
Lovers in paradise
Lovers forever

If you have not known this love
don’t count your life as lived
On the Day of Judgment
it will not be counted

There is a bazaar
Where love is traded for free

There is a river of wine
Where drunken merriment knows no rest
Where burning passion knows no repose
Where billions of galaxies dance
Where restless lovemaking
Gives birth to universe upon universe

~ Rumi

Oh how nameless, how free I am......by Rumi

Oh how nameless, how free I am!
When will I see myself as I really am?

Tell me your secrets here and now, you said.
In this realm, I said, where is the here and now?

How can my soul be still
when I am whirling in stillness?

My sea drowned in itself.
What a wondrous, shoreless sea I am!

Not in this world, not in the next I am.
Where I am, both worlds disappear.

Naught, I am free of profit and loss.
How singular, I neither gain nor lose.

I said: My Soul, you’re the light of my eyes.
Where I am, he said, no need for eyes.

That’s what you are, I said. Stop it!
he said. No words can capture me.

I said: Since you are more than tongue can tell,
behold how eloquent I am without a tongue.

Like the moon, without legs, I race through nothingness.
See how fast I can run without legs!

A voice called: Why so fast?
Look into the hidden, find my true face.

The moment I saw my Beloved
I became a treasure, a gem, the rare pearl of the sea.

~ Rumi

City of Love.....by Rumi

I’ve travelled around
raced through every city
while I knew all along
no place could be found
like the city of love

If I could have known
to value what I owned
I would not have suffered
like a fool
the life of a vagabond

I’ve heard many tunes
all over the globe
all empty
as a kettledrum
except the music of love

it was the sound of
that hollow drum
that made me fall
from the heavens
to this mortal life

i used to soar
among souls
like a heart’s flight
winglessly roaming and
celestially happy

i used to drink
like a flower that drinks
without lips or throat
of the wine that overflows
with laughter and joy

Suddenly
I was summoned by love
to prepare for a journey
to the temple of
suffering

I cried desperately
I begged and pleaded
and shredded my clothes
not to be sent
to this world

Just the way I fear now
going away
to the other world
I was frightened then
to make my descent

Love asked me to go
with no fear to be alone
promising to be close
everywhere I go
closer than my veins

Love threw its spell
its magic and allure
using coyness and charm
I was totally sold and
bought everything with joy

Who am I to resist
love’s many tricks
and not to fall
while the whole world
takes love’s bait

Love showed me
a path but then
lost me on the way
if I could have resisted
I would have found my way

I can show you my friend
surely how you can get there
but here and now
my pen has broken down
before telling you how.

~ Rumi
Art by Rassouli

Why not spread perfume? ~ Rumi

We are all Spiritual beings
having a physical experience.

We are rubies
in the midst of granite.

We are imbued with
resplendent majesty but

We insist on
remaining shriveled
and withered in our prison of dust.

Why not become fresh
from the gentleness of the heart-spring?

Why not laugh…
like a rose?

Why not spread
perfume?

~ Rumi

Beyond love stories.....by Rumi

“Love comes with a knife,
not some shy question,
and not with fears for its reputation.

I say these things disinterestedly.
Accept them in kind.

Love is a madman,
working his wild schemes,
tearing off his clothes,
drinking poison, and now quietly
choosing annihilation.

A tiny spider tries to wrap
an enormous wasp. Think of the spiderweb
woven across the cave where Muhammed slept.

There are love stories,
and there is obliteration into love.

You have been walking the ocean’s edge,
holding up your robes to keep them dry.

You must dive deeper under,
a thousand times deeper.

Love flows down. The ground
submits to the sky and suffers what comes.

Is the ground worse for giving like that?
Do not put blankets over the drum.
Open completely.

Let your spirit ear listen
to the green dome’s passionate murmur.

Let the cords of your robe be untied.
Shiver in this new love
beyond all above and below.

The sun rises,
but which way does the night go?

I have no more words.
Let the soul speak
with the silent articulation of a face.”

~ Rumi,( “Beyond Love Stories”)

A life without love is a waste. .....Rumi

A life without love is a waste. 

“Should I look for spiritual love, 
or material, or physical love?”, 

don’t ask yourself this question. 

Discrimination
leads to discrimination.

Love doesn’t need any name,
category or definition.

Love is a world itself.

Either you are in,
at the center…

either you are out,
yearning.

~ Rumi
Divan e Shams Tabrizi

Hoping that you will come back to me....by Rumi

Someday our souls will be one and 
our union will be forever.

i know that everything I give you comes back to me.
So I give you my life , hoping that you will come back to me.

When I am silent,
I fall into a place where everything is music

Every leaf that grows will tell you...
What you sow ill bear fruit.
So if you have any sense my friend,
don't plant anything but LOVE

Wake up my heart! The world is passing by;
Life froths and flows by, free for the asking.
Don't sleep in your body, oblivious,
As the caravan of life goes by your house.

Someday our souls will be one and
our union will last forever.

I know that everything I give comes back to me.
So I give you my life, hopping that you will come back to me.

~ Rumi

Fall in love with the agony of love.....by Rumi

In every breath
if you’re the center
of your own desires
you’ll lose the grace
of your beloved

But if in every breath
you blow away
your self claim
the ecstasy of love
will soon arrive

In every breath
if you’re the center
of your own thoughts
the sadness of autumn
will fall on you

But if in every breath
you strip naked
just like a winter
the joy of spring
will grow from within

All your impatience
comes from the push
for gain of patience
let go of the effort
and peace will arrive

All your unfulfilled desires
are from your greed
for gain of fulfillments
let go of them all
and they will be sent as gifts

Fall in love with
the agony of love
not the ecstasy
then the beloved
will fall in love with you

~ Rumi
Translation by Nader Khalili
“Rumi, Fountain of Fire”
Cal-Earth Press, 1994

Autumn Rose Elegy..by Rumi

You have gone to the secret world.
Which way is it? 
You broke the cage and flew.

You heard the drum that calls you home.
You left this humiliating shelf, 
this disorienting desert
where we are given wrong directions.

What use now a crown?
You have become the sun.

No need for a belt.
You have slipped out of your waist.

I have heard that near the end
you were eyes looking at soul.

No looking now.
You live inside the soul.

You are the strange autumn rose
that led the winter wind in by withering.

You are rain soaking everywhere
from cloud to ground.

No bother of talking.
Flowing silence
and sweet sleep beside the Friend.

~ Rumi
The Glance: Songs of Soul-Meeting
by Jalaloddin Rumi,
Traslated by Coleman Barks
Art by Rassouli

Sacred paradoxes....by Rumi

Off with you! 
Know that the lover's religion is
contrary to other ways, 
for false dealings from the Friend
are better than sincerity and kindliness.

What is unthinkable for Him is the actual state,
His chastisement the reward, all of His tyranny justice,
His slander equity.

His harshness is soft,
His synagogue the Kaaba
the thorn driven home by the Heart-ravisher
is sweeter than roses and basil.

When He is sour,
He is more excellent than a house of sugar;
when He comes to you in annoyance,
He is all affection and kisses.

When He says to you, "By God, I am sick of you!",
that is Khidr's elixir from the Fountain of Life.

When He says "No!"
a thousand yea's are hidden within it;
in this religion of the selfless,
He becomes family
and self by remaining a stranger.

His unbelief is faith, His stones all coral,
His miserliness generosity, His offenses all forgiveness.

If you taunt me and say,
"Your religion is bent out of shape!"
well, I have bought the religion of His bent
eyebrow for the price of my spirit.

This bent religion has made me drunk! Enough!
I will shut my lips you continue,
oh illuminated heart, and
recite the rest silently!

Oh Beloved ! Oh my Shams of God Tabrizi!
What sugar you pour down!
You voice a hundred arguments and
proofs from my mouth!

~ Rumi
Ghazal 1869,
from the Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love - The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi"
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983
Art by Semmick Photo

Ripen fig...by Rumi

Now that You live here in my chest,
anywhere we sit is a mountaintop.

And those other images,
which have enchanted people
like porcelain dolls from China,
which have made men and women weep
for centuries, even those have changed now.

What used to be pain is a lovely bench
where we can rest under the roses.

A left hand has become a right.
A dark wall, a window.

A cushion in a shoe heel,
the leader of the community!

Now silence. What we say
is poison to some
and nourishing to others.

What we say is a ripe fig,
but not every bird that flies
eats figs.

~ Rumi 

I only speak of the Sun because the Sun is my Master.....by Rumi

I only speak of the Sun
because the Sun is my Master
I worship even the dust at His feet.

I am not a night-lover and do not praise sleep
I am the messenger of the Sun!

Secretly I will ask him
and pass the answers to you.

Like the Sun
I shine on those who are forsaken

I may look drunk and disheveled
but I speak the Truth.

Tear off the mask,
your face is glorious,

your heart may be cold as stone but
I will warm it with my raging fire.

No longer will I speak
of sunsets or rising Moons,

I will bring you love's wine
for I am born of the Sun
I am a King!

~ Rumi
Ghazal (Ode) 1621
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Hidden Music
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
Art by Carol Bostan

You are the Master Alchemist......by Rumi

You come to us from another world;
From beyond the stars and a void of space

Transcendent, pure – of unimaginable beauty.
Bringing with You the essence of Love.

You transform all who are touched by You
Mundane concerns, troubles and sorrows dissolve in Your presence
Bringing joy to ruler & ruled, to peasants and kings.

You bewilder us with Your grace;
All evil is transformed into goodness.
You are the Master Alchemist!

You light the fire of Love in earth & sky,
In heart & soul of every being.

Through Your loving,
existence & non-existence merge

All opposites unite
All that is profane becomes sacred again.

~ Rumi
Art by Tissot