One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call. He is the first, he is the last, he is the outward, he is the inward; I know none other except "O he" and "O he who is." I am intoxicated with Love's cup, the worlds have passed out of my ken; (...) Buber, Ecstatic Confessions, P.28.

Come, come, whoever you are. Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come. Attributed to Rumi.

We are the fingertips of blind illusion.
You are the absolute Cause of causes.
You sing us into being, quick-fading echoes.
We're like heraldic lions on folded flags
One breath from you and we are unfurled
For a fluttering moment on your dancing breath.

Mathnavi 1.602 From:  Rumi, _Words of Paradise:  Selected Poems of Rumi_ Trans. Rafiq Abdulla. New York: Viking Studio, 2000.

Give me ecstasy, give me naked wonder, O my Creator!
Give birth to the Beloved in me, and let this Lover die!
Let a thousand wrangling desires become one Love!
(...)
The years of repentance are over, a new year has come
That shatters and destroys a thousand regrets a day!
If you never knew this vertigo, this mad Spring will make you totter!
O Love, You are the universal soul, crown, and jail all at once;
At once the Prophet's call and our lack of belief.
Love, You have created us with thirsty hearts,
You have bound us to the Source of Splendor.
For You my thorns have blossomed, my atoms embraced the worlds.
Contemplating in my leaping atoms the universe
Makes my days stagger and sob with wonder!
(...)
How can a being made of water and clay find life
If Divine Breath does not Itself kindle it?
(...)
Be silent! Spring is here! The rose is dancing with its thorn.
Beauties have come from the Invisible to call you home.

Rumi, Give Me Ecstasy, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.23.

(...)
Dear one, come to the tavern of ruin
and experience the pleasures of the soul.
What happiness can there be apart
from this intimate conversation
with the Beloved, the Soul of souls? (...)

Rumi, The Drunkards and the Tavern, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.26.

(...)
If you make a pilgrimage to my grave
    you'll see my tombstone dancing by itself;
don't come without a tambourine-
    God's holidays should not be marred with gloom.
(...)
God moulded me from the wine lees of Love-
    now death has effaced me I am Love itself;
I am drunkenness, my root is the wine of love-
    tell me, what comes of wine but intoxication?
(...)

Rumi, On His Sepulchre, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.29.

Can anyone really describe the actions of the Matchless One? (...)
Sometimes He acts this way, sometimes in its exact opposite;
The real work of religion is permanent astonishment.
By that I don't mean in astonishment turning your back on Him-
I mean: blazing in blind ecstasy, drowned in God and drunk on Love.

Rumi, Can Anyone Really Describe, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.32.

(...)

Forever, You claimed me
that forever I may know You're mine.
Your love has pierced me to the depths,
its ecstasy entwines both bone and nerve.

I rest as a ney laid upon Your lips;
as an oud I lie against Your breast.
Breathe deeply in me that I may sigh;
Strike upon my strings and tears glisten.

Sweet are my tears and sweet my sighs;
wordly joys I return to the world.
You remain in my inmost Soul
whose depths the mirrored heavens reflect.

(...)

Our sweetnesses, all merged in You,
sweeten infant smiles.
You crush me into rose oil, drop by drop;
nor do I complain beneath the press.

(...)

And when You pour me upon this world,
it blooms in Beauty, fully Divine.

Rumi, Water and Wine, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.110.

The intellect says: "The six directions are limits: there is no way out."
Love says: "There is a way. I have travelled it thousands of times."
(...)
Lovers who drink the dregs of the wine reel from bliss to bliss;
(...)

Rumi, The Intellect Says, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.158.

O my Beauty, your love,
like amber, attracts the heart.
The heart has run to you
and we, like lovers, run after it.

My soul eats so much sugar
in the Egypt of Love,
that sugar pours
from the reed of my wailing.

Rumi, Rebab and Ney, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.160.

Because I cannot sleep
I make music at night.
I am troubled by the one
whose face has the color of spring flowers.
(...)

O Love, You who have been called by a thousand names, (...)

Remove the cork once more.
Then we'll see a thousand chiefs prostrate themselves,
and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.

Then the addict will be freed of craving,
and will be resurrected,
and stand in awe till Judgement Day.

Rumi, Because I Cannot Sleep, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.161-2.

What wisdom was this, that the Object of all desire
caused me to leave my home joyously on a fool's errand,
so that I was actually rushing to lose the way
and at each moment being taken farther from what I sought-
and then God in His beneficience made that very wandering
the means of my reaching the right road and finding wealth!

Rumi, Mathnawi VI, 4339-4341, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.166.

For a while we lived with people,
but we saw no sign in them of the faithfulness we wanted.
It's better to hide completely within
as water hides in metal, as fire hides in a rock.

Rumi, Furuzanfar #1082, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.182.

Whenever Vision unfurls its ecstatic flag in you, or your mind blazes from a lightning flash of grace from heaven, you are, in that moment, cold to "above" and "below," to all status and rank, mastery or leadership, all man-made titles, praises, elevations, honors. None of these things concern you: you soar like a hawk in the cloudless sky of union.

Rumi, No "Above" or "Below", quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.183.

I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is a fraud and fantasy.
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.

A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than Venus of the moon,
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.

Rumi, The House of Love, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.195.

With

passion pray. With

passion work. With passion make love.

With passion eat and drink and dance and play.

Why look like a dead fish

in this ocean

of

God?

P.61.

I

like when

the music happens like this:

Something in His eye grabs hold of a

tambourine in

me,

Then I turn and lift a violin in someone else,

and they turn, and this turning

continues;

it has

reached you now. Isn’t that

something?

P.62.

Nibble at me.

Don’t gulp me down.

How often is it you have a guest in your house

who can fix everything?

P.64.

(…)

If you put your soul against this oar with me,

the power that made the universe will enter your sinew

from a source not outside your limbs, but from a holy realm

that lives in us.

Exuberant is existence, time a husk.

When the moment cracks open, ecstasy leaps out and devours space;

love goes mad with the blessing, like my words give.

Why lay yourself on the torturer’s rack of the past and future?

The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities

will find no rest.

Be kind to yourself, dear-to our innocent follies.

Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance.

You will come to see that all evolves us.

(…) P.65.

What will

our children do in the morning?

Will they wake with their hearts wanting to play,

the way wings

should?

Will they have dreamed the needed flights and gathered

the strength from the planets that all men and women need to balance

the wonderful charms of

the earth

so that her power and beauty does not make us forget our own?

I know all about the ways of the heart-how it wants to be alive.

love so needs to love

that it will endure almost anything, even abuse,

just to flicker for a moment. (…)

What will our children do in the morning

if they do not see us

fly?

P.67.

If God said,

“Rumi, pay homage to everything

that has helped you

enter my

arms,”

there would not be one experience of my life,

not even thought, not one feeling,

not any act, I

would not

bow

to.”

P.68.

All these miracles are about to drive me crazy:

my elbows, my ears, my nose, my wife’s nagging,

around my soul,

and my heart connected to the pulse of

every creature.

(…). P.76.

The wonder of water moving over that rock in the stream

justifies existence.

The swish of a horse’s tail-again I am stunned

by the grandeur of the unseen One

that governs all

movement.

I resist looking at the palms of my hands sometimes.

Have you ever gotten breathless before a beautiful face,

for I see you there,

my dear.

There is a wonderful problem waiting for you

that God and I share:

how to keep from fainting when we

see each other.

In truth:

how does God keep from fainting

looking at Himself all day?

(…) P.77.

On a day

when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.

Today is such a

day.

(…)

Peace is wonderful,

but ecstatic dance is more fun, and less narcissistic;

gregarious He makes our lips.

(…). P.79.

The grass beneath a tree is content

and silent.

A squirrel holds an acorn in its praying hands,

offering thanks, it looks like.

The nut tastes sweet; (…)

The broken shells fall on the grass,

and the grass looks up

and says,

“Hey.”

And the squirrel looks down

and says,

“Hey.”

I have been saying “Hey” lately too,

to God.

Formalities just weren’t

working.

P.82.

(…)

Locked like a pair of dogs,

openly making love

in the streets,

impervious to shouts and pails of water being thrown

and glares from eyes

that pass.

Can you become such an

ego-less

king?

P.83.

It’s rigged-everything, in your favor.

So there is nothing to worry about.

Is there some position you want,

some office, some acclaim, some award, some con, some lover,

maybe two, maybe three, maybe four-all at once,

maybe a relationship

with

God?

I know there is a gold mine in you, when you find it

the wonderment of the earth’s gifts you will lay

aside as naturally as does

a child a

doll.

(…). P. 85.

My lips got lost on the way to the kiss-

that’s how drunk I

was.

Luckily though I still connected

with the most tender part

of her.

The moon conceived-what

a wild looking baby

we are going to

have.

P.86.

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Last updated: 2008/10/27