Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like somebody suddenly born into colour.
Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon
comes out now.
—Rumi
Coleman Barks/John Moyne version
is it true
that your mind is sometimes like
a battering ram
running all through the city,
shouting so madly inside and out
about the ten thousand things
that do not matter?
—Hafiz
Why should you bear your load on your head when you are traveling on a train?
It carries you and your load whether the load is on your head or on the floor of the train. You are not lessening the burden of the train by keeping it on your head but only straining yourself unnecessarily.
Similar is the sense of doership in the world by individuals.
—Ramana Maharshi
Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.
—Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Without stirring abroad,
one can know the whole world;
Without looking out of the window
one can see the way of heaven.
The further one goes the less one knows.
—Lao Tzu
A woman's body, like the earth, has seasons;
when the mountain stream flows,
when the holy thaws,
when I am most fragile and in need,
it was then, it seemed, God came closest.
God, like a medic on a field, is tending our souls. Our horns get locked with desires, but don't hold yourself too accountable; for all desires are really innocent. That is what the compassion in His eyes tell me.
Why this great war between the countries - the countries inside of us?
What are all these insane borders we protect?
What are all these different names for the same church of love we kneel in together? For it is true, together we live; and only at that shrine where all are welcome will God sing loud enough to be heard.
Our horns got locked with the earth and sky in some odd marriage ritual; so what, don't worry. We should be proud of ourselves for everything we helped create in this magic world. And God is always there, if you feel wounded.
He kneels over this earth like a divine medic, and His love thaws the holy in us.
—St. Teresa of Avila
Daniel Ladinsky version
There is some kiss we want with our whole lives,
the touch of spirit on the body.
Ocean water begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild darling!
At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine,
Breathe into me,
Close the language-door and open the love-window.
The moon won't use the door, only the window.
—Rumi
