The Persian Mystics: Jalálu'd-dín Rúmí

Rumi · en
Earthly forms are only shadows of the Sun of Truth--a
      cradle for babes, but too small to hold those who
      have grown to spiritual manhood.


      "THE BEATIFIC VISION OF ETERNAL TRUTH"

      The end and object of all negation is to attain to
      subsequent affirmation, as the negation in the creed,
      "There is no God," finds its complement and purpose
      in the affirmation "but God." Just so the purpose
      of negation of self is to clear the way for the
      apprehension of the fact that there is no existence
      but the One. The intoxication of Life and its
      pleasures and occupations veils the Truth from men's
      eyes, and they ought to pass on to the spiritual
      intoxication which makes men beside themselves and
      lifts them to the beatific vision of eternal Truth.




    THE WINE EVERLASTING

    O babbler, while thy soul is drunk with mere date wine,
    Thy spirit hath not tasted the genuine grapes.
    For the token of thy having seen that divine Light
    Is this, to withdraw thyself from the house of pride.




    BE LOST IN THE BEAUTY OF THE BELOVED

    When those Egyptian women sacrificed their reason,
    They penetrated the mansion of Joseph's love;
    The Cup-bearer of Life bore away their reason,
    They were filled with wisdom of the world without end.
    Joseph's beauty was only an offshoot of God's beauty:
    Be lost, then, in God's beauty more than those women.




    "WHAT EAR HAS TOLD YOU FALSELY"

    What ear has told you falsely eye will tell truly.
    Then ear, too, will acquire the properties of an eye;
    Your ears, now worthless as wool, will become gems;
    Yea, your whole body will become a mirror,
    It will be as an eye of a bright gem in your bosom.
    First the hearing of the ear enables you to form ideas,
    Then these ideas guide you to the Beloved.
    Strive, then, to increase the number of these ideas,
    That they may guide you, like Majnun, to the Beloved.




    "THERE IS A PLACE OF REFUGE"

    Yea, O sleeping heart, know the kingdom that endures not
    For ever and ever is only a mere dream.
    I marvel how long you will indulge in vain illusion,
    Which has seized you by the throat like a heads man.
    Know that even in this world there is a place of refuge;
    Hearken not to the unbeliever who denies it.
    His argument is this: he says again and again,
    "If there were aught beyond this life we should see it."
    But if the child see not the state of reason,
    Does the man of reason therefore forsake reason?
    And if the man of reason sees not the state of Love,
    Is the blessed moon of Love thereby eclipsed?




    THE LOVER'S CRY TO THE BELOVED