The way is
who and where you
already are.
Posts Tagged → rumi
note to self: own your faults openly
This revelation:
Do not scold anyone for
a mistake you might have made.
Do not discipline children until you
have grown up. Do not taunt or find fault
or call people names. Turn those
judgements inward. Own your
faults openly.
the aristocracy of the heart
Tawazu’ in Sufic terms
means something more than hospitality.
It is laying before one’s friend willingly what one has,
in other words sharing with one’s friend all the
good one has in life, and with it,
enjoying life better.
When this tendency
to tawazu’ is developed, things that
give one joy and pleasure become more enjoyable by
sharing with another. This tendency comes from the aristocracy
of the heart. It is generosity and even more than generosity. For the
limit of generosity is to see another pleased in his pleasure,
but to share one’s own pleasure with another is greater
than generosity. It is a quality which is foreign
to a selfish person, and the one who
shows this quality is on the
path of saintliness.
be a lifeboat
Be a lamp,
a lifeboat, a ladder.
Help someone’s soul heal.
Walk out of your house
like a shepherd.
the lame goat finds herself in front
Thought of worldly things
is an enemy to the sweetness of spiritual
consciousness. Silence your thoughts. Bewilder
yourself with God. Your mind will fall away
and your heart will open.
Forwardness in worldly
ways is backwardness in reality.
When the herd turns back toward God,
its leaders end up in the rear! The lame goat
that was hindmost finds herself in front, and the
ones who worried about her are ecstatic now.
How do saints and prophets get to
be that way? By breaking
their own legs.
They make themselves
lame by renouncing expertise in
the ways of the world. Understanding that
it’s not the way home, they wash their hearts clean
of such knowledge. If you want to reach heaven,
follow the branches that lead to that root.
Be the lame goat here, and
lead the herd home.