A Mine of Rubies~Rumi

 



 Last night I learned how to be a lover of God,
 To live in this world and call nothing my own.

 I looked inward
 and the beauty of my own emptiness
 filled me till dawn.
 It enveloped me like a mine of rubies.
 Its hue clothed me in red silk.

 Within the cavern of my soul
 I heard a voice of a lover crying,
 "Drink now! Drink now!" --

 I took a sip and saw the vast ocean --
 Wave upon wave caressed my soul.
 The lovers of God dance around
 And the circle of their steps
 becomes a ring of fire round my neck.

 Heaven calls me with its rain and thunder --
 a hundred thousand cries
 yet I cannot hear ...

 All I hear is the call of my Beloved.

        ~Maulana Rumi 

Don't Be Bitter My Friend

don't be bitter my friend
you'll regret it soon
hold to your togetherness
or surely you'll scatter

don't walk away gloomy
from this garden
you'll end up like an owl
dwelling in old ruins

face the war and
be a warrior like a lion
or you'll end up like a pet
tucked away in a stable

once you conquer 
your selfish self
all your darkness
will change to light

~Maulana Rumi

The Journey Starts Here

Don’t go off sightseeing.
The real journey is right here.
The great excursion starts
from exactly where you are.
You are the world.
You have everything you need.
You are the secret.
You are the wide opened.

Don’t look for the remedy for your troubles
outside yourself.
You are the medicine.
You are the cure for your own sorrow.

I Don’t Get Tired of You – Rumi

I don’t get tired of you. Don’t grow weary
of being compassionate toward me!

All this thirst equipment
must surely be tired of me,
the waterjar, the water carrier.

I have a thirsty fish in me
that can never find enough
of what it’s thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean!
Break these half-measures,
these small containers.

All this fantasy
and grief.

Let my house be drowned in the wave
that rose last night in the courtyard
hidden in the center of my chest.

Joseph fell like the moon into my well.
The harvest I expected was washed away.
But no matter.

A fire has risen above my tombstone hat.
I don’t want learning, or dignity,
or respectability.

I want this music and this dawn
and the warmth of your cheek against mine.

The grief-armies assemble,
but I’m not going with them.

This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.

A great silence comes over me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.

By: Maulana Rumi
Translation: Coleman Barks

Open the Window

There's a street where the Beautiful One

 is known to take a stroll.

When a certain radiance is noticed

through the laticed windows

of that neighborhood,

people whisper, The Beloved

must be near.

Tender Words

Tender words we spoke

to one another

are sealed

in the secret vaults of heaven.

One day like rain,

they will fall to earth

and grow green

all over the world.
--Mawlana Rumi

The Promise

When pain arrives side by side with your love

I promise not to flee

When you ask me for my life

I promise not to fight

I am holding a cup in my hand

By God if you do not come

Till the end of time

I promise not to pour out the wine

Nor to drink a sip

Your bright face is my day

Your dark curls bring the night

If you do not let me near you

I promise not go to sleep…nor rise

Your magnificence has made me a wonder

Your charm has taught me the way of love

I am the progeny of Abraham

I'll find my way through fire

Please, let me drink water from the jug

This love is not a short-lived fancy

It is the daily prayer, the year-after-year fast

I live it, like an act of worship, till the end of my life

But then, a tree

Blessed not with fruits of your bounty

Will be dry wood for fire

Even if it drinks the ocean

On the wings of the Friend, fly o my heart!

Fly and look upward

For high on the peak of presence

Earthlings like you will not be let in

Others praise God at the time of affliction

You stay awake day and night

Steady, watchful like the wheel of the firmament

Time to stop speaking of the Friend

Jealousy won't let me scatter the perfume to the wind

translation from Rumi's Divan by Fatemeh Keshavarz

Friends who guide you by Rumi

The reflection cast from good friends is needed

until you become, without the aid of any reflector,

a drawer of water from the Sea.

Know that the reflection is at first just imitation,

but when it continues to recur,

it turns into direct realization of truth.

Until it has become direct realization,

don't part from the friends who guide you?

don't break away from the shell

if the raindrop hasn't yet become a pearl.

In Your light I learn how to love.

“In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you.” -Rumi

"With the Beloved's water of life, no illness remains

In the Beloved's rose garden of union, no thorn remains.

They say there is a window from one heart to another

How can there be a window where no wall remains?"

-Rumi

“God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.”

rumi's sufi poetry

My heart tells me it is distressed with Him,
but I can only laugh at such pretended injuries.

Be fair, You who are the Glory of the just.
You, Soul, free of "we" and "I,"
subtle spirit within each man and woman.

When a man and a woman become one,
that "one" is You.
And when that one is obliterated, there You are.

Where is this "we" and this "I"?
By the side of the Beloved.
You made this "we" and this "I"
in order that you might play
this game of courtship with Yourself,
that all "you's" and "I's" might become one soul
and finally drown in the Beloved.

All this is true. Come!
You who are the Creative Word: Be
You, so far beyond description.

Is it possible for the bodily eyes to see You?
Can thought comprehend Your laughter or grief?
Tell me now, can it possibly see You at all?
Such a heart has only borrowed things to live with.

The garden of love is green without limit
and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy.
Love is beyond either condition:
without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.

Rumi - Mathnawi I, 1779-1794 - The Rumi Collection - Kabir Helminski

In the Arms of the Beloved

At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen.

What marvelous route did you take from this world?

Beating your wings and feathers,

you broke free from this cage.

Rising up to the sky

you attained the world of the soul.

You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman.

Then you heard the drummer's call

and flew beyond space and time.

As a lovesick nightingale, you flew among the owls.

Then came the scent of the rosegarden

and you flew off to meet the Rose.

The wine of this fleeting world

caused your head to ache.

Finally you joined the tavern of Eternity.

Like an arrow, you sped from the bow

and went straight for the bull's eye of bliss.

This phantom world gave you false signs

But you turned from the illusion

and journeyed to the land of truth.

You are now the Sun -

what need have you for a crown?

You have vanished from this world -

what need have you to tie your robe?

I've heard that you can barely see your soul.

But why look at all? -

yours is now the Soul of Souls!

O heart, what a wonderful bird you are.

Seeking divine heights,

Flapping your wings,

you smashed the pointed spears of your enemy.

The flowers flee from Autumn, but not you -

You are the fearless rose

that grows amidst the freezing wind.

Pouring down like the rain of heaven

you fell upon the rooftop of this world.

Then you ran in every direction

and escaped through the drain spout . . .

Now the words are over

and the pain they bring is gone.

Now you have gone to rest

in the arms of the Beloved.

"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved",

The Rose

What Allah said to the Rose

And caused it to laugh in full blown beauty,

He said to my heart

And made it a hundred times more beautiful.

~Rumi~

Love's Call

At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love:
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,
And now we will go back there, for there is our country.
We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels:
Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty.
What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust?
Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place?
Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here?
No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell:
Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul?
The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body;
And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.
~Rumi~

Oh, if a tree could wander
and move with foot and wings!
It would not suffer the axe blows
and not the pain of saws!
For would the sun not wander
away in every night ?
How could at ev?ry morning
the world be lighted up?
And if the ocean?s water
would not rise to the sky,
How would the plants be quickened
by streams and gentle rain?
The drop that left its homeland,
the sea, and then returned ?
It found an oyster waiting
and grew into a pearl.
Did Yusaf not leave his father,
in grief and tears and despair?
Did he not, by such a journey,
gain kingdom and fortune wide?
Did not the Prophet travel
to far Medina, friend?
And there he found a new kingdom
and ruled a hundred lands.
You lack a foot to travel?
Then journey into yourself!
And like a mine of rubies
receive the sunbeams? print!
Out of yourself ? such a journey
will lead you to your self,
It leads to transformation
of dust into pure gold!

Source: Look! This is Love - Poems of Rumi
~ Annemarie Schimmel

There is a Soul inside your Soul.

There is a Soul inside your Soul.
Search that Soul.
There is a jewel in the mountain of body.
Look for the mine of that jewel.
Oh, Sufi, passing by,
Search inside if you can, not outside.
~Rumi~

The Meaning of Love by Rumi

"Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.

Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets.

Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.

Although I may try to describe Love
when I experience it I am speechless.

Although I may try to write about Love
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love."

That which is false troubles the heart,
but truth brings joyous tranquility.

Mevlana Rumi (1207 - 1273)
Source: Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance