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Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi Biography

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“Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. ~ Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense. ~ The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.”

“On Resurrection Day your body testifies against you. Your hand says, “I stole money.” Your lips, “I said meanness.” Your feet, “I went where I shouldn’t.” Your genitals, “Me too.” They will make your praying sound hypocritical. Let the body’s doings speak openly now, without your saying a word, as a student’s walking behind a teacher says, “This one knows more clearly than I the way.”

“We are brought thick desserts, and we rarely refuse them. We worship devoutly when we’re with others. Hours we sit, though we get up quickly after a few minutes, when we pray alone. We hurry down the gullet of our wantings. But these qualities can change, as minerals in the ground rise inside trees and become tree, as a plant faces an animal and enters the animal, so a human can put down the heavy body baggage and be light.”