Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Whoever finds love

Ask a difficult question, and the marvelous answer appears.

I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there I went to the Temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valleys but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Caaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and philosophers but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him He was nowhere else to be found.

Come out of the circle of time And into the circle of love.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

I died a mineral, and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an animal and I was man. Why should I fear When was I less by dying

What Hidden Sweetness Is There

What hidden sweetness there is in this emptiness of the belly!
Man is surely like a lute, no more and no less;
For if, for instance, the belly of the lute becomes full, no
lament high or low will arise from that full lute.
If your brain and belly are on fire through fasting, because of
the fire every moment a lament will arise from your breast.
Every moment you will burn a thousand veils by that fire; you
will mount a hundred steps with zeal and endeavor.
Become empty of belly, and weep entreatingly like the reed
pipe; become empty of belly, and tell secrets with the reed pen.
If your belly is full at the time of concourse, it will bring Satan
in place of your reason, an idol in place of the Kaaba.
When you keep the fast, good habits gather together before
you like slaves and servants and retinue.
Keep the fast, for that is Solomon’s ring; give not the ring to
the div, destroy not your kingdom.
Even if your kingdom has gone from your head and your army
has fled, your army will rise up, pennants flying above them.
The table arrived from heaven to the tents of the fast, by the
intervention of the prayers of Jesus, son of Mary.
In the fast, be expectant of the table of bounty, for the table of
bounty is better than the broth of cabbages.

Rise, lovers
Rise, lovers, that we may go towards heaven; we have seen this world, so let us go to
that world.
No, no, for thought these two gardens are beautiful and fair, let us pass beyond these
two, and go to that Gardener.
Let us go prostrating to the sea like a torrent, then let us go foaming upon the face of
the sea.
Let us journey from this street of mourning to the wedding feast, let us go from this
saffron face to the face of the Judas tree blossom.
Trembling like a leaf and twig from fear of falling, our hearts are throbbing; let us go to
the Abode of Security.
There is no escape from pain, since we are in exile, and there is no escape from dust,
seeing that we are going to a dustbowl.
Like parrots green of wing and with fine pinions, let us become sugar-gatherers and go
to the sugar-bed.
These forms are signs of the signless fashioner; hidden from the evil eye, come, let us
go to the signless.
It is a road full of tribulation, but love is the guide, giving us instruction how we should
go thereon;
Though the shadow of the king’s grace surely protects, yet it is better that on that road
we go with the caravan.
We are like rain falling on a leaky roof; let us spring from the leak and go by that
waterspout.
We are crooked as a bow, for the string is in our own throats; when we become
straight, then we will go like an arrow from the bow.
We cower like mice in the house because of the cats; if we are lion’s whelps, let us go
to that Lion.
Let us make our soul a mirror in passion for a Joseph; let us go before Joseph’s beauty
with a present.
Let us be silent, that the giver of speech may say this; even as he shall say, so let us
go.
F
“Street of Mourning”: The world, which has been called by many similar names, such
as “the infidel’s paradise,” and symbolized by the false dawn, a carcass, a bath-stove
and a tomb. (Cf. “World” in Nicholson’s index to Math .).