What are your favorite quotes from Rumi?

Question

I have two

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.

The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.

The first is about how we relate to God, for God is love from within. The second is about romantic love of others, when I first saw my husband I knew him from before even though we had never met.

The prison of this universe is a fleeting condition and I know that in time all will know and all will join then, when we becomes I; I shall awaken like an image taking form in a cloud and step out of the darkness to the arms of cosmic light, for I am the ember which starts the flame that shall consume the universe.

Answer 1

Thou and I

Joyful the moment when we sat in the bower, Thou and I;
In two forms and with two faces - with one soul, Thou and I.

The colour of the garden and the song of the birds give the elixir of immortality
The instant we come into the orchard, Thou and I.

The stars of Heaven come out to look upon us -
We shall show the moon herself to them, Thou and I.

Thou and I, with no 'Thou' or 'I', shall become one through our tasting;
Happy, safe from idle talking, Thou and I.

The spirited parrots of heaven will envy us -
Wen we shall laugh in such a way, Thou and I.

This is stranger, that Thou and I, in this corner here...
Are both in one breath here and there - Thou and I.




Art as Flirtation and Surrender


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,

but sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art.



(((GNOSTIC)))

Answer 2

A baby pigeon stands on the edge of a nest all day
Then hears a call, Come to Me
How could he not fly toward that?
Wings tear through the body's robe
the day the letter arrives that says
You've flapped and fluttered against the limits
long enough
You've been a bird without wings
in a house without doors or windows
Compassion builds a door
Restlessness cuts a key
Step off proudly into the sunlight
never looking back

Take sips of this pure wine being poured
Never mind that you have been given a dirty cup

Answer 3

My favorite Rumi quote is "Lovers don't finally meet somewhere
They're in each other all along."

Here's a story for you guys --

Rumi and Shamus i Tabriz got drunk together and could not find Rumi's house in the dark.
Shamus said, "Hey, wasn't your house on this street earlier? I think we're going in circles. It's getting cold out here."
Rumi replied, "How shall we seek real knowledge? By renouncing knowlege.
How shall we find my house? By renouncing my house."

Right about then they spotted a house that was dark but had it's front door open. Rumi said, " This house is good enough, I am exhausted and dizzy from the wine. Let's go in and rest and if the owner comes home we'll tell him what happened and ask for shelter until we sober up."
Shamus agreed and they entered the house quietly and shut the door. The room was dark. The only light was from a fire dying down in the hearth, but it felt very good and they rested comfortably before the cozy embers.
About an hour later the door burst open to their alarm and a lamp was lighted. It was Rumi's wife and son standing there!
"Where have you two been? We've been looking everywhere. We had to leave the front door open for you," said Rumi's angry, worried wife.
Just about this time Rumi and Shamus realized that they had been sitting in Rumi's house all along.
"It's a miracle!" replied Rumi. "We decided to take the long way home, but we got so God-intoxicated from our meditations that we forgot where the house was. We saw the open door, took it for an invitation and entered. Then we waited for the owner of the house to come home at which time we were going to explain that we were cold, tired and needed shelter and then we would ask for his compassion. Now I see that Allah works in mysterious ways!"
"Too bad Allah didn't remember to remove the wine stains from the front of your robe," replied Rumi's wife.

Answer 4

'Oh Soul
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less'
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky- to cause a
hundred veils to fall each moment
First to let go of life.
Finally, to take a step without feet.


The musings of Rumi are infused with the light of the cosmos.

thank you for bringing him to my attention this early morning.

Answer 5

"I am only the house of your beloved,

not the beloved herself:

true love is for the treasure,

not for the coffer that contains it."

The real beloved is that one who is unique,

who is your beginning and your end.

When you find that one,

you'll no longer expect anything else:

that is both the manifest and the mystery.

That one is the lord of states of feeling,

dependent on none;

month and year are slaves to that moon.

When he bids the "state,"

it does His bidding;

when that one wills, bodies become spirit.


edit:
Gnostic, thank you for the excellent question. Just look at all the beauty in these answers. My heart is full from reading all of the wonderful quotes and poems. Let's do this more often.

Answer 6

I don't know the source for this one but: Allah 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 Ka'bah 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.

Answer 7

"In the slaughterhouse of love, they kill
only the best, none of the weak or deformed.
Don't run away from this dying.
Whoever's not killed for love is dead meat."

"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round
in another form. The child weaned from mother's milk
now drinks honey and wine mixed."

Thank you for asking a great question, and I trust that both verses are self explanatory.

Answer 8

Me too :)
“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.” --- that is one of my all time favourite quotes by Rumi, but as fez said there are so many :)

I think falsehood is one of the barriers built into the heart that block the flow of divine love.

Also in relation to the heart I like:

“Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more - more unseen forms become manifest to him.” -- Jalaluddin Rumi

Plus there are so many wonderful poems by Rumi too :)

Thanks for asking and sharing :)

Answer 9

“If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don't abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.”

~ Mevlana Rumi

"Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it's a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame's core."


“The way you make love is the way
God will be with you.”


“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.”


if I had only these few thoughts to light my path, I would surely be pure essence upon their full and utter cognition......

namaste.......thank you for asking

Answer 10

1- Jabar Tu Khuftan Bood Dar Reh Mukhsip,
Taa Na Beeni Aan Darodar Ge Mukhsip. (persian)

..Thou has to sleep but not on the way,
Not till you vision the Great One.

2.Thou has your feet, why be lame,
Thou have a paw, why hide it.
Why doubt His wish, When
handeth a spade, He has to thee.



The second verse does not relate about the romantic love of others but the same 'Self'.

Answer 11

I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.