Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi

Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi

• "Originally, you were clay. From being mineral, you became vegetable. From vegetable, you became animal, and from animal, man. During these periods man did not know where he was going, but he was being taken on a long journey nonetheless. And you have to go through a hundred different worlds yet."
  • Source: Quoted in Robert Ornstein: Multimind, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1986, p. 31

• Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
  What do you know of Love except the name?
  Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
  and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
  Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
  it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
  The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
  that root must be cherished with all one's might.
  • "Jewels of Remembrance" Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski

• Learn from Ali how to fight
  without your ego participating.
  
  God's lion did nothing
  that didn't originate
  from his deep center.
  • "Learn from Ali"

• I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion....
  I have no longing
  except for the One.
  
  When a wind of personal reaction comes,
  I do not go along with it.
  
  There are many winds full of anger,
  and lust and greed. They move the rubbish around,
  but the solid mountain of our true nature stays where it's always been.
  • "Learn from Ali" (An account of Ali's response as to why he declined to kill someone who had spit in his face after being defeated in battle.)