New "Rumi"-nations

It's been a while since I blogged ... a very long while actually. I can't believe how much things have changed since the last post. I've completed a year at work, bought a new car, tried to run, been more involved with volunteering, dabbled in yoga/meditation, done two road trips, met some really interesting people .... yada yada yada.

One of the best things that have done is read some good poetry. I've always been fascinated by Middle-eastern philosophy ... "The Prophet" from Kahlil Gibran ranks among my favorites. Of late, however, I've been reading some delightful pearls of wisdom from Sufi mystics like Rumi and Hafeez. They're such a treat to read ... and powerfuk enough change your perspective on so many things around you. It really makes me wonder ... if the translated version is so powerful, can you imagine what the original version would sound? It might well be worth the effort to learn Farsi!

Here's a sample of some of these gems:

You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.
Listen to the answer.
There is no "other world."
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating.

You suppose you are the trouble
But you are the cure
You suppose that you are the lock on the door
But you are the key that opens it
It's too bad that you want to be someone else
You don't see your own face, your own beauty
Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches you by means ofopposites, so that you will have two wings to fly - not one.

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.

In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water.
She asks, “Do you love me or yourself more?
Really, tell the absolute truth.”
He says, “There's nothing left of me. I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness?
It has no resistance to sunlight.”