Sufism

2008-10-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Khezr sought companionship with one whose mind
Was set on God alone. The man declined
And said to Khezr: ‘we two could not be friends,
For our existence have different ends.
The water of immortal life is yours,
And you must always live; life is your cause
As death is mine – you wish to live, whilst I
Impatiently prepare myself to die;
I leave you as a quick bird avoids the snare,
To soar up the free, untrammelled air’.

-'Attar

2008-10-25T13:47:00.003-07:00

A dervish once entered the presence of a king. The king addressed him ‘O ascetic.’ ‘you are the ascetic’, the dervish answered. ‘How could I be an ascetic’ the king demanded, ‘seeing that the whole world belongs to me?’ ‘Ah, you see things opposite of how they really are’ relied the dervish. ‘You are looking at it the wrong way. This world and the next and all there is to possess belongs to me. I have conquered the world. It is you who have become satisfied with a morsel and a rag.’

-Jalal al-Din Rumi,

2008-10-25T13:47:00.001-07:00

The dead live among us
They have taken the wrong way.
They are afraid of non-existence,
Yet non-existence is truly the refuge
In which they will find salvation.

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T13:35:00.002-07:00

Continuous attention to God causes remembrance of God, which drives awareness of other things out of one´s consciousness, causing the desire off the nafs to become gradually forgotten. Continuous attention to God engenders the gradual transmutation of the attributes of the disciples´ nafs into the attributes of God.

-Nurbakhsh

2008-10-25T13:35:00.001-07:00

A dervish had been traveling and regretted that he had been unable to attend his sheik´s talks. When he returned, his sheik told him there was no need for regret. Even if he missed the sheik´s lectures for ten years it would not matter, because he always said only one thing: “Sacrifice your ego; nothing more!”

-Sufi Tradition

2008-10-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Such savagery is easy for that which is a bloody tyrant.
Your nafs is such a dragon: how can it be dead?
it is merely frozen due to lack of means.
................................................................
Let that dragon of yours remain dormant.
Should it be released it will devour you

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T13:33:00.002-07:00

The thickest veils between man and God are the wise man´s wisdom, the worshipper´s worship, and the devotion of the devout.

-Tosun Bayrak

2008-10-25T13:33:00.001-07:00

An old sheik noted that if someone says, “What a fine person you are!” and this pleases you more than hearing, “What a bad person you are!”, you know that you are still a bad person.

-Sufi Tradition

2008-10-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

The nafs is like fire, when at the point of being extinguished, it always flares up somewhere else; if the nafs is calmed in one area, it ignites in another.

-Abu Bakr Temestani

2008-10-25T13:31:00.002-07:00

The tyrannical nafs generally operates outside conscious awareness. It seems to speak with our own voice and express our own inmost desires, so we rarely resist it. It is a skilled ruler who rarely has to rely on naked force. If the authority of the ruler is taken for granted, there is little possibility of revolt. The tyrannical nafs dominates us without our knowing it.
-Robert Frager

2008-10-25T13:31:00.001-07:00

The nafs is an attribute that becomes tranquil only in deceit; being calmed only by what is other than God, the nafs will never submit to the way of God.

-Bayazid

2008-10-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

The heart has an eye with which enjoys visions of the Unseen, an ear with which it listens to the speech of the inhabitants of the Unseen and the Speech of God, nostrils with which it smells the perfume of the Unseen, and a palate whereon it perceives the taste of love, the sweetness of faith, and the savor of gnosis.

-Najmaddin Razi

2008-10-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Become a person of the heart
or at least the devotee of one;
Or else, you will remain
like a donkey stuck in the mud.
If one has no heart,
one can gain no benefit;
In wretchedness, one
will be famous in the world.

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T13:27:00.002-07:00

Western psychology consider logical reasoning the highest human skill and the way to knowledge and wisdom. In Sufi psychology, the abstract, logical intellect is called the lower intellect. It is useful at school and also for learning skills related to worldly success. But knowledge must be put into practice, and there is also a higher intellect that enables us to understand spiritual truths and the meaning of life. If the intellect serves as a tool of the ego, it can become the enemy of growth and development. The abstract intellect needs the light and wisdom of the heart.

-Robert Frager

2008-10-25T13:27:00.001-07:00

When the path ignites a soul,
there's no remaining in place.

The foot touches ground,
but not for long.

The way where love tells its secret
stays always in motion,
and there is no you there, and no reason.

The rider urges his horse to gallop,
and so doing, throws himself
under the flying hooves.

In love-unity there's no old or new.
Everything is nothing.
God alone is.

For lovers the phenomena-veil is very transparent,
and the delicate tracings on it cannot
be explained with language.

Clouds burn off as the sun rises,
and the love-world floods with light.

But cloud-water can be obscuring,
as well as useful.

There is an affection that covers the glory,
rather than dissolving into it.

It's a subtle difference,
like the change in Persian
from the word "friendship"
to the word "work."

That happens with just a dot
above or below the third letter.

There is a seeing of the beauty
of union that doesn't actively work
for the inner conversation.

Your hand and feet must move,
as a stream streams, working
as its Self, to get to the ocean.
Then there's no more mention
of the search.

Being famous, or being a disgrace,
who's ahead or behind, these considerations
are rocks and clogged places
that slow you. Be as naked as a wheat grain
out of its husk and sleek as Adam.

Don't ask for anything other
than the presence.

Don't speak of a "you"
apart from That.

A full container cannot be more full.
Be whole, and nothing.

-Saná'í

2008-10-25T13:26:00.002-07:00

The way to You
lies clearly in my heart
and cannot be seen or known to the mind.
As my words turn to silence,
Your sweetness surrounds me.

-Saná'í

2008-10-25T13:26:00.001-07:00

Your heartrending fire
made me bloom like a rose.

I died at your feet
and returned fast to life.

My inborn freedom
offered nothing in profit;
but now I am free,
since becoming your slave.

-Saná'í

2008-10-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

Belief brings me close to You
but only to the door.
It is only by disappearing into
Your mystery
that I will come in.

-Saná'í

2008-10-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a hundred times.
Come, yet again, come, come.

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:49:00.001-07:00

The Prophet’s heart, God bless him and give him peace, had pity for his prisoners. God most High sent down a revelation to comfort the Prophet’s heart. ‘Say to them: In your present state of bondage and chains, if you resolve to do good and be righteous God will deliver you from this. He will restore to you many times that which has been lost, many times as much. He will grant you forgiveness and pardon in the next life and the world to come. He will give you two treasures, one that has gone from you and the one in the world to come.’

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:48:00.006-07:00

The proof of the sun is the sun itself,
If you require this proof,
do not turn your face from Him.

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:48:00.005-07:00

The story is told of a king who summoned Majnun before him. ‘What is wrong with you?’ he inquired. ‘What has happened, what has befallen you? You have disgraced yourself, forsaken your heart and home, kith and kin, become wasted and gone to rack and ruin.
Who is this Layla? What beauty is hers? Come, I will show you many beautiful and lovely girls –they are all yours! –I shall give them to you.’ When they had brought to court and the beauties were all revealed to Majnun, he merely lowered his head, casting his eyes down and stared morosely at the ground. ‘Well now,’ the king commanded, ‘lift up your head and look at them!’ ‘I am afraid,’ Majnun replied. ‘My love for Layla is like a drawn sword. If I raise my head it will be cut off.’ Such was his absorption and his love for Layla. The others too had eyes and lips and noses. What then had he seen in Layla that made him the way he was? What had he beheld in her that brought him to such a state?

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:48:00.003-07:00

When one first awakens from error, wakefulness enters into him and that is the grace of God It is the pure gift of God’s grace. If this were not so, why then did it not descend on those other friend who were the companions of Muhammad?

Grace and rebuke is like sparks of fire that leap up and fly out of the flame. At first the spark is a gift. But when you add cotton to it and nurse that spark along making it spread, the spark becomes grace and rebuke. In the first instance, man is small and weak: For man was created a weakling [4:28] But like a fire, when you have nursed that weakling flame it becomes huge. It engulfs the world and sets the universe aflame. That little fire becomes great and mighty: Thou art if a noble disposition [68:4].

‘Our master loves you very much,’ I said.
‘Neither my coming here or my speaking is commensurate with my love,’ the master replied, ‘I say whatever comes into me. If God wills, He will make these paltry words worthwhile and house them within your breast, yielding mighty benefits. If He does not so desire, granted though a hundred thousand words may be spoken, they will not find lodging within your heart. They will pass away and soon be forgotten. They will be like a spark of fire that falls upon a dry rag. If God wills, that one spark will take hold and spread and become a conflagration. But if He wills it not, a hundred sparks may fall on that dry rag but they will all go out. They will not leave a trace.’

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:48:00.001-07:00

When a child is apprenticed to a master tailor he must obey his master. If he is given a patch to sew he must stitch that seam. If he wishes to learn his trade, he must surrender his own initiative and ideas completely, becoming entirely submissive and obedient to his masters orders. We hope that God most High will bring us to such a state.

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

My eyes are fixed on another,
What shall I do?
Make your complaint of yourself,
For the light of that eye is you.

-Poet

2008-10-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Some people taunted the Prophet, saying, ‘why does the Koran come down upon Muhammad word by word? Why not sura by sura?’ The Prophet Muhammad (Gods blessings be upon Him) answered, ‘What are those fools saying? If it were to come down upon me all at once I would dissolve and disappear forever.’

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:43:00.001-07:00

The intellect is that aspect of the mind which is perpetually restless, in a state of constant commotion. It thinks and struggles and strives to comprehend the Creator even if He is incomprehensible. The intellect is like a moth, and the Divine Beloved like a candle. When the moth hurls itself into the flames of the candle it is consumed and destroyed. But the moth does so according to its nature. However much it may suffer and burn in agony, it cannot resist the candle. Any animal which, like the moth, is unable to resist the light of the candle and sacrifices itself into that light would itself be a moth. But if the moth hurled itself into the light of the candle, and the moth were not consumed, that which did not destroy the moth would not be a candle. Let this be understood. The man who can resist God and does not strive with all his might to understand Him is not a man. A God which one can understand is not a God. The true man is he who is never free from striving, who restlessly and ceaselessly revolves around the light of the Majesty of God’s Awesomeness. God is He who consumes man and renders him naught, which no intellect can comprehend.

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:41:00.001-07:00

Some people once said to Jesus, upon whom be peace, ‘We will come to your house’ ‘Where and when have I ever had a house in this world’ Jesus answered, ‘and how should I have a house?’

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

The truth, the lesson to be learned is that in this world of shame and sorrow men must learn to see into each other deeply. They must learn to see clear through to their very essence. They must go beyond those good and bad qualities which only temporarily adhere to the ego-personality. Those qualities are only temporarily present in every man. Men must penetrate and enter into each other’s deepest substance. They must see clearly that the qualities that distinguish one man from another in this world are only illusions. It is not their true quality or substance

-Jalal al-Din Rumi

2008-10-07T15:45:00.001-07:00

How can feeble reason encompass the Qur'án,
Or the spider snare a phoenix in his web?
Wouldst thou that the mind should not entrap thee?
Teach it the science of the love of God!

-Saná'í