Great Throughts Treasury

"We were green: we ripened and grew golden. The Sea terrified us: we learned how to drown. Squat and earthbound, we unfolded huge wings. We started sober: are love's startled drunkards. You hide me in your cloak of nothingness reflect my ghost in your glass of being I am nothing, yet appear: transparent dream where your eternity briefly trembles."

"We search for Him here and there while looking right at Him. Sitting by His side we ask, O Beloved, where is the Beloved? Enough with such questions! – Let silence take you to the core of life. All your talk is worthless when compared to one whisper of the Beloved."

"We should ask God to help us toward manners. Inner gifts do not find their way to creatures without just respect."

"Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life."

"Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead."

"What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle."

"What can I do, Muslims? I do not know myself. I am neither Christian nor Jew, neither Magian nor Muslim, I am not from east or west, not from land or sea, not from the shafts of nature nor from the spheres of the firmament, not of the earth, not of water, not of air, not of fire. I am not from the highest heaven, not from this world, not from existence, not from being. I am not from India, not from China, not from Bulgar, not from Saqsin, not from the realm of the two Iraqs, not from the land of Khurasan. I am not from the world, not from beyond, not from heaven and not from hell. I am not from Adam, not from Eve, not from paradise and not from Ridwan. My place is placeless, my trace is traceless, no body, no soul, I am from the soul of souls. I have chased out duality, lived the two worlds as one. One I seek, one I know, one I see, one I call. He is the first, he is the last, he is the outer, he is the inner. Beyond He and He is I know no other. I am drunk from the cup of love, the two worlds have escaped me. I have no concern but carouse and rapture. If one day in my life I spend a moment without you from that hour and that time I would repent my life. If one day I am given a moment in solitude with you I will trample the two worlds underfoot and dance forever. O Sun of Tabriz, I am so tipsy here in this world, I have no tale to tell but tipsiness and rapture."

"What does this patch-sewing mean you ask? Eating and drinking. The heavy cloak of the body is always getting torn. You patch it with food and other ego-satisfactions."

"What is the body? That shadow of a shadow of your love, that somehow contains the entire universe."

"What I most want is to spring out of this personality, then to sit apart from that leaping. I've lived too long where I can be reached."

"What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs."

"What the sayer of praise is really praising is himself, by saying implicitly, my eyes are clear. Likewise, someone who criticizes is criticizing himself, saying implicitly, I can't see very well with my eyes so inflamed."

"What is a highway to one is a disaster to the other."

"What in your life is calling you, when all the noise is silenced, The meetings adjourned... The lists laid aside, And the Wild Iris blooms By itself In the dark forest... What still pulls on your soul?"

"What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest."

"What you seek is seeking you."

"Whatever you lost through fate, be certain that it saved you from pain."

"When one sense perceives the hidden, the invisible world becomes apparent to the whole."

"Whatever possessions and objects of its desires the lower self may obtain, it hangs on to them, refusing to let them go out of greed for more, or out of fear of poverty and need."

"When soul rises into lips you feel the kiss you have wanted."

"When the remedy you have offered only increases the disease, then leave him who will not be cured, and tell your story to someone who seeks the truth."

"When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home"

"When someone beats a rug, the blows are not against the rug, but against the dust in it."

"When someone is counting out gold for you, don’t look at your hands, or the gold. Look at the giver."

"When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you are not here, I cannot go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias and the difference between them."

"When the world pushes you to your knees, you are in the perfect position to pray."

"When the rose is gone and the garden faded you will no longer hear the nightingale's song. The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil. The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing. If love withholds its strengthening care, the lover is left like a bird without care, the lover is left like a bird without wings. How will I be awake and aware if the light of the Beloved is absent? Love wills that this Word be brought forth."

"When we practice loving kindness and compassion we are the first ones to profit."

"When you are with everyone but me, you're with no one. When you are with no one but me, you're with everyone. Instead of being so bound up with everyone, be everyone. When you become that many, you're nothing. Empty."

"When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action come from another section, the feeling disappears."

"When you go through a hard period, When everything seems to oppose you, ... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute, NEVER GIVE UP! Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!"

"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy."

"When you come looking for sugar, your bag will be examined to see how much it can hold; it will be filled accordingly."

"When you have indulged a lust, your wing drops off; you become lame, abandoned by a fantasy. … People fancy they are enjoying themselves, but they are really tearing out their wings for the sake of an illusion."

"When you lose all sense of self the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish. Lose yourself completely, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

"When you feel a peaceful joy, that's when you are near truth."

"Where Lover, Loving, and Loved are One, Every moment is made glorious by the Light Of Love."

"When your chest is free of your limiting ego, then you will see the ageless Beloved. You cannot see yourself without a mirror; Look at the Beloved, He is the brightest mirror."

"When your heart becomes the grave of your secrets, that desire of yours will be gained more quickly. The prophet said that anyone who keeps secret his inmost thought will soon attain the object of his desire. When seeds are buried in the earth, their inward secrets become the flourishing garden."

"When your love contracts in anger, the atmosphere itself feels threatening. But when you're expansive, no matter what the weather, you're in an open, windy field with friends."

"Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure."

"Where lowland is, that's where water goes. All medicine wants is pain to cure."

"Whoever acts with respect will get respect."

"Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love."

"Where will you plant your grief-seeds? We need ground to scrape and hoe, not the sky of unspecified desire."

"Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon."

"Wherever you stand be the soul of that place."

"Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?"

"Who says words with my mouth? All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. This drunkenness began in some other tavern. When I get back around to that place, I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile, I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off, but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice? Who says words with my mouth? Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here will have to take me home. This poetry, I never know what I'm going to say. I don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely speak at all."

"Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks."