Great Throughts Treasury

"Learn the alchemy true human beings know. The moment you accept what troubles you've been given the door will open."

"Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!"

"Let go of your worries and be completely clear-hearted, like the face of a mirror that contains no images. If you want a clear mirror, behold yourself and see the shameless truth, which the mirror reflects. If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish, what polishing might the mirror of the heart require? Between the mirror and the heart is this single difference: the heart conceals secrets, while the mirror does not."

"Let silence take you to the core of life."

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth."

"Let the Beauty We Love Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

"Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be."

"Let's get away from all the clever humans who put words in our mouth let's only say what our hearts desire."

"Like a sculptor, if necessary, carve a friend out of stone. Realize that your inner sight is blind and try to see a treasure in everyone."

"Let's ask God to help us to self-control for one who lacks it, lacks his grace."

"Lightning, your presence from ground to sky, no one knows what becomes of me, when you take me so quickly."

"Listen to the story told by the reed, of being separated. Since I was cut from the reed-bed, I have made this crying sound. Anyone apart from someone he loves understands what I say. Anyone pulled from a source longs to go back. At any gathering I am there, mingling in the laughing and grieving, a friend to each, but few will hear the secrets hidden within the notes. No ears for that. Body flowing out of spirit, spirit up from body: no concealing that mixing. But it's not given us to see the soul. The reed flute is fire, not wind. Be that empty. Hear the love-fire tangled in the reed notes, as bewilderment melts into wine. The reed is a friend to all who want the fabric torn and drawn away. The reed is hurt and salve combining. Intimacy and longing for intimacy, one song. A disastrous surrender, and a fine love, together."

"Listen. Make a way for yourself inside yourself. Stop looking in the other way of looking."

"Like this. If anyone asks you how the perfect satisfaction of all our sexual wanting will look, lift your face and say, Like this. When someone mentions the gracefulness of the night sky, climb up on the roof and dance and say, Like this. If anyone wants to know what spirit is, or what God’s fragrance means, lean your head toward him or her. Keep your face there close. Like this. When someone quotes the old poetic image about clouds gradually uncovering the moon, slowly loosen knot by knot the strings of your robe. Like this. If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead, don’t try to explain the miracle. Kiss me on the lips. Like this. Like this. When someone asks what it means to die for love, point here. If someone asks how tall I am, frown and measure with your fingers the space between the creases on your forehead. This tall. The soul sometimes leaves the body, the returns. When someone doesn’t believe that, walk back into my house. Like this. When lovers moan, they’re telling our story. Like this. I am a sky where spirits live. Stare into this deepening blue, while the breeze says a secret. Like this. When someone asks what there is to do, light the candle in his hand. Like this. How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob? Huuuuu. How did Jacob’s sight return? Huuuu. A little wind cleans the eyes. Like this. When Shams comes back from Tabriz, he’ll put just his head around the edge of the door to surprise us Like this."

"Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret, and in exchange gain the Ocean. Listen, O drop, bestow upon yourself this honor, and in the arms of the Sea be secure. Who indeed should be so fortunate? An Ocean wooing a drop! In God's name, in God's name, sell and buy at once! Give a drop, and take this Sea full of pearls."

"Listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door: let's go."

"Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, I'll do nothing until I can be sure. Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don't be one of those merchants who won’t risk the ocean."

"Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of invisible game."

"Longing is the core of mystery. Longing itself brings the cure. The only rule is, suffer the pain. Your desires must be disciplined And what you want to happen in time, sacrificed."

"Look at these worlds spinning out of nothingness. That is within your power."

"Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of This Moment."

"Look for the answer inside your question."

"Loosen the bonds of avarice from your hands and neck."

"Love asks us to enjoy our life for nothing good can come of death. Who is alive? I ask. Those who are born of love. Seek us in love itself, seek love in us ourselves. Sometimes I venerate love, sometimes it venerates me."

"Love calls - everywhere and always. We're sky bound. Are you coming?"

"Looking up gives light although at first it makes you dizzy."

"Love comes with a knife, not some shy question, and not with fears for its reputation."

"Love Dogs One night a man was crying, Allah! Allah! His lips grew sweet with the praising, until a cynic said, So! I have heard you calling out, but have you ever gotten any response? The man had no answer to that. He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep. He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls, in a thick, green foliage. Why did you stop praising? Because I've never heard anything back. This longing you express is the return message. The grief you cry out from draws you toward union. Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup. Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection. There are love dogs no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one of them."

"Love has taken away my practices and filled me with poetry. A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself. That's how I hold your voice. Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping? It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious. We're groggy, but let the guilt go. Feel the motions of tenderness around you, the Buoyancy."

"Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven, and makes the very hills to dance with joy."

"Love is a river. Drink from it."

"Love is a madman, working his wild schemes, tearing off his clothes, running through the mountains...."

"Love is always fresh."

"Love is cure, Love is power, Love is the magic of changes. Love is the mirror of divine beauty."

"Love is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end. Imagine, a suspended ocean, riding on a cushion of ancient secrets."

"Love is the cure, for our pain will keep giving birth to more pain until your eyes constantly exhale love as effortlessly as your body yields its scent."

"Love is from the infinite, and will remain until eternity. The seeker of love escapes the chains of birth and death. Tomorrow, when resurrection comes, the heart that is not in love will fail the test."

"Love is the soul’s light."

"Love is the energizing elixir of the universe, the cause and effect of all harmonies"

"Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces."

"Love is the house of God and you are living in that house."

"Love rests on no foundation. It is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end."

"Love is the Water of Life Everything other than love for the most beautiful God is agony of the spirit, though it be sugar- eating. What is agony of the spirit? To advance toward death without seizing hold of the Water of Life."

"Love isn't the work of the tender and the gentle; Love is the work of wrestlers. The one who becomes a servant of lovers is really a fortunate sovereign. Don't ask anyone about Love; ask Love about Love. Love is a cloud that scatters pearls."

"Love will find its way through all languages on its own."

"Love so needs to love that it will endure almost anything, even abuse, just to flicker for a moment. But the sky's mouth is kind. Its song will never hurt you, for I sing those words."

"Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along."

"Love's secret is always lifting its head out from under the covers - Here I am!"

"Lovers O lovers, lovers it is time to set out from the world. I hear a drum in my soul's ear coming from the depths of the stars. Our camel driver is at work; the caravan is being readied. He asks that we forgive him for the disturbance he has caused us. He asks why we travelers are asleep. Everywhere the murmur of departure; the stars, like candles thrust at us from behind blue veils, and as if to make the invisible plain, a wondrous people have come forth."

"Lying in the dust at your feet, my heart - tangle of curls in your hair. Enough so much! Approached his lips and let your kiss my soul free."