I've been reading The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Şafak. It is about the Shams of Tibriz and Rumi. I am drawn deeply to Sufi mysticism, and so when I found this book in my DD's library, I was hooked. This morning I get this in my mail:
20 Powerful Quotes From Rumi’s Spiritual Teacher, Shams Tabrizi
Rumi (1207-1273) was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic. And Tabrizi was a Persian Sunni Muslim, who is credited with being Rumi’s spiritual instructor.
1. Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think 'My life will be upside down' don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?
2. The universe is a complete unique entity. Everything and everyone is bound together with some invisible strings. Do not break anyone’s heart; do not look down on those weaker than you. One’s sorrow at the other side of the world can make the entire world suffer; one’s happiness can make the entire world smile.
3. A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western…divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.
4. Most conflicts and tensions are due to language. Don’t pay so much attention to the words. In love’s country, language doesn’t have a place. Love is mute.
5. This world is like a mountain.
Your echo depends on you.
If you scream good things,
the world will give it back.
If you scream bad things,
the world will give it back.
Even if someone talks badly about you,
speak well about him.
Change your heart to change the world.
6. There are more fake guides and teachers in the world than stars. The real guide is the one who makes you see your inner beauty, not the one who wants to be admired and followed.
7. Don’t search for heaven and hell in the future. Both are now present. Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven. Whenever we fight, or hate, we are in hell.
8. The whole universe is summed up in the Human Being.
Devil is not a monster waiting to trap us,
He is a voice inside.
Look for Your Devil in Yourself,
not in the Others.
Don’t forget that the one who knows his Devil,
knows his God.
9. The real dirt is not outside,
but inside, in our hearts.
We can wash all stains with water.
The only one we can’t remove is the grudge and the bad intentions sticking to our hearts.
10. The summary of the advice of all prophets is this; Find yourself a mirror.
11. No matter what people call you, you are just who you are. Keep to this truth. You must ask yourself how is it you want to live your life. We live and we die, this is the truth that we can only face alone. No one can help us. So consider carefully, what prevents you from living the way you want to live your life?
12. Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.
13. While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every decent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes.
14. It is pointless trying to know where the way leads. Think only about your first step, the rest will come.
15. The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.
16. You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church. But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look for Him: in the heart of a true lover.
17. Love is a journey. All travelers whether they want or not are changed. No one can travel into love and remain the same.
18. When everyone is trying to be something, be nothing. Range with emptiness. Human beings should be like a pot. As the pot is held by its emptiness inside, a human being is held by the awareness of his nothingness.
19. To get closer to Truth and Right, we need a beautiful and soft heart. Every human learns one day or another to become softer. Some accidentally, some because of disease, some suffer from human loss, some other from material loss.... We all face these situations, but we can either see the good in it and open our hearts, or, unfortunately, see another occasion to lock it forever.
20. The past is a fog in our minds. The future? A complete dream. We can neither guess the future, nor change the past.