Coleman Barks, The Essential RUMI, Introduction to the New Expanded Edition, New York, HarperCollins, 2004,
There is a candle called the rules of religion. You need that candle to find the way, and you must follow the way to reach the truth. If truth were obvious, no one would need the candle or the path. As it is said, When copper becomes gold, it doesn’t need an alchemist’s laboratory any longer. Don’t look for a guide after you reach the destination.
Religious rules are like alchemical formulae for mixing elements
in the proper amounts and with proper heat. The joy of experiencing change is when copper actually becomes gold. The first stage says, We have read the theories. The second says, We do the practices. The third rejoices, We have been set free. Each person loves the stage that he or she is in, in the alchemical process.
Here is another comparison. The law is like learning medicine. The way is like regulating one’s diet and taking remedies. Truth is a health that is independent of all doctoring. Knowledge. Practice. Experience.
Someone living in the last will say, I wish everyone felt this grace. Someone not yet there may complain, I have seen the long list of my wrongdoings. The good I have attempted amounts to very little. I feel power draining out of me.– PROSE PREFACE TO BOOK V, p. 334
ONE STRONG BRUSHSTROKE DOWN
When Adam said, We have done this terrible thing
to ourselves, he did not say God
had any part in it.
Adam, when you confessed,
why did you not acknowledge my ultimate control
over all action?
I was afraid, and
I didn’t want to show disrespect.
(p.334)
God replies, I have great respect for you as well.
Whoever shows respect gets respect.
If you bring almonds,
You will be served the almond cake.
You the saving, Good people find each other.
Honour friends and watch what happens.
Now love, help me tell a story
that will show the difference between something
freely done and something compelled.
Think of a hand trembling with palsy.
Now imagine a child’s hand shaking
because you slapped it away from reaching out.
You feel ashamed at having caused the child’s fear.
But does the old man feel guilty for his tremor?
This is silly intellectual quibbling.
What happens with longing and spirit is different.
Illumination comes, and there is no more considering
what follows logically or seems contradictory.
Light dawns, and any talk of proof
resembles a blind man’s cane at sunrise.
Remember the passage,
We are with you wherever you are.
Come back to that.
When did we ever leave it?
No matter we’re in a prison of forgetting
or enjoying the banquet of wisdom,
we are always inside presence.
Drunkenly asleep, tenderly awake,
clouded with grief, laughing like lightning,
angry at war, quiet with gratitude, we are nothing
in this many-mooded world of weather
but a single brushstroke down,
speaking of presence.
So the ambassador asks Omar, Why does
spirit come into these muddy bodies?
(p.335)
Now that you have asked a real question,
the answer is contained inside it.
The breathing of your speech is like the soul
entering a body. You feel the value
of making meaningful sounds.
Your incarnation is like a string of words
that make sense. Don’t squint and frown
trying to distinguish soul from body.
Be grateful that you are constantly flowing
from the source, as language streams from you.
Poetry holds meaning loosely
like a rock in a sling. We let fly.
The rest is out of anyone’s control.
The ambassador heard Omar and merged with majesty.
A buried seed grain secretly breaks open
and begins to be an ear of corn.
Bread dissolves in the stomach
and starts on its way to consciousness.
Candlewax turns to light.
A great joy breaks free of the self
and joins the moving river of presence.
Read about prophetic states
and let your soul grow restless in confinement.
Stay close to those who have managed to escape.
Don’t do anything to make people applaud.
That shuts the cage door tighter.—pp. 334-335
Coleman Barks, The Essential RUMI, Introduction to the New Expanded Edition, New York, HarperCollins, 2004,
There is a candle called the rules of religion. You need that candle to find the way, and you must follow the way to reach the truth. If truth were obvious, no one would need the candle or the path. As it is said, When copper becomes gold, it doesn’t need an alchemist’s laboratory any longer. Don’t look for a guide after you reach the destination.
Religious rules are like alchemical formulae for mixing elements
in the proper amounts and with proper heat. The joy of experiencing change is when copper actually becomes gold. The first stage says, We have read the theories. The second says, We do the practices. The third rejoices, We have been set free. Each person loves the stage that he or she is in, in the alchemical process.
Here is another comparison. The law is like learning medicine. The way is like regulating one’s diet and taking remedies. Truth is a health that is independent of all doctoring. Knowledge. Practice. Experience.
Someone living in the last will say, I wish everyone felt this grace. Someone not yet there may complain, I have seen the long list of my wrongdoings. The good I have attempted amounts to very little. I feel power draining out of me.– PROSE PREFACE TO BOOK V, p. 334
ONE STRONG BRUSHSTROKE DOWN
When Adam said, We have done this terrible thing
to ourselves, he did not say God
had any part in it.
Adam, when you confessed,
why did you not acknowledge my ultimate control
over all action?
I was afraid, and
I didn’t want to show disrespect.
(p.334)
God replies, I have great respect for you as well.
Whoever shows respect gets respect.
If you bring almonds,
You will be served the almond cake.
You the saving, Good people find each other.
Honour friends and watch what happens.
Now love, help me tell a story
that will show the difference between something
freely done and something compelled.
Think of a hand trembling with palsy.
Now imagine a child’s hand shaking
because you slapped it away from reaching out.
You feel ashamed at having caused the child’s fear.
But does the old man feel guilty for his tremor?
This is silly intellectual quibbling.
What happens with longing and spirit is different.
Illumination comes, and there is no more considering
what follows logically or seems contradictory.
Light dawns, and any talk of proof
resembles a blind man’s cane at sunrise.
Remember the passage,
We are with you wherever you are.
Come back to that.
When did we ever leave it?
No matter we’re in a prison of forgetting
or enjoying the banquet of wisdom,
we are always inside presence.
Drunkenly asleep, tenderly awake,
clouded with grief, laughing like lightning,
angry at war, quiet with gratitude, we are nothing
in this many-mooded world of weather
but a single brushstroke down,
speaking of presence.
So the ambassador asks Omar, Why does
spirit come into these muddy bodies?
(p.335)
Now that you have asked a real question,
the answer is contained inside it.
The breathing of your speech is like the soul
entering a body. You feel the value
of making meaningful sounds.
Your incarnation is like a string of words
that make sense. Don’t squint and frown
trying to distinguish soul from body.
Be grateful that you are constantly flowing
from the source, as language streams from you.
Poetry holds meaning loosely
like a rock in a sling. We let fly.
The rest is out of anyone’s control.
The ambassador heard Omar and merged with majesty.
A buried seed grain secretly breaks open
and begins to be an ear of corn.
Bread dissolves in the stomach
and starts on its way to consciousness.
Candlewax turns to light.
A great joy breaks free of the self
and joins the moving river of presence.
Read about prophetic states
and let your soul grow restless in confinement.
Stay close to those who have managed to escape.
Don’t do anything to make people applaud.
That shuts the cage door tighter.—pp. 334-335
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