Sixteen. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was working with his disciples at a small ashram in the desert. At that time, some travelers were passing by that path. Driven by curiosity, they stopped walking and went inside the ashram to see what was happening. In the ashram courtyard, disciples and students were sitting, and Maulana Saheb was answering their questions. Both the questions and answers were of a strange nature. Seeing this, the travelers became annoyed and left that place, continuing on their way. After several years of travel, that group of travelers returned again, and just as before, they stood and watched to see what was happening there. This time they saw that only Maulana Rumi was sitting there alone—his disciples were gone. Surprised, they wondered: What happened? Where did they all go? “What has happened?” they asked. Maulana smiled and said, “This was my work. They had many questions within them, and I answered all their questions. Now they have no more questions. So I told them, go, and do the same work I have done with others—if you find someone whose questions you cannot answer properly, then send them to me.” The more questions we have in our minds, the more scattered our minds will remain, and the further we will drift from the right path. When the mind remains restless, necessary work cannot be done properly. When all questions disappear from the mind, our minds return to that childhood when we were innocent, when there were no base thoughts in our minds, when nothing in the world could disturb our peace. No noble journey can be begun with an anxious heart. If we can still our tongues by taking a vow of silence, if we immerse ourselves in the endless peaceful current of thought in a soundless environment, then without uttering anything we can speak the most beautiful words, reveal the most wondrous hidden truths. This silence is the answer to all questions. This answer contains no words, nor does it correspond to any specific question. Silence takes us to such a state where much can be said without saying anything. In our daily lives, we must navigate through countless troubles. Many of these troubles are such that we have no hand in either their beginning or their end. They leave us bewildered and helpless. Then only silence can help us. We must wait for the storm to pass. This waiting is not easy, but there is nothing else to be done. The essence of every religious philosophy is to understand life. This work of understanding cannot be done amid clamor; true realization does not come easily to a distressed heart. If our words are swift like a river’s current, then our silence must be deep like the ocean. Words are like bullets from a gun. Once the bullet is fired, what value does the gun retain? The bullet that has not yet been fired has greater power and impact. Is not the archer who has not yet shot his arrow, who has kept it with him, more dangerous? His real strength remains with him, which he can use at any time. The word that has not yet been spoken holds as much power as it does meaning, and expresses far more sense and nonsense than its potential. This very matter confuses and frightens people.
He who carries this word hidden in his heart, never letting it reach his lips, remains completely free from the potential dangers of that word’s outward expression. People will extract various meanings or misinterpretations from his mysterious silence according to their own understanding, but the master of that word bears no responsibility for such meanings or misinterpretations. Resisting the temptation to speak is truly very difficult, but those who can manage this task enjoy relatively greater power and peace.Seventeen. Sometimes silence yields the same fruit as prayer. When all the sharpness of our words fails and makes our lives unbearable, we can swim across the ocean of silence in search of peace, and thus silence brings tidings of comfort and joy. This silence is deeply painful—nothing is harder than remaining quiet. But in the magic of wordlessness, the most beautiful moments are composed. Our heart sees things we cannot see, hears things we cannot hear. How we are now is fundamentally the result of how we were before. Generally, the present follows the past. In the grain fields of our heart, we are moving forward in life by harvesting the crop whose seeds we sowed and cultivated. What we think, our capacity to think is greater than that. What we know, our capacity to know is greater than that. Our thoughts and actions in every moment are either increasing or decreasing what we have. The moment we can unite all our unconscious with consciousness, all our silences will rise up in unison, singing the victory song of life. Whatever we do in our unconscious, those who are ahead of us do those same things in complete consciousness. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi often read a book. He never read this book in front of anyone; he read it secretly, hiding it from others. The amusing thing was that he was also the first buyer of this book. His disciples’ interest and curiosity about this book knew no bounds. Their curiosity had intensified because Maulana never read the book in front of anyone. When everyone had gone away, he would take the book out from under his pillow and read it silently. Naturally, this matter gave birth to infinite curiosity among everyone. Everyone wondered, “What is written in this mysterious book?” Many tried very hard to find out. Some would go up to Maulana Rumi’s roof and try to see what Rumi was reading by moving aside the roof tiles. But no one ever discovered what was actually in that book. The day Jalaluddin Rumi died, the eager disciples became more preoccupied with the book than with dead Rumi himself. They loved Maulana Rumi dearly. We know of no other Sufi saint who received such infinite love. The word Maulana means beloved teacher. No one other than Rumi is called by this name. Those who loved Rumi so deeply had forgotten after Rumi’s death that Rumi was no more. Satisfying their own curiosity had become more important to them than Rumi’s corpse. More important than the person Rumi had become that mysterious book, by any means necessary, the quenching of their curiosity. That mysterious book had become more important than Rumi’s dead body. They pulled the book out from under Rumi’s pillow and were amazed to see that nothing was written in the book. Page after page they turned, and found nothing there—they found nothing worth reading in that book. Among Rumi’s devotees, those who were very close to him understood what the true meaning of that apparently meaningless book was. In that letterless book lay dormant all the letters of the world. When lips do not speak, then the heart begins to speak. When the heart begins to speak, then all the words of the world become faithful followers of the heart’s master and follow the right path. When someone uses too many words to say or explain something, its importance diminishes.
The more words proliferate, the less weight speech carries. People spend considerable time devising ways to save money, yet they never pause for a moment to consider the wisdom of saving words—this notion never even enters their minds. Lost wealth can be recovered, but lost words cannot be retrieved. Ask the oyster’s shell: “Where did such a precious thing come from within you?” The answer will surely be: “From silence—no matter the suffering, no matter the anguish within my heart, through all these years I never once parted my lips.” In times of remaining silent, an endless battle rages within oneself; the persistent urge to express one’s opinions drives a person to distraction, making it impossible to keep the lips sealed. But in time, this very silence begins to manifest itself as infinite power. The more we practice silence, the more beautiful and perfect our prayers become, the closer we can draw to the Creator. Silence can teach us far more than even our most reasoned words.Eighteen. People don’t cage owls or crows — they cage mynas and parrots. There’s a peculiar joy in using brute force to make the beautiful ugly. People find pleasure in spitting upon those who don’t possess even the worth of their spittle’s foam. Those who are beloved of the Creator are constantly wounded by those whom the Creator does not love. A heart that sparkles clear as water — people delight in muddying such hearts. This senseless, unprovoked behavior teaches us to accept all the cruelties of this wretched world with ease, initiates us into living with cruelty. Through bearing undeserved suffering with a smiling face and silence as companion, one grows strong. That path alone is pure which refines the human being. Neither excessive cleverness nor excessive scholarship can accomplish anything in life. To accomplish anything in life, one must first seek the pure path. In moments of crisis, people may fail to offer wise counsel, but they can certainly hurl sharp arrows of meaningless words. The less one understands the weight of words, the more foolishly one speaks. It’s easy to be influenced by such talk. This society is tormented by the tyranny of word-magicians and their empty rhetoric. Problems don’t diminish in the web of irresponsible words — they multiply. At such times, silence can grant wisdom. A tranquil heart miraculously reveals the way out of crisis. Whatever may rage — tremendous uproar, conflict, upheaval, or chaos — one must pass through the turbulent circumstances while keeping oneself calm. After all, one cannot simply turn away from everything. As much as possible, one must let time pass without hurting anyone, maintaining goodwill toward all. Time’s very nature is to flow forward carrying both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. However irritating or illogical others’ words may sound, one must listen steadily. Then, with a cool head, one must reflect on various relevant matters — no reply should be given to anyone’s words. When we contemplate anything with a settled mind in silent surroundings, our intuition grows, and along with it our intelligence and practical wisdom work to infinite degrees. Our mind grows weary bearing the weight of all suffering and distress, and we console our mind — everything will be all right. What our mind is, we essentially are. Our mind guides us; when the mind breaks, it searches for peace, and through the mind’s strange chemistry we love or hate. Our physical form gives a false impression about us — when people see our exterior, what they think based on appearance is not what we truly are. If people could see our mind, if they could understand what goes on within our mind, then they would grasp what we really are. However we shape our mind, that’s exactly how we think and act. The mind’s power determines the measure and nature of all our capabilities. When the mind fills with love, its power increases. If love works toward what we must do, then in doing it we feel no fatigue or monotony. The work doesn’t feel like a burden, so its quality improves. There’s honesty and concentration in the work; learning from past mistakes, the work can be accomplished with such wondrous perfection that even when we dissolve into the womb of eternity, everyone remembers us for that work, age after age.
Nineteen. When we work with good intentions, expecting no exchange in return, disappointment cannot touch us. When we stand beside someone with deep compassion and sincerity, all pain and suffering are swept away in joy’s cascading stream. Through love, a bridge is built between our outer and inner worlds. True love unites Creator and creation. Where love is absent, the fire of hatred or envy burns one slowly from within, destroying all faith in one’s own power. The bond of love between the inner and outer realms elevates humanity to divinity. Then, in humanity’s interaction with the Creator, all ordinary things become extraordinary. Wisdom is the initiation into living life beautifully with whatever we possess, however meager it may be. When we learn to love all aspects of our existence, warm springs of love and affection will flow from the depths of our hearts, emerging in gentle streams that unite us with the objects of our love. We believe our bodies contain our souls, just as prayer halls contain the Creator. But the truth is otherwise. No prayer hall contains the Creator; rather, wherever the Creator dwells, there stands the prayer hall. We are all souls, each skillfully concealed within the vast cage we call the body. When our thoughts and actions are governed not by our bodies but by our souls, our outer and inner worlds become woven together by a single thread. What the soul binds in love, it binds for life. What the mind or body binds in love is bound for specific reasons, at specific times, in specific ways—transient bonds of momentary enchantment. The soul’s love knows no discrimination; it pays no heed to rules and conventions, passing every test of time and context. In such love, between lover and beloved there remains no difference save external appearance, no distance. Though the duality of bodily existence persists, two beings floating in love’s celestial current achieve unity. That consciousness which fails to connect with the heart-stirring Creator, which does not set the heart dancing in wondrous rhythm with ineffable joy, which does not merge body and mind into singular being—such consciousness is nothing but fallen delusion.
Twenty. Those we see, those we grow up with, those for whom love is born within us naturally from living together—one day they leave us. When that time comes, and it strikes us that we will never see them again in this life, we are overwhelmed with anguish! This cry of love—if we couldn’t spread that love to someone else, or if we found no one before us to love, could we survive at all in this world through the torment of separation from our beloved? Love is an eternal essence. It has neither birth nor death. From the dawn of creation until today, the total amount of love in this world remains the same. Our emotions and consciousness either receive love or reject it. When love is born in our hearts, what actually happens is that the love that lay dormant within our hearts merely manifests itself. When someone departs from our lives, that love returns to its former dormant state. With the arrival of someone new in our lives, that love can awaken again. The departure of one love and the arrival of another, and even after that, the repeated comings and goings of love—what is this but the awakening of temporary love, if not permanent? It can also happen that no one new enters our lives, but the love that already existed in our hearts for some old presence can multiply manifold. We often see that after the untimely death of her husband, a mother’s love for her child becomes even more intense than before. Love has no destruction, only displacement. When love falls asleep, we begin to think, “My love is lost. I will never be able to love anyone like this again. No attraction will ever be born in me for anyone else. How will I live in such lovelessness?” But that’s not actually how it works. Love cannot be bound within the frame of two or any such number. We often see that while in an acknowledged relationship, a person can feel love or affection for someone else. It’s not that they are indifferent to or irresponsible toward their first relationship, yet they feel a certain attraction toward another. Sometimes this attraction even makes people leave home. It may be that there is an absence of something in the first beloved that they secretly desire. Whenever they see the existence of that particular aspect in someone else, love for that new person is born in their heart. In physical love, promiscuity arises not only from physical or mental dissatisfaction, but love can also arise from mere habit or pleasure or simple desire. This is seen in emotional love as well. It’s not that their current relationship isn’t meeting their physical or mental needs, or that they lack commitment to their current relationship or that it has ended, yet they may indulge a new relationship simply for pleasure or habit or to fulfill desire. This matter of indulging someone they cannot shelter—both its origin and development stem from mutual consent or some enchantment. As long as the body remains the foundation of such indulgence, everything continues smoothly. But the moment the mind comes and occupies the body’s place, real catastrophe begins. While the body may be satisfied with mere indulgence, the mind wants shelter along with indulgence. Creating a new shelter without destroying the old one may make the landowner wealthy, but it leaves the possessor of love utterly destitute, a beggar on the street.
At some point or another, our love unconsciously migrates from one soul to another. Such renewal of love in our hearts is a perfectly ordinary, natural psychological phenomenon. This transference of love brings about certain changes in our hearts—changes we perhaps never imagined possible. We learn to believe: Yes, this person is exactly the unique being I desire. (Uniqueness does not give birth to love; love gives birth to uniqueness. We want to think of the person we love as unique.) Or: the person who left has returned to my life through this person. Or: no one has ever loved me this well, nor ever will. Or: I shall preserve my love within this very love. Or: the days that have passed will never return, but does that mean I can never again live normally?—Yet there was a time when no amount of effort could make us believe this simple, natural truth. No relationship is eternal; only love itself is eternal. Hence all the external and internal transformations of relationships exist solely to tend this eternal love.Twenty-one. Our time is stolen away as we justify all our wrong deeds and right deeds—to others and to ourselves. Someday, in some vast field, I encounter that time. When two hearts meet on the same plane, there remains nothing within us that requires justification. All concepts, all language, even we two ourselves become trivial and meaningless before that moment. Only silent dialogue continues between two souls. There are no words there, no accusations, no misunderstandings. This dialogue has no temporal or spatial boundaries. In the same resonance, the same rhythm, the same cadence, the same measure, a soundless transfer of feeling flows between two hearts. To extend one’s vision farther than an ordinary person can see from a mountain peak on a clear day, to reach one’s sight and thought effortlessly to any boundary of time, to gather all the heart’s powers together and make life more beautiful than dreams—for this one need not spend time and money traveling somewhere distant. Rather, one must take refuge in the impenetrable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, supremely desired place within one’s own heart-realm and meditate in tranquil absorption upon the Creator or one’s own inner knowing. All the wisdom and realization of all accomplished sages is embedded in the temple of our heart; to fully receive these treasures, one must prepare oneself through sacrifice, effort, and humility. In ancient Persia, a form of meditation was practiced. Before sunrise, everyone would gather and dance together in slow rhythm while singing or reciting poetry. This meditation was called sama. Through this meditation, all worldly feelings were forgotten and the self was offered to the Creator’s grace—that is, through the process of journeying into the mysterious kingdom of one’s own heart, one sought to gain divine experience. Through meditating on the Creator with the expression of music and dance, love for the Creator was manifested, one’s feelings were purified and elevated. By revealing the treasure hidden in the heart’s secret chamber, all doubts of the mind were dispelled and the mind, becoming light as a feather with infinite joy, would reach the Creator. Sometimes during sama meditation, people would become externally unconscious and, in an intoxicated state, become absorbed in spiritual practice. At such times, all human pride, ego, envy, and various evil tendencies would recede and the heart, mind, and soul would become pure, becoming worthy of receiving the Creator’s grace. At that moment, the Creator and the meditators’ hearts become one, bound together in the bond of love. Love comes from within the soul. Our soul is a vast ocean of love, emotion, and compassion. The soul is the Creator’s sole reflection, the sole eternal refuge. Love recognizes no time, love follows no reason, love has no conditions, love exists purely for love’s sake, love creates immortality that endures forever. Love alone is the pure feeling that comes from within the soul, bringing peace to the heart. Love born through force or calculation contains nothing but sin.
Fifteen. Everything we hold dear, we call the wealth of the soul. The person who is the person of our heart, we call a kindred soul. Of the place that brings us peace, we say that when we go there, our soul finds solace! We do not give our most precious things a place in our heart or mind, but in our soul, where we keep them mingled with utmost tenderness. When we love someone, the luminous aspects of their being come to mind far more often than whatever darkness we may know in them. Whenever they are gripped by fear, we try to strengthen their confidence. When we see them drowning in anxiety, we free their constrained thoughts. Just as we know their limitations, we do whatever it takes, at any cost, to open one by one the doors of their infinite potential. Whom do we need most on life’s journey? Someone who gives us good counsel, offers beautiful solutions to our problems, heals our wounds—surely someone like that? To live well in life, we need not a critic, but someone who shares our pain. The natural tendency of human beings is not so much to remove suffering as to share it. We need someone who can empathize with our pain, who can become our twin soul and bear all our wounds in their own heart. Just as certain companions in prayer inspire us in our worship at the Creator’s house, so in our times of distress, in our loneliness, in moments of sorrow, we desperately need someone who comes to stand beside us, extending gentle hands with a compassionate heart. Tell me, what is love? Being together? Does love end when socially sanctioned bonds end? A couple gets divorced. Soon after, both husband and wife remarry. A few days after the wedding, the husband loses both legs in a road accident and becomes permanently disabled. His second wife then leaves him. There was no one to care for him. Then his first wife and her new husband took on the responsibility of caring for that disabled man. With profound tenderness, these three people have been living as kindred souls for twenty-six years now. The first wife and her new husband have spent their entire married life serving this helpless, disabled man. To ensure he lacks no care, at her second husband’s suggestion, the wife even left her high-paying job. What greater example could there be of love and friendship? Differences of opinion, quarrels, or the onset of distance does not mean the end of love. Divorce does not mean the beginning of lifelong enmity. When the person we love truly becomes a friend, the impossible becomes possible. Chris Norton suffered a spinal cord injury while playing football in 2010, resulting in paralysis from the neck down and near-complete loss of mobility. He never walked again. He had two paths before him. To give up and surrender himself to circumstances, or to refuse defeat and, accepting infinite suffering, make circumstances surrender to his capability. He believed that if he tried, he could transform that tragedy into opportunity, and everyone around him would learn from watching him. He began giving inspirational speeches.
He began to show those who are physically disabled the dream of living well. Through tremendous willpower, patience, and perseverance, he graduated in 2015. Three years after the accident, he met Emily Summers. From acquaintance came love. In Summers’ company, Norton grew mentally stronger. Had he given up and surrendered himself to fate, he surely would never have encountered this extraordinary good soul. To everyone’s amazement, with the heartfelt support of his fiancée, he walked with great difficulty at his graduation ceremony to collect his certificate. He often tells everyone, “I want you to choose the difficult path of continuing to fight in life. Discover the positive aspects for yourself even amidst all your misfortune, struggles, and suffering. We all have the capacity to seek out life’s possibilities. If you can do this, and patiently move yourself forward, I can swear to you that incredibly good things await you.” The power of love and faith thus makes the impossible possible. When you have a beloved person as a friend by your side, no obstacle feels like an obstacle anymore. The Creator can be found within someone’s beautiful desires of the heart. True friendship brings out the beautiful aspects of life; there is no greater fortune than finding a true friend, and if that friend remains in life, life becomes meaningful. A good friend is like a cup of wine. As time moves forward, the bond of friendship becomes more exquisite. A good friend will point out our weaknesses, so that we can eliminate them and improve ourselves. Our weaknesses also weaken our good friends; our misfortunes increase the suffering of our good friends. It is because such good people with beautiful hearts exist that the world remains beautiful even today, and one can still spend several lifetimes here in joy and laughter.Sixteen. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was working with his disciples at a small ashram in the desert. At that time, some travelers were passing by that path. Driven by curiosity, they stopped walking and went inside the ashram to see what was happening. In the ashram courtyard, disciples and students were sitting, and Maulana Saheb was answering their questions. Both the questions and answers were of a strange nature. Seeing this, the travelers became annoyed and left that place, continuing on their way. After several years of travel, that group of travelers returned again, and just as before, they stood and watched to see what was happening there. This time they saw that only Maulana Rumi was sitting there alone—his disciples were gone. Surprised, they wondered: What happened? Where did they all go? “What has happened?” they asked. Maulana smiled and said, “This was my work. They had many questions within them, and I answered all their questions. Now they have no more questions. So I told them, go, and do the same work I have done with others—if you find someone whose questions you cannot answer properly, then send them to me.” The more questions we have in our minds, the more scattered our minds will remain, and the further we will drift from the right path. When the mind remains restless, necessary work cannot be done properly. When all questions disappear from the mind, our minds return to that childhood when we were innocent, when there were no base thoughts in our minds, when nothing in the world could disturb our peace. No noble journey can be begun with an anxious heart. If we can still our tongues by taking a vow of silence, if we immerse ourselves in the endless peaceful current of thought in a soundless environment, then without uttering anything we can speak the most beautiful words, reveal the most wondrous hidden truths. This silence is the answer to all questions. This answer contains no words, nor does it correspond to any specific question. Silence takes us to such a state where much can be said without saying anything. In our daily lives, we must navigate through countless troubles. Many of these troubles are such that we have no hand in either their beginning or their end. They leave us bewildered and helpless. Then only silence can help us. We must wait for the storm to pass. This waiting is not easy, but there is nothing else to be done. The essence of every religious philosophy is to understand life. This work of understanding cannot be done amid clamor; true realization does not come easily to a distressed heart. If our words are swift like a river’s current, then our silence must be deep like the ocean. Words are like bullets from a gun. Once the bullet is fired, what value does the gun retain? The bullet that has not yet been fired has greater power and impact. Is not the archer who has not yet shot his arrow, who has kept it with him, more dangerous? His real strength remains with him, which he can use at any time. The word that has not yet been spoken holds as much power as it does meaning, and expresses far more sense and nonsense than its potential. This very matter confuses and frightens people.
He who carries this word hidden in his heart, never letting it reach his lips, remains completely free from the potential dangers of that word’s outward expression. People will extract various meanings or misinterpretations from his mysterious silence according to their own understanding, but the master of that word bears no responsibility for such meanings or misinterpretations. Resisting the temptation to speak is truly very difficult, but those who can manage this task enjoy relatively greater power and peace.Seventeen. Sometimes silence yields the same fruit as prayer. When all the sharpness of our words fails and makes our lives unbearable, we can swim across the ocean of silence in search of peace, and thus silence brings tidings of comfort and joy. This silence is deeply painful—nothing is harder than remaining quiet. But in the magic of wordlessness, the most beautiful moments are composed. Our heart sees things we cannot see, hears things we cannot hear. How we are now is fundamentally the result of how we were before. Generally, the present follows the past. In the grain fields of our heart, we are moving forward in life by harvesting the crop whose seeds we sowed and cultivated. What we think, our capacity to think is greater than that. What we know, our capacity to know is greater than that. Our thoughts and actions in every moment are either increasing or decreasing what we have. The moment we can unite all our unconscious with consciousness, all our silences will rise up in unison, singing the victory song of life. Whatever we do in our unconscious, those who are ahead of us do those same things in complete consciousness. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi often read a book. He never read this book in front of anyone; he read it secretly, hiding it from others. The amusing thing was that he was also the first buyer of this book. His disciples’ interest and curiosity about this book knew no bounds. Their curiosity had intensified because Maulana never read the book in front of anyone. When everyone had gone away, he would take the book out from under his pillow and read it silently. Naturally, this matter gave birth to infinite curiosity among everyone. Everyone wondered, “What is written in this mysterious book?” Many tried very hard to find out. Some would go up to Maulana Rumi’s roof and try to see what Rumi was reading by moving aside the roof tiles. But no one ever discovered what was actually in that book. The day Jalaluddin Rumi died, the eager disciples became more preoccupied with the book than with dead Rumi himself. They loved Maulana Rumi dearly. We know of no other Sufi saint who received such infinite love. The word Maulana means beloved teacher. No one other than Rumi is called by this name. Those who loved Rumi so deeply had forgotten after Rumi’s death that Rumi was no more. Satisfying their own curiosity had become more important to them than Rumi’s corpse. More important than the person Rumi had become that mysterious book, by any means necessary, the quenching of their curiosity. That mysterious book had become more important than Rumi’s dead body. They pulled the book out from under Rumi’s pillow and were amazed to see that nothing was written in the book. Page after page they turned, and found nothing there—they found nothing worth reading in that book. Among Rumi’s devotees, those who were very close to him understood what the true meaning of that apparently meaningless book was. In that letterless book lay dormant all the letters of the world. When lips do not speak, then the heart begins to speak. When the heart begins to speak, then all the words of the world become faithful followers of the heart’s master and follow the right path. When someone uses too many words to say or explain something, its importance diminishes.
The more words proliferate, the less weight speech carries. People spend considerable time devising ways to save money, yet they never pause for a moment to consider the wisdom of saving words—this notion never even enters their minds. Lost wealth can be recovered, but lost words cannot be retrieved. Ask the oyster’s shell: “Where did such a precious thing come from within you?” The answer will surely be: “From silence—no matter the suffering, no matter the anguish within my heart, through all these years I never once parted my lips.” In times of remaining silent, an endless battle rages within oneself; the persistent urge to express one’s opinions drives a person to distraction, making it impossible to keep the lips sealed. But in time, this very silence begins to manifest itself as infinite power. The more we practice silence, the more beautiful and perfect our prayers become, the closer we can draw to the Creator. Silence can teach us far more than even our most reasoned words.Eighteen. People don’t cage owls or crows — they cage mynas and parrots. There’s a peculiar joy in using brute force to make the beautiful ugly. People find pleasure in spitting upon those who don’t possess even the worth of their spittle’s foam. Those who are beloved of the Creator are constantly wounded by those whom the Creator does not love. A heart that sparkles clear as water — people delight in muddying such hearts. This senseless, unprovoked behavior teaches us to accept all the cruelties of this wretched world with ease, initiates us into living with cruelty. Through bearing undeserved suffering with a smiling face and silence as companion, one grows strong. That path alone is pure which refines the human being. Neither excessive cleverness nor excessive scholarship can accomplish anything in life. To accomplish anything in life, one must first seek the pure path. In moments of crisis, people may fail to offer wise counsel, but they can certainly hurl sharp arrows of meaningless words. The less one understands the weight of words, the more foolishly one speaks. It’s easy to be influenced by such talk. This society is tormented by the tyranny of word-magicians and their empty rhetoric. Problems don’t diminish in the web of irresponsible words — they multiply. At such times, silence can grant wisdom. A tranquil heart miraculously reveals the way out of crisis. Whatever may rage — tremendous uproar, conflict, upheaval, or chaos — one must pass through the turbulent circumstances while keeping oneself calm. After all, one cannot simply turn away from everything. As much as possible, one must let time pass without hurting anyone, maintaining goodwill toward all. Time’s very nature is to flow forward carrying both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. However irritating or illogical others’ words may sound, one must listen steadily. Then, with a cool head, one must reflect on various relevant matters — no reply should be given to anyone’s words. When we contemplate anything with a settled mind in silent surroundings, our intuition grows, and along with it our intelligence and practical wisdom work to infinite degrees. Our mind grows weary bearing the weight of all suffering and distress, and we console our mind — everything will be all right. What our mind is, we essentially are. Our mind guides us; when the mind breaks, it searches for peace, and through the mind’s strange chemistry we love or hate. Our physical form gives a false impression about us — when people see our exterior, what they think based on appearance is not what we truly are. If people could see our mind, if they could understand what goes on within our mind, then they would grasp what we really are. However we shape our mind, that’s exactly how we think and act. The mind’s power determines the measure and nature of all our capabilities. When the mind fills with love, its power increases. If love works toward what we must do, then in doing it we feel no fatigue or monotony. The work doesn’t feel like a burden, so its quality improves. There’s honesty and concentration in the work; learning from past mistakes, the work can be accomplished with such wondrous perfection that even when we dissolve into the womb of eternity, everyone remembers us for that work, age after age.
Nineteen. When we work with good intentions, expecting no exchange in return, disappointment cannot touch us. When we stand beside someone with deep compassion and sincerity, all pain and suffering are swept away in joy’s cascading stream. Through love, a bridge is built between our outer and inner worlds. True love unites Creator and creation. Where love is absent, the fire of hatred or envy burns one slowly from within, destroying all faith in one’s own power. The bond of love between the inner and outer realms elevates humanity to divinity. Then, in humanity’s interaction with the Creator, all ordinary things become extraordinary. Wisdom is the initiation into living life beautifully with whatever we possess, however meager it may be. When we learn to love all aspects of our existence, warm springs of love and affection will flow from the depths of our hearts, emerging in gentle streams that unite us with the objects of our love. We believe our bodies contain our souls, just as prayer halls contain the Creator. But the truth is otherwise. No prayer hall contains the Creator; rather, wherever the Creator dwells, there stands the prayer hall. We are all souls, each skillfully concealed within the vast cage we call the body. When our thoughts and actions are governed not by our bodies but by our souls, our outer and inner worlds become woven together by a single thread. What the soul binds in love, it binds for life. What the mind or body binds in love is bound for specific reasons, at specific times, in specific ways—transient bonds of momentary enchantment. The soul’s love knows no discrimination; it pays no heed to rules and conventions, passing every test of time and context. In such love, between lover and beloved there remains no difference save external appearance, no distance. Though the duality of bodily existence persists, two beings floating in love’s celestial current achieve unity. That consciousness which fails to connect with the heart-stirring Creator, which does not set the heart dancing in wondrous rhythm with ineffable joy, which does not merge body and mind into singular being—such consciousness is nothing but fallen delusion.
Twenty. Those we see, those we grow up with, those for whom love is born within us naturally from living together—one day they leave us. When that time comes, and it strikes us that we will never see them again in this life, we are overwhelmed with anguish! This cry of love—if we couldn’t spread that love to someone else, or if we found no one before us to love, could we survive at all in this world through the torment of separation from our beloved? Love is an eternal essence. It has neither birth nor death. From the dawn of creation until today, the total amount of love in this world remains the same. Our emotions and consciousness either receive love or reject it. When love is born in our hearts, what actually happens is that the love that lay dormant within our hearts merely manifests itself. When someone departs from our lives, that love returns to its former dormant state. With the arrival of someone new in our lives, that love can awaken again. The departure of one love and the arrival of another, and even after that, the repeated comings and goings of love—what is this but the awakening of temporary love, if not permanent? It can also happen that no one new enters our lives, but the love that already existed in our hearts for some old presence can multiply manifold. We often see that after the untimely death of her husband, a mother’s love for her child becomes even more intense than before. Love has no destruction, only displacement. When love falls asleep, we begin to think, “My love is lost. I will never be able to love anyone like this again. No attraction will ever be born in me for anyone else. How will I live in such lovelessness?” But that’s not actually how it works. Love cannot be bound within the frame of two or any such number. We often see that while in an acknowledged relationship, a person can feel love or affection for someone else. It’s not that they are indifferent to or irresponsible toward their first relationship, yet they feel a certain attraction toward another. Sometimes this attraction even makes people leave home. It may be that there is an absence of something in the first beloved that they secretly desire. Whenever they see the existence of that particular aspect in someone else, love for that new person is born in their heart. In physical love, promiscuity arises not only from physical or mental dissatisfaction, but love can also arise from mere habit or pleasure or simple desire. This is seen in emotional love as well. It’s not that their current relationship isn’t meeting their physical or mental needs, or that they lack commitment to their current relationship or that it has ended, yet they may indulge a new relationship simply for pleasure or habit or to fulfill desire. This matter of indulging someone they cannot shelter—both its origin and development stem from mutual consent or some enchantment. As long as the body remains the foundation of such indulgence, everything continues smoothly. But the moment the mind comes and occupies the body’s place, real catastrophe begins. While the body may be satisfied with mere indulgence, the mind wants shelter along with indulgence. Creating a new shelter without destroying the old one may make the landowner wealthy, but it leaves the possessor of love utterly destitute, a beggar on the street.
At some point or another, our love unconsciously migrates from one soul to another. Such renewal of love in our hearts is a perfectly ordinary, natural psychological phenomenon. This transference of love brings about certain changes in our hearts—changes we perhaps never imagined possible. We learn to believe: Yes, this person is exactly the unique being I desire. (Uniqueness does not give birth to love; love gives birth to uniqueness. We want to think of the person we love as unique.) Or: the person who left has returned to my life through this person. Or: no one has ever loved me this well, nor ever will. Or: I shall preserve my love within this very love. Or: the days that have passed will never return, but does that mean I can never again live normally?—Yet there was a time when no amount of effort could make us believe this simple, natural truth. No relationship is eternal; only love itself is eternal. Hence all the external and internal transformations of relationships exist solely to tend this eternal love.Twenty-one. Our time is stolen away as we justify all our wrong deeds and right deeds—to others and to ourselves. Someday, in some vast field, I encounter that time. When two hearts meet on the same plane, there remains nothing within us that requires justification. All concepts, all language, even we two ourselves become trivial and meaningless before that moment. Only silent dialogue continues between two souls. There are no words there, no accusations, no misunderstandings. This dialogue has no temporal or spatial boundaries. In the same resonance, the same rhythm, the same cadence, the same measure, a soundless transfer of feeling flows between two hearts. To extend one’s vision farther than an ordinary person can see from a mountain peak on a clear day, to reach one’s sight and thought effortlessly to any boundary of time, to gather all the heart’s powers together and make life more beautiful than dreams—for this one need not spend time and money traveling somewhere distant. Rather, one must take refuge in the impenetrable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, supremely desired place within one’s own heart-realm and meditate in tranquil absorption upon the Creator or one’s own inner knowing. All the wisdom and realization of all accomplished sages is embedded in the temple of our heart; to fully receive these treasures, one must prepare oneself through sacrifice, effort, and humility. In ancient Persia, a form of meditation was practiced. Before sunrise, everyone would gather and dance together in slow rhythm while singing or reciting poetry. This meditation was called sama. Through this meditation, all worldly feelings were forgotten and the self was offered to the Creator’s grace—that is, through the process of journeying into the mysterious kingdom of one’s own heart, one sought to gain divine experience. Through meditating on the Creator with the expression of music and dance, love for the Creator was manifested, one’s feelings were purified and elevated. By revealing the treasure hidden in the heart’s secret chamber, all doubts of the mind were dispelled and the mind, becoming light as a feather with infinite joy, would reach the Creator. Sometimes during sama meditation, people would become externally unconscious and, in an intoxicated state, become absorbed in spiritual practice. At such times, all human pride, ego, envy, and various evil tendencies would recede and the heart, mind, and soul would become pure, becoming worthy of receiving the Creator’s grace. At that moment, the Creator and the meditators’ hearts become one, bound together in the bond of love. Love comes from within the soul. Our soul is a vast ocean of love, emotion, and compassion. The soul is the Creator’s sole reflection, the sole eternal refuge. Love recognizes no time, love follows no reason, love has no conditions, love exists purely for love’s sake, love creates immortality that endures forever. Love alone is the pure feeling that comes from within the soul, bringing peace to the heart. Love born through force or calculation contains nothing but sin.
Fifteen. Everything we hold dear, we call the wealth of the soul. The person who is the person of our heart, we call a kindred soul. Of the place that brings us peace, we say that when we go there, our soul finds solace! We do not give our most precious things a place in our heart or mind, but in our soul, where we keep them mingled with utmost tenderness. When we love someone, the luminous aspects of their being come to mind far more often than whatever darkness we may know in them. Whenever they are gripped by fear, we try to strengthen their confidence. When we see them drowning in anxiety, we free their constrained thoughts. Just as we know their limitations, we do whatever it takes, at any cost, to open one by one the doors of their infinite potential. Whom do we need most on life’s journey? Someone who gives us good counsel, offers beautiful solutions to our problems, heals our wounds—surely someone like that? To live well in life, we need not a critic, but someone who shares our pain. The natural tendency of human beings is not so much to remove suffering as to share it. We need someone who can empathize with our pain, who can become our twin soul and bear all our wounds in their own heart. Just as certain companions in prayer inspire us in our worship at the Creator’s house, so in our times of distress, in our loneliness, in moments of sorrow, we desperately need someone who comes to stand beside us, extending gentle hands with a compassionate heart. Tell me, what is love? Being together? Does love end when socially sanctioned bonds end? A couple gets divorced. Soon after, both husband and wife remarry. A few days after the wedding, the husband loses both legs in a road accident and becomes permanently disabled. His second wife then leaves him. There was no one to care for him. Then his first wife and her new husband took on the responsibility of caring for that disabled man. With profound tenderness, these three people have been living as kindred souls for twenty-six years now. The first wife and her new husband have spent their entire married life serving this helpless, disabled man. To ensure he lacks no care, at her second husband’s suggestion, the wife even left her high-paying job. What greater example could there be of love and friendship? Differences of opinion, quarrels, or the onset of distance does not mean the end of love. Divorce does not mean the beginning of lifelong enmity. When the person we love truly becomes a friend, the impossible becomes possible. Chris Norton suffered a spinal cord injury while playing football in 2010, resulting in paralysis from the neck down and near-complete loss of mobility. He never walked again. He had two paths before him. To give up and surrender himself to circumstances, or to refuse defeat and, accepting infinite suffering, make circumstances surrender to his capability. He believed that if he tried, he could transform that tragedy into opportunity, and everyone around him would learn from watching him. He began giving inspirational speeches.
He began to show those who are physically disabled the dream of living well. Through tremendous willpower, patience, and perseverance, he graduated in 2015. Three years after the accident, he met Emily Summers. From acquaintance came love. In Summers’ company, Norton grew mentally stronger. Had he given up and surrendered himself to fate, he surely would never have encountered this extraordinary good soul. To everyone’s amazement, with the heartfelt support of his fiancée, he walked with great difficulty at his graduation ceremony to collect his certificate. He often tells everyone, “I want you to choose the difficult path of continuing to fight in life. Discover the positive aspects for yourself even amidst all your misfortune, struggles, and suffering. We all have the capacity to seek out life’s possibilities. If you can do this, and patiently move yourself forward, I can swear to you that incredibly good things await you.” The power of love and faith thus makes the impossible possible. When you have a beloved person as a friend by your side, no obstacle feels like an obstacle anymore. The Creator can be found within someone’s beautiful desires of the heart. True friendship brings out the beautiful aspects of life; there is no greater fortune than finding a true friend, and if that friend remains in life, life becomes meaningful. A good friend is like a cup of wine. As time moves forward, the bond of friendship becomes more exquisite. A good friend will point out our weaknesses, so that we can eliminate them and improve ourselves. Our weaknesses also weaken our good friends; our misfortunes increase the suffering of our good friends. It is because such good people with beautiful hearts exist that the world remains beautiful even today, and one can still spend several lifetimes here in joy and laughter.Sixteen. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was working with his disciples at a small ashram in the desert. At that time, some travelers were passing by that path. Driven by curiosity, they stopped walking and went inside the ashram to see what was happening. In the ashram courtyard, disciples and students were sitting, and Maulana Saheb was answering their questions. Both the questions and answers were of a strange nature. Seeing this, the travelers became annoyed and left that place, continuing on their way. After several years of travel, that group of travelers returned again, and just as before, they stood and watched to see what was happening there. This time they saw that only Maulana Rumi was sitting there alone—his disciples were gone. Surprised, they wondered: What happened? Where did they all go? “What has happened?” they asked. Maulana smiled and said, “This was my work. They had many questions within them, and I answered all their questions. Now they have no more questions. So I told them, go, and do the same work I have done with others—if you find someone whose questions you cannot answer properly, then send them to me.” The more questions we have in our minds, the more scattered our minds will remain, and the further we will drift from the right path. When the mind remains restless, necessary work cannot be done properly. When all questions disappear from the mind, our minds return to that childhood when we were innocent, when there were no base thoughts in our minds, when nothing in the world could disturb our peace. No noble journey can be begun with an anxious heart. If we can still our tongues by taking a vow of silence, if we immerse ourselves in the endless peaceful current of thought in a soundless environment, then without uttering anything we can speak the most beautiful words, reveal the most wondrous hidden truths. This silence is the answer to all questions. This answer contains no words, nor does it correspond to any specific question. Silence takes us to such a state where much can be said without saying anything. In our daily lives, we must navigate through countless troubles. Many of these troubles are such that we have no hand in either their beginning or their end. They leave us bewildered and helpless. Then only silence can help us. We must wait for the storm to pass. This waiting is not easy, but there is nothing else to be done. The essence of every religious philosophy is to understand life. This work of understanding cannot be done amid clamor; true realization does not come easily to a distressed heart. If our words are swift like a river’s current, then our silence must be deep like the ocean. Words are like bullets from a gun. Once the bullet is fired, what value does the gun retain? The bullet that has not yet been fired has greater power and impact. Is not the archer who has not yet shot his arrow, who has kept it with him, more dangerous? His real strength remains with him, which he can use at any time. The word that has not yet been spoken holds as much power as it does meaning, and expresses far more sense and nonsense than its potential. This very matter confuses and frightens people.
He who carries this word hidden in his heart, never letting it reach his lips, remains completely free from the potential dangers of that word’s outward expression. People will extract various meanings or misinterpretations from his mysterious silence according to their own understanding, but the master of that word bears no responsibility for such meanings or misinterpretations. Resisting the temptation to speak is truly very difficult, but those who can manage this task enjoy relatively greater power and peace.Seventeen. Sometimes silence yields the same fruit as prayer. When all the sharpness of our words fails and makes our lives unbearable, we can swim across the ocean of silence in search of peace, and thus silence brings tidings of comfort and joy. This silence is deeply painful—nothing is harder than remaining quiet. But in the magic of wordlessness, the most beautiful moments are composed. Our heart sees things we cannot see, hears things we cannot hear. How we are now is fundamentally the result of how we were before. Generally, the present follows the past. In the grain fields of our heart, we are moving forward in life by harvesting the crop whose seeds we sowed and cultivated. What we think, our capacity to think is greater than that. What we know, our capacity to know is greater than that. Our thoughts and actions in every moment are either increasing or decreasing what we have. The moment we can unite all our unconscious with consciousness, all our silences will rise up in unison, singing the victory song of life. Whatever we do in our unconscious, those who are ahead of us do those same things in complete consciousness. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi often read a book. He never read this book in front of anyone; he read it secretly, hiding it from others. The amusing thing was that he was also the first buyer of this book. His disciples’ interest and curiosity about this book knew no bounds. Their curiosity had intensified because Maulana never read the book in front of anyone. When everyone had gone away, he would take the book out from under his pillow and read it silently. Naturally, this matter gave birth to infinite curiosity among everyone. Everyone wondered, “What is written in this mysterious book?” Many tried very hard to find out. Some would go up to Maulana Rumi’s roof and try to see what Rumi was reading by moving aside the roof tiles. But no one ever discovered what was actually in that book. The day Jalaluddin Rumi died, the eager disciples became more preoccupied with the book than with dead Rumi himself. They loved Maulana Rumi dearly. We know of no other Sufi saint who received such infinite love. The word Maulana means beloved teacher. No one other than Rumi is called by this name. Those who loved Rumi so deeply had forgotten after Rumi’s death that Rumi was no more. Satisfying their own curiosity had become more important to them than Rumi’s corpse. More important than the person Rumi had become that mysterious book, by any means necessary, the quenching of their curiosity. That mysterious book had become more important than Rumi’s dead body. They pulled the book out from under Rumi’s pillow and were amazed to see that nothing was written in the book. Page after page they turned, and found nothing there—they found nothing worth reading in that book. Among Rumi’s devotees, those who were very close to him understood what the true meaning of that apparently meaningless book was. In that letterless book lay dormant all the letters of the world. When lips do not speak, then the heart begins to speak. When the heart begins to speak, then all the words of the world become faithful followers of the heart’s master and follow the right path. When someone uses too many words to say or explain something, its importance diminishes.
The more words proliferate, the less weight speech carries. People spend considerable time devising ways to save money, yet they never pause for a moment to consider the wisdom of saving words—this notion never even enters their minds. Lost wealth can be recovered, but lost words cannot be retrieved. Ask the oyster’s shell: “Where did such a precious thing come from within you?” The answer will surely be: “From silence—no matter the suffering, no matter the anguish within my heart, through all these years I never once parted my lips.” In times of remaining silent, an endless battle rages within oneself; the persistent urge to express one’s opinions drives a person to distraction, making it impossible to keep the lips sealed. But in time, this very silence begins to manifest itself as infinite power. The more we practice silence, the more beautiful and perfect our prayers become, the closer we can draw to the Creator. Silence can teach us far more than even our most reasoned words.Eighteen. People don’t cage owls or crows — they cage mynas and parrots. There’s a peculiar joy in using brute force to make the beautiful ugly. People find pleasure in spitting upon those who don’t possess even the worth of their spittle’s foam. Those who are beloved of the Creator are constantly wounded by those whom the Creator does not love. A heart that sparkles clear as water — people delight in muddying such hearts. This senseless, unprovoked behavior teaches us to accept all the cruelties of this wretched world with ease, initiates us into living with cruelty. Through bearing undeserved suffering with a smiling face and silence as companion, one grows strong. That path alone is pure which refines the human being. Neither excessive cleverness nor excessive scholarship can accomplish anything in life. To accomplish anything in life, one must first seek the pure path. In moments of crisis, people may fail to offer wise counsel, but they can certainly hurl sharp arrows of meaningless words. The less one understands the weight of words, the more foolishly one speaks. It’s easy to be influenced by such talk. This society is tormented by the tyranny of word-magicians and their empty rhetoric. Problems don’t diminish in the web of irresponsible words — they multiply. At such times, silence can grant wisdom. A tranquil heart miraculously reveals the way out of crisis. Whatever may rage — tremendous uproar, conflict, upheaval, or chaos — one must pass through the turbulent circumstances while keeping oneself calm. After all, one cannot simply turn away from everything. As much as possible, one must let time pass without hurting anyone, maintaining goodwill toward all. Time’s very nature is to flow forward carrying both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. However irritating or illogical others’ words may sound, one must listen steadily. Then, with a cool head, one must reflect on various relevant matters — no reply should be given to anyone’s words. When we contemplate anything with a settled mind in silent surroundings, our intuition grows, and along with it our intelligence and practical wisdom work to infinite degrees. Our mind grows weary bearing the weight of all suffering and distress, and we console our mind — everything will be all right. What our mind is, we essentially are. Our mind guides us; when the mind breaks, it searches for peace, and through the mind’s strange chemistry we love or hate. Our physical form gives a false impression about us — when people see our exterior, what they think based on appearance is not what we truly are. If people could see our mind, if they could understand what goes on within our mind, then they would grasp what we really are. However we shape our mind, that’s exactly how we think and act. The mind’s power determines the measure and nature of all our capabilities. When the mind fills with love, its power increases. If love works toward what we must do, then in doing it we feel no fatigue or monotony. The work doesn’t feel like a burden, so its quality improves. There’s honesty and concentration in the work; learning from past mistakes, the work can be accomplished with such wondrous perfection that even when we dissolve into the womb of eternity, everyone remembers us for that work, age after age.
Nineteen. When we work with good intentions, expecting no exchange in return, disappointment cannot touch us. When we stand beside someone with deep compassion and sincerity, all pain and suffering are swept away in joy’s cascading stream. Through love, a bridge is built between our outer and inner worlds. True love unites Creator and creation. Where love is absent, the fire of hatred or envy burns one slowly from within, destroying all faith in one’s own power. The bond of love between the inner and outer realms elevates humanity to divinity. Then, in humanity’s interaction with the Creator, all ordinary things become extraordinary. Wisdom is the initiation into living life beautifully with whatever we possess, however meager it may be. When we learn to love all aspects of our existence, warm springs of love and affection will flow from the depths of our hearts, emerging in gentle streams that unite us with the objects of our love. We believe our bodies contain our souls, just as prayer halls contain the Creator. But the truth is otherwise. No prayer hall contains the Creator; rather, wherever the Creator dwells, there stands the prayer hall. We are all souls, each skillfully concealed within the vast cage we call the body. When our thoughts and actions are governed not by our bodies but by our souls, our outer and inner worlds become woven together by a single thread. What the soul binds in love, it binds for life. What the mind or body binds in love is bound for specific reasons, at specific times, in specific ways—transient bonds of momentary enchantment. The soul’s love knows no discrimination; it pays no heed to rules and conventions, passing every test of time and context. In such love, between lover and beloved there remains no difference save external appearance, no distance. Though the duality of bodily existence persists, two beings floating in love’s celestial current achieve unity. That consciousness which fails to connect with the heart-stirring Creator, which does not set the heart dancing in wondrous rhythm with ineffable joy, which does not merge body and mind into singular being—such consciousness is nothing but fallen delusion.
Twenty. Those we see, those we grow up with, those for whom love is born within us naturally from living together—one day they leave us. When that time comes, and it strikes us that we will never see them again in this life, we are overwhelmed with anguish! This cry of love—if we couldn’t spread that love to someone else, or if we found no one before us to love, could we survive at all in this world through the torment of separation from our beloved? Love is an eternal essence. It has neither birth nor death. From the dawn of creation until today, the total amount of love in this world remains the same. Our emotions and consciousness either receive love or reject it. When love is born in our hearts, what actually happens is that the love that lay dormant within our hearts merely manifests itself. When someone departs from our lives, that love returns to its former dormant state. With the arrival of someone new in our lives, that love can awaken again. The departure of one love and the arrival of another, and even after that, the repeated comings and goings of love—what is this but the awakening of temporary love, if not permanent? It can also happen that no one new enters our lives, but the love that already existed in our hearts for some old presence can multiply manifold. We often see that after the untimely death of her husband, a mother’s love for her child becomes even more intense than before. Love has no destruction, only displacement. When love falls asleep, we begin to think, “My love is lost. I will never be able to love anyone like this again. No attraction will ever be born in me for anyone else. How will I live in such lovelessness?” But that’s not actually how it works. Love cannot be bound within the frame of two or any such number. We often see that while in an acknowledged relationship, a person can feel love or affection for someone else. It’s not that they are indifferent to or irresponsible toward their first relationship, yet they feel a certain attraction toward another. Sometimes this attraction even makes people leave home. It may be that there is an absence of something in the first beloved that they secretly desire. Whenever they see the existence of that particular aspect in someone else, love for that new person is born in their heart. In physical love, promiscuity arises not only from physical or mental dissatisfaction, but love can also arise from mere habit or pleasure or simple desire. This is seen in emotional love as well. It’s not that their current relationship isn’t meeting their physical or mental needs, or that they lack commitment to their current relationship or that it has ended, yet they may indulge a new relationship simply for pleasure or habit or to fulfill desire. This matter of indulging someone they cannot shelter—both its origin and development stem from mutual consent or some enchantment. As long as the body remains the foundation of such indulgence, everything continues smoothly. But the moment the mind comes and occupies the body’s place, real catastrophe begins. While the body may be satisfied with mere indulgence, the mind wants shelter along with indulgence. Creating a new shelter without destroying the old one may make the landowner wealthy, but it leaves the possessor of love utterly destitute, a beggar on the street.
At some point or another, our love unconsciously migrates from one soul to another. Such renewal of love in our hearts is a perfectly ordinary, natural psychological phenomenon. This transference of love brings about certain changes in our hearts—changes we perhaps never imagined possible. We learn to believe: Yes, this person is exactly the unique being I desire. (Uniqueness does not give birth to love; love gives birth to uniqueness. We want to think of the person we love as unique.) Or: the person who left has returned to my life through this person. Or: no one has ever loved me this well, nor ever will. Or: I shall preserve my love within this very love. Or: the days that have passed will never return, but does that mean I can never again live normally?—Yet there was a time when no amount of effort could make us believe this simple, natural truth. No relationship is eternal; only love itself is eternal. Hence all the external and internal transformations of relationships exist solely to tend this eternal love.Twenty-one. Our time is stolen away as we justify all our wrong deeds and right deeds—to others and to ourselves. Someday, in some vast field, I encounter that time. When two hearts meet on the same plane, there remains nothing within us that requires justification. All concepts, all language, even we two ourselves become trivial and meaningless before that moment. Only silent dialogue continues between two souls. There are no words there, no accusations, no misunderstandings. This dialogue has no temporal or spatial boundaries. In the same resonance, the same rhythm, the same cadence, the same measure, a soundless transfer of feeling flows between two hearts. To extend one’s vision farther than an ordinary person can see from a mountain peak on a clear day, to reach one’s sight and thought effortlessly to any boundary of time, to gather all the heart’s powers together and make life more beautiful than dreams—for this one need not spend time and money traveling somewhere distant. Rather, one must take refuge in the impenetrable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, supremely desired place within one’s own heart-realm and meditate in tranquil absorption upon the Creator or one’s own inner knowing. All the wisdom and realization of all accomplished sages is embedded in the temple of our heart; to fully receive these treasures, one must prepare oneself through sacrifice, effort, and humility. In ancient Persia, a form of meditation was practiced. Before sunrise, everyone would gather and dance together in slow rhythm while singing or reciting poetry. This meditation was called sama. Through this meditation, all worldly feelings were forgotten and the self was offered to the Creator’s grace—that is, through the process of journeying into the mysterious kingdom of one’s own heart, one sought to gain divine experience. Through meditating on the Creator with the expression of music and dance, love for the Creator was manifested, one’s feelings were purified and elevated. By revealing the treasure hidden in the heart’s secret chamber, all doubts of the mind were dispelled and the mind, becoming light as a feather with infinite joy, would reach the Creator. Sometimes during sama meditation, people would become externally unconscious and, in an intoxicated state, become absorbed in spiritual practice. At such times, all human pride, ego, envy, and various evil tendencies would recede and the heart, mind, and soul would become pure, becoming worthy of receiving the Creator’s grace. At that moment, the Creator and the meditators’ hearts become one, bound together in the bond of love. Love comes from within the soul. Our soul is a vast ocean of love, emotion, and compassion. The soul is the Creator’s sole reflection, the sole eternal refuge. Love recognizes no time, love follows no reason, love has no conditions, love exists purely for love’s sake, love creates immortality that endures forever. Love alone is the pure feeling that comes from within the soul, bringing peace to the heart. Love born through force or calculation contains nothing but sin.
Fifteen. Everything we hold dear, we call the wealth of the soul. The person who is the person of our heart, we call a kindred soul. Of the place that brings us peace, we say that when we go there, our soul finds solace! We do not give our most precious things a place in our heart or mind, but in our soul, where we keep them mingled with utmost tenderness. When we love someone, the luminous aspects of their being come to mind far more often than whatever darkness we may know in them. Whenever they are gripped by fear, we try to strengthen their confidence. When we see them drowning in anxiety, we free their constrained thoughts. Just as we know their limitations, we do whatever it takes, at any cost, to open one by one the doors of their infinite potential. Whom do we need most on life’s journey? Someone who gives us good counsel, offers beautiful solutions to our problems, heals our wounds—surely someone like that? To live well in life, we need not a critic, but someone who shares our pain. The natural tendency of human beings is not so much to remove suffering as to share it. We need someone who can empathize with our pain, who can become our twin soul and bear all our wounds in their own heart. Just as certain companions in prayer inspire us in our worship at the Creator’s house, so in our times of distress, in our loneliness, in moments of sorrow, we desperately need someone who comes to stand beside us, extending gentle hands with a compassionate heart. Tell me, what is love? Being together? Does love end when socially sanctioned bonds end? A couple gets divorced. Soon after, both husband and wife remarry. A few days after the wedding, the husband loses both legs in a road accident and becomes permanently disabled. His second wife then leaves him. There was no one to care for him. Then his first wife and her new husband took on the responsibility of caring for that disabled man. With profound tenderness, these three people have been living as kindred souls for twenty-six years now. The first wife and her new husband have spent their entire married life serving this helpless, disabled man. To ensure he lacks no care, at her second husband’s suggestion, the wife even left her high-paying job. What greater example could there be of love and friendship? Differences of opinion, quarrels, or the onset of distance does not mean the end of love. Divorce does not mean the beginning of lifelong enmity. When the person we love truly becomes a friend, the impossible becomes possible. Chris Norton suffered a spinal cord injury while playing football in 2010, resulting in paralysis from the neck down and near-complete loss of mobility. He never walked again. He had two paths before him. To give up and surrender himself to circumstances, or to refuse defeat and, accepting infinite suffering, make circumstances surrender to his capability. He believed that if he tried, he could transform that tragedy into opportunity, and everyone around him would learn from watching him. He began giving inspirational speeches.
He began to show those who are physically disabled the dream of living well. Through tremendous willpower, patience, and perseverance, he graduated in 2015. Three years after the accident, he met Emily Summers. From acquaintance came love. In Summers’ company, Norton grew mentally stronger. Had he given up and surrendered himself to fate, he surely would never have encountered this extraordinary good soul. To everyone’s amazement, with the heartfelt support of his fiancée, he walked with great difficulty at his graduation ceremony to collect his certificate. He often tells everyone, “I want you to choose the difficult path of continuing to fight in life. Discover the positive aspects for yourself even amidst all your misfortune, struggles, and suffering. We all have the capacity to seek out life’s possibilities. If you can do this, and patiently move yourself forward, I can swear to you that incredibly good things await you.” The power of love and faith thus makes the impossible possible. When you have a beloved person as a friend by your side, no obstacle feels like an obstacle anymore. The Creator can be found within someone’s beautiful desires of the heart. True friendship brings out the beautiful aspects of life; there is no greater fortune than finding a true friend, and if that friend remains in life, life becomes meaningful. A good friend is like a cup of wine. As time moves forward, the bond of friendship becomes more exquisite. A good friend will point out our weaknesses, so that we can eliminate them and improve ourselves. Our weaknesses also weaken our good friends; our misfortunes increase the suffering of our good friends. It is because such good people with beautiful hearts exist that the world remains beautiful even today, and one can still spend several lifetimes here in joy and laughter.Sixteen. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was working with his disciples at a small ashram in the desert. At that time, some travelers were passing by that path. Driven by curiosity, they stopped walking and went inside the ashram to see what was happening. In the ashram courtyard, disciples and students were sitting, and Maulana Saheb was answering their questions. Both the questions and answers were of a strange nature. Seeing this, the travelers became annoyed and left that place, continuing on their way. After several years of travel, that group of travelers returned again, and just as before, they stood and watched to see what was happening there. This time they saw that only Maulana Rumi was sitting there alone—his disciples were gone. Surprised, they wondered: What happened? Where did they all go? “What has happened?” they asked. Maulana smiled and said, “This was my work. They had many questions within them, and I answered all their questions. Now they have no more questions. So I told them, go, and do the same work I have done with others—if you find someone whose questions you cannot answer properly, then send them to me.” The more questions we have in our minds, the more scattered our minds will remain, and the further we will drift from the right path. When the mind remains restless, necessary work cannot be done properly. When all questions disappear from the mind, our minds return to that childhood when we were innocent, when there were no base thoughts in our minds, when nothing in the world could disturb our peace. No noble journey can be begun with an anxious heart. If we can still our tongues by taking a vow of silence, if we immerse ourselves in the endless peaceful current of thought in a soundless environment, then without uttering anything we can speak the most beautiful words, reveal the most wondrous hidden truths. This silence is the answer to all questions. This answer contains no words, nor does it correspond to any specific question. Silence takes us to such a state where much can be said without saying anything. In our daily lives, we must navigate through countless troubles. Many of these troubles are such that we have no hand in either their beginning or their end. They leave us bewildered and helpless. Then only silence can help us. We must wait for the storm to pass. This waiting is not easy, but there is nothing else to be done. The essence of every religious philosophy is to understand life. This work of understanding cannot be done amid clamor; true realization does not come easily to a distressed heart. If our words are swift like a river’s current, then our silence must be deep like the ocean. Words are like bullets from a gun. Once the bullet is fired, what value does the gun retain? The bullet that has not yet been fired has greater power and impact. Is not the archer who has not yet shot his arrow, who has kept it with him, more dangerous? His real strength remains with him, which he can use at any time. The word that has not yet been spoken holds as much power as it does meaning, and expresses far more sense and nonsense than its potential. This very matter confuses and frightens people.
He who carries this word hidden in his heart, never letting it reach his lips, remains completely free from the potential dangers of that word’s outward expression. People will extract various meanings or misinterpretations from his mysterious silence according to their own understanding, but the master of that word bears no responsibility for such meanings or misinterpretations. Resisting the temptation to speak is truly very difficult, but those who can manage this task enjoy relatively greater power and peace.Seventeen. Sometimes silence yields the same fruit as prayer. When all the sharpness of our words fails and makes our lives unbearable, we can swim across the ocean of silence in search of peace, and thus silence brings tidings of comfort and joy. This silence is deeply painful—nothing is harder than remaining quiet. But in the magic of wordlessness, the most beautiful moments are composed. Our heart sees things we cannot see, hears things we cannot hear. How we are now is fundamentally the result of how we were before. Generally, the present follows the past. In the grain fields of our heart, we are moving forward in life by harvesting the crop whose seeds we sowed and cultivated. What we think, our capacity to think is greater than that. What we know, our capacity to know is greater than that. Our thoughts and actions in every moment are either increasing or decreasing what we have. The moment we can unite all our unconscious with consciousness, all our silences will rise up in unison, singing the victory song of life. Whatever we do in our unconscious, those who are ahead of us do those same things in complete consciousness. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi often read a book. He never read this book in front of anyone; he read it secretly, hiding it from others. The amusing thing was that he was also the first buyer of this book. His disciples’ interest and curiosity about this book knew no bounds. Their curiosity had intensified because Maulana never read the book in front of anyone. When everyone had gone away, he would take the book out from under his pillow and read it silently. Naturally, this matter gave birth to infinite curiosity among everyone. Everyone wondered, “What is written in this mysterious book?” Many tried very hard to find out. Some would go up to Maulana Rumi’s roof and try to see what Rumi was reading by moving aside the roof tiles. But no one ever discovered what was actually in that book. The day Jalaluddin Rumi died, the eager disciples became more preoccupied with the book than with dead Rumi himself. They loved Maulana Rumi dearly. We know of no other Sufi saint who received such infinite love. The word Maulana means beloved teacher. No one other than Rumi is called by this name. Those who loved Rumi so deeply had forgotten after Rumi’s death that Rumi was no more. Satisfying their own curiosity had become more important to them than Rumi’s corpse. More important than the person Rumi had become that mysterious book, by any means necessary, the quenching of their curiosity. That mysterious book had become more important than Rumi’s dead body. They pulled the book out from under Rumi’s pillow and were amazed to see that nothing was written in the book. Page after page they turned, and found nothing there—they found nothing worth reading in that book. Among Rumi’s devotees, those who were very close to him understood what the true meaning of that apparently meaningless book was. In that letterless book lay dormant all the letters of the world. When lips do not speak, then the heart begins to speak. When the heart begins to speak, then all the words of the world become faithful followers of the heart’s master and follow the right path. When someone uses too many words to say or explain something, its importance diminishes.
The more words proliferate, the less weight speech carries. People spend considerable time devising ways to save money, yet they never pause for a moment to consider the wisdom of saving words—this notion never even enters their minds. Lost wealth can be recovered, but lost words cannot be retrieved. Ask the oyster’s shell: “Where did such a precious thing come from within you?” The answer will surely be: “From silence—no matter the suffering, no matter the anguish within my heart, through all these years I never once parted my lips.” In times of remaining silent, an endless battle rages within oneself; the persistent urge to express one’s opinions drives a person to distraction, making it impossible to keep the lips sealed. But in time, this very silence begins to manifest itself as infinite power. The more we practice silence, the more beautiful and perfect our prayers become, the closer we can draw to the Creator. Silence can teach us far more than even our most reasoned words.Eighteen. People don’t cage owls or crows — they cage mynas and parrots. There’s a peculiar joy in using brute force to make the beautiful ugly. People find pleasure in spitting upon those who don’t possess even the worth of their spittle’s foam. Those who are beloved of the Creator are constantly wounded by those whom the Creator does not love. A heart that sparkles clear as water — people delight in muddying such hearts. This senseless, unprovoked behavior teaches us to accept all the cruelties of this wretched world with ease, initiates us into living with cruelty. Through bearing undeserved suffering with a smiling face and silence as companion, one grows strong. That path alone is pure which refines the human being. Neither excessive cleverness nor excessive scholarship can accomplish anything in life. To accomplish anything in life, one must first seek the pure path. In moments of crisis, people may fail to offer wise counsel, but they can certainly hurl sharp arrows of meaningless words. The less one understands the weight of words, the more foolishly one speaks. It’s easy to be influenced by such talk. This society is tormented by the tyranny of word-magicians and their empty rhetoric. Problems don’t diminish in the web of irresponsible words — they multiply. At such times, silence can grant wisdom. A tranquil heart miraculously reveals the way out of crisis. Whatever may rage — tremendous uproar, conflict, upheaval, or chaos — one must pass through the turbulent circumstances while keeping oneself calm. After all, one cannot simply turn away from everything. As much as possible, one must let time pass without hurting anyone, maintaining goodwill toward all. Time’s very nature is to flow forward carrying both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. However irritating or illogical others’ words may sound, one must listen steadily. Then, with a cool head, one must reflect on various relevant matters — no reply should be given to anyone’s words. When we contemplate anything with a settled mind in silent surroundings, our intuition grows, and along with it our intelligence and practical wisdom work to infinite degrees. Our mind grows weary bearing the weight of all suffering and distress, and we console our mind — everything will be all right. What our mind is, we essentially are. Our mind guides us; when the mind breaks, it searches for peace, and through the mind’s strange chemistry we love or hate. Our physical form gives a false impression about us — when people see our exterior, what they think based on appearance is not what we truly are. If people could see our mind, if they could understand what goes on within our mind, then they would grasp what we really are. However we shape our mind, that’s exactly how we think and act. The mind’s power determines the measure and nature of all our capabilities. When the mind fills with love, its power increases. If love works toward what we must do, then in doing it we feel no fatigue or monotony. The work doesn’t feel like a burden, so its quality improves. There’s honesty and concentration in the work; learning from past mistakes, the work can be accomplished with such wondrous perfection that even when we dissolve into the womb of eternity, everyone remembers us for that work, age after age.
Nineteen. When we work with good intentions, expecting no exchange in return, disappointment cannot touch us. When we stand beside someone with deep compassion and sincerity, all pain and suffering are swept away in joy’s cascading stream. Through love, a bridge is built between our outer and inner worlds. True love unites Creator and creation. Where love is absent, the fire of hatred or envy burns one slowly from within, destroying all faith in one’s own power. The bond of love between the inner and outer realms elevates humanity to divinity. Then, in humanity’s interaction with the Creator, all ordinary things become extraordinary. Wisdom is the initiation into living life beautifully with whatever we possess, however meager it may be. When we learn to love all aspects of our existence, warm springs of love and affection will flow from the depths of our hearts, emerging in gentle streams that unite us with the objects of our love. We believe our bodies contain our souls, just as prayer halls contain the Creator. But the truth is otherwise. No prayer hall contains the Creator; rather, wherever the Creator dwells, there stands the prayer hall. We are all souls, each skillfully concealed within the vast cage we call the body. When our thoughts and actions are governed not by our bodies but by our souls, our outer and inner worlds become woven together by a single thread. What the soul binds in love, it binds for life. What the mind or body binds in love is bound for specific reasons, at specific times, in specific ways—transient bonds of momentary enchantment. The soul’s love knows no discrimination; it pays no heed to rules and conventions, passing every test of time and context. In such love, between lover and beloved there remains no difference save external appearance, no distance. Though the duality of bodily existence persists, two beings floating in love’s celestial current achieve unity. That consciousness which fails to connect with the heart-stirring Creator, which does not set the heart dancing in wondrous rhythm with ineffable joy, which does not merge body and mind into singular being—such consciousness is nothing but fallen delusion.
Twenty. Those we see, those we grow up with, those for whom love is born within us naturally from living together—one day they leave us. When that time comes, and it strikes us that we will never see them again in this life, we are overwhelmed with anguish! This cry of love—if we couldn’t spread that love to someone else, or if we found no one before us to love, could we survive at all in this world through the torment of separation from our beloved? Love is an eternal essence. It has neither birth nor death. From the dawn of creation until today, the total amount of love in this world remains the same. Our emotions and consciousness either receive love or reject it. When love is born in our hearts, what actually happens is that the love that lay dormant within our hearts merely manifests itself. When someone departs from our lives, that love returns to its former dormant state. With the arrival of someone new in our lives, that love can awaken again. The departure of one love and the arrival of another, and even after that, the repeated comings and goings of love—what is this but the awakening of temporary love, if not permanent? It can also happen that no one new enters our lives, but the love that already existed in our hearts for some old presence can multiply manifold. We often see that after the untimely death of her husband, a mother’s love for her child becomes even more intense than before. Love has no destruction, only displacement. When love falls asleep, we begin to think, “My love is lost. I will never be able to love anyone like this again. No attraction will ever be born in me for anyone else. How will I live in such lovelessness?” But that’s not actually how it works. Love cannot be bound within the frame of two or any such number. We often see that while in an acknowledged relationship, a person can feel love or affection for someone else. It’s not that they are indifferent to or irresponsible toward their first relationship, yet they feel a certain attraction toward another. Sometimes this attraction even makes people leave home. It may be that there is an absence of something in the first beloved that they secretly desire. Whenever they see the existence of that particular aspect in someone else, love for that new person is born in their heart. In physical love, promiscuity arises not only from physical or mental dissatisfaction, but love can also arise from mere habit or pleasure or simple desire. This is seen in emotional love as well. It’s not that their current relationship isn’t meeting their physical or mental needs, or that they lack commitment to their current relationship or that it has ended, yet they may indulge a new relationship simply for pleasure or habit or to fulfill desire. This matter of indulging someone they cannot shelter—both its origin and development stem from mutual consent or some enchantment. As long as the body remains the foundation of such indulgence, everything continues smoothly. But the moment the mind comes and occupies the body’s place, real catastrophe begins. While the body may be satisfied with mere indulgence, the mind wants shelter along with indulgence. Creating a new shelter without destroying the old one may make the landowner wealthy, but it leaves the possessor of love utterly destitute, a beggar on the street.
At some point or another, our love unconsciously migrates from one soul to another. Such renewal of love in our hearts is a perfectly ordinary, natural psychological phenomenon. This transference of love brings about certain changes in our hearts—changes we perhaps never imagined possible. We learn to believe: Yes, this person is exactly the unique being I desire. (Uniqueness does not give birth to love; love gives birth to uniqueness. We want to think of the person we love as unique.) Or: the person who left has returned to my life through this person. Or: no one has ever loved me this well, nor ever will. Or: I shall preserve my love within this very love. Or: the days that have passed will never return, but does that mean I can never again live normally?—Yet there was a time when no amount of effort could make us believe this simple, natural truth. No relationship is eternal; only love itself is eternal. Hence all the external and internal transformations of relationships exist solely to tend this eternal love.Twenty-one. Our time is stolen away as we justify all our wrong deeds and right deeds—to others and to ourselves. Someday, in some vast field, I encounter that time. When two hearts meet on the same plane, there remains nothing within us that requires justification. All concepts, all language, even we two ourselves become trivial and meaningless before that moment. Only silent dialogue continues between two souls. There are no words there, no accusations, no misunderstandings. This dialogue has no temporal or spatial boundaries. In the same resonance, the same rhythm, the same cadence, the same measure, a soundless transfer of feeling flows between two hearts. To extend one’s vision farther than an ordinary person can see from a mountain peak on a clear day, to reach one’s sight and thought effortlessly to any boundary of time, to gather all the heart’s powers together and make life more beautiful than dreams—for this one need not spend time and money traveling somewhere distant. Rather, one must take refuge in the impenetrable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, supremely desired place within one’s own heart-realm and meditate in tranquil absorption upon the Creator or one’s own inner knowing. All the wisdom and realization of all accomplished sages is embedded in the temple of our heart; to fully receive these treasures, one must prepare oneself through sacrifice, effort, and humility. In ancient Persia, a form of meditation was practiced. Before sunrise, everyone would gather and dance together in slow rhythm while singing or reciting poetry. This meditation was called sama. Through this meditation, all worldly feelings were forgotten and the self was offered to the Creator’s grace—that is, through the process of journeying into the mysterious kingdom of one’s own heart, one sought to gain divine experience. Through meditating on the Creator with the expression of music and dance, love for the Creator was manifested, one’s feelings were purified and elevated. By revealing the treasure hidden in the heart’s secret chamber, all doubts of the mind were dispelled and the mind, becoming light as a feather with infinite joy, would reach the Creator. Sometimes during sama meditation, people would become externally unconscious and, in an intoxicated state, become absorbed in spiritual practice. At such times, all human pride, ego, envy, and various evil tendencies would recede and the heart, mind, and soul would become pure, becoming worthy of receiving the Creator’s grace. At that moment, the Creator and the meditators’ hearts become one, bound together in the bond of love. Love comes from within the soul. Our soul is a vast ocean of love, emotion, and compassion. The soul is the Creator’s sole reflection, the sole eternal refuge. Love recognizes no time, love follows no reason, love has no conditions, love exists purely for love’s sake, love creates immortality that endures forever. Love alone is the pure feeling that comes from within the soul, bringing peace to the heart. Love born through force or calculation contains nothing but sin.
Fifteen. Everything we hold dear, we call the wealth of the soul. The person who is the person of our heart, we call a kindred soul. Of the place that brings us peace, we say that when we go there, our soul finds solace! We do not give our most precious things a place in our heart or mind, but in our soul, where we keep them mingled with utmost tenderness. When we love someone, the luminous aspects of their being come to mind far more often than whatever darkness we may know in them. Whenever they are gripped by fear, we try to strengthen their confidence. When we see them drowning in anxiety, we free their constrained thoughts. Just as we know their limitations, we do whatever it takes, at any cost, to open one by one the doors of their infinite potential. Whom do we need most on life’s journey? Someone who gives us good counsel, offers beautiful solutions to our problems, heals our wounds—surely someone like that? To live well in life, we need not a critic, but someone who shares our pain. The natural tendency of human beings is not so much to remove suffering as to share it. We need someone who can empathize with our pain, who can become our twin soul and bear all our wounds in their own heart. Just as certain companions in prayer inspire us in our worship at the Creator’s house, so in our times of distress, in our loneliness, in moments of sorrow, we desperately need someone who comes to stand beside us, extending gentle hands with a compassionate heart. Tell me, what is love? Being together? Does love end when socially sanctioned bonds end? A couple gets divorced. Soon after, both husband and wife remarry. A few days after the wedding, the husband loses both legs in a road accident and becomes permanently disabled. His second wife then leaves him. There was no one to care for him. Then his first wife and her new husband took on the responsibility of caring for that disabled man. With profound tenderness, these three people have been living as kindred souls for twenty-six years now. The first wife and her new husband have spent their entire married life serving this helpless, disabled man. To ensure he lacks no care, at her second husband’s suggestion, the wife even left her high-paying job. What greater example could there be of love and friendship? Differences of opinion, quarrels, or the onset of distance does not mean the end of love. Divorce does not mean the beginning of lifelong enmity. When the person we love truly becomes a friend, the impossible becomes possible. Chris Norton suffered a spinal cord injury while playing football in 2010, resulting in paralysis from the neck down and near-complete loss of mobility. He never walked again. He had two paths before him. To give up and surrender himself to circumstances, or to refuse defeat and, accepting infinite suffering, make circumstances surrender to his capability. He believed that if he tried, he could transform that tragedy into opportunity, and everyone around him would learn from watching him. He began giving inspirational speeches.
He began to show those who are physically disabled the dream of living well. Through tremendous willpower, patience, and perseverance, he graduated in 2015. Three years after the accident, he met Emily Summers. From acquaintance came love. In Summers’ company, Norton grew mentally stronger. Had he given up and surrendered himself to fate, he surely would never have encountered this extraordinary good soul. To everyone’s amazement, with the heartfelt support of his fiancée, he walked with great difficulty at his graduation ceremony to collect his certificate. He often tells everyone, “I want you to choose the difficult path of continuing to fight in life. Discover the positive aspects for yourself even amidst all your misfortune, struggles, and suffering. We all have the capacity to seek out life’s possibilities. If you can do this, and patiently move yourself forward, I can swear to you that incredibly good things await you.” The power of love and faith thus makes the impossible possible. When you have a beloved person as a friend by your side, no obstacle feels like an obstacle anymore. The Creator can be found within someone’s beautiful desires of the heart. True friendship brings out the beautiful aspects of life; there is no greater fortune than finding a true friend, and if that friend remains in life, life becomes meaningful. A good friend is like a cup of wine. As time moves forward, the bond of friendship becomes more exquisite. A good friend will point out our weaknesses, so that we can eliminate them and improve ourselves. Our weaknesses also weaken our good friends; our misfortunes increase the suffering of our good friends. It is because such good people with beautiful hearts exist that the world remains beautiful even today, and one can still spend several lifetimes here in joy and laughter.Sixteen. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was working with his disciples at a small ashram in the desert. At that time, some travelers were passing by that path. Driven by curiosity, they stopped walking and went inside the ashram to see what was happening. In the ashram courtyard, disciples and students were sitting, and Maulana Saheb was answering their questions. Both the questions and answers were of a strange nature. Seeing this, the travelers became annoyed and left that place, continuing on their way. After several years of travel, that group of travelers returned again, and just as before, they stood and watched to see what was happening there. This time they saw that only Maulana Rumi was sitting there alone—his disciples were gone. Surprised, they wondered: What happened? Where did they all go? “What has happened?” they asked. Maulana smiled and said, “This was my work. They had many questions within them, and I answered all their questions. Now they have no more questions. So I told them, go, and do the same work I have done with others—if you find someone whose questions you cannot answer properly, then send them to me.” The more questions we have in our minds, the more scattered our minds will remain, and the further we will drift from the right path. When the mind remains restless, necessary work cannot be done properly. When all questions disappear from the mind, our minds return to that childhood when we were innocent, when there were no base thoughts in our minds, when nothing in the world could disturb our peace. No noble journey can be begun with an anxious heart. If we can still our tongues by taking a vow of silence, if we immerse ourselves in the endless peaceful current of thought in a soundless environment, then without uttering anything we can speak the most beautiful words, reveal the most wondrous hidden truths. This silence is the answer to all questions. This answer contains no words, nor does it correspond to any specific question. Silence takes us to such a state where much can be said without saying anything. In our daily lives, we must navigate through countless troubles. Many of these troubles are such that we have no hand in either their beginning or their end. They leave us bewildered and helpless. Then only silence can help us. We must wait for the storm to pass. This waiting is not easy, but there is nothing else to be done. The essence of every religious philosophy is to understand life. This work of understanding cannot be done amid clamor; true realization does not come easily to a distressed heart. If our words are swift like a river’s current, then our silence must be deep like the ocean. Words are like bullets from a gun. Once the bullet is fired, what value does the gun retain? The bullet that has not yet been fired has greater power and impact. Is not the archer who has not yet shot his arrow, who has kept it with him, more dangerous? His real strength remains with him, which he can use at any time. The word that has not yet been spoken holds as much power as it does meaning, and expresses far more sense and nonsense than its potential. This very matter confuses and frightens people.
He who carries this word hidden in his heart, never letting it reach his lips, remains completely free from the potential dangers of that word’s outward expression. People will extract various meanings or misinterpretations from his mysterious silence according to their own understanding, but the master of that word bears no responsibility for such meanings or misinterpretations. Resisting the temptation to speak is truly very difficult, but those who can manage this task enjoy relatively greater power and peace.Seventeen. Sometimes silence yields the same fruit as prayer. When all the sharpness of our words fails and makes our lives unbearable, we can swim across the ocean of silence in search of peace, and thus silence brings tidings of comfort and joy. This silence is deeply painful—nothing is harder than remaining quiet. But in the magic of wordlessness, the most beautiful moments are composed. Our heart sees things we cannot see, hears things we cannot hear. How we are now is fundamentally the result of how we were before. Generally, the present follows the past. In the grain fields of our heart, we are moving forward in life by harvesting the crop whose seeds we sowed and cultivated. What we think, our capacity to think is greater than that. What we know, our capacity to know is greater than that. Our thoughts and actions in every moment are either increasing or decreasing what we have. The moment we can unite all our unconscious with consciousness, all our silences will rise up in unison, singing the victory song of life. Whatever we do in our unconscious, those who are ahead of us do those same things in complete consciousness. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi often read a book. He never read this book in front of anyone; he read it secretly, hiding it from others. The amusing thing was that he was also the first buyer of this book. His disciples’ interest and curiosity about this book knew no bounds. Their curiosity had intensified because Maulana never read the book in front of anyone. When everyone had gone away, he would take the book out from under his pillow and read it silently. Naturally, this matter gave birth to infinite curiosity among everyone. Everyone wondered, “What is written in this mysterious book?” Many tried very hard to find out. Some would go up to Maulana Rumi’s roof and try to see what Rumi was reading by moving aside the roof tiles. But no one ever discovered what was actually in that book. The day Jalaluddin Rumi died, the eager disciples became more preoccupied with the book than with dead Rumi himself. They loved Maulana Rumi dearly. We know of no other Sufi saint who received such infinite love. The word Maulana means beloved teacher. No one other than Rumi is called by this name. Those who loved Rumi so deeply had forgotten after Rumi’s death that Rumi was no more. Satisfying their own curiosity had become more important to them than Rumi’s corpse. More important than the person Rumi had become that mysterious book, by any means necessary, the quenching of their curiosity. That mysterious book had become more important than Rumi’s dead body. They pulled the book out from under Rumi’s pillow and were amazed to see that nothing was written in the book. Page after page they turned, and found nothing there—they found nothing worth reading in that book. Among Rumi’s devotees, those who were very close to him understood what the true meaning of that apparently meaningless book was. In that letterless book lay dormant all the letters of the world. When lips do not speak, then the heart begins to speak. When the heart begins to speak, then all the words of the world become faithful followers of the heart’s master and follow the right path. When someone uses too many words to say or explain something, its importance diminishes.
The more words proliferate, the less weight speech carries. People spend considerable time devising ways to save money, yet they never pause for a moment to consider the wisdom of saving words—this notion never even enters their minds. Lost wealth can be recovered, but lost words cannot be retrieved. Ask the oyster’s shell: “Where did such a precious thing come from within you?” The answer will surely be: “From silence—no matter the suffering, no matter the anguish within my heart, through all these years I never once parted my lips.” In times of remaining silent, an endless battle rages within oneself; the persistent urge to express one’s opinions drives a person to distraction, making it impossible to keep the lips sealed. But in time, this very silence begins to manifest itself as infinite power. The more we practice silence, the more beautiful and perfect our prayers become, the closer we can draw to the Creator. Silence can teach us far more than even our most reasoned words.Eighteen. People don’t cage owls or crows — they cage mynas and parrots. There’s a peculiar joy in using brute force to make the beautiful ugly. People find pleasure in spitting upon those who don’t possess even the worth of their spittle’s foam. Those who are beloved of the Creator are constantly wounded by those whom the Creator does not love. A heart that sparkles clear as water — people delight in muddying such hearts. This senseless, unprovoked behavior teaches us to accept all the cruelties of this wretched world with ease, initiates us into living with cruelty. Through bearing undeserved suffering with a smiling face and silence as companion, one grows strong. That path alone is pure which refines the human being. Neither excessive cleverness nor excessive scholarship can accomplish anything in life. To accomplish anything in life, one must first seek the pure path. In moments of crisis, people may fail to offer wise counsel, but they can certainly hurl sharp arrows of meaningless words. The less one understands the weight of words, the more foolishly one speaks. It’s easy to be influenced by such talk. This society is tormented by the tyranny of word-magicians and their empty rhetoric. Problems don’t diminish in the web of irresponsible words — they multiply. At such times, silence can grant wisdom. A tranquil heart miraculously reveals the way out of crisis. Whatever may rage — tremendous uproar, conflict, upheaval, or chaos — one must pass through the turbulent circumstances while keeping oneself calm. After all, one cannot simply turn away from everything. As much as possible, one must let time pass without hurting anyone, maintaining goodwill toward all. Time’s very nature is to flow forward carrying both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. However irritating or illogical others’ words may sound, one must listen steadily. Then, with a cool head, one must reflect on various relevant matters — no reply should be given to anyone’s words. When we contemplate anything with a settled mind in silent surroundings, our intuition grows, and along with it our intelligence and practical wisdom work to infinite degrees. Our mind grows weary bearing the weight of all suffering and distress, and we console our mind — everything will be all right. What our mind is, we essentially are. Our mind guides us; when the mind breaks, it searches for peace, and through the mind’s strange chemistry we love or hate. Our physical form gives a false impression about us — when people see our exterior, what they think based on appearance is not what we truly are. If people could see our mind, if they could understand what goes on within our mind, then they would grasp what we really are. However we shape our mind, that’s exactly how we think and act. The mind’s power determines the measure and nature of all our capabilities. When the mind fills with love, its power increases. If love works toward what we must do, then in doing it we feel no fatigue or monotony. The work doesn’t feel like a burden, so its quality improves. There’s honesty and concentration in the work; learning from past mistakes, the work can be accomplished with such wondrous perfection that even when we dissolve into the womb of eternity, everyone remembers us for that work, age after age.
Nineteen. When we work with good intentions, expecting no exchange in return, disappointment cannot touch us. When we stand beside someone with deep compassion and sincerity, all pain and suffering are swept away in joy’s cascading stream. Through love, a bridge is built between our outer and inner worlds. True love unites Creator and creation. Where love is absent, the fire of hatred or envy burns one slowly from within, destroying all faith in one’s own power. The bond of love between the inner and outer realms elevates humanity to divinity. Then, in humanity’s interaction with the Creator, all ordinary things become extraordinary. Wisdom is the initiation into living life beautifully with whatever we possess, however meager it may be. When we learn to love all aspects of our existence, warm springs of love and affection will flow from the depths of our hearts, emerging in gentle streams that unite us with the objects of our love. We believe our bodies contain our souls, just as prayer halls contain the Creator. But the truth is otherwise. No prayer hall contains the Creator; rather, wherever the Creator dwells, there stands the prayer hall. We are all souls, each skillfully concealed within the vast cage we call the body. When our thoughts and actions are governed not by our bodies but by our souls, our outer and inner worlds become woven together by a single thread. What the soul binds in love, it binds for life. What the mind or body binds in love is bound for specific reasons, at specific times, in specific ways—transient bonds of momentary enchantment. The soul’s love knows no discrimination; it pays no heed to rules and conventions, passing every test of time and context. In such love, between lover and beloved there remains no difference save external appearance, no distance. Though the duality of bodily existence persists, two beings floating in love’s celestial current achieve unity. That consciousness which fails to connect with the heart-stirring Creator, which does not set the heart dancing in wondrous rhythm with ineffable joy, which does not merge body and mind into singular being—such consciousness is nothing but fallen delusion.
Twenty. Those we see, those we grow up with, those for whom love is born within us naturally from living together—one day they leave us. When that time comes, and it strikes us that we will never see them again in this life, we are overwhelmed with anguish! This cry of love—if we couldn’t spread that love to someone else, or if we found no one before us to love, could we survive at all in this world through the torment of separation from our beloved? Love is an eternal essence. It has neither birth nor death. From the dawn of creation until today, the total amount of love in this world remains the same. Our emotions and consciousness either receive love or reject it. When love is born in our hearts, what actually happens is that the love that lay dormant within our hearts merely manifests itself. When someone departs from our lives, that love returns to its former dormant state. With the arrival of someone new in our lives, that love can awaken again. The departure of one love and the arrival of another, and even after that, the repeated comings and goings of love—what is this but the awakening of temporary love, if not permanent? It can also happen that no one new enters our lives, but the love that already existed in our hearts for some old presence can multiply manifold. We often see that after the untimely death of her husband, a mother’s love for her child becomes even more intense than before. Love has no destruction, only displacement. When love falls asleep, we begin to think, “My love is lost. I will never be able to love anyone like this again. No attraction will ever be born in me for anyone else. How will I live in such lovelessness?” But that’s not actually how it works. Love cannot be bound within the frame of two or any such number. We often see that while in an acknowledged relationship, a person can feel love or affection for someone else. It’s not that they are indifferent to or irresponsible toward their first relationship, yet they feel a certain attraction toward another. Sometimes this attraction even makes people leave home. It may be that there is an absence of something in the first beloved that they secretly desire. Whenever they see the existence of that particular aspect in someone else, love for that new person is born in their heart. In physical love, promiscuity arises not only from physical or mental dissatisfaction, but love can also arise from mere habit or pleasure or simple desire. This is seen in emotional love as well. It’s not that their current relationship isn’t meeting their physical or mental needs, or that they lack commitment to their current relationship or that it has ended, yet they may indulge a new relationship simply for pleasure or habit or to fulfill desire. This matter of indulging someone they cannot shelter—both its origin and development stem from mutual consent or some enchantment. As long as the body remains the foundation of such indulgence, everything continues smoothly. But the moment the mind comes and occupies the body’s place, real catastrophe begins. While the body may be satisfied with mere indulgence, the mind wants shelter along with indulgence. Creating a new shelter without destroying the old one may make the landowner wealthy, but it leaves the possessor of love utterly destitute, a beggar on the street.
At some point or another, our love unconsciously migrates from one soul to another. Such renewal of love in our hearts is a perfectly ordinary, natural psychological phenomenon. This transference of love brings about certain changes in our hearts—changes we perhaps never imagined possible. We learn to believe: Yes, this person is exactly the unique being I desire. (Uniqueness does not give birth to love; love gives birth to uniqueness. We want to think of the person we love as unique.) Or: the person who left has returned to my life through this person. Or: no one has ever loved me this well, nor ever will. Or: I shall preserve my love within this very love. Or: the days that have passed will never return, but does that mean I can never again live normally?—Yet there was a time when no amount of effort could make us believe this simple, natural truth. No relationship is eternal; only love itself is eternal. Hence all the external and internal transformations of relationships exist solely to tend this eternal love.Twenty-one. Our time is stolen away as we justify all our wrong deeds and right deeds—to others and to ourselves. Someday, in some vast field, I encounter that time. When two hearts meet on the same plane, there remains nothing within us that requires justification. All concepts, all language, even we two ourselves become trivial and meaningless before that moment. Only silent dialogue continues between two souls. There are no words there, no accusations, no misunderstandings. This dialogue has no temporal or spatial boundaries. In the same resonance, the same rhythm, the same cadence, the same measure, a soundless transfer of feeling flows between two hearts. To extend one’s vision farther than an ordinary person can see from a mountain peak on a clear day, to reach one’s sight and thought effortlessly to any boundary of time, to gather all the heart’s powers together and make life more beautiful than dreams—for this one need not spend time and money traveling somewhere distant. Rather, one must take refuge in the impenetrable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, supremely desired place within one’s own heart-realm and meditate in tranquil absorption upon the Creator or one’s own inner knowing. All the wisdom and realization of all accomplished sages is embedded in the temple of our heart; to fully receive these treasures, one must prepare oneself through sacrifice, effort, and humility. In ancient Persia, a form of meditation was practiced. Before sunrise, everyone would gather and dance together in slow rhythm while singing or reciting poetry. This meditation was called sama. Through this meditation, all worldly feelings were forgotten and the self was offered to the Creator’s grace—that is, through the process of journeying into the mysterious kingdom of one’s own heart, one sought to gain divine experience. Through meditating on the Creator with the expression of music and dance, love for the Creator was manifested, one’s feelings were purified and elevated. By revealing the treasure hidden in the heart’s secret chamber, all doubts of the mind were dispelled and the mind, becoming light as a feather with infinite joy, would reach the Creator. Sometimes during sama meditation, people would become externally unconscious and, in an intoxicated state, become absorbed in spiritual practice. At such times, all human pride, ego, envy, and various evil tendencies would recede and the heart, mind, and soul would become pure, becoming worthy of receiving the Creator’s grace. At that moment, the Creator and the meditators’ hearts become one, bound together in the bond of love. Love comes from within the soul. Our soul is a vast ocean of love, emotion, and compassion. The soul is the Creator’s sole reflection, the sole eternal refuge. Love recognizes no time, love follows no reason, love has no conditions, love exists purely for love’s sake, love creates immortality that endures forever. Love alone is the pure feeling that comes from within the soul, bringing peace to the heart. Love born through force or calculation contains nothing but sin.