World Philosophical Heritage

Wisdom and teachings of
Sufism

295 quote(s) | Page 7 / 12

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W hat are "I" and "You"?
Just lattices
In the niches of a lamp
Through which the One Light radiates.

"I" and "You" are the veil
Between heaven and earth;
Lift this veil and you will see
How all sects and religions are one.

Lift this veil and you will ask---
When "I" and "You" do not exist
What is mosque?
What is synagogue?
What is fire temple?

quote 3065 | Shabistari
translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

G od and Love are as body and soul.
God is the mine, Love is the diamond.
They have been together
since the beginning …
in every beat of every heart.

quote 3064 | Jami
Nicholson, R. H. The Mystics of Islam. New York: Shocken Books, 1975, p. 81.

A ll through eternity God unveils
His exquisite form.
In the solitude of nothingness
He holds a mirror to
His own Face and beholds
His own beauty.
He is the knower and the known, the seer and the seen;
No eye but
His own has ever looked upon this Universe.

quote 3063 | Jami
Nicholson, R. H. The Mystics of Islam. New York: Shocken Books, 1975, p. 81.

T his world is nothing but a dance of shadows,
A line drawn between darkness and light, joy and oppression, time and eternity.
Learn to read this subtle line for it tells all the secrets of creation.

Let go of everything,
Completely lose yourself on this path,
Then you will have no doubts.
With absolute conviction you'll cry out-
I am God!
I am the one I have found!

In the light I praised you and never knew it.
In the dark I stayed with you and never knew it.
I always thought that I was me,
But no-I was you and never knew it.

quote 3062 | Araqi
Shahram Shiva and Jonathan Star from: La' amat (Divine Flashes), flashes 7, 14, 25, 27.

H is Light rose,
I found it in my own heart-
It is now my Light you see shining!

quote 3061 | Araqi
Shahram Shiva and Jonathan Star from: La' amat (Divine Flashes), flashes 7, 14, 25, 27.

L ove courses through everything,
No, Love is everything.
How can you say there is no love when nothing but Love exists?
All that you see has appeared because of Love.
All shines from Love,
All pulses with Love,
All flows from Love
No, once again, all is Love!

quote 3060 | Araqi
Shahram Shiva and Jonathan Star from: La' amat (Divine Flashes), flashes 7, 14, 25, 27.

I look into the mirror and see my own beauty;
I see the Truth of the universe revealing itself as me.
I rise in the sky as the morning Sun. Do not be surprised
Every particle of creation is my own form.

What are the holy spirits?
- My essence revealed.
And the human body?
-The vessel of my own form.
What is the ocean that encircles the world?
A drop of my abundant Grace; And the purest light that fills every soul?
A spark of my own illumination.

What is the water that grants eternal life?
A drop of my divine nectar.
And the breath that brings the dead back to life?
A puff of my breath, the breath of all life.

I am Light itself, reflected in the heart of everyone.
I am the treasure of the Divine Name, the shining Essence of all things.

From the highest heavens to the bedrock of the earth
All is but a shadow of my splendor.

If I dropped the veil covering my true essence
The world would be lost in a flash of brilliant light.

quote 3059 | Araqi
Shahram Shiva and Jonathan Star from: La' amat (Divine Flashes), flashes 7, 14, 25, 27.

O dear one, listen! I am the reality of the world, the center of the circle. I am the parts and the whole. I am the will holding Heaven and Earth in place. I have given you sight only so you may see me.

0 dear one! I call again and again but you do not hear me, I appear again and again but you do not see me, I fill myself with fragrance, again and again, but you do not smell me. I become savory food yet you do not taste me. Why can't you reach me through your touch Or breathe me in through your sweet perfumes?

Love me, Love yourself in me. No one is deeper within you than I. Others may love you for their own sake, But I love you for yourself.

Dear one! This bargain is not fair. If you take one step toward me, It is only because I have taken a hundred toward you. I am closer to you than yourself. Closer than your soul, than your own breath. Why do you not see me? Why do you not hear me? I am so jealous. I want you to see me-and no one else. To hear me-and no one else, not even yourself

Dear one! Come with me. Let us go to Paradise together. And if we find any road that leads to separation, We will destroy that road. Let us go hand in hand In the presence of Love. Let it be our witness, Let it forever seal this wondrous union of ours.

quote 3058 | Ibn 'Arabi
Manheim, Ralph, trans. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969, pp. 174-175.

H appy is the moment, when we sit together,
With two forms, two faces, yet one soul, you and I.

The flowers will bloom forever,
The birds will sing their eternal song,
The moment we enter the garden, you and I.

The stars of heaven will come out to watch us,
And we will show them the light of a full moon, you and I.

No thoughts of "you," no thoughts of I,"
Just the bliss of union-
Joyous, alive, free of care, you and I.

All the bright-winged birds of heaven
Will swoop down to drink our sweet water-
The ocean of our laughter, you and I.

What a miracle of fate, us sitting here.
Even at the far ends of the earth
We would still be together, you and I.

We have one form in this world, another in the next.
To us belongs an eternal heaven, the endless delight, you and I.

quote 3057 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

M y, soul said:
They brought me to God's workshop,
Where all things take form, and I flew.
Before this form of mine
even took shape-I flew and I flew.
And when I could fly no longer
They dragged me into this form,
and locked me into this house,
of water and clay.

quote 3056 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

T his is love-to fly upward
toward the endless heavens.
To rend a hundred veils at every moment.
At the first breath, to give up life;
At the final step, to go without feet.
To see the world as a dream
and not as it appears.

quote 3055 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

L ast night I learned how to be a lover of God
To live in this world and call nothing my own.

I looked inward
And the beauty of my own emptiness
filled me till dawn.
It enveloped me like a mine of rubies.
Its hue clothed me in red silk.

Within the cavern of my soul
I heard the voices of lovers crying,
"Drink now! Drink now!"-

I took a sip and saw the vast ocean
Wave upon wave caressed my soul.
The lovers of God dance around
And the circle of their steps
becomes a ring of fire round my neck.

Heaven calls me with its rain and thunder
a hundred thousand cries
yet I cannot hear …

All I hear is the call of my Beloved.

quote 3054 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

I know nothing of two worlds,
all I know is the One.
I seek only One,
I know only One,
I find only One,
and I sing of only One.

quote 3053 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

D on't think.
Don't get lost in your thoughts.
Your thoughts are a veil on the face of the Moon.
That Moon is your heart,
and those thoughts cover your heart.
So let them go,
just let them fall into the water.

quote 3052 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

T here is a force within that gives you life-
Seek that.
In your body there lies a priceless jewel-
Seek that. Wandering Sufi,
If you are in search of the greatest treasure,
don't look outside,
look inside, and seek That.

quote 3051 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

T he Beloved is in the sight,
and the sight is in the Beloved.

quote 3050 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

T he Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free,
He is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts, we worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.

When you dance, the whole universe dances.
What wonder!
I've looked, and now I cannot look away.
Take me, or do not take me, both are the same
As long as there is life in this body, I am your servant.

Love came and it made me empty.
Love came and it filled me with the Beloved. It became the blood in my body,
It became my arms and my legs. It became everything!
Now all I have is a name, the rest belongs to the Beloved.

quote 3049 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

C ome, come, whoever you are,
wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn't matter
Ours is not a caravan of despair, but one of endless joy.
Even if you have broken your vows a hundred times-
Come, come, yet again, come!

quote 3048 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

W hen the mysterious unity between the soul and the Divine becomes clear, you will realize that you are none other than God. You will see all your actions as His actions; all your features as His features; all your breaths as His breath.

quote 3006 | Ibn 'Arabi
Manheim, Ralph, trans. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969, pp. 174-175.

T o become a saint of God, you must covet nothing in this world or the next and you must give yourself entirely to God and turn your face to Him. To desire this world is turning away from God for the sake of what is transitory. To covet the next world means turning away from God for the sake of what is everlasting.

quote 3004 | Others Sufis Teaching
Ibrahim Adham, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.182

B efore the time of Prayer comes, the servant must be in a state of preparation and his attitude must be that which is essential for prayer, namely, a state of meditation and recollection, free-from wandering thoughts and consideration or remembrance of anything save God alone. Those who enter in this way upon prayer, with heart intent only upon God, will proceed from prayer to prayer in that same state of recollection and will remain in that state after they have ceased to pray.

quote 3003 | Others Sufis Teaching
al-Sarraj, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.159

T he disciple's attempt to purify the heart is like the person ordered to uproot a tree. However much he reflects and struggles to do so, he is unable. So he says to himself, "I'll wait until I'm more powerful and then uproot it." But the longer he waits and leaves the tree to grow, the larger and stronger it becomes while he only becomes weaker, and its uprooting becomes more difficult.

quote 3002 | Others Sufis Teaching
Abu'Uthman al-Maghribi, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.156

W e must always be in a state of preparation. Preparation is the art of staying awake. If you are awake, then one day you may see into the real world. You cannot expect to come into that world if you walk around like a sleepwalker in a dream. You cannot wake up by reading books that tell you you are asleep. You may not even wake up just because a teacher tells you that you are asleep. You can only wake up if you want to, and so begin to work on yourself to cut away all the rubbish in order to come upon the nature of who and what you are.

quote 3001 | Others Sufis Teaching
Reshad Field, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.154

M aturity cannot be achieved alone. There is a need for guidance and discipline. The path is unknown, the night is dark, and the road is full of danger. Dangers include preoccupation with selfishness, false visions, misinterpretations of mystical states, arrest in development, fixation in a particular state, appeal to various drugs to create false mystical experiences, and, not infrequently, overwhelming anxiety and insanity.

quote 3000 | Others Sufis Teaching
Mohammed Shafii, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.136

S hems asked a sheikh, "What are you doing.
I am looking at the moon's reflection in this lake" replied the sheikh.
"Why don't you look directly at the sky? Are you so blind that you do not see the true object in all you contemplate?"
Shems'reply had such an effect on the sheikh that he asked Shems to accept him as his disciple.
"You do not have the strength to bear my company," replied Shems.
'The strength is within me," said the sheikh. "Please accept me.
"Then bring me a pitcher of wine, and we will drink together in the Baghdad market.'
Fearing public opinion (because alcohol is forbidden by Islam), the sheikh replied, 'I cannot do this"
Shems shouted, "You are too timid for me. You haven't the strength to be among the intimate friends of God. I seek only those who know how to reach the Truth.'

quote 2999 | Others Sufis Teaching
Shems Tabrizi, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.132

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