Atma

“When Love comes suddenly and taps
on your window, run and let it in but first
shut the door of your reason.
Even the smallest hint chases love away
like smoke that drowns the freshness
of the morning breeze.
To reason Love can only say,
the way is barred, you can't pass through
but to the lover it offers a hundred blessings.
Before the mind decides to take a step
Love has reached the seventh heaven.
Before the mind can figure how
Love has climbed the Holy Mountain.
I must stop this talk now and let
Love speak from its nest of silence.”
― Rumi

“I am totally lost in the folds of Love,
totally free of worry and care.

I have passed beyond the four qualities.
My heart has torn away the veil of pretense.

There was a time I circled with the nine spheres, rolling with the stars across the sky.
There was a time I stayed by his side—
I lived in his world
and he gave me everything.

With the best of intentions
I became a prisoner in this form.
How else did I get here?
What crime did I commit?
But I’d rather be in a prison with my Friend
than in a rosegarden all alone.

I came to this world
To have a sight of Joseph’s purity.
Like a baby born of its mother’s womb,
I was brought here with blood and tears.

People think they are born only once
But they have been here so many times.

In the cloak of this ragged body
I have walked countless paths.
How many times I have worn out this cloak!

With ascetics in the desert
I watched night turn into day.
With pagans in the temple
I slept at the foot of idols.

I’ve been a charlatan and a king;
I’ve been a healer, and fraught with disease.

I’ve been on my death-bed so many times. . . . Floating up like the clouds
Pouring down like the rain.

As a darvish I sought the dust of annihilation
but it never touched my robe.
So I gathered armfuls of roses
in this faded garden of existence.

I am not of wind nor fire
nor of the stormy seas.
I am not formed out of painted clay.
I am not even Shams-e Tabriz—

I am the essence of laughter,
I am pure light.

Look again if you see me—
It’s not me you have seen!”
― Rumi, Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved

“To relax is not to collapse, but simply to undo tension.”
― Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening the Spine: The Stress-Free New Yoga that Works with the Body to Restore Health, Vitality and Energy

“The way the night knows itself with the moon, be that way with me. Or, alternately translated, Union is a raging river running toward the sea. Tonight the moon kisses the stars. O beloved, be like that to me.”
― Rumi