Rumi

Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi

1207-1273, Afghani-Turkish Sufi Mystic, Poet

Acceptance
Every morning a new arrival …
A joy, a depression, a meanness …
Welcome and entertain them all!

Actualization / Fulfillment
Let yourself be silently drawn by the pull of what you really love.

Adversity
But gentle flames are not enough for iron;
it eagerly draws to itself the fiery dragon's breath.
That iron is the dervish who bears hardship:
under the hammer and fire, he happily glows red.
"The Fire the Dervish Needs," Mathnawi II, 829-30
The Pocket Rumi Reader , Kabir Helminski, ed., 2001

Endure rough surfaces that smooth you.
"The Lost Camel," This Longing: Poetry, Teaching Stories, and Letters of Rumi , Coleman Barks and John Moyne, trs.

Appearance / Form
Each form you see has its unseen archetype.
If the form is transient, its essence is eternal.
"This Body Is a Rose," The Pocket Rumi Reader , Kabir Helminski, ed., 2001

Since you have perceived the dust of forms,
perceive the wind that moves them;
since you have perceived the foam,
perceive the ocean of Creative Energy.
Ibid. , "You Are an Eye," Mathnawi VI, 1460

Appreciation
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
Open Secret: Versions of Rumi , John Moyne and Coleman Barks, trs., 1984

Balance
Observe the qualities of expansion and contraction
in the fingers of your hand:
surely after the closing of the fist comes the opening.
If the fingers were always closed or always open,
the owner would be crippled.
Your movement is governed by these two qualities:
they are as necessary to you
as two wings are to a bird.
"Two Wings," Mathnawi III, 3762-66, The Pocket Rumi Reader , Kabir Helminski, ed., 2001