By: Luminita
Saviuc
“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I
differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my
eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you
cannot see.” ~ Rumi
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, also
known as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi
mystic who, in my personal opinion, wrote some of the most beautiful and most
profound words that were ever written. You won’t believe it how much wisdom and
how so much power there is in his words. It’s incredible.
Today I would like to share with you
25 life changing lessons to learn from Rumi, lessons that have the power
inspire and empower you to live a more authentic, beautiful, loving and meaningful
life.
01. Stop acting so small. You are the
universe in ecstatic motion.
“You were born with potential. You
were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You
were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for
crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.”
“You sit here for days saying, This
is strange business. You’re the strange business. You have the energy of the
sun in you, but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine. You’re some
weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace, so you won’t have
to become coins.”
“Why should I stay at the bottom of a
well when a strong rope is in my hand?”
“Become the sky. Take an axe to the
prison wall. Escape.”
“Do you know what you are? You are a
manuscript oƒ a divine letter. You are a mirror reflecting a noble face. This
universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want,
you are already that.”
02. Your job is to live your life in
a way that makes sense to you, not to “them”.
“Start a huge, foolish project, like
Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”
03. Never give up on yourself.
“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you, … When you feel you cannot even bear one
more minute, NEVER GIVE UP! Because it is the time and place that the course
will divert!”
“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It
violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space
to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that
fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so
that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from
your heart, far better things will take their place.”
“Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.”
04. Ignorance is God’s prison.
“Ignorance is God’s prison. Knowing
is God’s palace.”
05. The treasures that can be found
outside of you can’t even compare with the treasures that can be found inside
of you.
“You wander from room to room Hunting
for the diamond necklace That is already around your neck!”
“If you knew yourself for even one
moment, if you could just glimpse your most beautiful face, maybe you wouldn’t
slumber so deeply in that house of clay. Why not move into your house of joy
and shine into every crevice! For you are the secret Treasure-bearer, and
always have been. Didn’t you know?”
“Everything in the universe is within
you. Ask all from yourself.”
“Why are you so enchanted by this
world, when a mine of gold lies within you?”
“You go from village to village on
your horse asking everyone, “Has anyone seen my horse?”
“Don’t knock on any random door like
a beggar. Reach your long hand out to another door, beyond where you go on the
street, the street where everyone says, “How are you?” and no one says How
aren’t you?”
“There is a fountain inside you.
Don’t walk around with an empty bucket.”
“Knock, And He’ll open the door
Vanish, And He’ll make you shine like the sun Fall, And He’ll raise you to the
heavens Become nothing, And He’ll turn you into everything.”
“Forget safety. Live where you fear
to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.”
“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how
things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”
“Set your life on fire. Seek those
who fan your flames.”
“Be melting snow. Wash yourself of
yourself.”
07. There is something you can do
better than anyone else.
“Everyone has been made for some
particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”
“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a
ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”
08. You don’t have to see the whole
staircase, just take the first step.
“As you start to walk out on the way,
the way appears.”
09. When you commit to something, do
it with all your heart.
“Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into
majesty. You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods
at mean-spirited roadhouses.”
“When you do things from your soul
you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action come from another section,
the feeling disappears.”
“Wherever you are, and whatever you
do, be in love.”
10. Good things come to an end so
that better things can fall together.
“Do not grieve. Anything you lose
comes round in another form.”
“What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.”
“Where there is ruin, there is hope
for a treasure.”
“Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on
the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.”
“Grief can be the garden of
compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can
become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.”
“You have to keep breaking your heart
until it opens.”
12. Do what you love and do it with
love.
“Let the beauty we love be what we
do.”
“Let yourself be silently drawn by
the stronger pull of what you really love.”
“Be occupied, then, with what you
really value and let the thief take something else.”
13. Think less. Feel more.
“Reason is powerless in the
expression of Love.”
“Put your thoughts to sleep, do not
let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.”
“Only from the heart can you touch
the sky.”
“There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel
it, don’t you?”
“Be empty of worrying. Think of who
created thought! Why do you stay in prison When the door is so wide open?”
14. Love is worth it all.
“Gamble everything for love, if
you’re a true human being. If not, leave this gathering.”
“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober will worry about events going badly. Let the lover
be.”
“Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
“If you are irritated by every rub,
how will you be polished?”
“When someone beats a rug, the blows
are not against the rug, but against the dust in it.”
16. You change your world by changing
yourself.
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted
to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
“We are born of love; Love is our
mother. “
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have
built against it.”
“Through Love all that is bitter will
be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold, Through Love all dregs
will become wine, through Love all pain will turn to medicine.”
“I have no companion but Love, no
beginning, no end, no dawn. The Soul calls from within me: ‘You, ignorant of
the way of Love, set Me free.’ “
“That which is false troubles the
heart, but truth brings joyous tranquillity.”
18. Your Soul is not of this world,
your body is.
“All day I think about it, then at
night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I
have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end
up there.”
“When I die, I shall soar with
angels, and when I die to the angels, what I shall become you cannot imagine.”
19. At the Soul level, we are all ONE.
“All religions, all this singing, one
song. The differences are just illusion and vanity. The sun’s light looks a
little different on this wall than it does on that wall, and a lot different on
this other one, but it’s still one light.”
“What shall I say, O Muslims, I know
not myself, I am neither a Christian, nor a Jew, nor a Zoroastrian, nor a
Muslim.”
“I am neither of the East nor of the
West, no boundaries exist within my breast.”
20. Your Soul is more precious than
anything.
“You know the value of every article
of merchandise, but if you don’t know the value of your own soul, it’s all
foolishness.”
21. Choose your life partner wisely.
“Take someone who doesn’t keep score,
who’s not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest
interest even in his own personality: he’s free.”
22. Real love transcends the material
plane and no matter if your bodies are apart, your souls will forever be
connected.
“Goodbyes are only for those who love
with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no
such thing as separation.”
23. Raise your words, not your voice.
“Raise your words, not voice. It is
rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
“Silence is the language of God, all
else poor translation.”
“Words are a pretext. It is the inner
bond that draws one person to another, not words.”
“In Silence there is eloquence. Stop
weaving and see how the pattern improves.”
25. Just to be alive is not enough.
“You think you are alive because you
breathe air? Shame on you, that you are alive in such a limited way. Don’t be
without Love, so you won’t feel dead. Die in Love and stay alive forever.”
