Discrimination is a quality that is always hidden
in a person.
Don’t you see that an insane person
possesses hands and feet but lacks discrimination?
Discrimination is a subtle essence within
you.
Yet, day and night you have been occupied
with nurturing the physical form that does not
know right from wrong.
Why have you devoted
all your energies to looking after the physical,
entirely neglecting that subtle essence?
The physical
exists through that essence, but that essence in
no way depends on the physical.


The light that shines through the windows of
the eyes and ears—if those windows did not exist,
the light would not stop.
It would find other windows to shine through.
If you bring a lamp before
the sun, do you say, “I see the sun by means of
this lamp”? God forbid!
If you did not bring the
lamp, the sun would still shine.
What need is there for a lamp?
This is the danger in associating with kings.
It is not that you may lose your life—we must lose
our life in the end anyway, whether today or
tomorrow does not matter.
The danger arises from the fact that when kings enter upon the
scene, and the spell of their influence gains
strength, becoming like a great lamp, the person
who keeps company with them, claims their
friendship, and accepts money from them will
inevitably speak in accordance with their desires.
That person will listen to the kings’ mundane
views with the utmost attention, and will not be
able to deny them.
That is where the danger lies, it leads to a fading
respect for the true source.
When you cultivate
the interest of kings, that other interest which
is fundamental to the spiritual life becomes a
stranger to you.
The more you proceed down the
path of kings, the more that direction where the
Beloved dwells becomes lost.
The more you make
your peace with worldly people, the more the
Beloved turns away from you.
Going in their
direction renders you subject to their rule.
Once you have turned down their path, in the end God
gives them power over you.


It is a pity to reach the ocean, and to be satisfied
with a little pitcherful from the sea.


After all,
there are pearls in the sea, and from the sea come
a myriad of precious things.
What is the value in
just taking water?
What pride can intelligent people
have in that?
This world is a mere foam fleck
of the True Sea.
That Ocean is the science of the
saints, and within that Water is the Pearl Itself.
This world is but foam full of floating jetsam.
Yet, through the turning of the waves, and the
rhythmic surging of the sea in constant motion,
this foam takes on a certain beauty.
But this beauty
is a borrowed thing coming from elsewhere.
It is a false coin that sparkles to the eye.
People are the astrolabe of God, but it requires
an astronomer to use the astrolabe.
If a vegetableseller
or a greengrocer should find the astrolabe,
what good would it do them?
From that astrolabe, what could they know of the movements of
the circling stars and the positions of the planets,
their influences and so forth?
But in the hands of
the astronomer, the astrolabe becomes truly valuable.
Just as this copper astrolabe reflects the movements
of the heavens like a mirror, so the human
being is the astrolabe of God.
“We have honored the children of Adam.”
Those who have been moved by God to see the
one reality and learn Its ways through the astrolabe
of their own being, behold moment by
moment, flash by flash, the testament of God.
Indeed, it is an infinite beauty that never leaves
their mirror.
God has servants who cloak themselves in a
wisdom, knowingness and grace invisible to others.
Out of their excessive jealousy and love for
God these servants cloak themselves, just like
Mutanabbi says of beautiful women:
Figured silks they wore, not to beautify
But to guard their beauty from lustful eyes.

Rumi