Circular Path of Sufism

The whole difficulty on deliniating sufism is that sufism cannot be deliniated, the whole problem of saying there are stages but there aren’t really any stages because it is a circular path, then how can you have stages on a circle because it depends on where you are start and where you are going.

(Llewellyn Vaughan - Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi Order)

Selfless Love

The only love that is beneficial is selfless love.
Whatever we raise or touch – cattle, goats, donkeys, horses, dogs, cats, rats, house, property, possessions, learning, titles, fame, political status, or even wisdom – whatever it is we love, if our love is directed toward something and remains fixed on that thing, it is a love which can be lost, which can die...

(M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen)

Love that never breaks down

Unless love is connected to God,

Unless it is connected to truth, to compassion, to justice, and to grace.

It is possible for it to break down

(M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen)

Smile!

Peace begins with a smile

- Mother Teresa

To Be Misunderstood

"Is it so bad to be misunderstood?

Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton,and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

True Strength

Intelligent people know others.
Enlightened people know themselves.
You can conquer others with power,
But it takes true strength to conquer yourself.

...
- Lao Tzu

Wood for His Fire

If you don’t have the Beloved why aren’t you looking for Him?

If you have the Beloved why aren’t you rejoicing?
If the Friend is truly your friend. Why not stay with Him?

If the rebec does not wail,Why not teach it how to sing?

If someone bars you from the truth, Why not fight him and his brother as well?
You sit quietly and say to yourself, “Something strange is going on.”The only thing strange is that your best friend is a stranger.

You are the Sun of the world -Why is your heart so black?Why do you fall back on your drab and stagnant ways?Don’t stay melted like gold in a furnace -Become a piece of jewelry!

The treasure of Unity is found by those who look within.Why not join your spirit to the onewho sits inside your heart?

Did Majnun ever love two Laylas? Why seek more than one face and one cheek?

There is such a glorious moonhiding in the shadows of your being.Why not make it rise with the power of a midnight prayer? You have danced in the tavern for ages, Love’s wine never slips from your hand,Yet with each new sipyour soul is ravished like never before.

The wine I drink is the fire of love and God Himself pours it into my mouth!
What use is your life If your bones are not used as wood for His fire?
I’ll leave you with that.I could go on,I could fill pages with these elegant verses

But this is a tale for the heart and soul, not the lips.

...

Rumi– Version by Jonathan StarFrom “Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved”Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997