rumi, masnavi

We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;

we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.
We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:

our victory and defeat is from thee,

O thou whose qualities are comely!
Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,

that we should remain in being beside thee?
We and our existences are really non-existence; thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.
We all are lions, but lions on a banner: because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.
Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:

may that which is unseen not fail from us!
Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;

our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.

Mawlana jallaluddin Rumi

ship of the soul

When you are with a Shaykh,
you are far from ugliness,
traveling night and day in a ship. Protected by the spirit of a spirit-bestower, you sleep in the ship and travel forward.
Muhammad, that king of the prophets, said, "I am the ship in this Universal Ocean;
I, or that person who has become my true vicegerent in inward vision."



Rumi

mirror

You've no idea how hard I've looked
for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with
was like taking spices to the Orient.
It's no good giving my heart and my soul
because you already have these.
So- I've brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.

Rumi