The soul is here for its own joy. - Rumi

The cloud weeps, and then the garden sprouts. The baby cries, and the mother's milk flows. The nurse of creation has said, Let them cry a lot.

This rain-weeping and sun-burning twine together to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot and your grief glistening, so your life will stay fresh. Cry easily like a little child.

Let body needs dwindle and soul decisions increase. Diminish what you give your physical self. Your spiritual eye will begin to open.

When the body empties and stays empty, God fills it with musk and mother-of-pearl. That way a man gives his dung and gets purity.

Listen to the prophets, not to some adolescent boy. The foundation and the walls of spiritual life are made of self-denials and disciplines.

Stay with friends who support you in these. Talk with them about sacred texts, and how you're doing, and how they're doing, and keep your practices together.

أيها القلب! لماذا أنت أسير لهذا الهيكل الترابي الزائل؟
ألا فلتنطلق خارج تلك الحظيرة، فإنك طائر من عالم الروح.
إنك رفيق خلوة الدلال، والمقيم وراء ستر الأسرار
فكيف تجعل مقامك في هذا القرار الفاني؟
انظر إلى حالك واخرج منها وارتحل
من حبس عالم الصورة إلى مروج عالم المعاني
إنك طائر العالم القدسي، نديم المجلس الأنسي
فمن الحيف أن تظل باقياً في هذا المقام ~

Lovers think they are looking for each other,
but there is only one search: wandering
This world is wandering that, both inside one
transparent sky. In here
there is no dogma and no heresy.