Wednesday, November 28, 2007

[Sunlight] "Oh, you with unwashed face!"

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, you with unwashed face! What are you doing?
Whom are you fighting and envying?
You are playing with a lion's tail; you are charging
like a Turcoman, but at the angels!
Why do you call utter goodness "evil"? Beware!
Consider not your lowliness exaltation!
What is evil? The needy, despicable copper.
Who is the shaykh? The infinite elixir.
Even if the copper is not receptive to the elixir,
it will never be able to make the elixir into copper like
itself.
What is evil? A rebel that acts like fire. Who is the
shaykh? The very Sea of Eternity-without-beginning.
Fire always dreads water, but how should water
fear flames?
You find fault in the face of the moon, you pluck
thorns in paradise.
If you enter paradise looking for thorns, you will
find none there but yourself.

-- Mathnawi II, 3340-48
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love -
The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi"
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~

Archive for Sunlight can be accessed at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sunlight /messages
To subscribe, please send an email to : sunlight-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, please send an email to: sunlight-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sunlight/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sunlight/join

(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:Sunlight-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:Sunlight-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Sunlight-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Share/Bookmark

No comments: