[Sunlight] Look not at Time's events

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"Look not at Time's events, which come from the
spheres and make life so disagreeable!
Look not at this dearth of daily bread and
means of livelihood! Look not at this famine and fear and
trembling!
Look at this: In spite of all the world's
bitterness, you are passionately and shamelessly attached to it.
Know that bitter tribulation is a Mercy! Know
that the Empire of Marv and Balkh* is a Vengeance! . . .
The cruelty of Time and of every suffering that
exists is easier than distance from God and heedlessness.
For that cruelty will pass, but distance from
Him will not. No one possesses good fortune but he who takes
to Him an aware spirit."

-- Mathnawi VI 1733-36, 56-57
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983, pp. 57-58.

* Balkh and Merv, two cities in Central Asia. A reference to Ibrahim Adham, the King of Balhk and Merv, who gave up his kingdom, freed himself from worldly attachments, and became a sufi. (Sunlight footnote)

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[Sunlight] Look not at Time's events