[Sunlight] Strife and Substance

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Oh you who have devoted yourself to strife,
you have not discerned yourself from others!
Whenever you come upon a form, you stop and
say, "I am this." By God, you are not that! . . .
How can you be that? You are that unique one,
happy, beautiful, and intoxicated with yourself.
You are your own bird, prey, and snare, your
own seat of honor, carpet, and roof.
"Substance" subsists in itself, those things that
derive from it are accidents.
If you are born of Adam, sit like him and
behold his progeny within yourself.
What does the vat contain that is not in the
river? What does the room encompass that is not in the city?
This world is the vat, and the heart the running
stream, this world the room, and the heart the city of
wonders.

-- Mathnawi IV: 803-811
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

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[Sunlight] Strife and Substance