[Sunlight] Spirit and awareness

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Here, Sunlight offers a passage from the Mathnawi,
Book VI in two interpretations:

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What is soul? Soul is conscious of good and evil,
rejoicing over kindness, weeping over injury.
Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul,
the more aware you are the more spiritual you are.
Awareness is the effect of the spirit:
anyone who has this in abundance
is a man or woman of God.

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Jân cheh bâshad bâ khabar az khayr o sharr
shâd bâsh bâ ehsân o geryân az zarar
Chon serr o mâhiyat-e jân makhbarast
har keh u âgâh-tar bâ jân-tarast
Ruh-râ ta'sir-e âgâhi bud
har keh-râ in pish-e Allâhi bud

-- Mathnawi VI: 148-150
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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Soul And The Old Woman

What is the soul? Consciousness. The more awareness, the
deeper the soul, and when

such essence overflows, you feel a sacredness around. It's
so simple to tell one who

puts on a robe and pretends to be a dervish from the real
thing. We know the taste

of pure water. Words can sound like a poem but not have
any juice, no flavor to

relish. How long do you look at pictures on a bathhouse
wall? Soul is what draws

you away from those pictures to talk with the old woman
who sits outside by the door

in the sun. She's half blind, but she has what soul loves
to flow into. She's kind; she weeps.

She makes quick personal decisions, and laughs so easily.

-- Mathnawi: VI: 148-50
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Soul of Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 2001

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[Sunlight] Spirit and awareness