The Ecstatic Rumi

Tomorrow I will share more of Todd Norian's wonderful insights and inspirational thoughts. Todd is a gifted Anusara Yoga teacher who was in town these last three days for yoga therapy training.

This early morning, as I was driving to the other side of the river for the conclusion of the workshop, I listened to a program on NPR on the ecstatic poetry of Rumi. I only caught the tail end of the program, but it was enough to feed my soul, as I traveled to a venue where I would also feed my body.

These are some of the incandescent words which set my heart on fire, and which I drank in like the sweetest nectar:

"Speak a new language
so that the world
will be a new world.

The heart has its own language.
The heart knows a hundred thousand
ways to speak.

If you don't plow the earth
of your heart,
nothing will grow in it.

I am on fire.
If you doubt that -
touch me!

Wherever you are,
and whatever you do,
be in love.

Sadness is a thief.
It steals your energy.

If anyone seeks a fairy,
let them see your countenance...

If anyone asks,
How did Jesus raise the dead?
Kiss me on the lips, and say,
Like this.

If anyone asks,
What are those killed by love like?
Direct them to me, and say,
Like this.

God embraces all,
there is nothing
that is not apart of him already.

Remember God.
His remembrance is His strength
in the wings of the bird
that is your soul.
The souls of all friends of God
are connected with one another.

You must seek
anything that you wish to find.
Not so with a friend.
You begin to seek after you find him.

Out there, beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing, there is a field.
I will meet you there."

Ah!