Mevlana Rumi

Discipline enabled Heaven to be filled with light;
discipline enabled the angels to be immaculate and holy.

People are distracted by objects of desire,
and afterward repent of the lust they've indulged,
because they have indulged with a phantom
and are left even farther from Reality than before.

Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it's a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame's core.

God works in mysterious ways. Things may look good outwardly, but there may be evil contained inside. Let no one be deluded by pride that he himself has conceived good ideas or done good deeds. If everything were as it seemed, the Prophet would not have cried out with such illuminated and illuminating perspicacity, "Show me things as they are! You make things appear beautiful when in reality they are ugly; You make things appear ugly when in reality they are beautiful. Show us therefore each thing as it is lest we fall into a snare and be ever errant.

We should ask God
to help us toward manners. Inner gifts
do not find their way
to creatures without just respect.

Giving thanks for abundance
is sweeter than the abundance itself...

Consider how wool is turned into an elegantly designed carpet by coming into contact with an intelligent person.

I am amazed at the seeker of purity
who when it's time to be polished
complains of rough handling.

If your heart isn't yet illumined
Be awake always, be a seeker of the heart,
Be at war continually with your carnal soul.
But if your heart is already awakened,
Sleep peacefully, sleep in the arms of Love

Infinite mercy flows continually
But you're asleep and can't see it.