... desire for the world has deprived man of the Object of his desire.

God created suffering and heartache
so that joyful-heartedness might appear
through its opposite.
Hence hidden things become manifest
through opposites.
But since God has no opposite,
He remains hidden...
God's light has no opposite within existence,
that through its opposite
it might be made manifest.

The Heart-keeper will leave you
neither in faithfulness nor cruelty,
neither in denial nor acknowledgment.
Whenever you turn your heart toward something
His Severity will detach you from it --
oh heart, fix not your heart on any place,
do not persist!

Whatever God gives you, be content.
At the very moment you become content in affliction, the door of paradise will open.
If the messenger of heartache comes to you,
embrace him like a friend!
A cruelty that comes from the Beloved --
bestow upon it a warm welcome!
Then that heartache can throw off its chador,
rain down sugar, and be gentle and heart-ravishing...
They all put on ugly chadors
so that you will think they are dragons.
But I am fed up with my spirit --
I worship dragons!
If you are fed up with your spirit,
then hear their calls of welcome!
Heartache can never find me without laughter --
I call the pain the "cure".
Nothing is more blessed than heartache,
for its reward has no end.

The window determines
how much light enters the house,
even if the moon's radiance fills
the east and the west.

... the reality of day is
the inmost consciousness of the saints:
Beside their noon, day is but a shadow.

The house of the heart that remains
without illumination
from the rays of the Magnificent Sun,
is narrow and dark like a miser's soul,
empty of the Loving King's sweet taste.
The Sun's light does not shine in
that heart, space does not expand,
doors do not open:
The grave would be more pleasant for you --
so come, arise from the tomb of your heart!

We are all lions, but lions on a banner;
We keep on leaping because of the wind.

Concern yourself not with
the thief-like ego and its business.
Whatever is not God's work is
nothing, nothing!

That Oneness is on the other side
of descriptions and states.
Nothing but duality enters
speech's playing field.

You seek knowledge from books.
What a shame! ...
You are an ocean of knowledge
hidden in a dew drop...

The intellect is luminous and seeks the good.
How then can the dark ego vanquish it?
The ego is in its own bodily home,
and your intellect is a stranger;
At its doorstep, a dog is an awesome lion.

This ego is hell, and hell is a dragon
not diminished by oceans of water.
It drinks down the seven seas,
yet the heat of that manburner
does not become less.
It makes a morsel out of a world
and gulps it down.
Its belly keeps shouting:
Is there any more?

Intellect is good and desirable to the extent
it brings you to the King's door.
Once you have reached
His door, then divorce the intellect!
From this time on,
the intellect will be to your loss and a brigand.
When you reach Him, entrust yourself to Him!
You have no business with
the how and the wherefore.
Know that the intellect's cleverness
all belongs to the vestibule.
Even if it possesses the knowledge of
Plato, it is still outside of the palace.

Everyone has turned his face toward
some direction,
but the saints have turned in the direction
without directions.

Spend less time seeking water and acquire thirst!
Then water will gush from above and below.

What is Love? Perfect thrist.
So let me explain the Water of Life.
In weeping {the lover} is like the clouds,
in perseverance like the mountains,
in prostration like water,
in lowliness like dirt in the road.
But all these afflictions surround his garden
like thorns --
within it are roses, the Beloved,
and a flowing fountain.
When you pass by the garden's wall
and enter into its greenery,
you will give thanks and prostrate
yourself in gratitude..

Pride always seeks position and property...
For these two nurses increase skin.
They stuff it with fat and flesh
and pride and arrogance.

He has afflicted you from every direction in order
to pull you back to the Directionless.

Man is like a bow held
in the hand of God's Power.
God employs him in various tasks.
In reality, the agent is God, not the bow.
The bow is an instrument and a means.
But for the sake of the maintenance
of the world it is unaware and heedless of God.
Tremendous indeed is the bow that becomes
aware of the Bowman's hand!

The earth has the external shape of dust,
but inside are the luminous Attributes of God.
It's outward has fallen into war with its inward;
its inward is like a pearl and its outward a stone.
Its outward says, "I am this and no more."
Its inward says, "Look well, before and behind!"
Its outward denies, saying,
"The inward is nothing."
The inward says,
"We will show you. Wait!"

All of these are symbols --
I mean that the other world
keeps coming into this world.
Like cream hidden in the soul of milk,
No-place keeps coming into place.
Like intellect concealed in blood and skin,
the Traceless keeps entering into traces.
And from beyond the intellect,
beautiful Love comes dragging its skirts,
a cup of wine in its hand.
And from beyond Love, that indescribable One
who can only be called "That" keeps coming.

The beauty of the Unseen Form
is beyond description --
borrow a thousand illuminated eyes,
borrow!

All pictured forms are reflections
in the water of the stream;
when you rub your eyes,
indeed, all are He.

Although those drunk with God
are thousands, they are one;
those drunk with self-will are
all twos and threes.