To meet my thousand thousand faces
I roam the world.

Every object, every being
is a jar of delight waiting to be opened.

Your heart is the size of an ocean -
Go find the gem hidden in your depths!

You are the whole ocean.
Why send out for a sip of dew?

When you go to a garden,

do you look at thorns or flowers?

Spend more time with roses and jasmine.

Oh heart, sit with someone
who knows the heart;
go under the tree
which has fresh blossoms.

Maybe you are searching among the branches
for what only appears in the roots.

Be like a tree 

and let the dead leaves drop.

A burning heart is what I want.

I want to be the companion of burning,

to set the heart afire with love,

and utterly burn up thoughts

and vain expressions.

The time has come to turn your heart
Into a temple of Fire.

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.

If I were the plaything of every thought
I'd be a fool, not a wise man.

When a wind of personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.

Why should I be weary
when every cell of my body
is bursting with life?

Why should I stay at the bottom of a well
when a strong rope is in my hand?

When you do all things from your Soul,
you feel a river inside.

Turn towards that
which transcends direction.

I said,
"O sweet Beloved,
you are the refuge of my soul."
He said, "If you belong to me,
don't talk of your own soul."

Testing times are a furnace
to extract silver from dross.

You are burning in the flames
But I will not let you out
until your are fully baked,
fully wise,
and fully yourself.

The heart is cooking a pot of food for you.
Be patient until it is cooked.

You are the soul
of the soul
of the universe,
and your name is Love.

This is love:
to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First to let go of life.
Finally, to take a step without feet.

I know only that everything I give You
comes back to me,
So I give You my life.

Look for the answer in the same place
that you found the question.

Your knowledge has brought the question,
And your grace has given the answer.

It is not fitting that I tell thee more,
For the stream's bed cannot hold the sea.

We are as bees,
and bodies as the honeycomb.
We have made the body
cell by cell, like wax.

The Ocean of Purity said to me:
Nothing is attained without effort.
To get the precious pearl
you must first smash the shell.

That which is a stone to an ordinary man
is a pearl to him who knows.

The world is nothing but snow and ice.
You are the burning heat of Summer.

Leap like a flame through the sky.
Scatter the dark spirits
and become the pillar of heaven.

Inside you there's an artist
you don't know about.
He's not interested
in how things look different
in the moonlight.

But you have no need to go anywhere -
journey within yourself.
Enter a mine of rubies
and bathe in the splendor of your own light.

What use is your life
If your bones are not used
as wood for His fire?

Union is the pure wine.
My life is the cup.
Without your wine
what use is this cup?

If you don't have the Beloved
why aren't you looking for Him?
If you have the Beloved
why aren't you rejoicing?

You must know
that the Beloved you seek
is none other than you.

Silence is an ocean.
Speech is a river.

Soul, a moving river.
Body, the riverbed.

What is the body?
That shadow of a shadow of your love,
that somehow contains the entire universe.

That light-filled water produces
the bubbles what obscure the surface.

Only let the moving waters calm down,
and the sun and moon will be reflected
on the surface of your being.

When you dance,
the whole universe dances.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually look out
and see who's there.

You knock at the door of reality,
shake your thought-wings,
loosen your shoulders,
and open.

My wings have grown out of my essential nature -
they're not stuck on with glue.

Roar, lion of the heart,
and tear me open!

Passion can restore healing power,
and prune the weary boughs to new life.
The energy of passion is everything!

Angels can't live on the earth.
Animals can't live in the heavens.

You have the body of an animal
and the spirit of an angel.

You can walk on the earth
and also soar in the heavens.

Live in the nowhere you came from,
even though you have an address here.

But what can stay hidden? 

Love's secret is always lifting its head 

out from under the covers, 

"Here I am!"

Now I am here -
What else can I do but love?

Let yourself be drawn
by the silent pull of what you really love.

There comes a time when nothing is meaningful -

except surrendering to love.

You already have the precious mixture
that will make you well.
Use it.

Your living pieces
will form a harmony.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways
to kneel and kiss the ground.

Wherever you stand 

be the soul of that place.

Only from the heart
Can you touch the sky.

If only you could see your face
through my eyes,
you would realize how beautiful you are.

We are the mirror as well as the face in it

Stop learning. Start knowing.

Silence is an ocean.
Speech is a river.

The world is a mountain
and our acts are shouts
which echo back to us.

Close the language door, and open the love window.

A great silence overcomes me,

and I wonder why I ever thought to use language.

They say there is a window from one heart to another,

but how can there be a window when no wall remains?

The intelligent man
is he who hath the Lamp.
He is the guide and leader
of the caravan.

Ours is a caravan of endless joy.

I am a shadow in love with the sun.
When You rise, I set.

I am a lover of the universal
and the universal lover.
I am you in love with yourself.

If you can't go somewhere,
move in the passageways of the self.

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing-pain.

Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let your note be clear.
Don't try to end it.
Be your note.
I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

Who already stands
on heaven's topmost dome
need not to search for ladders.

Listen, my heart,
as long as you feel any difference
between joy and sorrow
you will be torn to pieces.

In the world of Oneness
there is nothing but yourself,
there is no room for counting.

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

Come out of the circle of time
and into the circle of love.

Join the caravan
of those who have turned their faces
to the sun.

I walk without feet
and I fly without wings
and I see without eyes
and hear without ears.

The world is a tree
and we are its ripening fruits.
Unripe fruits cling to the branches.
As they mature and become sweet
they hold on less tightly.

We drink the wine of our own blood,
aged in the barrels of our souls.

Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.

Not united.
Not separate.
Just perfect.

The sun lights up
a thousand courtyards.
Take away the walls
and you will see
that it is all the same light.

Nothing is certain until you burn.
Do you want to know for sure?
Then sit down by the fire.

Enough of phrases,
Conceit and metaphors.
I want burning, burning, burning.

Do you want to drown in God?
Then submerge yourself.
Don't bob up and down
like flotsam on the sea
wondering, "Which is preferable -
the depths or the surface?"

Behead yourself!
Dissolve your whole body into Vision;
become seeing, seeing, seeing!

I know nothing of two worlds,
all I know is the One.
I seek only One,
I know only One,
I find only One,
and I sing of only One.

"Please come in, my Self.
There's no place in this house for two."

Don't talk about night anymore!
In our day there is no night.

My soul is a furnace
happy with the fire.

I burn away; laugh; my ashes are alive!
I die a thousand times:
My ashes dance back -
A thousand new faces.

The Beloved is the water of life, so no illness remains.

In the Beloved's rose garden of union

no thorns arise or remain.

Body flowing out of spirit.
Spirit flowing out of body.

No concealing that sweetness!