The marketplace always stuck out to me as a very important image in both Sufi oral histories as well as writing. It symbolized for me all the complexities of daily life. There are goods to be bought and sold and a myriad of transactions going on at every moment. In many ways the marketplace symbolizes…
taken from DISCOURSES OF RUMI – (OR FIHI MA FIHI) BASED ON THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION BY A. J. ARBERRY Although kings were his followers, Rumi’s critics could never understand why Rumi’s greatest love and dedication went to what they called, “the tailors, the cloth-sellers, and the petty shop-keepers – uncouth and uncultured ruffians.” Yet even amongst…
From Dr Bitkoff’s Going and Doing “It is emotion, expectation, wanting, loving, going and doing, that helps make life a more complete experience. Momentary pleasure and accomplishment, without them, in some respect we would be like a cracked, empty jar; never fulfilling our promise of holding and caressing rare spices.” Reader’s Comment How can it…
The sufi is a lover of God, and like any other lover, he proves his love by constant remembrance of his Beloved. This constant attention to God has two effects: One outward and the other inward. The inward effect is that the sufi’s remembrance distances him from the domain of ‘I and you’ and joins…
Some people believe that a sufi must be without wealth. Actually, this is an incorrect view. To willfully insist upon living in poverty is itself an attachment. The sufi, though, is free from all attachment. The essential point here is that the sufis heart should have no attachment to wealth or worldly possessions. If a…
It all started with a quote. I was surfing the web and found the folowing quote by Shabistari below. I posted it on the caravan of Dreams Facebook page which can be found here and got a beautiful response. But first before the response here is the quote Go you, sweep out the dwelling-room of…
