Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 209not for one instant do you give up seeking thesethings. The comfort you find in this world is likea lightning flash that passes but never endures.And what kind of lightning is it? Lightning full ofhail, full of rain and snow, full of suffering. Forinstance, someone sets out for Antalya. They gotoward Caesarea hoping to reach Antalya, andnever turn back even though it is impossible toreach Antalya by this route. But another who goesby the Antalyan road, though lame and feeble,still they will reach their goal, since that is wherethe Antalyan road ends.No task in this world or the next is withoutsuffering. Therefore, devote your suffering to thenext world so it will not be wasted. You say, “OMohammed take away this religion from me, forI can find no rest.” How can our religion let anyonego before it brings them to the goal?There was a certain teacher who, due to poverty,wore only a single garment of cotton in themiddle of winter. By chance, torrents of rainbrought down a bear out of the mountains, carryingthe bear along with its head hidden in thewater. The children, seeing its back, cried,