Discourses of Rumi

378 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIand fondness, and all the other benefits that kinsmenlook for from kinsmen—if these thoughts donot enter their minds, still all these details areimplicit. In the same way, air is implicit in wood,whether that wood is buried in earth or drenchedin water. Without air in wood, fire could have noeffect upon it, for air is the fuel of fire, the life offire. Have you not seen how a breath of air putslife into fire? Whether wood is in water or earth,still air is latent in it. If air were not latent, woodcould never rise to the surface of water.It is the same with the words you speak. Manythings are contained in those words, such as intelligenceand thought, lips and mouth, throat andtongue, as well as the elements and temperaments,the influence of the stars, and the hundredthousand secondary causes upon which the worlddepends. On and on you can continue until youcome to the world of attributes, and thenessence—although none of these realities are putinto words, yet all is implicit in your words.Every day undesirable and painful experienceshappen to us without our freewill. Certainly thesethings contain implicit messages in them beyond