Discourses of Rumi

discourse 66Siraj al-Din said: “I was speaking to someoneabout a problem when something within mebegan to ache.”Rumi said: That something is put in charge ofyou to prevent you from speaking when youshould not speak. Usually it is so subtle that itgoes unnoticed, but when you feel that yearning,compulsion and pain, then you know there issomething in control. For instance, you enter apool of water and the softness of the flowers andfragrant herbs reach you, but when you get to theother side thorns prick you. Then you realize thatone side is a thorn-bed and pain, while the otherside is a flowerbed and comfort. These differencesaffect us through our emotions, yet they are closerto us than anything external.Hunger and thirst, anger and happiness—allthese are invisible, yet they affect us more thananything we can see. For if you close your eyes,you can no longer see the perceptible, but this will