All your agonies arise from wanting something that cannot be had.
When you stop wanting, there is no more agony.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 135)
... desire for the world has deprived man of the Object of his desire.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 36)
Be joyful with Him, not with "others"... Everything other than God is leading you astray, be it your throne, kingdom, and crown.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 182)
In a human being is such a love, a pain, an itch, a desire that, even if he were to possess a hundred thousand worlds, he would not rest or find peace.
People work variously at all sorts of callings, crafts, and professions, and they learn astrology and medicine, and so forth, buth they are not at peace because what they are seeking cannot be found.
The beloved is called dilaram because the heart finds peace through the beloved. How then can it find peace through anything else?
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 66)
Everything in this world -- like wealth, women, and clothes -- is sought because of something else, not in and for itself...
All things form links in a chain {of seeking that leads} to God.
It is He who is sought for His own sake and who is desired for Himself, not for any other reason.
Since He is beyond everything and is nobler and more subtle than anything, why would He be sought for the sake of what is less than Him? Therefore it can be said that He is the ultimate.
When one reaches Him, one has reached the final goal; there is no surpassing there.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, pp. 105-106)
All the hopes, desires, loves, and affections that people have for different things -- fathers, mothers, friends, heavens, the earth, gardens, palaces, sciences, works, food, drink -- the saint knows that these are desires for God and all those things are veils. When men leave this world and see the King without these veils, then they will know that all were veils and coverings, that the object of their desire was in reality that One Thing... They will see all things face to face.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 201)
Oh you who cannot bear to be without this despicable world! How can you bear to be without God, oh friend, how? Since you cannot bear to be without this black water, how can you bear to be without God's fountain?... If you should see the Beauty of the Loving God for one instant and throw your soul and existence into the fire... you would see these sweet beverages as carrion...
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 245)
Men are divided into a number of classes and have different ranks in this Way. Through combat and effort, some of them reach a station whereby no matter what they may desire inwardly and in thought, {they do not act on that desire}. This is within a man's power. But that there should not be within man the itch of desire and thought -- that is not within his power. Nothing save God's attraction can eliminate that from him.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 257)
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