QUOTES > Experiencing union

(Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi)

Transitional vs. Permanent Union
William C. Chittick's commentary:
... until the traveler reaches the very highest stages of sanctity, the station of union will be temporary, followed by at least a relative separation. The well-known Sufi terms "expansion" (bast) and "contraction" (qabd) refer to the experience of various degrees of relative union and separation...

At the highest stages, "union" is equivalent of "subsistence" in God. Subsistence in turn is the other side of annihilation: Annihilation, or the negation of self, results in subsistence, or the affirmation of Self. Union with God is self-annihilation, so separation from Him is self-existence...

... During the spiritual journey, man undergoes consecutive experiences of separation and union, or death and life. But each time he dies and is reborn, he moves closer to the ultimate station of subsistence and "I am God."
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, pp. 232-234)

Rumi:
My life is union with Thee, my death separation -- Thou hast made me unparalleled in both arts.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 233)

Farness from Thee is a death full of pain and torment, especially the farness that comes after union!
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 245)

Since Thou displayed the garden of Nonexistence, how should we have patience with existence? When a spirit has found union and intoxication, what will be its state in separation's winesickness? How could that house remain standing whose pillar Thou hast broken down through separation? Oh drunken brain, you thought you had escaped from the suffering of winesickness! But in Love, there are union and separation -- on the road, there are ups and downs. Though you know God in one respect, in ten respects you worship water and clay! You still must travel a long journey before you reach the place you seek in your madness.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 325)

What can I say about the stations of those who have attained union except that they are infinite, while the stations of the travelers have a limit? The limit of the travelers is union. But what could be the limit of those in union? -- that is, that union which cannot be marred by separation. No ripe grape ever again becomes green, and no mature fruit ever again becomes raw.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 247)

When the spirit is delivered from infancy it enters union, free of sense perception, ideation, and imagination.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 266)

Expansion of Spirit

Constantly Thy Image is before my eyes -- wonderful dream that I see in wakefulness!
When Thy Image caresses the heart, helpless, it does not fit into its skin from the joy of Thy loving kindness.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 263)

My heart is an oyster, the Friend's Image its pearl -- but now even I am not contained, for this house is filled with Him.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 264)

I said Oh no! Help me! And that Oh no! became a rope let down in my well. I've climbed out to stand here in the sun. One moment I was at the bottom of a dank, fearful narrowness, and the next, I am not contained by the universe. If every tip of every hair on me could speak, I still couldn't say my gratitude. In the middle of these streets and gardens, I stand and say and say again, and it's all I say, I wish everyone could know what I know.
(The Essential Rumi, pp. 164-165)

Oh God, show to the spirit that station where speech grows up without words, So the pure spirit may fly toward the wide expanse of Nonexistence -- An expanse exceedingly open and spacious, from which this imagination and existence find nourishment. Images are narrower than Nonexistence -- therefore imagination is the cause of heartache. Existence is still narrower than imagination -- therefore within it full moons become crescents. The existence of the world of sense perception and colors is still narrower, for it is a cramped prison. The cause of narrowness is composition and multiplicity, and the senses drag toward composition. Know that the World of Unity lies in the other direction from the senses. If you want Oneness, go in that direction!
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 251)

Experience shows that the spirit is nothing but awareness. Whoever has greater awareness has greater spirit... When the spirit becomes greater and passes beyond all bounds, the spirits of all things become obedient to it.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, pp. 31-32)

You shall witness the expansiveness of that other world, where you will be released from the confinement of this world.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 204)

The Heart's Mirror

Oh, I have seen my beauty in Thy Beauty! I have become a mirror for Thy Image alone.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 264)

The Moses-like saint possesses within his breast, in his heart's mirror, the infinite, formless Form of the Unseen. What does it matter if that Form is not contained by the heavens, the divine Throne, the Footstool, or the Fish supporting the earth? Those things are all delimited and defined, but the heart's mirror has no limits -- Know that! Here the intellect must remain silent, or else lead us astray. For the heart is with Him -- indeed, the heart is He.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 38)

The house of my heart is empty, devoid of desire, like paradise. Within it is no work but the love of God, no inhabitant but the image of union with Him. I have swept the house clear of good and bad -- my house is full of love for the One.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 258)

Once the mirror of your heart becomes pure and clear, you will see pictures from beyond the domain of water and clay, Not only pictures but also the Painter, not only the carpet of good fortune, but also the Carpet-spreader.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 38)

Duality transcended

How sweet for day and night to sit together, for water and fire to be companions, for Severity and Gentleness to be married, for the dregs to be mixed with the pure. For union and separation to make peace, for faith and unbelief to become one, and for the fragrance of union with our King to be mixed with east wind!
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 317)

When you see the splendor of union, the attractions of duality seem poignant and lovely, but much less interesting.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 190)

Man has three states. The first is not to focus on God, but to adore and serve anyone and anything -- woman, man, wealth, children, stones, land. Next, when he acquires a certain knowledge and awareness, he does not serve other than God. Finally, when he progresses in this state, he falls silent: he says neither, "I do not serve God," nor, "I do serve God" -- that is, he leaves both states. In their world no sound comes from such people.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 207)

Notice how the stars vanish as the sun comes up, and how all streams stream toward the ocean.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 7)

Amazement

Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: this place made from our love for that emptiness! Yet somehow comes emptiness, this existence goes. Praise to that happening, over and over!
(The Essential Rumi, p. 21)

When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you will keep saying again and again, This is certainly not like we thought it was!
(The Essential Rumi, p. 168)