Float, Trust, Enjoy
Muhammad said no one looks back and regrets leaving the
world. What's regretted
is how real we though it was! How much we worried about
phenomena and how little
we considered what moves through form. "Why did I spend my
life denying death? Death
is the key to truth!" When you hear lamenting like that,
say, not out loud, but
inwardly, "What moved you then still moves you, the same
energy. But you understand
perfectly now that you are not essentially a body, tissue,
bone, brain, and muscle. Dissolve
in this clear vision. Instead of looking down at the six
feet of road immediately
ahead, look up: see both worlds, the face of the king, the
ocean shaping and carrying
you along. You've heard descriptions of that sea. Now
float, trust; enjoy the motion.
-- Mathnawi VI: 1450-66
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Soul of Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 2001
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