JELALUDDIN RUMI
(1207-1273)

  There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.
 
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
 
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
 
Sit down in this circle.
 
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you….
 
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
 
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
 
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
 
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being. 
 

 
There's a strange frenzy in my head,
of birds flying,
each particle circulating on its own.
Is the One I love everywhere?  
 

In their many different idioms the classical spiritual writers have attempted to throw light on the eternal question of union with God. 
Every month we give you a brief passage from a spiritual classic.