We are delighted to offer this excerpt from The Poems of Rumi as read by Coleman Barks, leading scholar and translator of Rumi poetry, and Robert Bly, poet, author, and leader of the men's movement. Jalaluddin Rumi is a beloved as a spiritual master and one of the greatest poets of all time.
"The dictionaries have no entry for the sort of love we have. If you can define a road, it's not the lover's road. The high branches of love shoot up into the air that exists before eternity and the roots grow down into the earth after eternity. This tree doesn't stand around isolated on the earth. We have pulled the sober watcher from his throne. We've moved the said rules for animal and instinctual life. The kind of love that we know of is too great for this sober watcher, and for this simple instinctual life. Now, if you believe that your need can be met and you're wanting, satisfied from the outside, you are really a tiger or a cougar. You pray any longer to wooden idols, then why do you keep praying to your desire? If you become the one you long for, what will you do with your longing?..."