Ruminating with Rumi
To change your world, you must know the way within. The way is a simple path that lies before you, but it often is thick with billowing dust, so that even on the straightest and narrowest path you often tumble into the brambles. You need guidance to make the journey. The guide you seek is your own true nature. But first you must enter the room within. For this, find a teacher in the world. Your own true nature is the pearl within the oyster. You need someone to show you how to open the shell. Sit at the feet of the masters. They know the way. Be humble in their presence.
Live simply in the world and listen to the masters from within. Use your ears that hear. The path you walk must be your own, not theirs. All the words in the world will not get you to your destination. They are dust and noise. They point the way without knowing. To know is to say without words. Be in the presence of the light within. Then you will know. The great space within is the emptiness that is consciousness. Consciousness is the emptiness that is nowhere. You sense it within. It fills you with light. Muhammad says the light within will expand you beyond form. You are the one. There is no other. You are the flowing of the river. You are the channel to the sea. The mystery is not answered in the world. The secret is known within.
The world changes. You are eternal. The world is ignorant. You are wise. The world fears. You love. Do not let the barriers of the world limit you. Follow your true course as the flowing water. You are the way to the sea. The barriers of ignorance and fear try to alter the flow. Blinded by dust and deafened by noise, you are bewildered in the world. Give it its due. Care for the body but feed your true nature. There is you and there is the me of the body. Honor both but rise to knowing I AM. You are that which I AM. There is no other.