Here are two Rumi poems from tonight’s Meditation:

Of Being Woven:

This road (the road of the way)

demands courage and stamina,

Yet it’s full of footprints! Who are

these companions? They are rungs

in your ladder. Use them!

With company you quicken your ascent.

You may be happy enough going along,

But with others you’ll get farther, and faster.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī

And

“Sufi masters are those

Whose spirits existed before the world.

Before the body, they lived many lifetimes.

Before seeds went into the ground, they harvested wheat.

Before there was an ocean, they strung pearls.

While the great meeting was going on about bringing

human beings into existence, they stood up to their chins

In wisdom water.

When some of the angels opposed creation, the Sufi sheiks laughed and clapped among themselves.

Before materiality, they knew what it was like

to be trapped inside matter.

Before there was a night sky, they saw Saturn.

Before wheat grains, they tasted bread.

With no mind, they thought.”

(from The Granary Floor by Rumi, translated by C. Barks, The Essential Rumi 248 )