Spirit and awareness

What is soul? Soul is conscious of good and evil,

rejoicing over kindness, weeping over injury.

Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul,

the more aware you are the more spiritual you are.

Awareness is the effect of the spirit:

anyone who has this in abundance

is a man or woman of God.

Mathnawi VI: 148-150

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"

Threshold Books, 1996

Soul And The Old Woman

What is the soul?

Consciousness.

The more awareness, the deeper the soul,

 and when

such essence overflows, you feel a sacredness around.

It’s so simple to tell one who puts on a robe and 

pretends to be a dervish from the real thing.

 We know the taste of pure water. 

Words can sound like a poem but not have any juice,

no flavor to relish.

How long do you look at pictures on a bathhouse wall?

Soul is what draws you away from those pictures to talk with the old woman

who sits outside by the door in the sun. 

She’s half blind, but she has what soul loves to flow into. 

She’s kind; she weeps.

She makes quick personal decisions, and laughs so easily.

Mathnawi: VI: 148-50

Version by Coleman Barks

"The Soul of Rumi"

HarperSanFrancisco, 2001

The Ascension Of The Spirit

(  سورة القصص  , Al-Qasas, Surah 28, Ayat 88)

Janganlah kamu sembah di samping Allah, tuhan apapun yang lain. Tidak ada Tuhan melainkan Dia. Tiap-tiap sesuatu pasti binasa, kecuali Wajah-Nya.  Bagi-Nyalah segala penentuan, dan hanya kepada-Nyalah kamu dikembalikan. 

(  سورة القصص  , Al-Qasas, Chapter #28, Verse #88) 

And call not, besides Allah, on another god. There is no god but He. Everything will perish except his own face. To Him belongs the Command, and to Him will ye be brought back.  

(  سورة البقرة  , Al-Baqara, Surah 2, Ayat 156)

orang-orang yang apabila mereka ditimpa oleh sesuatu kesusahan, mereka berkata: Sesungguhnya kami adalah kepunyaan Allah dan kepada Allah jualah kami kembali.

(  سورة البقرة  , Al-Baqara, Chapter #2, Verse #156) 

Who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return"

The Ascension of the Spirit
(Mathnawi III: 3901-3906)

I died to the mineral state and became a plant,

I died to the vegetable state and reached animality,

I died to the animal state and became a man,

then what should I fear?

I have never become less from dying.

At the next charge I will die to human nature,

so that I may lift up my head and wings,

and soar among the angels.

And I must jump from the river of the angel:

"Everything perishes except His Face"

Once again I will become sacrificed from the angel,

I will become that which cannot come into the imagination.

Then I will become non-existent,

non-existence says to me like an organ:

"Truly, to Him is our return"

(credit : http://gfishoutofwater.wordpress.com)

I have never become less from dying

O my noble friends, slaughter this cow,
if you wish to raise up the spirit of insight.
I died to being mineral and growth began.
I died to vegetable growth and attained to the state of animals.
I died from animality and became Adam:
why then should I fear?
When have I become less by dying?
Next I shall die to being a human being,
so that I may soar and lift up my head among the angels.
Yet I must escape even from that angelic state:
everything is perishing except His Face.*
Once again I shall be sacrificed, dying to the angelic;
I shall become that which could never be imagined —
I shall become nonexistent.
Nonexistence sings its clear melody,
Truly, unto Him shall we return!

(Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, "Rumi: Daylight", Threshold Books, 1994)