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
