Love With No Object
There is a way of loving not attached to what is loved.
Observe how water is with
the ground, always moving toward the ocean, though the ground
tries to hold water’s foot
and not let go. This is how we are with wine and beautiful
food, wealth, and power,
or just a dry piece of bread: we want and we get drunk with wanting, then the headache
and bitterness afterward. Those prove that the attachment took
hold and held you back. Now you
proudly refuse help. “My love is pure. I have an intuitive
union with God. I don’t need
anyone to show me how to be free!” This is not the case.
A love with no object
is a true love. All else, shadow without substance. Have you
seen someone fall in
love with his own shadow? That’s what we’ve done. Leave
partial loves and find one
that’s whole. Where is someone who can do that? They’re
so rare, those hearts that carry
the blessing and lavish it over everything. Hold out your
beggar’s robe and accept
their generosity. Anything not coming from that will damage
the cloth, like a sharp stone
tearing your sincerity. Keep that intact, and use clarity;
call it reason or discernment,
you have within you a deciding force that knows what to receive,
what to turn from.
Rumi, The Soul of Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
-
callitconsequence likes this
-
reginaawalker likes this
-
madaeli26 posted this
