Vision of the World
Know, son, that everything in the universe
is a pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty.
The universe is a drop of the Tigris of His Beauty,
this Beauty not contained by any skin.
His Beauty was a Hidden Treasure so full
it burst open and made the earth
more radiant than the heavens.
[I, 2860-2]
This world and that world are forever giving birth:
every cause is a mother; the effect born is as a child.
When the effect was born, it too became a cause
so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.
These causes follow generation upon generation,
but it takes a very well-illumined eye
to see all the links in the chain.
[II, 1000-2]
Let the skeptic know:
all that is absent in the world
is present to one who receives ideas from God.
To Mary, John the Baptist’s mother would appear,
though she was far away from her.
You can see a friend even with your eyes shut,
when you’ve made the skin a window for spiritual ideas.
[II, 3612-4]
Selections from Rumi’s Mathnawi