When Jalal ad-Din met the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, he was a respected scholar, a man of books and reputation. Shams looked upon his books and asked: "What is all this?"
Jalal ad-Din replied: "This is what you do not understand."
And Shams threw the books into a fountain.
Jalal ad-Din cried out in grief, but Shams reached into the water and drew them out, perfectly dry.
"This," said Shams, "is what you do not understand."
In that moment, Jalal ad-Din's old self died. He who had been a scholar became a poet of the Infinite. He wrote:
I died as mineral and became a plant.
I died as plant and rose to animal.
I died as animal and became a human being.
Why should I fear? When was I ever less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as human being,
To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
And again:
Love is the bridge between you and everything.
Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong, consuming herself, unabashed.
Yet in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
Hard-surfaced and straightforward.
Having died to self-interest,
She risks everything and asks for nothing.
And again:
Die before you die and find that there is no death.
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place.
That's where the light enters you.
Teaching 3
Love destroys everything that is not love. To find the Beloved, the lover must be annihilated.