08/05/2025
"The past is an interpretation.
The future is an illusion.
The world does not move through
time as if it were a straight line,
proceeding from the past to the
future. Instead, time moves
through and within us, in endless
spirals.
Eternity does not mean infinite
time, but simply timelessness.
If you want to experience eternal
illumination, put the past and the
future out of your mind and
remain within the present
moment."
♥️ Shams Tabrizi, from The 40 Rules of Love
📕 The 40 Rules of Love:
One day, according to legend, Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabrizi, passing by, asked him, “What are you doing?” Rumi scoffingly replied, “Something you cannot understand.”
On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, “What is this?” To which Shams replied, “Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand.”
Shams’ forty observations about the nature of love and God can be read together and all at once in The 40 Rules of Love.
Like life, and love, learning is not a race to the finish, but a voyage to the start.