In the beginning, before spirit and matter were separated, “here” and “there” had no meaning in existence. There was no separation between the lover and the Beloved. Only love existed.
TAKHRUDDIN IRAQI, SUFI
The moon was a mirror for me to see myself and You, Blessed One. I now realize that I am one and the same as you. You are my first love.
THICH NHAT HANH, ZEN BUDDHIST
If only I could celebrate You as a holiday that lasts a lifetime. All my offerings to you are insignificant. So is my adoration. What can I do, then? I can go to and fro being a living witness—to show You that I care.
RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL, JEWISH
The Beloved gives us the water of life, which cures every illness. In the Beloved's rose garden of Oneness, no thorns survive. I have heard it said that there is a window between one heart to another. But what supports the window if walls have ceased to exist?
JELALUDDIN RUMI, SUFI
The bride comes to the garden of her desires, and there she rests in joy, embraced in the arms of her Beloved.
THOMAS A' KEMPIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC
One cannot break the love that connects You with me, Beloved. Just as a diamond which cannot be broken with a hammer, my love for You is unbreakable. My heart enters you as shine enters gold, My heart resides in You as a lotus resides in water. I get lost in You like a bird gets lost in the night sky. Come again to me, Beloved.
MIRABAI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
How do I see the Beloved?
Not with my eyes, but with His.
For He can only see Himself.
MUHYADDIN IBN' ARIBI, SUFI
Drunk on love for the Beloved, I wandered in the wilderness, though I have no memory of anything. There I learned the living knowledge of oneness. When I forgot and forgot everything else, I lost everything else. Then the Beloved came to me as the bridegroom to the bride.
THOMAS A' KEMPIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC
I have no use of this heart, Beloved, unless it is for You. Either give back my heart, or return to me.
ABU-SAID ABIL-KHEIR, SUFI
I dreamed that I came to your Temple, Lord. There I praised those who sacrificed their hearts to you. You became manifest to me. No longer did you appear as a mystery. Then I awoke and found that I was still with You, and delighted in Your presence.
JUDAH HALEVI, JEWISH
Though it is difficult, I try to find the One in the many—the essence of unity between the separateness of phenomena, and the One who exists in all things—the Beloved who dwells in everyone.
Often I fail in my efforts when I cannot find the balance between the seeming separateness of things and their essential unity. During those times, I feel afraid. But make the effort anyway.
RAM DASS, VEDANTA (HINDU)
As one who loved the Beloved, the Beloved took care of me. He quenched my thirst, filled my stomach and gave me love and patience. He clothed me with humility and cured me with truth.
RAMON LLULL, ROMAN CATHOLIC
I found God when I found love, and it is this love that gives me strength from one day to the next. Love shows me the path I must take.
I am on fire and I am the fuel that feeds the fire. I am the smoke that proceeds from the fire. Love made me aware of the Beloved.
SULTAN BAHU, SUFI
There is nothing this body and soul wants but the Beloved. What else is left? The Beloved is everything to me—my successes, my failures, my life itself. Without You, nothing has meaning. When you laid claim to me, I gave myself to You.
So do with me what you will, Beloved. I am yours. I found you hiding within my own mind, and the grace of that discovery saved me from sinking into the sea of illusion.
RAMANA MAHARSHI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
I have found that which is priceless, and accepted it as grace. I have found the beginning of my rebirths, while I have lost the rest of the world. Thou art the Ocean of Love, but the fetters of this life had separated my love from You. I lost myself and found the Beloved.
ABU-SAID ABIL-KHEIR, SUFI
Come to me at dawn, Beloved, and walk with me. My soul is thirsty to see the children of my people. Here in my inner room you have placed a seat of gold, and a table set for You. I am your bread. I am the wine from my own vineyard. Delight in drinking of me, and may my taste be pleasing to you.
SOLOMON 'IBN GABIROL, JEWISH
The light of my Beloved cannot be seen with these physical eyes. I have taken upon myself all the sorrows of humanity. I have loved this world, but my love has been in the service of the Friend. He barely touched me, yet he kindled the fire in my heart.
Men want to confine the Beloved in their holy places, but they cannot keep Him there. Those who have eyes to see, see the Beloved everywhere.
DARSHAN SINGH, VEDANTA (HINDU)
Remove me from myself, so that all that remains is you, Beloved. Take my life so that I can stand in your Presence. Let all that remains be You.
HALLAJ, SUFI
Everything that gives me life—my heart, my mind, my feelings—those things that I thought were mine, are Yours. For I have given them to you completely.
LADIMIR SOLOVYOV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX
Nothing exists but You, Beloved. You are my speech. You are the silence of my mind. You sleep with me. You walk the path with me. There is nowhere I can go where You are not. I have disappeared. Only You remain.
BULLEH SHAH, SUFI
We are mere drops in the ocean of truth, floating atop the waves are bubbles that attract us and want to seize us and keep us captive in the sea of illusion. If only a mere drop, I ask to be brought to the shore of the Beloved. I ask that the waves that keep us apart be banished. May I see nothing else but the Beloved.
FRANCIS BRABAZON, SUFI
I would like an entire lifetime to praise You—not just a holiday now and then. My offerings to You and my adoration are small gifts, hardly noticeable. Would that I could wander here and there and do nothing else but be a witness to You. Still, that would be nothing more than a witness to my devotion.
RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL, JEWISH
This fortune, the Beloved, cannot be spent and no one can steal it. Each day it increases in value. As I came across the ocean of existence, the boatman was my true teacher.
MIRABAI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
I have forgotten all of Creation. Only the Creator remains. I have turned my attention to that which is within me. It is there where I am in love with the Beloved.
JOHN OF THE CROSS, ROMAN CATHOLIC
The lover of the Beloved is the bride who rests in the garden of her yearning. There she is joyous, for she is embraced by the arms of the Beloved.
THOMAS A' KEMPIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC
They ask me, “Who do you serve and whose message do you deliver?” And I tell them that I am a servant of the Beloved.
MANDAEN PRAYER, GNOSTIC
Everywhere I go, from one end of the earth to another, I find Him. I see Him everywhere in the heavens. I am the seeker, but when I see the Beloved, the seeker disappears—for I see Him with the eyes of my heart. For those with eyes to see, the Beloved is everywhere. He escapes those temples, mosques and churches where they try to imprison Him.
DARSHAN SINGH, VEDANTA (HINDU)
My lover has a gentle nature. He is immeasurable, and alone is worthy of praise. I cannot help but speak of His beauty, for He has not hidden Himself from me. But who can I tell? The angels, perhaps? Certainly they are the only ones who can speak such things.
You have taken me in Your arms, Beloved. You have given me the greatest treasure of all: the gift of Yourself.
MARGUERITE PORETE, ROMAN CATHOLIC
Call me to me, and I will run to you, never tiring. You are my heavenly Spouse, and I will not rest until You embrace me and support me, and kiss me with the happiness of Your mouth.
CLARE OF ASSISI, ROMAN CATHOLIC
Throughout all of my travels, Friend, you feed me until my journey ends. You are my companion on the path, my breath, my hope. And it is You who gives me joy. It is You who feeds my hunger, and You who walks with me to my journey's end. You alone do I long for. You alone are my treasure. You alone are my life and my love, for without You I could not have wandered the world. You have done so much for me through your grace—so many favors, so many gifts. I seek your love everywhere, and suddenly, I am filled with it. You dwell in my heart. You are the glow in my eyes. And my soul has but one desire: to be one with You.
NACHMANIDES (RABBI MOSHE BEN NACHMAN), JEWISH
When he stripped me of my new clothes, I lost all inhibitions. He was all around me at night like an insect circling a lotus. Like a bird that flies up to the clouds, in his freedom, this God of love does not delay.
I remember some of the absurd tricks He played on me, as desire made my heart burn with restlessness. Still, I was filled with fear.
VIDYAPATI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
In the light the lovers learn from the Beloved how to catch on fire. It is the fire that allows the moth to enter. The gift of love is a gift that comes from the Beloved.
ABU-SAID ABIL-KHEIR, SUFI
I sing with a voice that is as vast as the ocean itself. The song produces all sounds and countless words, and I will sing it through all cycles of time to come. It is a song of praise to the ocean of love that exists in the depths of the Buddha's heart.
GREAT KAMO PRIESTESS SENSHI, ZEN BUDDHIST
I want to be one with Him, but He insists on being separate from Me. Thus, I will abandon my desire to His will. Everything the Beloved does comes from love, so what is a poor lover to do? I have no words, so I must give up both my feeling of separation and my desire for union. I become free of both, simply accepting the Beloved's love.
TAKHRUDDIN IRAQI, SUFI
Those who burn themselves up in the fire of the Beloved, no longer need knowledge, intellect and religion. They have left everything behind, including themselves. This is the meaning of the words, “Blessed are the poor,” for the poor have nothing but the Beloved.
ABU-SAID ABIL-KHEIR, SUFI
“They reproach me about my relationship with the Beloved. “How are the two of you getting along?” they ask sarcastically. “The Beloved is mine,” I say, “and the rest is none of your business.”
NESIMI, SUFI
Love rushes through me as if it were blood coursing in my veins. It destroys my skin, for underneath it, passion burns. His fire burns up every nerve in my body. So, you ask who I am? I am nothing but a name. Everything else is Him.
JELALUDDIN RUMI, SUFI
The light of the Beloved rises from the horizon of my heart, drink from the cup, you are the owners of sight.
MOULANA SHAH MAGHSOUD, SUFI
On this sacred ground God has anointed me with grace, and brought me face to face with the Beloved.
OLGA RASMUSSEN
Time allows the world to run on time . . . but we are free to delight in the Beloved's brilliance. My blows against the glass to break through to You are weak and ineffective, but at least the glass mirrors Your beautiful face.
I am still in time, but no longer subject to its oppression. I simply let You do with me what You wish. This marvelous universe and the sacred garden which is this earth will both pass away when Your Gaze breaks the mirror of my mind.
BULLEH SHAH, SUFI
I find the Beloved in the night, and my heart aches. When sunrise comes, the lover wakes from his heartache. Still, the lover wants no relief from the ache of separation—for how else will he know of the Beloved's existence?
The experience of daylight is torture for the lover, like a fish brought up from the water and tossed onto the sand to die. The fish gasps for the sea like the lover desires to breathe in the night that will reveal its islands of stars, and carry the lover to the far shore.
MIRABAI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
Fire is everywhere—all of creation is in flames. “This is My passion,” the Beloved said.
ABU-SAID ABIL-KHEIR, SUFI
Take all that I am—my mind, my heart, my senses, my will and my thoughts. All these—all that I am—I give to You.
VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX
No longer does Janibai wish to stay on the wheel of samsara, but how will I burn off my remaining karma? I leave it to You to provide me grist for the mill. Grind me up. Pound me into powder.
JANABAI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
Was it my reason that led me to You? I once thought so. I even thought I felt your presence and saw your perfect countenance.
But all this was imperfect knowledge. That which I thought to be true was actually false. Those who really see You cannot describe you. Everything is turned upside down. Night is day and day is night, and virtue cannot be found anywhere.
The soul thinks what's false is true. To truly find You, it is necessary to lose all human powers. We enter the darkness and develop new eyes. Then the soul finds that which it was not even looking for. Everything else is stripped away.
Cast oneself into the ocean and let it drown. Then everything becomes new again. How this happens I do not know.
JACOB DA TODI, ROMAN CATHOLIC
The Beloved gives itself to all lovers, so that all lovers may become the Beloved This is absolute unity, beauty and love. The lover's love becomes so intense that it leaves no trace of itself, and only the Beloved remains.
MEHER BABA, SUFI
Holding me in your loving arms, Beloved, you have given me the greatest gift of all: Yourself. I sought nothingness, and in the seeking, my heart was purified. It rose to become one with You.
MARGUERITE PORETE, ROMAN CATHOLIC
As you came ever closer to me, I thought of You so often that I completely became You. Little by little You drew near, and slowly but slowly I passed away.
JAVAD NURBAKHSH, SUFI
Give me all those things that are difficult and austere, Beloved, so that You may have all that is gentle and pleasing.
JOHN OF THE CROSS, ROMAN CATHOLIC
The Beloved asked what I needed. I sought the truth and asked for compassion and wisdom. These things I needed in order to become one with the Beloved.
RAM DASS, VEDANTA (HINDU)
“What did I give you that you should love Me?” I replied: “Sorrows and pleasures. I no longer see the difference between them.”
RAMON LLULL, ROMAN CATHOLIC
I have cried many tears, and everyone knows this. I gave You my body and mind a long time ago, seeking refuge in You. I see Your feet pass, even as I escape from one life to another. I am your virgin.
MIRABAI, VEDANTA (HINDU)
It takes no effort on our part for Your love to reach us, Beloved. You come like a bird that hangs into air motionless. We live and move in the world of the Beloved—one body and soul between us, though we appear separate in form.
MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC
Losing myself in concentration, I thought my practice would quickly lead me to You. But I found, Instead, that only You knew the ways to approach You. But I can no longer live without you, and you do not allow me to flee. I have lost consciousness of myself. I have died to self so that I may become Yours. But how long must I wait, Beloved? I am exhausted from being separated from You. Banish me no more.
ABU 'I HUSYN AL-NURI, SUFI
I have looked for You from sunup to sundown. I have reached out for You in every direction, turning my face this way and that. Now I am so thirsty that I must plead for Your grace like a beggar.
Even the heavens are too small to hold you, but perhaps you could carve out a small niche in the cliffs for me.
SOLOMON 'IBIN-GABIROL, JEWISH
After the earth and humanity have long disappeared; after all the universes You created have ceased to be—You will be alone, holding all existence, as potential, within Yourself. There is no room for death here. No atom can cease to be. You are Being and Spirit, and can never be destroyed.
EMILY BRONTË, ROMAN CATHOLIC
The Beloved tested his lover by asking what difference there was between His presence and lack of it. The lover replied that it was the difference between ignorance and forgetfulness and knowledge and remembrance.
When your ego releases your heart, then you will see the Beloved. Just as you cannot see yourself except in a mirror, gaze upon the Beloved—who is your mirror.
JELALUDDIN RUMI, SUFI
I would give my soul to see Your face, to gaze into Your blessed eyes. I sacrifice myself for the sake of love and cast myself into the flames of love's passion. What sweet grace; I die so that I might live again. For while you slay me, Lord, it is so that I may live in You.
RICHARD CRENSHAW, PROTESTANT
I am not the intellect or the ego or emotions. I am not the sky nor the earth; neither rock or metals. I am You, blessed spirit, I am You. I was not born, nor will I die. I have no father and mother. I am You, blessed Spirit, I am You.
Beyond anything that can be imagined, I am without form, but fill the limbs of all things. Nothing can bind me, so I do not fear. I am free forever, for I am You, blessed spirit, I am You.
SHANKARA, VEDANTA (HINDU)
When Love flowed into my veins, that which had been me flowed out. Every limb and organ became the Beloved, and occupied every space. All that is left of me is a name.
ABU-SAID ABIL-KHEIR, SUFI
How can I love Him when I do not exist? It is He who loves me. He exists, I do not. Whatever He wills becomes my passion. His fullness that sparked this life within me. Now I carry His seed of steadfast Love.
MARGUERITE PORETE, ROMAN CATHOLIC
She came to me in royal blue today, my queen. She stood before me and my heart was filled with sweetness and light. But something in the distance was burning to the ground. I could almost smell the smoke.
VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX
I was born already yours. You made me, tolerated me, redeemed me. You waited for me to come to You and you called me Your own. But what can I—a poor wretch—give to you?
You see me through your eyes of love and mold me to your purpose, so that I am yours alone—heart, body and soul. Give me life or give me death. Give me health or give me sickness. Make me a pauper, or give me a fortune; it makes no difference. I am yours to do with as you wish. But what can I give to You?
TERESA OF AVILA, ROMAN CATHOLIC
Even if I go blind I will still see You. Even if I become deaf, I will hear You. Take away my feet and I will still make my way to You. Take away my arms, and I will still embrace You. Make my heart stop, and my mind will take up its beat. Consume me with fire and every drop of my blood will become ablaze.
RAINER MARIA RILKE
With gratitude, I am joyful to participate in the sacred banquet. My heart embraces Him who angels praise without ceasing.
Your love sets our love on fire. Our nourishment comes from contemplating You. Your grace fills our every need.
CLARE OF ASSISI, ROMAN CATHOLIC
The light that comes with wisdom turns time into a dream, and even forces death to retreat. The name of the eternal Beloved hides within my heart, yet I am a meek and timid lover.
VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX
I put an end to knowledge and wisdom, and let thinking disappear into the Great Void. If I repent for all my wrongs, how will my heart ever rest? I go fishing in the one stream and catch joy as if it were riches. Letting go, there is nothing left to do but sing—for my thoughts have drowned in the Great Void.
CHI K'ANG, TAOIST