Soul of all souls, life of all life — You are That | Rumi

We can see the truth in your eyes.

"For ages you have come and gone courting this delusion.

For ages you have run from the pain and forfeited the ecstasy.

So come return to the root of the root of your own soul.

Although you appear in earthly form, your essence is pure consciousness.

You are the fearless guardian of divine light.

So come return to the root of the root of your own soul.

When you lose all sense of self, the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.

Lose yourself completely.

Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

You descended from Adam by the pure Word of God, but you turned your sight to the empty show of this world.

Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.

Why are you so enchanted by this world when a mine of gold lies within you?

Open your eyes and come — Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

You were born from the rays of God's Majesty when the stars were in their perfect place.

How long will you suffer from the blows of a non-existent hand?

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.

You are a ruby encased in granite.

How long will you deceive us with this outer show?

O friend, we can see the truth in your eyes!

So come return to the root of the root of your own soul.

After one moment with that glorious Friend, you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.

Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.

Come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.

Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern, has handed you an eternal cup,

And God in all his glory is pouring the wine.

So come! Drink! Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

Soul of all souls, life of all life — You are That.

Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving — You are That.

The road that leads to the City is endless.

Go without head or feet and you'll already be there.

What else could you be?

— You are That."

"For ages you have come and gone courting this delusion.

For ages you have run from the pain and forfeited the ecstasy.

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

When Rumi says you, he means you. Not the person you, not the human you, but what he knows as you. The one that is sentient — Sentience Itself. This Awareness.

For ages consciousness has come and gone, lived out through countless lives. Each in the desperate struggle to live. And in each of those lives, the mind is completely dedicated to whatever happens to be that one little life. For ages, you have accepted that pain must be avoided and the mind's desires pursued.

But when you do this, you give up the ecstasy of being You. The depth of knowing yourself as you are. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"Although you appear in earthly form, your essence is pure consciousness.

You are the fearless guardian of divine light.

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

Although sentience seems to be tied to a body, the forms are transient and many. But the Self is neither the body nor the mind, but That which is sentient.

And despite the efforts of the brightest minds, such a Self cannot be found, Because the Self has no form. Your essence is pure consciousness — The reason for life, The undying keeper of the light. This consciousness is your soul. At its root is the knowledge, "I am" — the sense of being, the love to be.

So come return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"When you lose all sense of self, the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.

Lose yourself completely.

Return to the root of the root of your own soul."

What are these thousand chains and how can they vanish? You see this happen every night as the mind falls to sleep. The chains are only mental. The thoughts, the beliefs, the roles and responsibilities, the motivations and convictions, they're all from the idea of being this one thing, this individual self.

Lose yourself completely. Lose yourself by looking within. Tracing this life to its cause, Following consciousness to its core, To that knowledge that I am, Following this knowledge of being to its Source, By turning this mind to the Heart. Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"You descended from Adam by the pure word of God,

But you turned your sight to the empty show of this world.

Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

The Word of God is not a word.

You know that you exist — beyond words or beliefs; beyond doubt. That is the Word of God. It is the knowledge — I Am; the Essence of Consciousness. You are Adam's descendant not as a parent to child, not through the chain of birth and death, but through this pure Word of God; This kernel of Consciousness that has been present from that very first form.

From life to life, from the simplest mind to the grandest, this Wordless Word has remained unchanged. Has much changed since Adam at all? Look before you, the most powerful mind in all of creation. A mind in which everything has a name; In which causes and effects can be reasoned and divined — the greatest of God's creations.

This world before you is Adam's mind. But if you turn your attention only to this, you will never be satisfied. These are just the things and their names and their stories. This is just the show.

What does the show reveal about You? Summon the full might of this mind and turn it inwards. Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"Why are you so enchanted by the world when a mine of gold lies within you?

Open your eyes and come.

Return to the root of the root of your own soul."

Open your eyes, the ones with which you see inside this mind; through which you know its every movement. Don't waste time waiting for this world to deliver you that final insight.

There's no need to call for help. Nor do you need some heroic effort. Just open your eyes and come. Look directly at what is most intimate. Follow this knowledge of your own presence, of being conscious, of being real, Follow that to its root.

Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"You were born from the rays of God's Majesty, when the stars were in the perfect place.

How long will you suffer from the blows of a nonexistent hand?

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

The translation must be wrong here. It's using the word "you" wrongly. What was born was not You, but knowledge, experience, love — The knowledge that You exist, and from it the flow of experience and this love of life. But maybe the translation is right. Those are You.

To the Sufi, God is not some far away character. God is the Self. God is 'the world.' God is the very flow of Consciousness as well. What I know to be You.

Through the rays of Your presence was born this knowledge. I Am. And yet how wrong it can go from there. The mistaken identity, the idea of you being a thing in the world.

All the flaws and regrets of this mind. How long will you carry the baggage of a self that does not even exist? How long will you suffer the blows of a nonexistent hand? The character that must repent, that must get better, that cannot be forgiven, that character is only in the show.

That is not You. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"You are a ruby encased in granite.

How long will you deceive us with this outer show?

O friend, we can see the truth in your eyes!

So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

Have you ever seen a life end? You look into the eyes and you know the instant that life is gone.

Immediately, the body is seen as just an insentient object. The object was never sentient; was never the one you recognized looking into those very same eyes. So, it is true that the eyes are a window to the soul. Look and you recognize what is real behind the face; beyond the facade.

The truth is dancing in the eyes of every passerby, every animal, every bird. The true Self is neither the body nor the mind, but Pure Consciousness; Sentience Itself. It is just that this ruby is encased in this appearance around it. It is just that the outer show is so dazzling.

But the show is merely the light of what lies within. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"After one moment with that glorious Friend, you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.

Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.

Come, return to the root of the root of your own soul."

The mind that reaches those depths can never be the same again. That one moment is enough to reveal the Truth. Some call it Awakening.

But then they keep searching for more of that ecstasy. They have gone back to sleep. What a waste. You climbed the peak and saw the mountain range.

Why would you need to climb each and every mountain in the range? The moment you realize the Self, you know that what was previously taken as the self was a complete sham. A play of thoughts and concepts, some experiences and memories tied to a phantom entity. Come, put all that aside.

Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

"Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern, has handed you an eternal cup,

And God in all his glory is pouring the wine.

So come! Drink! Return to the root of the root of your own soul.

Soul of all souls, life of all life — You are That.

Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving — You are That.

The road that leads to the City is endless.

Go without head or feet and you'll already be there.

What else could you be?

You are That."