10 Quotes by Rumi That Make Life More Beautiful  

Rumi's words have been travelling through time ever since the 13th century, touching the hearts of millions with each new step. 

As he often speaks about love he transcends every culture, nationality, religion, dogma, race, and gender, allowing him to reach people few are able to reach. 

After all, love is universal so, so are his words. 

And like every great poet before and after him, he also had the ability to reduce profound wisdom into tiny sentences and make it stick to the lips as if it were honey. 

So, let's look at some of his best work now. For nothing more than to make this moment even more beautiful than it already is. 

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do"

Or as Joseph Campbell once said: 

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls"

"You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens"

You don't have to, of course, but the consequences of living with a closed heart don't bear thinking about.

So, as scary and as painful as living with an open heart can be, I've found that once it opens, life becomes so much more magical and even more beautiful than I ever imagined it could be.

"As you start to walk on the path, the path appears"

Imagine driving your car from New York to L.A. in the dark.

Most of the way L.A. remains out of sight as the headlights can only reach a short distance ahead. However, as you drive into the darkness, the road keeps unfolding and L.A. appears on the horizon almost as if by magic.

"A journey of 10,000 miles begins with a single step" - Lao Tzu 

"These pains you are feeling are messengers. Listen to them"

There's growth in pain, that's why it's called growing pains.

Welcome it in, let it stay for a while. Be open to its teachings. It will leave when it's time, don't worry about that. It's certainly not here to stay. 

But while it is here, befriend it, see what it has to say. 

There's always at least one thing to learn.

"You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop"

Or as Alan Watts puts it: 

"We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe."

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it"

I love this quote. 

I love it because it invites us to take full responsibility for the life we are living. And then it invites us to break down any walls and limitations that are holding us back from experiencing more. 

For love is not absent because it's everywhere. So, for it to appear absent, it means that it musn't be welcome. 

"There is a crack, that's how the light gets in" - Leonard Cohen 

"Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion"

So, dance, love, sing, laugh, cry, shout, scream, roll around, sweat, moan, run, sit, stumble, swim, crawl, fall, crash, burn, rise…

And start all over again.  

"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself"

This is the peaceful revolution that has the ability to change the world. For when the world changes within, the world outside changes almost instantaneously. 

"Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder"

What more is there to say? 

"Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along"

When we belong to the ocean of a million droplets - how could be any other way? 

For we are all one, pulsating and vibrating to the rhythms of love. 

Now, if you're ever in doubt, remember this: 

"What you seek is seeking you" - Rumi 

To recap

1. Let the beauty of what you love be what you do
2. You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens
3. As you start to walk on the path, the path appears
4. These pains you are feeling are messengers. Listen to them
5. You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop
6. Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it
7. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion
8. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself
9. Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder
10. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along