33 Quotes by Coleman Barks

…the work of the (Muslim Sufi) dervish community was to open the heart, explore the mystery of union,to fiercely search for and try to say the truth,and to celebrate the glory and difficulty in being in human incarnation.

I've got some broken ducks. I need to get them in a row.

We were all born by accident but this wandering caravan will make camp in perfectionForget the nonsense categories of there and here, race, nation, religion, starting point and destinationYou are soul, and you are love,...No more questions now as to what it is we're doing here

Little by little a person reaches forty and fifty and sixty, and feels more complete. God could've thrown full blown prophets flying through the cosmos in an instant.

We sometimes make spiderwebs of smoke and saliva, fragile though-packetsLeave thinking to the one who gave intelligenceStop weaving and watch how the pattern improve

Water the fruit trees, and don't water the thorns. Be generous to what nurtures the spirit and God's luminous reason-light. Don't honor what causes dysentry and knotted up tumors.

It’s a beautiful lucid dream that has language that I can fiddle with.

Ramana Maharshi and Rumi would agree: the joy of being human is in uncovering the core we already are, the treasure buried in the ruin.

I think we all have a core that’s ecstatic, that knows and that looks up in wonder. We all know that there are marvelous moments of eternity that just happen. We know them.