“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.” – Not Rumi (actually, A Course In Miracles)

No matter where you look on the internet, you'll see this quote attributed two only two people:

1. Rumi
2. A Course In Miracles

You'll find quote images, citations, explanations on what the quote means, and even coffee mugs, shirts, and posters with it on them. A BBC expert even cites this love quote alongside an article on Rumi. The thing is…

Here's what you won't find:

Anybody with actual evidence that this quote is attributed to Rumi anywhere or any time.

Yes, read that again. To our knowledge, there is not a single post on the internet which successfully attributes this quote to anything Rumi has ever written or had translated into English.

Years back, while researching the quote we did discover a Rumi scholar who wrote on a forum that these words had never been in any of his printed or translated works. Further, he wrote that based on his knowledge of Rumi's works, the way this is phrased is not how Rumi would have phrased it within his poetry.

Obviously that is hearsay. Unfortunately, in trying to locate that forum posting many years later we were unable to find it. We wanted to link back for your reference, so if you happen to come across it, please send us the link so we can cite appropriately.

Continuing onward…

When we also take into consideration the fact that the earliest known reference to this quote in any printed literature does come from the 1975 version of “A Course In Miracles” (See T-16.IV.4), we see that there's strong reason to believe that Rumi never actually said or wrote this.

The post The Famous Spiritual Quote that Rumi Never Actually Said… appeared first on Spiritual Growth Events.

Some fisherman came to the edge of the lake with their nets. The three fish saw them.

The intelligent fish decided at once to leave, to make the long, difficult trip to the ocean. He thought, “I won't consult with these two on this. They will only weaken my resolve, because they love this place so. They call it home. Their ignorance will keep them here.”

The wise fish saw the men and their nets and said, “I”m leaving.” The half-intelligent fish thought, “My guide has gone. I ought to have gone with him, but I didn't, and now I've lost my chance to escape. I wish I'd gone with him.

He mourns the absence of his guide for a while, and then thinks, “What can I do to save myself from these men and their nets? Perhaps if I pretend to be already dead! I'll belly up on the surface and float like weeds float, just giving myself totally to the water. To die before I die.”

So he did that. He bobbed up and down, helpless, within arm's reach of the fishermen.

“Look at this! The best and biggest fish is dead.” One of the men lifted him by the tail, spat on him, and threw him up on the ground. He rolled over and over and slid secretly near the water, and then, back in.

Meanwhile, the third fish, the dumb one, was agitatedly jumping about, trying to escape with his agility and cleverness.

The net, of course, finally closed around him, and as he lay in the terrible frying-pan bed, he thought, “If I get out of this, I'll never live again in the limits of the lake. Next time, the ocean! I'll make the infinite my home.”

This is from the book Essential Rumi by Jalal al-Din Rumi and translated by Coleman Barks.

The post The Three Fish appeared first on Spiritual Growth Events.