Coleman Barks Quotes

• The mystics always say that the experience they're talking about is ineffable, that you can't say it. Rumi was asked one time why he talked so much about silence. He said, "The radiant one inside me has never said a word."

  Coleman Barks

  Talking, Silence, Ineffable

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  21 Copy quote

• 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.

  Coleman Barks

  Joy, Treasure, Ruins

  Coleman Barks (2010). “The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems”, p.11, Harper Collins

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  Coleman Barks

  Thinking, Looks, Wonder

  20 Copy quote

• If you think there's an important difference between being a Christian or a Jew or a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist, then you're making a division between your heart, what you love with, and the way you act in the world.

  Coleman Barks

  Christian, Buddhist, Heart

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  18 Copy quote

• Just being sentient and in a body with the sun coming up is a state of rapture.

  Coleman Barks

  Body, Sun, Just Being

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  12 Copy quote

• When you meet a new friend, the world has more light in it, doesn't it? Things become more spontaneous, and more full of laughing and freedom and novelty.

  Coleman Barks

  Light, Laughing, World

  "Coleman Barks: Rumi, Grace and Human Friendship". Interview with Tami Simon, www.dailygood.org. December 29, 2013.

  18 Copy quote

• Anything you grab hold of on the bank breaks with the river's pressure. When you do things from your soul, the river itself moves through you. Freshness and a deep joy are signs of the current.

  Coleman Barks

  Inspirational, Moving, Rivers

  11 Copy quote

• I had been a kind of natural mystic my whole life, growing up there in Tennessee next to the river. Somehow, that was important for my consciousness. I still don't study [mysticism]. I just wait for experiences.

  Coleman Barks

  Growing Up, Rivers, Waiting

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  13 Copy quote

• Longing becomes more poignant if in the distance you can't tell whether your friend is going away or coming back. The pushing away pulls you in.

  Coleman Barks

  Distance, Going Away, Pushing Away

  11 Copy quote

• It's such a foolish thing to argue about names, when what we're doing is all one thing.

  Coleman Barks

  Names, Arguing, Foolish

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  13 Copy quote

• The religions of the world are luminous in their individuality, and they have valuable social and soulmaking functions. Surely someday we will quit killing each other over their different strategies.

  Coleman Barks

  Religious, Religion, Individuality

  Coleman Barks (2010). “The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition”, p.13, Harper Collins

  14 Copy quote

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

  Coleman Barks

  Beautiful, Dream, Language

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  9 Copy quote

• What I deeply want... is for Rumi to become vitally present for readers, part of what John Keats called our soul-making, that process that is both collective and uniquely individual, that happens outside time and space and inside, that is the ocean we all inhabit and each singular droplet-self.

  Coleman Barks

  Ocean, Self, Space

  Coleman Barks (2010). “The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems”, p.14, Harper Collins

  9 Copy quote

• I had never heard of Rumi until Robert Bly handed me this book and he said, ah, “These poems need to be released from their cages.”

  Coleman Barks

  Needs, Cages

  "Love’s Confusing Joy: Coleman Barks on Poet Jelaluddin Rumi". Interview with Bill Moyers, billmoyers.com. March 16, 1995.

  10 Copy quote

• There's some sort of exchange that goes on between human beings that is one of the highest things we do.

  Coleman Barks

  Goes On, Humans, Highest

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  9 Copy quote

• [Rumi] is trying to get us to feel the vastness of our true identity... like the sense you might get walking into a cathedral.

  Coleman Barks

  True Identity, Trying, Vastness

  5 Copy quote

• I like to walk around my neighborhood, late in the afternoon. I sometimes wind up at the wonderful, old Shell station that's been changed into a coffee shop. Right where Johnny used to change my oil, I have a latte and take out my little book bag. It doesn't sound very austere.

  Coleman Barks

  Coffee, Book, Oil

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  9 Copy quote

• If you teach three university courses a day, you need something to turn your mind off.

  Coleman Barks

  Mind, Three, Needs

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  7 Copy quote

• I think my life is tremendously interesting, and surely, other people do too.

  Coleman Barks

  Thinking, People, Interesting

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

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