Coleman Barks Quotes

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.”

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

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

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