Of Wine And The Beaker

I am a lover ...
Those who are enlightened
know that Layla and I
are one and the same.

Whoever is loved is beautiful, but the reverse is not true: it does not follow that anyone who is beautiful is loved. Beauty is a part of being loved. As being loved is the root, when an object is loved it follows that it is beautiful. The part cannot be separated from the whole since it derives from the whole.

In Majnun's time there were girls who were much more beautiful than Layla, but they were not loved by Majnun. People used to say to him, 'There are girls more beautiful than Layla. Let us bring them to you.'

'I do not love Layla for her external appearance,' Majnun would reply. 'Layla is not external form. She is like a drinking vessel held in my hand, a beaker from which I drink wine. I am in love with the wine I drink from the beaker, but you see only the beaker and not the wine. If I had a golden beaker studded with precious gems, and it were filled with vinegar or something other than wine, of what use would that beaker be to me? To my eyes a broken old gourd filled wine is better than a hundred such goblets.'

You need love's yearning to see the difference between the wine and the beaker.



~ The Essence of Rumi by John Baldock.