true love is for the treasure, not for the coffer that contains it.

yellow tulips, istanbul tulip festival, istanbul, pentax k10d

“

Everything in the universe is a pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty.

”

Mevlana

I am only the house of your beloved,
not the beloved herself:
true love is for the treasure,
not for the coffer that contains it.
The real beloved is that one who is unique,
who is your beginning and your end.

When you find that one,
you’ll no longer expect anything else:
that is both the manifest and the mystery.

That one is the lord of states of feeling,
dependent on none;
month and year are slaves to that moon.
When he bids the “state,”
it does His bidding;
when that one wills, bodies become spirit.

Mevlana

From:
Mathnawi III, 1417-1424

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul