dissolving the self
is the creed and religion of lovers
there's no way to find your essence
without giving up your self
so melt yourself down
go to the place where you disappear completely
become nothing
look and see
I've seen everything in nothing
"We all have a sense of individual self, a feeling that I exist as an individual entity, separate from everyone else and from everything else as well. We nurture, defend, and protect this self (and the body it lives and dies in) with every available resource — yet Rumi urges us to let it go, to dissolve it, to find out what lies beyond it.
"The problem with the self is that it inevitably bifurcates the world into me and everything else, and ecstatic love can only be found in moments of merging. The self lives in a world of separation, but the soul thrives on union. The self speaks through the monologue of silent thoughts that pass continuously through your mind, so Rumi speaks of the need for silence and for going to a place beyond words. The self can be felt as a contraction in the middle of your head, and so Rumi speaks of dissolving and softening it. When the self starts melting away, ordinary boundaries start melting along with it. When your self subsides, you feel intimately commingled with your world, no longer separate from it."
