When I used to compose music, I'd sit for ages squeezing it out of myself; I made a huge effort, drove myself. But there was nothing like that this time. It was like music pouring out by itself. It was like the desire to sing – and I sang, the desire to pray – and I prayed. Do you remember?
The abbot said: "Let it come through you like something that doesn't belong to you."
If the clearest connection to God is inside the heart, when you move more and more into that love center, the ache of being two, of feeling separation, dissolves... Whatever is deeply loved — friend, grandchild, late afternoon light, masonry, tennis, whatever absorbs you — this may be a reflection of how you move in the invisible world of spirit. It is your beauty, the elegant point where everything is one. The unio mystica is a lived thing ... a transformed intention, an intensity, and the peace of walking inside it: The Friend.
~ from THE ILLUMINATED RUME, commentary by Coleman Barks
