Rumi: the Sheikh lost two sons

THE SHEIKH WHOLOSTTWOSONS

A great sheikh has lost two sons, yet he is not weeping. His family
and his wife wonder at this lack of grief."Do not think that I am cold
and uncompassionate.I don't weep because for me they are not gone.The eye
of my heart sees them distinctly.They're outside of time but very close by here
playing and coming to hug me. As people sometimes see dead relatives in dream,I see
my sons constantly in this waking state. I am even more deeply with them when I hide
for a moment from the world, when I let the sense-perception leaves drop from the tree
of my being. I weep for those who have ungrateful souls. I weep when boys throw stones
at dogs. I weep for dogs who bite for no reason.Forgive the harm that anyone does.
We are here to be a forgiveness door through which freedom comes. I weep when I ask
that the door not be shut."Some attend to individual mercies and some to universal
grace.Try to let them merge.Pond water eventually arrives at the ocean. One saint works
and lingers in the lakes of personal life. Another plays without limits in the sea.