"My heart wandered through the world
constantly seeking after my cure,
but the sweet and delicious water of life
had to break through the granite of my heart."

When the words of Rumi enter your heart, something softens, breaks, and is subtly reborn. That he wrote the words seven hundred years ago in a medieval Persian world that bears little resemblance to ours makes their uncanny resonance to us today just that much more remarkable. Here is a treasury of daily wisdom from this most beloved of all the Sufi masters--both his prose and his ecstatic poetry--that you can use to start every day for a year, or that you can dip into for inspiration any time you need to break through the granite of your heart.

Jalaluddin Rumi has become one of the most widely read poets in our time. This collection of verse is drawn from Rumi's masterwork the "Mathnawi, "often referred to as the "Qur'an" in the Persian tongue. The "Mathnawi "comprises six volumes of rhymed verse drawing on favorite stories from the "Qur'an, " tales of Sufi saints and masters, the sayings of Muhammed, folklore, and popular humor. Throughout its intricate tales, Rumi scatters precious gems of wisdom. Like jewels, his words seem to catch the light and reflect it to the reader's soul. The Helminskis' translations beautifully convey the subtlety, tone, and depth of the original texts.

"Awakened Dreams" was written in the early 1900s at the end of the Ottoman era by Ahmet Hilmi--humorist, revolutionary, and Sufi mystic. Raji--a young man disillusioned with science, philosophy, religion, and with life as he knows it--meets a grandfather-like "madman" who lives in a cemetery and wears clothes patched with bits of mirrors. The Mirror Dede, though apparently mad, makes more sense than anyone Raji has ever met. From time to time they drink coffee together, and as the old man plays a reed flute, Raji's transformation is mirrored through a series of awakened dreams. He experiences changes of perception which show to him the limitations of our ordinary human faculties, and he encounters various prophets and holy beings who reveal to him the secret of his own existence. This book has the charm of Hesse's "Siddhartha," the wry humor of a Vonnegut novel, and the visionary wisdom of Castaneda's Don Juan series. It continues to be used as a vibrant teaching tale in many Sufi circles. Though a story of mythical dimensions, "Awakened Dreams" is not a fantasy but a transcription of the spiritual journey based on Hilmi's own experience.