Do Not Go With The Flow. Be

I Like To Borrow A Metaphor From The Great Poet And Mystic Rumi Who Talks About Living Like A Drawing Compass. One Leg Of The Compass Is Static. It Is Fixed And Rooted In A Certain Spot. Meanwhile, The Other Leg Draws A Huge Wide Circle Around The First One, Constantly Moving. Just Like That, One Part Of My Writing Is Based In Istanbul. It Has Strong Local Roots. Yet At The Same Time The Other Part Travels The Whole Wide World, Feeling Connected To Several Cities, Cultures, And Peoples.

The World Does Not Move Through Time As If It Were A Straight Line, Proceeding From The Past To The Future. Instead Time Moves Through And Within Us, In Endless Spirals. Eternity Does Not Mean Infinite Time, But Simply Timelessness.

Knowledge That Takes You, Not Beyond Yourself Is Far Worse Than Ignorance.

Hell Is In The Here And Now. So Is Heaven. Quit Worrying About Hell Or Dreaming About Heaven, As They Are Both Present Inside Us This Very Moment. Every Time We Fall In Love, We Ascend To Heaven. Every Time We Hate, Envy, Or Fight Someone, We Tumble Straight Into The Fires Of Hell.

Real Filth Is The One Inside. The Rest Simply Washes Off. There Is Only One Type Of Dirt That Cannot Be Cleansed With Pure Waters, And That Is The Stain Of Hatred And Bigotry Contaminating The Soul. You Can Purify Your Body Through Abstinence And Fasting, But Only Love Will Purify Your Heart.