The eye sees what it brings with it to see.

Excerpt

The eye sees what it brings with it to see; it can see nothing but what it has gained the faculty of seeing. Thus the face of Laila, which seemed so lovely to the eyes of Majnun, made clairvoyant by love, seemed to strangers to have no claims to beauty.

Source Masnavi, Book V, Story VIII, §1 · 📖 Read the full passage

✨ To meditate on today

According to Rumi, the eye sees only what it has learned to see: Majnun, the legendary lover of Laila, found her magnificent because love had made his gaze clairvoyant. Today, choose a person you find ordinary or difficult, and deliberately look in them, with a loving gaze, for a beauty you had not yet noticed.

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