O brother, you are that very thought; the rest of you is nothing but bone and sinew.
ای برادر تو همان اندیشهای
ما بقی تو استخوان و ریشهایEy birâder tû hemân endîşe'î
mâ-bakî tû üstühân u rîşe'î
Rumi, Masnavi, Book II, verse 277 (Nicholson).
Rumi weighs the human being.
On one pan of the scale, bone and sinew.
On the other, thought.
The body is the bearer.
What it bears is what passes through the mind.
If you think of a rose, you are a rose garden, he says next.
If you think of a thorn, you are fuel for the furnace.
So the question is not: what do you look like?
What are you thinking?