Non-Existence

Lesson 41: Non-Existence

The absolute Being creates out of non-existence; what other workshop
But non-existence could the Creator of Existence have?
Do you write over what is already written?
Do you plant a sapling where there's one growing already?
No! So look for a piece of paper no one has written on;
Search for a place where nothing has ever been sown.
Be a place unsown, a white paper no writing has stained,
So the Pen of Mercy can ennoble you, and the Merciful One
Can sow in your blindness the seed of Pure Vision.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

(Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi)