"Die before you die"
"The mystery of 'die before you die' is this: that the gifts come after your dying, and not before. Except for dying, you artful schemer, no other skill impresses God. One Divine gift is better than a hundred kinds of exertion. Your efforts are assailed from a hundred sides, and the favor depends on your dying. The trustworthy have put this to the test."- Mathnawi, VI, 3837-40, Jalaladdin Rumi "Unless a grain of Wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit." -John 12:24 Thus we must go through the way of the cross, and die to our false self, or ego, and live to the Eternal, the essential.