In 1977, English professor Coleman Barks had a dream that changed his life. In the dream, he was relaxing on a riverbank near his childhood home in Georgia. A ball of light floated towards him. It contained a man with his head bowed and eyes closed, sitting cross-legged and wearing a white shawl. The man raised his head, opened his eyes, and said, "I love you." Barks answered, "I love you, too." Some time after this dream, he met the same figure in waking life. It was Sri Lankan holy man Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who set Barks on the path to becoming a translator of the dead mystic poet Jalaluddin Rumi. Today Rumi's books are bestsellers, largely due to Barks.

—Rob Brezsny

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