I have always imagined the quatrain above as being part of an intimate conversation between Rumi and his legendary friend, Shams of Tabriz. We live at a time when those \u201csweet words\u201d are needed to rain down more than ever upon the soil of our universe.<\/p>\n
Those who have discovered the heart-penetrating words of Rumi sense their beauty and urgency. And yet we may struggle to express, let alone explain, their importance. Poetry can be the language of the soul, communicating through image and metaphor something beyond tangible realities. It can lead us to where our footprints disappear into the Sea.<\/p>\n
Rumi belongs to the honored category of wisdom teachers that would include: Plato, Ecclesiastes, Lao Tzu, the author of the Gospel of Thomas, Meister Eckhart, Shakespeare, Goethe, and in America, Whitman and Emerson. He can stand with any of them in terms of his intellectual contribution, and possibly beyond any of them in spiritual depth. Once, when the great German scholar Anne Marie Schimmel was asked to compare Goethe and Rumi, she responded: \u201cThe great Goethe is like an immense, majestic mountain; but Rumi, ah\u2026 Rumi is like the sky itself.\u201d Her words capture the essence of what Rumi offers: an opening to a spiritual Reality even beyond the majesty and beauty of the physical world, a transparency that allows the spiritual Sun to shine upon us.<\/p>\n
Rumi is not a self-help guru. He offers more than consolation to our neurotic anxieties. The ecstatic love he extols is not a form of mystical eroticism. He is not an iconoclast, a breaker of tradition, but an inheritor of the wisdom and revelations of the Prophets.<\/p>\n
Using all the rich means of literature, and especially poetry, he awakens our imagination to the presence of the Divine. And as we gradually integrate the images, metaphors, and stories, our sense of reality is transformed, our place in the universe is clarified.<\/p>\n
Underlying the vast and complex tangle of his vast work is a clear and coherent metaphysical understanding. The Omega point of nature and all existence is the complete human being. All the laws of the physical world are perfectly in balance, proportioned to manifest the heart-consciousness of the human being who has transcended ego limitations and distortions, and has been so humbled in love as to become an expression of the Divinity itself!<\/p>\n
However, if we search on the Internet for Rumi quotes, much of what we find will be a mere caricature of the Master. By the time Rumi appears on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms, his profound and nuanced wisdom has sometimes been reduced to one-liners, watered-down clich\u00e9s, lame truisms, and misleading over-simplifications.<\/p>\n
Everything in the universe
\nis within you. Ask all from yourself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat this quote, for instance, seems to suggest is that the individual should be his or her own arbiter of truth and not depend on second-hand knowledge, theologies, and dogmas. This sentiment fits well with our postmodern era in which all certainties are dismissed, in which the sacred is just one option among many of equal or no value.<\/p>\n
Rumi would never let an assertion like this stand alone without taking us a further step. He says, for instance:<\/p>\n
Listen, open a window to God
\nand begin to delight yourself
\nby gazing upon Him through the opening.
\nThe business of love is to make that window in the heart,
\nfor the breast is illumined by the beauty of the Beloved.
\nGaze incessantly on the face of the Beloved!
\nListen, this is in your power, my friend!<\/p>\n[Mathnawi<\/em>\u00a0VI, 3095\u201397]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What must be sought is a portal that can be found within ourselves, but like a window redirects our vision to something beyond ourselves, the Beloved, the Divine Reality. When that window opens, our sense of ourselves is transformed; we see the artificial nature of what we thought was ourselves. This is a great discovery and a great mystery that cannot be contained or adequately described.<\/p>\n
Since the Internet rarely acknowledges who the translator is, I don\u2019t know whose translations I\u2019m commenting on, perhaps even one of my friends, but bear with me for a little bit longer.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.
\nUnfold your own myth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThere is no doubt that Rumi was a master of authenticity, but personality development was not the aim of his teaching, and the word \u201cmyth\u201d is not a word to be found in his work. And yet it may have appeal to those creating online identities through social media. Contrast this with the \u201cbitter medicine\u201d that Rumi sometimes hands out:<\/p>\n
Unless the seeker is absolutely erased,
\nin truth, he will not come into union.
\nUnion is not penetrable. It is your annihilation.
\nOtherwise anyone would become the Truth.<\/p>\n[Quatrains<\/em>: 800]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Often these \u201cinternet quotes\u201d are partial truths that can be misleading if one has little knowledge of the spiritual universe Rumi inhabited.<\/p>\n
You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Rumi would never say this either because he understands that the individual ego cannot undo itself; rather when the false self faces the consequences of its own ignorance and denial, it is the Divine Mercy that offers a solution, a remedy. And sometimes the true \u201cBreaker of Hearts\u201d is offering us a lesson, the bitter medicine that is needed:<\/p>\n
The gate of union has been closed to me by the Friend.
\nMy heart has been broken by the sorrow and pain of the Friend.
\nFrom now on I and my broken heart will wait at the gate,
\nfor those with a broken heart have the favor of the Friend.<\/p>\n[Quatrains<\/em>: 245]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But it seems that once a \u201cquote\u201d is elevated to Internet heaven, it gets repeated and repeated, confirming that many people only read him online. Furthermore, some of the most popular are not from Rumi at all, as far as I can tell, and I\u2019ll be happy to be corrected if I\u2019m wrong:<\/p>\n
Yesterday I was clever and wanted to change the world
\ntoday I am wise so I am changing myself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWho is this? Gandhi perhaps?<\/p>\n
Your task is not to seek for love but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Actually, this is from\u00a0The Course in Miracles<\/em>.<\/p>\n
I point these things out, knowing that there are well-meaning people who have found meaning and beauty in Rumi, but have not encountered the true range and depth of his legacy, or have not had the opportunity to experience the living tradition which he represents. And all of us, after all, are students, seekers, incomplete in encompassing the vast universe of spiritual knowledge and human possibilities.<\/p>\n
So, if you will allow me to conclude with some words from \u201cour master,\u201d Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, just one of many possible examples that expresses that more comprehensive meaning to be encountered in his work, a vision of the \u201cpossible human\u201d from\u00a0Discourses of Rumi\u00a0<\/em>(published as\u00a0Signs of the Unseen<\/em>): Discourse 16:<\/p>\n
The \u201cperson of heart\u201d is the All. When you have seen such a person, you have seen everything. \u201cThe whole hunt is in the belly of the wild ass,\u201d as the saying goes. All the people in the world are parts of him, and he (or she) is the Whole.<\/p>\n
All good and bad are part of the dervish.
\nWhoever is not so is not a dervish.\u00b9<\/p>\nNow when you have seen a dervish you have certainly seen the whole world. Anyone you see after that is superfluous. A dervishes\u2019 words are the most complete words of all. When you have heard their words, whatever you may hear afterwards is unneeded.<\/p>\n
If you see him at any stage, it is as though
\nyou have seen every person and every place.
\nO copy of the Divine Book which you are,
\nO mirror of awesome beauty that you are,
\nnothing that exists in the world is outside of you.
\nSeek within yourself whatever you want,
\nfor that you are!\u00b2<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis is an amazing view of what it means to be a complete human being, and this view is reflected in Rumi\u2019s own work, especially the\u00a0Mathnawi<\/em>, encompassing so many aspects of earthly life \u2014 saints and sinners, dervishes and the kings, creatures of every sort, humor and metaphysical reflection, humble fables and sublime supplications \u2014 all of these revealing the Divine Love and Intelligence at work.<\/p>\n
We hope that\u00a0Awakening with Rumi<\/em>\u00a0will likewise reflect the Divine Love and Intelligence at work in our lives, in matter-of-fact and miraculous ways.<\/p>\n
It is clear that Rumi did not take up a position outside the context of traditional Islam. His frequent references to the Qur\u2019an and his love of the Prophet Muhammad are evidence of his alignment with the primary sources of Islam. In a future article, however, I hope to explore Rumi\u2019s idea of the \u201cReligion of Love,\u201d to clarify that Rumi\u2019s Islam is not a legalistic program ordained by a judgmental God, but a spiritual path leading to intimacy with the Divine Beloved.<\/p>\n
Within the Ka`ba the rule of the qibla does not exist:
\nwhat matter if the diver has no snow-shoes?
\nDo not seek guidance from the drunken:
\nwhy do you order those whose garments are torn in pieces to mend them?
\nThe religion of Love is apart from all religions:
\nfor lovers, the religion and creed is \u2014 God.
\nIf the ruby has not a seal, it is no harm:
\nLove in the sea of sorrow is not sorrowful.<\/p>\n[Mathnawi<\/em>\u00a0II, 1768\u201371]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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