Hello inquirers. In honor of his reunion with the divine (Urs- or Death Day), we’re focusing on Hazrat Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi this week.
We’ll sing and dance to some of his glorious poetry. We’ll share some of his words in the spirit of Sema (literally ‘audition’ in Arabic) – deep listening with the subtle spiritual heart.
Feeling the spirit of Advent as well, I embarked on some exploration for words of Mevlana that connect with the Advent themes of hope, joy, peace and love.
Here are some jewels:
HOPE
There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they cannot hope.
The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.
The interpretation of a sacred text is true if it stirs us to hope, activity, and awe.
The body is pregnant with the spirit, the body’s suffering is the pain of childbirth, the coming of the embryo brings pain and torment for the woman. Look not at the wine’s bitterness, look at the joy of the drunkards. Look not at the woman’s affliction, Look at the hope of the midwife!
JOY
Listen to me for one moment.
Quit your worry and being sad.
Hear blessings dropping their blossoms all around you.
Every object, every Being is a jar full of delight.
Be a connoisseur.
We come whirling out of nothingness. The stars make a circle and in the center we dance.
I have become senseless. I have fallen into selflessness. In absolute selflessness how joyful I am with Self!
In face of the One’s Love’s joy and the One’s sun’s light, what is the body? Dust. And the spirit? Vapor.
Oh, union with Thee is the root of all joys! For these are all forms, but that is meaning.
PEACE
What in your life is calling you,
When all the noise is silenced,
The meetings adjourned…
The lists laid aside,
And the Wild Iris blooms
By itself
In the dark forest…
What still pulls on your soul?
Imagination in the soul seems a nonexistent thing, but behold a world driven by imagination! War and peace, pride and shame all derive from imagination. But the images that trap the saints reflect the moon-faced beauties of God’s Garden.
Life is peace among opposites, death the appearance of strife among them. God’s Gentleness has paired this lion and sheep, these two far distant opposites.
In the eye of realized discernment we are all a single soul: Your creation and your upraising are as but a single soul. The more a part is wounded, the more aware it is of this unity, so it takes on the color of peace, not war.
Words can be counted. But silence is immeasurable.
LOVE
For a time you were the four elements,
for a time an animal.
Now you have been a spirit, so become the Beloved! Become the Beloved!
No matter what I say to explain and elucidate Love, shame overcomes me when I come to Love itself.
The creatures are set in motion by love,
love by eternity without beginning.
The wind dances because of the spheres,
the trees because of the wind.
Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers
within yourself that you’ve built against it.
I look forward to connecting and communing, in the spirit of hope, joy, peace and love, with the inspiration of an epic mystic!
All the blessings. Ted
