{"id":4088,"date":"2010-04-12T01:07:42","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T23:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms2\/?p=4088"},"modified":"2011-01-04T21:16:21","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T20:16:21","slug":"jalal-al-din-rumi-1207-1273","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2010\/04\/jalal-al-din-rumi-1207-1273\/","title":{"rendered":"JALAL AL-DIN RUMI (1207-1273)"},"content":{"rendered":"
THE BRIDGE OF BEAUTY AND UNDERSTANDING
\n(Quoted from the UN General Assembly Resolution)
\n<\/em><\/div>\n

Only the bridge of Beauty will be strong enough for crossing from the bank of Darkness to the side of Light — Nicholas Roerich<\/em><\/p>\n

The United Nations General Assembly in resolution A\/RES.62\/90 has proclaimed the year 2010 as the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures \u201cto promote universal respect for, and observation and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms.\u201d Cultures encompass not only the arts and humanities but also different ways of living together, value systems and traditions.\u00a0 Thus 2010 should provide real opportunities for dialogue among cultures.\u00a0 It is true that to an unprecedented degree people are meeting together in congresses, conferences and universities all over the globe. However, in themselves, such meetings are not dialogue and do not necessarily lead to rapprochement of cultures. There is a need to reach a deeper level.\u00a0 Reaching such deeper levels takes patience, tolerance, the ability to take a longer-range view, and creativity.\u00a0 Thus we are pleased to present the creative efforts of individuals who have helped to create bridges of understanding among cultures.<\/em>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273)
\nBy Rene Wadlow<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem. I am not of the East, nor the West, nor the land, nor the sea\u2026 My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless.
\n<\/em>
\nRumi, a poet and mystic of Persian culture, was born in what is today Afghanistan and died in what is now Turkey.\u00a0 He used the image of a person as the flute of the Spirit.\u00a0 Man is a flute for the breath of God \u2014 the instrument that the Spirit uses to express itself.\u00a0 The Spirit can use the flute of any quality.\u00a0 What is important is not the merit of the flute, but the strength of the wind of the Spirit.\u00a0 Thus, Rumi develops the idea of \u201cgrace\u201d \u2014 the Divine can come to fill the lowest of vessels. The coming of the Spirit, the blending of the individual soul with the Universal Spirit, does not depend on the good actions or piety of the individual.\u00a0 Here Rumi echoes an earlier Sufi writer al Bistani who called upon the aspirant to \u201cBe in the domain where neither good nor evil exists: both of them belong to the world of created things: in the presence of Unity, there is neither command nor prohibition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there is a dual motion of the human soul.\u00a0 The first is to wait in silence to be filled with the Spirit coming from without \u2014 the image of the flute and breath.\u00a0 The opposite image is that of the soul rising through effort to a higher stage of being.\u00a0 For this motion, Rumi uses the image of a ladder, the steps of the ladder being the stages of development and purification.\u00a0 As he writes in Diwani Shams Tabriz<\/em> \u201c A ladder stood whereby thou mightest aspire.\u201d\u00a0 On the ladder, someone else has climbed first and serves as a guide.\u00a0 For Rumi, this guide was his teacher and friend to whom the verses are dedicated: Shams al-Din of Tabriz.\u00a0 The Diwan <\/em>contains profound verses on the function of a spiritual master and the relation between master and disciple.<\/p>\n

The name Shams al Dion means the \u2018sun of religion\u2019, and Rumi uses the symbolism of the name which refers to the inner union of the master with God. (1) Three examples:<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Tabriz shone the Sun of Truth, and I said to him: Thy light is at once joined with all things and apart from all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sun of the face of Shamsi Din, glory to the horizons, never shone upon aught perishable but he made it eternal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the sun, the pride of Tabriz, behold these miracles, for every tree gains beauty by the light of the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

By following the example of the teacher, the pilgrim begins to undergo those experiences which comprise different states and stations.\u00a0 As another Sufi writer Mahmud Shabistari states in The Mystic Rose Garden<\/em> \u201cAs for the saints on this road before and behind, they each give news of their own stages\u2026Since the language of each is according to his degree of progress, they are hard to be understood by the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little is known of Shams al-Din other than his having been the teacher of Rumi.\u00a0 He seems to have been part of a mystical tradition of Central Asia where influences of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Buddhism from China has been in contact with Islamic thought.\u00a0 The Silk Road from China to the Middle East brought many cultures into contact, and thinkers, especially mystics, were led to see the unity of experience behind the forms of practice.\u00a0 As Rumi wrote in his best known collection of verses Mathnawi <\/em>\u201c I have given everyone a peculiar form of expression.\u00a0 The idiom of Hindustan is excellent for Hindus; the idiom of Sind is excellent for the people of Sind.\u00a0 I look not at tongue and speech, I look at the spirit and the inward feeling.\u00a0 I look into the heart to see whether it be lowly, though the words uttered be not lowly.\u00a0 Enough of phrases and conceits and metaphors!\u00a0 I want burning, burning: become familiar with that burning! Light up a fire of love in thy soul, burn all thought and expression away!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lamps are different, but the Light is the same: it comes from Beyond.\u00a0 If thou keep looking at the lamp, thou art lost: for thence arises the appearance of number and plurality.\u00a0 Fix thy gaze upon the Light, and thou art delivered from the dualism inherent in the finite body\u2026The Faithful are many, but their Faith is one; their bodies are numerous, but their soul is one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rumi developed a form of combined mobile meditation, symbolism, and teaching which became the basis of the Mevlevi dervishes, popularly called the whirling dervishes and called the Mawlawi dervishes in the Arab countries. The participants enact the turning of the planets around the sun, a symbol of man linked to the center which is God, source of life, but it is also an internalized turning of the body toward the soul, likewise source of life.\u00a0 Rumi tried to map out a system in which sound, motion and one-pointed concentration of thought would lead to an end to the personal self and union with the Higher Self.<\/p>\n

There is a danger that the remaining Mevlevi dervishes become folklore in Turkey with attention paid primarily to the external music and motion, but\u00a0 we may help highlight the deeper meanings.<\/p>\n

(1)\u00a0\u00a0 See R.A. Nicholson Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz<\/em> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952 re-edition)<\/p>\n

(2)\u00a0\u00a0 See R.A. Nicholson\u2019s translations of Mathnawi<\/em> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926)<\/p>\n

___________________________
\n
\nR.A. Nicholson (1868-1945) was a professor of Persian at Cambridge and a leading translator and scholar of Rumi.\u00a0 The translations have been republished at different dates.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rene Wadlow is a Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, of the Association of World Citizens, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem. I am not of the East, nor the West, nor the land, nor the sea\u2026 My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless.” — Rumi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-4088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}