I believe none of us are fully comfortable with words like soul, pure love and heart. And perhaps we never will be as we do not fully comprehend their workings. This could be, for all we know that there is something we do not know- something that we will never be able to fully know. Thus begins our spiritual journey, egotistical as it may sound, our quest to find serenity and beauty that comes from deeper exploration of our conflicts and confirmations. Essential Rumi can be an useful set of ideas that presents a philosophy which may ease one's strain and you actually experience inner walls of pre-held understanding crumbling, brick by brick. Leading you to recognize that our presence is perhaps a myth. And its left to us to unfold this myth, our mystery away from rational.
Look at this
just finishing candle stub
as someone who is finally safe
from virtue and vice
the pride and the shame
we claim from those.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,
There is a field, I'll meet you there.
Finally I know the freedom
of madness.
No one who really loves,
loves existence.
And in that vein, Rumi suggests to dissolve your boundaries, pull and push and reach towards tenderness, of attempting to live beyond that may be undefined & unclear at this point, of sailing inside the inexplicable, drifting within your privacy.
4 comments:
I have been meaning to get the book, and the Coleman Barks translation has good reviews. Thanks for the review. There's also this other book by Hafiz called The Gift. While excerpts look good, some of the reviews question the reliability of the translation.
Coleman Barks is pretty good and if you go by my recommendation its good to read Rumi in small doses as there is no singular coherent thought but diverse thoughts, some may make sense now, some may be days later, few may never. So, the book can be as much about you as it is about Rumi. I have heard good things about Kahlil Gibran too, something similar to Hafiz and Rumi.
The essence of Rumi seems to be about rebelling against the convention, and stretching the boundaries of what you are possible of. I always have enjoyed the power of brevity. If you can express an idea in few words, it has a lasting impact.
Hi Parth: Conventional beliefs bring nothing but fragile safety and mediocrity, I have to come to understand. So, Rumi works well to decimate those conventions so sweetly with brevity.
Btw, I really admired "An Unfinished Melody" of yours, bravo.
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