Rumi Online: American Institute of Masnavi Studies

Sunday, April 25, 2010

American Institute of Masnavi Studies

**One of the most detailed and thoroughly researched English sites on Rumi's life and teachings, I highly recommend visiting American Institute of Masnavi Studies if you're a Rumi aficionado or looking for scholarly articles on Maolana.**

"RumiMevlevi.com is the activity of the American Institute of Masnavi Studies (AIMS) on the Internet. The Institute is affiliated with the International Hazrat-i Mevlânâ Foundation, in Istanbul, Turkey. The president of the Foundation is the hereditary and actual world leader of the Mevlevi order--the 33rd Chelebi Efendi, Faruk Hemdem Chelebi, the 22nd generation great-grandson of Hazrat-i Mevlânâ Jalâluddîn Rûmî.."

American Institute of Masnavi Studies

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پارسی گو گرچه تازی خوشتر است
عشق را خود صد زبان دیگر است

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وزبان پارسی را چه شده است؟! بدین لطیفی و خوبی، که آن معانی و لطافت که در پارسی آمده است، ودر تازی نیامده است

مولانای بلخ و روم - فیه مافیه

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A hundred more years from now
My poems will be your evening-talks,
Just like Joseph's beauty!
Rumi.

Masnavi is the great masterpiece of Persian Sufi poet, Maolana Jalaluddin Balkhi(Rumi) who lived in the 13th century. The title Masnavi-I Manavi means 'Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning.' Comprising six books of poems that amount to more than 50,000 lines, Masnavi pursues its way through 424 metaphorical, allegorical, and mystical stories that illustrate Man's predicament in his/her spiritual journey in search of God.

"El Masnavi esta imbuido de profundo misterio, y es el mas importante libro en el estudio del Sufismo...misterio que, en su mayor parte, queda a discernimiento del lector. Rumi fue no solo un poeta y un mistico, y el fundador de una orden religiosa; tambien fue un hombre que comprendio profundamente la naturaleza del hombre. Rumi es el mas grande poeta mistico de nuestra era. Muy bien se lo podria considerar el mayor poeta mistico de toda la humanidad. Nada mas equivoco que ver en la simbolica poesia mistica de Rumi el molde original que grabara el modelo de un sutil lenguaje metaforico, tan rico en la tradicion poetica Islamica. Con profundidad de pensamiento, ingenio de metaforas, y un triunfante dominio del lenguaje, Rumi sobresale como el supremo genio del misticismo Islamico."
Prologo de Alberto Manzano en 'EL MASNAVI-LAS ENSEÑANZAS DE RUMI'.

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رابطه ما با مثنوی رابطه ای است خشک و بی محتوا, رابطه ای در سطح الفاظ وادبیات, حال آنکه مثنوی پیامی بس عمیق در خود نهفته دارد, پیامی که شرح رنج و اسارت و غربت او از موطن اصلی خویش است.پیام مثنوی هشداری است به انسانی که خودرا در تاریک هستی مجازی از الفاظ و صورتها پیچانده و عمر خودرا در ترس و رنج و تضاد می گذراند. پیام مثنوی فریادی است برای بیداری و خروج از حصار نقش ها, و برگشت به 'بحر جان' به هستی فراسوی مجازها و پندار ها , به 'باغ سبز عشق' , آنجا که همه وجد و سرور است و نشانی از ترس ها و دلهره های این هستی مجازی نیست. مثنوی مارا با شرح رنج های خویش در یاس و نومیدی رها نمی کند, با صد ها اشاره و تمثیل نوید می دهد که می توان ترک غربت کرد و به نیستان اصیل خویش بازگشت. کجاست این بحر جان و این باغ سبز عشق? می گوید در خودت, اما هرچه بیشتر به جست و جویش بروی ازآن دور تر می افتی. تو گوهری هستی در بطن دریای وحدت, و صدف پنداراست که تو را ازاین دریا جدا ساخته است."
نقل از کتاب: با پیر بلخ: کاربرد مثنوی در خودشناسی
نوشته:استاد محمدجعفر مصفا

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"If you're thirsting for the spiritual Ocean, make a breach in the island of Masnavi." Rumi.

"The Masnavi is a majestic river, calm and deep, meandering through many a rich and varied landscape to the immeasurable ocean; the Divan is a foaming torrent that heaps and plunges in the ethereal solitudes of the hills.. Rumi is the greatest mystical poet of any age."
Professor R.A.Nicholson (the great 20th century British Orientalist and scholar of Rumi who dedicated 35 years of his scholarly life to translating Rumi's Masnavi from Persian/Farsi to English).

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"When I experienced Rumi's poetry, which is vibrant with the tone of ecstasy and with melody, I realized the deficiencies of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Victor Hugo."
The French writer, Maurice Barres.

"The sublime humanism of Rumi fired the imagination of mankind long before the West discovered the dignity of man. Dante was a young boy at the time of Rumi's death. The great humanist of the West, Petrarch came a full century after him; and Erasmus followed him two and a half centuries later. Hegel considered Rumi as one of the greatest poets and thinkers in world history.The twentieth century German poet Hans Meinke saw in Rumi 'the only hope for the dark times we are living in.'...In Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Rumi is honored as a saint, a sage, and a seer..."
Excerpts from Professor Afzal Ikbal, the great Pakistani scholar of Rumi's par excellence book 'The life and work of Jalaludin Rumi'. Professor Ikbal's monumental book is A MUST READ for anyone interested in Rumi's scholarly biography and teachings.

Read the book online:
The life & Work of Jalaludin Rumi-By Afzal Ikbal

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"Rumi is thus seen, not just as an icon of Islamic civilization (or of Afghan, Iranian, Tajik or Turkish national heritage), but of global culture. And, indeed, the popular following he enjoys in North America as a symbol of ecumenical spirituality is evident in bookstores, poetry slams, church sermons and on the internet.."
Professor Franklin Lewis on Rumi's influence in our beloved America.

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"The universal message of Rumi is a hopeful alternative to the ignorance and lack of spirituality in modern times. Rumi's writings of the thirteenth century advocate an understanding that there is something beyond religion and scholarly learning that can open our eyes to the reality beyond this existence; for Rumi we must climb a spiritual ladder of love. Furthermore, Rumi envisioned a universal faith, embodying all religions, because he understood that the cause of every religious conflict is ignorance. Rumi implies that religiosity consists in something other than outward religions. Real belief is apparent only on the inside of a person, which is not visible. Therefore, Rumi makes it clear that the religion of love involves loving the eternal and invisible source of existence.."
Excerpts from Rumi and the Universality of his Message, by M. Este'Lam.

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"The Sufis never set out to found a new religion, a mazhab or denomination. They were content to live and work within the framework of the Muslim religion, using texts from the Quran much as Christian mystics have used the Bible to illustrate their tenets. Their aim was to purify and spiritualize Islam from within, to give it a deeper, mystical interpretation, and infuse into it a spirit of love and liberty. In the broader sense, therefore, in which the word religion is used in our time, their movement could well be called a religious one, one which did not aim at tying men down with a new set of rules but rather at setting them free from external rules and open to the movement of the spirit.. Perhaps we may say that if, in the past, Sufism's function was to spiritualize Islam, its purpose in the future will be rather to make possible a welding of religious thought between East and West, a vital, ecumenical commingling and understanding, which will prove ultimately to be, in the truest sense, on both sides, a return to origins, to the original unity.."
Excerpts from The Persian Sufis by Cyprian Rice.

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What is Sufism ?
I have heard that the ecstasy
Of the "Wearers of wool"
Comes from finding the taste of Love.
That’s Sufism, nothing more.
Sufism is nothing but a path,
It is just this clear road, and nothing more.

What is Sufism ?
Good character and awareness of Love.
The cure for hatred and vengeance.
That’s Sufism, nothing more.

What is Sufism ?
The heart attaining tranquility
Which is the root of religion.
That’s Sufism, nothing more.

What is Sufism ?
Contemplation that travels
To the Divine throne, a far-seeing gaze.
That’s Sufism, and nothing more.

Sufism is keeping one’s distance
From imagination and supposition.
Sufism is surrendering one’s soul
To the care of the inviolability of Love.

Sufism is the path of faith
And affirmation of unity,
It is an incorruptible religion.
That’s Sufism, nothing more.

Sufism is a smooth and illuminated path,
It is the way to the most exalted Paradise.
That’s Sufism, and nothing more.
"Rumi".

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"If invited to offer prayers in a Church, a Mosque, a Synagogue, or a Hindu Temple, the Sufi is ready to do so, knowing that all people worship the same God, the Only Being, no matter what Name they use. Yet the Sufi's true House of Worship is the human heart, in which the Divine Beloved lives. Sufism is a religion for those who wish to learn religion from it, a philosophy for those wanting wisdom from it, a mystical path for any who would be guided by it to the unfolding of the Soul, and yet it is beyond all these things. It is the Light of Life, which is the sustenance of every soul."
'The teachings of Rumi'.

The soul that hasn't received
Peace and love from God,
What a helpless and lost soul that is!

With whom are you going to be in love?
Be thankful to God that your punishment
Came from temporary side of love.
But leave the temporary love,
Because real love is God's Love.

I merged so completely with Love, and
Was so fused, that I became Love
And Love became me.
That way, I was saved
From instigation, trials and tribulations.
Yes, with complete union,
Man becomes strange to himself.

Be a glass for the wine of Love,
In order to deserve the Beloved.
Be pure Soul,
Give your life with the Beloved's love.
A knot cannot be untied without Love.

Love is the light of nights.
For Love, play with your Soul.
If you have fallen into grief,
In the end, with the favor of God,
Whose compassion and justice cover the arch,
You will be helped and relieved.

What do you think about Love?
You haven't heard about Love, even from Lovers.
Love is neither a tale nor a game.
Love is such a torrent
That no one can stand in front of it.
Kings would give away their throne
For the smell of the Wine that Lovers drink
At the assembly of Heart.

Love is a light, exalted,
A secret river to be drunk,
Purified and flowing forever,
A fire burning, never extinguished.
Love goes together with suffering,
But it is the greatest.

Gamble everything for Love,
If you’re a true human being.
If not, leave this gathering.
Halfheartedness doesn’t reach into Majesty.
You set out to find God,
But then you keep stopping for long periods
At mean-spirited roadhouses!

Trust Love. Love is completely
A face and eyes turned this way, watching you.
There is nothing next to Love,
Except face and vision.
He doesn't have a shape,
But all His work is to make shapes and forms!

Those who don't feel this love
Pulling them like a river,
Those who don't drink dawn
Like a cup of spring water
Or take in sunset like supper,
Those who don't want to change,
Let them sleep!
This love is beyond the study of theology,
That old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your mind that way,
Sleep on!
I've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
And thrown it away.
If you're not completely naked,
Wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,
And go back to sleep!

For lovers, the only lecturer is
The beauty of the Beloved;
Their only book and lecture and lesson is:
The Face.
They are silent outwardly,
But their penetrating remembrance rises
To the high throne of their Friend.
Their only lesson is enthusiasm,
Whirling, and trembling,
Not the fine points of Jurisprudence!

Through love: Darkness becomes clear.
Through love: Bitter things become sweet.
Through love: Pain becomes the healing.
Through love: Dead becomes alive.
Love makes the sea boil like a kettle.
Love crumbles the mountain like a sand.
Love drills hundred holes in the sky.
Love trembles the earth like a quake.

Look at Love
How it tangles
With the one fallen in love.
Look at Spirit
How it fuses with earth
Giving it a new life.
Why are you so busy
With this or that or good or bad?
Pay attention to how things blend
Be like sugarcane sweet yet silent
Don't get mixed up with bitter words.

Love is the whole thing.
We are only pieces.
Love is the sea of no end.
We are a drop of it.
Without Love, even the stars
Are eclipsed, and extinguished.
Don't keep Love away from your Soul,
So that your good deeds may bear fruit,
And keep growing.

Fall in Love. Forget names and titles.
Leave the grains, leave the trap.
Name the stone 'gold.'
Name sugar 'grief and suffering.'
Reason is powerless in the expression of love.
Love alone is capable of revealing the Truth,
And being a lover.
The agony of lovers
Burns with the fire of the passion.
Lovers leave traces of where they've been.
The wailing of a lover's broken heart
Is the doorway to The Beloved.
If you want to live, die in love
Die in love if you want to remain alive.
Love has opened your heart
Start walking towards Love
Your legs will get heavy and tired
Then comes a moment of feeling:
The wings you've grown, lifting...
"Rumi".

"The essence of God is love and the Sufi Path is the path of love. Love is to see what is good and beautiful in everything. It is to learn from everything, to see the gifts of God and the generosity of God in everything. It is to be thankful for all of God's bounties. This is the first step on the road to the love of God. This is just a seed of love. In time, the seed will grow and become a tree and bear fruit. Then, whoever tastes of that fruit will know what real love is. It will be different for those who have tasted to tell of it to those who have not. When you find love, you will find yourself. When you have the knowledge of love, you will then feel peace in your heart. Stop searching here and there, the Jewels are inside you. This, my friends, is the holy meaning of love."
'The teachings of Rumi'.

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Quick glossary of Sufi terminology

Sufism
The mystical dimension of Islam or Islamic Mysticism. Sufism teaches the relationship between Man and God on the one hand, and Man and Man on the other, and the various mystical stages of Man's spiritual evolutions in his/her journey towards The Real in quest of everlasting union.

Sufi
A seeker, a dervish, a fakir, a qalandar, a lover, or a mystic. Sufi is the one who moves towards The Truth by means of love and devotion. Sufi believes that the only way to becoming perfect is by the purification of self.

The 4 stages of self-purification in Sufism:
1. Self becoming emptied
2. Self becoming illuminated
3. Self becoming adorned
4. Self-having-passed-away & in eternal union with The Real.

Murid: Novice student of Sufism, or the one who follows a "Pir" or a spiritual-guide.

Pir/Murshid/Shaykh: Spiritual- guide, or the Sufi teacher of traditional Sufi teacher-student relationships. Pir-0-Murshid or a spiritual-guide's presence is an inspiration to the spiritual development, maturity, and illumination of novice student of Sufism.

Salik: A wanderer or seeker of knowledge of Sufism who may follow many different teachers, seeking personal goals, and different states or levels of Spirituality in his/her journey toward The Truth.

Suluk: The Spiritual pathway of a Salik/seeker's inner and outer mystical journey in his/her quest for union with The Real.

Khanaqah/Zawiya/Tekke/Ribat: Meditation and prayer center for collective practice of Sufi spiritual disciplines. It's also the traditional lodging place for wandering Sufi dervishes and fakirs.

Zikr/Zekr: The Sufi practice of repetitious remembering of God. Zikr can be performed individually or collectively through recitation and silent meditation, or by the Sufi practices of chanting, dancing, and musical instruments playing rituals as a means of prayer and remembering of The Real. Sufis' Zikr ceremony is based on the following Quranic teaching: "Remember Me, and I shall remember You." Quran 2:152.

خود شناسی در عرفان

من عرف نفسه فقد عرف ربه
کسیکه خود را شناخت خدا را شناخت

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خود را بشناس تا شناسی حق را
حق را نشناخت هر که خودرا نشناخت
بنگر که چه یی و از کجا آمده یی
میدان که چه میکنی کجا خواهی رفت
حضرت پیر هرات خواجه عبدالله انصاری

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خالقا بیچاره راه تو ام
همچو موری تنگ درچاه تو ام
من نمیدانم که من اهل کیم
یا کجایم , یا کدامم , یا کیم?
شیخ فریدالدین عطار

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سودیم سراپا و به پایی نرسیدیم
ازخویش گزشتیم و بجایی نرسیدیم
آن بی پر و بالیم که در حسرت پرواز
گشتیم غبارو بهوایی نرسیدیم
حضرت ابوالمعانی بیدل

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دی شیخ شهر همی گشت گرد شهر
کز دیوو درد ملولم و انسانم آرزوست
گفتند یافت می نشود جسته ایم ما
گفت آنکه یافت می نشود آنم آرزوست
حضرت مولانا

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میان عاشق و معشوق هیچ حایل نیست
تو خود حجاب خودی حافظ از میان برخیز

ای خودستا بیرون کن پاازسرای هستی
تا چند از دنائت دربند خودپرستی
تاکی روی شتابان درپرتگاه پستی
هنگام تنگ دستی درعیش کوش ومستی
حضرت لسان الغیب حافظ شیرازی

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چه پرسی از کجایم چیستم من
بخود پیچیده ام تا زیستم من
زمن گو صوفیان با صفا را
خدا جویان معنی آشنا را
غلام همت آن خود پرستم
که بانور خودی بیند خدارا
علامه اقبال لاهوری
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مسافر چون بود، رهرو کدام است؟
که را گویم که او مرد تمام است؟
دگر گفتی مسافر کیست در راه
کسی کو شد ز اصل خویش آگاه
مسافـر آن بـود که بـگذرد زود
ز خود صافی شود چون آتش از دود
بـه عکـس سیر اول در منـازل
رود تا گردد او انسان کامل
شیخ محمود شبسترى
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اگر خواهی خودرا شناسی بدانکه الله تعالی ترا آفریده است از دو چیز: یکی کالبد ظاهر که آنرا تن گویند و بچشم ظاهر بتوان دید و دیگری معنی باطن که آنرانفس گویند و دل گویند و جان گویند و آنرا به بصیرت باطن توان شناخت و بچشم ظاهر نتوان دید.
شیخ احمد غزالی

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درین عبرت سرا عرفان ماهم تازگی دارد
سراپا مغز دانش گشتن و چیزی نفهمیدن!
حضرت بیدل

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هفت وادي (مرحله) عرفان
طلب، عشق، معرفت، استغناء، توحيد، حيرت، فنا

تصوف چيست؟
" تصوف دو چيز است، يک سو نگريستن و يکسان زيستن. و اين تصوف عزتيست در دل، و توانگريست در درويشي، و خداونديست در بندگي، سيري است در گرسنگي، و پوشيدگي است در برهنگي، و آزاديست در بندگي، و زندگاني است در مرگ، و شيريني است در تلخي.

تصوف مي گويد که انسان بايد در خدا بميرد و با او بسر برد. صوفي بايد مانند زمين پايمال شده و يا ابر پر باران باشد. تصوف يعني گسيختن ارتباط از هر چيزي که غير از خداست. قسمت دروني صوفي خدا، و قسمت بيروني او انسانيت است و در ميان مشايخ اين طايفه، اصلي بزرگ است که اين طايفه همگي يکي باشند و يکي همه - ميان جمله صوفيان عالم هيچ مضادت و مباينت و خود دوي در نباشد، هر که صوفي است، که صوفي نماي بي معني در اين داخل نباشد. و اگر چه در صور الفاظ مشايخ از راه عبارت تفاوتي نمايد، معاني همه يکي باشد. چون از راه معني در نگري،
" چون همه يکي اند، همه دست ها يکي بود و همه نظرها يکي بود

شيخ ابو سعيد ابوالخير

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گویند در خانه مولانا ستونی بود که چون او غرق محبت شدی دست در آن ستون زدی و به چرخ آمدی و اشعار پرشور گفتی و مردم آن اشعار می نوشتند..و جاذبه شور وسماع تمام وجود او را تسخیر کرده بود..مولانا و یاران مجالس وعظ را ترک کره و مجلس سماع بنیاد کردند و شور کنان و چرخ زنان از مسجد به کوی و بازار بیرون آمدند..
"
نقل از کتاب: پله پله تا ملاقات خدا-در باره زندگی, اندیشه و سلوک مولانا جلال الدین رومی. نویسنده:داکتر عبدالحسین زرین کوب

Who's a Turk and who's a Balkhi?
Who's a *Zangi and who's a Rumi?
Where did I come from?
Where did all this poetry come from?
Yet somehow,
These poems are breathed into me.
And all this poetry,
Is simply pouring out of me..
"Rumi".

*Rumi's mentiniong of 'Zangi' is in reference to the inhabitants of Zanzibar, the ancient Persian name for the entire East African Coast.

"What have I to do with poetry? By Allah, I care nothing for poetry, and there is nothing worse in my eyes than that. It has become incumbent upon me, as when a man plunges his hands into tripe and washes it out for the sake of a guest's appetite, because the guest's appetite is for tripe. I have studied many sciences and taken much pain, so that I may be able to offer fine and rare and precious things to the scholars and researchers, the clever ones and the deep thinkers who come to me. God most High Himself willed this. He gathered here all those sciences, and assembled here all those pains, so that I might be occupied with this work. What can I do? In my own country and amongst my own people there is no occupation more shameful than poetry. If I had remained in my own country, I would have lived in harmony with their temperament and would have practiced what they desired, such as lecturing and composing books, preaching and admonishing, observing abstinence and doing all the outward acts.."
Rumi in 'Fihi-Ma-Fihi/Discourses of Rumi'.

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Click on play & enjoy above poem's recitation in Farsi/Persian (recited beautifully by Ustad Behman Sharif)

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¿Qué puedo hacer, oh Musulmanes?,
Pues no me reconozco a mi mismo:
No soy Cristiano, ni Judío, ni Musulmán.
No soy del Este, ni del Oeste,
Ni de la tierra, ni del mar.
No soy de la mina de la Naturaleza,
Ni de los cielos giratorios.
No soy de la tierra, ni del agua,
Ni del aire, ni del fuego.
No soy del empíreo, ni del polvo,
Ni de la existencia, ni de la entidad.
No soy de este mundo, ni del próximo,
Ni del Paraíso, ni del Infierno.
Mi lugar es el sinlugar, mi señal es la sinseñal.
No tengo cuerpo ni alma,
Pues pertenezco al alma del Amado.
He desechado la dualidad,
He visto que los dos mundos son uno;
Uno busco, Uno conozco, Uno veo, Uno llamo.

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What do you suggest, O Muslims!
For I do not recognize myself:
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Zoroastrian, nor Muslim
I'm neither of the East nor of the West
I'm neither of the Sea nor of the Land
My place is the Place-less, my trace is the Trace-less
I'm neither body nor the soul,
Since I belong to the Soul of the Beloved
I have put duality aside,
I have found the two Worlds to be One:
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I invoke.

I tried to find Love on the Christian Cross,
but love was not there;
I went to the Kaaba in Mecca,
but love was not there either.
I went to to the old Synagogue
and the Temple of the Hindus,
but I could not find a trace of love anywhere.
I questioned the scholars and philosophers
but love was beyond their understanding!
I then looked into my heart and
it was there where love dwelled that I saw Love;
Love was no where else to be found.

“I” and “you” are the veil
between heaven and earth;
lift this veil and you will see
no longer the bonds of sects and creeds.
When “I” and “you” do not exist,
what is a Mosque? what is a Synagogue?
what is the Temple of Hindu? what's the Church of Christ?

The way of a lover is not among the religions,
the Church and the Mosque of a lover
is the Truth of Beloved.
Beloved is within you, and you seek here and there.
Don't look for Love,
look for the one looking for Love.
But why looking at all,
Love is not lost, love is right here,
closer than your own breath.
It's you who is the hurdle,
between Love and yourself.

Love is the one who masters all things
I'm totally mastered by love
My Mother is love
My Father is love
My Prophet is love
My God is love
I am a child of love
I have come only to speak of love .

Friends,
There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.

How long can you
beg and bargain
for material things of this world
while Love is waiting?

How long before
You can rise beyond
how I am and what I am?

Are you fleeing from Love
because of a single humiliation?

Friends, don’t be discouraged.
Compassion comes after trouble.
Don’t put on any dress but Love
Don’t cover yourself with any garment but Love.

Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
Imagine,
a suspended ocean,
riding on a cushion of ancient secrets.

When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated again.

Knock,
and Love will open the door.
Vanish,
and Love will make you shine like the sun.
Fall,
and Love will raise you to the heavens.
Become nothing,
and Love will turn you into everything.

Be drunk with Love,
for Love is all that exists.
Where is intimacy found
if not in the give and take of Love.

Friends,
If you could get rid
of yourself just once,
the secret of secrets
would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
hidden beyond the universe
would appear on the
mirror of your perception.

If you can distance yourself
from your selfish self,
all heavenly spirits
will stand ready to serve you.

If you can finally hunt down
your own beastly self,
you have the right
to claim Solomon's kingdom.

You are that blessed soul who
belongs to the garden of paradise
is it fair to let yourself
fall apart in a shattered house?

You are the bird of happiness
in the magic of existence
what a pity! why you let
yourself be chained and caged?

Break free!
from this dark prison named:
Material World.
soon you will see
you are the sage and fountain of life.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere
They're in each other all along.
Let your song of Love be heard!
This is the message of the mystics. "Rumi".

O my soul, where can I find rest
But in the shimmering love of his heart?
Where can I see the pure light of the Sun
But in the eyes of my own Shams-e Tabriz.
Rumi.

The Meeting of Two Oceans

"By all accounts, Rumi lived a grand and illustrious life-he was a respected teacher, a master of Sufi lore, the head of a university in the Anatolian capital city of Konya (in present-day Turkey). At the age of thirty-four he claimed hundreds of disciples, the king being one of them. And what is so remarkable and unforgettable about Rumi's life is that in one moment all this changed-the moment he met a wandering dervish named Shams-e Tabriz.

Rumi was riding on a mule through a square in the center of Konya. A crowd of eager students walked by his feet. Suddenly a strange figure dressed in black fur approached Rumi, grabbed hold of his mule's bridle, and said: "0 scholar of infinite knowledge, who was greater, Muhammad or Bayazid of Bestam?" This seemed like an absurd question since, in all of Islam, Muhammad was held supreme among all the prophets. Rumi replied, "How can you ask such a question?-No one can compare with Muhammad." "0 then," Shams asked, "why did Muhammad say, 'We have not known Thee, 0 God, as thou should be known,' whereas Bayazid said, 'Glory unto me! I know the full glory of God'?"

With this one simple question--and with the piercing gaze of Shams' eyes-Rumi's entire view of reality changed. The question was merely an excuse. Shams' imparting of an inner awakening is what shattered Rumi's world. The truths and assumptions upon which Rumi based his whole life crumbled..Shams represented the replacing of Rumi's book-learned knowledge (and his lofty regard for such knowledge) with divine knowledge and the direct experience of God..after Shams' question, Rumi entered a mystical state of ego annihilation that the Sufis call fana. When he regained consciousness, he looked at Shams with utter amazement, realizing that this was no ordinary dervish, but the Beloved himself in human form. From that moment on, Rumi's life was never again the same. Shams catalyzed a profound experience for Rumi that transformed him from a dry academic to a mystic drunk with God. Shams enabled Rumi to encounter the divine reality that Rumi yearned for but until then had only known second-hand..He took Shams to live in his home and the two men were inseparable; they spent hours a day together, sometimes isolating themselves for long periods to pray and fast in divine communion with God.

Rumi was totally lost in this new found love that his master revealed, and all his great attainments were blossoming through that love. Every day was a miracle, a new birth for Rumi's soul. He had found the Beloved, he had finally been shown the glory of his own soul.

Then, suddenly, eighteen months after Shams entered Rumi's life, he was gone. He returned some time later, for brief period, and then he was gone again forever. Some accounts say that Shams left in the middle of the night and that Rumi wandered in search of him for two years. (Perhaps a symbolic and romantic portrayal of the lover in search of his missing Beloved.) Other accounts report that Shams was murdered by Rumi's jealous disciples (symbolizing how one's desires and lower tendencies can destroy the thing held most dear).

Without Shams, Rumi found himself in a state of utter and incurable despair; and his whole life thereafter became one of longing and divine remembrance. Rumi's emptiness was that of a person who has just lost a husband or a wife, or a dear friend. Rumi's story shows us that the longing and emptiness we feel for a lost loved one is only a reflection, a hologram, of the longing we feel for God; it is the longing we feel to become whole again, the longing to return to the root from which we were cut. (Rumi uses the metaphor of a reed cut from a reed bed and then made into a flute-which becomes a symbol of a human separated from its source, the Beloved. And as the reed flute wails all day, telling about its separation from the reed bed, so Rumi wails all day telling about being separated from his Beloved.)

It was Shams' disappearance, however, that ignited the fire of longing within Rumi; and it was this very longing that brought him the glorious union with the Beloved. Years later Rumi wrote: "It is the burn of the heart that I want. It is this burning which is everything-more precious than a worldly empire-because it calls God secretly in the night.."

Divan-e Shams-by Rumi (in Persian edition by the foremost Persian scholar of Rumi who's universally recognized as the greatest Rumi expert, Late Professor Badiozaman Frouzanfar
مرحوم استاد بدیع‌الزمان فروزانفر
Masnavi-by Rumi (in Persian edition by the foremost Persian scholar of Rumi, Professor Badiozaman Frouzanfar).
خط سوم / The Third Script(The life, thoughts, and sayings of Shams Tabrizi)-in Persian by the extraordinary Persian scholar of Shams Tabrizi, Saheb-Zamani-استاد ناصرالدين صاحب زمانی
The Value of Sufi Legacy-ارزش ميراث صوفيه (in Persian by one of the most imminent Persian scholars of Rumi & Sufism, Dr. AdbolHossein Zarinkoob-استاد عبدالحسين زرين‌کوب
Divan-e Hafiz -by Hafiz Shirazi (in Persian).
Divan-e Baydel-by Hazrat Baydel Dehlavi (in Persian).
کشف‌المحجوب-Kashf Al-Mahjub (Unveiling the Veiled)-in Persian by Ali Hujwiri (better known as Data GanjBakhshحضرت داتا گنج بخش).
Tabaqat Al-Sufia(Biographical layers of the Sufi Masters)-in Persian by Abdullah Ansariحضرت خواجه عبدالله انصاری
The Essential Rumi- by Coleman Barks.
Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing-by Coleman Barks.
The Alchemist- by Paulo Coelho.
Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way-by Idris Shah.
The Sufis-by Idris Shah.
Tales of the Dervishes-by Idris Shah.
Sufis, the People of the Path-by Osho.
The Perfect Master-by Osho.
The Wisdom of the Sands-by Osho
Mojud: The Man with the Inexplicable Life-by Osho.
Journey to the Heart: Discourses on the Sufi Way-by Osho.
Sufism: A Beginner's Guide-by William C. Chittick.
The Shambhala Guide to Sufism-by Carl W.Ernst.
The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaludin Rumi-by Annemarie Schimmel.
The life and Work of Jalal-ud-din Rumi - By Afzal Ikbal.
Mystical Dimensions of Islam--by Annemarie Schimmel.
The Mystics of Islam-by R.A.Nicholson.
Rumi's World : The Life and Works of the Greatest Sufi Poet-by Annemarie Schimmel.
Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam-by Annemarie Schimmel.
Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr by Louis Massignon.
The Sufi Message-by Hazrat Inayat Khan.
The Labyrinth of Solitude-by Octavio Paz.
One Hundred Years of Solitude-by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair-by Pablo Neruda.
The Labyrinth-by Jorge Luis Borges.
Andamios/ Scaffoldings-by Mario Benedetti.
Essay on Blindness-by Jose Saramago.
Conversation in the Cathedral-by Mario Vargas Llosa.
The Crystal Frontier-by Carlos Fuentes.
Don Quixote De La Mancha- by Miguel De Cervantes.
Compañero(The life and death of Che Guevara)-by Jorge Castañeda.
Emiliano Zapata: el amor a la tierra-by Enrique Krauze.
Solidades-by Antonio Machado.
Blood Wedding-by Federico Garcia Lorca.
Versos Sencillos-by Jose Marti.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra-by Nietzsche.
An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy, Roger Scruton.
History of Islamic Philosophy- by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman.
The Middle East-by Bernard Lewis.
Fragmentation of Afghanistan-by Barnett R. Rubin.
Afghanistan in the Past Five Centuries-by MM Sediq Farhang (in Persian/Farsi).
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and the Fundamentalism in Central Asia-by Ahmed Rashid.
Tournament Of Shadows: The Great Game And The Race For Empire In Central Asia-by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac.
The Kite Runner- by Khaled Husseini.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by by Khaled Husseini.

"La literatura es fuego", fragmento del discurso de Mario Vargas Llosa:

"Las mismas sociedades que exilaron y rechazaron al escritor, pueden pensar ahora que conviene asimilarlo, integrarlo, conferirle una especie de estatuto oficial. Es preciso, por eso, recordar a nuestras sociedades lo que les espera. Advertirles que la literatura es fuego, que ella significa inconformismo y rebelión, que la razón del ser del escritor es la protesta, la contradicción y la crítica.Las cosas son así y no hay escapatoria: el escritor ha sido, es y seguirá siendo un descontento. Nadie que esté satisfecho es capaz de escribir, nadie que esté de acuerdo, reconciliado con la realidad, cometería el ambicioso desatino de inventar realidades verbales. La vocación literaria nace del desacuerdo de un hombre con el mundo, de la intuición de deficiencias, vacíos y escorias a su alrededor. La literatura es una forma de insurrección permanente y ella no admite las camisas de fuerza. Todas las tentativas destinadas a doblegar su naturaleza airada, díscola, fracasarán..."

Who am I?
By the great Spanish poet, Rafael Alberti

What am I but
Soundless voice from across the plain?
A frightened thought in the mind
like silence on a silent wind.

Who am I weeping? What do I want?
What dies with such distant moans
That tears the very bones
From my flesh with its hushed lament?

In my teeth is
The icy word's taste
On my dead tongue
Is the terror stilled
And in my breast
The pulsing has ceased.

The skin of the bull is bloodied,
The seas flow with tears that are dried
And those who once called me
Have now departed...

***************

A veces, estoy desvelado y me pregunto:
¿Quién soy? O incluso ¿qué soy? ¿qué estoy haciendo?
Y pienso en el tiempo que transcurre...

El gran escritor y poeta Argentino, Jorge Luis Borges.

Rumi Online

Sunday, April 25, 2010

American Institute of Masnavi Studies

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