Rumi: Poet of the Heart Page #3

of being separated."

"Since I was cut from the reed bed I

have made this crying sound."

"Anyone apart from someone she loves

understands what I've said."

"Anyone pulled from the source longs

to go back."

Rumi, the dominant note in his

poetry...

is of course, longing.

The longing of the soul for the

the divine.

His favorite image for this was

the reed flute.

That flute is noted for the plaintive

sound that it makes.

And the reed was played on by

human beings...

but the reed was once in the mud

of the river bottom.

Then it was pulled out.

So it carries with it the grief of having

once been in the river bottom..

and now it's just in the air.

And he said all of us were once in the

Mother God...

we have now been pulled out.

So every time someone plays, or does

any poem...

it'll always have in it that grief of

having lost the mud...

of the river bed god.

"A craftsman pulled a reed from

the reed bed."

"Cut holes in it and called it a human being."

"Since then it's been wailing a tender

agony of parting."

"Never mentioning the skill that gave it

life as a flute."

Boy that changes the whole idea of

being a victim in the world.

It changes the entire suggestion of what

the lament of being alive is about.

"The tender agony of parting."

We live parting from something.

That's great.

Then he says the reed can't make the

noise, can't make the reed music...

Can't make the flute music, until it is

plucked from the reed bed.

And carved with nine wholes, like

the human body.

And then it can make language, when

it's separated.

Therefore language, is a proof that

we're separated.

The fact that we use language, is uh...

is part of our nostalgia for union.

Every soul has their own broken heart...

because if the soul is not united,

it's the essence of it...

of itself of course has broken heart.

Love is the goal of all other goals,

you know.

Some time ago I read some Nobel

laureate won the prize...

and he said:
"This is a consolation

prize, I was looking for love. "

"In the early morning hour, just before dawn,"

"lover and beloved wake and take

a drink of water."

"She asks..."

"Do you love me or yourself more?"

"Really... tell the absolute truth."

"He says..."

"there's nothing left of me."

"I'm like a ruby, held up to

the sunrise."

"Is it still a stone..."

"or a world made of redness."

"It has no resistance, to sunlight."

"This is how Hallaj said I am God

and told the truth".

"The ruby and the sunrise are one".

"Be courageous and discipline yourself".

"Completely become, hearing... and ear,"

"and wear this sun-ruby as an earring."

"Work. Keep digging your well."

"Dont think about getting off from work."

"Water is there somewhere."

"Submit to a daily practice."

"Your loyalty to that

is a ring on the door."

"Keep knocking, and the joy inside..."

"will eventually open a window"

"and look out to see whos there."

"At the time of night prayer as the sun slides down,"

"the route the senses walk on closes,

the route to the invisible opens."

"The angel of sleep then gathers and

drives along the spirits,"

"just as the mountain keeper gathers his

sheep on the slope."

"And what amazing sights he offers to

the descending sheep."

"Cities with sparkling streets, hyacinth

gardens, emerald pastures."

"The spirit sees astounding beings,

turtles turned to men,"

"men turned to angels, when sleep

erases the banal."

"I think one could say the spirit goes

back to its old home;"

"it no longer remembers where it lives,

and it loses its fatigue."

"It carries around in life so many

griefs and loads"

"and trembles under their weight."

"They are gone. And it's all well."

They're gone and it's all well.

So that's lovely.

In the Sufi order, the one that was generated

by Rumi, the Mevlevi order...

their distinctive ritual is a circling

motion which has caused...

those Sufi's to be called the

"Whirling Dervishes".

It comes from Rumi himself who

found himself drawn to...

circle pillars in his mosque.

He would cup his hand around

the pillar...

and leaned back and found the best

motion...

for some... who knows what the

symbolism is...

maybe planets circling the sun...

would just release a torrent

of ecstatic poetry.

And much of his poetry just came

spilling out of him in that motion.

Now that took hold and his followers

developed...

a similar ritual of circling...

in their case their Sheik, rather than

a poem.

"A secret turning in us

makes the universe turn."

"Head unaware of feet,

and feet head."

"Neither cares. They keep turning."

"A secret turning in us

makes the universe turn."

It's an image of surrender and

discipline, at the same time.

If you've seen it done, you see

that. They go...

and then they just open flower out

but they... and they never fall.

They're always in total synchrony.

They know where they are.

They're in concert with the

galaxies and the molecules...

and all these things that go like this.

That's what I always loved about the Sufis.

They say that the great world is inside.

This world, that looks so huge and

magnificent, is the microcosm.

The macrocosm is our inner life.

It just reverses science.

Or maybe the new science is saying

something like that.

That the inner world is the giant place.

And the outside world that we see...

is the language that we use to

speak of the inner.

If you look deeply enough actually,

into the heart of science itself...

we might discover that what Rumi and

other great seers and sages...

and the wisdom traditions were saying,

was actually true.

At the heart of creation there

is only love.

That ultimately even our material

success comes...

from the ability to love and

have compassion.

Comes from the capacity to experience

joy and ecstasy and share it with others.

"Inside water, a waterwheel turns."

"A star circulates with the moon."

"We live in the night ocean wondering,"

"What are these lights?"

"I am so small I can barely be seen."

"How can this great love be inside me?"

"Look at your eyes."

"They are small,"

"but they see enormous things."

Rumi says "On Resurrection Day your

body testifies against you."

"Your hand says, I stole money.

Your lips, I said meanness."

"Your feet, I went where I shouldn't.

Your genitals, me too."

"These voices will make your

praying sound hypocritical."

"So let the body's doings speak openly now,

without your saying a word"

"as a student walking behind a teacher

says,"

"This one knows more clearly

than I the way."

That's the amazing thing at the end

that your body in certain ways...

knows your way to the spirit better

than your mind does.

And the body forgives.

Rumi gives the way to live better,

to love more.

To be more comfortable in this world.

That you have a lot of difficulties

for everything.

But with Rumi, you feel more safe.

You love it. You see the world

in other ways.

With love. It opens your eyes.

Ready? Okay.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote