Rumi: 1207 — 2007
December 8th, 2007 by Pete
The great Sufi poet and teacher, Jalaludin, Rumi was born on Sept. 30, 1207 in Balkh in modern Afganistan; he died on Dec. 17, 1273 in Konya, Turkey, where he is commonly known as, Mevlana. UNESCO designated 2007, the 800th anniversary of his birth, the international year of
Rumi.
A brilliant mystic, theologian, and one of Persia’s greatest poets, he was also a Sufi Master who gave spiritual instruction to several hundered disciples. A great number of these were transcribed and survive today amidst his vast body of works. A collection of Rumi’s poetry is available from Gurukula. Here are just couple of his observations:
Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it’s a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame’s core.
The ground’s generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty!. Try to be more like the ground.
The universe and the light of the stars come through me.
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
Like a thief (Divine) insight stole silently in and sat amongst the devotees eager to give them advice. They were unwilling to listen, so insight kissed their feet and went on its way.
If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?
If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me.. For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.
Sufi teaching and counselling is available in Sydney, Australia, from Sheikha Fleur Bonnin, who is originally from Persia (Iran).
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Awakening, Our World, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:47 am
university of california tv has produced a nice video featuring rumi’s poetry. you can catch it on dish networks, uctv ch. 9412 or streaming realmedia at http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/7600.rm
here’s the promotional blurb:
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RUMI AND THE PLAY OF POETRY
Noted translator and poet Coleman Barks, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the UCSB College of Creative Studies, presents the poetry of 13th century Afghan-born Sufi mystic and poet, Jelaluddin Rumi. Bark’s intense and artful translations convey Rumi’s insights into the human heart and its longing for passion and daring. Barks performs the words of Rumi, accompanied by musicians Barry and Shelly Phillips.
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enjoy!