Rumi — Transformation
This is post 4 of 4 in the series “Rumi Poems”
Rumi’s Poetry as a Way Inside
Ways of Transformation — using yourself up is today’s theme — but in a good way! It’s all about tearing down what isn’t working, and replacing it with what does
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Back to Ontario for a monta and a bit. Then… Costa Rica!
Many moons ago, I wrote a series of articles featuring some of Rumi’s poems. I think it’s time for a revisit.
Jelaluddin Rumi lived during the 13th century. He was a theologian with his own divinity school. At age 37, through a relationship with a dervish monk, Shams, Rumi began to transform his being, and in the process, to write some of the most beautiful mystical poetry ever written. For the next several weeks, we’ll reflect on some of his poems.
I’m using a translation from the book The Illuminated Rumi.
We Know What to Do
Can you endure silence? Are you a night fighter?
Or more a child bored with outgrown toys
trying to win at tip-the-cat?
If you have any patience left, we know what to do.
If you love sleep, we’ll tear you away.
If you change into a mountain, we’ll melt you.
If you become an ocean, we’ll drain you.
Rumi
Here’s a quote from American writer Jack London:
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me a significant glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not spend my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
– Jack London
Time to wake up…I trust you’re noticing that Rumi is an action oriented guy. As, apparently, was Jack London.
In the Rumi quote, there’s a world-view that says, “No matter what you are doing, if you are stuck there, that’s the same as giving up.” The person who is stuck in endless self-exploration is just as stuck as the person who never explores at all.
It’s amazing how many people are deluding themselves. They do workshops, therapy, whatever, read books… and that is it. It’s like being on a treadmill and confusing it with actually going someplace. It’s like studying the package directions until you know them by heart, but then you’re too tired to cook the meal.
We think that we have all the time in the world to become… well… useful. Or, we have a vision, (complete or fragmented) of whom we might be and what contribution we might make, but we creep up on it over years, and somehow our path seems to elude us… to always be “just one more step ahead.”
We create all kinds of reasons and justifications for taking our time.
No money. No time. Too busy working on what we hate, too busy doing what doesn’t work. Too scared. Or the infamous, “What if I don’t like the new version of me?”
All of these things are excuses. And Rumi’s prescription is to destroy the excuse.
If you prefer sleep, we’ll tear you away from your dozing.
If you solidify and lock down and refuse to budge, we’ll melt your resistance.
If you become so insubstantial and fluid that no one can get anywhere near you, we’ll drain you of your pretense, and leave you stripped and bare, seemingly as dry as ashes.
And from there, from the place where resistance is past, we will begin again.
Begin what? To live.
Look at the London quote. Read it a couple of times. He wants us to make something extraordinary happen. Which, to me, begs the question — given the unique nature of each of us, and given the unique skill set of each of us, how is it that we need to be reminded to be unique?
Because for many, that’s what it takes. Re-minding. (Having a new mind in place of the old one. Figuratively, of course… although for a couple of people I know…
