“Look into your own eye, and make no
mistake,
So that essence of seer and seen
become one.
On whatever side you gaze, you shall
see my form,
Whether you gaze upon self, or the
mass that is visible.
Shun distorted vision and heal your
sight,
For the evil eye will be distant from
my beauty in that moment.
Beware, lest in error you see me in
human form,
For the spirit is extremely subtle,
Love is jealous.
What room is there for form, if what
is felt extends beyond?
The soul's mirror reflects light that
illuminates the world.”
(Rumi's Divan of
Shams of Tabriz--A new interpretation by
James Cowan. Element
Classics of World Spirituality, P.101)
If you are familiar with the works
of Molana Jalaluddin Rumi, and revere him for the beautiful poetry he has written
about and dedicated to his teacher and beloved master, Shams of Tabriz, then you are in the right place...read on!
Through
out most of his adult life, Rumi wrote approximately 3,500 odes and 2,000
quatrains about love. Basically, from
the time he met Shams and was touched by his presence, he dedicated the rest of
his life to writing and teaching about love.
Rumi not only knew and wrote about
love, he experienced it so profoundly that he believed this burning rapture
would eventually consume him and make him vanish from this world. Those of us
who are also preoccupied with the idea or the experience of love go through
life having a certain concept of it. Many of us search for it and never seem to
find it. Some find it only to watch it flee from them. Others choose to only
contemplate and dream about it because they believe it is not a tangible object
to have or to hold. But was this magnificent out pour of love purely for another
individual, namely his teacher, or was there something else happening within
Rumi?
In most of his teachings, Rumi
discusses the love between the Lover and the Beloved and the unification of the
two. He has dedicated most of his poetry describing the journey these two take
in order to find one another and the final out pour of love that flows and
flourishes once these two unite. There is countless number of references to
either the Lover seeking the Beloved or the Beloved seeking the Lover and when
the two unite, there is ultimate oneness, and completion of being.
While this dance between the Lover and
the Beloved is more directed at the union of spirit and matter, it can also be
felt between two individuals. For Rumi, Shams was the catalyst responsible for
taking Rumi to the depths of his heart and enabling him to discover God or the
Divine within himself.
Many of us have the false notion that
this kind of love is to be found only between two individuals. There fore, we
often spend most of our life time being fixated on finding it in someone else
and often think that we failed if we did not encounter it along our life
journey. This type of love is referred to as "romantic love," where
as the more rapturous and intoxicating love is what Rumi referred to as
"Divine Love."
Divine Love is created through the
process of Alchemy. Alchemy dates back to ancient times. It was a science of
turning base materials such as lead and copper into more precious substances
such as gold and silver. Rumi and other Sufi masters would apply this science
to the purification of their own heart and mind. They would spend years
studying, praying and meditating with a teacher or a master who would gradually
teach them how to turn all their basic human emotions, such as, bitterness,
hatred, jealousy, pain and suffering into more pure and refined states or
(Haal). The natural outcome of this work would be the kind of ecstatic or
intoxicating love Rumi and other masters experienced.
While "romantic love" is
usually short lived and is always dependent on another individual to provide the
feelings within us, "Divine Love," is felt from within the self. It
is experienced at any time regardless of one’s outward circumstances in life. In
other words, even during the most difficult or trying times, one can be in
touch with this inner joy. At the same time, however, once this "Divine Love"
is obtained and the individual has become more whole, the chances of creating a
more loving and healthy relationship with another person becomes even more
likely.
My blog posts are going to address this process of alchemy to finding inner love that may also translate to outer or romantic love. I feel that there are so many misconceptions about what makes relationships thrive these days that people are often so lost. When they find their way to me, there is a deep sadness that people talk about when addressing their inability to find true love.
I am dedicating these blogs to all of you out there in search of love. It is my hope to inspire you to find the alchemist within you, who will become the director in helping you find your Shams in this lifetime.
Ellie Zarrabian, Ph.D.
No comments:
Post a Comment