Two Poems by Rumi

by Robert Wilkinson

I felt that these two poems could sum up a lot of what many are going through now and in the near future, since the first deals with "unveiling" and the second is one of my long time favorites, being Rumi's comment on "spiritual windowshoppers." Many of you will note my affection for the last lines of that one. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do, since there is great wisdom to be found in every line. And of course, I'll be back with more Mercury Retrograde, Year of the Rat, and Spiritual Astrology articles as soon as I can catch up on my correspondence.

A clarification - in "Heartache," I don't endorse seeking it out, but if you are confronted by it, take heart, since the Beloved is at the gate! When we can laugh at heartache, we are truly closer to the Truth than we may think. This is one method to get beyond our tendency to cling to our suffering.

Heartache

Learn from the Prophet an alchemy: Whatever God gives you, be content.

At the very moment you become content in affliction, the door of paradise will open.

If the messenger of heartache comes to you, embrace him like a friend!

A cruelty that comes from the Beloved -- bestow upon it a warm welcome!

Then that heartache can throw off its veil, rain down sugar, and be gentle and heart-ravishing.

Seize the edge of heartache's veil, for she is beautiful but deceptive.

In this lane, I am the whoremonger, I -- I have pulled off the veil from every beautiful face.

They all put on ugly veils so that you will think they are dragons.

But I am fed up with my spirit -- I worship dragons! If you are fed up with your spirit, then hear their calls of welcome!

Heartache can never find me without laughter -- I call the pain the "cure."

Nothing is more blessed than heartache, for its reward has no end.

If you do not show your manliness, you will find nothing. I will be silent, lest a mistake jump from my mouth.

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Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi, poem 2675, from W. C. Chittick, "The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi," (State University of New York Press, 1983), pp. 293-4.

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

Spiritual Windowshoppers

These spiritual windowshoppers,

who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking.

They handle a hundred items and put them down,

shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love, and two eyes wet with weeping.

But these walk into a shop,

and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,

in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."

What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,

buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.

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

By Jalaluddin Rumi, from the Divani Shamsi Tabrizi, version by Coleman Barks, From "Rumi: Like This"

© Copyright 2008 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[kiwa]

beautiful, Robert....thanks so much.
heartache has been a constant companion these days, just watching and feeling where humans
are headed. i have been resisting, and it has been painful.
last night, with Mercury retrograde conjunct Neptune, both opposing my Pluto
some kind of redemptive dream process started that i can't even explain.
but this "Heartache" poem does.
many blessings
kit

[donna323]

I love these poems ... both of these. Thank you.

[Shelley]

I really needed that today, domo arigato, Robert-san (been watching too much Shogun, lately- LOL)!

Much, much heartache after the last few years. I wonder sometimes if that is a requirement of having a Scorpio Moon? I hope not. Definitely lets me know that I'm alive...

Love that last line of "Windowshoppers", like one of my favorite quotes, "What other people think of me is none of my business". ;)

Have a great day in your neck of the woods,
Shelley

[Lyzette]

Hi Robert, I've read both poems. Although I truly understand the meanings in both and understand the writers' perspective of embracing "all" things as perhaps spiritual gifts in disguise, I still find no comfort in reading, nor comfort in mere words as an antidote/answer to pain. I've spent most of my life living by the "Heartache" principle because that was the only sanctity I had to get me through, now, at middle age I find words can be as empty as ever. In the words of songstress Phoebe Snow's song entitled "Give Me Something Real" I feel just like that -- I desire something more than abstract thinking to heal my wounds. I don't know Robert, perhaps this is my Scorpio rising talking or Mercury Retro kickin in.

[Mary]

The two poems were powerful to me. I have heard excerpts before but not as much as was printed here. The truth lies in there and blends with my heart today. Thanks again.

[Felita]

Dear Robert and others, Beautiful poems, so truthful and revealing of joy released through a surrendering to god and not restricting the release of pain. Last week I quickly wrote this "everyone protects themselves from eveyone else, we escape from our cocoons momentarily when we recognise our god self within another, a connection of soul, yet most do not trust themselves enough to allow the connections to continue,gone like the winds they fly out of themselves and in again. Found something I wrote in a card when I was six years old. "Our father who arent in heaven,Hello be his name, Thy kingdom come,They will be down on earth and up in heaven" Out of the mouths of babes,I like this version better.
Two things I constantly say to myself, qoutes from a great yogi "If they praise me or they criticise me how can that change me" and " I have much humility. I do not have to prove myself to anyone"

I think it is difficult as people often say something yet they are thinking and feeling something completely different and the watery. sensitive people know this,as we have all become more sensitive with the evolving of the human race, it is overwhelming for some intuitives as there is so much contradiction. I used to allocate my day off as crying day, so I could clear the debri of accumulated pain in the world, what I had absorbed and recognised inside myself. I think tears are necessary to absolutely eveyone.Mind you, you can laugh a whole lot harder once the veil of pain is removed through purging. The world is enveloped in rainbows of hope and love,and I am Grateful. Aum Shanti Felita Peace be with you all.

[Micheline]

Hi, Robert, Rumi is one of my favourites!!! I have a friend here in Tokyo who is Iranian Kurdish and plays the nhey (the persian or arabic flute) and he puts on Sufi events from time to time. They are the most wonderful events.

I feel the second poem is true. There are many spiritual windowshoppers.

Not that I am judging. I also see many people who are not mere spiritual shoppers but also dive deep into the depths. There are many people on different paths. Thanks

[Robert]

Hi Kit - You're welcome. I've also known phenomenal heartbreak in my life, and it seems to be a human inevitability so we can grow into a greater compassion for ourselves and each other. I also have found that resisting the experience of pain gets us nowhere except more hurt. Pain teaches us to break the link between pain and suffering, since life is usually born and dies in pain, but we do not have to cling to suffering. Too much grief is not good for us, but learning how to grieve appropriately liberates our Divinity and truly helps us redeem our humanity.

Hi donna323 - You're most welcome. I had a hunch they might shed light on what many are experiencing.

Hi Shelley - Scorpio Moon feels more intensely than Moon in other signs. The trick is to learn not to go where you don't need to emotionally, while letting the feelings flow toward a greater appreciation of the process of self-purification. I know an amazing life coach and corporate consultant who has Moon in Scorpio who gets to the heart of what's blocked in a second and offers what needs elimination and what needs regeneration.

Hi Lyzette - Remember that Rumi lived in such harsh conditions that even speaking the wrong word at the wrong time could get your arms and legs chopped off and you could be hanged upside down on a cross by the religious police. Whether we live in brutal conditions or are merely dealing with sorrow arising from our losses, we must learn to make peace with our pain. The Baha'is in Iran recently rounded up and thrown into dungeons are learning that as we speak, as are the human rights prisoners in Chinese gulags. Words can feel empty in our pain, but our experience of embracing the Eternal in all things 24/7 can help us transcend suffering. I found in my own grief work that we ALL have extreme wounds to heal, each has their own way to do it, and all true healing leads us into the heart of compassion for ourselves and others as human beings in an impermanent reality.

Hi Mary - I am glad to be able to offer them to your heart and the hearts of all those who feel pain and wish to be more than "spiritual windowshoppers."

Hi Felita - Through embracing the pain, we overcome the suffering that avoidance brings and learn to transmute our sorrow into heart strength. Truly, the recognition of our "God Self" helps us recognize it in others. Love the variation on "the Lord's Prayer." And yes, many people do criticize what they don't understand or approve of. I also feel that intuitives have it tough, since they're feeling what IS whether others in the feeling-field are generating pollution or not. Taking a "psychic shower" from time to time is absolutely necessary as we walk through the emotional and mental pollution that prevails in our world. Sometimes laughing at the absurdity of the suffering of the separate self is truly therapeutic when it arises spontaneously.

Hi Micheline - The Sufi path is wonderful. Yes, there ARE "spiritual windowshoppers," those who examine a hundred things, events, and philosophies but never see the value in them, or those who see only the world of the 5 senses and the mind but are afraid to experience the God Self within themselves and others. We all judge, or we could not even eat or think a thought. Judging is the mind's way of contrasting and comparing to learn the virtue of Divine Discrimination, knowing the more valuable from the less, the more important from the less. And yes, there are many roads to Truth.

[AceStar]

hi Robert! beautiful poems brother :)
like you said "I found in my own grief work that we ALL have extreme wounds to heal, each has their own way to do it, and all true healing leads us into the heart of compassion for ourselves and others as human beings in an impermanent reality." lovely said!

take care Robert :)
good luck

Love

[Robert]

Hi Acestar - I thought you'd like these. And yes, the heart of compassion is the only place to live. Am taking care by taking it easier than usual. And of course, best of luck to you, my friend.

[Micheline]

Hi Rober I agree but I find when I dont judge i am more tolerant I meant the judging of others as opposed to comparing my own views with others, just superficial critical kind of judging is what i meant
tolerance for me means no judging and comparing other people to my high standards
it does not mean giving up my value system or letting go of what i feel or think is true and virtous
i just dont think we can compare oranges to apples is more what i mean
thanks for answering and taking the time out i know you must be super busy and i feel a wonderful lovely connection you are truly really helping people by this connection

[giverny]

Dear Robert...love these poems...Rumi always soothes my soul...being a frequent visitor to heartache, I discovered Rumi many moons ago and the sufi path has helped me be content with affliction but am not sure that the doors of paradise have yet opened but they are ajar...so have more work to do there...once read a great book on the sufi way 'The Last Barrier' by Reshad Field....just love the concepts of surrender and that when we truly surrender new galaxies are formed from that pure love of god life and all that is.....thanks many times ....more Rumi anytime...love giverny

[Robert]

Hi giverny - Welcome back. Glad you enjoyed Rumi. Sometimes I also fall short of the ideal of greeting sorrow with ecstasy, but I have learned to cultivate a positive attitude, which I suppose is at least part way to the goal. Am definitely surrendering to Divine Mother energies as fast as I can! I like the part about "new galaxies are formed from that pure love of god life and all that is." Great view.

[giverny]

Thanks Robert...have only library access to the computer at present...so am missing this site and all that is discussed here....food for the soul....knew you would love the above concept...giverny.

[Robert]

Hi giverny - Well, may you have 24/7 access as soon as possible.

[Dina]

Rumi writes some of his best in his letters to his lover. My mother told me when I was young and playing blues guitar that I was like Rumi. I sang and played the best when I was aware of my own pain.

[Robert]

HI Dina - You know of course that Rumi's lover was Allah, just as when he wrote of intoxication, it is the ecstasy of communing with God. Do you still perform? If so, awareness of the pleasure/pain dyad is what drives an artist, ruled by the 4th Ray, to authentic self expression which moves others in deep ways. My own pain and striving created many songs many years ago as well. "Harmony Through Friction" is a powerful force when focused creatively.