Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.
Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
Who is this whirling dervish of a poet? Where is he from? What did he write about? Why is he the most read Middle Eastern poet in the Western World?
Rūmī was born in Khorasan which was a Persian entity that is now in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan. He spoke Farsi, the tongue of the Persians. The center for modern day Persia is Iran though that culture is most closely associated with Rūmī. However he more belongs to the world. With his main influence being in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, and parts of Iraq.
Rumi’s religion/philosophy was Sufism, which is an offshoot of Islam with a focus on mysticism or the metaphysical, the connection of the movements of the body with the spirit. The unseen forces that effect you daily and the letting go of the spirit to be free. It can best be experienced in Qawwali music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan from Pakistan. The letting go of the spirit, the whirling dervish. The spiritual ecstasy of Prince. That’s Sufism in the Muslim world, that’s Rumi.
In case you are interested below. Rūmī and his writing and philosophy…. a good thing.
Shahram Shiva asserts that “Rumi is able to verbalise the highly personal and often confusing world of personal growth and development in a very clear and direct fashion. He does not offend anyone, and he includes everyone…. Today Rumi’s poems can be heard in churches, synagogues, Zen monasteries, as well as in the downtown New York art/performance/music scene.”
To many modern Westerners, his teachings are one of the best introductions to the philosophy and practice of Sufism. In the West Shahram Shiva has been teaching, performing and sharing the translations of the poetry of Rumi for nearly twenty years and has been instrumental in spreading Rumi’s legacy in the English-speaking parts of the world.
According to Professor Majid M. Naini,[88] “Rumi’s life and transformation provide true testimony and proof that people of all religions and backgrounds can live together in peace and harmony. Rumi’s visions, words, and life teach us how to reach inner peace and happiness so we can finally stop the continual stream of hostility and hatred and achieve true global peace and harmony.”
Rumi’s work has been translated into many of the world’s languages, including Russian, German, Urdu, Turkish, Arabic, Bengali, French, Italian, and Spanish, and is being presented in a growing number of formats, including concerts, workshops, readings, dance performances, and other artistic creations.[89] The English interpretations of Rumi’s poetry by Coleman Barks have sold more than half a million copies worldwide,[90] and Rumi is one of the most widely read poets in the United States.[91] Shahram Shiva book “Rending the Veil: Literal and Poetic Translations of Rumi” (1995, HOHM Press) is the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award.
Recordings of Rumi poems have made it to the USA’s Billboard’s Top 20 list. A selection of American author Deepak Chopra’s editing of the translations by Fereydoun Kia of Rumi’s love poems has been performed by Hollywood personalities such as Madonna, Goldie Hawn, Philip Glass and Demi Moore.
Rumi and his mausoleum on the reverse of the 5000 Turkish lira banknotes of 1981–1994
Rumi and his mausoleum were depicted on the reverse of the 5000 Turkish lira banknotes of 1981–1994.[92]
There is a famous landmark in Northern India, known as Rumi Gate, situated in Lucknow (the capital of Uttar Pradesh) named for Rumi.
Iranian world
پارسی گو گرچه تازی خوشتر است — عشق را خود صد زبان دیگر است
Say it in Persian although in Arabic sounds better—Love, however, has its own many other dialects
These cultural, historical and linguistic ties between Rumi and Iran have made Rumi an iconic Iranian poet, and some of the most important Rumi scholars including Foruzanfar, Naini, Sabzewari, etc., have come from modern Iran.[93] Rumi’s poetry is displayed on the walls of many cities across Iran, sung in Persian music,[93] and read in school books.[94]
Rumi’s poetry forms the basis of much classical Iranian and Afghan music.[95][96] Contemporary classical interpretations of his poetry are made by Muhammad Reza Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri, Davood Azad (the three from Iran) and Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti (Afghanistan).
ZandMe's 999 Good Things 