Spiritual Genius

 If you are seeking, seek us with joy

    For we live in the kingdom of joy.

    Do not give your heart to anything else

    But to the love of those who are clear joy,

    Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.

    For there are hopes: they are real, they exist –

    Do not go in the direction of darkness –

    I tell you: suns exist.

    - Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

Several years ago, I was taking a yoga class from Nancy Long, Yoga Teacher Extraordinare, who introduced her students to numerous poets, one of such was Rumi.  I loved him immediately. 

Jalal-ud-Din Rumi lived to be 66 years old, passing on December 17, 1273.  He was a great Sufi mystic and poet spending his life in Turkey.  Now 700 years later, Rumi is recognized in the West as easily as in the East.  According to Andrew Harvey, "Rumi is being recognized as the unique spiritual genious he is, as someone who is fused at the highest level and with the greatest possible intensity the intellect of a Plato, the vision, passion and soul-force of a Christ or Buddhas, and the extraordinary literary gifts of a Shakespeare."

Rumi's works have been translated by many, but most importantly, perhaps, by Coleman Barks, Robert Bly, and Jonathon Star.  Andrew Harvey writes, "No other poet or philosopher of whom I know has Rumi's almost frightening intimacy of address, and no one I am aware of in any civilization have conveyed the terror, rapture, and wonder of awakening to Divine Love with such fearless and gorgeous courage, such humility and such unflinching clarity."  (Andrew Harvey quoted from THE DAILY OM)

If you are wondering what to do with those Amazon or Barnes & Noble  gift cards,
check out the many works of Rumi.  He makes for a wonderful companion on a long and cold winter night.  He will reach out to you from every page and you will hear him in every word.  He is a presence not to be ignored.

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