Rumi's Four Essential Practices Read online

  like a baby with its mother’s smile

  so come

  let yourself go

  get in the dance

  after seeing him

  you came speeding

  like a ball to his bat

  you lost your head

  you lost your feet

  so you danced

  without your head or feet

  you’ve gotten so drunk

  on the wine of being

  you’ve got ecstasy

  written all over you

  ecstasy keeps calling

  so get ready for the journey

  start to dance

  untie your hair

  spread your scent around

  put the souls of sufis to dancing

  the sun, moon, and stars

  keep turning around the sky;

  we’re in the middle

  turning around the center

  your singing and playing

  are so beautiful!

  even the lowest notes

  start turning the sufis of the sky

  the spring breeze comes running

  singing

  making the world smile

  it causes a commotion

  among the young

  every day a fairylike beauty

  steps out from behind the curtain

  and puts everyone in a circle to dance

  the sufi dances to that beauty’s tune

  and waves his soft cloak

  but the man of reason

  gets confused

  his turban comes untied

  and drags on the ground

  the stirring sound of his voice

  comes from deep inside

  the oven of his heart

  when he starts spreading melodies

  my heart jumps from its seat

  he put a rebab*3 on his lap

  took the cap off his head

  and set it on the ground

  when I saw his head

  begin to shake

  my heart went right to him

  heart spins

  his silk thread

  like a bobbin

  it turns so fast

  that the spinner of the thread

  sometimes sees it

  sometimes doesn’t

  body is like dust and soil

  soul is like the wind

  soul kicks up the dust

  and through the dance of particles

  soul is revealed

  so let’s say your soul

  looks a lot like dust and soil

  and another soul

  meets you in that dust

  the whole universe

  will start to dance

  particle by particle

  to your tune

  come

  come and see

  that you are the soul of sema

  come

  come and see

  that you’re a walking cypress

  in sema’s garden

  come and see

  that someone exactly like you

  has never existed before

  and never will again

  come and see

  that the eyes of sema

  have never seen anyone like you before

  and never will again

  what should I do

  if love seizes me?

  start dancing of course!

  sweep love into your arms

  and press her to your chest

  when particles of dust

  are touched by the sun

  they spread their arms and start whirling

  to a music no one can hear

  a sweet voice came

  from the threshold of greatness

  come

  it says to soul

  how could soul resist?

  how could a fish out of water lie still

  with the sound of the waves in its ears?

  the fish wants to jump back into the sea

  how could a sufi not enter the dance

  like a particle of dust under eternal light?

  a bright light

  shines in the sky

  coming from the dance of lovers

  yet still there are those

  who condemn dance and music

  and don’t believe it’s right

  one group turns around the sun

  and falls into god’s favor

  the other just keeps turning

  around the cold harsh winter

  when you hear the songs of birds

  your wings begin to flutter

  if you really want to fly

  free your feet from the tar

  look at these particles

  in front of my window

  they’re dancing so exquisitely in the air

  these particles dance sema

  like sufis in the sun’s light

  but to what kind of music, beat, or instrument

  nobody knows

  the most important sema

  is the one that goes on inside us

  particles of our body are dancing

  with hundreds of different rhythms and graces

  those who’ve attained

  open their arms and start dancing

  at a place beyond truth or lies

  they don’t get involved

  with matters of the head

  or the soul

  someone once offered a dervish

  a totally bodiless soul

  but the dervish just whispered

  back in his ear

  no thanks

  o my mind

  I asked

  where have you gone?

  I turned into wine

  he answered back

  how can I behave

  like a grape anymore?

  burn your soul and put its ashes

  on your eyes as a salve

  blindness will disappear from the world

  souls enter sema

  and turn into honey bees

  they swarm around the honey

  that’s never been tasted

  we’re moving and dancing

  like a flag on your wind

  I’m going to the place

  where I disappear completely

  the clouds cleared away from your face

  the sky split apart into layers

  and shone like moonlight

  through all the windows

  the light became stronger

  it broke all the souls into pieces

  souls started dancing

  particle by particle

  in front of the sun

  flying around everywhere

  saying

  what will be will be

  the dome of the sky keeps turning

  but the skies of love whirl much faster

  the whirling sky turns only for lovers

  so get up and join in

  let’s start turning!

  ours is the path

  of joy and pleasure

  music and dance

  not stillness

  not denial

  the only one who benefits

  from a pearl dropped on the road

  is the one who takes the journey

  the one who doesn’t

  turn around that pearl

  will have nothing

  spring has given

  the call to prayer

  get up and come to the garden!

  listen for the voices

  in the tulips and the mountain

  learn how to dance

  from the branches of the trees

  love keeps changing inside us

  into so many different shapes and forms

  every moment

  a different feeling

  wants to pass through your heart

  but your body’s become frozen

  and turned into stone

  until you understand

  the patterns in your heart

  you won’t really be able to
move

  an amazing dance is going on

  from the bottom of the earth

  to the top of the sky

  once you’ve become a stream of particles

  don’t go and become a mountain again

  even the whirling sky

  became jealous of our turning

  because this is the real thing

  the other’s just a shell

  this is the real light

  the other’s just a small fire

  my friend

  it’s time for sema

  time to get up and jump

  you’ve been asleep on a boat

  for a thousand nights;

  open your sail

  and get up and jump

  the heavy feeling in your head

  made you sleep a long time

  but they woke you up

  so get up and jump

  o flying thoughts

  keep flying

  keep jumping right through

  this bewildered body!

  come to your senses

  the sufi is the child of the moment

  forget about last year and next year and jump

  it pays to be generous

  when doing business with god

  because love weighs more

  than the whole steel yard

  get up and jump!

  get up and jump

  like the waves of the sea

  roaring with love

  because pearls are being spread at their feet

  if you’re feeling run-down

  like straight, limp hair

  parted in the middle

  then jump up

  like the springing curls in the hair of the beloved

  for way too long

  you’ve been lied to and bullied;

  why don’t you jump right out

  of this mean old world?

  I get involved too much in making rhymes

  so shhhhh. . .

  let’s jump together

  without any words this time

  it doesn’t matter

  how the branch moves

  as long as it moves

  it means there’s a breeze

  o branch

  don’t think you have to move

  this way or that way

  and don’t try to run away either

  don’t you know

  that the only guidance you’ll ever need

  comes from the wind?

  one particle says to another:

  how long are we going to fly in the air?

  only your beautiful hand knows

  weather changes

  in hundreds of ways

  from dawn to dusk;

  in every shape it takes

  it whirls and dances for you

  even if you can’t see the air moving

  you can still watch the trees

  and see the souls dancing around god

  we’ve learned our melodies

  from the revolving spheres

  the song of the spheres

  is what we sing with our voice

  and play on our strings

  as we’re all members

  of the family of adam

  we’ve all heard these melodies in paradise

  and even though we’re now covered

  in earth and water

  we still have faint memories

  of those songs of heaven

  but while we’re covered up

  in these earthly clothes

  how can the tones of the dancing spheres reach us?

  and so it is

  that listening to music is lovers’ food

  because it reminds them

  of their union with god

  even if your beloved turns into a fire

  jump into it anyway and keep burning

  burn up like a candle and melt

  a divine dance appears in the soul and the body

  at the time of peace and union

  anyone can learn this dance

  just listen to the music

  without your blessing

  no one

  not even the embryo inside the womb

  would move

  it’s not just the movement

  in the womb or in ecstasy

  even the bones in the grave

  dance with your radiance

  we dance so much to the tunes of this world

  come on friends

  get ready for the dance in the other world

  souls move around

  with these rough coarse covers

  once they throw off those heavy covers

  then watch how they dance!

  before we were born

  we kept kicking and moving

  in the darkness of the womb

  just to express our heartfelt thanks

  we are all sufis

  who came dancing from the dervish convent

  to give thanks for these blessings

  GAZING RAPTLY

  You’ve purified the body through fasting and breath. You’ve opened to the movements of the dance. Now it’s time to meet the friend.

  Of the four practices that Rumi promotes in his poetry, none is mentioned so prominently and frequently as the simple action of sitting down across from a dear friend, looking into each other’s eyes, holding each other’s gaze, and surrendering to the radical alteration to body and self that naturally starts occurring. For centuries, Sufis have revered the relationship between Rumi and Shams as a kind of divine mystery that could only be marveled at, but never understood. No one knew for certain what went on behind the closed doors of their retreat room—what kind of interactions must have transpired between them to have sparked the intoxicated state of ecstasy they were in when they finally emerged from their retreat. But how could it have been missed? It’s everywhere in the poetry! Melting into the gaze of one’s friend is one of Rumi’s greatest legacies and gifts to anyone who has ever felt the pull of the ecstatic and is trying to figure out how to give birth to it.

  However, while I believe that what Rumi and Shams were doing together can no longer be considered a complete mystery, if you truly want to understand what happened to them, you’ll need to experience it for yourself. To bring completely alive the story of Rumi and Shams’ ecstatic dissolving into the shared consciousness of union, you’ll want to do what they did. You’ll want to seek out and find a friend and explore the practice for yourself.*4

  Something happens to two people who come together, look into each other’s eyes, hold the gaze, and . . . surrender. Almost immediately you start feeling things . . . as if dormant sensations of the body and soul start waking up from a long slumber. The visual field may become altered, as hard edges soften and the shape of your partner’s face shifts. You may laugh. You may cry. You may feel very scared and alone. You may feel overwhelmed with joy. Eventually, you may start feeling the energies in your heart and soul being drawn toward your friend as if by a strong magnet. Closer, ever closer, you feel your consciousness and energies starting to dance and commingle with your friend, until eventually you arrive at a place of such closeness and intimacy that you realize that you don’t feel separate from your friend anymore—that your soul has merged with her soul and you can no longer tell the difference. This play of two ordinarily separate souls relaxing into a condition that is separate no longer is, for Rumi, what real friendship is all about.

  But mostly we don’t look at each other in this way. We resist surrendering to the compelling and natural desire for merging into union that wants to occur whenever two people lay eyes on each other. We’re leery of going beyond the self even if ecstasy is the offered reward. We don’t have time in our busy lives to allow an unraveling of our karmic knots by participating in a prolonged and surrendered gaze with a friend. How prolonged? Virtually everyone can get a taste of where this gazing is leading to in just a few minutes (indeed, one of the beauties of the mutual gaze is that its effects can be fel
t so immediately). The real depths that the practice can take you to, however, only start revealing themselves after long hours. Remember that Rumi and Shams spent long weeks and even months exploring what was happening to them. Connecting through the gaze sends both friends off on a journey of unfolding through the landscape of the soul; the longer you stay surrendered to the gaze, the more sights you get to see. The longer you spend in the gaze, the deeper you heal. Who, then, has time for the gaze? Babies do. Their parents do. Lovers do. And ecstatic friends do.

  The first three practices can all be done alone. To explore the practice of gazing, you need to find a friend—someone whom you feel drawn to and who is drawn to you, someone who is as excited as you are to explore and play the great game of gazing and dissolving, someone who wants to risk being himself with another. You can gaze and go deep in this way with anyone, but in truth, over time you may find that you’re especially drawn to gazing with a particular someone and she with you. The gaze with this person simply feels right and starts initiating journeys you’ve never been on before with anyone else. Maybe your life circumstances will allow you to go into retreat together and spend long days and weeks just as Rumi and Shams did. Maybe they won’t. But know that you’ve found a friend, and explore the practice together as much as you can. Be forewarned, though. The practice is highly addictive to both body and soul, and you may want to spend a great deal of time together.

  The basic instructions for the gaze are so simple. Sit or lie comfortably with your friend, and begin looking at each other. Look right into the eyes that are looking right back at you . . . and relax. What starts happening? Can you feel it? Can you accept the shifts that almost immediately start occurring in your awareness of body and self? Can you accept the unraveling of emotion and memory that begins to spread through you in waves of feeling? The more you relax into the gaze, the more you’ll be able to accept whatever comes to you: strong sensations, unusual perceptions, emotions.