Rumi's Four Essential Practices Read online

  Over time, the body and the mind start losing their unrelenting sense of solidity and become more fluid and watery, like a river with a current running through it. The more you connect with the organic current of the gaze and are able simply to surrender to it, the deeper you go on your journey beyond the self. The current takes you here. It takes you there. Sometimes, the river is placid and beautiful. Other times, rapids appear out of nowhere. It doesn’t matter. Just stay connected through the gaze, keep surrendering to the current, and accept whatever’s around the next bend. Where does this river run to? If anyone knows, there would be no way to tell you. The only way you can find out is to jump in yourself, surrender to its current, and trust in its wisdom. Rumi and Shams must have surrendered completely, and the journey they took together is still rightly revered.

  You can go on this journey too. If you already have a special friend in your life, start exploring the practice together. If you don’t have that special friend but would like to, then prepare yourself for the meeting by exploring movement practices, fasting, and the power of the breath. The friend that you’re wanting to meet is preparing himself as well. And keep your eyes open. You never know when you’re going to meet the friend. For all you know, she may be right around the corner. And when you do meet, acknowledge your good fortune by surrendering to your friend’s gaze as much as you’re able. May the following poems from the master gazer inspire you to seek out a friend and discover for yourself what the extraordinary union of eye to eye is all about.

  my heart got caught

  in his drunken eyes

  now I’m drunk

  and out of my mind

  when you turn your face away

  the water in the canal stops flowing

  how can particles appear

  if the sun doesn’t shine on them?

  an image of a face

  appeared before my eyes

  and started speaking:

  I’ve come from the garden of the beloved

  by way of the back room of the tavern keeper

  look into my dreamy eyes

  I’m the drunkenness you crave

  I’m high and low both

  I’ve come like a whirling sky

  from the very beginning of creation

  I came to befriend the soul

  and then to merge with it

  I went back

  but I returned again

  like a compass making constant turns

  around one point

  I asked him

  are you here to help me?

  he answered

  that’s the only reason I’m here

  I’m the moon

  you’re my light

  look into my eyes

  get inside my eyes

  I’ve chosen to live

  in a different mansion

  behind my eyes

  my eyes

  are a jar of wine

  my eyelashes

  are the wine filter

  your face

  is my faith

  your gaze

  is my religion

  trust love

  love is a face and eyes

  turned this way

  gazing at you

  just face

  just vision

  if you’ve got the pearls

  then come and gaze

  into the ocean of my eyes

  o watermaster

  start the fountain

  wake up the garden

  let the flowers open their eyes

  your goodness is hidden

  like the fountain of life

  inside the darkness of your eyes

  pupils like that

  turn eyes into oceans

  he threw an arrow with his eyes

  a long, hard arrow

  and because of the magic in his eyes

  we turned into poets

  we become lost to ourselves

  when we drink from your cup

  and gaze at your face

  when the fire in his eyes

  melts into grace . . .

  poison becomes honey

  the wolf becomes the shepherd

  mountains turn to mush

  the bitter salty sea

  turns into the fountain of life

  holy light shines out

  from his hidden face

  to all people everywhere

  and his soft, dreamy eyes

  keep on looking at us

  there’s not a lover in this world

  who could look at your face

  for even one moment

  and not be completely melted down

  shams of tebriz

  you’re the fountain of life

  that water can only be found

  in your entrancing eyes

  I need to know the secret

  and learn the art

  of the invisible source

  of eyes and vision

  look at my face

  gaze at the sea of sweetness

  see the waves that scatter pearls

  I’m not the same me

  you’ve seen before

  I’ve been gazing at your face

  since early dawn

  I feel reborn

  you’re even more beautiful than ever

  you’re a crazy lover

  but whatever you’ve done in the past

  it’s all worth it today

  I don’t have enough eyes

  I need hundreds more

  I’d borrow them if I could

  but who has the eyes

  that can see you?

  you call yourself a believer

  but you don’t know the fire

  in the eyes of lovers

  o one who denies

  the wine on god’s lips

  look into my eyes

  don’t they look

  like two glasses

  full of wine?

  gaze into the face

  of the one who’s a reflection

  of the Great Face

  how incredibly beautiful!

  the sun just burst from his forehead

  his eyes met mine

  what do you see?

  he asked

  o my beautiful one

  I see two wet clouds

  that rain pearls

  when you gaze at me

  with those narcissus eyes

  my soul flies out

  from where I am

  to the place where you’ve disappeared to

  I used to have

  thousands of knots in my heart

  tied up like a sorcerer’s rope

  through the magic

  of your beautiful eyes

  they’ve all come undone

  the only cure

  for the disease of the eye

  is to get completely drunk

  on the wine of the soul

  and where might such a wine be found?

  in the soft eyes of your friend

  don’t look out the window

  gaze at my face instead

  let it be the window

  through which you look out

  into nothing

  you can see the beloved

  by looking in his eyes

  he can be found there

  behind the darkness of those eyes

  stay in the temple

  sit by his side

  look at his face

  fill your eyes and heart

  by looking carefully at his face

  the doctor of happiness

  had good news for the lovers

  every moment

  a new dress for you

  with fabric made of soul

  he said

  he gave this news with his eyes

  it was like saying

  there’s a rope coming from the great one;

  you’ll soon be freed from the bottom of the well

  when your gaze stops someone in their tracks

 
your eyes become the guide for the lost one

  show him the way

  put your hand on my heart

  and look into my eyes

  no need to ask

  for wine and the drinking cup

  your eyes write a new chapter

  about the lessons of love

  with every breath

  they ask questions

  suggest answers

  without words without chatter

  you are my soul

  you are mine

  you deserve my love

  you are my light

  stay in my eyes

  o my eyes!

  o source of life’s waters

  you gaze at me

  and I keep looking back at you

  o beauty

  let’s play look and see

  the eyes of my soul see only you

  hair hanging down

  covering over the eye

  is not a small thing

  you need to put salve

  on it immediately

  when the eye is cleansed

  of whatever’s been covering it

  you become a guide to love

  just like the eye itself

  we’re the ones

  whose eyes and souls

  have gotten all mixed up

  we’re the lovers

  just look at us

  we’re out of our minds

  I come to you without me

  can you come to me without you?

  self is the thorn

  in the sole of the soul

  so come

  get out of yourself

  merge with others

  if you stay in self

  you’re but a grain and a drop

  if you merge with others

  you become an ocean

  what is this light

  that comes out of your eyes

  and off of your face?

  I wish I didn’t have to do

  anything else in this world

  but gaze at your face

  show me the way to my eye

  so I can get inside yours

  the eye that plays with my eye

  turns into light

  sees into nothingness

  and ends up very drunk

  the light of our eyes

  merged

  with the light of the moon

  you’re the moon

  risen in my soul;

  I’m the eye

  everything my eyes can see

  can be repaired

  or built again

  but I’ve been completely taken apart

  and melted down

  by your eyes

  I’m a boundless universe

  open your eyes and look at me;

  lose yourself in the glow

  I’m so drunk

  I’m doing sema

  but we do this sema

  through vision and gazing

  o tavern keeper

  serve me the red wine

  that puts me in the state

  where I start talking about you

  and can’t stop

  offer me a big cup

  and then watch how my drunken gaze

  lets me lose myself in you

  I’m looking at the place

  where you turned into a river

  and let me flow

  that river came from the sea

  and will always keep running

  back to the sea

  souls and eyes

  went on a journey together

  they finally arrived at a place so bright

  that they pulled in their reins

  and never again had to wonder

  if the time of union

  was ever going to come

  lovers have heartaches

  that can’t be cured

  by any medicine

  not by rest

  not by travel

  not by diet

  but only by seeing the beloved

  meeting the friend

  mends the ailment

  the most important thing by far

  is to gaze at the face of the beloved

  A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATIONS

  The translations in this book are based on three sources: the Divan-i-Kebir, the Masnavi, and the Fiha Ma Fiha. The Divan contains more than forty-four thousand verses of Rumi’s spontaneously uttered poetry, and the great majority of the poems translated here comes from this source because it’s here that the practices in this book are spoken of the most directly.

  My source for the poems from the Divan is the monumental translation of the entire Divan from Turkish into English by Nevit Ergin. Nevit’s gift to the English-speaking/Rumi-loving world cannot be overemphasized, and anyone who wants to explore the whole of the Divan will want to read Nevit’s translations in their entirety, a task I can heartily recommend.

  Rumi’s other monumental work, and the one he is best known for throughout the Islamic world, is the Masnavi, and my versions of passages from the Masnavi are closely based on an abridged collection of translations into English done in 1898 by E. H. Whinfield. Rumi’s skills as a master storyteller in the tradition of Jesus and Aesop are quite evident in the Masnavi and are represented in this book by the two delightful prose stories at the end of the section on fasting.

  Rumi’s only other collection of assorted writings, Fiha Ma Fiha, has been beautifully translated into English by Wheeler M. Thackston Jr. as Signs of the Unseen. The beginning of the poem that ends this book is based on a prose sentence in Signs of the Unseen.

  FOOTNOTES

  *1. A ney is an ancient end-blown flute that figures prominently in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic music.

  *2. In Exodus 4:6, God instructs Moses to place his hand on his breast, and it immediately turns white in color.

  *3. A rebab is a stringed instrument.

  *4. For more on the gazing practice, which can open the door to a profoundly ecstatic state of divine union, please see my earlier book The Spiritual Practices of Rumi: Radical Techniques for Beholding the Divine. It is devoted solely to this particular practice.

  About the Author

  Will Johnson is the author of Rumi's Four Essential Practices, The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain, Yoga of the Mahamudra, and the award-winning The Spiritual Practices of Rumi. He is also coauthor, with translator Nevit Ergin, of The Forbidden Rumi and The Rubais of Rumi. He lives in British Columbia.

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  Copyright © 2010 by Will Johnson

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