[Sunlight]
"Don't
believe for a moment that you're healing yourself"
Childhood
Friends
You
may have heard, it's the custom
for
Kings to let warriors stand on
the
left, the side of the heart, and
courage.
On the right, they put the
Chancellor,
and various secretaries,
because
the practice of bookkeeping
and
writing usually belongs to the
right
hand.
In
the center, the Sufis, because in
meditation
they become mirrors.
The
King can look at their faces
and
see his original state.
Give
the beautiful ones mirrors,
and
let them fall in love with
themselves.
That
way they polish their souls
and
kindle remembering in others.
A
close childhood friend once came
to
visit Joseph. They had shared the
secrets
that children tell each other
when
they're lying on their pillows
at
night before they go to sleep.
These
two were completely truthful
with
each other.
The
friend asked, "What was it like
when
you realized your brothers were
jealous
and what they planned to do?"
"I
felt like a lion with a chain around
its
neck. Not degraded by the chain, and
not
complaining, but just waiting for my
power
to be recognized."
"How
about down in the well, and in
prison?
How was it then?"
"Like
the moon when it's getting
smaller,
yet knowing the fullness to
come.
Like a seed pearl ground in the
mortar
for medicine, that knows it will
now
be the light of the human eye.
Like
a wheat grain that breaks open in
the
ground, then grows, then gets
harvested,
then crushed in the mill for
flour,
then baked, then crushed again
between
teeth to become a person's
deepest
understanding.
Lost
in Love, like songs the planters
sing
the night after they sow the seed."
There
is no end to any of this.
Back
to something else the good man
and
Joseph talked about.
"Ah
my friend, what have you brought me?
You
know a traveler should not arrive
empty
handed at the door of a friend
like
me. That's going to the grinding
stone
without your wheat. God will ask
at
the Resurrection, 'Did you bring Me
a
present? Did you forget? Did you think
you
wouldn't see Me?'
Joseph
kept teasing,
"Lets
have it. I want my gift!"
The
guest began, "You can't imagine how
I've
looked for something for you.
Nothing
seemed appropriate. You don't
take
gold down into a goldmine, or a
drop
of water to the Sea of Oman!
Everything
I thought of was like
bringing
cumin seed to Kirmanshah where
cumin
comes from.
You
have all seeds in your barn. You
even
have my love and my soul, so I
can't
even bring those.
I've
brought you a mirror. Look at
yourself,
and remember me."
He
took the mirror out from his robe
where
he was hiding it.
What
is the mirror of being?
Non-being.
Always
bring a mirror of non-existence
as
a gift. Any other present is foolish.
Let
the poor man look deep into
generosity.
Let the bread see a hungry
man.
Let kindling behold a spark from
the
flint.
An
empty mirror and your worst
destructive
habits, when they are held
up
to each other,
that's
when the real making begins.
That's
what art and crafting are.
A
tailor needs a torn garment to
practice
his expertise. The trunks of
trees
must be cut and cut again
so
they can be used for fine carpentry.
Your
doctor must have a broken leg to
doctor.
Your defects are the ways that
glory
gets manifested. Whoever sees
clearly
what's diseased in himself
begins
to gallop on the Way.
There
is nothing worse
than
thinking you are well enough.
More
than anything, self-complacency
blocks
the workmanship.
Put
your vileness up to a mirror and
weep.
Get that self-satisfaction flowing
out
of you! Satan thought, "I am better
than
Adam," and that *better than* is
still
strongly in us.
Your
stream-water may look clean,
but
there's unstirred matter on the
bottom.
Your Sheikh can dig a side
channel
that will drain that waste off.
Trust
your wound to a Teacher's surgery.
Flies
collect on a wound. They cover it,
those
flies of your self-protecting
feelings,
your love for what you think
is
yours.
Let
a teacher wave away the flies
and
put a plaster on the wound.
Don't
turn your head. Keep looking at
the
bandaged place. That's where the
light
enters you.
And
don't believe for a moment
that
you're healing yourself.
Mathnawi,
I, 3150-3175, 3192-3227
Version
by Coleman Barks
(Developed
from the translation by Nicholson
"The
Essential Rumi"
Harper San Francisco,
1995
Article 1
I
Article
2
I
Article
3
I
Article
4 I
Article 5
