Rumi, the Buddha, and Spiritual Intelligence

Regular readers of 3D Eye will be aware of our interest in what we call ‘spiritual intelligence‘. This encompasses the study of various schools of philosophy and religion, and their convergence on matters concerning human values and human virtues.

Our focus in this post is on the similarities between the life, work and beliefs of the Buddha and those of the Persian Muslim philosopher Rumi.

Wikipedia says this:

Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Iranians, Turks, Afghans, Tajiks, and other Central Asian Muslims as well as the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy in the past seven centuries. Rumi’s importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats. In 2007, he was described as the “most popular poet in America”.

Anyone who knows anything about the Buddha will be aware that he was born a prince in India, and eventually left the confines of the royal palace in order to learn about the world and to seek perfect enlightenment. Having attained his goals he then turned back to the world and spent the rest of his life in the service of the poorest and weakest sections of various communities, and also teaching about the need to seek truth and enlightenment.

Wikipedia says this about Rumi:

 Teachings

The general theme of Rumi’s thought, like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of tawhīd — union with his beloved (the primal root) from which/whom he has been cut off and become aloof — and his longing and desire to restore it.

Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of whirling Dervishes developed into a ritual form. His teachings became the base for the order of the Mevlevi which his son Sultan Walad organized. Rumi encouraged Sama, listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, samā represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes and nations.

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The 13th century Mawlana Mausoleum, with its mosque, dance hall, dervish living quarters, school and tombs of some leaders of the Mevlevi Order, continues to this day to draw pilgrims from all parts of the Muslim and non-Muslim world.

Jalal al-Din who is also known as Rumi, was a philosopher and mystic of Islam. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all religions are more or less truth. Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew and Christian alike, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has appealed to people of all sects and creeds.

Why should I seek? I am the same as

He. His essence speaks through me.

I have been looking for myself!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

English: Whirling dervishes or Darveshes, Rumi Fest 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Mevlevi dervishes. 1887. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Jalal ad-Din Rumi gathers Sufi mystics. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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The Mevlevi Order or the Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi in 1273 in Konya, (in Turkey at present). They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi Path. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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