Photo Quote: The Nest In Rumi’s Rose Garden

While researching topics for interesting articles I’d like to write for EdenKeeper.org, I fell in love with a 13th century poet named “Rumi.” Spend an hour with this incredible gentleman, and I guarantee you will understand completely. One hour was enough to change my life – that warm glow of love entered my heart like a warm embrace from a very compassionate soul who understands my deepest feelings! I had to know more – who is this man with only one name, “Rumi?” Why is he able to speak so clearly to my soul, crossing continents and cultures and centuries as if they don’t exist? Rumi jumped to the top of my list, becoming my highest priority, and my newest love. Further down the page, I’ll share with you all my latest article for EdenKeeper.

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But first, take a stroll with me to Rumi’s Rose Garden. If you don’t know much about Rumi, this is a great introduction. In fact this is the way I spent my first hour getting to know him. This is the hour that changed my life lately, and who knows, you might find a warm glow enter your heart, too! And if you already know Rumi, I’m very sure you will enjoy this nice little stroll!

One of the first links I followed on my quest for Rumi has quickly become a new favorite resource for Rumi Quotes. You can find it at: http://www.quotegarden.com/rumi.html

Filled with so many beautiful short quotes, these web pages make me want “A Rumi-a-day” app on my tablet. Or maybe if it’s not too irreverent, how about “Rumi Refridgerator Poetry” – I would definitely download that one from the google playstore! I was inspired to cut and paste some beautiful Rumi quotes, like cutting beautiful flowers to create a Rumi Bouquet. So even without an app for that, I arranged them here into a “quote poem,” just because it seemed like a really interesting idea, and a great way to see into the lovely soul of Rumi:

A Stroll Through Rumi’s Rose Garden “…The mind, this globe of awareness, is a starry universe that, when you push off with your foot, a thousand new roads become clear, as you yourself do at dawn, sailing through the light…” “…The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep…” “…There is a morning inside you waiting to burst open into Light…” “…I want your sun to reach my raindrops, so your heat can raise my soul upward like a cloud…” “…You are a fountain of the sun’s light. I am a willow shadow on the ground. You make my raggedness silky…” “…The cypress tree is turning green, drunk with the forest…” “…The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruit other than sorrow and joy…” “…Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you…” “…I do not know who lives here in my chest, or why the smile comes. I am not myself, more the bare green knob of a rose that lost every leaf and petal to the morning wind…” “…Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full…” “…I turn all thorn then, but you come back again and make my thorniness fragrant and pink and petaled…” “…I will soothe you and heal you, I will bring you roses. I too have been covered with thorns…” “…And if you are a rose, I am rose-shadow…” “…The words that make the rose bloom were also said to me. The words told to the cypress to make it grow strong and straight. The instructions whispered to the jasmine. And whatever was said to the sugarcane to make it sweet. And to the pomegranate flowers to make them blush.  The same thing is being said to me…” “…That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful…” “…This love is the rose that blooms forever…” “…Can you find another market like this? Where, with your one rose, you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?” ~ Rumi

Who can remain unchanged after a stroll like that through Rumi’s rose garden? I swear, I know you felt it – that warm embrace from a very compassionate soul who understands your deepest feelings, right? Amazing!

Even more amazing, how uncanny is the insight of this eloquent poet – he knows my soul is flying, but he gently takes me by the hand and sits me back down on the soft, shady grass beside him, and whispers a little warning:

“Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.”  ― Rumi  (The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing)

[Ahhhh, I feel my head spinning! I wonder if this is a prelude to whirling?!!]

Whirling Dervishes in a Tekke
Preziosi, Aloysius Rosarius Amadeus Raymondus Andreas
(5th Count Preziosi)

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;^)

♥ Want some more Rumi? ♥

If you haven’t yet satisfied your thirst for Rumi’s writings, please join me for one more little journey!

Here’s my recent article on EdenKeeper.org, I hope you will enjoy learning more about the extraordinary life and writings of Mawlana Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi:

Rumi: “Behind The Beauty Of The Moon Is The MoonMaker”
(via http://edenkeeper.org)

Rumi’s eloquent relationship with the natural environment is his signature,
his elegantly simple expressions reflect appreciation for both Creation and Creator.
And there are so many lessons about both to be learned from this beloved
Islamic Scholar, Sufi Master and brilliantly shining star of timeless poetry:

“Is the sweetness of the cane sweeter
Than the One who made the canefield?

Behind the beauty of the moon is the MoonMaker.
There is Intelligence inside the ocean’s intelligence
Feeding our love like an invisible waterwheel.

There is a skill to making cooking oil from animal fat.
Consider now the knack that makes eyesight
From the shining jelly of your eyes…”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

The Enigmatic Life of Rumi, 1207 – 1273 CE

Mawlana Jalal al Din Muhammad Rumi was born in Balkh province, which is now the border region of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where his father was an appointed scholar of Islam. In the time of Rumi’s birth, this area had only recently been conquered by Muslims from the Byzantine, or eastern Roman Empire, and was commonly known as “Rum,” a transliteration of the word “Rome.” People originating here were commonly called “Rumi,” meaning “Roman,” or citizen of Roman-controlled land. In Muslim countries, Jalal al Din is not generally nicknamed “Rumi,” rather he is more commonly known as “Mawlana,” meaning “our Guide,” or “our Master.”

Studying the life of Rumi is as enigmatic today as in his own lifetime. Clearly he was enigmatic to those around him, for Rumi writes about himself:

“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me,
for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be.
Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself,
for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.” 

“Truth Lifts The Heart, Like Water Refreshes Thirst.” ― Rumi

In the English speaking world Rumi is currently enjoying huge popularity. He was recently described by the BBC as the “Best Selling Poet in The U.S.” His works were originally written in Persian and his “Mathnawi” or, “Masnavi” is considered a crowning glory of the Persian language. Rumi’s writings are very popular internationally and have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages, as they enjoy a timeless influence transcending national and ethnic borders by singing in the language of the soul. His lyrical verses ring with the beauties of the Natural World, with Rumi’s uniquely profound sensitivity to the environment that God created for His creatures:

“Be like the sun for grace and mercy.
Be like the night to cover others’ faults.
Be like running water for generosity.
Be like death for rage and anger.
Be like the Earth for modesty.
Appear as you are.
Be as you appear.”

Rumi’s Early Immigration To The City of Love

When the Mongols invaded Central Asia sometime between 1215 and 1220 CE, Rumi’s father, Baha adDin Walad, with his family and band of disciples, set out westwards. On this journey it is believed that Rumi encountered one of the more famous mystic Persian poets, Attar, in the Persian city of Nishapur. This meeting had a lasting effect on Rumi, then eighteen, providing much inspiration for his works, as he mentions later in a poem,

“Attar has traversed the seven cities of Love / We are still at the turn of one street.”

Please click here to read more of my article on Edenkeeper.org!

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If you have a favorite Rumi quote, please feel free to share it below!
♥♥♥
;^)