October 2019: Nature & Consequence
/این جهان کوه هست و فعل تو ندا
“This Universe is the mountain and your actions are the echo!”
-Rumi
Mathnawi I, Verse 215
Reflection on the Quote:
A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director:
Rumi believes in the perpetuation of creation, meaning we all give birth to the next moment as co-creators with the universe. Our will has a role in the direction we set forth with our actions in the world.
We are given a choice to act responsibly as the “Crown of Creation.”
Our breath is a gift of spirit, a responsibility for the direction of our actions and our choices. Therefore, our actions have consequences in our lives because they echo what we set in motion.
Our environment reflects our collective actions and decisions we have made and will show us their consequences. It is important for us to choose the seeds of our choices carefully. When we choose to treat ourselves and the environment wisely, we lead ourselves and others toward a better world. If we choose carelessly, we spoil the fruit of our actions.
Free will has the responsibility to weigh carefully the steps we take. They can take us toward destruction or toward building up a better future! We do not live on an island by ourselves. Every decision we make to harm ourselves harms others; every decision we make to harm others will harm ourselves. Individuality and expressions of freedom have their own limits in the art of introducing ourselves to the other as an expression of the Divine- not poisoning and polluting the airways with toxic waste we have been cooking for years in dark corners of our mind!
Rumi did not live in a golden age. The violence of his time would be unbearable for our stomachs today! Crusaders on one side and Mongol attacks on the other were two terrifying forces for people of his time. Distraught, many were looking for an answer in schools of truth and wisdom. As in Rumi’s time, exploring who we are is a basic demand for people seeking to understand what they ought to do in this “tangled world” as Rumi describe it.
800 years later, the results of our many bad decisions have led to polluted oceans, and the destruction of many species. So much so that our own displacement and the devastation of many species are around the corner! The 3 billion birds disappearing from North America, killing the bees…melting continents of ice are the echo of actions that were chosen and set into motion by our ignorance. Waking up is not a leisurely option anymore! The echo will slap us in the face hard enough to awaken us. The question is: is there enough time to reach and change the curse we put on ourselves?
-Dr. Fariba Enteshari