September 2022: The Strange Alleys of Love
/چون خلیل آمد خیال یار من
صورتش بت معنى او بت شكن
“The phantom of your love engulfs my imagination
and its meaning vanishes all my illusions.”
~Rumi
Source: Mathnawi II, 74
Translated by Dr. Fariba Enteshari
© Rumi Educational Center
Reflection on the Quote:
A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director
Have you ever been in a situation where you feel enormous love for someone you do not know?
The ingredient of love is so potent and powerful that sometimes it overspills toward people that tragically do not deserve the love we feel for them. Even when we do not show how we feel love is still there and waiting to find an outlet to flow.
The love we feel with or without reasons needs a language, a way of expression which we may not know because no one has taught us how to think about the phenomenon of love. In Rumi’s tradition, love visits strange alleys that no one has passed before. Love is an exception to all rules. It goes to places that we may want to avoid –– and there is nothing we can do about it. It is simply there.
Think about it –– it is not so rare to feel the emotion of love for people we hardly know.
It is one thing to pay attention to all hate that goes around. But do we think about all the love we share already with strangers? Many of us feel the heat waves from the aggressions we witness. Aggressions with roots of mental illness, selfishness, entitlement, victimization, or simply being a bully.
My questions for us is this: Do we ever think about how much love goes around without any reason?
The bond we feel, is what sustains our humanity. A wise man once told me that the world is carried on the shoulder of those who are responsible.
Does living a responsible life have something to do with feeling the bond and love to others, even though we have not met them yet? Notice how sometimes we feel compelled to go out of our way to help someone.
Every act of kindness can become part of a practice that encourages us to open our hearts and let wall of our comfort fade away. Little by little the confinement of our egos can step down. We are free to feel the well of love in us.
Next time you go out, I invite you to feel the love that enters your heart and leaps you into an act of kindness.
-Dr. Fariba Enteshari