Rumi in the World: March 2023
/Rumi’s teachings invite us to an inward journey. This journey takes us from the path of duality to the path of Unity. Body, mind and soul unify only when we pay attention to the world within us. In this section, from our Monthly Newsletter, we relate Rumi and his wisdoms to the world around us — whether this means current events, culture, philosophies, and much more. We examine how his wisdoms can be used to navigate our every day and to help us understand different aspects of life…
“This year, I set presence as my core intention as I move through the coming seasons. Presence is a study of what is happening both around and within you. It allows you to hold both what is labeled as good and bad in equal balance. Recognizing that one can not hang without the other. Presence is sitting with all the good and the bad and the excellent and the terrible (the present, whatever is happening NOW), not thinking about what is coming or what has happened. Just the present feeling, which is already innately impacted by those things. What are the highs without the lows? This doesn’t just mean having faith in the good in life that is sure to come, but means sitting with the fullness of the spectrum of human experience, even at its darkest. Presence is the remedy for worry, the remedy for rumination, and the way that we can experience the deepest, most beautiful things this life has to offer, even within suffering. Rumi says, ”For the grace of the presence, be grateful. Touch the cloth of the robe, but do not pull it toward you, or like an arrow it will leave the bow,” commanding a presence that is without attachment to the good or dwindling on the bad, just presence, letting it all be as it is, and move how it must. ”
