September 2020: The Quest for Wisdom
/حاصل عمرم سه سخن بیش نیست
خام بدم ، پخته شدم ، سوختم
“The outcome of my life is uttered simply in three phrases:
I was raw, I was cooked and I was burned.”
~Rumi
Divane Kabir, Ghazal 1768
Translated by Dr. Fariba Enteshari
©Rumi Educational Center
Reflection on the Quote:
A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director
How can wisdom help us in a time when truth and facts are manipulated?
The voice of wisdom has resounded throughout time to support us in a collective understanding of ourselves.
How do we become wise?
Rumi offers a startling image of himself in his poetry: “I was raw, I was cooked and was burned,” which is an indication of how he felt when he journeyed through the stages of the lower self/ego and beyond. When we are inexperienced we are raw in our understanding of the world. It is through the sum of experiences and knowledge that we can learn to exercise some judgment in attempting to solve problems in any circumstance.
In any phase of life, whatever judgment we exert will create the next phase of life for us. The quality of our lives depends directly on our ability to test and solve the given problems of our time. It is our hope that through accumulation of experience and knowledge we can collectively gather good judgment to offer a solution with precision. We need good intention, accurate observation and investigation of a problem not an illusion. Any delusion in our understanding of a situation misleads us, causes us to add more layers of complexity to a problem, which will not solve it. We are able to offer solutions only if we see the reality around us precisely not vaguely.
Rumi left behind stories in his verses that explain some of the downfalls of the misperceptions that we need to avoid by awakening to the hidden wisdom that already is within us. With love and compassion, first we seek to understand. Then, we can travel through life’s stages, gathering the knowledge to mature and perceive the common thread connecting us. When we have burned all the veils of illusion the bridge to solutions will appear.
حاصل از این سه سخنم بیش نیست
سوختم و سوختم و سوختم
“The outcome of my life is uttered simply in this phrase:
I was burned, and burned, and burned.”
~Rumi
Divane Kabir, Ghazal 1768
-Dr. Fariba Enteshari