Tag: Life

Free Choice November-December

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Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi

Moving Water

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river
moving in you, a joy.

When actions come from another section, the feeling
disappears.

Don’t let others lead you. They may be blind or, worse, vultures.

Reach for the rope of God. And what is that? Putting aside self-will.

Because of willfulness people sit in jail, the trapped bird’s wings are tied,
fish sizzle in the skillet.

The anger of police is willfulness. You’ve seen a magistrate
inflict visible punishment.

Now see the invisible. If you could leave your selfishness, you
would see how you’ve been torturing your soul. We are born and live inside black water in a well.

How could we know what an open field of sunlight is?

Don’t insist on going where you think you want to go. Ask the way to the spring. Your living pieces will form a harmony.

There is a moving palace that floats in the air with balconies and clear water flowing through, infinity everywhere, yet contained under a single tent.

Thesis Planning:

  • Contentment comes from integrity when righteous acts
  • When they are self-righteous than it is evil regardless of the act. Maybe since it removes the proper intention from the act and possibly could be replaced by evil intent
  • One’s actions are guided by self-will therefore the influence of others can actively deceive the mind
  • But self-will alone is also harmful if one cannot overcome inner evils and hypocrisies
  • It is because of one’s mentality that they imprison themselves within this world
  • One must ask and question themselves as to how their life should be carved
  • They should want to see amazing and beautiful aspects of the world
  • This perception is stolen by one’s own selfishness

Thesis Statement:

When a hesitant individual truly desires to accept a life of redemption they will be faced by both internal selfishness and external social pressures. This will entrap the individual in a cyclical pattern of desiring to act righteously but then being hindered by the reoccurrences of negative mentalities. It is only when the individual accepts into contemplating the nature of their past decisions that they will uncover a new, profound identity.

The Nature of Spirituality and Individual Actions

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forest_scenery_by_lunox_baik-d4gg21y

Moving Water

When  you do things from your soul, you feel a river

moving in you, a joy.

 

When actions come from another section, the feeling

disappears.  Don’t let others lead you.

They may be blind or, worse, vultures.

 

Reach for the rope of God.

And what is that?  Putting aside self-will.

 

Because of willfulness people sit in jail, the trapped bird’s wings are tied,

fish sizzle in the skillet.

 

The anger of police is willfulness.  You’ve seen a magistrate

inflict visible punishment.

 

Now see the invisible.  If you could leave your selfishness, you

would see how you’ve been torturing your soul.

 

We are born, and live inside black water in a well.

 

How could we know what an open field of sunlight is? Don’t

insist on going where you think you want to go.

 

Ask the way to the spring.

Your living pieces will form a harmony.

 

There is a moving palace that floats in the air

with balconies and clear water flowing through,

infinity everywhere, yet contained

under a single tent.

Rumi. “Moving Water.” Poem.org. Steven Boyd, June-July 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Seth. “Water Flow.” Google Images. Tumblr.com, May-June 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.

In many of Rumi’s famous poems one can find a great wealth of righteous knowledge that not only intends to give purpose to his poetic literature but to also give practical, beneficial advice to its readers.  Collectively this piece describes two interconnected aspects of beauty that are found within human essence and likewise the absence of these characteristics causes individuals of a society to deviate from their pure human nature. The path of true righteousness is found when one submits themselves to the divine Creator  in which they are retracing their body and soul to the initial instructions of God that had been placed upon the human being. This inevitably instills one with the ability to accept their own faults whilst simultaneously becoming obedient to religious law. These aspects are what Rumi defines as properties that successful, righteous individuals possess and therefore they are better enabled into rediscovering the true path of guidance as shown by God. Although the message presented is one of great virtue it is not yet complete as it entails that servants of the Most-Merciful will receive a reward for their sacrifices. Specifically they will be given spiritual ecstasy that will flow through their hearts in which will fill them with unexplainable happiness in this physical world and in the afterlife they will inhabit an unimaginable paradise. Alongside paradise the equivalent opposite, which is also known as hell, is a place of constant torment and punishment. The individuals who continue to linger in evil and cause their hearts to dwell in darkened, murky water will face a visible punishment in this materialistic world and also a physical consequence for their actions after death. Continuous balance of both reward and pain in this poem are parallel to that of the characteristics of good and evil. This entails that either result is with certainty present but it is not a fixed destination; therefore,  an individual’s free will in the worldly life can in actuality change the outcome of their fate after death.

Rumi describes a general yet large understanding of the Islamic belief of the afterlife and it is by doing so that he impacts the reader into begin thinking for themselves. This is because he causing individuals to question the world around them in order to allow them to acknowledge the truth of this world: human beings are meant to be subservient to the Creator. If one is to become successful they must be willing to stand firm to their belief systems and must overcome the pressures that surround their social environment.

The Forest’s Path

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forest-waterfall-thailand-jpg-838x0_q80

“Google.” Google. 25th Feb.2016. Tumblr. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

Leaves get crushed by the visitor’s shoes as he walks through the path of the forest. The yellow, decaying leaves fuse with the newly moist mud creating a mixture on the pathway. Tree branches move with synchronization with that of the wind. Sunlight breaks through the departing rain clouds and begin to be focused through small slits between the branches. Birds and small creatures come out of their interconnected shelters only to discover the blessings of viewing the sunset. The path converges as the young man continues on wards to his final destination. Large, brown colored bears gently gaze at the man and gently move across the pathway, their fur glistening in the sun light. Held upward by small shrubs the youth discovers a small golden key, this enables the young man to recognize the beautiful connection between nature and spirituality. Suddenly, the traveler has been taken to a scenery defined by short hills and free flowing water. His fingers run through the vegetation, feel the rough texture of the trees and similarly tap the surface of lakes emerging from large rock formations. The path directs into a passageway behind the trees but the young man hesitantly stays, in a constant standing position, extending his arms to the beauty before him; he has found his paradise. He smells and takes in the sweet aroma of gentle, red roses oscillating back and forth alongside a soft breeze. His glands secrete saliva at the very thought of tasting the maple sap expiating from small pours on the trees. Civilization had become more distant and the young man understood that his final abode had been reached.

The forest and all of what it contains symbolically alludes to one of many journeys that an individual can take after the acceptance of death. With varying atmospheres and moods one can find many final destinations within its forever branching pathways. Composed of falling yellow leaves and freshly moist soil the forest provides a gateway to the afterlife for a soul whom of which is guided by both fear and curiosity. Sunlight and darkened clouds quarrel over which takes power over the sky but ultimately the sun’s rays brighten the horizon: the traveler’s fate will end peacefully.

The animals are forgotten in the world of the living but are never archived to history in the life after but rather reincarnate to a more beautiful form, inhabiting a life in which they neither face trials nor tribulations. Bears roam to suffice their own needs and protect their young, resting only when there is a safe haven that has been secured. It is interconnected to the nature of the traveler who protects his body, heart and soul from falling between small cracks that may lead him into a never ending hell. He suffices his mind with remembrance of his past life and embarks on a journey to meet his final resting place, a safe haven for his heart.

The key, held firmly in the hands of the youth, is his reward for living a righteous life and instills within him unimaginable contentment. His new abode never deteriorates nor does it cripple but rather its aromas increase in beautified smells, and begins to resemble a paradise that never ceases to weaken in its reward. Civilization itself no longer concerns him, the problematic situations he was tried with are now but a forgotten memory. The traveler lived his life as just that, a man who took shade in the Earth’s palms trees and continued to his destination wandering to his paradise: the forest.

The atmosphere and mood both change significantly throughout this journey which is a symbolic representation of how the emotions of the traveler develop. Since the tale begins with a melancholic tone it is easily understood that the character feels a sense of great  sadness and apprehension as he contemplates his place in the afterlife. This, however, is quickly resolved when he discovers the inner beauties that lay within his perceived life after death in which cause the traveler to be instilled with optimism and hope. The environment in particular reflects these inner emotions because of its sudden alteration between darkened rain clouds to the penetration of the sky by illuminating sunlight. Through the emphasis of a paradise like setting the mood has been uplifted from a state of depression to a state of happiness and contentment. Evidently through the actions taken by the traveler towards the end of the tale it is clear that they accept their new existence, joyfully, after death. It is by creating these subtle yet large differences that the story progresses with much coherence and connectivity.