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Jalaluddin
Rumi
(1207-1273, Afghanistan)
Biography excerpt:
Jalaluddin Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi
order of Sufi dervishes, was without a doubt one of the most heart-shattering
and ecstatic consorts of the Beloved of all time. Born in the remote village
of Balkh, now part of Afghanistan, Rumi spent most of his life in Konya,
Turkey, which in the thirteenth century lay at the Western edge of the
Silk Road and was a mingling spot for merchants and mystics alike. There
Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and even Buddhists, crossed paths. Rumi, a
respected scholar of theology, started a school of divinity in his late
thirties. Rumi was a consummate Sufi, or seeker of God. Some consider Sufism
as the mystical branch of Islam; others hold it to be the pursuit of truth
and communion with the Divine in any aspirant of any tradition. There is
no reality, exhort the Sufis, but God. Only Love, Lover, and Beloved. Merely
emptiness to be filled with all that is God.
Enlightenment Story Excerpt:
Become the Sun Itself
A TRUE SEEKER must transcend those joys
and delights that are just the ray and reflection of the glory of God.
He must not let himself grow content with such things, even though they
are of God, come from God's grace, and are of the radiance of God's beauty,
for they are not eternal; with reference to God they are eternal: with
reference to man, they are not.
Think of the rays
of the sun shining into houses. They are rays of the sun, and they are
light, but they are attached to the sun and not the houses. When the sun
sets, their light no more remains.
What we have to
do, then, is to become the Sun itself, so all fear of separation can forever
be ended.