(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Sufi Koans [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-13
Jalaludin Rumi is acknowledged as the greatest of all the Muslim mystics, the Sufis, and their greatest poet. He speaks to people all over the world in their hearts, and calls them to the koan, to transcendence, and to repentance, in several forms, including music and dance.
Like other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, Rumi's poetry speaks of love which infuses the world. Rumi's teachings also express the tenets summarized in the Quranic verse which Shams-e Tabrizi cited as the essence of prophetic guidance: "Know that ‘There is no god but He,’ and ask forgiveness for your sin" (Q. 47:19). In the interpretation attributed to Shams, the first part of the verse commands the humanity to seek knowledge of tawhid (oneness of God), while the second instructs them to negate their own existence. In Rumi's terms, tawhid is lived most fully through love, with the connection being made explicit in his verse that describes love as "that flame which, when it blazes up, burns away everything except the Everlasting Beloved."
Buddhists substitute knowledge of the Unborn, aka Buddha Nature, but fully agree on negating self, and on confessing delusions that result in evil thoughts, speech, and action. This does not mean destroying self, but recognizing that it never existed to become attached to. Nor does it mean wallowing in despair and hopelessness, as some Christians do over the doctrine of Original Sin.
Jews started with
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Tanakh does not explain how to use this as a koan meditation, but doing so is fundamental in Hasidism.
Mevlana—Oni Wytars
A poem from his book the Masnavi:
I died to the mineral state and became a plant,
I died to the vegetal state and reached animality,
I died to the animal state and became a man,
Then what should I fear? I have never become less from dying.
At the next charge (forward) I will die to human nature,
So that I may lift up (my) head and wings (and soar) among the angels,
And I must (also) jump from the river of (the state of) the angel,
Everything perishes except His Face,
Once again I will become sacrificed from (the state of) the angel,
I will become that which cannot come into the imagination,
Then I will become non-existent; non-existence says to me (in tones) like an organ,
Truly, to Him is our return.
Here we have no-self and the Unborn.
Within the Sufi tradition, many koans are widely known, for example in thousands of stories of the Mullah Nasruddin.
A Muslim asked his camel, Do you prefer the road going up, or the road going down? The camel replied, Since my master gives me the choice, I prefer the level road.
There are two koans here. One is obviously the Middle Way, and the other one, more subtle, is not letting others trap you into the opposites.
Here is a different approach to meditation also due to Rumi. Note that the dancers turn their right hands palm upward to Heaven, and their left hands palm downward to the Earth.
Whirling Dervish sema dance at the Konya Mevlana Museum in Turkey
See also the famous Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts.
To turn and turn will be our delight
‘til by turning and turning we come round right.
AARON COPLAND - Simple Gifts From Appalachian Spring - LEONARD BERNSTEIN
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/13/2185509/-Sufi-Koans
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
