Mevlana

"...before everything [Mevlana] was a learned theologian after the finest pattern of medieval Islam, very familiar with the Koran and its exegesis, the traditional sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, the sacred law and its erudite expositors, the wranglings of the 'Two-and-Seventy jarring sects,' not to mention the 'foreign sciences' including philosophy, and the lives and dicta of the saints and mystics. All this various learning is reflected in Rumi's poetry...In Rumi we encounter one of the world's greatest poets. In profundity of thought, inventiveness of image, and triumphant mastery of language, he stands out as the supreme genius of Islamic mysticism."

--A. J. Arberry, Mystical Poems of Rumi, 31, 33.

...when you look well into the matter, all is nothing but flame.

--Ibid., 85.

First Step: Fall In Love

Mevlana sings: Whoever strides sincerely towards Shams al-Din, though his foot may grow weary, he will discover two wings from Love.

[Arberry, tr., Mystical Poems of Rumi, #74].

The Relationship

What is appropriate for me is to protect the path upon which our friendship and the brotherhood of our outer life walk. Other than that, relationships like "shaikh and disciple" give me no pleasure. You know, some say, "Let shaikhhood and disciplehood vanish into the earth [lit., 'go to hell']."

--Shams of Tabriz [Rumi's Sun, tr. Refik Algan and Camille Adams Helminski, 123].

The Breakthrough

Few things matter more in this life than the archetypal meeting with Shams/the Sun: the dervish who, legend has it, took to wandering until he could find someone capable of enduring his company.

Shams is the friend from whom one learns what it means to dwell as a human being.

After meeting Shams, Jalal al-Din Rumi was transformed from a law professor into Mevlana, world-class poet.

Poetically man dwells.

Shrine Culture

Tomb of Bayazid:

Also: Pakistan's Uch Sharif.

God Watches Over Drunks, Fools...

and the wandering dervish.

Poetry Is A Measuring

"Man's dwelling depends on an upward-looking measure-taking of the dimension, in which the sky belongs just as much as the earth...Measure-taking is no science. Measure-taking gauges the between, which brings the two, heaven and earth, to one another...The taking of measure is what is poetic in dwelling. Poetry is a measuring."

--Martin Heidegger, "...Poetically Man Dwells..."

The Threshold Question

Rarely asked and answered except, perhaps, in the breach: What does it mean to be human?

Heidegger offered an answer to this question with a poem by Holderlin in his essay, "...Poetically Man Dwells..."

Martin had much to answer for; late in his life, impoverished shepherd of being that he was, he offered what little he could. Heideggerian "meagerness," however, was far richer than anything his epigones have yet to produce. His peculiar genius defies imitation. He thought his way through the history of Western philosophy until, eventually, like Wittgenstein and Rorty, he "threw away the ladder."

Husserl taught him to embrace phenomenology and Heidegger returned the favor by showing his teacher the radical potential of phenomenological witness.

Man's Homelessness

"What if man's homelessness consisted in this, that man still does not even think of the proper plight of dwelling as the plight? Yet as soon as man gives thought to his homelessness, it is a misery no longer. Rightly considered and kept well in mind, it is the sole summons that calls mortals into their dwelling."

--Martin Heidegger, Building, Dwelling, Thinking.

Istanbul

Istanbul is a country unto itself. It is greater than the sum of its parts. No one deserves this place. Everyone should spend time here. One's relation to this city is a test and measure of character: you either rise to the occasion or you don't. I used to think Paris was the greatest city in the world. Now I see that the only reason to go to Paris is to be closer to Istanbul.

In A Far Country

When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as are inherent with existence in the new land; he must abandon the old ideals and the old gods, and oftentimes he must reverse the very codes by which his conduct has hitherto been shaped. To those who have the protean faculty of adaptability, the novelty of such change may even be a source of pleasure; but to those who happen to be hardened to the ruts in which they were created, the pressure of the altered environment is unbearable, and they chafe in body and in spirit under the new restrictions which they do not understand. This chafing is bound to act and react, producing divers evils and leading to various misfortunes. It were better for the man who cannot fit himself to the new groove to return to his own country; if he delay too long, he will surely die.

The man who turns his back upon the comforts of an elder civilization, to face the savage youth, the primordial simplicity of the North, may estimate success at an inverse ratio to the quantity and quality of his hopelessly fixed habits. He will soon discover, if he be a fit candidate, that the material habits are the less important. The exchange of such things as a dainty menu for rough fare, of the stiff leather shoe for the soft, shapeless moccasin, of the feather bed for a couch in the snow, is after all a very easy matter. But his pinch will come in learning properly to shape his mind’s attitude toward all things, and especially toward his fellow man. For the courtesies of ordinary life, he must substitute unselfishness, forbearance, and tolerance. Thus, and thus only, can he gain that pearl of great price, — true comradeship. He must not say “Thank you;” he must mean it without opening his mouth, and prove it by responding in kind. In short, he must substitute the deed for the word, the spirit for the letter.

--Jack London

Uzbek Dervishes

Sohbet

The Dervish art of conversation.