Discover the teachings of Rumi and his spiritual work, "Signs of the Unseen," in our latest Beyond the Book series. We discuss his spiritual journey and get to see insights from one of the most influential mystics of all time.
This episode offers an in-depth exploration of "Signs of the Unseen," a compilation that captures the essence of Jalaluddin Rumi's spiritual teachings. We delve into Rumi's perspective on love, the divine, and the interconnectedness of all things, providing viewers with a profound understanding of his approach to mysticism and its relevance in today's world.
We'll shares personal reflections on discovering Rumi's teachings and how they've facilitated a deep, spiritual awakening, emphasizing the transformative power of Rumi's words and teachings.
We invite you to explore the unseen realms of spirituality and the universal truths that bind us all. Join us as we uncover this wisdom.
For more enriching spiritual content and community discussions, visit our website: https://Kishar.org
Discover the teachings of Rumi and his spiritual work, "Signs of the Unseen," in our latest Beyond the Book series. We discuss his spiritual journey and get to see insights from one of the most influential mystics of all time.
This episode offers an in-depth exploration of "Signs of the Unseen," a compilation that captures the essence of Jalaluddin Rumi's spiritual teachings. We delve into Rumi's perspective on love, the divine, and the interconnectedness of all things, providing viewers with a profound understanding of his approach to mysticism and its relevance in today's world.
We'll shares personal reflections on discovering Rumi's teachings and how they've facilitated a deep, spiritual awakening, emphasizing the transformative power of Rumi's words and teachings.
We invite you to explore the unseen realms of spirituality and the universal truths that bind us all. Join us as we uncover this wisdom.
For more enriching spiritual content and community discussions, visit our website: https://Kishar.org
If you don't know who Rumi is, you should seek to discover him. If you only know Rumi as a poet or the creator of beautiful quotes, you should know that he's much more than that. He's the kind of soul that can really change the world. He did change the world. And the universe will never quite be the same after someone like him. He's that kind of person because he offered us insight into what the universe is. You listen to Rumi, you will know yourself. The self that's deep within that is the universe. And that thing is tied to everything around you. I've had my own moment of clarity. Some may call it a spiritual awakening. It has a bunch of different names, and I've called it a moment of complete understanding. And Rumi says, And for me, that was the universe, which is also our self inside. It's that divine within. It took me 40 years to find it. I spent 12 years in the deserts of Middle East and South Asia at war. Then I spent seven years lost in the swamp of sadness. But the understanding was always there. I just couldn't see it. I think that's why this book called Signs of the Unseen is so powerful. I've always considered myself pretty educated person, but before I consciously started on my spiritual journey, I had never heard of Rumi. He was a philosopher, theologian and poet from the 1200s. his quotes are beautiful and thoughtful. He probably has the most beautiful, insightful collection of quotes in history, and I've wanted to learn more about him. I ordered a copy of Signs of the Unseen, The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, and this was introduced by a guy named M Thackston Jr. And Rumi was a famous Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic of Persian origin. He was actually born in Afghanistan. And that portion of the Persian Empire, and he lived there before settling in what would become modern day Turkey with his family. When he was very young. They had to flee eastern Persian Empire due to increasing Mongol incursions. This was towards the later portions of the Islamic Golden Age. if you're familiar with the phenomena of whirling dervishes, then you actually are familiar with Rumi. He's the founder and creator of that practice. Thaxton points out that Rumi is not a systematic thinker himself. He's not counted among these methodical philosophers and rationalist theologians. He doesn't really organize his ideas in any type of structured fashion. But there's real beauty in this chaos, and there's great wisdom there. And we also hear from Thaxton that most, if not all, writers of the mystical experience, even like Rumi, have been forced into the same position where they have this perception that goes beyond our reason that they're unable to communicate the experience is beyond rational, structured conversation and thought. And so they have to find ways to talk about this. And sometimes that's through symbols and symbology and metaphor. So one of the things you can do, do for yourself when you start to read a book by a mystic is to kind of get yourself into the right flow and state of mind. And that's kind of this open completely open state of mind. Try visualizing or meditating on what that might look like before you start a book like this, and you really open yourself up to the universe and great things happen when you're open to the universe. Some people call this being in receiver mode, so open yourself up into receiver mode. Rumi is one of the more recognizable figures in Islamic history and he's a notable person in world history as well. He's probably the most famous mystic. Mysticism was a well-accepted school of thought during the Islamic golden age and mysticism, also, even though it was accepted, seen a few tense moments from time to time. There were arguments between various Islamic scholars, and the mainstream Islamic political leaders. the problem of organized religion has always had with the mystics is that mysticism is this very self empowering system of belief in spiritual practice. It frees the individual to know the divine or God or the universe or whatever you want to call it. It frees them up to seeing that mystics, they they often tend to be more universalist in their view, than other religions and philosophies. So it's very much a come one come all kind of situation and on this, Rumi says But even still, mysticism was still solidly acknowledged in practice as a valid holy practice within Islam. The Sufi mystical approach is similar to Jewish Kabbalah and Christian mysticism. It even shares strikingly common themes with Hinduism and Buddhism in many places, and they all share the same essence in a mystical sense. Elements within each religion seem to understand this overlap. As Thackston kind of points out in the introduction, Rumi excels in elevation of the mundane to the sublime. So he can take these really simple things and find the beauty in it. He comes across as this enlightened observer of reality that we live here in this existence, but also how it relates to the beyond, what's beyond us. Mystics are quite interested in the beyond and how it plays with the world that we occupy, that we all move through every day. And so Rumi sees the divine in everything. He speaks beautifully about how it all inner relates and is tied back to the divine. And if you take anything away from this book or the teachings of Rumi, it's probably that there's this great beauty in the world and all this stuff that we interact with and we're going through each day. It's got this universal connection is telling us something it’s showing us that we're a part of something bigger and much more profound. And I think that really speaks to the spiritual journey that we're all on. At one point in the book, I saw a clear example of mysticism in practice. Rumi tells the story about a religious leader who was already deep in prayer when the Islamic call to prayer came, and he was so deep in prayer that he was oblivious to the concrete world around him. So he didn't see the reality that we're that we share, that we see. But instead he only knew the reality deep within him. And Rumi pointed out that he didn't need to awaken this religious leader to point himself towards Mecca because the mystic was in such a state that the turn to Mecca would be futile. He explains that the mystic was already seeing Mecca in his soul, and that teaches us that the universe lives within us. And I think it's also a commentary by Rumi on dogma that there's all this stuff that man creates that gets in the way of true spiritual practice. So I think it's a really beautiful story. Before we move on, please subscribe by hitting the watermark in the lower right hand corner and share this video if you think any friends or family might benefit from it. Most people call Rumi a poet. It's almost universal. And while he was a poet sometimes and is known for his poetry, after reading this work, I don't think Rumi would appreciate being known as a poet. In fact, he had some disdain for poets as a whole, and for him, poetry was a means to an end. It was to keep people engaged with him so that he could deliver the mystical divine truth to them. He fairly point blank, says this in this book he would have first considered himself as one with God or the Divine. Then he probably would have considered himself a scholar, and then he would have considered himself a mystic or something resembling that signs of the unseen. This book isn't a book of poetry. This work was less focused on his poetry and more on his scholarly teachings. And you can see why he's considered a poet. Because his grasp of the human language throughout his teachings is simply amazing. It just drips off the page in a good way, and his greatest works probably considered to be the Masnavi which is also known as the spiritual couplets. And this is like an epic poem, and it's been called the Koran in the Persian Tongue. Rumi intended the Masnavi to be this comprehensive guide on this Sufi spiritual journey. I mean to educate his followers on this path towards spiritual enlightenment and union with the divine.‘The Signs of the Unseen’ really puts you in the mind of the mystic. And this work is almost complete. The Rumi's original thought, the person who put it together and edited it, Thackston, is very light handed with his annotations and his notes in the main text. But I'll tell you that those notes that he does have are super helpful. I think sometimes it's nice to have someone helping us along the way or kind of holding our hand a little bit so that we're able to better understand what we're reading. This book really helped me understand Islam more clearly. It taught me things. It helped me see the beauty of Islam as a religion in a completely different way than I ever had before. And I'd never in my contact with Islam during all those years of war in the Middle East and South Asia. I now look back on it and think it's such a waste when I think about it, I now look back on it and think it's such a waste when I think about it, because I was there and I couldn't really get to know the faith in a way that I think I probably could have or should have. And so I really encourage anyone skeptical of the Abrahamic faiths to give the mystics within each religion a shot. It might not just change your mind about those religions, but it also might speak to the essence of your core beliefs and foundations. It might open your mind in this beautiful way of seeing the universe Rumi discusses stages of non-real zation and realization. So in our base condition, we focus on worldly desires. So we're moving out through the world, right? We're not on a spiritual journey that we know of, that we're conscious of. We're just kind of moving through life or life's moving us along. Sometimes, or not even moving through life. Life is just moving us along how we think we're supposed to be moved. And so we're prioritizing earthly things like money, power, achievements and we miss this essence of true spirituality. We are caught up in all these immediate pleasures and concerns of life, and that that that means that we're overlooking deeper, more meaningful spiritual truths. focus focus leads us to worship material successes and personal accomplishments. Instead of seeking this deeper connection with the divine. I'm not trying to get preachy here. I'm just saying, like, we get lost in life. We get lost in all this stuff, and that's okay. And that that's what works for you. That's perfectly okay. You know, you walking in a more intentional way, spiritual path isn't for everyone. People believe that they exist separately from everything else, including the divine. Like there's this divine over here or up there or wherever, and that we're separate from it. But that only emphasizes our individuality and personal desires. And when we have such beliefs, the divine is seen as something far away and not part of ourselves. So we're just reinforcing that feeling of separation. And then along that path we can start to see the unseen. And when we do that, we sense this connection with something within us, something deeper and many on this spiritual path have a sense of this, and there's even many who are on a spiritual journey who don't know yet if people out there, you know, most people are on a spiritual journey. They're just not aware of it. And so the final stage Rumi talks about is when you realize that all things, including our subjective ego, are these impermanent mirages of the true reality, which is the divine. And again, that divine doesn't have to be this religious, dogmatic thing or God. It can be divine God, it can be yourself, The universe, nature, the goal has now become to recognize that thing. We'll call it the divine for now as the sole reality. And he indicates that you have to kind of die to yourself and surrender. And then you abandon your ego and you see the reality of this divine unity and oneness with the universe. And I don't think that is inherently Islamic. It might not even inherently part of the Abrahamic faiths. This is the teachings of mysticism. This is the teachings of Buddha. This is the teachings of Hinduism or the Dao. They all point in this direction. As I was reading this, As I was reading this, the thought came to me, you know, why is there darkness, evil and suffering in the world? I get this question from time to time when we're having discussions over at Kishar.org, our spiritual community, and it's a question that has occupied spiritualist theologians, philosophers, self-help gurus and other humans for thousands of years now. I wanted to offer you a summary of Rumi's perspective on the relationship between God or the divine, good and evil and the concept of two worlds. He says that goodness originates from the divine. You can call it again God, the self, whatever you want to call it. But He believes everything created by the Divine is inherently good and beautiful, because the divine is this epitome of goodness and beauty. Then there's this perception of evil. And what he says is humans sometimes perceive evil or ugly is really only in relation to our limited understanding of the universe, to the divine. There is no evil in the way that we think of it. Evil serves as a contrast that simply shows humans. That there is this contrast between this truth and beauty over here and darkness. And he says, There's this world versus the other world. And he distinguishes between these two realms, saying the world is the physical, tangible world that we all move through every day with each other, characterized by time, space and matter. It's like the visible part of a tree, including its branches and its leaves. The other word, the other world is more subtle as a spiritual realm beyond our physical senses, home to the universal essence of everything that exists in the physical world. And it's similar to the tree's roots, which are invisible and lie in the other world. So it's this continuum of existence, these two worlds are not entirely separate, but are connected as a part of the whole, and they're like the front and back of a mirror, each reflecting different aspects of the same reality. So it comes back to a limited human perception, and our physical senses can only perceive these forms in appearances of this concrete world we're living in that we experience. But the true essence of things which reside in the other world are beyond direct sensory perception. There are what he calls the signs of the unseen, which is the title of the book. But we can see them if we focus within. And so I think if you distill all that down, we've got this world that we move through, but it's just a reflection of actual reality, which is that unified, divine consciousness of the universe within. I don't know if that makes sense in it, but doesn't please let me know in the comments and we'll talk about it. Rumi says. And so he's saying that it's within. We can't we can't be forced to unlock ourselves from without all these people saying things. Even the things that I'm telling you right now are not going to be the key that unlocks that door inside of you. You have the key. You have to put it in the keyhole. You have to unlock yourself. I'm usually most interested in questions about our reality and questions about our connection with the divine or the universal oneness of everything. And I found that Rumi primarily discussed those things in this book, and I very much see things as he does. The Divine is in everything. It's everywhere, all around us in our path to seeing. This is fundamentally a short one, strikingly so, and I think that we have to realize that we just have to put that key within ourselves, unlock it and walk through that door. There's a leap of faith involved with that. It seems like we keep coming back to this regardless of what faith or belief that we're reading about or studying. If we slow things down, we may see it. If we ignore all this stuff and clutter around us, we might see it. And if we care less about what others are doing or what they have, or what they think, we might see it. If we find quiet and stillness, we may see it if we close our eyes, we might see it. And even if we don't, it's still right there in front of us. So know that that divine universal truth, those those things that are unseen, they can be seen from within. What are your thoughts on Sufi Islam? What do you think of mystics? How do you see it playing a role in your own spiritual journey? Let me know by hitting me up in the comments and I will absolutely get back with you for a peaceful and open minded community where people can share their journeys, be themselves, even have conversations just like this. Please visit Kishar.org Please like this video. If you want us to keep making content just like this and until next time, I wish you peace on your journey.