Loving One's Enemy & True Sincerity: #65 -66 The Mesnevi by Rumi

photo from Persian Heritage dot net
One of the greatest teachers of Qonya was one day giving a lecture on a terraced roof, when suddenly he heard the sound of a lute. He exclaimed: "These lutes are an innovation on the prophetic usages. They must be interdicted."

Forth with, the form of Jelal appeared before him, and answered: "That must not be." On this the teacher fainted away.

When he regained his consciousness, he sought to make his peace with Jelal, by sending an apology and a recantation to him, through the medium of Jelal's son, Sultan Veled; but Jelal would not accept them. He answered: "It would be easier to convert seventy Roman bishops to Islam, than to clear away from the mind of that teacher the stains of hate, and so set him on the right road. His soul is as foul as the paper on which children practise their writing exercises."

At length, however, he allowed himself to be appeased by his son; so that he permitted the teacher, with his pupils, to constitute themselves his disciples.

Jelal one day addressed his son, saying: "Baha'u-'d-Din, dost thou wish to love thy enemy, and to be loved of him? Speak well of him, and extol his virtues. He will then be thy friend; and for this reason: In like manner as there is a road open between the heart and the tongue, so also is there a way from the tongue to the heart. The love of God may be found by bearing His comely names. God hath said: 'O My servants, take ye heed that ye often commemorate Me, so that sincerity may abound.'

The more that sincerity prevails, the more do the rays of the light of truth shine into the heart. The hotter a baker's oven is, the more bread will it bake; if cool, it will not bake at all."

The Mesnevi was "translated" in 1881 by Sir James W. Redhouse (who along with his many linguistic and inter-cultural interests and skills, negotiated a number of peace efforts)

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Love Your Enemy World Scriptures unification dot net

Maher Arar: Current US Admin stands with Bush officials! Plz take action...

Public Action Needed Worldwide!
here

Following is from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

Please see our case page for more legal information and to watch CCR
Senior Staff Attorney and Mr. Arar's lawyer Maria LaHood explain the
background of the case and what is at stake with our petition to the
Supreme Court. here

Register your dismay with President Obama and demand that his
administration take five specifics steps towards justice for Maher
Arar. here

Please stay tuned for more developments in this critical case. Thank
you for taking action.

Yours truly,

Annette Dickerson
Director of Education and Outreach
Center for Constitutional Rights
666 Broadway 7th floor NY, NY 10012
212-614-6464
http://www.ccrjustice.org

The nomorecrusades dot blogspot dot com is usually my Rights & History Site now which I've kept small for some time but am making the One Heart for Peace blog much more inter-cultural, inter-ethics/faith and positive/youth friendly...but this action needs WIDE attention!

Also go there to the nomorecrusades site to see what I'm putting out on the SPAIN prosecutors case against US agents (this time connected to my state, NC) and more on torture in
Bagram...

More on Ibn-e SAFI from Rashid

ILLUSTRATION: SAMIA SINGH

The following information was just submitted as a comment to this blog-site under the following post - here OR if you have difficulty finding it, simply go to April 2010 for archived "Ibn-e Safi Reviewed upon Occasion of first English Publication" I have deleted the links which have evidently changed and not working yet look for more to come.

Thanx, Mr. Rashid for letting us know...

From RASHID Sahib:
Some more facts…..Here, you have mentioned three soft links of info on House of Fear i.e of flipcart, rediff books... There are a few other links which may be referred here -- this article is written on Feb 05, 2010 by Aasheesh Sherma Amrita Talwar for Hindustan Times.

Following the directives of Ahmad Safi Sahab and on the request of Mr.Aasheesh, I have forwarded him a few high resolution images of Ibne Safi...

...Beside busy with a private TV channel of Karachi for a 01 hour documentary on Ibne Safi, I am preparing a comprehensive list of English/Urdu articles written on Ibne Safi along with web sites, blogs, Audio Clips of Ibne Safi , Video Clips of friends of Ibne Safi, M.Phil/PHd done or being done on Ibne Safi, Books written on Ibne Safi, Books/magazines in which Ibne Safi is mentioned etc.

I have also mentioned your two blogs in the list. My Goodness! ...surprising for me and all Ibne Safi lovers that as yet, there are 144 Urdu and 12 English articles written on Ibne Safi. This is unbelievable. All these articles are written with a great affection by different writers/literary personalities/poets/literary critics/university professors etc., etc.

I will soon include the list at wadi-e-urdu as well as at ibnesafi.info as I always like to share my work for my MURABBI Hanif Sahab.

I also like to inform Ibne Safi lovers that after 40 years, I have traced and contacted Maulana Hippy (Muhammad Hussain Talpur) who was the producer of film Dhamaka written by Ibne Safi. It was released on December 29 , 1974... Maulana Hippy went back to SINDH province where from he came to Karachi in 1970s to start his film career. Now, if we will be able to meet him, it would be a big deal.

The quest is on.

Regards
RASHID

Updated: Finding "the pearl" (within and without) and understanding motives better Part One

Updating on The Enneagram as one of many tools for self-discovery - Here are a few sources which may help with background if you have the time (remember if you are new that lots of short dips over much time work pretty well for most people with whom I've spoken. Keep in mind there are many variants within this system: here and here

Find here some nuggests to help three types with more yet coming....

Here is a little reflection about finding the pearl within ourselves and our cultures once in awhile as we go about making personal decisions:

To help us out - here are three sources for starters among our inherited wisdom - tried and true over many generations from many places. Two of these "wisdom threads" are certainly Rumi and the Enneagram and a third "thread" might be the vast body of our treasured literature as well as what is archived from our print media.

Jeanine Siler Jones, a teacher of the Enneagram, has put the first two together in a lovely manner and then there are a few items from literature and the printed page for a third type of "mirror". These are selected and placed here without planning or intentions yet as perhaps some small places to go and from which to depart.



This source is new to me and I am trying to find the exact link so I will try to give that or offer the little sampler of "solutions" for the other five "types in Part Two. While this source is new, I am hardly new to the Enneagram system and find it fun and revealing as a family pastime. You may have or find "translations" of both this system and of Rumi you like better. If so, please share these.

(Two) There is a force within that gives you life - seek that. In your body there lies A PRICELESS JEWEL - seek that. Oh, wandering Sufi, if you are in search of the greatest treasure, don't look outside, look within, and SEE That.

(Six) Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through distances. That's not for human beings. Move within, but DON'T MOVE the way FEAR MAKES YOU MOVE.

(Nine) The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you...DON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doors where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.

(Eight) Be helpless, BE DUMBFOUNDED, unable to say yes or no - then a stretcher will come from grace and gather us up.

The remaining NINE coming in one or several more parts soon...

Perhaps these few samples from hundreds if not thousands of Rumi and Enneagram sources today might cause Rumi and his scholars to writhe in agony? Yet for our purposes these may suffice as conversation starters with each ourselves and with one another? And do keep the conversation going...

The nine Enneagram personality types are divided into three centers of knowing: heart, head, and body. Every type resources all three centers but tends to rely on one of the centers more than the other two. For instance, if your Enneagram type is 2, 3, or 4, the heart center, you will rely more on your emotional intelligence, processing reality through this lens more often than through mental faculties used most by types 5, 6, and 7, or the body’s instinctual knowing relied upon most by types 8, 9, and 1. Developing all three centers gives us greater resources to broaden our perspectives and allows us to have more equilibrium when that is what may be needed - at least as a respite.



A few items perhaps "evocative" of memories or "wishes" to some with which to wrestle when there is plenty of space, comfort and equilibrium to be had...and then to say hello to your dark shadows (perhaps over much time) and see them slip away little by little (at least those certain ones?) Oh the healing to recognize the unhealed places and address them before the shadows grow...A tortured soul - perhaps the soul of many women worldwide? What could she have one differently or might there have been no other way? What could society have done differently? How might our passions be directed, redirected, transformed and when fully embraced to our betterment and that of the whole world's - not to forget the priceless children of us all? here

New York Times - Early 1900's here

And here are a few remarks about The Pearl by John Steinbeck (for me this is a favorite little story and an admired author for many years). This is a small tale with a universal impact and seems to fit well with this little reflection:

Patrick Shepherd:
Most people born and raised in America cannot even imagine the depths of poverty that most of the rest of the world are forced to live with. This story illuminates this fact, as we enter the world of Kino, a pearl diver and occasional fisherman, his wife Juana, and their baby son, Coyotito...

But Kino and his family, far from being depressed or unhappy (about their poverty) have a great treasure, the love they have for each other and their satisfaction with life as it is, with few disturbing dreams of greater things. But their quiet, routine life is turned upside down the day that Kino finds a Great Pearl..

...As a parable...the characters are exquisitely drawn...it is very hard not to get drawn into their lives, where their dreams and their pains very readily become your own.



From another top reviewer called "Taking Rest":
"...often when you feel something good is about to happen, a positive change for his characters that have struggled, and fought to survive, he slams you face down on bedrock's reality.

This book is very brief, but it communicates as much as a novel 10 times its length. The ending is brilliant, tragic, and redemptive. It is a story that few could write, and even fewer could make work. The emotional scenes he brings the reader to are at times almost violent...And then with a turn of phrase he can change the mood time and time again.

A wonderful novella from an Author known for sweeping sagas

End two reviews..

Let me add...this work has most universal implications like so much of John Steinbeck's writings...I read him all the way through high school and into married/family life...films made of us work are stellar even when stylized like -East of Eden- try to dip in a little bit...The Pearl is a great place to start and you will find many ways to do so for free Online...

Please keep the Conversation going here and with one another and thanx for this community of Peace and Kindness!

Dancing in Broken Urdu

This is about two young men on a mission to film their hero. Both the hero and the youthful perspective, humor and goodwill are both interesting and moving to me. I hope some readers here will also have a few comments and information about this topic and hero? The world is so in need of such today!

So many years later there were many who still complained and questioned, “Why must you pick up Christians and Hindus in your ambulance?” And I was still saying, “Because the ambulance is more Muslim than you.” p.359 Mirror To The Blind









The Edhi Production Blog is a journal maintained by (the disarming and talented} Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, two filmmakers who have set out to document the life of Abdul Sattar Edhi. This blog hopes to chronicle their journey following the elusive humanitarian and his foundation.

How about getting started? GO here

and here

These two filmakers are new to me yet I see that they suit well this blog-site and share so many of the values that are so suitable here at nomorecrusades and also at oneheartforpeace dot blogspot dot com. They and the man they have chosen -- all three demonstrate the merciful, honest depth, good humor and faith we may be joyfully surprised if we find to this degree. Yet we may find this kind of light more often than expected if we PAY ATTENTION which I am sorely in need of doing much more often! Connie

Edhi Documentary GO here VISIT and SUPPORT!

See More here

Terms for you and I to learn. (from Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq of this Edhi Documentary site! NOT from me :) )

ghoomshuda – گم شدہ
someone who ran away or went missing

lawaaris – “ ﻻوارس
one who has no family; completely alone

Cartoon – کارٹون
the name a lawaaris ghoomshuda gave himself because he didn’t know his own

bat-ball - بيٹ بال
not really baseball, not really cricket. played in the large field at the Edhi Village by Cartoon and his friends

ithwar – اِتوار
Sunday; day of the week when Edhi-sahib and his family visit the Edhi Village

abba – ابّا
what Cartoon and other lawaaris boys at the Edhi Village call Abdul Sattar Edhi; father

Everything is Waiting for You

Photo by Captivating Woman here I found this amazing photo here by this big-hearted mother with a large-measure of faith and positive-thinking. She sounds like a great mom! (I found her because of Akhtar Wasim Dar Sahib's My Page on Web site profile) Here's what her daughter posted under her self-portrait from a wise writer: "the first step is that we really should want to unearth God in our midst...[to] let the mundane become the edge of glory, and find the extraordinary in the ordinary." By Esther de Waal

I attended a poet's workshop and poetry reciting Saturday and found the encouragement to do just what this Esther recommended...here is one of the poems which Mr. Whyte recited - his own. How can we make this title true - or rather LET this deep truth become more true - not only for ourselves yet for others too?

EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU
By the Irish-internationally famous poet, David Whyte

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline or familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

And here are some lines from the one with which he ended the session which was especially meaningful to me in terms of letting go and letting the faith of ages and the Creator behind all that is genuine and of love help us in our journeys to build those interfaith bridges and cut through not only the rigidness of so much of our boundaries - so many of our dogmas but also to know there is the witnessing of the "silent ones" to our plight and sustenance through the LOVE which holds us all:

So here then are the excerpted lines which struck me from Whyte's from his poem, "The Faces at Braga":

"the old shrine room waits in silence...

above the door, the terrible figure
fierce eyes demanding, "Will you step through?"

We...see the faces in meditation,
a hundred faces carved above...

Such love in solid wood...
they have the vibrant stillness of those who made them...

Carved in devotion
their eyes have softened throgh age
and their mouths curve through delight of the carver's hand.

If only our own faces would allow the invisible carver's hand
to bring the deep grain of love to the surface.

If only we knew as the carver knew, how the flaws
in the wood led his searching chisel to the very core,

We would smile too
and not need faces immobilized
by fear and the weight of things undone...

If only we could give ourselves
to the blows of the carver's hands,
the lines in our faces would be the trace lines of rivers

feeding the sea
where voices meet, praising the features
of the mountain, and the cloud, and he sky...

until we, growing younger toward death
every day, would gather all our flaws in celebration...

full of silence from the carver's hands.

END

(Another photo from top of the Captivating Woman site mentioned above)

INLETS into the Self

Peace at the Inlet

"Tell me about exhaustion," I said.

He looked at me with an acute, searching, compassionate ferocity for the briefest of moments, as if trying to sum up the entirety of the situation and without missing a beat, as if he had been waiting all along, to say a life-changing thing to me. He said, in the form both of a question and an assertion:

"You know that the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest?"

"The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest," I repeated woodenly, as if I might exhaust myself completely before I reached the end of the sentence. "What is it, then?"

"The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness...You are only half here, and half here will kill you after a while. You need something to which you can give your full powers...You are like Rilke's Swan in his awkward waddling across the ground; the swan doesn't cure his awkwardness by beating himself on the back, by moving faster, or by trying to organize himself better. He does it by moving toward the elemental water where he belongs...touch the elemental waters in your own life, and it will transform everything. But you have to let yourself down into those waters from the ground on which you stand...

And to die, which is the letting go
Of the ground we stand on and cling to every day..."

('from that moment on. I realized I had nowhere else to go.')

This above is an excerpt form a conversation between Brother David and Poet David Whyte...

Brother David here

Following Your Path is in Effect a Kind of Going Off the Path
here

Everything is Waiting for You
here

When "my path" is finding You: Say I Am You
here

The luminous point whose name is the Self
Is the life-spark beneath our dust.
By Love it is made more lasting,
More living, more burning, more glowing.
From Love proceeds the radiance of its being
And the development of its unknown possibilities.
It's nature gathers fire from Love,
Love instructs it to illumine the world.
From the section 'Showing that the Self is strengthened by Love' from the little gem of a book: "The Secrets of the Self" by Allama Muhammad Iqbal


"Golden Dawn" by Neil Boucher -- find both photos on this page at "Ocean Inlet Wall (and card) Art"

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Also go to the most recent post on the top to see what a man with self-proclaimed "tired eyes" is saying to the world...