InSpiritry

There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Jelaluddin Balkhi (Rumi)

The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Imagine yourself so filled with gratitude and joy that you feel compelled to kneel–to kneel!–and kiss the very ground on which you stand, to thank God/Nature/Life for the pleasure and priviledge of living! Now imagine a hundred ways to express that joy!

Such was the daily experience of 12th century mystic poet, Rumi, whose story, though not detailed here, is as spiritually powerful as his poems. Coleman Barks, a renowned poet in his own right, has, in the past twelve years, gifted several volumes of Rumi’s writing to us in English. The translations, and Barks’ oral readings of them, are beautiful!

I thought of this hundred ways quote by Rumi after a lovely dinner with a close friend, who told me she was just discovering Rumi. She asked my thoughts, not knowing she was unleashing a flood of impassioned devotion. I gushed about the poet’s expression of faith in sensual metaphors of human love and Rumi’s practice of writing poetry as a life-long, continuing prayer.

As part of my own spiritual practice and my daily preparation for writing, I often read Rumi, highlighting beautiful passages, noting exquisite phrases, memorizing bits of wisdom. Out of all his writings, this quote, There are a hundred ways..., is one of my favorites.

I love it first because, on the surface, Rumi’s words ring true: there are any number of ways to pray, to praise, to worship. Each church or mosque or temple or individual has a particular ”way,” but even further, many of us have discovered that the religious practices of other faiths (music, prayers, fasting, sacred meals, inspired writings, etc.) can have meaning in their own lives. Like Rumi, we seek God wherever and however we can find him!

In fact, throughout his writings, Rumi offers us many insightful metaphors for our faith journey:

• the servant wanting approval

• the student longing for knowledge

• a child returning home

• a gardener tending the garden

• the mother teaching her child

• the lover enraptured for the beloved.

Each image reveals for us a new way of thinking about our search for God. The poet shares our desire for spiritual understanding, however incomplete it is. In one passage, Rumi imagines God saying, “It is your longing for me that is your proof I am here.”

But what if, as with all great poetry, we are able to apply Rumi’s poetic hundred ways on a wider scale to consider the complete spectrum of human experience? We might then see that:

There are a hundred ways to do everything!

With this in mind, we can not only accept that the diversity of the world around us, but see it as holy! We can consecrate the many individual paths men and women take to live this life, the many individual “ways” to dress, to speak, to cook, to sing, to work, to parent, to solve problems, to make choices, to study, to express our ideas, to vote, to love, to grieve, to die. Acceptance of others becomes a celebration of the creative potential of all people.  We come to understand that at any moment each one of us is taking only one of the hundred ways!

If you haven’t read Rumi, I highly recommend his work. But, be forewarned, you may be transformed! Whatever your faith experience, you may for the first time open your heart’s windows so wide that you finally see God (and humanity) in all the hundreds and hundreds of “ways”!

For more inspiration, visit the InSpiritry website and see how your moments of  inspiration, your passion can serve the Greater Good and help create a world of peace and justice.

I hope you will feel inspired to be a blessing today!

Learn more about InSpiritry and Anne McCrady

Subscribe to InSpiritry Emails

Contact Anne McCrady

Join the InSpiritry Conversation on the Greater Good–

Add Your Comment Below!

Technorati Tags:Rumi A Hundred Ways diversity Coleman Barks

Trackback Address for This Posting is:
www.inspiritry.com/wordpress/2007/08/06/A-Hundred-Ways/

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am and is filed under Books, Greater Good, InSpiritry, Anne McCrady, Creativity, InSpiration, Social Issues, Spiritual, Literary, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.