But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation, so everyone will understand the passage, We have opened you. Start walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy and tired. Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you’ve grown, lifting.
-- Rumi
Shams was the teacher of Jalal al-Din Rumi, a famous scholar and jurist and poet born in Afghanistan in 1207. Traveling to Damascus, on November 14, 1244 he met a Sufi mystic, Shams of Tabriz. The story goes that Rumi was teaching a class on the banks of the river. Shams interrupted the class, picked up Rumi’s books and threw them into the river. Outraged, Rumi faced Shams, but Shams looked Rumi in the eye and said, “You won’t find God in those books. You will only find God here (tapping Rumi’s chest) in your own heart. It changed Rumi forever, he became an ecstatic poet and mystic. In 1248 Shams disappeared and was never seen again. But Rumi continued to compose ecstatic mystical poems of love to Shams. Rumi died in Western Turkey in 1273.
The flute of interior time is played whether we hear it or not, What we mean by "love" is its sound coming in. When love hits the farthest edge of excess, it reaches wisdom. And the fragrance of that knowledge! It penetrates our thick bodies, it goes through walls. Its network of notes has a structure as if a million suns were arranged inside. This tune has truth in it. Where else have you heard a sound like this?
-- Kabir
Kabir was a famous Indian poet-saint. Born in the city of Varanasi in 1398 into a poor family Moslem family of weavers, Kabir had a mystical bent since childhood. He began teaching that "truth" is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, who considers everything, living and non living, as divine, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world.” These views were controversial to both Hindus and Moslems, and people would question him about who had taught him this. Then when Kabir admitted he had no teacher, people wouldn’t want to listen anymore.
Kabir decided to find a teacher and looked around to see who was the most illustrious and respected teacher. Ramananda was a famous Vaishnava bhakti yogi, but as an orthodox Brahman, he believed that it was contaminating to even look at a Moslem. There was no way Ramananda would accept Kabir as a student. However, Kabir watched Ramananda and saw that every morning before dawn, Ramananda would go down the steps to bathe in the Ganges River. Early one morning, Kabir went and lay down on the steps, and in the dark Ramananda accidentally stepped on him. Startlled, he exclained “O Rama!” Kabir got up and walked away, and thereafter when people questioned him about his teacher he would say, “I am an initiated disciple of Ramananda.” People would then listen to him.
Word of this got back to Ramananda, that a Moslem was preaching in public claiming to be his disciple. Ramananda asked his students to bring the man to him. They did and Ramananda sat behind a curtain so that he wouldn’t have to look at Kabir, and he asked Kabir, “Please tell my students that you are not really my disciple.” Kabir answered, “Guruji, I cannot say that. Don’t you remember that morning by the river when you touched my forehead with your foot and gave me the mantra “Rama”? Ramananda realized that this was a true initiation. So he agreed to accept Kabir as his student. Ever day Kabir would visit him and they would speak, but always separated by a curtain.
One morning when Kabir arrived, Ramananda was still meditating. His method of meditation was mental worship of god in the form of Lore Rama. In his mind he would bathe Rama, dress him beautiful clothes and ornaments, offer delicious food, cool water scented with camphor, etc.. On this particular morning he had envisioned Rama with a beautiful golden crown, and he about to place a beautiful garland of flowers around Rama’s neck, when he realized that his mental garland was smaller than the mental crown. He paused in his meditation uncertain what to do. From behind the curtain, Kabir said, “Guruji, untie the garland and then tie it around Rama’s neck.” Ramananda leaped up, threw aside the curtain and embraced Kabir, saying, “Nothing can be hidden from Kabir.”
Most people in the world are like frogs who live in a well. As far as they’re concerned, the world is the inside of the well. One day a frog who lived outside the well, looked in the well and saw the frog in the well and jumped inside. He asked the frog in the well, “Why do you stay here inside this well? There’s a big world outside with blue sky and ponds and lakes and rivers.” But the frog in the well said, “You’re crazy! This is the world.” The other frog shrugged his froggy shoulders and jumped back outside the well.
When the prince, Rama, became a young man, his father, King Dasaratha, sent him on a yatra, a tour of the country. When Rama returned a year later, his father was going to have a big celebration, but as preparations were underway, other courtiers came to the king to tell him that Rama was just moping around the palace. Rama grew pale and thin. He seemed to have lost all interest in the pursuits he used to enjoy. We wasn’t eating, he wasn’t hanging out with his friends, he seemed quite depressed, in fact. King Dasaratha was concerned and asked Rama what was wrong, but Rama answered, “Nothing”.
Dasaratha then questioned Rama’s chamberlain, who said, “Rama is very depressed. He wanders about sighing, ‘What’s the use?’ He even has suicidal thoughts." Dasaratha brought this matter up to Rama’s Gurus Vishwamitra and Vasistha, who rejoiced and said, “Rama’s condition is not the result of delusion. It is full of wisdom and dispassion and points to enlightenment. Let him be brought here.”
When Rama arrived, Rama asked his Gurus, “What is happiness and how can it be had in this ever-changing world? People seem to be born only destined to die. What is the point of it all? By reflecting on the fate of beings, I am filled with grief. How do I free myself from this confusion? I am not yet established in wisdom so I am partly freed, but partly bound.”
Vasistha answered,
“There is no power greater than right action in the present moment. Hence one should take recourse to self effort, grinding one’s teeth, and one should overcome evil by good, and fate by present effort."
"In one who practices yoga, there arises a nobility of being, seeing which even ignorant and foolish people wish to attain liberation. One is a noble person who does what should be done, who refrains from doing what should not be done, and who lives a simple and natural life. True wisdom arises in such a person and in due course such a person becomes fully realized, doubts dispelled and bonds severed. Remaining firmly established in this stage one reaches the final stage known in various ways by various people: Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Truth, Time, Being, Nirvana, Enlightenment, Samadhi. When you reach this stage, you go beyond sorrow, O Rama.”
To the graduates: You are like Rama, having returned from your yatra. You see the truth of life, you are intelligent and perceptive, and you might be asking yourself, “Now what’s the point of all this?” You have been taught yoga. Now take what you’ve learned and put it into action. By now you know that yoga goes beyond the asanas. Yoga really takes place in the mind. So why do we teach asana? We teach it because that’s what can be taught. As our teachers know, we teach the mind yoga through asana. Learn it, practice it, and teach it well. This is right action in the present moment.
A few people are out there sitting in their well, but perhaps they’ve looked up and seen the circle of sky and they’re wondering, “What is that?” Help them jump out.
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