Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi - No end to the journey
Ivan M. Granger May 18th, 2009
No end to the journey
by Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
English version by Robert Bly
No end, no end to the journey
no end, no end never
how can the heart in love
ever stop opening
if you love me,
you won’t just die once
in every moment
you will die into me
to be reborn
Into this new love, die
your way begins
on the other side
become the sky
take an axe to the prison wall,
escape
walk out like someone
suddenly born into color
do it now
— from Secret Language: Rumi A Celebration in Song (Music CD), by Ramananda
/ Photo by e-du /
No end, no end to the journey
That line becomes a rhythmic chant on Ramananda’s wonderful CD “Secret Language.”
no end, no end never
And, my favorite–
how can the heart in love
ever stop opening
A full life, a complete spiritual practice can be found in that question.
But why all this death imagery?
Into this new love, die
your way begins
on the other side
Why does every spiritual tradition speak of dying and death in such a favorable light? Do all mystics have some secret death wish?
In deep ecstasy, the sense of individuality, the sense of “I” thins and can completely disappear. Though you still walk and breathe and talk, there is no “you” performing these actions. The separate identity, the ego, disappears, to be replaced by a vast, borderless sense of Self.
It is this experience, this complete loss of the limited sense of self, that is the death so eagerly sought by mystics throughout time. This is the death that leads to new life…
in every moment
you will die into me
to be reborn
That limited sense of self is the prison we must break free from.
take an axe to the prison wall,
escape
Suddenly, the walls that kept you contained and carefully defined drop to the ground — and there you stand a radiant being whose boundaries are no longer perceived in terms of flesh or memory. In this new freedom, you are alive in a way you never imagined before, and everything you perceive is part of that life.
walk out like someone
suddenly born into color
do it now
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Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
Afghanistan & Turkey (1207 - 1273) Timeline |
Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi was born in Balkh, in what is now Afghanistan, on September 30, 1207. When he was still a young man, though, his family fled under the threat of a Mongol invasion, and after much traveling, finally settled in Konya, Turkey. The name Rumi means “the Roman,” that is, “from Roman Anatolia.”
Rumi followed the line of his father and his ancestors – scholars, theologians, and jurists. Until the age of thirty-seven he seems to have been a conventional teacher under the royal patronage. In 1244 he met the wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz. This recognition strengthened and galvanized his belief. His poetry filled with a longing to be the Friend, and close presence he first saw in Shams, later in Saladin Zarkub, the goldsmith, still later in his scribe, Husam. Rumi died December 17, 1273. During the last thirty years of his life he became a brilliant unfolding of that recognition, and a cause of its incandescence in others.
– from Open Secret: Versions of Rumi
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Reading this poem, I am remember a personal experience some fifteen years ago…an experience I go back to when I need some spiritual vitamins. I was feeling ill…thought I might actually be ‘dying’. alone, and I did not want to go out into a fear place..so just lying there, I began to repeat a mantra, “There is only love. Only love is real.” After a while, the mantra began to breathe through me…”I am this love.” Again, I thought I might be leaving my body, so I said, “Yes, but I want to keep my body.” After a bit, I “came back” into a great feeling of connection with my physical space and with such radiance of love and bliss…a state which lasted even into and through the following day when I got up and went to work as usual.
Also…I remember hearing Robert Bly read from his lovely translations of Rumi and others….Thank you, Ivan.
Barbara Smith Stoff
The journey to Love is not a one way street.
Make a You Turn into Love
And enjoy the trip.
Reservations are not required.
Walk slowly, you have already arrived.
Much Love
Jim Atwell
this poem and nisargadata lead one to none which is all
I love this one! The “other side” is already here within. Love is the only key you need., ~ Letitia
Nisargadata!…Yes, I must locate my much falling apart volume, mislaid through house moves!….He has been a great help to me. This must be a reminder to me too…on a day in which I have been in need of reminders…or perhaps more receptive of reminders. ~b
yes…”the other side” is always here…within.
Kabir says much the same thing, when he says (I remember and translate loosely) “When I was there, there was no Hari. Now Hari is here and I am not”. A spiritual death of the `I’ factor is very necessary for the vastness of Self to enter.
Thank you.
Thank you Ivan for your comments - its beautiful. Here I would like to share another poem by Rumi on oneness, which has touched me profoundly, may I ?
A moment of happiness,
you and I sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.
We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden’s beauty
and the birds singing.
The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.
You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.
The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar
as we laugh together, you and I.
In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.
Kulliyat-e Shams, 2114
Wow!! Ivan,
(i think my face’s gonna freeze one day, of saying a thousand “Wow”s!!
This time it’s the picture, besides the poem.
WHAT, A MARVELOUS DESCRIPTION ,… the colours, the ancient ancient doorways, ( i think i just sit there in the staircase, my head resting against the wall, straining my neck, looking up at the sky. While all i need to do is get up, ‘…. escape’!!)
I love the humble bougainvillea, quietly resting in a corner, making this existence worthwhile.!!
Beautiful!!!
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