Here is my answers to another reading assignment for my Integrative Yoga Therapy Internship. The assignment was to chose an unfamiliar poem by Rumi and explore it. I love Rumi so this assignment was something I considered a lot of fun no chore at all.
After thumbing through the book, Essential Rumi, looking for a poem to write about I choose this one on p. 275
Say I Am You
I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.
I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.
Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.
I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.
The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.
What is, and what isn't.
You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.
- Rumi
Read the poem twice and answer the following
questions:
a) What are your first impressions?
I chose this poem because I liked the rhythm of it and I like the message which I interpreted as we are all one. I was thinking: I am you and you are me. We are all the same. I had the impression that the poem was asking for us to accept things as they are. I was attracted to the poem because of its references to beautiful moments in nature. When we see ourselves as part of nature perhaps we are less likely to destroy it.
b) What do you think inspired Rumi to write this poem?
Perhaps Rumi was out in nature in all its glory and came to the realization that we are all connected and we are all a part of nature's beauty. I think a lot about how the universe inside of us is the same as the universe outside of us. I once saw the Eames movie "Powers of Ten" that hit this point home to me.
"I do believe we're all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other."
- Harvey Fierstein
Perhaps Rumi was looking for some assurance from nature of his place as a part of this marvelous system.
"Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation." - Charles Cook
Perhaps Rumi wanted to stress that as humans we aren't the master of nature but in fact a part of nature.
“Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Perhaps Rumi was marveling over this beautiful universe created by God and how he is thankful to be apart of it.
"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”
– William A. Ward
c) Read the poem again, this time slowly: What happened? What is described? Who is involved? What mood, thoughts, feelings, emotions and/or ideas do you think Rumi was attempting to bring up in the reader? Did he succeed?
I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.
First two lines Rumi describes himself as both particles of dust illuminated by sunlight and the illuminating sun itself. He is both microcosm and macrocosm. He is the dust that we usually try to clean away, He is dust that has escaped the broom and is triumphantly shinning. We don't usually want to see dust or be dust. But I am the dust is the first statement in the poem. So Rumi, for me, as saying even things that we consider distasteful are also important to acknowledge and can be beautiful. Also this seeing ourselves as dust can show how insignificant we are when we compare ourselves to the vastness of the universe. We are as small as dust. We are as dirty as dust. We are as undesirable as dust. But, conversely, we are very significant because we are the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.
I interpret these lines in a few ways. I first interpreted them as be who you are not matter what that is. Accept yourself. Dust which doesn't move should stay and be dust. The sun that moves can keep moving.
But with further investigation I can also interpret that Rumi is asking us to acknowledge and be ok with the dirty and undesirable parts of ourselves. He invites us to befriend our undesirable parts and welcome them to stay, This means a lot to me as a Black and Jewish woman I have often been considered by others and myself dirty and undesirable. But Rumi speaks to me personally when he says that dust can stay!!
I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
Now Rumi has moved more ephemeral aspects of the Self. Both the morning mist and the breath of the evening can't be contained or quantified. He also describes the whole day from morning to evening in these lines. Declaring that he is the entire day from light to darkness. Meaning he is timeless and therefore we as humans are also all aspects of time. Also I can interpret as he is all colors from white to black. As a interracial person I can relate to being white as the morning mist and black as the breath of evening. I have spend my life trying to embrace my differences and put them together as a beautiful sentence that is me.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.
Again Rumi defines extremes from the top of the trees to surf hitting against a cliff. He shows the vastness of what we are as humans. It also ties us back to nature: the wind, the trees, the water surf, and cliffs.
Both wind and surf can be rough. Maybe Rumi is saying that we all have our rough parts, our destructive tendencies. The surf on the cliff erodes the cliff. But being tough, mean, angry, abrasive perhaps is also part of who we are, all parts of nature have their roughness.
“To run with the wolf was to run in the shadows, the dark ray of life, survival and instinct. A fierceness that was both proud and lonely, a tearing, a howling, a hunger and thirst. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst. A strength that would die fighting, kicking, screaming, that wouldn't stop until the last breath had been wrung from its body. The will to take one's place in the world. To say 'I am here.' To say 'I am.”
― O.R. Melling
Yesterday, I was angry and I wasn't sure why. I looked in the mirror and I thought "Am I becoming an old mean lady." I was the surf eroding the cliff. I was the wind blowing the leaves off the trees. I was a person angry that the people around me were having fun and I wasn't. I decide to go to yoga and try to shift my mood
Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.
These lines show the complexity of being human. Not only are we the parts of the boat but we are also the coral the cuts and sinks the boat. I see this in myself, that I am equally my best friend and my worst enemy. Many of the obstacles that are in my way are ones that I have put there. Many things I resent in my life are there because I haven't made any changes.
I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.
The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
The vast potential of being human is being able to create brilliant instrument like a flute, as well as, the ability to spark a stone and make fire. Fire is one of the things that distinguishes us from other primates. Flickering in metal may mean that I am also the reflection of the fire that I myself made by hitting the stone. I am also the fire that is used to mold and create the flute.
I feel close to God when I am making art, creating, using my hands.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.
Again Rumi shows the depth of human existence. Not only are we the candle we are also the moth that is mesmerized by the candle, thus, we are mesmerizer and mesmerized. Another example of this is that we are both the rose that makes the fragrance and the nightingale that is bedazzled by the fragrance. It's important to me in these lines that the moth is "crazy" around the flame and the nightingale is "lost" in the fragrance. When we are crazy and lost we have no control of the site, situation or our surroundings, the surroundings are controlling us.
I am often lost and sometimes found. Circle the flame, confused, not sure what to do.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.
This stanza reaffirms that vastness of the human experience: we are galaxy and evolutionary intelligence. Also as humans we are the lift up and the falling down. Perhaps Rumi is also pointing to the ups and downs that we experience in life. I feel like I have falling down so many times and then eventually I brush myself off and get up.
What is, and what isn't.
As humans, As Rumi, as Nya we are everything that is and isn't. We can define ourselves equally by what we are and we are not. I am female/I am not male.
You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.
Then he uses his first name which implies to me, you who know me intimately enough to call me by my first name. You who are important to me. You who are my one and all. Tell me that I am you which for me means we are the same.
Equally, this feels like he could be looking in the mirror and saying to himself. You know who you are. I am the one who looks at myself in the mirror.
d)Is your final conclusion different from your first impression? If so, how?
When I break this poem down I realize it is so much more elaborate and detailed than I had seen upon the first two readings. It reminds me right now of our world full of dualities: Republican and Democrat, Black and White, Christian and Muslim, Rumi asks us to see the other as ourselves. This is revolutionary. This is something that seems way too difficult for the human race. To me this is a revolutionary statement.
I wish the cop see himself as the perpetrator and perpetrator as the cop. The white man as the black man and the black man as white man. If we saw each other as ourselves I believe there wouldn't be so much violence in the world. For me, the path to enlightenment surely is down this road of "Saying I Am You."
After thumbing through the book, Essential Rumi, looking for a poem to write about I choose this one on p. 275
Say I Am You
I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.
I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.
Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.
I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.
The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.
What is, and what isn't.
You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.
- Rumi
Read the poem twice and answer the following
questions:
a) What are your first impressions?
I chose this poem because I liked the rhythm of it and I like the message which I interpreted as we are all one. I was thinking: I am you and you are me. We are all the same. I had the impression that the poem was asking for us to accept things as they are. I was attracted to the poem because of its references to beautiful moments in nature. When we see ourselves as part of nature perhaps we are less likely to destroy it.
b) What do you think inspired Rumi to write this poem?
Perhaps Rumi was out in nature in all its glory and came to the realization that we are all connected and we are all a part of nature's beauty. I think a lot about how the universe inside of us is the same as the universe outside of us. I once saw the Eames movie "Powers of Ten" that hit this point home to me.
"I do believe we're all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other."
- Harvey Fierstein
Perhaps Rumi was looking for some assurance from nature of his place as a part of this marvelous system.
"Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation." - Charles Cook
Perhaps Rumi wanted to stress that as humans we aren't the master of nature but in fact a part of nature.
“Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Perhaps Rumi was marveling over this beautiful universe created by God and how he is thankful to be apart of it.
"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”
– William A. Ward
c) Read the poem again, this time slowly: What happened? What is described? Who is involved? What mood, thoughts, feelings, emotions and/or ideas do you think Rumi was attempting to bring up in the reader? Did he succeed?
I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.
First two lines Rumi describes himself as both particles of dust illuminated by sunlight and the illuminating sun itself. He is both microcosm and macrocosm. He is the dust that we usually try to clean away, He is dust that has escaped the broom and is triumphantly shinning. We don't usually want to see dust or be dust. But I am the dust is the first statement in the poem. So Rumi, for me, as saying even things that we consider distasteful are also important to acknowledge and can be beautiful. Also this seeing ourselves as dust can show how insignificant we are when we compare ourselves to the vastness of the universe. We are as small as dust. We are as dirty as dust. We are as undesirable as dust. But, conversely, we are very significant because we are the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.
I interpret these lines in a few ways. I first interpreted them as be who you are not matter what that is. Accept yourself. Dust which doesn't move should stay and be dust. The sun that moves can keep moving.
But with further investigation I can also interpret that Rumi is asking us to acknowledge and be ok with the dirty and undesirable parts of ourselves. He invites us to befriend our undesirable parts and welcome them to stay, This means a lot to me as a Black and Jewish woman I have often been considered by others and myself dirty and undesirable. But Rumi speaks to me personally when he says that dust can stay!!
I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
Now Rumi has moved more ephemeral aspects of the Self. Both the morning mist and the breath of the evening can't be contained or quantified. He also describes the whole day from morning to evening in these lines. Declaring that he is the entire day from light to darkness. Meaning he is timeless and therefore we as humans are also all aspects of time. Also I can interpret as he is all colors from white to black. As a interracial person I can relate to being white as the morning mist and black as the breath of evening. I have spend my life trying to embrace my differences and put them together as a beautiful sentence that is me.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.
Again Rumi defines extremes from the top of the trees to surf hitting against a cliff. He shows the vastness of what we are as humans. It also ties us back to nature: the wind, the trees, the water surf, and cliffs.
Both wind and surf can be rough. Maybe Rumi is saying that we all have our rough parts, our destructive tendencies. The surf on the cliff erodes the cliff. But being tough, mean, angry, abrasive perhaps is also part of who we are, all parts of nature have their roughness.
“To run with the wolf was to run in the shadows, the dark ray of life, survival and instinct. A fierceness that was both proud and lonely, a tearing, a howling, a hunger and thirst. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst. A strength that would die fighting, kicking, screaming, that wouldn't stop until the last breath had been wrung from its body. The will to take one's place in the world. To say 'I am here.' To say 'I am.”
― O.R. Melling
Yesterday, I was angry and I wasn't sure why. I looked in the mirror and I thought "Am I becoming an old mean lady." I was the surf eroding the cliff. I was the wind blowing the leaves off the trees. I was a person angry that the people around me were having fun and I wasn't. I decide to go to yoga and try to shift my mood
Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.
These lines show the complexity of being human. Not only are we the parts of the boat but we are also the coral the cuts and sinks the boat. I see this in myself, that I am equally my best friend and my worst enemy. Many of the obstacles that are in my way are ones that I have put there. Many things I resent in my life are there because I haven't made any changes.
I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.
Not only is Rumi the graceful silent tree. He is also the parrot that makes noise in its branches. Meaning that as humans we are both sound and silence. We are also the branch and the one who sits on the branch.
It's interesting to me that the parrot is a "trained" parrot. Why does Rumi need to say that? It reminds me how sometimes we are all just trained parrots repeating what others have to say. My first instinct when interpreting this poem was to look on the internet and see what others had to say about it. But, I decided to suppress that instinct and do my own interpretation. It's so easy to be a trained parrot. It's much harder to be a wild one.
And being quiet. It's so important and yet a struggle with it. Sometimes feeling it's my duty to fill up the air with talking. I think the real yogini knows how to shut up.
"Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about." - Saskya Pandita
It's interesting to me that the parrot is a "trained" parrot. Why does Rumi need to say that? It reminds me how sometimes we are all just trained parrots repeating what others have to say. My first instinct when interpreting this poem was to look on the internet and see what others had to say about it. But, I decided to suppress that instinct and do my own interpretation. It's so easy to be a trained parrot. It's much harder to be a wild one.
And being quiet. It's so important and yet a struggle with it. Sometimes feeling it's my duty to fill up the air with talking. I think the real yogini knows how to shut up.
"Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about." - Saskya Pandita
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
The vast potential of being human is being able to create brilliant instrument like a flute, as well as, the ability to spark a stone and make fire. Fire is one of the things that distinguishes us from other primates. Flickering in metal may mean that I am also the reflection of the fire that I myself made by hitting the stone. I am also the fire that is used to mold and create the flute.
I feel close to God when I am making art, creating, using my hands.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.
Again Rumi shows the depth of human existence. Not only are we the candle we are also the moth that is mesmerized by the candle, thus, we are mesmerizer and mesmerized. Another example of this is that we are both the rose that makes the fragrance and the nightingale that is bedazzled by the fragrance. It's important to me in these lines that the moth is "crazy" around the flame and the nightingale is "lost" in the fragrance. When we are crazy and lost we have no control of the site, situation or our surroundings, the surroundings are controlling us.
I am often lost and sometimes found. Circle the flame, confused, not sure what to do.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.
This stanza reaffirms that vastness of the human experience: we are galaxy and evolutionary intelligence. Also as humans we are the lift up and the falling down. Perhaps Rumi is also pointing to the ups and downs that we experience in life. I feel like I have falling down so many times and then eventually I brush myself off and get up.
What is, and what isn't.
As humans, As Rumi, as Nya we are everything that is and isn't. We can define ourselves equally by what we are and we are not. I am female/I am not male.
You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.
Then he uses his first name which implies to me, you who know me intimately enough to call me by my first name. You who are important to me. You who are my one and all. Tell me that I am you which for me means we are the same.
Equally, this feels like he could be looking in the mirror and saying to himself. You know who you are. I am the one who looks at myself in the mirror.
d)Is your final conclusion different from your first impression? If so, how?
When I break this poem down I realize it is so much more elaborate and detailed than I had seen upon the first two readings. It reminds me right now of our world full of dualities: Republican and Democrat, Black and White, Christian and Muslim, Rumi asks us to see the other as ourselves. This is revolutionary. This is something that seems way too difficult for the human race. To me this is a revolutionary statement.
I wish the cop see himself as the perpetrator and perpetrator as the cop. The white man as the black man and the black man as white man. If we saw each other as ourselves I believe there wouldn't be so much violence in the world. For me, the path to enlightenment surely is down this road of "Saying I Am You."
You are awesome!
ReplyDeleteJust saw this!! Thank you so much!
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