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Delivered at the Rumi Alive Conference
November 9, 2007 National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic By Cynthia Lukas Co-Producer with Kell Kearns “RUMI RETURNING” I want to thank the previous speaker, Professor Luboš Kropácek, for his very Rumi-like statement as he began his remarks: “There is no space for dogmatism here.” We are honored to be alongside him and others gathered here at the Rumi Alive Conference in Prague to discuss the beautiful vision of peace and tolerance as manifested by Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Our presence as American filmmakers on this international panel speaks to Rumi’s universal vision, his global dimension that he himself described as “placeless”. At the same time that he was a perfect product of his heritage, being born in Khorasan (now Afghanistan), speaking and composing in Persian, teaching and living in Anatolia (now Turkey), Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi also spoke what we can call a “universal language”. This is the language of the heart that has the power to transcend all cultures and tongues. In fact, it has made him the #1 selling poet in the United States, which doesn’t even speak his original language!
Rumi and his life story as presented in “RUMI RETURNING” shows us that there can be a coexistence of multiplicity, a unity in diversity. This is, of course, the challenge of our age. How do we coexist in our diversity? How do we stay united in our humanity even as we retain our awesome diversity, truly a gift from God? At the end of “RUMI RETURNING” we see the outline of two gray-haired men sitting before a beautiful fountain in front of the very green lawn of one of the most breathtaking mosques in the world, all awash in celestial light, as we hear what Rumi wrote about his relationship with the teacher and heart companion, who changed his life, Shams of Tabriz: "Those tender words we said to one another have been stored in the secret heart of heaven. And one day like the rain they will fall and spread, and the whole world will grow green with our love." Sufis, the mystics of Islam such as Rumi was, believe that “lovers never die”--as our onscreen Sufi dervish commentator exclaims exuberantly. Rumi himself exhorted others not to look for him in his grave after he left his body, but in “the hearts of men”.
Our world situation couldn’t be more dire, so our desire for peace couldn’t be more acute. “RUMI RETURNING” asks—and answers—the question: Does an 800 year old Muslim mystic hold the key to global peace?” And our answer is Yes! It is no coincidence to us that this 13th century Sufi mystic is the best-selling poet in the U.S.; or that children in Iran memorize his poems like nursery rhymes; or that more and more artists and scholars around our world like those at this Rumi Alive conference are producing works and holding gatherings to celebrate his universal view as expressed through words and the whirling he inspired. It is no surprise to us that he is beloved in both the East, who has known him for centuries, and the West, who is just meeting him. For Rumi is an ecstatic “in a world starved for ecstasy” (Kabir Helminski, The Rumi Collection). Rumi has given voice to an unconscious yearning in the Western psyche for the sacred in the everyday, a yearning in the world for the mysticism that sees clearly through our differences to the Oneness of humanity, to the Unity of existence. Globalization—with global communications such as the Internet and global travel that is more and more affordable, such as ours to Prague—means boundaries are constantly shifting. We (individuals, communities, nations) are connecting more and more, thus sharing more and more, ideologically, culturally, economically, inevitably learning more and more about each other. As our societies and cultures interact and interpenetrate in this way, most often we discover our commonalities and coexist. But in some cases we clash, the outcomes of which seem more and more dangerous. At this same time Rumi is returning to our consciousness to offer us an example par excellence of how one can remain faithful to one’s own background, culture, and faith, and at the same time respect and tolerate those of others: an urgent, necessary value or “survival skill” for our globalized world, which seems to be experiencing the pangs of giving birth to a new kind of community of coexistence. One of Rumi’s most famous poems begins: “What is to be done, O Muslims? In “RUMI RETURNING”, we highlight a moment in Rumi’s life when he put his universal vision to the test, despite the fact that he had lived his life “in the eye of the storm,” as Islamic scholar Akbar S. Ahmed puts it; for years Rumi’s Islamic world had been beset to the West by the Crusades and to the East by the Mongol hordes. As with many a Muslim child today, he had been a refugee of war. Our film features the moment when he was an adult and the Mongols were at the gates of Konya, his adopted community, threatening to overrun it. Because of his reputation as a great sage, he was invited to meet with the Mongol captain. Through his loving, nonviolent presence, he saved Konya from being exterminated, as was the fate of most villages that stood in the way of the Mongols. We made “RUMI RETURNING” because we wanted to assist Rumi in his return to our world, a way of facilitating the remembrance of the sacred in the everyday, his way of turning from a rigid literalism or adherence to rule and law to enter into the spirit of mysticism with its direct experience of the Divine and its love of fellow humanity. For he reminds us that the essence of religion, faith, or philosophy is not a literal interpretation but one that sees beyond the outer to the inner, or hidden, where there are spiritual realities that are more important.
This is the Gnostic way of looking at things, and it is found in the Gospel of Thomas in the Christian tradition, for example. In this Gospel, discovered in Egypt in 1945, Jesus describes how the two worlds are one and how the goal of religion or faith is the direct experience of connection with the Divine. “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner. . .then you will enter (the kingdom).” Much of Rumi’s poetry describes this direct experience:
In another poem, he proclaims the goal of religion to be “permanent astonishment.” Rumi loved this world! In particular he composed many ecstatic spring poems; in our film they are beautifully read by Kell Kearns, Coleman Barks, and Andrew Harvey as we show stunning HD images that Kell captured of Turkey in spring. Yet Rumi’s eyes—like those of the Whirling Dervishes he inspired—are always looking beyond to see that he is
During my narration of the film, I say that in the Sema (which means “listening”), the dancer raises his right hand to receive the gifts of Allah then extends his left hand to the earth to extend Allah’s gifts. Rumi’s whirling is not the mere turning of the body, but the “turning with the heart, spirit, love, and faith, and with one’s physical and spiritual existence.” (Sefik Can, from Rumi’s Thought) And the whirling does not end when the dance is over. After the Sema, the Semazen leaves the dance floor to pray then take his experience into the world (teaching through words and example).
Those of us who meditate have learned how to extend our insights and experiences out into the world. When we take our ethical or spiritual way of being out into the sociopolitical realm, as those in Prague did in your Velvet Revolution or those in ours did with the civil rights movement, we practice “sacred activism” (a term coined by our friend Andrew Harvey). It is a way of furthering world harmony by working for truth, justice, equality, and compassion. In “RUMI RETURNING” we emphasize moments in Rumi’s practice of “sacred activism”: I’ve already mentioned the encounter with the Mongol captain. It was also Rumi’s practice to ride out into the suburbs of Konya to engage in what we now call “inter-faith dialogue” with Christians. As a balance to the usual negative stereotypes with which we are bombarded in the general media, our intention was to connect Rumi to his Islamic roots and use the medium of film as a way of educating and inspiring. Our highest hope is to encourage inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue, thereby transforming people’s hearts and our world. We have found that Rumi and Sufism offer us a bejeweled bridge between the East and the West. Rumi’s story of his own migration from his homeland, which mirrored the Prophet’s own, and his separation from his beloved companion after union, offer us as fellow travelers a beautiful, meaningful path as "we are returning" (Qur’an). As Annemarie Schimmel writes about about Rumi in Rumi’s World, “Life is a constant journey, a journey that entails separation for the sake of union.” This is the path that Rumi gives voice to so eloquently and that resonates with so many. I love this verse from the Qur’an that Sufis claim sums up the whole of Sufism: "Verily we are for God and verily unto Him we are returning." (It is called the “seeking to return” verse or istirja.) Martin Lings (in What is Sufism?) says that “. . .Sufism is nothing if not a movement of return, an ebb. . .” It is a return to Source. Here is another relevant passage from the Qur’an:
One of the greatest revelations or “aha!” moments that Rumi offers us is that our Beloved (however we think of Him/Her) loves us and needs us as much as we love and need Him/Her! Just as we are returning, He/She is oft-returning to us!
Rumi’s poetry and whirling reminds us of that amazing moment when we return to our Source by losing our own self consciousness. It foreshadows that Place of Return he believed would occur after death when we fully return, when we are fully restored to the Presence. That is why the Sufis like to say, “Die before you die,” to encourage the practice of the annihilation of the self in the Divine even while alive.
Mowlana calls on his audience to die in Love in order to be “resurrected” as he was.
This is what Rumi is returning to say to us—and it is exactly what we need to do to bring the world back from the brink of madness, conflict, and chaos! As Dr. Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington, D.C., challenges us in the final words of “RUMI RETURNING”:
This is what is at stake. Rumi is returning now to show us the spirit that can save our world! This spirit is within each of us, within our hearts. We need only return to it. We need only be “true human beings”. We need only “gamble everything for love.” |
Rumi, often called the “Sultan of Lovers”, is very much alive today—as the name of this conference attests! During his 800th anniversary year, Rumi is returning to our hearts with his message of love and tolerance, to spread throughout a world that desperately needs it, at a time when we seem to lack both love and tolerance, at a time when we need him the most. He reminds us that these qualities are within us too—even when differences appear between us on the outside.
Rumi’s letters and sermons are proof that he returned from whirling to teach others about how to directly experience the Divine and to extend Divine love to those with whom he came into contact. He was highly involved with helping his students and community—with activities as mundane--and important--as giving individual assistance to a student who owed a debt.