Short Reflections on Rumi - 1/26

Our next journaling session on the works of Rumi, the Sufi Mystic:

Study me as much as you like, you will not know me. For I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.

-Rumi

Reflection

Two contrasting ideas, or polarizing ideas that can be inferred from this lesson are:
Study vs (Conscious) Experience
&
External vs Internal Vision

I'm not sure if Rumi is speaking from the perspective of love or God in this piece, but in either instance the fast-track to understanding is through experience and internal vision. While study and utilizing the gift of eyesight can serve as great tools on the path, there is a ceiling to where they can take you. Yet in still, all these concepts work in unison.

A few examples:

• Study often inspires our internal vision
• External vision can provide stimuli that allows us to internalize our experience.

So why does study and visual experience have these apparent limitations? From my understanding, the obvious answer is that they are predominantly expressed on the inferior physical plane; while the process of internalizing experiences and using our internal lens through methods like reflection, meditation and prayer operate on the higher mental and spiritual planes.

How can we fully know God, or his primary expression of love? The truth is we can't. But we can be constantlt inching closer if we're being led by the right "eye".

Peace & Prosperity