Re: 06年的旅行心愿-叙利亚、土耳其 | Apr 05 2006- ϣȻҲ赸ԨԴ赸³ġ
Mevlana who is also known as Rumiڰһʱ䶼侳ڵkonyaɹ
Born in the City of Balkh in Afghanistan , Mevlana lived most of his life in Konya , seat of the Seljuk Empire , located in present day Turkiye . The son and heir to the position of a noted Theologian and Mystic , Mevlana was jarred out of his comfortable ways and beliefs by a mysterious dervish named Shems of Tebriz . The moment of the meeting of Mevlana and Shems is referred to as the 'meeting of two seas' . Each of them had attained a spiritual awareness of depth and breadth which distinguished them from others . Now these two would complete each other in the boundless Sea of Unity .
Shems' way of attracting Mevlana's attention was by asking whether the Prophet Mohammed or the Mystic Beyazid-i Bestami was greater. This was a rather shocking question, but Mevlana without hesitation replied that of course, the Prophet is the greater of the two. At this Shems' fiery manner softened a little. Then he continued , " But Lord Mohammed said, 'God! I glorify You. We do not know Your worth.' Whereas Beyazid-i Bestami said, 'I glorify myself, my reputation is great because there is no Being but God in every particle of my body.' How can you explain this? " Mevlana had anticipated this, and replied immediately, "The Lord Mohammed spoke these words because each day he progressed many stages forward; and each time he reached a new level of understanding, he begged God's forgiveness for his previous knowledge and errors. The Prophet had the endurance to contemplate God in abstraction, purified of all else, in all His manifestations, without remaining at any one stage of judgement. But Bestami was carried away by his arrival at the very first stage and, having been intoxicated by this attainment, got no further..."
Overwhelmed by the profundity of this answer, Shems fell to the ground senseless. After Mevlana helped him up, they embraced as long lost lovers and without a word, set out arm in arm for Mevlana's house at medrese. The townsfolk looked on in confusion and astonishment as their dignified Mevlana walked away with this disheveled strange dervish.
It was Shems who kindled the spark of passion for the Divine in Mevlana. Mevlana's whole life of book learning, canonical views, and conservative behavior changed radically as the burning of Divine Love swept through him. A steady husband and father, Mevlana had taught in the medrese (a center of learning similar to a university of the time), given judgements on religious matters, and drawn a following. Now he was completely absorbed with Shems, stayed in seclusion with him for months, and humbled himself in his attempt to meet his every wish.
Mevlana's students and disciples couldn't bear to see this person they held in such high esteem submitting himself to an unknown, again dervish who was uninterested in endearing himself to anyone except Mevlana. Soon their displeasure turned to actual threats against Shems, and one day he disappeared. Because those followers were unable to comprehend the meaning and depth of the relationship between Mevlana and Shems, they were unprepared for Mevlana's reaction to Shems' disappearance. Instead of returning to his former ways and relationships, Mevlana became crazed with longing and spent days and nights whirling in the Sema (2) that Shems had given him a taste for, and feverishly reciting love poems that sprang from the anguish and longing within him.
When it was learned that Shems was in Damascus, Mevlana's oldest son Sultan Veled set out to try to bring him back. Now Mevlana was overcome with anticipation--He was returning! The one who had revealed to him Divine Love in man ! The on who had brought him to Divine Love! The one who had become Divine Love! Poetry, music, Sema ecstasy!
And for some time after Shems' return things went well. The malcontents were remorseful and on their best behavior , Mevlana gave a young woman of his household to Shems in marriage , and the loving relationship between Shems and Mevlana reached new depths as Mevlana matured in this Sea of the Divine .
The distinction between lover and beloved was being obliterated . In response to Sultan Veled's asking Shems to give him what he had given to Mevlana , Shems replied that nothing of himself , no Shems , existed any longer . He told Veled that he could find Shems only in Mevlana now . As for Mevlana , through his poems we see him losing his individual identity and acknowledging Shems as the embodiment of the Divine in which he had 'drowned' .
But things were not to continue like this for long . Shems' young wife died rather suddenly and the former agitators used this as an excuse to openly disparage Shems , and actually threatened his life , saying the young woman had been unable to bear such a husband and had pined away in sadness . Their menacing became bolder until one night when Shems left the room where he was chatting with Mevlana and stepped outside in response to a call , the threats were brought to realization . Nothing was found of Shems but a few drops of blood on the threshold . Though Mevlana searched for Shems as at his first disappearance , this time there was to be no delivery from the loss .
One time they had asked Mevlana to describe his life and he replied , " I was raw . I cooked . I burned . " Now was the time of burning , of reaching total unity , of realizing Shems within himself . They were not two individuals but rather two bodies with one soul . The longing , the anguish that Mevlana was living were essential . Shems was not anywhere but within Mevlana himself ; he had merely been a bodily form presenting to Mevlana the reflection of that Divine within himself .
After a time Mevlana's extraordinary need for a mirror for his love was met by Sheik Selahaddin ' Zarkubi ' (Goldsmith) , a former disciple of Seyyid Burhaneddin of Tirmiz ( Mevlana's early mentor and after his father , the one with the greatest influence on his introduction to spirituality along with knowledge ) .
Mevlana now held Selahaddin up as a sheik to his disciples , as a spiritual model . Again there were complaints and murmuring , this time because of the goldsmith's lack of formal education . They had not admired Shems , But at least they had realized that he was a well-educated person . Now an illiterate craftsman was being presented to them as their spiritual master . They were unable to perceive the beauty , the greatness , the purity of the true 'self ' of Selahaddin, and thus missed out on the graces possible from his words and example.
No matter. For a time Mevlana found the love born of Shems in the pure face shining with inner light and the truly fervent hearth of Selahaddin. In one poem Mevlana said: Last year he suddenly appeared in a red caftan, his face shining. This year he has come again, wrapped in a gray cloak. He changed his apparel and came... When Mevlana was asked, "Who is a man of wisdom ?", he answered thus, " The wise one is he who, when you're silent, speaks of your inner secrets. That man is Sheik Selahaddin."
With an awareness that his worldly time was nearing its end, Sheik Selahaddin looked forward to his death; and in the winter of 1258 he was released from the prison of the body and re-united with the Source of all Love in the Divine.
Mevlana had lost first his father Sultanul Ulema Bahaeddin Veled, then Seyyid Burhaneddin, then Shems, and now Sheik Selahaddin. Each lost left its mark and threw Mevlana deeper into the inner world where he burned in spiritual communion. This burning was bringing him ever closer to becoming the Mevlana he was to be.
The calm peacefulness of Sheik Selahaddin was just what Mevlana had needed, but now it was time for a new light to shine for Mevlana, the light which would enable the immortal masterpiece The Mesnevi to come into being. This light was Husameddin Chelebi.
Initiated into the beauties of the spiritual path by both Shems and Sheik Selahaddin, Husameddin Chelebi had been participating in the Sema and music assemblies and Mevlana's discourses for years. He was spiritually matured and ready to bear the great responsibility of taking down the words of Mevlana which whereto flow and become the six volume poem The Mesnevi. In Husameddin Chelebi Mevlana again found the embodiment of Shems. Mevlana's exuberance now took on a calmness and maturity of thought. Husameddin Chelebi was aware of Mevlana's mature readiness, and one day suggested that Mevlana produce a work that would encompass his thoughts and ideas in a form that would touch people and be a guide to them in their spiritual seeking. With a smile that sublime Lover of God reached up and took a piece of paper from within the folds of his turban and preferred in to Chelebi to read. It was the first 18 verses of what was to be the Book of Realities, the book revealing secrets unsaid before, The Light offered to man as a help in realizing God, The Mesnevi .
The passionate poems of Love and longing which make up to the Divan-i Kebir are often too wild in their passion, too outrageously uninhibited to be easily tolerated as man speaking to and of his God. So in the six volumes of rhyming couplets of the Mesnevi, Mevlana deliberately set out to write a guide for those seeking the essence of this Divine Love and Passion. Using fables and folk stories, examples of the sacred and the profane, Mevlana interwove hundreds of stories in which the reader could see his own fallible and faults, and also discover to means of abandoning them and taking on the characteristics of the Divine. Time and again Mevlana emphasizes his essential premise of the need for a living guide in the form of a spiritual master... A human being, a Perfect Human Being to lead one to the Divine.
There is another book based on the discourses and the conversations between the master and disciple--Mevlana and Suleyman Pervane. Called Fihi Ma Fih (3), it offers in prose style Mevlana's views on God, heaven and earth, the Universal Intellect and Partial Intellect, and more. It is a controlled and scholarly work, maintaining a dignified pace while The Mesnevi unrestrainedly sweeps along. Different only in style and form, there is nothing contradictory in the three works, The Divani Kebir, The Mesnevi, Fihi Ma Fih . The intellect , the soul and the love of the soul are all satisfied .
Remember the joy , the craziness of your first love ? Puppy love ? Summer Love ? High School Romance ? It doesn't matter -- it was real ! Filling pages in your notebook with ' his ' name . Hanging out on the corner of ' her ' street . Playing the same record over and over because you two had first heard it together and it was ' your ' song... Perhaps the only time of totally unaffected love . Mevlana experienced love of the Divine , love of his Creator , with total exuberance and intoxication. God incarnate in Shems , in Selahaddin , in Chelebi . The passion for God leaves earthly loves far behind , yet Mevlana had this to say , " All loves lead to the Divine ."
Turning in the Sema and the pouring forth of poetry sprang from the intense passion Mevlana was living . There was nothing static or passive about the love of Mevlana . Times of silent introspection and contemplation interspersed with rapturous activity...He was now Lover , now Beloved , now the very Spirit of Love itself , the Divine manifested as each of these within the human .
The years of fasting and abstinence had taken their toll on Mevlana's body , and in the fall of 1273 he fell ill . On his deathbed he comforted his family and friends thus , " Don't grieve that I am leaving this world . Whatever may happen to you , I am with you . As our Prophet said , ' Both my life and my death are auspicious for you .' The purpose of my life was to show the true path and my death is to aid you along the way . "
On the evening of 17 December 1273 Mevlana took leave of this mortal world, calling out to God, "When You receive our spirit, death is as sweet as sugar ! When we are with You, death is sweeter than sweet life !"