Jala'uddin Rumi

[kassana]

The above poet was a 13th century poet/saint who wrote about life. He has mostly influenced my life and my poetry.

He was born in 1207 c.e. in Balkh to a respected group of muslim scholars. The countries were being ravaged by the mongols so they moved to Konya in turkey.

Widely renowned as a great 'sufi' mystical poet. he wrote 3 volumes of work, so extensive that they would not fill a book cupboard.

Anyway, i digress, here is a sample of what he wrote -

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, Sufi, or zen.
Not any religion or cultural system.
I am not from the East or the West,
not out of the ocean or up from the ground,
not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity of this world or next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story.
My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.
Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner,
only that breath breathing human being.

~


"I tried to find him on the Christian Cross, but He was not there;
I went to the Temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas,
but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere.
I searched on the mountains and in the valleys
but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him.
I went to the Caaba in Mecca, but He was not there either.
I questioned the scholars and philosophers, but He was beyond their understanding.
I then looked into my heart and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him;
He was nowhere else to be found."