The Ocean Diver Doesn't Need Snowshoes

Jason was right. I’m addicted to Rumi.
Here’s a side note…When I was studying abroad in Argentina last semester, I frequented a boliche (discoteca/nightclub) called Rumi. Who knows- maybe the Argentine’s knew a little something-something about Islamic Sufiism poets.
Anyways, this guy has some neat shit to say.
I’ll begin with his conversation with an embryo. Yes, you read that right. An embryo! ?
But it makes perfect sense- how are we to describe the world outside an embryo to it, when it can’t even fathom it, since all it knows is what it has experienced? It is content to stay cooped up in the dark with its eyes closed.
Is that how I am?
Do I know no more than what is available for me to experience, so I am content with it, not knowing that there is more than “it” out there?
Another scenario that Rumi gives to us is with a Friend who knocks on a door, and claims that “It’s me” and is refused entrance because he is raw meat. He then returns much later cooked, and is gained entrance in the house. He claims that “It’s you”, and the person within welcomes their self. What does this mean? Maybe that once we become one with God then we may enter Him- I’m not too sure.
During another part of this passage, where God is rebuking Moses for reprimanding a worshiper on the way that he praised God, we are told that God looks inside at the humility. Ways of worshipping are not to be ranked as better or worse than one another; it’s not god that’s glorified in acts of worship, it’s the worshiper. All that God is seeking is a burning. BURNING (as Rumi emphasizes). He wants lovers who burn.
And there was one more part that was very inspirational to me. This was about a loaf of bread. To men see a loaf of bread. One has not eaten for ten days, and the other is quite full. The full man sees the shape of the loaf, whereas the other man sees inside of it to the taste.
I want to see the taste.

The Perception of Beauty is a Delight in Itself

What Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali describes in his excerpt is delightful. He claims that all joy is loved, and that where beauty is perceived it is natural to love it. And if God is beauty, he must be loved by those to whom his beauty and majesty are revealed. Our soul can attain eternal life and become Godlike through knowledge and love.
I really like the concepts of perseverance, strength, vulnerability, having aspirations, hope, enjoying every moment of life, but I think passion and love are behind each of those. One day perhaps I’ll be able to think up some magnificent tattoo that can incorporate an expression of this. Al-Ghazali defines passion for me: “Love, when it has grown strong and overwhelming, is called passion, which is love firmly established and limitless.” Some people view passion as something that doesn’t last- primarily in relationships. They are under the misconception that there is passion in the beginning of the relationship, yet it cannot continue. Al-Ghazali’s prior enlightened words directly contradict that and claims that passion has no limits and can be firmly established. I like to believe that this statement holds some truth in it.