Over time, the body and the mind start losing their unrelenting sense of solidity and become more fluid and watery, like a river with a current running through it. The more you connect with the organic current of the gaze and are able simply to surrender to it, the deeper you go on your journey beyond the self. The current takes you here. It takes you there. Sometimes, the river is placid and beautiful. Other times, rapids appear out of nowhere. It doesn’t matter. Just stay connected through the gaze, keep surrendering to the current, and accept whatever’s around the next bend. Where does this river run to? If anyone knows, there would be no way to tell you. The only way you can find out is to jump in yourself, surrender to its current, and trust in its wisdom. Rumi and Shams must have surrendered completely, and the journey they took together is still rightly revered.
You can go on this journey too. If you already have a special friend in your life, start exploring the practice together. If you don’t have that special friend but would like to, then prepare yourself for the meeting by exploring movement practices, fasting, and the power of the breath. The friend that you’re wanting to meet is preparing himself as well. And keep your eyes open. You never know when you’re going to meet the friend. For all you know, she may be right around the corner. And when you do meet, acknowledge your good fortune by surrendering to your friend’s gaze as much as you’re able. May the following poems from the master gazer inspire you to seek out a friend and discover for yourself what the extraordinary union of eye to eye is all about.
my heart got caught
in his drunken eyes
now I’m drunk
and out of my mind
when you turn your face away
the water in the canal stops flowing
how can particles appear
if the sun doesn’t shine on them?
an image of a face
appeared before my eyes
and started speaking:
I’ve come from the garden of the beloved
by way of the back room of the tavern keeper
look into my dreamy eyes
I’m the drunkenness you crave
I’m high and low both
I’ve come like a whirling sky
from the very beginning of creation
I came to befriend the soul
and then to merge with it
I went back
but I returned again
like a compass making constant turns
around one point
I asked him
are you here to help me?
he answered
that’s the only reason I’m here
I’m the moon
you’re my light
look into my eyes
get inside my eyes
I’ve chosen to live
in a different mansion
behind my eyes
my eyes
are a jar of wine
my eyelashes
are the wine filter
your face
is my faith
your gaze
is my religion
trust love
love is a face and eyes
turned this way
gazing at you
just face
just vision
if you’ve got the pearls
then come and gaze
into the ocean of my eyes
o watermaster
start the fountain
wake up the garden
let the flowers open their eyes
your goodness is hidden
like the fountain of life
inside the darkness of your eyes
pupils like that
turn eyes into oceans
he threw an arrow with his eyes
a long, hard arrow
and because of the magic in his eyes
we turned into poets
we become lost to ourselves
when we drink from your cup
and gaze at your face
when the fire in his eyes
melts into grace . . .
poison becomes honey
the wolf becomes the shepherd
mountains turn to mush
the bitter salty sea
turns into the fountain of life
holy light shines out
from his hidden face
to all people everywhere
and his soft, dreamy eyes
keep on looking at us
there’s not a lover in this world
who could look at your face
for even one moment
shams of tebriz
you’re the fountain of life
that water can only be found
in your entrancing eyes
I need to know the secret
and learn the art
of the invisible source
of eyes and vision
look at my face
gaze at the sea of sweetness
see the waves that scatter pearls
I’m not the same me
you’ve seen before
I’ve been gazing at your face
since early dawn
I feel reborn
you’re even more beautiful than ever
you’re a crazy lover
but whatever you’ve done in the past
it’s all worth it today
I don’t have enough eyes
I need hundreds more
I’d borrow them if I could
but who has the eyes
that can see you?
you call yourself a believer
but you don’t know the fire
in the eyes of lovers
o one who denies
the wine on god’s lips
look into my eyes
don’t they look
like two glasses
full of wine?
gaze into the face
of the one who’s a reflection
of the Great Face
how incredibly beautiful!
the sun just burst from his forehead
his eyes met mine
what do you see?
he asked
o my beautiful one
I see two wet clouds
that rain pearls
when you gaze at me
with those narcissus eyes
my soul flies out
from where I am
to the place where you’ve disappeared to
I used to have
thousands of knots in my heart
tied up like a sorcerer’s rope
through the magic
of your beautiful eyes
they’ve all come undone
the only cure
for the disease of the eye
is to get completely drunk
on the wine of the soul
and where might such a wine be found?
in the soft eyes of your friend
don’t look out the window
gaze at my face instead
let it be the window
through which you look out
into nothing
you can see the beloved
by looking in his eyes
he can be found there
behind the darkness of those eyes
stay in the temple
sit by his side
look at his face
fill your eyes and heart
by looking carefully at his face
the doctor of happiness
had good news for the lovers
every moment
a new dress for you
with fabric made of soul
he said
he gave this news with his eyes
it was like saying
you’ll soon be freed from the bottom of the well
when your gaze stops someone in their tracks
your eyes become the guide for the lost one
show him the way
put your hand on my heart
and look into my eyes
no need to ask
for wine and the drinking cup
your eyes write a new chapter
about the lessons of love
with every breath
they ask questions
suggest answers
without words without chatter
you are my soul
you are mine
you deserve my love
you are my light
stay in my eyes
o my eyes!
o source of life’s waters
you gaze at me
and I keep looking back at you
o beauty
let’s play look and see
the eyes of my soul see only you
hair hanging down
covering over the eye
is not a small thing
you need to put salve
on it immediately
when the eye is cleansed
of whatever’s been covering it
you become a guide to love
just like the eye itself
we’re the ones
whose eyes and souls
have gotten all mixed up
we’re the lovers
just look at us
we’re out of our minds
I come to you without me
can you come to me without you?
self is the thorn
in the sole of the soul
so come
get out of yourself
merge with others
if you stay in self
you’re but a grain and a drop
if you merge with others
you become an ocean
what is this light
that comes out of your eyes
and off of your face?
I wish I didn’t have to do
anything else in this world
but gaze at your face
show me the way to my eye
so I can get inside yours
the eye that plays with my eye
turns into light
sees into nothingness
and ends up very drunk
the light of our eyes
merged
with the light of the moon
you’re the moon
risen in my soul;
I’m the eye
everything my eyes can see
can be repaired
or built again
but I’ve been completely taken apart
and melted down
by your eyes
I’m a boundless universe
open your eyes and look at me;
lose yourself in the glow
I’m so drunk
I’m doing sema
but we do this sema
through vision and gazing
o tavern keeper
serve me the red wine
that puts me in the state
where I start talking about you
and can’t stop
offer me a big cup
and then watch how my drunken gaze
lets me lose myself in you
I’m looking at the place
where you turned into a river
and let me flow
that river came from the sea
and will always keep running
back to the sea
souls and eyes
went on a journey together
they finally arrived at a place so bright
that they pulled in their reins
and never again had to wonder
if the time of union
was ever going to come
lovers have heartaches
that can’t be cured
by any medicine
not by rest
not by travel
not by diet
but only by seeing the beloved
meeting the friend
mends the ailment
the most important thing by far
is to gaze at the face of the beloved
A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATIONS
The translations in this book are based on three sources: the Divan-i-Kebir, the Masnavi, and the Fiha Ma Fiha. The Divan contains more than forty-four thousand verses of Rumi’s spontaneously uttered poetry, and the great majority of the poems translated here comes from this source because it’s here that the practices in this book are spoken of the most directly.
My source for the poems from the Divan is the monumental translation of the entire Divan from Turkish into English by Nevit Ergin. Nevit’s gift to the English-speaking/Rumi-loving world cannot be overemphasized, and anyone who wants to explore the whole of the Divan will want to read Nevit’s translations in their entirety, a task I can heartily recommend.
Rumi’s other monumental work, and the one he is best known for throughout the Islamic world, is the Masnavi, and my versions of passages from the Masnavi are closely based on an abridged collection of translations into English done in 1898 by E. H. Whinfield. Rumi’s skills as a master storyteller in the tradition of Jesus and Aesop are quite evident in the Masnavi and are represented in this book by the two delightful prose stories at the end of the section on fasting.
Rumi’s only other collection of assorted writings, Fiha Ma Fiha, has been beautifully translated into English by Wheeler M. Thackston Jr. as Signs of the Unseen. The beginning of the poem that ends this book is based on a prose sentence in Signs of the Unseen.
FOOTNOTES
*1. A ney is an ancient end-blown flute that figures prominently in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic music.
*2. In Exodus 4:6, God instructs Moses to place his hand on his breast, and it immediately turns white in color.
*3. A rebab is a stringed instrument.
*4. For more on the gazing practice, which can open the door to a profoundly ecstatic state of divine union, please see my earlier book The Spiritual Practices of Rumi: Radical Techniques for Beholding the Divine. It is devoted solely to this particular practice.
About the Author
Will Johnson is the author of Rumi's Four Essential Practices, The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain, Yoga of the Mahamudra, and the award-winning The Spiritual Practices of Rumi. He is also coauthor, with translator Nevit Ergin, of The Forbidden Rumi and The Rubais of Rumi. He lives in British Columbia.
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BOOKS OF RELATED INTEREST
The Forbidden Rumi
The Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intoxication
Translations and Commentary by Nevit O. Ergin and Will Johnson
The Rubais of Rumi
Insane with Love
Translations and Commentary by Nevit O. Ergin and Will Johnson
The Spiritual Practices of Rumi
Radical Techniques for Beholding the Divine
by Will Johnson
Tales of a Modern Sufi
The Invisible Fence of Reality and Other Stories
by Nevit O. Ergin
Muhammad
His Life Base
d on the Earliest Sources
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Journey to the Lord of Power
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by Ibn Arabi, with commentary by Abd al-Kerim al-Jili
Haféz
Teachings of the Philosopher of Love
by Haleh Pourafzal and Roger Montgomery
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Copyright © 2010 by Will Johnson
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