Interfaith Week Ruminations in Bradford Sun 17th November
Interfaith Week Ruminations in Bradford – read, reflect, and relax in the company of Rumi!
November hosts National Interfaith Week and to celebrate we are holding a special “Ruminations” which will explore the theme of spiritual inclusivity through Mevlana Rumi’s teachings. See the selections we will be exploring below or bring your own to share!
Join us for an informal poetry circle over coffee and cake on Sunday 17th November from 1:30–3:30pm at the Priestly Coffee Lounge in The New Bradford Playhouse.
Let us know you are coming on our Facebook event page.
Address: The New Bradford Playhouse, 4-12 Chapel Street, Little Germany, Bradford BD1 5DL
If there are a hundred religious books, they are but one chapter:
a hundred different religions seek but one place of worship.
All these roads end in one House:
all these thousand ears of corn are from one Seed.
All the hundred thousand sorts of food and drink
are but one thing if one looks to their final cause.
When you are entirely satiated with one kind of food,
fifty other kinds of food become displeasing to your heart.
In hunger, then, you are seeing double,
for you have regarded as more than a hundred thousand
that which is but One.[Mathnawi VI, 3667-3671, Jewels of Remembrance, tr. Kabir & Camille Helminski]
It was the era of Jesus and the turn was his:
He was the soul of Moses, and Moses the soul of him,
but the squinting king made it seem they were two,
those Messengers of God who really were as one.A master said to a squinting student,
“Come here, and bring me that bottle.”
Said the squint-eyed one: “Which of the bottles
shall I bring to you? Let me know.”“There aren’t two bottles,” said the master.
“Stop squinting, don’t double them.”
“O master,” he said, “don’t scold me.”
The master replied, “All right, then smash one of them!”The bottle was one; though to his eyes it seemed two,
and when he broke that bottle, nothing was left.
When one was broken, both vanished from sight.Anger and lust make a man squint;
they cloud the spirit so it strays from truth.
When self-interest appears, virtue hides:
a hundred veils rise between the heart and the eye.[Mathnawi I: 325–334, The Rumi Daybook, tr. Kabir & Camille Helminski]
The mention of Moses has tied up your thoughts,
you think these are stories that happened a long time ago.Talking about Moses is a mask—
the Light of Moses is your real concern.Moses and Pharaoh are both within you:
you need to look for these two adversaries within your self.The birthing from Moses continues until the Resurrection—
even though each lamp may seem different, the Light is the same.This clay lamp and its wick may appear to be different,
but the Light isn’t—it comes from Beyond.If you keep looking at the glass of the lamp, you’ll be lost,
because it’s from the glass that multiplicity is seen.Keep focusing on the Light, so you’ll be free of duality
and the multiplicity of colors of this limited body.[Mathnawi III: 1251–1257, The Rumi Daybook, tr. Kabir & Camille Helminski]
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