Timely Wisdom

Before going to sleep the other night, I read a poem by Rumi from, The Soul of Rumi. This particular poem, below, struck me as very appropriate for our epoch. Rumi was born in the year 1207, and it’s just so striking that his words, as translated by Coleman Barks, could ring so true some 800 years later…

There is a glut of wealth in the City of Saba.Everyone

has more than enough. Even

 

the bath stokers wear gold belts.Huge grape clusters hang

down on every street and

 

brush the faces of the citizens. No one has to do

anything. You can balance

 

a basket on your head and walk through an orchard, and it

will fill by itself with

 

overripe fruit dropping into it. Stray dogs stray in

lanes full of thrown-out

 

scraps with barely a notice. The lean desert wolf gets

indigestion from the rich

 

food. Everyone is fat and satiated with all the

extra. There are no

 

robbers. There is no energy for crime, or for gratitude,

and no one wonders about

 

the unseen world. The people of Saba feel bored with

just the mention of prophecy.

 

They have no desire of any kind.Maybe some idle curiosity

about miracles, but that’s

 

it. This overrichness is a subtle disease. Those

who have it are blind

 

to what’s wrong and deaf to anyone who points it out.

The City of Saba cannot be

 

understood from within itself: But there is a cure, an

individual medicine, not

 

a social remedy: sit quietly, and listen for a voice

within that will say, Be

 

more silent. As that happens, your soul starts to revive.

Give up talking and

 

your positions of power. Give up the excessive money.

Turn toward teachers and

 

prophets who dont live in Saba. They can help you

grow sweet again and fragrant

 

and wild and fresh and thankful for any small event.

The problems humans face today are deep and complex. “The City of Saba connot be understood from within itself”. I am beginning to realize the truth in this. I have read many similar accounts of the same advice, this one more direct from a book I recently read called Flow:

“But no social change can come about until the consciousness of individuals is changed first. When a young man asked  Carlyle how he should go about reforming the world, Carlyle answered, “Reform yourself. That way there will be one less rascal in the world.” The advice is still valid. Those who try to make life better for everyone without having learned to control their own lives first usually end up making things worse all around.”

I feel a great responsibility, combined with a great passion, to orchestrate the next phase of my career, whatever that may be,  from a place of inspiration, based on my time dedicated, as Rumi suggested, to “be more silent.”