Looking at the poem look at love with Rumi

In the first verses of the poem, we see that Rumi is discussing getting tangled up in love.

In my opinion Rumi is looking at how we often get tangled up in the idea of love. We often lose sight of what love is and the continuum of love and the balance of love, in itself.

Rumi looks at this idea of love as a big picture of you. He looks at how everything that happens on earth happens for a reason. When one thing dies, another thing is born. Case and point, think about winter and spring which he discusses as equinox manifested along with the unity of this. Meaning that one thing must die in order for the other thing to be born.

He also discusses the empty value in being a busy body and paying attention to the materialization of what might be labeled good or bad. Instead he encourages us to look at how the blend of these things support each other. He discusses some possible worry or energy around the known and the unknown. And I believe when he discusses this in the poem that he is asking us to trust in the unknown. Just like how we fall asleep every single night. We fall asleep and we trust that we’re going to wake up the next day. Now there may be a time that we don’t wake up. But we trust that there is a continuum of life. Now there may be some that don’t trust in a continuum of life and they think that everything just goes black and that is okay too. This is more of trusting in the unknown. I think that in Rumi’s case though thathe is looking at trusting in the uncertainty but knowing that we’ll all be okay.

Rumi talks further about thinking separately of this life and the next and how we are very focused in what we must do in this life. Some people may think about karmic value and how they might be we repaying back karmic debt? This karmic debt may be from a previous lifetime. So when he’s asking us why think separately? Why think separately of this life and the next when one is born from the last? This could be about karmic debt. Or he could just be speaking about the continuum of life itself. I believe in reincarnation. I think that by this statement that Rumi also believed in reincarnation. Maybe the meaning behind this is that we must trust in the continuum of being on earth to learn our lessons, and just knowing that we must trust where there is death there is life, and where there is life there is death.

Deeper into the poem Rumi asks to, “look at your heart and tongue and sees that one feels deaf and dumb? He goes on to say that others speak in words and signs.”. instead of moving forward and speaking before you’re thinking, or your words not following where your heart is… he is asking us to look at the big picture again. What other words or signs are there that we’re not paying attention to? Sometimes anxiety can lead us to not pick up visual cues. Anxiety can make us say stupid things that we usually wouldn’t say, leaving us embarrassed and red in the face. It can also make us not hear what other people are truly saying, leading to misunderstandings. Taking a deep breath and stepping back and speaking your truth and listening to others with all of your senses can lead us to better understanding of one another. 

“Look at water and fire, earth and wind, enemies and friends all at once”, Rumi says in the next line. The different elements can be seen as something that harms or helps. Too much water will create flooding, and/or cause human life and/or other life to drown. Too much fire will burn down hundreds of acres of old growth forests, and/or be the ruin of relationships. Too much earth maybe is a house that has been overgrown and weeds and ivy as the earth has swallowed it up whole. Or maybe it is reminiscent of one digging their heels into the earth and being so grounded that there is a certain stubbornness of it is my way or the highway! Too much wind might be a windstorm and things getting knocked down. 

However, in perfect harmony we too are made of all of these elements. Our bodies use water to hydrate, and we are made of mostly water ourselves. Our tears that we cry are water. Our saliva that helps us swallow is water. It coats our mouths and helps us speak out messages to one another. Our fire is our internal flame, our passion, our want, and our drive. Sometimes our internal flame can also be too fiery, creating havoc and wreckage and burning everything to the ground. The earth is grounding energy. The grounding energy can make you feel at peace and very calm. Our bodies carry some of the same elements within them that are made of the stars above, and other elements that are found in the sea and the earth.

The earth that we live on nourishes us and keeps us alive through our lives with nutrition. It holds us, and we rest on it, run on it, play on it, etc… The earth that we live on nourishes our mothers and our fathers who birthed us into the world just as the world continues to nurture us through our lives till we die and are put back into the earth. The air is the air that we breathe, and we cannot live without it. We breathe the air, and we turn oxygen into something that can nourish our organs, and we breathe out the CO2 for the trees to take back and turn back into oxygen and release it back into the environment. As human beings we are made-up of all of the elements of this earth. It is how we look at ourselves and see that we too are made of all of these elements. Our bodies are made mostly of water, our bodies produce heat fire from within. While these elements can be enemies to each other when out of balance in perfect harmony they’re actually friends. All these elements create perfect harmony and is how we take note in creating perfect harmony.

Rumi discusses the wolf and the lamb and the lion and the deer far away yet together. The wolf and the lamb. The wolf is in fables and faery tales as something that will eat the lamb. With the lion and the deer, the deer is usually the prey of the lion. These energies are passive and aggressive energies. They can also be seen as fight or flight energies. These energies are two energies that typically do not mingle amongst each other unless there is a need for one to feed the other. These two energies mingle with each other again to create a certain balance. The certain balance meaning that one feeds the other. In feeding the other, there is a lack of overpopulation of the other… again creating balance. 

Rumi discusses that, “you too must mingle my friends since the earth and the sky or mingled just for you and me?”. The earth is mingled just for you and me he says. The earth would not be present without the sky. We need the sun light and we need the clouds and we need all of the elements from above to keep the earth alive. Human beings need vitamin D from the sun. The plants and animals need rain to grow and to proliferate. Human beings need rain and water to grow and to proliferate. Human beings are also not meant to not mingle with other people in society. We grow from other people just as the earth grows from the rain and the sun that is provided from the sky.

“Like sugar cane sweet yet silent don’t get mixed up in bitter words”, Rumi goes on to say. In American Society we have the propensity to get caught up in negativity. When we feed negativity more attention to that negativity will grow. If we do not feed the negativity energy than that negativity will shrink back and die. I’m not saying that there isn’t negativity that shouldn’t be addressed in the world. What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t get too mixed up in words of hate and keep the focus there. Words that create a cycle of negativity are easy to get wrapped up into, creating more negativity. We should meet those words of negativity with optimism, hope, and positivity. We need to break the cycle of being caught up in bitterness, hatred,and fear.

“My beloved grows right out of my heart, how much more union can there be?”, Rumi says. He sounds like he’s trying to show ussomething again. He is trying to paint a picture of how everything is within a certain balance. There’s no wrong way. We just need to trust in knowing that everything will be okay in the unknown. That there is homeostasis that is achieved within every single day that we are alive. 

My final thoughts today are to stay positive, and to look at how life and death, and negativity and positivity, and how earth and sky, and how all of the elements, including the theory of Yin and Yang create a balance. 

I trust in knowing the unknown.

I trust in ongoing homeostasis, and that the beat will go on no matter what. 

I speak my truth and I give energy to positivity instead of negativity. 

I temper the elements of my body

to create balance of 

peace and calm

friendship and love

and

drive and assertiveness.

K.K. Powell