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Friday December 17, 2021
6:30 to 8:00 pm eastern time |
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For Sufis, the mystics of Islam (and beyond) , God is beyond all imagining, and yet more intimate than our own breath ... God is the Divine Beloved, the source and subject of all our longing in this world, approached as a Lover approaches the Beloved One. For the Sufi, one of the greatest days of one's existence is the date of one's death, because it is on that day that one is finally reunited with the Beloved -- and there was none who approached this date with greater joy than Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, one of the greatest Sufi Saints.
Rumi was heartbroken, you see; his beloved, an old rascal named Shams Tabrizi, had been stolen from him many years before Rumi's own death. During their brief time together, Rumi had given up everything to simply BE with Shams, spiraling deeper into the holy presence of God that seemed to well up inside them in the silence -- and then Shams was stolen away from him by jealous friends, disciples and family. In the long years in-between, Rumi's heartbreak grew, rushing out of him in a great torrent of poetry and discourses as he endlessly circled the pillars of the mosque. His longing burned through everything, even his sense of separation from his beloved, plunging him deeper and deeper into the heart of God, the Divine Beloved.
We will gather from 6:30 to 8:00 pm for an online celebration of Rumi on the very night he died into the arms of his beloved, December 17. We will email each participant a Rumi quote 24 hours in advance, but feel free to bring your own favorite quotation or poem by Rumi to share, and perhaps a candle to light together at the beginning of the ceremony, along with a little water in a clear glass to drink, and a small treat to enjoy as part of the ceremony. We will also be sharing in a zikr, or chanted remembrance of the holy One.
I ask that you plan on being with us for the entire time, and plan on keeping your video on for the entire time, to create a real feeling of being in ceremony together. After you register, you will see a confirmation page with instructions for joining the zoom call, and you will receive a confirmation email with those same instructions. If you don't see the email, check your junk/spam folder!
Rumi was heartbroken, you see; his beloved, an old rascal named Shams Tabrizi, had been stolen from him many years before Rumi's own death. During their brief time together, Rumi had given up everything to simply BE with Shams, spiraling deeper into the holy presence of God that seemed to well up inside them in the silence -- and then Shams was stolen away from him by jealous friends, disciples and family. In the long years in-between, Rumi's heartbreak grew, rushing out of him in a great torrent of poetry and discourses as he endlessly circled the pillars of the mosque. His longing burned through everything, even his sense of separation from his beloved, plunging him deeper and deeper into the heart of God, the Divine Beloved.
We will gather from 6:30 to 8:00 pm for an online celebration of Rumi on the very night he died into the arms of his beloved, December 17. We will email each participant a Rumi quote 24 hours in advance, but feel free to bring your own favorite quotation or poem by Rumi to share, and perhaps a candle to light together at the beginning of the ceremony, along with a little water in a clear glass to drink, and a small treat to enjoy as part of the ceremony. We will also be sharing in a zikr, or chanted remembrance of the holy One.
I ask that you plan on being with us for the entire time, and plan on keeping your video on for the entire time, to create a real feeling of being in ceremony together. After you register, you will see a confirmation page with instructions for joining the zoom call, and you will receive a confirmation email with those same instructions. If you don't see the email, check your junk/spam folder!