when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
PeterB
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Re: when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

Post by PeterB »

Annapurna wrote:..... can people be Buddhists and psychologists at the same time....? :thinking:

Peter? :sage:

Metta,

Anna
I am not a psychologist Anna dear...I am a psychiatrist and psychotherapist...just for the record.
:smile:

Of course I have psychologist colleagues and use their expertise all the time.

:anjali:
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cooran
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Re: when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

Post by cooran »

Hello all,

Where did Rumi go??

The Buddha here tells the story of a king who had six blind men gathered together to examine an elephant.
"When the blind men had each felt a part of the elephant, the king went to each of them and said to each: 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?".
The six blind men assert the elephant is either like a pot (the blind man who felt the elephants' head), wicket basket (ear), ploughshare (tusk), plough (trunk), granary (body), pillar (foot), mortar (back), pestle (tail) or brush (tip of the tail).
The men cannot agree with one another and come to blows over the question of what an elephant really is like, and this delights the king. The Buddha ends the story of the king and compares the six blind men to preachers and scholars who are blind and ignorant and hold to their own views: "Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus." The Buddha then speaks the following verse:
O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.
............

Rumi, the 13th Century Persian poet and teacher of Sufism, included it in his Masnavi. In his retelling, "The Elephant in the Dark", some Hindus bring an elephant to be exhibited in a dark room. A number of men feel the elephant in the dark and, depending upon where they touch it, they believe the elephant to be like a water spout (trunk), a fan (ear), a pillar (leg) and a throne (back).

Rumi uses this story as an example of the limits of individual perception:
The sensual eye is just like the palm of the hand. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the beast.

Rumi doesn't present a resolution to the conflict in his version, but states:
The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea: of amazing! You behold the foam but not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear water.[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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Annapurna
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Re: when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

Post by Annapurna »

m0rl0ck wrote:
Annapurna wrote:..... can people be Buddhists and psychologists at the same time....? :thinking:

Peter? :sage:

Metta,

Anna

Maybe so, but if you are presenting a dharma talk you need to decide where you are speaking from before you start.
ok. Fair enough. I just thought that the Dhamma itself appears like psychology to me...you know what I mean? :thinking:

Hard to separate, or no? But then I'm not so familiar with most psychological theories... :shrug:

Metta,

Anna
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Annapurna
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Re: when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

Post by Annapurna »

bodom wrote:
Mark Epstein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Epstein" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Thank you Bodom.

Something like this has been interesting me for a while.

I like the quote:
all babies are born with that; they instinctively love their caretakers. So if we can find that again, then our relationships will take care of themselves.
Hi, all,

Wonderful. That is actually a thought that has been on my mind lately a lot.

I'll explain why:

I am watching BB, Big brother, the German version. Please don't jump top negative conclusions, anybody, but it's far more interesting than studying gorillas in the mountains, you see.

And my personal "hobby" is this:

I compare their behaviour to the Dhamma.

It is my theory, that those whose behaviour is the "noblest", stay in the longest and almost always win in the end.

This is fascinating for me to watch.

Right now, we are having the most successful episode since several years, due to one man: Klaus.

He is the noblest in character, (imo) selfless, team player, sacrifices own comfort so the others can have more, disciplined, absolutely honest, compassionete, protects the weak, is totally fearless, respects his mother, but:

He criticizes others. A pretty petite girl was mobbed by the other chicks, and so he took her under his wings and told the others straight in the face:

"Look, it's quite simple: if you don't stop harrassing her, you'll get real problems with me, so choose wisely. "

Of course they hate him after such announcements and plot against him, and badmouth him, and insult him, but he stays strong. He is like a Rhino that can wander alone.

So, at times he really shames and annoys them, and on the other hand you could say he is doing this:
76. Should one find a man who points out faults and who reproves, let him follow such a wise and sagacious person as one would a guide to hidden treasure. It is always better, and never worse, to cultivate such an association.

77. Let him admonish, instruct and shield one from wrong; he, indeed, is dear to the good and detestable to the evil.
Interesting is, that the people in the house vote him onto the exit list each time, while the audience always votes him "in". :twothumbsup:

It is a thought I am investigating:

if "people" out there know, what is right.

If there is an "innate goodness and nobility in all of us, " and I tend to say yes.

Actually, I am convinced of this.

We're all good, somewhere, inside.

And bad as well. But we "know" what is right, deep down inside. Only problem: Most of us are only good to loved ones, like Hitler to his dog Blondie...

But I see that the people reward those who are good to all.

Metta,

Anna
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Annapurna
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Re: when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

Post by Annapurna »

Pannapetar wrote:
Annapurna wrote:..... can people be Buddhists and psychologists at the same time....?
What exactly speaks against it?

Cheers, Thomas
Imo, nothing. :anjali:
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Annapurna
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Re: when did Rumi become a Buddhist?

Post by Annapurna »

PeterB wrote:
Annapurna wrote:..... can people be Buddhists and psychologists at the same time....? :thinking:

Peter? :sage:

Metta,

Anna
I am not a psychologist Anna dear...I am a psychiatrist and psychotherapist...just for the record.
:smile:

Of course I have psychologist colleagues and use their expertise all the time.

:anjali:
I know, Peter. :smile: I'm sorry if I was unclear. I was too lazy to think about how to say it right. :embarassed:

Anna
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