THE ESSENTIAL RUMI: Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
Title: The Essential Rumi (Penguin Classics)
Author: Jelaluddin Rumi
List price: $14.27
Amazon price: $14.27
In the wake of another month of near-dreamlessness I turned to Rumi's poems. Letting the book fall open I found The Guest House to be just the nudge toward balancing my perspective that sleep dreams so often provide:
THE GUEST HOUSE
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,
stilll, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
In my case, the "Guest" is dreamlessness. Treating her honorably, I turn to my books or often enough just what I can see from my window, or along the way of my morning walks; the neighbors I greet, the play of light and shadow through winter bare trees. There are portals everywhere to the insights of dreamfulness. How do you access your dreamful life when sleep dreams slip away? What are the guests that you have been entertaining of late?