Rumi's Field

 

 I want to offer you these images of fields today, to breathe deeply, to keep in your heart.

Out beyond ideas
of wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field - I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase
"each other"
don't make any sense.

~Rumi

  I've always loved Rumi's field, and sense that we hold this field deep within us. When we remember this, we can carry and call on its peace throughout the day.  This poem does not deny that there is wrong- doing in the world, but reminds us of the field within.  I also love the suggestion that when our soul is resting in that grass, there is no "Each other"- that our oneness, our shared humanity (and dare I say divinity) is felt and understood.

The first time I heard a recording of Coleman Barks reading his translations of Rumi, I nearly fainted with delight. It changed my life.  I'd never heard mystic poetry before.  I learned "Out beyond Ideas" around the same time that I learned this elaboration of "Namaste", and I took them both to heart.

I honor the place in you
in which the entire universe dwells.
I honor the place in you
which is of love, of joy, of light and of peace.
When you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
we remember that we are One.

~

They seem quite similar, don't they?

May you find your way to this field today.  May you know the realm of love you carry, always, within your beautiful & bountiful heart.