» Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi - Fasting (Fragments)
Fasting
by Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
English version by Coleman Barks
There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox
is stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy makes you
run up the steps in front of you.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
...............................................
...... When you fast,
good habits gather like friends who want to help.
Fasting is Solomon’s ring. Don’t give it
to some illusion and lose your power,
but even if you have, if you’ve lost all will and control,
they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing
out of the ground, pennants flying above them....
- from The Illuminated Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks
.
Fasting, used carefully, with balance, and as part of a larger spiritual practice, becomes a way to help identify and unseat the despotic ego.
This is why fasting is practiced in all religions. And you don’t even have to have a religious “faith.” Just try it sometime, for a day, for half a day, wrestle your way through, and see what happens in you. --Ivan M. Granger.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
Poetry Chaikhana Blog » Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi - Fasting
by Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
English version by Coleman Barks
There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox
is stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy makes you
run up the steps in front of you.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
...............................................
...... When you fast,
good habits gather like friends who want to help.
Fasting is Solomon’s ring. Don’t give it
to some illusion and lose your power,
but even if you have, if you’ve lost all will and control,
they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing
out of the ground, pennants flying above them....
- from The Illuminated Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks
.
Fasting, used carefully, with balance, and as part of a larger spiritual practice, becomes a way to help identify and unseat the despotic ego.
This is why fasting is practiced in all religions. And you don’t even have to have a religious “faith.” Just try it sometime, for a day, for half a day, wrestle your way through, and see what happens in you. --Ivan M. Granger.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
Poetry Chaikhana Blog » Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi - Fasting