Teachings of Rumi That Will Transform Your Life
Rumi has wonderful teachings that inspired even Coldplay’s songs- here’s what we learned from him.
“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.”
These verses from a Rumi poem named The Guest House are also lyrics of Coldplay’s Kaleidoscope song. The lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin, told in an interview that reading Rumi’s poetry has helped him immensely while he was struggling with depression after his divorce from Gwyneth Paltrow. “That one Rumi poem changes everything,” Martin has said to The Sunday Times. “It says that even when you’re unhappy, it’s good for you.”
Rumi is perhaps the most renowned poet of Sufi mysticism and is a huge contributor to global spirituality.
Sufism is widely embraced by many around the world and main celebrity figures. Chris Martin said about Sufism that its teachings help him create music: “I was very lucky to meet a very good Sufi teacher who started to introduce the idea of ‘if you sit with your experiences and the things you’ve been through, they alchemise.’ At the time he said that, I didn’t really know what that meant, but I trusted that it would work, and the more that I was learning about that, the more music just started flowing through.”
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”
Be grateful even for the painful experiences.
You learn and grow so much through difficulties. They are part of formative experiences that deeply shape you. It can be hard to keep that in mind when everything seems like happening all at once and you feel overwhelmed.
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
Dare to have big dreams.
Believe in the beauty of your dreams and act like it. Sufis believe that each human has, like stardust, a part of God inside them. That’s why each of us have an unlimited capacity to fulfill our wildest dreams as long as we believe in ourselves. This verse reminds us of our high capacity in achieving our dreams.
“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?”
You have a purpose in life.
Even when you feel lost, when you don’t know in which direction you’re headed, the answers you are looking for are within you. Sometimes it’s just about shutting the outer noise and tuning into your inner voice. Your intuition deep inside knows you better.
“What you seek is seeking you.”
Once you’ve decided on it, it is yours.
The universe is a magnet. Whatever you give your attention to grows. So, whatever it is that you’re seeking it’s also seeking you. If you’re seeking more peace in yourself, it is also coming to you because you’ve activated it.
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Focus on the changes first on yourself.
Like Buddha also said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Most important changes we can do start with ourselves. We can always strive to be better. If we wish for more compassion in the world, let’s start with being more compassionate with ourselves and our past mistakes. If we wish to be understood, let’s try to understand others and have them feel that way by checking in more with their wellbeing.
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