Keep Climbing...

Dear Friends

I am a great lover of Rumi and the following You Tube link is an exquisite taste of heaven.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Molanaa#p/f/6/UvYeWgUxyjc

However I am deeply concerned that Rumi’s message is being manipulated to arrest people’s socio-economic development. I am horrified to learn that some young people are giving up promising careers to clean toilets and perform other menial tasks in the Mevlevi Tekke of Konya.

This is the dark side of Sufism and has little to do with purification of the heart. It is simple manipulation and power politics.  Granted Mevlana Rumi advised ‘little eating, little sleeping and little talking’ but this is actually an esoteric practice for the soul and will only permanently impair mind and body.

Bottom line is that malnourished, uneducated and sleepless Sufi’s are grainy shadows of their past contemporaries and will be of little if any service to humanity. Now I can sympathise with Kemal Ataturk who historically banned Sufism as it had become over ripe and useless.

Even if you complete the Sufi Path it is continues after death...The manazil / stations are never ending as God is never ending. HOWEVER our time on this planet is LIMITED and we only have one chance to do something great and meaningful in this life. And that is usually touching humanity rather than navel gazing...

Keep climbing the mountain even when you reach the top...(A wise Zen Saying)

Salaam

Faisal