{"id":371,"date":"2009-01-06T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-06T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html"},"modified":"2009-01-06T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2009-01-06T09:00:12","slug":"in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html","title":{"rendered":"In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The world recently celebrated the poet Rumi\u2019s 801<sup>st<\/sup> birthday. Rumi, a Sufi mystic poet from the 13<sup>th<\/sup> Century, preached tolerance, compassion, and love above all else. While traditional Sufism leans towards religious language (referring often to God and prayer), I was never put off by it; when I discovered Rumi\u2019s poetry about five years ago I was very skeptical and pretty much anti-religion. Rumi still managed to reach me and educate me, and ultimately help me be more open to ideas that are different than the ones I was raised to believe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In the spirit of tonight\u2019s lecture on Rumi at the ID Project, I\u2019d like to share one of my favorite poems by Rumi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Ghazal 1515:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>The way of love is not a subtle argument.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>The door there is devastation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>How do they learn it?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>They fall,<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>And falling,<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>They\u2019re given wings.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I think this poem is about suffering making you stronger. A bird is only able to learn how to fly if it makes that initial jump into the unknown abyss. Who knows what could happen? But the bird learns through that scary leap how to soar. By opening ourselves up to life experiences, even if we risk failing, this is how we grow \u2013 by dealing with difficult emotions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Professor Majid M. Naini is a leading scholar on Rumi. He has a Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from UPenn. The following video is of a talk he gave last year. He\u2019s an incredible speaker and has a beautiful grasp of Rumi\u2019s poetic language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QFFlZ16Pl1w\"><iframe title=\"Rumi and Global Peace\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QFFlZ16Pl1w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Professor Naini ends his spirited talk with a quotation from another Sheikh, encouraging universal tolerance:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Whoever comes to this door, feed him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Do not ask about his race and religion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">If the God of Love has found him to be worthy to give him a soul,<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The least you can do is feed him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rumiforum.org\/server\/index.php?option=com_frontpage&amp;Itemid=1\">Another interesting website I stumbled across is for an organization called Rumi Forum:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-weight:normal\">&#8220;Rumi Forum<\/span><\/strong> was <strong><span style=\"font-weight:normal\">founded in 1999<\/span><\/strong> with the mission to foster interfaith and intercultural dialogue, stimulate thinking and exchange of opinions on supporting and fostering democracy and peace all over the world and to provide a common platform for education and information exchange\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em>The <strong><span style=\"font-weight:normal\">principal goal<\/span><\/strong> of the Rumi Forum is to promote peace in the world and contribute to a peaceful coexistence of the adherents of different faiths, cultures, ethnicities and races.\u00a0 For that to be achieved, we believe that everyone must be respectful to the environment and to all creatures\u2019 right to exist, believe in the sanctity of human rights and democracy and use all means at hand to make this coexistence possible. To this end, we promote education, exchange of information, opinions and expertise, with a special focus on including as diverse a range of viewpoints as possible in our activities.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world recently celebrated the poet Rumi\u2019s 801st birthday. Rumi, a Sufi mystic poet from the 13th Century, preached tolerance, compassion, and love above all else. While traditional Sufism leans towards religious language (referring often to God and prayer), I was never put off by it; when I discovered Rumi\u2019s poetry about five years ago&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009 - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009 - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The world recently celebrated the poet Rumi\u2019s 801st birthday. Rumi, a Sufi mystic poet from the 13th Century, preached tolerance, compassion, and love above all else. While traditional Sufism leans towards religious language (referring often to God and prayer), I was never put off by it; when I discovered Rumi\u2019s poetry about five years ago&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-06T09:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emily Herzlin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009 - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009 - One City","og_description":"The world recently celebrated the poet Rumi\u2019s 801st birthday. Rumi, a Sufi mystic poet from the 13th Century, preached tolerance, compassion, and love above all else. While traditional Sufism leans towards religious language (referring often to God and prayer), I was never put off by it; when I discovered Rumi\u2019s poetry about five years ago&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html","og_site_name":"One City","article_published_time":"2009-01-06T09:00:12+00:00","author":"Emily Herzlin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html","name":"In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009 - One City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-06T09:00:12+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-06T09:00:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/60ceefaf4f60083515d6b0a03fd5e3ef"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/01\/in-the-spirit-of-a-more-peaceful-2009.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In the Spirit of a More Peaceful 2009"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/","name":"One City","description":"The Interdependence Project","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/60ceefaf4f60083515d6b0a03fd5e3ef","name":"Emily Herzlin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/233\/23312275747e2eadb402e574469b865cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/233\/23312275747e2eadb402e574469b865cx96.jpg","caption":"Emily Herzlin"},"description":"Emily Herzlin graduated New York University with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature and Creative Writing in 2008. She is a freelance writer for the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s International Perspective, and her writing has been published in Sentient City, the ID Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s online literary magazine. Emily is also a playwright and winner of the Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwrighting Competition for her one-act play \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Assemblage.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Her writing is influenced by art, artists, psychology, and spirituality. She has run drama and arts workshops in schools in NYC and Long Island, and teaches children with autism. Emily is working on her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia University School of the Arts. Emily has been attending classes and workshops at the ID Project since 2005.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/eherzlin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}