love revealed

It is treasure buried in earth, concealed;

Both from the pious and faithless, concealed.

We saw that it surely was love, concealed:

This hidden thing left us naked, revealed.

#1640: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Search word: earth

I woke this morning with earthy erotic dreams which I view as a good sign! I continue to be entranced with the Hebrew spirit of joy as expressed in the most popular song from Fiddler on the Roof:

If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

My son is working hard towards making his first million but I tell him that I wish him to be rich in spirit, first and foremost. Though I don't mind him being or becoming both.

In this verse today, Rumi characterizes the Self, the divine, the alchemical goal, however one wishes to name it, as a treasure buried in earth. This is a very gnostic idea, that the divine spark dwells in each of us and in the world about us if only we have eyes to see. Blake expressed it most popularly and most succinctly in his:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour

As Rumi so shrewdly observes, the pious person fails to see the divine because he looks to heaven for it; the faithless person fixes his gaze on the earth but is not on the lookout for the divine. Both, therefore, are blind to it. Neither can achieve gnosis.

It is love that reveals and is revealed in this treasure. It is love in the form of a mother's love, of unconditional acceptance and nurturance: of one's self, of one's fellow man and woman, and also of one's fellow creatures of the earth. I loved my cat that way and she taught me to extend that love, to spread it around. She taught me this through her death for what else can it mean that she left me so bereft of her? Perhaps that is also why Jesus had to die, so His disciples could learn from the loss. Perhaps that is why Shams had to disappear, so Rumi could discover his own qualities of saintliness and religious authority in himself, buried deep inside himself.

In my dream I am naked in a communal living environment. I am worried about what others will think and I hurry back to my private room. Now, as I read Rumi, I no longer care about being naked for naked is my natural self. I love me like I am.

Finally, a "thank you" to YmirGF at free2code's religion forum for bringing us this other succinct treasure from another poet:

To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
-- e e cummings