Invite the Muse
“When
I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if
I sit in my own patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I
understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me.
There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.”
Rumi
Jalal
ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, aka Rumi, was a 13th century mystic, poet,
and whirling dervish. Born in Afghanistan, and died in Turkey, he is probably
the most widely read ancient Sufi today. His works were translated into English
by Coleman Barks in The Essential Rumi, and I am always surprised at how
current they sound. The one above was posted on Facebook just yesterday. I always
wonder when I see quotes from the ancients being passed around on social media
in the 21st century, what the author would think if they knew. Did
Rumi speak and write imagining that his words would survive for 8,000 years, be
translated into languages that didn’t even exist at the time and be posted on
blogs like this one. No. He just lived inside his skin, said what came to him
and wrote beautiful letters of love and longing to “his beloved.” The truth is
that what is delivered to those who are open to the muse, that is, open to Spirit,
receive thoughts that are eternally relevant.
Rumi
tapped into the flow of a transformational energy that, while it does not
change over the ages, speaks to the soul of every generation in a new way.
Take, for example, his deduction that “what I want also wants me, is looking
for me, and attracting me.” There are now entire books written about the
laws of attraction; about setting an intention so clearly that the “whole
universe lines up to make it happen.” (Marianne Williamson) I recall
reading in Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, a story about the muse,
which brings ideas and projects to you. If you fail to pick up the thread and
act, the muse moves along to someone more receptive. She and Ann Patchett
independently received the same idea for a book. Gilbert even wrote notes to
herself fleshing out the story line, but it came at a time when she was unable
to act on it. They did not know each other then, but when Ann Patchett received
the same idea, she wrote the book, State of Wonder.
Call me
a mystic, but I believe the very same thread of creative energy is open to
anyone who wants it. It requires openness and trust—knowing what you want and
then putting it out to the universe. What is essential is that when you have a
strong urge to follow an idea or a project, then you must follow it. What we
typically do is discount the message. We think, “Oh, heck, I can’t do that!
I don’t know how. I’ll just end up looking stupid.” And so forth, and so
on, until the muse gives up and moves on.
Rumi
was not an unusually gifted person. He simply believed that the words and wisdom
he received were real and had meaning. He didn’t hesitate. He just wrote and
spoke and whirled and prayed. The muse came to him, and it will come to you,
too. But it does require an invitation. And an open door.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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