Begging bowl (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Over the past few years–from Brooklyn to Turkey and beyond–I’ve been finding and photographing Sufi/dervish begging bowls and bags, like the one above. In the past, Sufis practiced begging to cultivate humility and free themselves from worldly attachments–and “poverty” in Sufi poetry has long been a symbol for the “poverty” of the self–the emptying out of the ego. In many ways, Rumi’s teacher Shams of Tabriz was the embodiment of “poverty”–both literal and figurative–as illustrated in several of Rumi’s poems…
Last night my teacher taught me the lesson of poverty,
having nothing and wanting nothing…
— Rumi
