Category Archives: Blog

I came across this hidden pond while hiking in Lebanon. After walking through the woods for eight hours, it was a lovely surprise to stumble upon this enchanting tableau…which reminded me of a Rumi poem…

You have been a prisoner of a little pond,
I am the ocean and its turbulent flood.
Come merge with me, leave this world of ignorance.
Be with me, I will open the gate to your love…

— Rumi

When I saw this young child walking alone down a busy street in Afghanistan, it seemed like the whole weight of Afghanistan’s future was being carried on those tiny shoulders. What was in the bag–I wanted to know–that was causing this child to grimace with each small step? Unaccustomed to seeing young children running daily errands in the bazaar, I felt compelled to take this picture. I also wanted to remember the faces of all the Afghan children I met along the way–the inheritors of over three decades of war. A NYTimes video from this week looks at the unexplained and tragic hunger crisis affecting Afghanistan’s youth…

In Sudan, when I visited the large temple complex of the god Amun in the Royal City of Meroe, I came across this block with the Nile god Hapy chiseled on its side. Though the mudhut where I lived in Sudan was surrounded by Saharan sand, my colleague and I one day reached the damp banks of the Nile, after a thirty-minute walk through some hidden, lush fields nourished by Hapy…

Hymn to the flood, Hail flood!
Emerging from the earth, arriving to bring Egypt to life,
hidden of form, the darkness in the day,
the one whose followers sing to him, as he waters the plants,
created by Ra to make every herd live,
who satisfies the desert hills removed from the water…

— Hymn to Hapy

While I was doing archaeology in Sudan this December, I explored the Royal City of Meroe–where I found the ruins of this spectacular temple complex dedicated to the god Amun filled with surprises…

When I was whirling with Sufis today in Beirut, there were less Sufis whirling than usual–since many people here are still hiding out. To escape danger and death, daily routines are being re-written: some are changing coffee habits, and others are avoiding the mall…

Today, two of my friends–both of whom lived through the civil war–broke down in tears and despair. One–a gentle old Sufi woman who always sports a sincere, sweet smile–and the other, a muscle-bound, macho guy from the gym. “Why do we keep on killing each other,” he said, “why not go instead to the gym and to the beach, and make peace no matter the color of your skin or your religious beliefs.”

Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance when you’re perfectly free…

— Rumi

Living in Lebanon, where approximately one million Syrian refugees are waiting for an end to the war next door, the humanitarian crisis caused from the conflict in Syria is always on my mind–and how could it not be? In addition to passing Syrian refugees all day long on the streets of Beirut, I also have Syrian refugees as students in my classroom–trying with difficulty to adjust to college life, after having fled from the war zone at home. Even in the playroom at St. Jude’s in Beirut, where I volunteer, a number of the children receiving chemo are Syrian refugees too. In the midst of so much suffering, it’s easy to wonder what more might be done–a question that more people are now asking. This week, Senators and media commentators have been busy proposing how we might lend a helping hand to so many people in need…

The ongoing civil war in Syria has created the world’s worst humanitarian and refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide and perhaps since World War II. Of the nearly 2.3 million Syrian refugees that have fled the bloody civil war, nearly half are children. While the United States has led the world in resettling and providing humanitarian assistance to refugees from conflicts around the globe, we’ve not done enough to address the current Syrian crisis. In particular, the Obama Administration should use the authority Congress gave it to exempt deserving Syrians from the overly broad immigration bars that prevent legitimate refugees from finding safe haven in the United States. While there may be differences about how to resolve the conflict, there should be no disagreement that it is a moral and national security imperative to do all we can to help alleviate the suffering of innocent Syrian refugees.

– Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL),
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights

Six men were found this week with their throats slit at the Ayub Shah Bukhari shrine in Karachi, Pakistan. Violent attacks against Sufis and Sufi shrines have been on the rise over the past several years in North Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The destruction of Sufi heritage from Mali to Karachi is showing no signs of stopping or slowing down…

When I was wandering through the library at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul last week with friends, its empty shelves reminded me of the story of Rumi’s teacher (Shams) pushing all of Rumi’s books into a fountain–urging him to pursue a different kind of knowledge…passed from soul to soul, and heart to heart…

Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue.
If knowledge of mysteries comes after emptiness of mind, that is illumination of heart…

— Rumi

You must not hate those who do wrong or harmful things; but with compassion, you must do what you can to stop them — for they are harming themselves, as well as those who suffer from their actions.

— HH Dalai Lama XIV

Tonight, I had dinner with a Buddhist priest in Beirut. On the menu, in addition to quinoa and halloumi, were questions on how to meditate in the middle of a war zone–and how to cultivate compassion in a cauldron of violence, anger and hate. What, we wondered, is the role and nature of detachment–and how is it different from passivity or indifference?

Sometimes when people hear about the Buddhist practice of detachment, they think that Buddhism is advocating indifference toward all things, but that is not the case. First, cultivating detachment, one could say, takes the sting out of discriminatory emotions toward others that are based on considerations of distance or closeness. You lay the groundwork on which you can cultivate genuine compassion extending to all other sentient beings.

— HH the Dalai Lama

As the Buddhist priest and I traded tales over Turkish coffee and pain perdu, he shared with me a version of the story below (while contemplating the feelings that arise in experiencing ongoing terror, violence, and uncertainty)…

***

One day the Master announced that a young monk had reached an advanced state of enlightment. The news caused some stir. Some of the monks went to see the young monk.

“We heard you are enlightened. Is that true?” they asked.

“It is,” he replied.

“And how do you feel?”

“As miserable as ever,” he replied.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.

— MLK, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community

I took this photo about a week ago, when I was flying back to Beirut. My December travels to Sudan and Turkey fell in between the recent bomb attacks in Beirut. From above, you’d never know how high tensions are simmering in this sprawling city on the sea–overflowing with Syrian refugees. From above, you’d never know that car bombs were being planted in scattered pockets of this Mediterranean tableau. Or guess how many people from different backgrounds and beliefs shared the same terror, waiting for the next bomb to explode. From above, looking down on the snow-covered mountains and the offshore rock arches of Pigeon Rock, Beirut looks like a paradise recently rebuilt–but down there on the ground, the war next door is quickly turning Beirut into a place where nobody feels safe…and even the crocodiles have been hiding out…

Tens of thousands of feet above, drifting through the clouds and trying to locate my home below (one mile from where a bomb had detonated just four days before), I didn’t know that another bomb would rip through Beirut a few days later on the other side of town. Surveying this city that I love from above, I was reminded of a sermon I heard delivered near my home in Harlem by Dr. Calvin Butts III, when I visited Abyssinian Baptist Church (where back in the day Dr. King and Harry Belafonte discussed civil rights, and Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter paid visits too). Today I found a video online of Reverend Butts giving this same sermon at the Oakwood University Evangelism Council. To listen to Reverend Butts relate his experience of flying into New York City while contemplating its beauty from above, tune in at the 33:50 mark below…

God, it looks so different down here on the ground
than it did way up there in the air.

— Dr. Calvin Butts III

Sweetness is hidden in the breath
that fills the reed.
Be like Mary – by that sweet breath
a child grew within her.

— Rumi

Your spirit needs to follow the changes happening
in the spacious place it knows about.

There, the scene is always new,
a clairvoyant river of picturing,
more beautiful than any on earth.

This is where the Sufis wash.
Purify your eyes, and see the pure world.
Your life will fill with radiant forms.

It’s a question of cleaning
then developing spiritual senses.
See beyond phenomena.

— Rumi

When I was in Tehran, I encountered many things I never expected to find. For instance, most people don’t think of Iran as a place where “rap culture” is thriving…

About a week ago, when I was trying to reach my hotel in Taksim Square, I got caught in the middle of a protest–where police were using rubber bullets and tear gas to beat back the protesters. When I momentarily caught my breath, after escaping from the center of the action, I took this photo of a woman waving a flag of Ataturk and watching the mayhem unfold from the periphery. But today, instead of cracking down on protesters, police in Turkey are experiencing a crackdown of their own…