Category Archives: Blog

Spending part of the day whirling with Sufis in Beirut, after a relaxing morning of capoeira…

Your body sheds its fatigue.
Hearing my hands clap and my drum beat
You begin to whirl.

— Rumi

Why struggle to open a door between us
when the whole wall is an illusion?

— Rumi

It looks like the theme today is green. This Sufi shrine that I visited in Uzbekistan was painted one of the most beautiful shades of green I’ve ever seen. There’s a reason green is so central in Islam and so highly visible at many Sufi shrines along the Silk Road…

Tender words we spoke to one another
are sealed in the secret vaults of heaven.
One day, like rain, they will fall to earth
and grow green all over the world.

— Rumi

While strolling through the medieval medina of Fez two weeks ago, I saw this towering green structure emerge in the distance from one of the busiest alleys of the bazaar. As I stepped closer to search for a door to climb up inside it, an old Moroccan man offered a better plan.

“Here, follow me,” he said, leading me to a staircase on the other side of the crowded road.

Climbing up a narrow, dusty staircase, we passed by several middle-aged men in tank tops looming (quite literally) on the second floor–since in Morocco looms are manned by the men. Stepping onto the roof, we were finally face-to-face with the shimmer of the sun, gracing those brilliant green mosaics–just as twilight was beginning to dawn…

O you who’ve gone on pilgrimage –
where are you, where, oh where?
Here, here is the Beloved!
Oh come now, come, oh come!

— Rumi

The photo above was taken at one of my favorite shrines in Afghanistan, while I was journeying with some Afghan Sufis to visit as many shrines as we could.  Though I was taken immediately with the peace of the place, it was the mint shade of the paint along with the pink flags tied to the shrine that really drew me in…

After this photo was taken, we shuffled to the side when an old Afghan man with a flowing, white beard–matching his white turban and blanched shalwar kameez–came to pray at the side of these tombs under the bowing branches of that twisted tree…

Go forward, and make advances down this road of love;
In forward motion, the pain is great.
To beg at the door of the Winehouse is a wonderful alchemy.
If you practice this, soon you will be converting dust into gold.
O heart, if only once you experience the light of purity,
Like a laughing candle, you can abandon the life you live in your head…

— Hafiz

As you can see, the mask from Scream is still a big sell in Beirut for Halloween…

While running errands this evening in Beirut, I bumped into pumpkins and Halloween costumes for sale in several crowded stores, and on a few busy corners–like the above. Yes, we have Halloween here too–and my students told me they’ll definitely be dressing up for Halloween to party hard all night in someone else’s shoes…

Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.

— Rumi

This week, when Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on the occasion of Turkmenistan’s “National Day,” he called for promoting bilateral relations between Tehran and Ashgabat in a variety of fields–especially since these two countries are neighbors.

When I was in Turkmenistan, I had the opportunity to explore the country’s border with Iran (and no, I wasn’t “hiking”). While ascending the mountains to reach the border, I spent some time playing with this group of small children…and when the time came to continue cruising towards Iran, they asked us to snap one final photo before moving on…

The Rumi poem above is an ideal one to translate if you’re just learning Persian. Compared to other Rumi poems, most of which are extremely complex and difficult even for native speakers to translate, this poem is relatively straightforward. And if you don’t know Persian, you might try to see how many times you can locate the word to the left–pronounced “pedar” (which means “father”)–in Rumi’s verse…

Now that you’re reading the words of Rumi in the original Persian, you might also be interested in watching “The Willow Tree”–a classic Iranian film about a blind Rumi scholar. This film–by one of my favorite Iranian directors–will make you “see” things in a whole new light…though the Sufi message doesn’t fully land until the end…

The clear bead at the center changes everything.
There are no edges to my loving now…

— Rumi

A human is a ghost composed of pain and inattention…

— Rumi

Why should I be weary,
when every cell of my body is bursting with life?

Why should I be a donkey’s slave,
when I ride upon a magical horse?

— Rumi

One of my favorite things to do in Turkmenistan is to go for a ride on an Akhal-Teke horse–a special and prized breed from Turkmenistan that also serves as a national emblem. They’re the fastest horses I’ve ever had the chance to ride–and they’re celebrated far-and-wide for their stamina, sheen, and stride. If you travel to Turkmenistan, definitely give an Akhal-teke a try, but hold on to your hat–since you’ll be wishing your magical horse had brakes!

I lean as close to your body with my words
As I can–
And I think of you all the time,
dear pilgrim.

Because the One I love goes with you
Wherever you go,
Hafiz will always be near.

— Hafiz

The caravan of spirit travels constantly between earth and heaven.
Join it gladly and freely,
not bitterly and full of hatred, like a thief.

— Rumi

This photo is from the Silk Road in Turkmenistan–and it was taken while I was driving off road with some colleagues through the heart of the desert in search of a special medieval caravanserai…