As we all know, eating nutritious, natural food, and when possible and as much as possible organic food are essential to have a healthy body and healthy mind. Therefore, I encourage you to be mindful of what you eat during the day. Also, consulting with an expert to find out your body type and the types of food which suit your body type, will increase your energy level and overall health considerably.
I will demonstrate some Persian and belly dance movements that you can practice before your yoga practice. Dancing to a music you like is a fun way to warm up the body and connect with yourself by focusing on the moment.
In Rumi’s poetry sama refers to listening to music, usually with the implication that dancing is also involved. The word sama means literally “audition” and alludes to sessions of listening to music. Many Sufi groups listened to music in their gatherings, and often they would dance along with it. Rumi and others even employed the dance as a means of training disciplines, since it can aid in the concentration of the mental faculties and the removal of distractions. Rumi also refers explicitly to dancing by other terms (raqs, pa kuftan). But, as in the case with all the images Rumi employs, music and dancing are primarily inward states, and only secondarily phenomena in the outward world. (The Sufi Path of Love, The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, William C. Chittick)
Hence sama is the food of the lovers, for within it they find the Image of the meeting with the Beloved.
پس غدای عاشقان آمد سماع که درو باشد خیال اجتماع
Sounds and songs strengthen the images within the mind, or rather, turn them into Forms.
(Mathnawi of Jalalu’ Ddin Rumi, Book IV, 742-743, Translation by William C. Chittick)
قوتی گیرد خیالات ضمیر بلک صورت گردد از بانگ و صفیر
To create any art the artist put her/his heart into creating it. Rumi’s poems and stories also came from his heart and as a result of the change from within. My support of hand-made items made by nomadic and tribal women such as hand-made Persian carpets and rugs reflects my premise that we are all creators. In the same way that we can create a beautiful piece of art by getting inspiration from our heart, we can create a beautiful life by listening to our inner voice of awareness and wisdom. Get in touch with me if you would like me to present your work on my website.
I believe in taking an individual approach when exercising the body or even the mind. Therefore, I will have some sample classes for you on my website focusing on opening up different areas of the body. However, I would like you to contact me and tell me about you, your goals, your current health status, and your physical strenght in order for me to be able to provide you with a more focused yoga lesson which benefit you and fulfil your individual goals. As you have learned by now about me, yoga of mind, breathing correctly, focusing, having a calm mind and mental joy are all very essential part of my yoga practice. Therefore, I will be providing you with some tools to be able to make the physical and mental yoga part of your day to day life.
My tutorials and lessons will be available on my website from November 2020 onwards. I look forward to making a lot of friends on this beautiful journey of love, peace and joy.
The world is like a mirror displaying Love’s perfection. Oh friends! Who has ever seen a part greater than its whole? (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2389, Translation by William C. Chittick)
چون آینه است عالم نقش کمال عشق است ای مردمان کی دیده است جزوی ز کل زیاده
According to Rumi, the stories of Mathnawi are not a series of stories to entertain us but, they are life lessons for those who want to hear what Rumi says, and experiment it. Through experimenting what Rumi says they would be able to see and feel Rumi, when they see Rumi, it is as though they have seen the mirror and if they look at the mirror, they would see themselves. In Rumi’s words:
I am a mirror, I am a mirror, I am not the man who recites;
You will see how I feel if your ears become your eyes.
(Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 23, Translation by Minoosh Seifi)
آینه‌ام آینه‌ام مرد مقالات نه‌ام دیده شود حال من ار چشم شود گوش شما
A lot of people think Rumi was just a great philosopher, mystic and poet who has left us with some beautiful poems to read and enjoy. In fact, the poems emerged from Rumi as a result of the transformation he went through after he met Shams-i Tabrizi. Through his poems and the tales in his book of Mathnawi, Rumi is inviting us to be transformed and experience a rebirth that he himself experienced. Rumi regard this rebirth as his true birthday. In “The story of the king’s falling in love with a handmaiden and buying her”, Rumi asks us to regard the story as the very marrow of our inward state.
O my friends, hearken to this tale: in truth it is the very marrow of our inward state. (Mathnawi of Jalalu’ Ddin Rumi, Book I, 35, translation by Reynold A. Nicholson)
بشنوید ای دوستان این داستان خود حقیقت نقد حال ماست آن
Rumi and Yoga both covey the same massage to us. Yoga means union with self. When we do yoga in form of physical movements, we constantly focus on what we do every moment and breathe in and out as we move. When we sit in silence in an attempt to meditate, another form of yoga, we are present in the moment without doing anything aside from the vital breathing. In other words, it is being present.
Rumi also invites us to be silent, present, and to become one with self. According to Rumi through silence we can hear our inner voice and be guided by it. Silence brings peace with itself. Through silence we are observers of our busy thoughts. If we are the observer, we will simply watch the thoughts come and go without being swayed by them. In Rumi’s poetry “Be Silent” is an invitation to stay calm, present and connected with self.
Do not Speak, so that thou mayst hear from the Speakers that which came not into utterance or into explanation. (Mathnawi of Jalalu’ Ddin Rumi, Book III, 1305, translation by Reynold A. Nicholson)
دم مزن تا بشنوی از دم زنان آنچه نامد در زبان و در بیان
Do not speak, so that thou mayst hear from the Sun that which came not into book or into allocution. (Mathnawi of Jalalu’ Ddin Rumi, Book III, 1306, translation by Reynold A. Nicholson)
دم مزن تا بشنوی زان آفتاب آنچ نامد درکتاب و در خطاب
Do not speak, so that the Spirit may speak for thee: in the ark of Noah leave off swimming!
دم مزن تا دم زند بهر تو روح آشنا بگذار در کشتی نوح
(Mathnawi of Jalalu’ Ddin Rumi, Book III, 1307, translation by Reynold A. Nicholson)
دم مزن تا دم زند بهر تو روح آشنا بگذار در کشتی نوح
Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in Balkh in Great Khorasan of Greater Iran in the year A.H. 604/A.D. 1207. Rumi’s father, Baha Walad, was a well-known preacher, jurisprudence, and Sufi. Around the year 616/1219 the Mongols were moving ever closer to Balkh. Baha Walad left the city with his family and many followers. After making the pilgrimage to Mecca, Baha Walad set out for Asia minor where he was received warmly in Konya in present-day Turkey by the Seljuk king Ala al-Din Kayqubad and his vizier Muin al-Din Parwaneh who was later to become one of Rumi’s most influential devotees. Baha Walad occupied a high position soon among the city’s scholars and was given the title Sultan al- ulama, “Sultan of the men of Knowledge.”
In the tradition of his predecessors, Rumi began studying the exoteric sciences at an early age. At the age of twenty-four he was asked to assume his father’s duties as a preacher and jurisprudent. Rumi gained widespread fame as one of the most respected doctors of the Law. He occupied himself mainly with preaching to and guiding the people of Konya, while he continued his own spiritual practices as a Sufi adept. He preserved the customary activities and symbols of a solid and honored doctor of the Law. Sometimes he would discuss the spiritual mysteries in his sermons. But, he never gave any noticeable indication that he was any different than other jurisprudents and lawyers for having knowledge of them. But, in the year 642/1244 the inexplicable figure Shams al-Din of Tabriz came to Konya and Rumi was transformed.
Shams-i Tabrizi’s influence upon Rumi was pivotal. Through Shams Rumi was transformed from a sober jurisprudent to an intoxicated worshiper of the “mysteries of the Divine Love”. After this life changing experience, Rumi started writing poems and carried on doing so for 28 years. Rumi’s major works are the Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrizi of some 40,000 verses and the Mathnawi of about 25,000 verses. Furthermore, three collections of his talks and letters have been preserved. (The Sufi Path of Love, The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, William C. Chittick)
I was the country’s sober ascetic, I used to teach from the pulpit __but destiny made me one of Thy hand-clapping lovers. (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2152, Translation by William C. Chittick)
زاهد کشوري بدم صاحب منبري بدم. کرد قضا دل مرا عاشق و کف زنان تو
My hand always used to hold a Koran, but now it holds Love’s flagon. (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2351, Translation by William C. Chittick)
در دست همیشه مصحفم بود. وز عشق گرفته‌ام چغانه
My mouth was filled with glorification, but now it recites only poetry and songs. (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2351, Translation by William C. Chittick)
اندر دهنی که بود تسبیح. شعر است و دوبیتی و ترانه
Passion for that Beloved took me away from erudition and reciting the Koran until I became as insane and obsessed as I am. (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2498, Translation by William C. Chittick)
مرا سودای آن دلبر ز دانایی و قرایی. برون آورد تا گشتم چنین شیدا و سودایی
I had followed the way of the prayer carpet and the mosque with all sincerity and effort. I wore the marks of asceticism to increase my good works. (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2498, Translation by William C. Chittick)
سر سجاده و مسند گرفتم من به جهد و جد. شعار زهد پوشیدم پی خیرات افزایی
Love came into the mosque and said, “Oh great teacher! Rend the shackles of existence! Why are you tied to prayer carpets? (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2498, Translation by William C. Chittick)
درآمد عشق در مسجد بگفت ای خواجه مرشد. بدران بند هستی را چه دربند مصلایی
Let not your heart tremble before the blows of My sword! Do you want to travel from knowledge to vision? Then lay down your head! (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2498, Translation by William C. Chittick)
به پیش زخم تیغ من ملرزان دل بنه گردن. اگر خواهی سفر کردن ز دانایی به بینایی
If you are a profligate and a scoundrel, do justice to troublemaking! If you are beautiful and fair, why do you remain behind the veil? (Diwan-I Shams-i-Tabrizi, Ghazal 2498, Translation by William C. Chittick)
بده تو داد اوباشی اگر رندی و قلاشی. پس پرده چه می‌باشی اگر خوبی و زیبایی