One Healing Poem!

Rumi, a 13 century Persian poet and mystic, speaks clearly of the awakening that is happening in many people’s minds and hearts. A short time ago we explored his most well-known poem, The Guesthouse, which speaks directly to the heart of what I offer to life – how to show up for life rather than always trying to make it better or different than what it is, for everything we long for is already here – right now!

There is another powerful poem he wrote that is far less known and even far less liked because most people have difficulty in understanding what he is pointing to. I would love to explore this poem with you because its message is at the heart of what it means to awaken out of struggle, back into an alive and trust filled connection with life:

The Friend who knows a lot more than you do …

will bring difficulties, and grief, and sickness, as medicine, as happiness……

as the essence of the moment when you’re beaten, when you hear Checkmate,

and can finally say I trust you to kill me.

He capitalizes the word Friend since it represents whatever that is, which animates life. Some people use the word God, Holy Spirit, Christ, but the word Friend evokes a deep truth that we oftentimes miss – that whatever gives us the gift of breath, is for us. Or as Rumi says, “who knows a lot more than you do.” This is what Eckhart Tolle is pointing to in his statement, “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.”

Then Rumi says the Friend “will bring difficulties, and grief, and sickness, as medicine, as happiness.” How can that possibly be? How can the deep challenges of your life be a medicine that brings happiness? This points to a core truth in awakening – that your challenges are tailor-made to help you see how you are conditioned to struggle with life rather than be open to it. And the more you see your particular brand of struggle, the easier it is to unhook from it so that you can be present for the gifts that are always embedded in the challenges life is giving you.

When he talks about checkmate, he’s talking about surrender. To our conditioned mind surrender means defeat. But to who we really are, surrender means learning how to yield to the intelligence of life, bowing to its authority. Or as Eckhart Tolle says, “Always say ‘yes’ to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane then to create inner resistance to what already is? Surrender to what is. Say ‘yes’ to life – and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”

And now we come to the last line, which is so deeply misunderstood. When he says, “I trust you to kill me.” He doesn’t mean that literally. He means, I trust that the Friend is putting me in the exact situations that will allow me to see and unhook from all the thoughts, feelings and perceptions that have kept me separate from an intimate and trust filled connection with life exactly as it is.

I leave you with a quote that came to me at the beginning of my awakening and it took me years to grow into the truth of it. It is now my guide through this wild and crazy journey called life and is woven through everything I share. Your mind may not agree with this. You may even get angry for the mind is deeply afraid of letting go of the illusion of control. But it is not your mind that knows this truth. It is your aware heart that trusts life. I am not asking you to believe this. Instead be willing to ask life to show you the truth in these words:

“Know and silently respect the perfection of everyone and everything in every situation, especially when it is not at all apparent.”