The Many Wines
A Poem by Rumi
God has given us a dark wine so potent that,
drinking it, we leave the two worlds.God has put into the form of hashish a power
to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.God has made sleep so
that it erases every thought.God made Majnun love Layla so much that
just her dog would cause confusion in him.There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.Don’t think all ecstasies
are the same!
Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley.Drink from the presence of saints,
not from those other jars.Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about “what’s needed.”Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it’s been untied,and is just ambling about.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Oh my goodness, I love Rumi but can’t believe I haven’t seen this poem before! I love it. It gave me chills, because I often compare different meditational experiences to different wines, and say that chakra practice is one way to refine our ‘palate’ or sensitivity to them. I love the line “Don’t think all ecstaties are the same!” because this is how I think of the teachings and experiences described by the mystics of different religions and traditions. One is not better than another, there is an infinite variety of insights and experiences to be had.
On another note, you have been prolific while I have been gone! I will try and come back another time to comment on your ‘conference’ post. And don’t fear H1N1, we just went through it, as have most people in our area. For most people it is not any different than normal flu, especially adults. In fact, for most adults it is less virulent. It is only more virulent in some young kids and pregnant women. Emphasis on ’some’. The media likes to play up those cases. My 2 cents!
November 10th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Hi Lisa
Rumi says don’t do what I did in my conference post. That is, begin with “some urgency about ‘what’s needed’” (a conference) and end “with fear” (of a pandemic). Sometimes blogging is a way we teach ourselves.
“Don’t think all ecstasies are the same!” is followed by the example of Jesus and the donkey. Jesus is intoxicated by God, the donkey by barley, but those are different states and therefore not the same — and not one better than the other, as you pointed out, because there is no way to know what Jesus feels and compare it to what a donkey feels.
Rumi seems to be promoting peak experience in this poem. Look at the main word in each couplet — wine, hashish, sleep, love, minds, ecstasies, God, saints, jars, connoisseur, king, fear, camel. Such “high” words! I think I love life most when it brings me little ecstasies. There are so many of them, so “many wines.” I like reading and writing about them too.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
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