{"id":17676,"date":"2011-12-19T10:37:58","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T15:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=17676"},"modified":"2017-06-21T09:20:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T14:20:33","slug":"the-question-by-rumi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/the-question-by-rumi\/","title":{"rendered":"The Question by Rumi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One Dervish to another, What was your vision of God’s presence? \u00a0I haven’t seen anything. \u00a0But for the sake of conversation, I’ll tell you a story. \u00a0 God’s presence is there in front of me, a fire on the left, \u00a0a lovely stream on the right. \u00a0One group walks towards the fire, into the fire, another toward the sweet flowing water. \u00a0No one knows which are blessed and which not. \u00a0Whoever walks into the fire appears suddenly in the stream. \u00a0A head goes under on the water surface, that head pokes out of the fire. \u00a0Most people guard against going into the fire, \u00a0and so end up in it. \u00a0Those who love the water of pleasure and make it their devotion are cheated with this reversal. \u00a0The trickery goes further. \u00a0The voice of the fire tells the truth saying, I am not fire. \u00a0I am fountainhead. Come into me and don’t mind the sparks.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are a friend of God, fire is your water. \u00a0You should wish to have a hundred thousand sets of mothwings, so you could burn them away, one set a night. \u00a0The moth sees light and goes into the fire. \u00a0You should see fire and go toward the light. \u00a0Fire is what of God is world-consuming. \u00a0Water, world-protecting. \u00a0Somehow each gives the appearance of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

To these eyes you have now, what looks like water burns. \u00a0What looks like fire is a great relief to be inside. \u00a0You’ve seen a magician make a bowl of rice seem a dish full of tiny live worms. \u00a0Before an assembly with one breath he made a floor swarm with scorpions that weren’t there. \u00a0How much more amazing God’s tricks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generation after generation lies down defeated, they think, but they’re like a woman underneath a man, \u00a0circling him. \u00a0One molecule-mote-second thinking of God’s reversal \u00a0of comfort and pain is better than attending any ritual. \u00a0That splinter of intelligence is substance. \u00a0 The fire and water themselves: \u00a0Accidental, done with mirrors.<\/span><\/p>\n

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