From The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. New York: HarperCollins, 1995, p. 260.
Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.
From Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, (New York: New Directions, 1960) p. 30.
A certain brother went to Abbot Moses in Scete and asked him for a good word. And the elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.
1 comment:
These two different but similar teachings come from the Sufi tradition of Rumi and from the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the third century men and women who went to live in the Egyptian desert as Christian hermits.
There are so many ways in which we already have everything we need. When we stop and allow ourselves to feel our own genuine solitude, when we take some time alone in our room, we can experience what we have, who we are, at this moment right now. On the spiritual journey, we may keep thinking that we need to progress, that we need more, more knowledge, more wisdom, more time to be with God. However, when we stop and spend quiet time alone, we may find the answers we are looking for within ourselves, within this moment.
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