There is nothing outside the Self -- The self-sufficient Self

Arefan ra shamm o shahed nist az biroone khish
ode 1247 -- book of the Sun by Rumi
Session Oct 30,2009

In this session we have explored a very unique concept of Rumi's philosophy which is called self sufficiency of the sage. The sage or Aref is one who is self-sufficient. This self-sufficiency the dependency on the light of the candle to provide you with the ability to gain knowledge from an external source. It also has to do with the practicalities of everyday life, including falling in love with another person. The proverbial Juliet of the Western culture, which corresponds to the Majnun of the Eastern culture is an embodiment of the desirable partner.

Rumi immediately starts this poem with an outspoken declaration of self-sufficiency of the sage. The candle is a symbol that the moth seeks to attain, in its quest for the light, only to be burned as it gets too near to its objective. The candle, Rumi says, is inside the self of the stage.

In the second stanza. Rumi firmly clarifies the illusion to wine in his poetry. he says this age has not drunk the blood of grapes, but that his wine, comes from the "blood" or essence of the self. The essence of the self is what intoxicates the stage with bliss, not the outward physical wine, which intoxicates other folk

Line 2:

Everyone in the world falls in love with some kind some kind of Juliette, (Majnun)
says Rumi, at this stage is beloved is the Self and breath by breath. He shares with his Beloved, which is his own Self.

note that this is not merely a state of superficial devotion or the attempt to appear virtuous or abide by religious principles necessarily. Rather, it is a state of existence, a state of experience where the stage is enraptured In the Bliss of the Self.

And here is the ode:



For the sage,there is no candle and no beauty outside the Self
they haven't drunk grapeblood for their own blood is the source

People become enraptured with a beautiful face; their Juliette
the sage has his own beloved; he enraptured in the Self

Our values tend to change by the hour
from now on: be your own value system! So you are in balance

If you are able to get rid of the Pharaoh of ego, -from the Egypt of the body
you will see inside yourself a state which experiences Moses and Heron inside the self

you've tied an anchor to your foot and anchor of the lowly treasure
this takes you deeper every day into the depths as you drown

I saw Jonas sitting at the seashore of the ocean of love
I called to him. He replied. I have secure in myself with my own set of laws

He told me, in this ocean, I was a fish's food,
so I kept saying the word bread, until I obtained bread from myself

Don't tell us "why are you like this?" -- go beyond "Why like this"?
How can someone , who has become without how, ask about "how?"