A Comparative Religious Study:
Sufi Rumi’s Teachings and Buddhist Thought
K.S.Chow
Introduction
Sufi Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) is one of the most influential Islamic mystic or gnostic in the world. Despite the fact Rumi has passed away from us for seven hundred years, he is still the most widely known Sufi poet in the United States. His teachings offend no one and include everyone. His Sufi teachings of the God as the universal Truth (Ḥaqq) makes a Muslim a non-Muslim, a Christian a non-Christian, Hindu a non-Hindu and Buddhist a non-Buddhist. In other words, his poetic teachings of Sufism or Truth are non-sectarian. Yet his religious teachings do not deviate from the Path of Sufism, the heart or the esoteric teaching of Islam. When one’s religious teachings are non-sectarian, one’s divine Wisdom has reached the summit of spirituality of non-discriminative wisdom.
God Within not Without
Having not found God elsewhere, having looked within and having known God from within, Rumi untters thus :
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him (God); He was nowhere else.
This utterance of Rumi resonates with the Ḥadīth which affirms thus : Whoever know himself knows the Lord (God). God dwells in the inner Heart of Man. The Buddha also dwells in the inner Heart of Man so does Jesus or God. The inner Heart of Man is the pure and infinite consciousness of Man. Buddhistly put, the inner Heart of Man is the eternal Buddha-nature or Tathāgata . Vedāntinly or Hinduly put, the inner Heart is Ātman or Brahman. Christianly put, the inner Heart of Man is Jesus or God.
Identical Ground and Goal
Therefore, Rumi asserts, “ God is the ground as well as the goal of all existence.” Buddhistly put, Buddha-nature or Tathāgata is the ground as well as the goal of existence. Hinduly put, Jesus or God is the ground and the goal of all existence . Christianly put, Jesus or God is the ground and the goal of existence . The ground connotes the primordial nature of Man from which the creative advance of the world is actualized exoterically and in which reunion with God is reached. The goal of existence is self-redemption in the inner Heart , the communal haven of all religious adherents.
All faith adherents or religious believers of dissimilar denominations return to the inner Heart of Man which is eternal and centre of refuge for all. Thus, we see that Rumi’s tenet is universally applicable. In fact, it must be so in all esoteric tenets of world’s religions. There should be one and the only ultimate Truth for all of us. It is Truth of dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. No eternal Truth is distinct from the Truth of Unity or Non-duality. Unity or Non-duality is the only attribute of eternal Truth. To be more exact, it is the Process Reality of dynamic process becoming.
Seek Truth Within
After Sufi Shams had suddently disappeared from his life , Rumi who worshipped Sham, searched up and down for him but failed. Sudden gnosis dawned suddenly in Rumi. Instantaneously self-awakened, he uttered thus :
Why should I seek?
I’m the same as He.
His essence speaks through me .
I have been looking for myself.
Left and Right Brains
The Ḥadīth teaches that whoever knows himself knows his True Self or Original Self. The True or Original Self is cosmic Self. The cosmic Self is God. The Qur’an says : God is closer to you than your jugular vein (Qur’an 16:15). In Buddhism, ‘Sākyamuni Buddha promulgates that all sentient beings must seek refuge in the Buddha-nature of Man. No one can seek the Buddha externally. Neither can a Monotheist seek God externally. Seeking the Lord outwardly is idolatrous. Buddhistly, seeking externally is object reification and attachment. God is not a physical personality which can be seen with the naked eyes. God is the Unity of Existence of multiplicity (Tawḥīd; Waḥdat al Wujūd). The Multiplicity of forms is visible but the Unity of multiplicity is invisible. Multiplicity veils Unity.
Bipolar Reality
God exists in two-fold reality : The manifest multiplicity (many) and the hidden Unity (One). Buddhistly put, multiplicity is the conventional truth of multiple forms which are illusory and unreal. The ultimate Truth is the Unity which is the real but is veiled by the conventional realities. The Buddhist Heart Sūtra expounds this two-fold reality thus : Form is Emptiness , Emptiness is Form. Form is multiplicity and Emptiness is Unity of Existence of contigent conditions. Thus, Buddhism and Monotheism are reconciled exoterically (multiplicity) and esoterically (Unity). Sufi Rumi is a renowned Sufi saint because his teachings are non-sectarianism and non-denominationism. If Interfaith understanding and dialogue can be approached in terms of this bipolar reality of multiplicity and Unity, all world’s religions can be reconciled and united as the communal Truth of perennial wisdom.
Rumi says that there two dimensions of the human head, namely the intellectual head of the earth and the spiritual head of the Heaven. We have to use the spiritual head to discern the Truth of God. Buddhistly put, the ultimate Truth can not be comprehended with an intellectual or conceptual mind. It can only be self-realized through the intuitive mind.
Neuro-scientifically put, the intellectual mind is the left-brain function and the spiritual mind is the right-brain function. Since we are living in the bipolar world of secularity (phenomenon) and spirituality (principle), a balanced utility of the human brains produced a man of wisdom and virtue. The utility of left and right brain functions balancedly is the doctrine of Buddhist Middle Path. Thus, Religion corroborates science ; science corroborates religion.
Innate Humanity
Rumi says that when we return esoterically to the inner Heart , we return to the innate humanism. Humanism is wisdom and virtue. It is well said. The innate humanity is the intrinsic rectitude of conscience and sincerity. With conscience and sincerity resurrected, human moral fallibilities and vulnerabilities are obliterated. Human infallibilities and invulnerabilities are redeemed. At the inner Heart, the self-centric ego is completely annihilated. Thus, one sees God and is born of God. Buddhistly put, the false self ceases and the True Self is born. One dies before one dies . The false self or animal self is dead and the True Self is resurrected. The True Self is the pure and infinite consciousness of the Buddha –mind .
According to Sufi Rumi, A seer of God is the lover of the Truth of God. Rumi says thus:
Know this well that the lover of God cannot be a Muslim, in the sect of love, there is neither faith nor unbelief. In the love , there is no body, no mind , no heart and if a person is not like this, then that person is not a lover of God.
This divine utterance of Sufi Rumi is soteriologically significant. It is the right vision of ultimate Reality of non-sectarianism and non-denominationism. Buddhistly put, it conveys the ultimate Truth of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) of formlessness (animitta). The world is ultimately empty of signs, marks, and characteristics. It is parallel to the Heart Sūtra which expounds that there are no sense faculties, no sense objects, no 12-fold conditions of Dependent Origination and no Four Noble Truths. It implies that the multiplicity of forms is ultimately empty. Of course, conventionally they do exist but ultimately they do not exist.
Whoever does not discern the Insubstantiality or Emptiness of the multiplicity does not discern the Truth of God. The Lover (or Knower) of God is the discernment of the Emptiness of the world and the Unity of multiplicity. The Unity of multiplicity is God. What makes Sufi Rumi a very outstanding and celebrated Sufi poet is that his tenet is universal, non-sectarian and non-denominational. When a Muslim does not perceive himself as a Muslim but a brother of all brothers and sisters, the Muslim sees his or her Lord , the Allah. When a Buddhist does not perceive himself or herself as a Buddhist, he or she perceives his or her Lord, the Buddha.
At the summit of spirituality, the Lord is also empty or formless. Since the Lord is empty or formless, it is designationless. God transcends space and time. It is neither absolute existence nor absolute non-existence. God is Emptiness. God has no concrete or substantial self. God is non-conceptual and is therefore ineffable. Language is confined only for depicting concrete or substantial self. God like Buddha is insubstantial. It is both arising and ceasing , it is both the beginning and the last. It is both Unity and multiplicity. It is both manifest and unmanifest. The eternal Truth of God or Buddha is the ultimate Truth of the identity of the opposites.
This identity of the opposites is the Middle View of the Middle Path. The Middle View is the only right view to depict God which is non-conceptual and ineffable. The most ideal word to describe God is the Buddhist doctrine of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) or Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda). Emptiness connotes both existence as well as non-existence. The most crystallized Buddhist Sūtra to paraphrase Emptiness is the Heart Sūtra (Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra). Emptiness is process philosophy or perennial wisdom – the one and the only Truth in the world. There are many roads ; all roads lead to Rome.
Conclusion
Professor Majid M. Naini, a Sufi Scholar, says , “ Rumi’s life and transformation provide the testimony and proof that people of all religions and backgrounds can live together in peace and harmony. The final station of all religious tenet is non-discrimination or Emptiness. Rumi’s teachings mirrors his spiritual wisdom of non-discrimination or Emptiness. Not only Buddhists discerns Emptiness to gain liberation. All other religious Gnostics also apprehend Emptiness to gain salvation.The wisdom of Emptiness obliterates self-centric ego completely.
Rumi’s wisdom reflects that he is a fully evolved man, the highest state of Man known as al insān al kāmil (perfect man). Rumi’s poems reflect his visions, words and life. He teaches not only the Muslims but also the non-Muslims on the esoteric journey towards the inner Heart. In the inner Heart are found the eternal peace and happiness. Religion helps us stop the stream of hostility and hatred and achieve true, global peace and harmony.
To be continued |
