Being

My very dear friends Sue and Herman,

I always enjoy poetry especially when it is a gift from a friend.  I saw the interesting poem that Herman sent us in his own introduction and saw a similarity between it with the mystical thoughts I am familiar with in my own culture.  Here too all the particles of the universe are singing loudly.  But the Persian mystics hear this sound in a different way. 

Perhaps the first lines of Masnavi can give us a clue to hear sounds in the way these mystics hear.  In Rumi's opinion the reason we hear such beautiful songs in the Nei is that the Nei is emptied of its own existence.  That is why the Nei player can make the flow of his own chest, his own "bosom" into the reed flute. 

In Rumi's universe / ideology, if Beings empty themselves of themselves they will turn into a musical instrument that can then sing in harmony with the rest of the universe.  Does this make any sense in the West?  All I hear from the west is the sound of many great philosophers who try to prove that they are.  Rumi would have said, "I am not.  Therefore, I am."  Or the way Mansoor Hallaj put it: "I am the Truth." 

Ali