Humanities 1

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,

there is a field.

I will meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’

doesn’t make any sense.”  – Rumi

Rumi’s words are powerful but more importantly they transcend all cultures, all religions and, as we have seen, they also transcend time.  For this week’s discussion. I encourage you to search for more online (see links below).  

Instructions:

1. Choose one of Rumi’s poems that speaks and resonates with you. This should not be hard, trust me, you”ll feel it as soon as you read it, his words  have a way of choosing you.

2. Share that piece with us, tell us why you chose it. Please post either the entire poem, or a specific section that you want to share.

3. DISCUSS IN YOUR OWN WORDS: Why you think Rumi’s works are so timeless; as you’ve seen, he has inspired many of today’s artists; why do you think his words still resonate with us today in the 21st century?

4. What does Rumi teach us about Eastern philosophy and what are the big ideas and values we can take away from his work?

Here are a some links where you can find more of Rumi’s poetry or you can just google “Rumi” and/or “Rumi poetry.” Once you google these terms, search through images, they have many quotes for you to look at that way.

http://www.khamush.com/poetry/

http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/rumilove.html