The Straw the Tree and the Wind

The Grasses

The same wind that uproots trees
Makes the grasses shine.

The lordly wind loves the weakness
And the lowness of grasses
Never brag of being strong.

The axe doesn’t worry how thick the branches are.
It cuts them to pieces.
But not the leaves.
It leaves the leaves alone.

A Flame doesn’t consider the size of the woodpile.
A butcher doesn’t run from a flock of sheep.

What is form in the presence of reality?
Very feeble.
Reality keeps the sky turned over
Like a cup above us, revolving.
Who turns the sky wheel?
The universal intelligence.

And the motion of the body comes
From the spirit like a waterwheel
That’s held in a stream.

The inhaling-exhaling is from spirit,
Now angry, now peaceful.
Wind destroys and wind protects.

There is no reality but God.
Says the completely surrendered sheikh,
Who is an ocean for all beings.

The levels of creation are straws in that ocean.
The movement of the straws comes from an agitation
In the water.
When the ocean wants the straws calm,
It sends them close to shore.
When it wants them back in the deep surge,
It does with them as the wind does with the grasses.
This never ends.

I found Rumi’s poem,The Grasses in an interesting way. I was driving to the store and noticed a young tree that had been pulled up by its roots by the wind. All the trees around it were still standing straight and tall. I asked my self why this tree was chosen by the wind and uprooted; the other trees around it look to be the same age and height. An inner voice said it was the tree’s choice and the wind as consciousness, was an instrument in the fulfilling that choice. The tree and the wind were one in the act of uprooting it.

We played a role in this collective reality because we bring focus to this reality. The uprooted tree look like destruction to me. The trees that stood unharmed were judged in another way by me.

Both perceptions made the scene real. The wind was gone and the tree is dead and my beliefs made that so. In another reality that scene may be different.

Rumi calls us levels of creation. We are different families of consciousness expressing ourselves in levels based on our beliefs. The wind and the tree don't have beliefs; they respond to their inner consciousness. That consciousness is our consciousness as well.

We are in a conscious ocean with trees, the wind, and the grasses. The reality of God is moving through all of us. Physical manifestations are waves in that ocean.