Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll 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.
mevlana jelaluddin rumi – 13th century
This week we studied Rumi. This 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic wrote work that transcends his time to resonate with wisdom in readers, thinkers, seekers, feelers. As we read, we felt this: each word dropped into the space between us and created the field of which he speaks. Our discussion centered on where that field is, what it is, where we can live in the possibility of peace.
As communities, we create the structures of space and time that dictate how we live our lives. This is apparent in the extreme in prison. Everything is simplified and restricted: clothing, food, rooms, time, communication. How can peace or expression exist without the freedom of this field, an imagined sun or tall grasses, distance from the physical boundaries surround us?
WRITING INSIDE VT 