– What is a true dervish like? – my friend asks the Sufi teacher.
– Dervish is a compound word: dar – door, vis – threshold. A dervish is a person who has reached the divine gate and is willing to be as humble as the threshold that everyone steps over. The true dervish and the false one, the imitator, come in pairs, and beside the true there is always the false. If you see a false dervish, be very glad, for it means the true one is near! Without an original there is no counterfeit. You find a counterfeit ten-lira note because there is a real one too. No one has ever seen a counterfeit eleven-lira note, not because nobody made one, but because there is no original eleven-lira note either. Everything has its prototype.
He smiles at the effect of his well-turned words, the others nod eagerly, and so do I – yes, beside the false there must be the true…
– All of us need someone we can love, someone we can care for, and someone who loves us. Take this glass. The glass does not mind where it was set down, and only waits to be touched, to be used – to be loved. It does not protest… In people, the trouble comes from unfulfilled desires – and all the while he keeps moving the long-empty water glasses to and fro.
Counsels of Mevlana Rumi
- › In generosity and in helping others be like a river,
- › in compassion and grace be like the Sun,
- › and in covering the faults of others be like the night.
- › To anger and passion be dead,
- › in virtue and humility like the Earth,
- › in patience be like the sea,
- › show what you are, or be what you show!
– If you do not understand something, do not reject it, but examine it, understand it, let it come closer! Do not cut it off, do not reject it! People suffer from not understanding.
– And is it true that the sema is forbidden today? – I ask, knowing that in 1925 the monasteries of the whirling dervishes were closed, and that today they work in hiding, as best they can.
– Well, the sema is not forbidden, but it makes a difference whether you take part in a cultural event or in a real gathering, where there may be no dancing at all, and yet the atmosphere glows more intensely. The sema as a spiritual practice was banned and the monasteries were shut, but closing a few monasteries was in vain, for in this way the whole world became a monastery. In any case, everyone has to set out from the outer monastery towards the inner one. Besides, no one wears two garments. Can you exchange your cotton garment for wool?
For all its seeming innocence, the question is provocative, and compels a spiritual answer from everyone – can we leave the worldly behind and choose the otherworldly? Slowly we begin to take our leave, and as we leave the outer meeting behind, we make ready to carry something away within us.
– The divine spark shines in everything – says our friend – that is why men kiss each other's hands when they meet, like this – and he shows us, taking my friend's hand in his palm, forearms bent, the backs of the hands raised and leaning towards each other. The thumbs press on the clasped palms. The gesture shows great intimacy, and as he bends gently towards the hand he holds in his palm, the other can do nothing but bend towards it too and give the friend's hand a kiss as light as a breath.
– It is not your hand I kiss, but its divinity – he continues softly. – I know what dwells in you! The divine spark, yes…