Listen to this reed forlorn,
Breathing, even since it was torn
From its rushy bed, a strain
Of impassioned love and pain.
The secret of my song, though near,
None can see, none can hear.
Oh, for a friend to know the sign
And mingle all his soul with mine.
It's the flame of Love that fired me,
It's the wine of Love inspired me.
Would you learn how lovers bleed,
Then listen, listen to the reed.”
The Turn
In the turning ceremony of the Sema, going back to the great Sufi mystic Rumi, we celebrate the path of the true seeker towards His Beloved.
The outer turning, the turn of the Mevlevis, is one of the most beautiful tools of transformation the Living School is working with on the Path of Return. We all have to turn back to our real home, which is the home of the Beloved. Separation is finally dissolved in Unity and we see that God and His Creation, even as Love, Lover and Beloved are One. This is our true birth, the first step on the Path of Return.
We Turn for God and the World
“It is like this”, Suleyman Dede said. “When you turn you do not turn for yourself, but for God. We turn around in the way we do so that the Light of God may descend upon the earth. As you act as a channel in the turn, the light comes through the right hand, and the left hand brings it into this world.
If you are quiet and in a state of prayer when you turn, offering everything o yourself to God, the, when your body is spinning, there is a completely still point in the center. In the knowledge that there is only He, you can experience the universe turning around that center. When you turn, all the stars, and the planets, and the endless universes turn around that still point. The heavens respond; and all the invisible kingdoms join in the dance. Jesus said, ‘Unless you dance you know not what cometh to pass.’ That is why we turn. But the world does not understand. They think we turn in order to go into some sort of trance. It is true that we sometimes go into that state you call ecstasy, but that is only when we know and experience at the same time. We do not turn for ourselves.”
(from "The Last Barrier" by Reshad Feild, chapter 10)
The Turn
The Turn is a way
to express the love
and beauty within
and to create a space
for the Divine energy
to enter.
Through this sacred
practice I become
the still point
in a turning world.
In these troubled times
it is necessary to be able
to decide and act
from within a still point.
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