Borhan

 

Rumi's father Baha Valad died, and Borhan, one of his father's friend, stepped in to guide the madrasa, the school, his father set up in Konya. I don't know how a Sufi mystic is relevant to the Buddhist path I'm on, but I'm going with it. Shams went to Konya, his first trip out of Iran, to a retreat about Rumi, so I suppose studying him helps with the friendship, but again, I"m skeptical that study is the route to friendship, I think imagination and receptivity is the key to friendship. 

We had some strife yesterday when it seemed I was too judgemental about Joe Rogan, and I went online and found the support that perhaps Rogan was a slippery secret agent of destruction that made space for Trump. I've explored why 4 million democrats stayed home this election after supporting Biden, and there have been so many proposed explanations, which mean it's complex and multidetermined. I am quite horrified about the next 4 years, and it's going to take great discipline to both ignore and remain vigilant. Shams has experience of this in Iran where he is convinced the politicians are all about making lives miserable. Our two countries are opposed, but I see a human being and the vectors of the nations we live in mean nothing in a crucial way to human friendship. I am a proud American, but I can see the limits of American exceptionalism and grandiosity. I am a proud American in the sense that I have self pride even though I'm a mistake riddled contradiction of a human being. One of my points aobut Joe Rogan was that I want to see the full complex reality surrounding him and his influence. I didn't send Shams the article I saw that downplayed his influence, and for every thought, sometimes there's the antithesis on the internet, if it's a popular topic. 

Gooch p.88:  Borhan used many of the standard Sufi images for these experiences, such as discovering a pearl, reflecting light in a mirror, or burning like a moth in a flame. With students, perhaps even Rumi, taking notes, he explained, "You are your own pearl... If you don't know anything else, but know yourself, then you are a scholar and a mystic. If you don't know yourself, then all the science and knowledge that you possess is useless.'

Borhan provided another teacher for Rumi after the lead of his father. The more gurus you have the better, because we're all so incomplete alone. Everyone has the guru of the books, and that's pretty powerful, but living gurus are very important. 

For me, Gooch, Borhan are pointing to the ability to hold the contradictions in great ideals in the spiritual life. Seeing compassion and pity, dismissing the pity, keep going, see the horrified anxiety, keep going, to see how we all create our own suffering, the optional suffering and not the non-optional pains.

I'm meditating on upeksha this morning, the hardest brahma vihara. It's a culmination practice. I need to put everything I know into this readiness that is also disentangled, and ready to relinquish. 

The most clear written legacy of the Buddha are the brahma viharas and anapanasati, and to do the full complete versions of those meditation is, for me, essential to the path. Just sitting is a nice second meditation to assimilate and relax into it but just sitting is the neglected child of meditation, if you don't have all the other supports available. Don't get me wrong, just sitting is a good growing up space. Equanimity and readiness is beaming out into the world, I'm ready to be a teacher.

I like meditating for an hour because lots of my bs needs time to settle down. Two times an hour is a good foundation, and then add ons in the afternoon and evening are gravy for me. I'm trying to live up to 2 hours a day, and when I get there, I'll go for 3 hours a day. I've done 1:26 average over the past 6 months, 1:29 the last week. So I can fantasize about 3 hours all I want, not yet up to 2 on average. I got 2 hours today, but I want to average that, not fall short many days, go over that many days.