Glinda or Elphaba?

Not sure which one of us is Glinda or Elphaba, me and Shams. I see him struggling with his way of being in a difficult society, far away from where I am. I guess I'm Glinda presuming to teach Elphaba, who is actually the talented one. Shams could be my son, we're not the same age, so this comparison can only go so far. 

We’re more like this:

Speaking of movies, I watched Wolfwalkers (2020) on Apple and it's the 3rd in an Irish series of beautiful animation, that I really liked. You could watch it today, possibly, not globally, but in USA on Apple. 

Ajaan Jia has an interesting bio. I really likes these Thai Forest biographies. Ajaan Jia's first meditation was just saying Buddho over and over, and today I do a more elaborate Buddhanasati, where I chant the mantra: Om muni muni, mahamuni, sakyamuni, svaha. I visualize the Buddha and ask permission to begin the path, and he says yes, and gestures to a seat next to him. I imagine meditating next to the Buddha.

I never really thought the contemplation of the 32 parts would lead to lack of lust, but I need to try again. I dismiss things as not making sense--I say you can take it apart and make it gross, but you know it's pretty easy to put it back together and feel the lust. Reverence to the Buddha includes not dismissing suggestions so easily. By all means take up things when you're ready for them, but right attitude towards the teachings is quite important. You can take things the wrong way easily too, too zealous, you can make you feet bloody, it's all about tuning the lute. You apply the teachings with discernment. 

The Buddha taught brahma viharas and anapanasati, so doing those meditation is taking refuge in the Buddha and the Dharma.

With 21st century hindsight, we can look back and see that Rumi noticed Attar, and not Omar Khayyam, and his Rubaiyat. Which is an unread classic on my to read list. (I continue to read Brad Gooch's Rumi's Secret.)

The qibla is the spot marked in a room that points to Mecca. My Mecca is Bodhgaya, which is a tick blow east, which also happens to be where the sun comes up. 

Another poet Mansour al-Hallaj (858 – 922) may have influenced Rumi. He's in Baghdad now, Iraq, and then he headed to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Spaniard Ibn Jubayr made the journey 30 years before Rumi went with his family as a 10-11 year old. The father was on a hajj. You're supposed to walk 7 times around the Kaaba. And stone the devil, among other things.

Then they went to Malatya, which is Turkey. He may have met the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi. Next it was on to Erzincan, The Mongol army made Iran unappealing to return to as they killed up to 90% of the population in cities, destroyed infrastructure. It is the time of Genghis Khan. His grandson would rule from Korea to Hungary. As the family pushed west, they stayed at times in Sufi Lodges. It was paradoxically a time of great spiritual and religious activity. Rumi lost a lot of family along the way. On to Larande, which Google redirects to Karaman, though the article doesn't say they're the same, but Gooch confirms was the modern name. It is 60 miles southeast of Konya, where they would eventually end up, and Rumi would spend the rest of his life. Rumi's father was in his 70's. His patron was the local governor. At 17 he marries Gowhar.  Gowhar was from Samarkand, and was part of the caravan traveling with his father. (Konya was Sham's destination for his retreat, and his first trip out of Iran.)

I'm quite happy to learn about other religions and practices. My study of Rumi isn't really relevant any more to my friendship with Shams, and I plug along even so. He said I probably know more about Iran than him at this point, but that's silly, he's lived there his whole life, and I've read a few poets and some history in English, so that can't be true. He's just being nice. Just because I looked at the Wikipedia page of the mountains between Mashhad and Nishapur, doesn't mean I've looked on them like him, beyond photos. 

Shams is busy today, we didn't connect. And then we did in the evening, 11 his time, 2:30 my time.

Vassa is July to October in India when it rains. I'd say it's more December-February in NYC.

Trapusa and Bahalika were the first two disciples of the Buddha.