Wisdom from Rumi

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there

- Rumi
One of the most beautiful teachings from the Sufi Master Rumi is contained within the quote above. When we look at the world around us with logic, we give rise to a duality of what is good to bad and right or wrong, we cling to a standard that measures our tangible and intangible experiences, the more we do it the more it becomes a habit. A habit of being judgemental. We begin forming opinions about anything and everything. Little do we realize that the more opinions we form the more rigid we become thereby limiting our ability to see the world as it is. We end up seeing it as we want. Gaining true knowledge and wisdom then becomes a distant possibility. We accept the reality around us only through our personal lens & so distortions become inevitable.

Rumi suggests that when we move beyond the realm of thinking within the confines of this duality, whether made up of good or bad, ugly or beautiful, right or wrong, we limit our scope of getting an access to a way of knowing the world around us in it's complete essence. Such understanding forms the basis of true wisdom.

But there are some questions I hear from you, let us try and answer them.

How can we practice such a new way of seeing the world around us, is it not our right to have an opinion?

The problem is not about forming an opinion, it is about the way we stick to the opinion formed, therefore, closing the gates that leads to a complete understanding of any matter concerned.

What do you mean "closing the gates of true understanding "?

Let us do a quick analysis, when we form an opinion, we form it on the basis on what we are and how we perceive the world around us, these are in turn based on our life experiences. After all, you are what you think but your experiences largely steer the course of your thoughts. 

Your experiences, perceptions and thoughts altogether form a lens through which you judge the world around you including events and people. That is where you lose the opportunity of achieving a state of complete or whole understanding about the concerned matter. What you think is right may not be completely right and what you adamantly oppose as wrong may not be completely wrong in all its aspects.

So does that mean killing an innocent being is not wrong?

There is no need to think or form an opinion about killing. It is a matter of common sense that killing an innocent being is unjust, there is no need for us to go past this thought and analyze it and then change our perception about the act of killing itself, by declaring that killing an innocent should be allowed, this is called being insane, what we are discussing here is about being wise enough to not get attached with the information our mind presents to us.

So you mean that we need to disassociate ourselves with what we think, is this not sounding illogical to you?

When your mind brings you thoughts you think over them and may be pick out one of two out of many. Once you accept a thought and think about it over and over, you get attached with it. In fact, when someone challenges you on your beliefs (thoughts or ideologies that you have accepted wholeheartedly) you become defensive about them. All of this sounds fine to me, I do not find any problem with this. But excessive opinions and judgement close your mind towards accepting any change and this hampers your understanding as well as your innovative capabilities. This is one of the reasons why all intelligent people are not equally capable of coming up with powerful ideas, because they think of A, B and C alternatives and do not go beyond them. But when you look at those who create new revolutionary ideas and drive major innovation in their fields or in their everyday lives, they are people who think A, B C as well as D, E, F and G alternatives and so on. They have a habit of taking one problem and looking at it from as many viewpoints as possible.

Where does one begin from, if he or she wants to adopt such a way of thinking?

I would suggest that one can should adopt the Kaizen philosophy, small improvement every day. Reading a book from a genre you have never read before, interacting with people who come from different cultures or professional backgrounds, being less active on a social media platform that you are most comfortable with and using a new social media platform. Trying out new cuisines. Learning a new language. Doing one new activity everyday (no matter how small) that adds value to life. Most importantly, when you form an opinion, seek as many alternative ways of seeing the situation as possible and work towards getting a firsthand understanding of 'Why' it is the way it is. Once the 'Why' becomes clear, you may then proceed to form an opinion that is in alignment with your value system. This way you will have a complete picture of not just what you believe but also 'Why' you believe it.