Customer Reviews

The Spiritual Practices of Rumi: Radical Techniques for Beholding the Divine

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I have read a lot of book about Rumi. This book makes some valuable additions to the literature about him. While we cannot absolutely know what transpired between Rumi and Shams, it is reasonable to imagine what the practice might have been, extrapolating from Rumi's writings. While the book's title say it addresses spiritual practices, it is fair to say that at least 90% of the book addresses only one practice: looking long and deeply into the eyes of a spiritual friend. Even if one does not have a spiritual friend to engage in this practice with, the author suggests you can use your own image in the mirror, or look long and lovingly at something in nature, like a tree.

The section of the book on stages of spiritual practice is useful. Also very useful and kindly written are the sections that address our tendency toward self castigation on the path: we are not enlightened enough, far enough along the path, find ourselves unworthy- etc. The author's heartfelt words about this reach right into the heart and comfort the weary traveler. The following Rumi poem, which I had not read before, is quoted:

You suppose that you're the trouble,
But you're really the cure.
You suppose that you're the lock in the door
But you're really the key that opens it.

It's too bad you want to be someone else.
You don't see your own face, your own beauty.
Yet, no one's face is more beautiful than yours.

I would like to hand that poem to every counseling client I see.

The chapter on sexuality, advising sacred friends who have sex with each other- on how to have sex with each other- seemed a bit out of place to me.

Overall I recommend this book highly. You can feel the author' compassionate spirit through his writing. Reading this book is like spending hours with a compassionate spiritual friend.

There is an ancient quandary in philosophy about how it is that we can truly know anything unless we already know it. How do we recognize something, and recognize it truly, when we first come upon it?

In this book by Will Johnson, the author briefly recounts the history of Rumi's interludes with his beloved friend Shams and then he describes the contemplative practice of gazing into the eyes of one's beloved, whether that person is a friend or lover. As he describes his own obviously deep familiarity with this contemplative technique, he draws from Rumi's poetry, highlighting when Rumi asserted the same point, or explained the same technique, or just wept in blissful joy at the results of beholding the divine in a beloved friend's eyes. The author is recognizing the presence of this practice in Rumi's life because of the author's own intimate familiarity with the technique. It's obvious that the author deeply understands both the technique itself and the greater Truth that it helps the practitioner find.

By the time I reached page 40 of this book, I was already buying more copies for my own beloved friends, so true did I find the author's words. I am writing this review as an afterthought for those of you who I haven't sent a copy of the book to!

Can we actually know, scientifically know, that Rumi and Shams spent their time alone together gazing into each other's eyes? Haha, there are bigger truths at stake here!

James Corrigan
Author of An Introduction to Awareness

Oh, goodness gracious this book can open up so many doors for you that it is worth ten times what you will pay for it. I am however not speaking from experience but just what I got out of the book. I haven't found anyone to try the practice with, but just the premise gives me goosebumps and I damned well better find someone to do it with real soon or I'll jump out of my skin.

Yogi Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh gave a technique to do it alone simply by sitting in front of a mirror in the dark with a candle illuminating your face so you can see your eyes in the mirror clearly and being able to not blink for thirty to forty minutes or look away even for a second. Don't know if I'm afraid to do it by myself or if I just want to wait to have someone to share the experience that Jaladin Rumi paints such a marvelous picture of but it is always floating around in my head that this is something I just have to try. This and so many other wonderful mystic things as well, I need to get busy. Laters

This is a superb book if you're on a mystical path OR want to be. The author explains things in such a beautiful way. My soul is on overwhelm, in a beautiful way, after savoring Ch. 4 Gazing at the Beloved. This book is a real heart opener and it shows the way HOME. Read it, love it, love your self, love all that is!

Rumi the Card and Book Pack: Meditation, Inspiration, & Self-DiscoveryAs no opinions about Rumi's Writings is either wrong or right, Mr. Johnson's Book is a wonderful personal take on the "effects or methods" of how Rumi came in contact with his Spiritual Mentor Shams.

The author implies that only he knows the secret of Rumi and Shems, but this book is a complete fabrication of imagination. The Rumi scholars don't write about what Rumi ans Shams did together during their seclusion, and the decedents of Rumi don't have any traditional story about this time. Avoid this book written to ride the "Rumi craze" and sell books. To learn about Rumi read Franklin Lewis and William Chittick.