What can Rumi teach us?

The Guest House, by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

From The Illuminated Rumi.

Who are your guests, and what stories do they tell?

We sat with this question in Circle last weekend, and it was incredible to see how this poem connected with each of us. We talked of anger, joy, relief, fear, anxiety. We spoke of the history of the stories we carry and how our guests bring stories with them into our bodies, our hearts, our minds.

One of the interesting things about this poem is how it helps us tp get a perspective on our emotions. They are just guests. They won’t stay forever. They will change.

So we might ask, why don’t they move away quicker? Particularly if we don’t like how we’re feeling, why can’t they just go away?

But I think this is the point - like unwanted guests, they can tell when they aren’t wanted. Our emotions can tell when they haven’t been heard and when they aren’t accepted. Our emotions are trying to tell us something, and if we really don’t want to listen and accept that they are there, then they just keep shouting to be let in.

But if we can welcome them, as Rumi says, then a shift happens. I don’t know that we can always welcome them laughing, but if we can at least let them into our awareness and listen to what they are telling us, then I find that they no longer need to shout for our attention. We can hear the fullness of the story they bring.

And most importantly, when we hear the full story, something transforms.

In Circle, we have a very unusual opportunity to sit together and tell these stories, tell each other about the guests in our human guest houses without being given advice, without judgement, without needing to change anything. That allows the transformation to occur.

If the emotions sweep us clean, then we are lighter.

When we share this with others, we connect on a deeper level to each other as well as to ourselves.

Then joy can come visiting.