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Transcendental Self-Reliance in a comparative study of Emerson & Rumi By: Somaye Nouri Zenoz on 4/25/2005; 12:30 PM Transcendental Self-Reliance in A Comparative Study of R.W. Emerson & J.M. Rumi by Somaye Nouri Zenoz March 2004 Contemplating upon the works of R.W. Emerson and J.M. Rumi, we come to notice that the two philosophers share the main principles of Transcendentalism. Putting much emphasis on high potentialities of human self in his works, Rumi asserts the nature of transcendental knowledge as an intuitive insight of the truth which goes beyond the human sense experience; the idea which intellectually includes him in the circle of the 19th century Transcendentalists pioneered by R.W. Emerson. Regardless of the geographical, cultural and chronological distances (6 centuries) between the two philosophers, the notion of self-reliance and self-sufficiency in inner cognizance of the truth makes them so like-minded and close to each other. Emerson, the American poet, essayist and philosopher of the 19th century set forth the ideas that formed the basis of the American Transcendentalism. Opposing rigid rationalism, empiricism, social conformity and materialism, Transcendentalists based their view of the world on an individualism emphasizing self-realization and self-reliance in perceiving the truth. Surprisingly enough, the Transcendentalist Emerson from the West in 19th century finds an Eastern antecedent in 13th century. Rumi, the great Persian poet and mystic of the 13th century also based his ideas on a self-realization leading to self-sufficiency in cognizance of the higher truth. This main principle of Sufism (Islamic Mysticism) is well reflected in Rumi's following poem: Cross and Christians from end to end I surveyed; He was not on the cross. I went to the idol-temple, to the ancient pagoda; No trace was visible there. I went to the mountains of Heart and Candahor; I looked, He was not in that hill and dale. With set purpose I fared to the summit of mount Qaf In that place was only Anqa's habitation. I bent the reins of search to the Ka'ba; He was not in that resort of old and young. I questioned Ibn Sina of his state' He was not within Ibn Sina's range, I fared towards the scene of two bow-lengths' distance, He was not in that exalted court I gazed into my heart; There I saw him; He was nowhere else. The above poem describes the Sufi's search for the site of the real self. Not finding it in various religions, reason or other sources, he at last discovers it within himself (Arasteh, 12). In essence, Sufism develops in the individual a process of repeated rebirth until he attains self-realization. According to Sufism the real self is not what the environment and culture develop in us, but it is basically the product of the universe in evolution. In Sufism unconsciousness receives more importance than consciousness and possesses infinite potentialities unlike the limited consciousness. As shown, like Emerson, Rumi viewed the practices, rituals and traditional forms of life as veils to be lifted in the unfolding of human potentialities. Meanwhile both these humanists in their belief that man is his own end would join Shabistari (Persian Sufi of the 13th century) who said: There is no other final cause beyond man; I is disclosed in man's own self (Arasteh, 159, 178). Now, a look at Emerson's following poem would well justify his resemblance to Rumi: ….Thou meetest him by centuries, And lo! He passes like the breeze; Thou seek'st in in globe and galaxy, He hides in pure transparency; Thou askest in fountain, and in fires, He is the essence that inquires. He is the axis of the star; He is the sparkle of the spar; He is the heart of every creature; He is the meaning of each feature; And his mind is the sky, Than all it holds, more deep, more high…. (Frothingham, 241) It is noticed that the two poems share the same soul underlying their surface which makes them perfect examples for their poets' resemblance. A profound look at the lines quoted below certainly points to the transcendentalist nature of Rumi's works as well: …. This form of man is a veil; we are the qibla of all prostrations Regard that breath, do not see the Adam in us, that we may transport your soul with grace. Iblis looked with a separate regard, he supposed that we are apart from God. Shams-I Tabriz himself is the pretext; it is we who are in the beauty of grace, we. For the sake of a veil say to men, 'He is the noble king and we are beggars…. (Arberry, 160) *** ….I am melting in meaning till I become of one colour with him for meaning is as water and I am as sugar…. (Arberry, 161) *** ….There is a light in the midst of the red hair, transcending eye and imagination and spirit. Do you desire to stitch to yourself to it? Arise and rend the veil of the carnal soul…. (Arberry, 113) As noticed above, actual insight of truth can be achieved through intuition and constant trust in the wisdom of the self needless of any external medium. A close reading of the two poets' poetry in order to get the underlying concepts, represents their similar yearning for a direct, natural and personal relationship with the divine. This is the notion Sufism or Islamic Mysticism has in common with Transcendentalism regardless of their chronological distance. Both doctrines assert the possibility of attaining an intuitive knowledge of spiritual truths through individual meditation and contemplation. As mentioned by Miller, ….Transcendentalism rejects the aid of observation and will not trust to experiment. General truths are to be attained without the previous examination of particulars, and by the aid of a higher power than the understanding. The hand-lamp of logic is to be broken, for the truths which are felt are more satisfactory and certain than those which are proved. The sphere of intuition is enlarged and made to comprehend not only mathematical axioms but the most elevated propositions respecting the being and destiny of man. Hidden meanings, glimpse of spiritual and ever-lasting truth are found, where former observers sought only for natural facts. The observation of sensible phenomena can lead only to the discovery of insulated, partial and relative laws; but the consideration of the same phenomena, in a typical point of view, may lead us to infinite and absolute truth- to a knowledge of the reality of things…. (174) We see that Transcendentalism was a reaction against scientific rationalism with emphasis on the belief that everything in our world is a microcosm of the universe. In line with the same notion, Arasteh argues the insufficiency of reason in Rumi's view: ….Rumi appreciated man's great potentialities; he declared that man is a mighty volume within whom all things are recorded. If the individual lets reason grow it makes him aware of his potentialities and helps him see the basic purpose of life, that is, union with all- a state of trust. Yet at this point he may realize that reason is insufficient for handling his existential problem. He may even perceive that a better integrated state exists while recognizing that reason can not achieve it…. (Arasteh, 107) Rumi emphasizes the uselessness of disputation, which usually arise out of philosophical arguments in matters relating to self-certainty, especially in the relationship of man to God (Arasteh, 105). Indicating their being of the same mind, like Rumi, Emerson insisted that intuitive experience, not rational thought, brought him closest to God. In this belief Emerson joins with mystics from different religious traditions throughout history and specifically Sufism in Islam. Regardless of tradition, mystics speak the same language of transcendent personal experience and communion with the divine truth. In this regard, it's interesting to view Rumi's following poem: Reason is the chain of travelers and lovers, my son; break the chain and the way is plain and clear ahead, my son. Reason is a chain, heart a cheat, body a delusion, soul a veil; the way is hidden from all these heaviness, my son…. (Arberry, 115) As pointed by Arasteh, Rumi's way of life emphasized liberation from instinctive acts, the utilization of reason for practical purposes, and its usefulness for transcendental man to follow his real self. Reason can only help him reach the door of wakefulness. Rumi reiterates that this stage is not attained from knowledge gained in books or from listening to others (Arasteh, 117). Further, it's worthy to mention Miller's notion on Transcendentalist movement: ….and the rock basis of a new era will be a philosophy which recognizes the divinity of reason in every soul; which sees the identity of reason and faith, and honors common sense as the voice of truth; which feels the mystery of moral freedom in every man of that perfect liberty of the entire obedience to right, and which bows with awe before the conviction that God is in each human soul, that never is the individual so entirely himself as when at one with the indwelling Spirit. And the life which will pervade this new world of thought, will be a poetry of love and sympathy for the commonest familiar feeling, as well as the higher and holier, and for every human tie and relation…. (187). It is noticed that both Rumi and Emerson express God's closeness to all men and his presence throughout the whole universe and in the hearts of all men and women. Both doctrines attempt to redefine the place of the individual within the universe and transcend his status. In this regard, it would be appropriate to go over Emerson's poem, Self-Reliance: HENCEFORTH, please God, forever I forego the yoke of men's opinions. I will be Light-hearted as a bird, and live with God. I find him in the bottom of my heart, I hear continually his voice therein. The little needle always knows the North, The little bird remembereth his note, And this wise Seer within me never errs. I never taught it what it teaches me; I only follow, when I act aright. As mentioned by Emerson in his essay 'Self-Reliance', ….A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another…. (Emerson, 145) An overview of Rumi's writings connotes his strong belief in 'Self' and Self-reliance as posed by Emerson. We witness Rumi inserting the same idea to some of his stories of which can be mentioned the story of a man who dreams of reaching a treasure at where his arrow falls. At last he knows that he shouldn't have pulled the bow and so the arrow falls under his own feet implying the existence of the treasure in his own self. As believers in the divine sufficiency of the individual, Rumi and Emerson inserted in their works the idea that there is one mind common to all individual humans and there is a relation between mankind and nature so that whatever is in matter is in his mind: ….This is the ultimate fact which we so quickly reach on this, as on every topic, the resolution of all into the ever-blessed ONE. Self-existence is the attribute of the Supreme Cause, and it constitutes the measure of good by the degree in which it enters into all lower forms. All things real are so by so much virtue as they contain…. (Emerson, 159) Furthermore, in his 'Essay on History', Emerson notes that: ….There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. Of the universal mind each individual man is one more incarnation. All its properties consist in him. Each new fact in his private experience flashes a light on what great bodies of men have done, and the crises of his life refer to national crises…. (Frothingham, 242) Thus, highlighting this universal mind in the background of the individuality of human, Emerson tries to remind every one of the utmost significance of his/her own self, intuition and beliefs: ….The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul. Time and space are but physiological colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light; where it is, is day; where it was, is night; and history is an impertinence and an injury, if it be any thing more than a cheerful apologue or parable of my being and becoming. Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time…. (Emerson, 157) So Emerson invited every one to insist on himself and never imitate. Every one's own gift he can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, he has only an extemporaneous, half possession (Emerson, 166). And this is what we clearly get from Rumi's works; that what concerns him is what he must do and not what the people think. To him, this rule serves for the distinction between greatness and meanness. For him and for Emerson, the great man is the one who keeps the independence of solitude in the midst of the crowd. In line with the same argument, Emerson comments on soul as: ….All goes to show that the soul is not an organ, but animated and exercises all the organs; is not a function like the power of memory, of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as hands and feet; is not a faculty but a light; is not the intellect or the will, but the master of the intellect and the will; is the background of our being, in which they lie- an immensity not possessed. From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all. A ma is the façade of a temple, wherein all wisdom and all good abide…. (Frothingham, 237) Emerson introduced the concept of the 'Over Soul' as a supreme mind shared between all human beings which allows men to disregard any external authorities and rely on a completely direct experience in relationship with the divine: ….The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart, of which all sincere conversation is the worship, to which all right action is submission; that overpowering reality which confutes our tricks and talents, and constrains every one to pass for what he is, and to speak from his character, and not from his tongue, and which evermore tends to pass into our thought and hand, and become wisdom, and virtue, and power, and beauty. We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist, and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is the soul. Only by the vision of that Wisdom can the horoscope of the ages be read, and by falling back on our better thoughts, by yielding to the spirit of prophecy which is innate in every man, we can know what it saith. Every man's words, who speaks from that life, must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their own part. I dare not speak for it. My words do not carry its august sense; they fall short and cold. Only itself can inspire whom it will, and behold! their speech shall be lyrical, and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind. Yet I desire, even by profane words, if I may not use sacred, to indicate the heaven of this deity, and to report what hints I have collected of the transcendent simplicity and energy of the Highest Law…. (Emerson, 262) Thus the source of value in an institution is the worth each individual brings and contributes. That is the starting point since each of us is our individual not our collective power. So religion becomes a matter of personal insight rather than a series of received rituals and then the first duty of every individual is to value his/her own self. As Rumi said of his search for the divine, the supreme spirit can not be found on the Cross or in the Temple; but in one's own heart and through becoming human. The great Islamic mystic knows that the heart of mystical experience is not about things one can do or say, but a delightful journey of the soul toward awareness of the truth. This does not require surrender but a reverent openness to all life. It is available to all of us regardless of our religion, culture, race, sex or country. Being open to receive mystical experience just requires us to pay attention to our intuition and trust in it. What the Transcendentalists had in common with the mystics was this belief in the primacy of direct individual experience in discerning the religious truth. Emerson declared that a person's experience of nature contained all the proof required for the existence of God. He rejected external religious authorities, including the institutional church, and dared to love God without any mediator or veil: ….These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs…. (Emerson, 148) It's worthy to mention Emerson's final treatment of the discussion leading to his famous motto: ….trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark…. (Emerson, 146) Emerson's motto 'Trust thyself' refers to the same notion. The 'Over Soul' describes that what is meant to be, will be and any experience or perception intended for someone will find that person if it is meant to find; then no one needs to go in pursuit of it. Also it refers to the endless connection of man, nature and universe and the fact that there is a constant flow through all things in the creation. Removing the chains of rigid reason and rationality opens the mind to intuitive experience, to transcendent beauty and to the mystery of this beautiful world. Mystical experiences are usually described as those in which a person feels a sense of unity and communion with nature, people, life, soul and with God. Actually there is no better description of transcendent experience in Western religious traditions than Emerson's who amid the naked nature of God, comes to feel the currents of universal being flow through him and know himself a part of God. We well comprehend that the layers of truth have never been influenced by surfaces of time and place. Enjoying a common soul, the divine truth is discerned by different men in different times and places via their specific mental frames. Having a deep look at his/her self, every single individual can take his/her own way in perception of the omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient spirit. As portrayed by Rumi, the great Islamic mystic and Emerson, outstanding American philosopher, a life of complete self-reliance leads the man trusting his nature to comprehend the ever oneness of the divine truth. References Arasteh, Reza. Rumi the Persian: Rebirth in Creativity and Love. Lahore: Ashraf Press, 1970. Arberry, A. J. Mystical Poems of Rumi. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1968. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Complete Essays and Other Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Brooks Atkinson. New York: The Modern Library, 1950. Frothingham, Octavius Brooks. Transcendentalism in New England. Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1965. Miller, Perry. The Transcendentalists. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967.
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