RUMI 750 – Preparing the ground
Chisholme News | Sunday, 8th January, 2023

This year is the 750th anniversary of Rumi's Nuptial Night, the completion of his long yearned-for return to the Beloved. The timeless meaning of his life’s journey in love, from love and to love, intimately connects with our own lives and informs of our times. This year is also the 50th anniversary of Diane Cilento and Bulent Rauf’s film ‘Turning’, which explores the evolution in Turkey of the image of the divine feminine, culminating in the iconic person of Rumi himself.

Since Beshara is intimately connected to these realities, both essentially and in their unfolding in time from the unknown, it is proposed that this year at Chisholme should be devoted in part to enquiring into these connections and their deeper meanings.

The proposal thus far is that at Chisholme, five days at the end of each of the months of January, February and March be set aside for conversation and enquiry. The questions under consideration will follow from the understanding that ‘we love what Rumi loves, and what Rumi loves, loves Rumi’. So, we ask that our contemplation be imbued in the very divine love through which the world and humankind comes into existence and through which we return.

Such contemplation cannot be held in isolation from the critical situation that humankind, and the world of nature, is currently facing. Chisholme’s very purpose is the provision of an education ‘that all life is interdependent, as seen in the ecological, economic, cultural and spiritual spheres’ (Memorandum and Articles of the Chisholme Institute). This knowledge is like a light in darkness.

To explore these interdependencies, and to see the present situation clearly, entails working together. Hence this invitation is extended to you now, to come and join in the work of enquiry.

It is envisaged that this enquiry be initial spadework, preparing the ground for an event at Chisholme, around 2-4 September.

CALENDAR EVENTS 2023

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