Rumi and The Right Work

The Essential Rumi - Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A.J. Arberry, and Reynold Nicholson. Published by Castle Books, 1997.

The Melbourne Writers Festival program is out to-day. How can one ever get to everything that sparks attention! How can one ever afford it! Over at Barnabas quotidian, Barney has used a quote from Rumi. Top of Miss Eagle's list are two Rumi events. Check the information here and here. It is a challenging quote and gives much to ponder:

The Right Work

There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else, and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.

It’s as if a king has sent you to some country to do a task, and you perform a hundred other services, but not the one he sent you to do. So human beings come to this world to do particular Work. That Work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you don’t do it, it’s as though a priceless Indian sword were used to slice rotten meat. It’s a golden bowl being used to cook turnips, when one filing from the bowl could buy a hundred suitable pots. It’s a knife of the finest tempering nailed into a wall to hang things on.

You say, “But look, I’m using the dagger. It’s not lying idle.”

Do you hear how ludicrous that sounds? For a penny, an iron nail could be bought to serve the purpose. You say, “But I spend my energies on lofty enterprises. I study jurisprudence and philosophy and logic and astronomy and medicine and all the rest.” But consider why you do those things. They are all branches of yourself.

Remember the deep root of your being, the presence of your lord. Give your life to the one who already owns your breath and your moments. If you don’t, you will be exactly like the man who takes a precious dagger and hammers it into his kitchen wall for a peg to hold his dipper gourd. You’ll be wasting valuable keenness and foolishly ignoring your dignity and your purpose.

Good on you, Tegan - but remember CH

In recent years, Australia has watched in horror two rape proceedings. One which had as its central figure Bilal Skaf. The other involved men who have had their names suppressed. I find this of particular regret. Each of the two rape proceedings involved men of Muslim background. Each of the two proceedings appeared to have racial overtones involving the denigration of Australian women of European descent. The NSW Government - in whose jurisdiction the legal proceedings took place - were forced to change laws and the way victims gave their testimony because people involved in these cases, quite simply, had no respect for the law let alone the people whom they had raped. One disappointing factor in the case mentioned here is that the father of the men involved has not been held to account before a court or tribunal for his statements. He, a medical practitioner, is alleged to have excused his sons by saying that they did not understand Australian cultural standards. Was he trying to tell us that this society in which he has chosen to live and to bring his family to live supports rape and violence? He, a medical practitioner, is alleged to have said - on seeing the videos of the rape and violence taken by his sons - that one of them would have made a great gynoecologist. What blame attaches to this man for the rape and violence committed by his sons? What penalty does he face?

I congratulate Tegan for her ability to stand tall and not allow herself to be brought low by those who sort to denigrate her in the ultimate way short of death. However, let our thoughts never be far from CH. She never felt able to attend court, and wrote in a victim impact statement: "My own regret in relation to my lost dreams is a constant torment."

John Howard, Feminism and the burqa

Prime Minister John Howard recently stated that most Australians find the head to toe covering of Muslim women confronting. For me, it is not confronting if it is merely an all-enveloping garment that leaves the face uncovered as does the chador. I do find head to toe covering which includes face covering - either total or partial covering - of which the burqa is but one example very difficult.

Why should I find it difficult? Because there is so much communication in the human face. We communicate not only with words and sounds but with our eyes and a variety of facial muscles: eyebrows, cheeks, lips. We understand not only with what we hear but what we see. And, quite often, we understand with intangibles which we can only intuit from information coming to us in ways which we cannot adequately and rationally explain.

I try to understand the religious strictures. Miss Eagle is a person of religious values and sentiment and grew up being taught by women in head to toe covering with only the face and hands evident. The rationale for that clothing was not too far removed from the rationale, as I understand it, of Muslim women. So I am not about to get uptight about the clothing of Muslim women. But I do find it difficult.

I always recall how I felt years ago when I lived in Mount Isa in north-west Queensland. In that hot desert climate, I often used to see a Muslim couple shopping at Woolworths. She was dressed in the hijab and clothes that were full-length, high necked and long-sleeved - clothing which western women find oppressive in extreme heat. Beside her was her husband dressed like so many North Australian men in stubbies (shorts), a tank top and a XXXX (a brand of beer) hat. The contrast, to an outsider, seemed oppressive: the man identifying with mainstream Aussie culture and dressing appropriately to the climate and the woman (by choice, I hope) in clothing considered oppressive in Australia, particularly when worn in temperatures of 40 + degrees celsius.

I am encouraged by Phyllis Chesler's article on feminism, women, Islam and Europe. Let's talk. And in all the talk remember that Muslim women need to understand our views and we, mainstream women of the Christian West, need to understand theirs.

Danna Valle fights back

Danna Vale is fighting back. "My comments were clumsy" she says. True, you could have said it better, Danna. But you could also have thought things through better and your fight-back piece could be thought through better too. True, you were the victim of media who want only a 30 second grab or a quippy headline. But Danna you are paid for the position you hold and - surely it is not too much to expect this from your ministerial experience - part of the skills of the job is to learn not to get yourself into situations such as this. On the other hand, what happened to you can happen to people with greater skills than you. Costello is getting similar treatment from some quarters over his multiculturalism statements.

I think, Danna, from what I see at a distance, that you have a good heart. However, your expression of your good heart is let down because the intellect does not sustain a good argument or rationale. This can be rectified. It depends on the level of advice you get either through staff or through more informal channels such as knowledgable people to give you sound advice.

I think the nub of your argument is fair comment. In modern Australia when the national birthrate among those of European descent is declining, the birthrate among some groups subscribing towards more traditional/conservative mores remains steady or is increasing. You are right to point out that this is a legitimate concern of government and therefore needs to be considered in government policy. You have also pointed out that some people in Australia are more accustomed to exerting their political and social views with violence rather than through the ballot or through other democratic institutions. Danna, leave behind excuses of political correctness. Even if accusations of 'political correctness' have some validity - which I doubt - you have to work in this situation and get your point across without having to call foul.

Can I draw your attention to a couple of areas relating to the issues you are trying to highlight? Look at the female kangaroo. She controls her fertility to a greater extent than the human female. If drought and bushfires - two constants on the driest continent on earth - leave insufficient sustenance, the kangaroo will not breed. She will defer breeding. I think it is like that with the human female. If she is insecure, she will defer breeding or fail to breed. The options she has include contraception and abortion. In some ancient societies, human females also used infanticide. So how secure are things for the female of breeding age in Australia? Relations between men and women are not good. Commitment and stability in partnerships are difficult to carry out in practice. In many relationship breakdowns, economics plays a significant part. Economic security is declining. Increasing casualisation and underemployment are not the economic foundations for raising children. Workforce discrimination with regard to age and gender has not been eliminated. The cost of higher education for job advancement is increasingly locking Australians out. Public primary and secondary education is underfunded to miserable proportions and private primary and secondary education is unaffordable for large sections of the population. Childcare is difficult and, with the assistance of government subsidies, Australia has bred a globalised corporate childcare provider of monopolistic proportions who is now in the courts trying to avoid the prospect of litigation and foist it back on to the individual employee. If all this is not difficult enough, should you be the parent of a child with special needs the difficulties are magnified. So there's a huge agenda for you, Danna: fair and equitable access for all to education from childcare and pre-school through to university; job security and fair and equitable access to jobs irrespective of age, gender and other discriminatory processes.

Then you might turn to the political processes of this nation. Surely your own experience has shown you that entry to and advancement in the political processes of our democratic institutions are easier if you are a male of European descent. If you are a university educated male, particularly with a law degree, then it is even easier. We have large groups of Australians who are not represented significantly in our national parliament - and certainly excluded from the cabinet table. Aborigines? Muslims? Muslim women? Creatives? Youth? Women are getting there but at an excruciatingly slow rate - and they hit the glass ceiling more often than not - and the men tell us to have three kids including one for Australia. How arrogant and impertinent!

So if you are serious about being taken seriously, Danna, there's your agenda. Security, real security, in daily life - not making us feel terrorised by Muslims one minute and telling us how great things are the next; and giving Australians truly representative government, not just the suits.

God go with you, Danna - and watch your step!

A broader perspective than Danish with your cartoons

If all the furore about some recent Danish cartoons has left you non-plussed to say the least,

a broader perspective came into view on The Religion Report this week.

A reasoned exposition of the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammed in many periods and places. Let's all have a cup of tea, a Bex, and a good lie down while we have a think about it.