Rumi's Art in Monchique Portugal

For those of you who don't know, the thirteenth century Sufi poet and mystic, Rumi, holds a special place in my heart.
My introduction to Rumi and Sufism was through the author Reshad Field and his book 'The Last Barrier'.
I was living in London at the time (1992), and it was as if this book spoke to me on every page with all the synchronicities that kept jumping out at me! It took me by the hand and put me on 'the way'.
In 'The Last Barrier', Field tells the beautiful Sufi story by Rumi - 'Chinese Art and Greek Art'. It has stayed with me all these years...

Rumi (1207 –1273)

A Sufi Story -"Chinese Art and Greek Art"

(by: Rumi, Masnawi, Book I- story 14)

The Chinese and the Greeks
Were arguing as to who were the better artists.
The king said,
"We'll settle this matter with a debate."
The Chinese began talking,
But the Greeks wouldn't say anything.
They left.

The Chinese suggested then
That they each be given a room to work on
With their artistry, two rooms facing each other
And divided by a curtain.
The Chinese asked the king
For a few hundred colors, all the variations,
And each morning they came to where
The dyes were kept and took them all.

The Greeks took no colors.
"They're not part of our work"
They went to their room
And began cleaning and polishing the walls. All day
Every day they made those walls as pure and clear
As an open sky.

There is a way that leads from all-colors
To colorlessness. Know that the magnificent variety
Of clouds and the weather comes from
The total simplicity of the sun and the moon.

The Chinese finished, and were so happy.
They beat the drums in the joy of completion.
The king entered their room,
Astonished by the gorgeous color and detail.

The Greeks then pulled the curtain dividing the rooms.
The Chinese figures and images shimmeringly reflected
On the clear Greek walls. They lived there,
Even more beautifully, and always
Changing in the light.

The Greek Art is the Sufi way.
They don't study books of philosophical thought.

They make their loving clearer and clearer.
No wantings, no anger.
In that purity
They receive and reflect the images of every moment,
From here, from the stars, from the void.

They take them in
As though they were seeing
With the lighted clarity
That sees them.

* Translated by Coleman Barks in The Essential Rumi.

... and now, here I am - 20 years later (how did that happen?!), finally cleaning my own walls - beautiful dry stone walls of Monchique.

I'm relishing the meditative task of cleansing the mind as the body clears away the bramble, and I'm loving the increased clarity that the simplicity of the task unveils.

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