The World According to Rumi

Living in a world in which it’s easy to get stuck in a myopic view of what it means to be “smart,” I love this reminder from Rumi, a renowned 13th century poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.

Two Kinds of Intelligence 

There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired, as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts from books and from what the teacher says, collecting information from the traditional sciences as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world. You get ranked ahead or behind others in regard to your competence in retaining information.  You stroll with this intelligence in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet, one already completed and preserved inside you. A spring overflowing its springbox.  A freshness in the center of the chest.  This other intelligence does not turn yellow or stagnate.  It’s fluid, and it doesn’t move from outside to inside through the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead from within you, moving out.

I’ve recently been trying to take a few minutes each day to read Rumi’s wisdom, and I’ve found it calming and centering.  I’m always looking for new ideas — what do you read/listen to when you’re looking for spiritual grounding?