Take one Big Bay, Add a Spoonful of Sufi Mysticism – LivingMini®

Oct. 11, 2009 – San Francisco, California
Yesterday I spent an amazing day sailing on the bay with friends. It was a gorgeous autumn day and being on the water was incredibly peaceful. Sailing on the water, listening to Hawaiian music was so meditative. In fact, it made me think of some advice I recently came across while researching Turkey’s whirling dervishes. Mevlânâ is a Sufi mystic and the founder of the semâ ceremony, otherwise known as “whirling”.
These are his words to live by:
- • In generosity and helping others be like a river
- • In compassion and grace be like the sun
- • In concealing others’ faults be like the night
- • In anger and fury be like the dead
- • In modesty and humility be like the earth
- • In tolerance be like the sea
- • Either exist as you are or be as you look

I’m all for embracing the elements of the earth, sun, river, sea, and night and all the characteristics associated with each.
This last piece of advice is a tad tougher to decipher. I’m interpreting it to mean “don’t be a fraud,” but instead take ownership of who you are as a person.
I’m definitely down with that too.
What words of wisdom do you follow?
Would love to hear what inspires you to be (in Oprah speak) “your best you.”
Tell us!
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 and is filed under Heart.