Rumi is the biggest selling poet in the USA (Barks, 2010). He was born in 1207 and was a theologian. He was also a Sufi
Coleman Barks translated Rumi, The Big Red Book and made it available and accessible for English speakers to dip into and read - it’s poetry and easily digestible in very small bites.
In the middle of the book, page 187 in my edition, Barks introduces Ramana Maharishi.
Ramana Maharshi was born in 1879 and died in 1950. He spent most of his life living in a small cave, and out of that cave came his big question,
“Who am I?”
Not leaving it there he asked an amazing question,
“Who is asking that?”
I get stuck at the first because I am never just one person. The second is so insightful and simple that it’s amazing I’ve never thought of it before as a question to ask myself.
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