Steve Kanji Ruhl - Enlightened Contemporaries: Francis, Dōgen, and Rūmī: Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth Century and Why They Matter Today

Enlightened Contemporaries

Enlightened

Contemporaries

Francis, Dgen, & Rm

Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth

Century and Why They Matter Today

STEVE KANJI RUHL

Monkfish Book Publishing Company

Rhinebeck, New York

Enlightened Contemporaries: Francis, D gen, and R m : Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth Century and Why They Matter Today 2020 by Steve Kanji Ruhl

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written consent of the publishers except in critical articles or reviews. Contact the publisher for information.

Paperback ISBN 978-1-948626-13-2

eBook ISBN 978-1-948626-14-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kanji Ruhl, Steve, author.

Title: Enlightened contemporaries : Francis, Dgen, & Rm : three great

mystics of the thirteenth century and why they matter today / Steve

Kanji Ruhl.

Description: Rhinebeck, New York : Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2020.

| Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020000401 (print) | LCCN 2020000402 (ebook) | ISBN

9781948626132 (paperback) | ISBN 9781948626149 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Mysticism--Comparative studies. | Spiritual

life--Comparative studies. | Mystics--Biography. | Francis, of Assisi,

Saint, 1182-1226. | Dgen, 1200-1253. | Jall al-Dn Rm, Maulana,

1207-1273.

Classification: LCC BL625 .K35 2020 (print) | LCC BL625 (ebook) | DDC

204/.220922--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000401

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000402

Book and cover design by Colin Rolfe

Cover background image by Erland Ekseth

Monkfish Book Publishing Company

East Market Street, Suite

Rhinebeck, NY 12572

(845) 876-4861

monkfishpublishing.com

Contents

Introduction

Three Mystics for Our Time

All mystics speak the same language,

for they come from the same country.

Louis Claude de Saint-Martin

A Christian: bearded vagabond, barefoot, gaunt and frail in his ragamuffin tunic of sackcloth. He roves the hills of northern Italy. He sings Gods praises to the skylarks, to roses and the wild cypress.

A Buddhist: abbot in black robes, his head shaved. Seated cross-legged in hushed recesses of a temple in the mountains of Japan, he dabs inkbrush to paper, composing verses as a wisp of moon emerges over pine forests and snow.

A Muslim: scholar with lavish whiskers, his head enwrapped in a turban. He saunters in silk robes through markets of a city in Turkey, past the domed mosques, chants echoing from porticoes of the madrasahs . Exploring merchant stalls of lustreware and carob, apricots and lemons he improvises poems of delight, his rhapsodies to Allah, to the Beloved.

* * *

They vanished from the earth more than years ago, yet these three spiritual teachersFrancis of Assisi, the Christian saint; Dgen Kigen, founder of St Zen Buddhism in Japan; Jall ad-Dn Muhammad Rm, the Islamic Sufi teacherinspire us.

Here is Francis: This great charismatic and Christlike figure of utter humility and simplicity created a new spiritual consciousness in the Christian West, writes one scholar. His sense of Gods all-pervading presence, his intensive love for all Gods creatures, great and small, human and animal, gave the Church an important spiritual legacy that has attracted fresh attention again and again, not leastin our own time.

And

And

Remarkably, these spiritual teachers lived in the same era. Though they never knew each other, their lifetimes overlapped in the first half of the thirteenth century. Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam differ tremendously, yet Francis and Dgen and Rm, through undertaking the mystical path to quiet the small self of ego, were transformed by experiences that help to connect, at the source, all religions. The Christian saint would have described his experiences in terms of receiving fully the grace of Gods presence. The Zen Buddhist would have described his as awakenings to original Buddha-nature. The Muslim Sufi would have described his as subsistence in Allah, the Beloved. Because Francis, Dgen, and Rm lived these transformative experiences so profoundly, we truly may call them enlightened contemporaries.

Yet what accounts for the enduring popularity of this long-dead Christian, this medieval Zen monk and this Islamic Sufi
spiritual master?

First, each grappled with theological and social issues that continue to reverberate in our own time, and they did solike many people todayby searching for meaningful experience outside the orthodox confines of church, temple, or mosque. Francis, Dgen, and Rm confronted questions related to the natural world, or to the role of women in society, or to the spiritual dimensions of love, and in doing so they reached beyond the religious dogmas of their era and devised innovative responses that can excite and inspire modern readers. For instance, Francis arrived at a revolutionary understanding of the ecological relationship between humans and animals and the green, living world, an understanding profoundly relevant to our environmental crises today. Dgen welcomed women fully as equals, with a fervor and conviction that leaps from the thirteenth century directly into the twenty-first. Rm created a vivid means of infusing celebrations of erotic longing and passion with an ecstatic yearning for God, linking earthly love metaphorically with heavenly Paradise, and doing so in a way that speaks compellingly to men and women in our current times.

Second, Francis, Dgen, and Rmin a medieval era when the average person seldom ventured far from homebecame unusually well-traveled, embarking on journeys that vastly expanded the range of their understanding, in ways that feel modern to us, cosmopolitan, and enduringly relevant. Francis roamed Italy, walked into France and Spain, and sailed to Egypt. Dgen left Japan and trekked throughout southern China. Rm wandered far from his birthplace in present-day Afghanistan, into lands now known as Iraq and Syria and Arabia to settle finally in the region known today as Turkey. Each of these spiritual seekers, venturing on his personal odyssey, found new means to broaden his world. We identify with that.

Third, each founded a significant spiritual order that still flourishes, seven-and-a-half centuries later. Francis, seeking a radical new path within the Roman Catholic Church, began the Franciscan Order and saw it grow dramatically within his lifetime, from a dozen friars near Assisi in northern Italy to an organization of thousands spread throughout Europe and, soon after his death, into Asia. Today, Pope Francis bears his name. Dgen, also a spiritual pioneer rebelling against the religious establishment, started the school of St Zen as a means of purifying Buddhism; with headquarters in Japan, the St sect now claims adherents worldwide and thrives with particular vigor in America. Rm, going beyond conventions of orthodox Islam, founded the Mevlevi order of Sufis, those whirling dervishes who today draw enthusiastic crowds to their international appearances. In founding their own orders, Francis, Dgen, and Rm revitalized the religious traditions they loved, whichfrom their viewpointshad become rigid and lifeless. They sparked those traditions with fresh energy and authenticity.

Fourth, each created enduring works of poetry. These mystical poets also pioneered writing in the vernacular. Franciss poem The Canticle of Brother Sun became one of the first works written in everyday Italian, at a time when European authors composed in high Latin.