Amulets, devil eye and more....

I’ve listened a funny and ridiculous story about a chicken actually… According to this story, an American guy is going to Afghanistan border of Pakistan…So as a translator he hires a translator called JD who used to work for US Marine Forces. They travel with JD’s distant cousin Ally who is ex-smuggler. They went to a town which is popular with smugglers…Ally’s old friend is in prison. So, he bought an amulet, and he believes that this amulet protects anyone from harm… So, Ally would like to test it on a chicken, and put the amulet on chicken’s neck…Then, he shoots the chicken three times, but the chicken is still alive. After he fixed the problem with the gun he tries again, afterwards when he is convinced that the amulet is powerful, his friend JD wants to try and he hit the chicken from the chest!

Story teller says that these guys take religion so seriously…Actually; it is not more or less related to our religion… It is completely superstitious…And, magic and witchcraft is forbidden for our religion. But, we believe that certain words-devotions from Koran protect us…

In any culture there are a lot of superstitions such as number 13, breaking mirror and black cat brings you bad luck…And, of course as a result, human being needs something to protect him/her.

In Turkey, wherever you look, you'll meet plenty of eyes looking at you. People hang a small evil eye amulet from the rear view mirror of their car, keep several small evil eye beads or evil eye charms on hand to give to guests, hang an evil eye near their door in the home or office. Throughout the whole human history, in every culture and religion, the eye figure has been considered as a powerful talisman to defy evil forces. It is absolute that our thoughts have energy, both positive and negative. It is scientifically proven fact that food or water, when blessed, heals. A negative thought when directed towards someone has the ability to affect him/her. The studies of a Japanese researcher can be an example of this issue. I watched some part of his works in a movie…I think it is amazing which proves that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water. Mr. Emoto decided to see how thoughts and words affected the formation of untreated, distilled, water crystals, using words typed onto paper by a word processor and taped on glass bottles overnight. When they write ‘thank you’, ‘love’; the water produces very nice crystals. On the other hand if they write ‘you make me sick’ or ‘Adolph Hitler’ crystals take amorph forms…It is unbelievable...

These amulets and devil eye beads are maybe effective, because we believe that they are powerful…Nobody should underestimate the power of our thoughts and beliefs…So, we must be careful about what we are thinking…

Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi

I believe that the teachings of Mevlana are universal…

Mevlana who is also known as Rumi, was a philosopher and mystic of Islam.

He was born in Afghanistan. His father was also a theologian, jurist and mystic. When the Mongols invaded Central Asia, his whole family and a group of followers, set out westwards.

He died in 1273 in Konya which is located in the middle of the Anatolia - Turkey. So, he lived in 13^th century.

His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love.

To him and to his followers all religions are more or less truth.

Actually, he is in love with God and it is the basis of his teachings…

He says,

“Lover’s nationality is separate from all other religions,
The lover's religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).”

In other words, “Love’s Shariah is different from all religions as its Shariah or path consists entirely of God,”

His teachings reject discrimination. Yet, in order to attain this unity, one has to overcome the “disillusion of selfhood.” One must stop treating himself/herself as a separate or distinct “self.”

Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dance as a path for reaching God. It was from these ideas that the practice of "whirling" dervishes developed.

The "dance" of the Whirling Dervishes is called Sema. Dervishes spin and get in trance state to close with GOD.

You can see the pictures of whirling dervishes here…

Sema ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual progress through mind and love to "Perfect." In this journey, the seeker symbolically grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. Perfect is something like Nirvana…

While the dervish is whirling right hand is upward, and it takes divine blessing from God. The left hand is downwards, so dervish disperses it to the surrounding area.

The headdress of the dervish is called as SIKKE, and it is helpful to keep balance during whirling. It represents tombstone of dervish’s ego…

The cloth of dervish is called as TENNURE. It is a long skirt… During whirling it opens and produces centrifugal force, so it make easy to turn round. The color of the cloth is white, and it represents his ego's shroud…Actually Muslims shroud with white cloth when they die…The white color is also representing this…

Finally, I would like to say that Rumi's work has been translated into many languages, including Russian, German, Arabic, French, Italian, and Spanish, and is being presented in a growing number of formats, including concerts, workshops, readings, dance performances etc.

LOVE

 

 

Love is the last novel of Elif Safak who is best selling writer in Turkey. This is the only book that I read from her. Frankly, I was prejudiced about her… Because, I was thinking that she is following the same strategy with Orhan Pamuk (nobel winner writer!). I mean, she has been trying to be popular by insulting Turkishness like Orhan Pamuk…

By the way, her parents divorced when she was a child, and Elif Safak remained with her mother. Since her mother was working at Turkish Embassies she spent her teenage years in many foreign countries, before returning to Turkey. She graduated in International Relations at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She also lived in Massachusetts, United States.

Love is her ninth book and it is about a modern love story between a Jewish-American housewife (living in Boston) and a modern Sufi living in Amsterdam. There is also a historical background that narrates the spiritual bond between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. It is very interesting novel when you think what is the connection between Ella Rubinstein, a middle-aged housewife and a member of a Jewish family living in Boston in the 2000s, and Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, who lived in Konya in the 1200s….

Love is the best book I read about Mevlana’s life. It also explains forty rules of Shams of Tabriz. Actually, I learnt that Mevlana became Mevlana as he was inspired by Shams of Tabriz. And, Shams of Tabriz has a great effect in his life, his mind and spirituality… She explained in her interviews that she imagined the forty rules, but it is definite that she is inspired by her readings on Sufism. Since Elif Safak has a close interest in Anatolian Sufism, Sufism in Pakistan, India, the US and Europe.

                      The great Turkish mystic and poet Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi

"Come, come again, whoever you are, come!
Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!
Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times,
Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are."   Mevlana

She explains Love’s Shariah (path) in her book…She says that “Love’s Shariah is different from all religions as its Shariah or path consists entirely of God. There is unity in the “Shariah of love,” as Mevlana understood. It rejects discrimination. Yet, in order to attain this unity, one has to transcend the “disillusion of selfhood.” One must stop treating himself/herself as a separate or distinct “self.”

The book is full of life lessons, you should think a lot about the each rule of Shams of Tabriz. I would like to write down one of them- the 40th rule “A life without love is a life lived in vain. Do not ask which love I should run after: divine, metaphorical, worldly, celestial or physical! Distinctions will lead to distinctions.”

I suggest this book everyone without distinctions…

I hope the distinctions will become less in our lives…As humankind we can learn to live without distinctions in our unique world…

Like Ships

A Turkish song about time, life and Istanbul…

These are the lyrics of a Turkish song of the group called Ezginin Gunlugu (means 'Diary of Melody'); I translated the lyrics into English…

 

 

I hope you like it. Its music is also amazing, so I strongly recommend you to listen it! Here is the link to listen the song

Like Ships

Come and sit next to me, tell me Istanbul

Do not the streets have their own language?

Lying against the sea, inhale the morning smoke

Who is left from the owners of the palaces?

World like ships, life like ships

Love like ships, goes by, goes by…

Seeing a dream like your eyes

Is not enough for me

My heart is a ship in an open sea

Voyage never ends

World like ships, life like ships

Years like ships, goes by, goes by…

My inside is Galata Tower, stone above stone

Wait till morning beside me in the way your heart desires

Come and sit next to me, tell me your affairs

Becoming silent has its own language

Lyrics & Music: Hüsnü Arkan

 

(Turkish Group- Ezginin Gunlugu)

P.S. Galata Tower is a stone tower in the Galata district of Istanbul built by Genoese. One of the city's most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and affords a panoramic vista of Old Istanbul and its environs. According to the Seyahatname of Ottoman historian and traveller Evliya Çelebi, in circa 1630-1632, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi  flew as an early aviator using artificial wings for gliding from this tower over the Bosporus to the slopes of Üsküdar  on the Anatolian  side, nearly six kilometres away.