The Living Doubleness

Recently I came upon these lines by the 13th century Persian poet, Jalaluddin Rumi:

I ask my heart, Why do you keep looking
for the delights of love?

I hear the answer back, 'Why will you not
join me in this companionship? 

This is the conversation of being
a human being, the living doubleness.

Rumi believed sensuality and spirituality belong together. He called this, "the living doubleness." We are, on one hand, base, earthy, desirous. Our hearts and bodies want what they want, there's no denying it. We are "passionate like fire ... made of the ground." On the other hand, we are cool, subtle, tempered. Our highest aspirations are clear as water, subtle as wind, radiant as eyelight from a calm and kindly gaze.

This "doubleness" need not be a source of inner strife. There is incredible beauty in it. Each time you meditate, using your mind to observe your beautiful body's breath, you indwell the doubleness. Each time you feel pulled toward a sensual overindulgence that you know will bring you down, yet, you lovingly resist it, you indwell the living doubleness. Each time you allow yourself to be swept away in a passion that you know flows from the pure joy of being alive, you indwell the living doubleness. Each time you willfully refuse to shame yourself for the lusty and earthy parts of your being, you indwell the living doubleness. Each time you redirect and place limits on behaviors and choices that are bringing desolation to your soul, you indwell the living doubleness.

Let there be a "companionship" between the part of you that comes in hot and the part of you that seeks highest good. As Rumi says, "you can be trusted to hold beauty." All of you.

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