Rumi: A Sleep Story So Beautiful, It’ll Touch Your Soul

Welcome,

Dear listener.

As you prepare to embark on a magical journey through tonight's story,

Let's first take a moment to relax and center ourselves.

Allow this time to be a bridge between the busyness of your day and the enchanting world of dreams and stories.

Find a comfortable position in your bed or chair,

Feeling the softness beneath you,

Supporting and holding you.

Simply settle into this present moment.

Now,

Close your eyes if you haven't already.

Picture a gentle glowing light at the center of your forehead,

Warm and soothing.

Imagine this light slowly spreading,

Moving downward,

Relaxing each part of your body as it goes.

Feel this warm light move over your eyes,

Easing the tension.

It flows down to your jaw,

Neck,

And shoulders,

Allowing them to become loose and relaxed.

Any weight or stress you might have been carrying simply melts away.

This serene light continues to travel,

Reaching your arms,

Your chest,

And your back.

With every heartbeat,

You can feel yourself sinking deeper into relaxation.

Your breathing becomes more rhythmic,

Calm,

And deep.

Allow the glow to illuminate your hips,

Thighs,

Knees,

And down to your feet.

From the top of your head to the tips of your toes,

You're bathed in a gentle cascade of light.

You're bathed in a gentle cascade of relaxation.

With your entire body now relaxed,

Let's focus on your breathing.

Inhale deeply,

Exhale deeply,

Imagining the cool,

Refreshing air of night filling your lungs.

Hold for a moment,

And then exhale,

Releasing any remaining tension or thoughts from the day.

Inhale peace and tranquility.

Exhale and let go.

Repeat this breathing pattern a few more times,

Each time sinking deeper into a state of relaxation and readiness for the story ahead.

Now,

Imagine yourself in a serene place,

A quiet,

Moonlit meadow,

A tranquil beach at dusk,

Or a cozy,

Dimly lit room.

With a soft chair,

Perfect for story listening.

This is your sanctuary,

A space just for you.

As you sit in this special place,

A gentle wave of anticipation washes over you.

The promise of a captivating story awaits,

Ready to whisk you away to distant lands,

Magical realms,

Or heartfelt memories.

But for now,

Just be in this moment,

Cherishing the calm,

Embracing the silence,

And preparing your heart and mind to be fully present for the story that's about to unfold.

When you're ready,

Let your breath guide you,

Bridging the gap between this peaceful meditation and the enchanting tale ahead.

Now,

Dear listener,

With your body and mind at ease,

Let's begin our story.

The Story of Rumi Chapter One The Boy with a Dreaming Heart In the sun-baked city of Bagh,

Nestled amidst the vibrant markets and soaring minarets of 13th century Persia,

Lived a boy named Jalal ad-Din Muhammad,

Known to his family as Rumi.

He was a child unlike any other.

While boys his age were enamored with games and toys,

Rumi was in love with the world of words.

His father,

Bahauddin,

Was a renowned theologian and jurist.

A wise and gentle man,

He was also a mystic who saw the spark of divine curiosity in his son's eyes.

Rumi,

He would say,

His voice a tender lullaby,

Your heart is a garden in which God's love grows.

One night,

As a silver moon bathed the world in a serene light,

Rumi had a dream so vivid it felt as real as the waking world.

In this dream,

A radiant bird,

Resplendent with feathers of pure light,

Appeared before him.

Come,

Sang the bird,

Its voice a melody of pure joy,

I will show you the world.

In the embrace of the dream,

The bird lifted Rumi into the sky.

They soared over cities of golden domes,

Through valleys of blooming roses,

And above oceans that sparkled like endless diamonds.

As they flew,

The bird whispered secrets in Rumi's ear,

Secrets of love,

Of sorrow,

Of the dance between the earth and the heavens.

You,

Dear boy,

Cooed the bird,

Are destined for a path like no other.

One day,

You will meet someone who will guide you on this path.

Rumi awoke with a dawn,

His heart still fluttering with the magic of his dream.

He rushed to his father and recounted everything,

His words tumbling over each other in excitement.

Bahauddin listened intently,

His eyes reflecting the morning light.

Such dreams,

He whispered,

Are the whispers of God.

Keep it in your heart,

My son.

It is a promise of a journey you are destined to take.

That prophecy did not have to wait long.

The rise of unrest and danger in their homeland due to invading forces,

The family had no choice but to leave their beloved Balkh.

With tears in his eyes but hope in his heart,

Young Rumi set out with his family on a journey toward the unknown.

As they journeyed through deserts and over mountains,

They encountered people of various cultures and beliefs.

Rumi,

Curious as ever,

Listened to the stories of travelers,

Studied the prayers of different tongues,

And felt his mind and heart expand like the boundless horizon.

It was through a Christian monk he learned about silence.

From a Jewish scholar,

The deep reverence for scripture,

And from the joyful songs of Sufi wanderers,

The intoxicating love for the divine.

Each person his father taught him,

As they sat around their campfire,

Is a unique verse in the grand poem of existence.

They are all to be cherished and learned from.

By the time they reached the flourishing city of Konya,

Where they would make their new home,

Rumi was no longer just the boy from Balkh.

He was a young man with a heart full of dreams and a soul that yearned for the divine secrets the radiant bird in his dream had promised.

Young Rumi gazed at the starlit sky over Konya,

His heart full of longing and wonder,

Whispering a quiet prayer of gratitude and excitement for the path that lay unfolding before him.

Chapter Two,

The Whirling Companion In the bustling and vibrant city of Konya,

Rumi grew to be a respected scholar,

Just as his father had been.

He taught students the intricate verses of the Quran and the wisdom of the Prophet.

But deep inside,

He felt an indescribable yearning the ember ignited by his childhood dream.

One autumn day,

As amber leaves danced in the wind,

The city buzzed with news of a stranger's arrival,

A wandering dervish with wild,

Ecstatic eyes.

His name was Shams of Tabriz.

Rumi,

Usually engrossed in his books,

Found his curiosity inexplicably piqued.

Their meeting was like the confluence of two rivers.

In the crowded marketplace,

Rumi's eyes met those of Shams.

And in that simple gaze,

He saw reflections of the radiant bird from his dream.

His heart recognized Shams before his mind did,

A soul companion,

A mirror reflecting his deepest self.

Shams was raw and untamed,

His words a fervent fire.

He challenged Rumi's intellect,

Questioned his teachings,

And laughed at his formalities.

You speak of God,

Shams would exclaim.

But do you live with God?

Under Shams' influence,

Rumi began to change.

Together,

They would talk until the moon was high in the sky,

Their conversations a passionate exploration of God's mysteries.

It was Shams who introduced Rumi to the practice of Sama,

The whirling dance that allowed the soul to ascend to divine love.

In these moments,

Rumi felt as though he was both earth and sky,

Spinning between two worlds yet rooted in profound love.

Rumi's poetry,

Once careful and measured,

Began to pour from him like never before,

Wild,

Ecstatic,

And profoundly intimate.

His verses were not just words,

They were his soul's melodies,

Singing his divine friendship with Shams and their shared longing for the infinite.

However,

Not everyone looked kindly upon this transformation.

The people of Konya,

Who had revered Rumi as a paragon of piety and wisdom,

Were startled by his newfound intensity.

Rumors swirled like storm clouds.

Why would a revered scholar be so taken with a wandering dervish?

One faithful night,

After a particularly intense session of whirling and poetry under the moonlight,

Rumi awoke to find Shams gone.

Vanished as though he were a wisp of a dream.

Desperation clawed at Rumi's heart.

He felt as though the sun had been plucked from his sky.

Yet,

In his deepest core,

He knew that Shams had been a divine gift,

A key to unlock a door within him.

His separation from Shams was not a loss.

It was a new chapter of his journey towards God.

In his longing for his beloved friend,

Rumi composed some of his most heart.

.

.

In his longing for his beloved friend,

Rumi composed some of his most heart-rending poetry.

His words were imbued with both the sweet nectar of their friendship and the bitter pang of their separation.

Each line was a step on his path towards the divine,

A path that Shams had shown him,

But he must walk alone.

Shams,

My sun,

My moon,

Rumi wrote.

In your absence,

I whirl in the dark.

But it is by this darkness I am drawn closer to the light.

Rumi is not a broken man,

But a soul set ablaze.

Alone in his room,

He turns slowly,

Lost in a whirling dance,

His face wet with both tears and joy,

A living testament to love's transformative,

Eternal power.

Chapter 3.

The Poet of Love and Light With Shams gone,

Rumi's world was forever altered.

He became a lighthouse of spirit,

Shining brightly amidst the tumult of his own heart.

In the hollow of his loss was born an astonishing depth of creativity and love.

The melancholy poet was reborn a vessel of divine light.

Now,

Rumi was not just a teacher in the scholarly sense.

He became a spiritual guide,

His very presence a sermon on love.

His lessons were not confined to the walls of a madrasa.

They were in the way he greeted people in the street,

How he handled a blooming rose,

Or the kindness that sparkled in his eyes when he spoke to a child.

He had his own disciples,

A blend of scholars and mystics,

Christians and Jews,

Rich and poor.

They were called the Whirling Dervishes due to their practice of Sama.

In their dance,

They sought the very ecstasy Rumi and Shams had discovered together.

One day,

As Rumi was teaching under the shade of a great tree,

A young man arrived with a parchment and ink in hand.

Hussam,

He was called,

And he had a humble request.

Your words,

Hussam implored,

They are a healing balm for aching souls.

Allow me to write them down so that they may outlive us all.

With a soft smile,

Rumi agreed.

His collaboration birthed Rumi's magnum opus,

The Mathnawi,

A sprawling,

Intricate tapestry of poetic tales and divine wisdom.

It was not just a book,

It was a mirror in which readers could see their souls reflected and refined.

Through his verses,

Rumi painted vivid scenes of human folly and divine love.

Of the struggles of the soul and the sweet surrender to the beloved.

The Mathnawi was his gift to the world.

A guide for the lost,

A companion for the seeker,

A friend for the lonely.

Come,

Come,

Whoever you are,

Rumi invited in one of his most beloved poems.

Wanderer,

Worshipper,

Lover of leaving.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come,

Yet again,

Come.

Years passed like turning pages,

And Rumi,

Now an old man,

Felt the tug of another world.

The call of a far-off divine melody.

He knew his time was nearing its end.

One evening,

As Rumi was seated by the fireplace,

The room softly lit by flames,

A peculiar sense of serenity settled over him.

He looked to his disciples,

His spiritual family,

And knew that his teaching was complete.

Not because he had imparted all his wisdom,

But because he had ignited a flame that would continue to warm hearts for generations to come.

I am not this body,

He whispered,

His voice as soft as the breeze.

I am the echo of a sweet song that will never end.

When I leave,

Find me in those loving words we shared.

And then,

When his day of passing arrived,

It was not a day of mourning,

But a celebration,

Or as Rumi called it,

His wedding day.

The day he would reunite with the Divine,

And with Shams,

His beloved friend and guide.

As he took his last breath,

It is said that the room filled with an indescribable light.

And the air was perfumed with roses.

The world didn't lose a poet.

It gained a timeless voice that would continue to whisper in longing hearts.

Rumi,

In the boundless realm of the Divine,

Is with Shams once more,

Together.

They are in a radiant garden,

Reminiscent of Rumi's childhood dream,

Engaged in their whirling dance.

Around them,

Flowers bloom with each spin,

And the air is alive with their laughter and poetry.

As they dance,

Rumi says,

Close your eyes,

Dear friend,

For in the garden of the heart,

Every moment is a fresh beginning.

The enduring light of Rumi's spirit shines brightly,

A comforting reminder that love,

Pure,

Divine love,

Is the essence that dances at the core of all existence.

Welcome,

Dear soul.

You have arrived at the threshold of deep stillness.

A place beyond doing.

Beyond striving.

Beyond the weight of yesterday.

Here,

You are invited to soften everything.

Take a slow,

Effortless breath in.

And as you exhale,

Imagine dissolving,

Like mist,

Into the vast,

Open sky.

Let yourself fall,

Fall into softness,

Fall into the arms of nothingness,

Fall into the truth that has always waited quietly within you.

You are not your name.

You are not the story you have carried.

You are not the thoughts that flicker like fireflies in the mind.

You are the space between the stars.

You are the silence between each heartbeat.

Let each breath now be a gentle unraveling.

Inhale,

Sensing the openness within.

Exhale,

Surrendering every label,

Every role,

Every expectation.

Let them drift away,

Like petals carried by a river you no longer need to swim against.

Allow the idea of self to loosen to drift,

To fade.

Beyond all definitions,

There is only spaciousness.

Breathe there.

Be there.

With each moment,

Feel yourself becoming lighter,

As if the earth itself is letting go of its hold on you,

And you are rising.

Rising.

Into pure being.

There is no effort in this rising.

It is not a reaching.

It is a returning.

Returning.

To the place you never truly left.

Feel how vast you are.

Feel how timeless.

Stretching beyond edges.

Blending into the quiet immensity of all things.

The clouds do not struggle to form.

The rivers do not force themselves to flow.

The stars do not try to shine.

And you,

Dear one,

Do not need to strive to be.

You already are.

Notice the gentle hum of existence.

The steady breath of life itself.

Flowing through you.

As you.

Without effort.

You were never the wave.

You were always the ocean.

You were never the cloud.

You were always the sky.

Now sense your boundaries dissolving even further.

The edges of your body growing soft.

As if you are blending into the very fabric of the night.

Feel the breath moving through you.

As if the universe itself is breathing you.

Inhale spaciousness.

Exhale surrender.

There is no separation here.

There is only the vast luminous dance of being.

Feel the soft rhythm of your existence.

A rhythm older than time.

Wider than thought.

More tender than any name you have ever worn.

You are not becoming anything new.

You are remembering what has always been.

Pure vast whole.

There is a peace here deep and endless.

A peace that does not depend on understanding or achieving or fixing anything.

It simply is and so are you.

Rest now dear traveler.

Let the final remnants of form drift away until only pure being remains.

No story.

No striving.

No separation.

Only spaciousness holding you like the cradle of the stars.

Breathing you.

Being you.

Loving you into endlessness.

You have arrived in this sacred space.

A place where breath and being become one.

There is nothing you must do now.

Nothing you must become.

Only breathe and allow the breath to reveal to you.

What has always been.

Feel the inhale as it rises within you.

Not as something separate but as the life force of the infinite itself.

The same breath that stirs the oceans moves through you.

The same breath that births stars moves through you.

Let the breath be slow.

Let it be deep.

Let it be easy.

There is no urgency here.

Only the soft eternal rhythm of existence unfolding through you.

Inhale and feel yourself expanding outward as wide and boundless as the open sky.

Exhale feel yourself sinking inward into the infinite depths of your being.

Each breath a wave rising floating falling merging With every inhale welcome the vastness of the cosmos into your heart With every exhale release the illusion that you are ever separate from it.

You are breathing the same breath as the trees the rivers as the distant galaxies beyond sight.

One breath one life one boundless being Let the breath grow even lighter now as if you are barely breathing as if the breath itself is breathing you Feel the boundaries of your body becoming soft as if you are dissolving into mist becoming the space between breaths becoming the quiet pulse of existence Inhale Sensing the entire universe rising within you Exhale Sensing the entire universe sighing within you There is no you and it There is only one vast aliveness moving sighing singing through this breath Each inhale an embrace Each exhale a surrender You are both the lover and the beloved The wave and the ocean The spark and the infinite flame Breathe as the earth breathes Breathe as the stars breathe Breathe as the eternal breathes There is no past to return to There is no future to reach Only this breath Only this spaciousness Endless now Feel how the breath softens everything it touches The mind loosens The heart opens The body melts into peace You are lighter now More expansive Less attached to form More attuned to essence Inhale and imagine yourself dissolving into the golden glow of the morning sky Exhale and imagine yourself sinking into the deep stillness of the ancient earth You are both the rising and the falling You are both the journey and the home Breathe in Feel the universe creating itself a new through you Breathe out Feel yourself resting in the arms of forever If thoughts arise bless them like passing clouds and return to the breath Gentle Spacious Infinite You are not your thoughts You are not your fears You are not your rules or your striving You are this breath This vastness This quiet miracle of unfolding Feel how in this space nothing is missing Nothing is broken Nothing needs fixing You are complete You are whole You are the breath of the infinite remembering itself through this moment Stay here dear one floating breathing being Let the breath weave you into the fabric of everything Let it cradle you like the ancient songs cradle the stars Softly now feel yourself becoming more luminous more formless more free Each breath a brushstroke painting your being across the canvas of eternity There is no ending to you There is no edge where you stop and life begins Each breath a brushstroke painting your being across the canvas of eternity You are the breath and the space between the breaths You are the vast shimmering silence that holds it all Rest in this knowing bask in this truth You are the breath of the infinite You are the infinite itself