Friday, July 14, 2006

Two Kinds of Intelligence - A Poem by Rumi


Two Kinds of Intelligence -- By Rumi

There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining
information. You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more
marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet, one
already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness
in the center of the chest. This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate. It's fluid,
and it doesn't move from outside to inside
through the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:36 AM

    Rumi's "two kinds of intelligence was referred to me by a friend and I retorted with:
    Mary Baker Eddy's "The Scientific Statement of Being" which I present herewith for your consideration:
    "rfxxxThere is no life, truth, intelligence,
    nor substance in matter.
    All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation,
    for God is All-in all.
    Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error.
    Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.
    Spirit is God, and man (and woman, ed.) is his image and likeness.
    Therefore man (and woman,ed.) is not material;
    He (She,ed.) is spiritual.

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing your insights. I am familiar with Christian Science, but not studied in the writings of Eddy.

    When I read your comment, I actually thought that it aligned perfectly with the essence of Rumi's poem. I feel that when he writes about "another kind of tablet, one already completed and preserved inside you" he is referring to what Eddy calls "Infinite Mind" or God.

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