Chickpea To Cook
CHICKPEA TO COOK
A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it’s being boiled.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
The cook knocks him down with the ladle.
“Don’t you try to jump out.
You think I’m torturing you.
I’m giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this.”
Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.
Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
“Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can’t do this by myself.
I’m like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn’t pay attention
to his driver. You’re my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking.”
The cook says,
“ I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.
My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices.
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher.”
~Rumi
***
Donna began with this devotion this p.m. and so we took the poem into reflection on this text.
Notes on the text:
On the Sheikh
The existence of the beloved is not provable, nor is it fantasy. The Friend, as Rumi usually calls this presence within and infinitely beyond the senses, is elusive and nearer than the big vein on your neck; you need a mirror to see it. the sheikh is a mirror, a reminder of that presence, and a cook. The understanding that comes through a sheikh gives nourishment and transforming energy to many. Rumi's image of a disciple is a chickpea that sprouts and enjoys the rainy garden of sexual pleasure. It matures to its hardened form, then gets picked and thrown in the cooking pot. The cook's tending is careful and constant and, in Rumi's case, garrulous. Gradually the discipline softens and takes on flavors the cook adds. Eventually he or she becomes tasty enough to be appealing to those who in the sufi tradition are called the True Human Beings. So the chickpea moves from garden to cooking pot to a taste for the cook , finally to become sustenance for a mysterious community.
***
We begin by asking about 'The World of the Chickpea" -- What is this world like?
It's a world of initiations, of no control, of being at the mercy of the cook.... It's a world of flavorings and soakings. It's a world that is in process.
What counts as a negative in this world?
Process and the pain of boiling feels like a negative. There is also the possibility of not being chosen -- of being discarded. The difficulty of no choice, no way out. Lack of compassion. The unknown.
What calls us up short in this world of the chickpea?
A bad teacher (bad cook)... The possibility of being 'half-baked' (which, in the case of both the chickpea and the human being, leaves one bitter.) Fear calls us up short. Jumping out of the pot . Becoming 'just a side dish'.
Only becoming hummus. (joke)
What is cause for celebration in this world?
Fulfillment of one's destiny, the joy of growing beyond one's limited self. The joy of taking on new flavors.
We talked about the idea of communing with one's food. Prayer or thanksgiving for food for sustenance.
We also celebrate being delectable in this world. We celebrate our imagination.
What does tradition tell us about the world of the chickpea?
Jewish tradition speaks in terms of 'chosen ones' ... Moses in the Wilderness has the feeling and experience of 'being cooked.'
Tradition speaks of John the Baptist as one who initiates, one who is both the cook, and one who gets cooked.
The tradition seems to tell us that is goes both ways. That the cook is also subject to being cooked in turn.
Jesus also gets selected, cooked and seasoned in the Wilderness.
In the Hindu tradition, we speak of initiation and the Kundalini experience, which is an experience of being 'cooked' at a level of the inner teacher.
At the level of action, the group members shared times in their lives when they experienced this undergoing 'being cooked' being initiated.
We talked about undergoing illness, divorce, life changes brought about my either misfortune or our own choices rearranging our lives in ways that we didn't predict. Whether injury, illness, life crises , or choice, we are brought to a 'rolling boil' -- an experience of helplessness and vulnerability where all of our external resources and insights can't help us.
INSIGHTS and IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION
You can't necessarily write your own recipe. At some level , you are an ingredient. Sometimes we make a choice to change something in our life, we make a list, we think that it'll all go according to plan. But no matter how much we plan or attempt to remain in control of our circumstances, at some point , life takes over and we are presented with something or someone outside the realm of our own thinking and vision. We think we are writing the recipe and then circumstances arrive that show us that , indeed , perhaps we were never really writing the recipe at all. Perhaps what we thought was our own self-determination was merely our own conditioning and habitual patterns and responses. Now life has taken all of that away and we are left with the truth, that we are something different that we thought that we were. Or someone else it. Or life is. The unknown and unplanned for is always waiting for us, and even though we seek to avoid this sort of 'baptism by fire' at some level, this is very good news.
The prophets and poets and writers of the scriptures seem to be telling us that this is the point when we truly encounter God, the Ground of our Being, Ultimate Concern, and Grace.
Some boiling seems to be necessary in each of our recipes.
COLLECT
GOD YOU ARE A GOOD COOK
WE PRAY THAT WE STAY IN THE POT LONG ENOUGH TO TASTE GOOD -
ABSORBING ALL THOSE FLAVORINGS
SO THAT WE MAY SUFFER WITH GRACE
AND SEASON OURSELVES
WITH SURRENDER AND LIFE.
AMEN
***
The Rumi poem is from "The Essential Rumi -- Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne"
published by HarperCollins publishers.
I'll put it up in the sidebar.
***
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