Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی
Authors
1 Department of Persian language and literature, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Lorestan, Khorramabad, Iran
2 PhD student of Persian language and literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran.
3 , Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran.
Abstract
Comparison and analysis of Mowlânâ's and Eckhart Tolle's Solutions about the Crisis of Meaning
The meaning of life is a concept related to the contemporary era. Traditional man lived in the shadow of a meaning that arose from religion and myth, and modern man sought meaning in science, reason and progress, but contemporary man - especially from the Second World War onwards – rejected the previous metanarratives is wandering in emptiness of meaninglessness. The crisis of meaning is the main preoccupation of the present time. The main issue of this research is how to treat senseless pain by referring to the ideas of Mowlânâ (672-604) and Eckhart Tolle (1948- ). In this regard, their opinions have been compared in a descriptive-analytical way. The results of the research show that Mowlânâ considers ego the main cause of human confusion and meaninglessness and introduces love as the most comprehensive treatment for existential diseases. The love that removes the meaninglessness by showing the passion of life and the sweetness of being, as well as seizing time and creating a new perspective in the lover's life. Tolle considers the conditioned mind, stereotyped thinking, captivity in the concept of time and inauthentic identity to be the main causes of the crisis of meaning in contemporary times, and to solve this crisis, he recommends living in the present moment. God is in the center of Mowlânâ's attention; But for Tolle, man is the original. Rumi's intended soul is similar to Tolle's intended mind. Mowlânâ's love is heavenly and directed to the God, and Tolle's love is directed to existence and all creatures.
Highlights
Extended Abstract
A Comparison and Analysis of Mowlavi's and Eckhart Tolle's Solutions about the Crisis
of Meaning
Introduction
Meaninglessness of life is the most comprehensive existential crisis for modern man. In the ancient world, religion and myth gave meaning to people's lives, but in the modern world, reason and science have been the pillars of meaning. In the contemporary era, that is, the 20th and 21st centuries, all the meta-narratives that once created meaning, such as religion, myth, reason and science, have all lost their acceptability, and now there is no center of meaning in human life. Also, the present age is the age of anxiety. The anxiety of the futility and the fear of the meaninglessness of life plague today's human beings; for this reason, contemporary man experiences a cold, boring and aimless life.
Modern spirituality is a movement that emerged in the West in the middle of the 20th century. Spiritual leaders in the contemporary world promise people liberation, peace, and existential happiness. Eckhart Tolle is one of the most influential spiritual leaders worldwide.
Traditional mysticism and modern spirituality can provide cures for meaninglessness pain because they help people to get out of the ordinary life and expand their horizons. In this article, the teachings of Mowlavi and Tolle have been analyzed and compared to find a cure for the pain of meaninglessness.
Research Background and Theoretical Foundations
Many works have been written about Rumi in different languages, which have analyzed his teachings from various aspects, but only one work entitled Rumi and the Meaning of Life by Compani Zare (2019) discusses the meaning of life from the point of view of Mowlavi. The author has analyzed this concept in Mowlavi's thought only from the point of view of separating the unseen world and the world of form. This book has used a limited horizon for the issue of meaning in all of Mowlavi's works. No research has been done about Eckhart Tolle's analysis of the meaning of life in his teachings.
The meaning of life in the works of thinkers has three meanings: the purpose and goal of life, the value and importance of life, and the benefit and function of life. Philosophers have emphasized more on the issue of purpose and goal in life as meaningful concepts. According to them, if the purpose of life is questioned, a crisis of meaning will befall a person. On the other hand, two general viewpoints regarding the meaning of life can be considered related to naturalists and meta-naturalists. Naturalists believe that universe and life have capabilities that are sufficient to give meaning to life, but meta-naturalists believe that it is necessary to go beyond the fence of matter and enter something transcendent as the meaning-creating center became a relationship.
Discussion
Rumi considers the ego to be the main cause of the meaninglessness of life. According to him, the ego causes the neglect of the truth of the world. The commandment of the ego within man causes his spiritual blindness, and this causes him not to understand the real meaning of life and the truth of existence. Ego is a veil against understanding the truth of existence. Mowlavi prescribes love to treat this pain. The love that brings about the change in the soul of the lover, sweetens his life. In fact, according to Mowlavi, love has two main functions: firstly, it brings the passion of life and sweetening the existence, and secondly, it causes the formation of a new perspective in the mind of the lover.
Eckhart Tolle calls the mind the main reason for meaninglessness. Thinking and time arise in the mind, and these two cause human captivity in the repetitive bottlenecks of the mind. Repetitive, cold and boring life is the result of being imprisoned in the prison of mental habits. To escape from the prison of the mind, Tolle prescribes living in the present moment and falling in love as solutions. By living in the present moment, we will be free from the deception of time and with love from the entanglements of repetitive thinking.
Conclusion
Rumi and Tolle both consider love to be necessary to create a meaningful life. The ego referred to by Rumi and the mind referred to by Tolle are two different interpretations of the same reality in human existence. Both of them consider the material world to be inauthentic and believe that with love man can achieve unity with the truth of the world.
The main difference in attitude between Mowlavi and Tolle is that God and the unseen world are in the center of Mowlavi's attention, but for Tolle, the focus is on man and his existential pains. According to this analysis, Rumi's teachings for meaning creation can be explained in the framework of meta-naturalists' view and Tolle's teachings in the form of naturalists' attitude. Rumi's spiritual journey is a vertical journey: from man to God or man-God, but Tolle believed that spiritual journey is a horizontal journey: from non-authentic me to authentic me or me-me. The love that Rumi talks about is a heavenly love directed to God, but the love that Tolle expresses in his works is the love directed to all beings in the surrounding universe.
Even though Mowlavi and Eckhart lived in two different cultures and looked at existence and universe from different horizons, in the end, the concern of both is to reach peace and happiness and to live meaningfully for humans. The final result of this essay is to say that the only way to liberate the modern man is to free himself from the control of the mind and ego, and finally to be present in the universe by tasting the taste of the moment and immersing in the sea of love.
References
Azadeh, Mohammad, (2001), Philosophy and the meaning of life. First Edition. Tehran: Negah moaser Publication.
Ahmadi, Babak, (2005), Modernity and critical thought. 11th edition. Tehran: markaz Publication.
Akbari, Hossein, (2002), reality and truth. Third edition. Tehran: Nimage Publication.
https://doi.org/10.22034/perlit.2024.57452.3526
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