The Whirling Dervishes

Wow! Have you ever seen anything so pure and beautiful?  I guess I have heard of the term "Whirling Dervishes" before but I guess I thought it was some sort of weather condition like a really strong tornado with a tumbleweed in the middle.  That's sort of what it sounds like to me.  But my goodness! I never imagined it was anything this beautiful. 

I've recently begun reading Man Seeks God by Eric Weiner.  I love him.  I love his writing.  I think it reminds me of my own .... a lot of spiritual seeking, introspective, self-exploration with a bunch of sarcastic, dry humor mixed in.  His first chapter explores Sufism beginning with a hilarious stay at a Sufi Camp in California.  The only good coming of his "campout" being his encounter with a Whirling Dervish who inspires him to go to Turkey to see the origin of that practice.  Naturally, I had to google "Whirling Dervish" and found a bunch of videos.  The one above is one of my favorites, I think because of the artistic approach (probably Westernized, I'm sure). 

Anyway, in learning about the practice of the sama, a form of meditation through body movement (i.e. whirling) during which the meditator is able to reunite with God and achieve, hopefully, wajd,  a state of pure ecstasy in which one feels a rush of sorrow, joy, etc.  One might be more familiar with this state when it is referred to as Nirvana.  Thank you Kurt Cobain.  I digress.  In learning about this practice, I of course considered what I have always believed which is that dancing or body movement is a natural and almost necessary way to disconnect from one's life and perhaps transcend spiritually.  When watching children one will almost always notice that they "dance" when they hear music and sometimes even to their own voices or the voices of others.  No one teaches them to dance.  They just do.  So many cultures incorporate dancing into their practices and more than a few are even defined by their dancing.  I have always been partial to this idea having been a dancer myself.

But sama  is different even than dancing.  Again, my thoughts turned to children.  How many of us have played the game where we whirl and twirl in the front yard making ourselves so dizzy.... dizzy.... dizzy.... dizzy until we fall down in hysterics.  Is this a form of sama?  A natural form of meditation that children know inherently but forget as adults because it is silly and childish?  I can easily see how this whirling allows the Dervishes to completely transcend their lives here on earth to reach a state of wajd. 

I love this practice.  I may never be a full fledged participant, but I appreciate it's beauty ... especially in remembering having done something similar as a child.  Maybe one day I'll have my very own little Whirling Dervishes.  I'll hear their laughter floating in from the front yard and run to the window to catch them just as they fall down in hysterics .... in their own tiny state of wajd....   And I will be in mine. :)