'''Either seem as you are or be as you seem''

According to Mevlevî belief a person is born twice, once from his mother and secondly from his own body. The latter, the birth of enlightenment, is the real birth marking the beginning of a journey to the discovery of truth. The dervishes of a Mevlevî lodge undergo a long novitiate involving trials of patience and submission.For the first three days the novice must sit upon a fleece, only rising to answer calls of nature. Overcoming mortal pride is essential, and once past the first three days the novice is then expected to perform eighteen different manual tasks such as cleaning and assisting in the kitchen. If he fails to show the necessary humility his shoes are turned towards the door as a sign of rejection, and he silently leaves. Otherwise he now begins the stage of retirement and fasting known as halvet, which lasts for one thousand and one days. That is followed by fakr, when the novice at last participates in the whirling ceremony as a semazen.The semazens wear a tall felt cap known as a sikke, a long skirted garment, jacket and waistband.
The sema is accompanied by the music of the ney and the rebab, a three stringed instrument made of a coconut shell. Mevlana responded to orthodox objections to the sema by declaring that there are many ways to God, music and the sema being the way he had chosen.Mystic belief likens the universe, consisting of the world and man, to a circle drawn by a moving point which is God. To the right of this point is the outer world of appearance and to its left the inner world. According to the belief that everything returns to this point of movement, the dervishes spin in a spiritual journey to God, their circular orbit representing the circle of life.Many books have been written about Mevlevî music, and Mevlana’s greatest work, the Mesnevî, consisting of over seventy thousand couplets, has been reprinted time after time. But those who watch the sema do not need to read anything to discover the spiritual power of sema music. The sound of the ney brings tranquility to the spirit, representing a silencing of the material world. At the sema held on the night of Şeb-i Arus all Mevlevîs remember Mevlana’s words, "Death is our marriage with eternity." Mevlana encouraged his followers to search for the truth themselves rather than blindly believe in others. "To question is half of knowledge," he declared. Tolerance of human failing was another important part of his teaching: When wrongful deeds are related to you, interpret them seventy times with good will and good faith. When you are helpless tell yourself that the perpetrator of wrongdoing must surely know the secret and forget it. If you seek a friend without fault, you will be friendless. The ancient soil of Anatolia has always been fertile ground for philosophy, meditation and thought. Life is like a river which flows on without ever stopping,’ said Mevlana, expressing the unity and continuity of man’s attempts to reach God. Separate ways are in reality but one, and awareness of God’s love is what we all seek. In Mevlana’s mystic philosophy lies a message of universal peace which has drawn so many to Konya over the centuries. "If the heart of lovers had not burned and shed tears There would be neither water nor fire in the world".
''Come, whoever you might be, come Infidel, idolator, magian, let all come This is not the lodge of despair If thou hast broken the oath a hundred times, come"

Snow in May

Since last week it has been so cold here. This morning when we woke up there was some snow around and nearby mountains were white. Climates are changing rapidly . In my first year as a university student in Erzurum where is in the eastern part of Turkey I had worn white jacket at the beginning of June. But after then I couldn't wear that jacket that time again. Perhaps I was too enthusiastic to wear it or too young not to feel cold so much . But I never forget the shining sun and that nice day I wore that .Some past moments of life are so fresh and clear in our minds like yesterday even closer than that .
When it first snowed in the second year in May there I was really surprised , but then it became as a natural event . And a few years ago the same tradition of the weather started here in my hometown, too, and it has snowed here once in May since then.

On eating and drinking by MUHIDDIN ARABI

Muhiddin Arabi, author of “Al Tadbirat-ul Ilahiyyah: Islah-ul Memleket-ul Insaniyyah” (The Divine Measures: Improvement of Lands of Humans), of which some passages of the chapter titled “Elegl-u vesh Shurb” (On Eating and Drinking) read as follows:
“Eat only much as you need and never overfill yourself: Do not drink much water. Eat carefully and sparingly. Eat only just as much as would permit you to sustain you in your work and avoid wasting your time in ingestion. Eat carefully in small-sized bites.
Chew your bites well and swallow them only after this. Always start with a prayer. Don’t reach for another before chewing your last bite well and swallowing it. Make it a habit to respect the rights of your companions in the even if you are alone so that mispractices will not become habits that will place you in a predicament before God Almighty and All-forgiving. Don’t keep on looking at the face of the person whom you may have incited to share your food, so that he will not be embarrassed and repent for having accepted food from you. To do so is equivalent to a full day’s prayers. Do not compliment the persons who say that you eat too little, since this may waylay you into excesses. Let them say as much as they will that you eat too little.
When you are ready for your meal, be second only to your peer and never precede him in any conversation and continue to do so until the table is removed. Do not eat at home before going to attend a meal invitation in order to receive praises and compliments to the effect that you eat so little and to be so flattered. Do not heed to those who say so and never change your routine habits of eating save for what the rules of politeness dictate. Such statement are ingrained in the minds of dissenters in order to gee those from the right course.”