Enlightened Contemporaries: Francis, Dogen, and Rumi: Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth Century and Why They Matter Today

by Steve Kanji Ruhl

Overview

Enlightened Contemporaries is the first book to compare the lives and teachings of three of the world's most admired spiritual masters: Francis of Assisi, the Christian saint; Dogen, the great Zen Buddhist teacher; and Rumi, the Islamic Sufi master. They lived during the same turbulent century. They integrated mystical experiences of the sacred into their lives, and they can inspire us to do the same.

Enlightened Contemporaries combines robust scholarship with brisk, engaging, lyrical prose. Offering a thorough introduction for the general reader as well as specialists, it will appeal to those who enjoy an interfaith approach to spiritual exploration, one that links Christian, Buddhist, and Islamic mystical teachings within a vibrant historical context and shows how they not only complement each other but remain profoundly relevant in the twenty-first century.

Bringing Saint Francis, Dogen, and Rumi vividly to life as complex and compelling human beings, Enlightened Contemporaries lucidly explains their spiritual paths, explores the dynamic age in which these three pioneering teachers struggled and triumphed, and investigates their remarkable poetry. It also deftly examines how Francis, Dogen, and Rumi engaged the world in the context of five shared themes: spiritual love, nature, the body, the role of women, and balancing retreat from society with active involvement. By interweaving the spiritual lives of these Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim teachers, Enlightened Contemporaries will help readers enhance their own lives and find new paths of spiritual understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948626132
Publisher:	Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steve Kanji Ruhl received his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Universityand his B.A. in Religious Studies with high honors from Pennsylvania State University. An ordained Zen Buddhist minister, Reverend Kanji has served as a Buddhist adviser at Yale Universityand is a core faculty member in the Shogaku Zen Institute and in the multi-faith Spiritual Guidance Certificate Training Program at the Rowe Center in Massachusetts. He also works in private practice one-on-one with spiritual guidance clients. Reverend Kanji has been a guest speaker or workshop facilitator at Harvard’s Center for World Religions, Yale Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School, the International Conference on Socially Engaged Buddhism, the Omega Institute, and elsewhere. He is a contributing author to the book The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work and author of The Constant Yes of Things: Selected Poems 1973-2018. Visit www.stevekanjiruhl.com

Table of Contents

Introduction: Three Mystics for Our Time vii

Chapter 1 Who They Were: Francis, Dogen, and Rumi in Their Thirteenth-Century World 1

Chapter 2 Speaking to Us Across Centuries 59

Love 59

Nature 68

The Body 76

The Role of Women 81

Spiritual Retreat and Social Engagement 87

Chapter 3 The Poetic Works: A Brief Comparative Survey 93

Chapter 4 What Francis, Dogen, and Rumi Offer Spiritual Seekers Today 109

Appendix: Some Further Considerations Regarding Mysticism 139

Notes 145

Bibliography 157

Acknowledgments 167

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A beautiful, rich, and vivid weaving of the experiences of awakening by three great mystics and teachers, this book is a treasure and inspiration for our time." —Roshi Joan Halifax, Abbot, Upaya Zen Center

"The gift of Steve Kanji Ruhl’s Enlightened Contemporaries: Saint Francis, Dogen, and Rumi is its ability to bring these awakened masters to life in a manner that allows them to speak Truth without the trappings of power. This is a book to be treasured." —Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent

"In the 13th century three great mystics awakened to their True Nature, or God. Steve Kanji Ruhl shows how their inward journey, pursued with devotion, transformed their world and continues to inspire ours in this superbly written, stirring book." —Roshi Eve Myonen Marko, founding teacher, Zen Peacemaker Order

"Steve Kanji Ruhl writes beautifully, and Enlightened Contemporaries is a fascinating study. This is sure to be a well-received and much-appreciated comparative study of Dogen, Francis, and Rumi." —Dr. Anne Monius, Professor of South Asian Religions, Harvard University

" Enlightened Contemporaries provides an introduction to the thought of three contemporaneous spiritual masters in a way that bridges the past and present and affirms and inspires the human compulsion to find meaning." —Dr. Nina Safran, Associate Professor of History, Director of Middle Eastern Studies, Pennsylvania State University

Editorial Reviews

05/04/2020

In this insightful study, Zen Buddhist minister Ruhl (The Constant Yes of Things) examines the lives of St. Francis of Assisi, Dogen Kigen, and Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi to explain how they’ve become “superstars” of their respective mystic traditions: Christianity, Soto Zen, and Sufi Islam. Ruhl argues that the “mystic experience” is critical to living a full human life through its ability to “expunge the petty ego.” He further argues that Francis, Dogen, and Rumi remain relevant—and popular—because of their involvement with timeless human theological, social, environmental, and sexual concerns. The work is divided into four sections: biographies of each mystic, their thinking on five specific topics that were prominent in each one’s life (love, nature, the body, the role of women, and spiritual retreat), their poetry, and a conclusion suggesting what these three have to offer the modern world. For instance, both Dogen and Francis “pioneered new opportunities for women seeking to devote themselves fully to spiritual life,” and Dogen’s seated meditation and Rumi’s ecstatic dance “can serve as models for affirming the power of the body in experiencing the sacred.” This is an excellent group biography of three mystics of critical importance to their own traditions and to mysticism as a whole. (June)

Publishers Weekly