Last week, we were thrilled to Nipun connect with our community in Iran. ServiceSpace now has many hands that will be initiating local projects very soon.

Having Nipun among us Iranians felt like we have reunited with our older brother who went off walking a few years, and was now returning to share his stories and insights. And how his stories felt right at home in our hearts, having been touched by Rumi and other sages from this land.

He reminded us of being interconnected at deeper levels of existence, of one source. That compassion is not what we do but is what we are deeply, and for that to shine forth, in its raw nature, we need to become empty instruments of nature. To many perhaps this may have come as a relief that kindness is not another layer to wear or thing to do but is our inherent nature to unfold if we look through stories we have come to make about ourselves, and the world around us. A radical invitation to inner stillness and transformation by small acts of generosity not because of this or that, just because of what we truly are, a drop merged in the ocean as Rumi had told us. Nipun inspired a community with deeper understanding of compassion among us by hinting on the depth of the well inside all of us, a well that we need to access collectively on this path so that our kind actions in the world are fed by the emergence of a bigger intelligence towards arriving at banks of love. May it be so.

To see his talk, with Persian translation, please click here.

We ended with the Persian reading of this Rumi poem ...

The Masnavi, or Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi, (The Spiritual Couplets) – The second volume

Through kindness, all bitterness turns into sweetness
Through kindness, the copper turns into gold
Through kindness, dregs become clear
Through kindness, pains heal

Through kindness, thistles turn into flowers
Through kindness, vinegar turns into wine
Through kindness, gallows turns into a bed
Through kindness, burden turns into belongings
Through kindness, jail turns into a garden

Devoid of kindness, the garden turns into a kiln

Through kindness, fire turns into light
Through kindness, the beast turns into beauty
Through kindness, rock melts

Devoid of kindness, wax solidifies into iron

Through kindness, despair turns into delight
Through kindness, the giant turns into a guru
Through kindness, the poison turns into nectar
Through kindness, the lion turns into a mouse
Through kindness, wrong turns into the right
Through kindness, the grumps turn into grace
Through kindness, one can bring the dead back to life
Through kindness, one can turn the king into a servant

This very kindness is the fruit of knowledge.

When does ever nonsence (empty words) could sit on this throne

When could an incomplete knowledge give birth to such love?