Evokers of the Divine Message: Mysticism of American Transcendentalism in Emerson’s “Nature” and the Mystic Thought in Rumi’s Masnavi

Abstract

Mysticism, religion and mankind’s relationship with an all-absolute deity has been a prominent part of the human experience throughout history. Poets such as Emerson and Rumi were similarly concerned with this question in creating their works. Although Rumi’s thought stems from the Quran and Emerson’s manifestation of Nature takes roots in the ancient eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, their works seem to share some explicit characteristics. Rumi (1207-1273) lived most of his life in Konya and Khorasan and Emerson (1803-1882) lived in America, but their immense geographic and temporal distances did not surpass their analogous attitudes as mystics. The biggest and the most obvious affinity between these mystic thoughts is believing in Monism as a spiritual practice. Although Emerson read and was influenced by classical Persian poetry of Hafiz and Sa’di, there is no evidence suggesting that he was familiar with Rumi’s poetry. Moreover, thematic analogies between Rumi’s Masnavi and Emerson’s essay on Nature result in a shared ideology which includes themes varying from monism, kashf or unveiling, attitudes towards language and the uninitiated. These concepts, observed in both works, point us toward the realization of universal features of mysticism.