Gloria K. Fiero's Poem 'The One True Light'

The One True Light Though one of the simpler pieces of poetry found in the book by Gloria K. Fiero, The Humanistic Tradition, “The One True Light” (239), speaks to a long-time problem which is still evident to this day. The poem was written by the Sufi mystic and poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi, and explores what is beyond his own religion. He was a follower of Muhammad, but as a Sufi, and through an emphasis on visionary experiences, which included ritualistic whirling dances, he was supposed to have been transported to be intuitive and see a nonrational dimension of his religious experiences. The poem, ‘The One True Light’, says that while each person might only view the world from the teachings of their own religion, perhaps it is only a matter of perspective. Whether you are Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, what you see “depends on the standpoint” (Fiero 239). Rumi illustrates this by having men of differing backgrounds simply describe an elephant, in the dark. Each man touches the elephant differently. One felt it his trunk and declared, “This animal is like a water-pipe (Fiero 240).” Another touched his ear and thought the elephant

According to the textbook, “The Humanistic Tradition” (Fiero) in chapters 8 and 9, Siddhartha Gautama, known as Buddha, lived in India a few centuries before Jesus. He came a realization that there were three basic “truths”; sickness, old age, and death. He became enlightened through meditation and preached that the path to enlightenment began with “Four Noble Truths” (Fiero 193): pain is universal, desire causes pain, ceasing to desire relieves pain and right conduct leads to release from pain. The goal being, to escape the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth, through the Eightfold Path of right views, right intentions, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right