Principles of Khayyam
Omar Khayyam was born in 1048 in Neyshabur city, northeast Iran. He was a Persian polymath, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, musician and poet of the medieval period. He compiled astronomical tables and contributed to calendar reform, and wrote the most important treatises on algebra before modern times. Khayyam is famous as “Hakim”. This term, in Persian, means a person who rules or commands in a wise manner, a physician, wise man, ruler, judge, governor, or administrator. Hakim is a physician treating diseases through deep understanding of the mental and life status of the sick individual. Khayyam died in 1131 and buried in the mausoleum garden which is a masterpiece of Iranian architecture. For the full story of Khayyam’s life and works in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, click here. In this section, principles of philosophical health issues will be discussed in relation to the quatrains (Rubáiyát) compiled by Khayyam (the section will be updated regularly).
• The Hidden Truths in Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat: this book, presenting Paramahansa Yogananda’s complete commentaries on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, brings together the poetic and spiritual insights of three men of great renown, whose lives spanned a period of more than nine hundred years.
• The Benefits of Reading the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as Pastoral: the aim of this essay is to diagnose the Rubáiyát as literary pastoral. It starts from the premise that FitzGerald’s tavern is an ideal arena for spirited musing, for venting complex human issues over one of the simplest human…
• Transcendent Future Theory and Khayyam’s Thinking about Death: What are the transcendent future and thinking about death in Khayyam’s point of view? How do these two views consider overcoming the stress of death? How do these two views consider immortality, heaven and hell?
What is the effect of thinking about death on seizing the day?
• Omar Khayyám and Living Mindfully: living mindfully means that we accept the fact that everything is in the process of becoming a dissolution … yes, everything is in a state of flux. That is what makes this present moment so very special. So let us engage with it … with a whole-body-and-mind awareness. When we do that, and interfere with nothing, strangely our minds become free from all limitations, fetters and bonds. So, in the words of Omar Khayyám, “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
• Omar Khayyam’s Transgressive Ethics and Their Socio-Political Implications in Contemporary Iran: Khayyam has been a symbol of Persian spirits, philosophizing the mysteries of the universe in poetry while drinking wine and loving his friends.
• How Classical Persian Poetry Can Lift Us Through Life’s Difficulties: a friend’s grandfather passed away last month. When I told her I’d be writing this blog post, she mentioned that her grandmother found Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat on her Alexa, and how listening to it helped her to cope with her loss. I see the words of Persian poetry as a precious gift, from humans who lived long before us – their words will continue to lift future generations through life’s difficulties, too. It is their simplicity that breaks down barriers.
• How ‘The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’ Inspired Victorian Hedonists: the kind of hedonism popularised by the Rubáiyát can help to put us back in touch with the virtues of direct experience in our age of mediation, where so much of daily life is filtered through the two-dimensional electronic flickers on a smartphone or tablet. We are becoming observers of life rather than participants, immersed in a society of the digital spectacle. We could learn a thing or two from the Victorians: let us keep a copy of the Rubáiyát in our pockets, alongside the iPhone, and remember the words of wise Khayyám: ‘While you live Drink! – for, once dead, you never shall return.’
• From Khayyam to Hafez and the Healing of a Broken Heart: to live in the present, is to essentially be happy. When someone like me, has grown so devoted to a sacred shrine like my past, I want to belong to a new sacred shrine – Love. It is undeniable that from the beginning itself, the answer has always been Love. It is up to me, to embrace and discover the Lover, the Loved and the Beloved within me. My gratitude goes to Iran, as she gave me the opportunity to know how I will heal this broken heart. From Khayyam, Rumi to Hafez, to these moments of camaraderie symbolize that the cultivation of self-love is the Love that is connected to the divine Beloved, the Merciful and Compassionate. As for all that humanity has been able to attain, I, in my lifetime, will never be certain of who speaks to my broken Heart.
• Death Deemed Undead, The Fragility of Life and the Theme of Mortality and Melancholia In Omar Khayyam’s ‘Rubaiyat’: each rubai is complete in itself and has no connection with what goes before or follows after. The leading ideas are pleasure, death and fate and the predominant state of mind are the sensuous, the gruesome and rebellious. The term “Vairagya” refers to a deeply ruminative cynicism arising out of wisdom, knowledge and awareness about the ways of the world especially its perplexing transience and man’s search for meaning in the grand scheme of things. No other topic engenders as much vairagic thinking as does the imponderability of life’s purpose, its relevance and meaning.
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