Who attains the secret of unity?
The one who does not stop till he gets there.
What is the understanding of one that is a knower?
Most of Shabistari’s answer to question 5 is really about knowing – and for that you have to purify yourself bodily, spiritually, in habits (which become your character, cf #11), and by shedding self-awareness. The first two are obvious areas for attention. The third is interesting, potentially lost in the second but it gives a way forward that has an opportunity to change at almost every moment.
The fourth is back to that business of the (human) self that was raised in question 3. Again, Shabistari does not seem to be saying “destroy” your psyche, your sense of self which holds the narrative thread of life and the consciousness that allows you to know, and, through you, God to know Himself. Rather, he seems to be saying to pay no attention to it (couplet 404): to become effectively unconscious of it, and not to prize it or think that anything is due to it. Not recognition, not reward, not admiration – these are effectively what the “young Christian” (Whinfield’s pir or spiritual guide) told Shabistari he had sought through his study (question 15, couplet 988). Conversely, and equally, not slighting, not punishment, not contempt. To return to question 15, the young Christian did not slight, punish, or despise Shabistari but invited him to drink the draught that would make him forget himself and open himself to unity and bliss.
Effectively, while we maintain a sense of our individual self, we are “other” than Him, and there is no “other”. It makes no difference if we plume or debase ourselves – both get in the way. When we see ourselves, we reserve ourselves apart. That’s all.
So this connects with what Shabistari said in relation to question 3, that our apparently individual selves are nothing but artifacts of the universal “I” that is God. Once we have assimilated that, whatever seems to be the case about ourselves becomes unimportant: it is merely a lense, or a directed eye. In question 15, this is how Shabistari treats his own self. He is no longer interested in it beyond its record of the experience that allows him to answer Amir Hosaini’s questions (couplets 984–999).
Salaam Grant
Wonderful write up, really really appreciated it.
There are some corrections in order for the translation:
1.” He finds a portion in ‘ what eye hath not seen, nor car heard.”
is originally a verse from Qur’an which is not what is mentioned in the Farsi text. Instead more probably the following Hadith is referenced:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Verily Allah ta’ala has said: ‘Whosoever shows enmity to a wali (friend) of Mine, then I have declared war against him. And My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more loved to Me than the religious duties I have obligated upon him. And My servant continues to draw near to me with nafil (supererogatory) deeds until I Love him. When I Love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, and his sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him; and were he to seek refuge with Me, I would surely grant him refuge.’
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَة رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُول اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه و سلم إنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى قَالَ: “مَنْ عَادَى لِي وَلِيًّا فَقْد آذَنْتهُ بِالْحَرْبِ، وَمَا تَقَرَّبَ إلَيَّ عَبْدِي بِشَيْءٍ أَحَبَّ إلَيَّ مِمَّا افْتَرَضْتُهُ عَلَيْهِ، وَلَا يَزَالُ عَبْدِي يَتَقَرَّبُ إلَيَّ بِالنَّوَافِلِ حَتَّى أُحِبَّهُ، فَإِذَا أَحْبَبْتُهُ كُنْت سَمْعَهُ الَّذِي يَسْمَعُ بِهِ، وَبَصَرَهُ الَّذِي يُبْصِرُ بِهِ، وَيَدَهُ الَّتِي يَبْطِشُ بِهَا، وَرِجْلَهُ الَّتِي يَمْشِي بِهَا، وَلَئِنْ سَأَلَنِي لَأُعْطِيَنَّهُ، وَلَئِنْ اسْتَعَاذَنِي لَأُعِيذَنَّهُ”.
2. “Purification of Secret” is not secret thoughts, this word is Sirr best I could translate as the Divine Observatory:
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/qoshairi_3_serr.html
It is a spiritual faculty/organ like mind or soul or heart.
Salaam Dara
That is interesting – Hayy Darr goes for your understanding of the text too (Garden of Mystery, The Gulshan-i-rāz of Mahmud Shabīstari, translated by Robert Abdul Hayy Darr, Cambridge, 2007, couplet 401 [vs our Whinfield, couplet 403]).
It forms a preliminary stage after the efforts of cleaning out the heart, self-denial (per Whinfield’s note 2), or perhaps rising to watch and pray in the night (Q 17:79, also suggested by Whinfield), and/or the recitation of the tahlil. Shabistari says that these lead to the “laudable station” and heaven (per Whinfield) or to God becoming one’s seeing, hearing, doing, and travelling (per Dara, Hayy Darr).
But the questioner is looking for more than this, which brings Shabistari to the four purifications of the body, the spirit, the habits, and the “sirr”. These result in a banishing of the human artifact “I”, and make possible the knowledge – the experience – of unity because there is now nothing between you and God.
Re the “Divine Observatory”, that brings us back to the universal/divine “I” through which we can travel, as we discussed earlier. Since the entire cosmos is the bearer of that divine “I” and also a transposed expression of God through His Names, and we are to gaze knowingly at it so that He can know Himself – we become, effectively, astronauts, which is another analogy you use. So your use of an astronomical term for part of us that does this is very appropriate.
Grant wrote:
We are simulations! Imagine a computer hardware that executes a simulation e.g. 3D video game, and we are in that game, in that space, but in reality all there is the computer the game is merely a simulation, a phantom imaged at the eye of the beholder.
Yes! Your artifacts – very good word!
There was a Star Trek episode where Moriarty and his female companion became so troublesome that Captain Jean-Luc Picard made a holographic universe for them to travel and adventure in. They were holograms themselves but had become conscious. In the episode, they had to be tricked into the artificial universe because they wanted so much to be real – but, once there, they would never know that it wasn’t the real universe or that they weren’t real after all.