Poetry Chaikhana
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Here Attar's spiritual guide, the hoopoe, tells us how to become a true lover of God, that we may successfully journey along the spiritual path.
"A lover," he tells us, "Is one in whom all thoughts of self have died." Often statements like this by spiritual teachers are interpreted as meaning that we should think of the well-being of others before our own. That can be a profound approach to life, one that awakens both compassion and lessens the stranglehold of the little self, but there is more to be understood...
The start is to challenge the self's hold upon the awareness ("Your heart is thwarted by the self's control; / Destroy its hold on you and reach your goal."), but the end is when we see there has never been anything there to struggle against ("Give up this hindrance, give up mortal sight, / For only then can you approach the light.")
When we can truly say that "all thoughts of self have died," it is not that we work hard to control the self, it is when the very notion of a self is seen to be illusory (a "feeble wraith") and not a real or lasting thing at all.
Attar's hoopoe proclaims something even more shocking: "If you are told: 'Renounce our Faith,' obey!" For traditionalist societies, this sounds like blasphemy. How then can Attar throw the accusation back in his critics' faces by stating, "Blasphemers call such action blasphemy"?
First, we are not being told that one must renounce one's faith, just that we must be prepared to "If you are told." But told by whom? By Love. For Attar and most deep mystics, "love exceeds mere piety." In other words, when we, naked, free from self, truly encounter Love, that is the heart of all religion. Theologies, rituals, and traditions are meant to lead us to that foundational ground, that encounter with Love. Having attained it, would you then abandon it in order to follow prescribed behaviors? Would you give up the destination for the map? Nonsense! People who do so, imagining themselves pious, are the true blasphemers.
Love simply is. And It is everywhere, encompassing all opposites. It is not concerned with the religious dualities of "blasphemy or faith," "righteous or sinful." These are human distinctions. When we carefully examine them, we discover that these distinctions actually reinforce the ego-self. Don't misunderstand me: They help along the way, by strengthening those essential aspects of the self required for the journey. But they too eventually become traps for the ego, allowing you to assert, "I am righteous and others are not." It becomes a form of pride, a way to reinforce the little self, and blocking us from all-embracing Love.
Having shed dualities and the very notion of self, surrounded on all sides by Love, filled by Love, we can truly say we have become lovers.
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2009 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
publishers.
![Farid ud-Din Attar, Farid ud-Din Attar poetry, Muslim / Sufi, Muslim / Sufi poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry](images/AttarFari_sm.jpg)
