The Secret Rose Garden
96
The Secret Rose Garden
96eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
- "I" and "you" are but the lattices, in the niches of a lamp, through which the One Light shines.
- "I" and "you" are the veil between heaven and earth/ lift this veil and you will see no longer the bonds of sects and creeds.
- When "I" and "you" do not exist, what is mosque, what is synagogue? what is the Temple of Fire?
An introduction by editor David Fideler discusses Shabistari's work in terms of its historical setting and the traditions of Persian Sufism, Shabistari's relationship with the thought of Ibn 'Arabi, and the significance of Sufism in the contemporary world.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781609254988 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2002 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 96 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Mahmud Shabistari (died circa 1340) is one of the most celebrated authors of Persian Sufism. Because of his gift for expressing the Sufi mystical vision with extraordinary clarity, his Gulshan-i raz or Secret Rose Garden rapidly became one of the most popular works of Persian Sufi poetry, and is recognized as a central work of that tradition.
Read an Excerpt
The Secret Rose Garden
By Mahmud Shabistari, David Fideler
PHANES PRESS, INC.
Copyright © 2002 Phanes Press, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-498-8
CHAPTER 1
The Perfect Face of the Beloved
The Eye and the Lip
What is the nature of the eye and the lip?
Let us consider ...
Coquettish and intoxicating glances shine from His eye.
The essence of existence issues from His ruby lip.
Hearts burn with desire because of His eye,
we are healed again by the smile of His lip.
Because of His eye hearts are aching and drunken.
His ruby lip gives soul-garments to men.
His eye does not perceive this visible world,
yet often His lip quivers with compassion.
Sometimes He charms us with a touch of humanity,
and gives help to the despairing.
It is His smile that gives life to man's water and clay;
it is His breath that opens heaven's gate for us.
A com-baited snare is each glance of that eye,
and a wine shop lurks in each corner.
When He frowns the wide world is laid waste,
but is restored every moment by His kiss.
Our blood is at fever point because of His eye,
our souls demented because of His lip.
How He has despoiled our hearts by a frown!
How He has uplifted our souls by a smile!
If you ask of Him an embrace,
His eye will say "Yea," His lip "Nay."
He finished the creation of the world by a frown,
now and then the soul is revived by a kiss.
We would give up our lives with despair at His frown,
but would rise from the dead at His kiss.
...When the world meditates on His eye and His lip,
it yields itself to the intoxication of wine.
The Mole
The single point of the mole in His cheek
is a center from which circles
A circumference.
The two worlds circle round that center.
The heart and soul of Adam evolved from there.
... Hearts bleed because they are a reflection
of the point of that black mole,
And both are stagnant; for there is no escape
of the reflection from the reflect.
Unity would not embrace plurality,
for the point of Unity has one root only.
... I wonder if His mole is the reflection of my heart,
Or my heart the reflection of His mole.
Was my heart created from His mole's reflection?
Or may it be seen shining in His mole?
I wonder if my heart is in His face,
or if His mole abides in my heart.
But this is a deep secret hidden—alas!—from me.
... If my heart is a reflection,
why is it ever so changing?
Sometimes tired like His brilliant eye,
sometimes waving to and fro as His curl waves,
sometimes a shining moonbeam like His face,
sometimes a dark shadow like His mole,
sometimes it is a mosque, sometimes a synagogue,
sometimes a hell, sometimes a heaven,
sometimes soaring above the seventh heaven,
sometimes buried far below this earth.
...After a spell the devotee and ascetic
turns again to wine, lamp, and beauty.
The Curl
If you ask of me the long story
of the Beloved's curl,
I cannot answer, for it contains a mystery
which only true lovers understand,
and they, maddened by its beauty,
are held captive as by a golden chain.
I spoke too openly of that golden form,
but the end of the curl told me to hide its glory,
so that the path to it should be twisted
and crooked and difficult.
That curl enchains lovers' hearts
and bears their souls to and fro
in the sea of desire. A hundred thousand hearts
are tightly bound, not one escapes, alas!
No single infidel would remain in the world
if he could see the shaking aside
of those black curls,
and on the earth there would not remain a faithful soul
if they were always in their place.
Suppose they were shorn ... No matter,
day would increase and the night disappear.
As a spider spreads its nets to ensnare,
so does the Beloved in wantonness
shake his locks from off His face.
Behold His hands plundering reason's caravan
and with knots binding it tight.
Never at rest is that curl,
ever moving to and fro
making now night, making now morning,
playing with the seasons in wonder.
Adam was created when the perfume of that
amber-scented curl
was blown by the wind on his clay.
And I too possess an example:
I cannot wait for a moment,
but breathlessly start working anew
To tear my heart out of my breast.
... Sorely troubled am I by that curl
which veils my longing soul from His face.
The Cheek and the Down
The theater of divine beauty is the cheek,
and the down is the entrance to His holy presence.
Beauty is erased by His cheek, who says,
"Without my presence you are nonexistent."
In the unseen world the down is as green meadows
leading to the mansion of eternal life.
The blackness of His curl turns day into night,
the down of His cheek holds the secret of life.
If you only can glimpse His face and its down,
you will understand the meaning of unity and multiplicity.
His curl will teach you the knowledge of this world,
His down will reveal hidden paths.
Imagine seven verses in which each letter
contains oceans of mysteries;
such is His cheek.
And imagine, hidden beneath each hair of His cheek,
thousands of oceans of mysteries;
such is His down.
As the heart is God's throne in the water
so is the down the ornament of the soul.
CHAPTER 2
Beauty
The Marriage of the Soul
Descending to the earth, that strange intoxicating beauty of the unseen world
lurks in the elements of nature.
And the soul of man,
who has attained the rightful balance,
becoming aware of this hidden joy,
straightaway is enamored and bewitched.
And from this mystic marriage are born
the poets' songs, inner knowledge,
the language of the heart, virtuous living,
and the fair child Beauty.
And the Great Soul gives to man as dowry
the hidden glory of the world.
The Charm of Beauty
From the unseen world descends
heavenly beauty,
and plants its flag in the city
of earthly fairness,
throwing the world's array into confusion;
now riding the steed of comeliness,
now flourishing the sword of eloquence,
and all alike bow down—
saints and kings, dervishes and prophets—
swayed by the charm of beauty's fascination.
Earthly Beauty
Whence the charm of a fair face?
Not earthly beauty only
can so allure with its loveliness.
Perhaps we see in this, as in a cloudy mirror,
the far faint reflection of the Perfect Face.
And these deep feelings of delight and wonder
can only issue from the One True Beauty,
for in divine perfection there is no other partner.
Nor is it all desire and lust that tempts men's hearts with longing.
...Evil appears as but the other side of Truth.
CHAPTER 3
The Sea and its Pearls
A Drop of Seawater
Behold how this drop of seawater
has taken so many forms and names;
it has existed as mist, cloud, rain, dew, and mud,
then plant, animal, and Perfect Man;
and yet it was a drop of water
from which these things appeared.
Even so this universe of reason, soul, heavens, and bodies,
was but a drop of water in its beginning and ending.
...When a wave strikes it, the world vanishes;
and when the appointed time comes to heaven and stars,
their being is lost in not being.
The Sea of Being
In Being's silver sea
lustrous pearls of knowledge are washed up
on the shore of speech,
and dainty shells bring poems in their curving forms
to strew the beach with beauty.
Each wave that breaks in foaming arcs
casts up a thousand royal pearls
that hold strange, murmuring voices,
gems of devotion, joy, and love.
Yet though a thousand waves
at every moment rise and fall,
scattering pearls and shells,
yet there are ever more and more to come,
nor is that sea of Being less by one sheer drop.
Pearls of Knowledge
In the sea of 'Uman, the pearl oysters
rise to the surface from the lowest depths
and wait with opened mouths.
Then arises from the sea a mist
which falls again in raindrops
into the mouths of the shells
at the command of the Truth.
Straightway is each closed as by a hundred bonds,
and the shells sink back again
into the ocean's depths,
bearing in their hearts the pearl drops
which the divers seek and find.
The sea is Being, the shore the body;
the mist, grace, and the rain knowledge of the Name;
human wisdom is the diver
who holds enwrapped in his garment
a hundred pearls.
the soul in a swift lightning's flash
bears to the listening ear voices and messages
from the shells of knowledge;
but when the husks are opened,
behold the royal shimmering pearls!
CHAPTER 4
The Journey
The Forsaking
See, your companions have gone;
will you too not make a start?
If you desire to take wing as a bird
then leave to the vultures this carrion world.
Forsake your relations,
for your real Friend must be sought.
He who is drowning in the sea of not-being
must cast aside all relationships.
What are father and mother,
sister and brother?
Your very son may be your enemy,
yet a stranger may be your kinsman;
Even your fellow-travelers on the mystic path
must be renounced.
All relations are a bond, a spell,
a fairy dream,
an absolute illusion.
Omit not the duties
of the law to them,
but have regard to yourself.
...Abandon gold and women,
for they are a source of anxiety.
The Traveler
The traveler on the path
is he who knows from where he comes;
then does he journey hastily,
becoming as pure from self as fire from smoke.
Unfolded to him are a series of revelations
from the beginning, till he is led away
from darkness and sin.
He now retraces his steps stage by stage
till he reaches his goal, the Perfect.
Thus is the Perfect Man evolved
from the time he first exists
as inorganic matter,
next a breath of spirit, and he is living
and from God draws his motive powers.
Next the Truth makes him lord of his will,
as in childhood his discernment of the world unfolds. And now the world's temptations assail him.
... Anger appears and desires of the flesh,
and greed, pride and gluttony;
his nature becomes evil,
worse than an animal or demon;
now he is at the lowest point of all,
the point opposite to Unity.
... Should he remain fettered in this snare,
he goes further astray than the beasts;
but if there shines a light from the spirit world,
divinely attractive,
or if he can find a reflection of proof,
then will his heart respond in a reflection of kinship
with this Light of the Truth,
and he will turn back and retrace his steps
from whence he came.
To faith assured he has found his way
through certain proof, or through the wonder
and attraction of the Divine.
... He throws away his selfhood utterly
and ascends in the steps of the most Pure.
Exhortation
Though the world is yours, you remain dejected,
who so pitiable as you?
You who are a man, arise and pass on:
don't wait day or night at the halting-stages;
don't tarry behind your fellow-travellers and the caravans.
The Two Steps of the Journey
The journey of the pilgrims is two steps and no more:
One is the passing out of selfhood,
and one towards mystical union with the Friend.
Fear
As the Arab racer doesn't need the whip,
so you will not need to fear
when on your journey you have started.
When your soul and body are purified,
you will not fear the fires of hell.
Throw pure gold into the fire;
if it contains no alloy, what is there to burn?
Logic
If God doesn't guide you onto the road,
it will not be disclosed by logic.
Logic is a bondage of forms,
a road that is long and hard.
Leave it for a season. Like Moses
cast away that staff
and enter for a while the valley of peace.
The Infant and the Youth
The young infant in the cradle
stays at his mother's side,
but when he is grown manly
he goes forth with his father.
So you remain with your mother,
the fleshly elements,
until you join your Father up on high.
The Almond Tree
As the kernel of an almond is spoilt utterly
if it is plucked from its husk while unripe,
so error in the path of the pilgrim
spoils the kernel of his soul.
When the knower is divinely illumined,
tthe kernel ripens, bursts the husk,
and departs, returning no more.
But another retains the husk,
though shining as a bright sun,
and makes another circuit.
From water and earth springs up onto a tree,
whose high branches are lifted up to heaven;
then from the seed of this tree
a hundredfold are brought forth.
Like the growth of a seed into the line of a tree,
from point comes a line, then a circle;
when the circuit of this circle is complete,
then the last is joined to the first.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Secret Rose Garden by Mahmud Shabistari, David Fideler. Copyright © 2002 Phanes Press, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of PHANES PRESS, INC..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Florence Lederer
Introduction by David Fideler
PART I: The Perfect Face of the Beloved
PART II: Beauty
PART III: The Sea and Its Pearls
PART IV: The Journey
PART V: Time and this Dream World
PART VI: Reflections
PART VII: Divine Inebriation
PART VIII: Reason and Free Will
PART IX: Man: His Capabilities and Destiny
PART X: The One
PART XI: The Self
PART XII: Idols, Girdles, and Christianity
PART XIII: Thoughts
PART XIV: The Light Manifest
Epilogue