The Unity of Being: Ibn’Arabi
The Unity of Being
Ibn’Arabi and his followers/poets
Selected Poems
Translation and Introduction: Paul Smith
New Humanity Books
Book Heaven
Victoria, Australia 2008, 2012, 2017, 2020
The poetic form called “Qit’a”, began with Arabic poetry, and which means “fragment” or perhaps “prelude” in western music terms. This first section of the book has forty-two (42) of these Qit’a. My selections for this discussion follows:
(1)
“If you should see what I am seeing
You would never say ‘I’ or ‘he’ or ‘we’
Know that when you were created
By the One’s command of ‘Be!’”
Commentary: [This “I, he, we“, just like “I, me, mine”, or the perception of Other and Self, is what most who are reading this may call the ego. What in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Shiva calls the “ahamkara”. A state of being, or a consciousness of separation. What in the Dao De Jing, Laozi calls “You” (有). which literally means “to have”. To have existence within form. To have all of the borders and boundaries of a separated and fractured perception of reality.
In the initial section, Laozi states that when seen through the eyes of “You”, one can see this “Jiao” 徼. And then on the other hand, when the world is seen through the eyes of “Wu”, existence without form, one can see and experience the “Miao” 妙. Translated as the bright, brilliant, and wondrous mystery.]
(2)
“Only the Almighty is manifested in each opposite and each similar
In every race and every kind too…
In all things separated or together
In all thoughts, feelings and minds
In all bodies and forms, all that are!”
(4)
“Existence is only imagined
But…in actually, it is God
Any one knowing this truth
Walks the secret way to God.”
(6)
“Everything depends on another, nothing is independent:
This is the truth as plain as it gets
Everything is related to everything, no escape from this relationship…
So what I am saying take in carefully too.
[This is a very good description and definition of the Buddhist- Sanskrit term “Sunyata”. Also known in English as “Empty”, or “Emptiness”.
To me this is just another way of expressing Buddhism’s concept of Dependent Origination. Here, nothing has a self-independent creation or existence. This consciousness and dharma of everything, everyone and all events being interrelated and dependent upon each other is what the Buddha realized during his awakening under the Boddhi tree. This Doctrine of Emptiness is foundational, and can be known with or without the Heart Sutra, which discusses it in full. Here all things and events are empty, that is they are without an independent, or separate, existence.]
(7)
“He is praising me, and I am praising Him;
He worships me, and Him I am worshiping.
I corroborate Him in my state of existence:
As unmanifest essence, Him…”
[This issue of things manifest and unmanifested is repeated in modern day quantum physics and in the Dao De Jing of Laozi and Daoism. In the book “The Holographic Paradigm“, the terms used are “enfolded” or “folded”.
(9)
“Whether you point out unity or diversity, Self is One:
As with the multitude that exists, or are not yet in this.”
(10)
“In every place of being, that One Who is unique
Merciful has forms…whether hidden or manifested.
If this is said, ‘This is Reality’, truth one has said:
If “Other, than Reality’, it is only interpreted.
Manifestation of the One, is equally in all beings:
His Reality, is always to creation being displayed.
He reveals Self to sight, reason tries to disprove it.
Him manifest is a true vision, in mind it is accepted.”
(11)
“That is the situation if you truly know it.
If you are in that One, the you are You!
You are the bridal chamber, where Truth
Is revealed…when you are You, not you!”
[“Do you not believe that I am in the Father
and the Father in me? The words that I say to you
I do not speak on my own authority; but the
Father who dwells in me does his works.”
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father,
And you in me, and I in you.”]
John 14:10 and 20
(12)
Not one being, nothing but the Reality stays:
There is no ‘getting there’ or no ‘way off’ being.
This is proven by Spiritual Vision…because I
Have not seen anything but Him when looking.”
(13)
“One cannot go further than God, the ultimate Beloved:
Go is the Master and the Master to depend on only.
When the rays of the sun reach us we are knowing it
For between us and it there is a…beneficial sympathy.
When it shows itself, it is like a revelation of our Self
And not anyone or thing in creation any higher can be.
We cannot know that light because it is too powerful…
Even more when it is about the One, essence of Unity
When one speaks of forms one says how big or small
When it is about the One definition is an impossibility!”
(14)
“You…creating things in Yourself, all You create You are.
Though you are creating beings in Yourself without limit
You are One Who is restricted and the Unrestricted One.
If all God’s creation is in my heart, its Light would not fit.
Any who embrace the Reality all creatures can contain…
So, what is the true situation, O You hearing all, all of it?”
[“In the eyes of the flower
The world appears as a flower.
In the eyes of a thorn
The world appears as a thorn.”
Book title, and then song lyrics from “Phoolko Aakhama” by Ani Choying Drolma in her native language of Nepali.]
(15)
“The servant you are and you are the Lord too
For He Whom and in Whom you are serving:
The Lord you are and you are the servant also
For He Who you of the covenant is reminding.
Every single Lord and servant relationship, is
By every other same relationship…dissolving.”
Sources:
“The Unity of Being” Translated by Paul Smith
Bhagavad Gita: Translated by Eknath Easwaran
Dao De Jing: Translated Wang Keping
Heart Sutra: Translated by Red Pine
Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Edited By Ken Wilbur
Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version