(Through the Fire Eye by MattTheSamurai)
Not only do beings and things have spirits that in turn take the forms of beings and things, but deeds, words, thoughts, and feelings also have spirits of their own. Thus it may happen that the soul of a beautiful deed may assume the form of an angel. – Sheikh Badruddin
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We have been very busy; with clients and with the rushing of the world towards the Solstice, and just previous to that, Rowan, our son’s graduating from The Art Institute Of Portland.
I am very pleased for him, he has worked long and hard (and is still toiling away at this moment) on his thesis film (see below). Generally I would of seen a version of it by now, but it seems he is keeping it all under wraps until this Thursday when he premiers it with his fellow seniors films at The Hollywood Theater on 4122 N.E.Sandy Blvd in Portland at 7:00. Please come! It should be a fun evening, and it is free!
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This Edition: I want to thank James Fadiman & Robert Frager for their Essential Sufism book. I especially want to thank James for his talks with me on Sufism when he visited us in Portland, and since. As I have studied Sufism over the years, I find that the poetry is perhaps the most vital part for me.
I have put in a couple of videos as well with Harold Budd along with John Foxx, and another with the wonderful Hector Zazou, now sadly past away.
The moving gif illustrations are by a young man, MattTheSamurai who seems to be a master in his own digital way. Other art is classic illustrations from Persia.
I hope you enjoy this edition as much as I had putting it together.
Life is hectic, but full of beauty. Here we are, ramping up to the Solstice, and about to start rocketing down slope. It happens so quickly.
Bright Blessings,
Gwyllm
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On The Menu:
Rowan’s Film Poster and Video Teaser
John Foxx & Harold Budd – You Again
Bayazid Bastami Quotes
Ahmad Jami’s Poetry
The Secret Rose Garden: Mahmud al Shabistari
Harold Budd & Hector Zazou – And Then She Stepped Aside
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Rowan’s Film Poster and Video Teaser
Pelt
Pelt – Teaser
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John Foxx & Harold Budd – You Again
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Bayazid Bastami Quotes:
“I never saw any lamp shining more brilliantly than the lamp of silence.”
Twelve years I have been smith of myself, until I have made of myself a clear mirror.
“I stood with the pious and I didn’t find any progress with them. I stood with the warriors in the cause and I didn’t find a single step of progress with them. Then I said, ‘O Allah, what is the way to You?’ and Allah said, ‘Leave yourself and come.”
“I went to a wilderness, love had rained and had covered earth, as feet penetrate snow, I found my feet covered with love.”
“The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.”
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Ahmad Jami’s Poetry:
Who is man?
The reflection of the Eternal Light.
What is the world?
A wave on the Everlasting Sea.
How could the reflection be cut off from the Light?
How could the wave be separate from the Sea?
Know that this reflection and this wave are that very Light and Sea.
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Your Beauty
Each who has seen Your beauty fine
Utters honestly, ‘I have seen the Divine.’
Everywhere Your lovers wait for grace,
Remove Your veil, reveal Your face!
I am in the ocean and an ocean is in me;
This is the experience of one who can see.
He that leaps into the river of Unity,
He speaks of union with his Beloved’s beauty.
~~
Even from earthly love thy face avert not
Even from earthly love thy face avert not,
Since to the Real it may serve to raise thee.
Ere A, B, C are rightly apprehended,
How canst thou con the pages of thy Koran?
A sage (so heard I), unto whom a student
Came craving counsel on the course before him,
Said, “If thy steps be strangers to love’s pathways,
Depart, learn love, and then return before me!
For, shouldst thou fear to drink wine from Form’s flagon,
Thou canst not drain the draught of the Ideal.
But yet beware! Be not by Form belated:
Strive rather with all speed the bridge to traverse.
If to the bourne thou fain wouldst bear thy baggage,
Upon the bridge let not thy footsteps linger.”
~~
The Idol
As long as one tress-lip
of the hair of your existence
still remains
I fear the Sect
of Self-worship
will survive.
You claim “I broke
the Idol of Illusion –
I’m liberated!”
but I fear
your Manifesto is itself
an idol.
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“Hidden behind the veil of mystery, Beauty is eternally free from the slightest stain of imperfection. From the atoms of the world, He created a multitude of mirrors; into each one of them He cast the image of His Face; to the awakened eye, anything that appears beautiful is only a reflection of that Face.
Now that you have seen the reflection, hurry to its Source; in that primordial Light the reflection vanishes completely. Do not linger far from that primal Source; when the reflection fades, you will be lost in darkness. The reflection is as transient as the smile of a rose; if you want permanence, turn towards the Source; if you want fidelity, look to the Mine of faithfulness. Why tear your soul apart over something here one moment and gone the next? “
translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut – ‘Perfume of the Desert’
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The Secret Rose Garden: Mahmud al Shabistari
(Muhammad Zaman al-Tabrizi – A Landscape Scene with a Young Man and an Old Man)
“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?
~~
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 chamber of your heart
Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.
The tavern-haunter wanders alone in a desolate place,
seeing the whole world as a mirage.
The tavern-haunter is a seeker of Unity,
a soul freed from the shackles of himself.
Through the chamber of the heart is small,
it’s large enough for the Lord of both worlds
to gladly make His home there.
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Harold Budd & Hector Zazou – And Then She Stepped Aside
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O seeker, know that the path to Truth is within you. You are the traveler. Going happens by itself, Coming happens to you, without you. There is no arriving or leaving; nor is there any place; nor is there a contained within a container. Who is there to be with God? What is there other than God? Who seeks and finds when there is none but God? – Sheikh Badruddin
(Moving Stars – MattTheSamurai)
