Notes on the Rumi's Painting
and his mysticism
"The Conversion of Self to Soul"
This is an imaginary portrait of Molana Jalaleddin Rumi which is based on his facial descriptions depicted in the writings by his contemporaries. In this painting, he is holding a "Hypercube" which is a theoretical cube in a 4-dimensional, theoretical world. This kind of cube can be imagined in our 3-dimensional world only in its opened and flattened form. In our world, if we open and flatten a carton box, its six sides, kept attached, would form a "cross" figure, a flattened hypercube would seemingly form a cross shape too, but with 3-dimensional cubes instead of flats planes.
In Rumišs poetry, there are quite a number of examples that allude to the scientific facts, yet undiscovered at his time, or scientific theories yet un-proven in our time. Such as this is the poem written on this painting and translated here:
Unbeknown to us, there are more than one right, more than one left
Unbeknown to us, there are more than one "I", more than one "us"
It is not a far-fetched interpretation to connect Rumišs ideas in this verse with our current physic theories regarding the "worlds with more dimensions than three" or the "parallel universes" with possibly more than one I and more than one us existing there. Or, is he reminding us of our defective reality scales, pointing to the limitations inherent in the quality and quantity of our senses, despite being created in a universe where an elaborate sensibility beyond our imagination is needed to get even close to its realm of "beknown"?
In this imaginary Hypercube, each cube represents a stage/sojourn in mysticism(Erfaan) as described by Persian mystic/poets:
In the first stage, the Seeker of the truth (Saalek) embarks on a journey; Walking on the Path in search of Truth and ultimate Re-Union of Soul with its Origin.
The first take for the walker on this road is attainment of self-knowledge. By looking in the mirror, always free of deception, one can gain self recognition and its liberating power for emancipation from the self-entanglements and its falsehood.
Now, the seeker, weightless, freed from the bondage of Self (Faghr) and Need (Esteghnaa), and prepared for the next stage, flies out of the SELF CAGE in order to fall willingly in the trap of "LOVE" (Eshgh) as "Self" and "Love" are being truly in-compatible.
The next attainment is vision(Ma-refat), a vision far beyond the dimensions of our earthy mental/visual fields.
Such a vision is enabling the mystic to see the black hole of SELF-INEXISTANCE, to realize the shadowiness of the VIRTUAL SELF (Khode majazee) and accept its Demise(Fanaa)
In this ultimate state, as the shadow disappears in its source, in LIGHT, soul unites with its essence; the LOVE and BELOVED. Then the TRUTH is:
"The LOVER, BELOVED AND LOVE ARE ALL THE SAME, ARE ALL ONE"
How many have reached there? May be none! How many should follow the path? This is a call for motion, may be all of us!
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