Some Comments On A Sufi Poem
I posted this poem a couple of days ago without comment because i thought the poem perfectly expressed its meaning. But now i want to comment on one aspect of it. The poem seems to describe a series of miraculous events: a word full of strangers suddenly becomes a world full of potentiaol friends; a universe full of roseless thorns suddenly becomes a universe full of thornless roses; a life full of despair and groaning becomes a life full of joy; separateness becomes togetherness; division becomes unity; what used to matter greatly now matters not at all. Here is a fragment of that poem:
I thought that in this whole world
no beloved for me remained.
Then I left myself.
Now no stranger in the world remains.
I used to see in every object a thorn
but never a rose--
the universe became a rose garden.
Not a single thorn remains.
I don't know how it happened--.
-- from Quarrel
Poetry Chaikhana | Sacred Poetry from Around the World
You can call it a miracle if you want. I am stasrting to like that word. You can also see a simple example of cause and effect. If i change my attitude or my perspective, the whole universe changes from my point of view.
If i don't really care that much about roses and am terribly annoyed by thorns, i will pay diminished attention to roses and increassed attention to thorns. Eventually "every object" will be essentially thorny, If i learn to appreciate roses and accept thorns, i will pay increasing attention to roses and less attention to thorns, until the roses appear to be magnivicent and everywhere and the thorns becomes almost unnoticable (unless i stick myself). "The universe becomes a rose garden."
The mystic simply takes this process one step farther.
But i don't need to become a mystic right now. It is enough for me that the beauty of the world seems to outweigh its ugliness, rather than the other way around.