As I mentioned before, I won’t be translating all the poems, this book consists of about 1000 lines of poems, I will just take the message of each section and explain it in the contemporary language and relate it to the same meaning in different spiritual traditions.
I will translate these poems myself, because I found many of the existing English translations are difficult to understand, especially for people who don’t have a good background in Sufism and Persian literature.
Shabestari starts the section by explaining why this book was written:
In the year 1317 AD, Shabestari was in a gathering of Sufis, and a messenger arrives from another city, a very nice guy he says.
He brings a letter, a series of spiritual questions sent by a popular person in that city, he is looking to demystify multiple teacings that he needs to understand.
The messenger then reads an extensive list of questions and by the time he finishes, more people came to see what’s going on there.
One of the old disciples in the gathering who has heard the Master explain these teachings many times, asks Shabestari to explain the answers so everyone in the world will be benefited from this.
Shabestari says, although I have explained and written these in many letters, I will do this as per your request. He starts answering the questions in the form of poetry, saying all these came to me as an intuitive massage. And that everyone knows that I am not a poet, and although I can do poetry, I barely said any. Because meaning can’t be contained in the words, theory cannot explain the mysteries.
He even goes on to say I’m really ashamed of calling myself a poet, and in hundreds of eons, there won’t be a great poet like Attar (a well-known Persian mystic who wrote many great books).
He ends by saying that although I don’t have any intention (coming from my ego) to say these, this will be explained, as this is meant to happen.
When he asks the divine in his heart “What should I name this book?” He receives the name “Garden of the Secret” (or Flower Garden of Mystery).
As I asked the Lord a name for this letter
The answer was “This is our Flower Garden”
Lord declared a name for the letter
So all hearts become illuminated by that
In future writings, I will write one of the questions each time and explain Shabestari’s answer along with my interpretation in a more contemporary language.
Question 1:
Firstly, I wonder what “Thought” is
What is the nature of “Thinking”
Where does Thinking start
And where does Thinking end
Answer 1:
Thinking is transcendence from illusion to Truth * To see the Absolute Whole in the partial
Here Shabestari doesn’t try to explain the process of thinking from a psychological perspective, but he wants to say that the reason man is given the power of thinking is to enquire about his true origin and nature and travel from being a small/limited person to the absolute whole.
The ultimate truth of the universe, Consciousness, or Divine nature which Buddhists call “Buddha nature”, is present in all particles of this universe. Even modern science has found that every particle contains the whole universe in some way. When someone is awakened, and his/her eyes are opened to the ultimate Truth, he sees this divine nature in everything.
If thinking is not synced with the heart’s intuition, one can be a mere theoretical philosopher that doesn’t get anywhere. Logical thinking is understanding things in fractions, and you come to a certain understanding by adding one thought after another. Once you enter the inner kingdom of God, like Jesus said, the spiritual realm, you’ll know things in a very different way, you won’t be able to understand those things by thinking logically and going from point A to point B.
The fundamental nature of your intellect is, it is divisive. It is a knife-like instrument. The way for the intellect to analyze and know anything is to dissect, to cut up everything and look at it. If you keep dissecting everything, you will know one aspect of life, but you will not know the nature of life. ~Sadhguru
Thinking is a part of the whole, a part cannot comprehend the whole. By merely logical thinking, you can think for millions of years, and you just go from one point to another, but you can never see the ultimate truth unless your mind is guided by the divine in the form of the heart’s intuition, which comes through when one is devoted to the spiritual path fully.
Omar Khayam the famous poet and mystic say:
Never was deprived my heart, of science * Few secrets remained unrevealed to me
Seventy-Two Years, I thought, for Day and Night * Till I figured nothing was really figured out!
This was my limited translation, but if are interested to read one of the best translations of Persian poetry into English, I highly recommend reading the English translation of “Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám” By Edward FitzGerald
This is such a magnificent work that even the great Yogi, Paramahamsa Yogananda who created a spiritual revolution in the west, has written a commentary on it.
The Philosopher only sees the surface of things, so he always keeps wandering from one point to another, trying to explain things, coming to conclusions, then changing his conclusions and keeps going in circles.
The nature of superficial creation exists because of the opposites and duality, logic works by comparing things, like good and bad, right and wrong, light and darkness, hot and cold, and so on. But since there’s nothing in creation that you can compare with the divine/God, nor any opposite that you can define it by, how can you know him by thinking?
He ends this answer by saying
The limited cannot comprehend the absolute
How can you know it then?
Alas that the ignorant man in the desert
Seeks the sun with the candle’s light
The conclusion of this section is that the absolute truth of the universe, which is man’s real nature, cannot be known by the limited process of thinking, but once you progress on the spiritual path, your logic can be refined by integration with intuition, and through that, you can realize things that can’t be realized by the normal process of thinking.
Let’s take a few more related facts to this subject
Unless one is ready, no amount of reading and acquiring knowledge can make one realize the truth. In order for someone to become qualified for seeing the ultimate truth, one has to go through deep transformation and purification. One must free his mind from conditioning and limitations, to question everything, even his own existence.
For one to experience higher realms of consciousness, even from the physiological perspective, one’s brain and nervous system must be strengthened through spiritual practices and meditation, forcing oneself to higher levels of progress when one is not ready is dangerous.
This has been explained repeatedly in Sufism, Yoga, and many spiritual traditions. Have you heard about some philosophers who lost their minds and went crazy? experience of some crazy people and some spiritually awakened people sometimes is very similar, but the spiritual person has achieved this experience consciously and by a lot of preparation, otherwise he could go crazy also,
There have been many people who tried to force themselves into higher states of consciousness by doing powerful practices like Kundalini Yoga, without proper guidance or using drugs and they have lost their mental balance.
In Sufism and Yoga, a Spiritual Master has a very special and non-replaceable place. Hafiz says:
Don’t go in the ruins without a Master
Even if you are the Alexander of your time (referring to Alexander the great)
One must be ready before he can enter the realm of higher consciousness, and achieve a certain level of mastery and balance before he can speed up into the inner journey.
Without balance, increasing the speed is dangerous. If you are not ready, you won’t be able to grasp the truth, even if Shabestari, Jesus, and Buddha tell you the truth in person!
That reminds me of a beautiful story…
A spiritual seeker went to a spiritual Master, asking him for spiritual guidance to find the truth:
“Master, please teach me, I want to realize the truth”
Master said: I have only one teaching for you: everything in the universe is a manifestation of the supreme spirit, me, you, and everyone and everything else are only a manifestation of the supreme spirit, that is my teaching.
“What?! But I could read this in the scriptures myself, I thought you’re going to tell some secret teaching” Said the seeker.
“That’s all I have to teach you!” Said the Master.
Very disappointed, the seeker left the Guru. After a while, he went to another Guru and asked him to teach him.
The Guru said: You need to serve and work here, for 12 years, then I will teach you! He accepted the apprenticeship. The teacher asked one of his disciples “what work do we have for this person?” the students said: cleaning the cow dungs.
The seeker went on working and serving in that spiritual center for 12 years, very involved in the process that he almost forgot how many years been passed.
After 12 years the teacher called him and said “Today I will give you my secret teaching! You have worked and served selflessly here for years and you’re now ready!”
Then he took him to the mountains, somewhere beautiful by a waterfall, they both sat down and then the teacher told him “Listen… everything in the universe is a manifestation of the supreme spirit, me, you, and everyone and everything else are only a manifestation of that supreme consciousness”
Upon hearing this, the seeker entered a high state of consciousness and experienced the ultimate truth. After some time, he came out of his meditative state and bowed down to the Master with gratitude.
Then he said: “There is one thing that I don’t understand here! 12 years ago, another teacher told me the same thing that you told me today, but why couldn’t I realize the truth, when I heard it at that time?
“The teacher said at that time you were not ready for the truth, but by working, serving, and doing practices, by reducing your ego in the last 12 years, you became capable of realizing the truth!”
Becoming small and losing one’s egoistic desires is a necessary and difficult step in spiritual progress.
Just like Jesus said “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This is why Spiritual progress to high levels, is very difficult, and very few people make it, everybody wants to become big, become someone, and nobody wants to become small! While it is by forgetting your current limited self, and becoming selfless that you can find your true self.
As long as one sticks to his small self, the ego, the limited personality, one can’t find his/her true self.