 |
| Illustration from "The Conference of the Birds" Photographer Unknown |
"Since love has spoken in your soul, reject
The Self, that whirlpool where our lives are wrecked;
As Jesus rode his donkey, ride on it;
Your stubborn Self must bear you and submit -
Then burn this Self and purify your soul;
Let Jesus' spotless spirit be your goal.
Destroy this burden, and before your eyes
The Holy Ghost in glory will arise."
~ Farīd ud-Dīn ‘Attār (Persian Muslim Poet, 1145 - 1221 CE)
I'll be quite honest. I'm usually not one to enjoy "marathon" poetry. Penned in 1170 CE, the Mantiqu 't-Tayr, or The Conference of the the Birds, is an epic Persian poem of about 4500 lines. While translations differ, I found the story extraordinarily insightful. As the best known allegory in the West next to The Thousand and One Nights of Aladdin fame, it really is worth a read.
It recounts the arduous journey of a large group of birds desiring to go and know their beloved king, Simorgh in the far off land of Simorgh. (Simorgh being a well known flying creature in Iranian mythology.) The birds are led by the passionate and enthusiastic hoopoe who answers the many objections and questions the other birds have regarding their journey. Often, the birds are identified by species and have a corresponding human type. For example, the nightingale symbolizes the lover and the finch, the coward. Many of the hoopoe's answers include several stories to illustrate the particular point being made. At first reading, these illustrations seem very obscure. This is intentional. The reader is being asked to look at some problem in an unfamiliar way.
Eventually, one by one, the birds abandon their journey. Each giving particular excuses as to why they can not go on. Ultimately, the group numbers thirty birds. In Persian, "thirty birds" is si morgh. These thirty meet the final challenges represented in the seven valleys traversed; Talab (Yearning), Eshq (Love), Marifat (Understanding), Istighnah (Independence and Detachment from Desire), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat (Bewilderment) and, finally, Fuqur and Fana (Selflessness and Oblivion in God). Ultimately, they arrive in Simorgh. They find no mythical king. They only see each other and their reflections in a vast lake... they, the si morgh or thirty birds, are the Simorgh! They now understand the true nature of God, their king.
I suppose God could have kept those birds close at hand... in the land of Simorgh but without the struggle to reach him, those birds would never have recognized him. We are all placed where we are for a reason. Particular struggles, designed to teach us exactly what it is we need to learn to reach our required level of understanding, have been provided by the Almighty.
Instead of regret for things we didn't have the foresight to change, or dissatisfaction for things we hadn't the power to make different, we need to embrace our fate and, as the fundamental Pentecostal motto goes, learn to "bloom where God planted you."
