May 28, 2014
Whenever you see any pearl,
inside that pearl, in its other face
seek another pearl.
For all the atoms are crying out,
“I have a hidden treasure inside me.”
Every pearl is telling you,
“Don’t be content with my beauty.
The light that is shining on my face
is coming from the light burning inside me.”
I will be quiet,
you don’t seem to understand the truth.
Don’t shake your head saying,
“I have a spiritual eye that sees and understands.”
Don’t fool yourself.
(adapted from Fundamentals of Rumi’s Thought: A Mevlevi Sufi Perspective
by Sefik Can, p. 89)
***
Pearls are noted for their captivating luminous beauty. And with choice pearls, within the light of the pearl there is another pearl, another manifestation of beauty. Within this visual wonder, there are metaphors that speak to deeper truths about beauty.
Among them is the Sufi call of going deeper and deeper in quest of beauty. Even for many who don’t limit beauty to skin-deep /superficial layers, there is often a pull that when we see something visually beautiful we limit our adoration there. We tend to fixate on the pleasant observables of beauty. Once enraptured with the beauty of the petals of the rose, how often do we inquire deeper of the essence of such beauty?
Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi challenges us to go deeper: Whenever you see any pearl, / inside that pearl, in its other face / seek another pearl. That other pearl is within the light of the pearl, yet light is rarely seen by humans. We see the consequences of light more easily: an object made visible because of light’s presence, an object made to shine by light reflecting upon it, but the light itself is often invisible to our eyes. Yet it is the light that speaks to a greater beauty, a greater jewel: For all the atoms are crying out, / “I have a hidden treasure inside me.”
If one may dare to say there is a purpose to beauty, one can declare among such purpose is the aim of realizing the hidden treasure inside. But this treasure very rarely reveals itself explicitly, and appears even more subtle when emanating from within one’s own mind / body. This is partly why it is easier for a person to notice the beauty of a pearl, the beauty of a friend / lover over the beauty emanating from within one’s self. The challenge of such discernment becomes even more difficult with the mental noise of preferences: perceiving what is pleasurable to the senses to be beautiful and what is unpleasant as ugly. If we can quiet the chatter of these preferences, and look to the light of beauty that illumines the pearl’s form, we too may realize what Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi declares: Every pearl is telling you, / “Don’t be content with my beauty. / The light that is shining on my face / is coming from the light burning inside me.” Literally every object beholding beauty is saying this, not with its form that we tend to adore but the burning light that shines beautifully upon forms. But this language is not of the mind, a synthesis of external and outward-oriented concepts and observations; the burning light is of the language of the heart, of sights unseen yet still “perceived” in ways that confound the mind’s logic. To the extent we become content and captivated with what the mind perceives of beauty’s expressions, we ignore the heart’s more subtle awareness of the essence of beauty. If we are to heed Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi’s counsel to go deeper, we must rest in quietude.
I will be quiet, / you don’t seem to understand the truth. Here, Jalaal ud-Diin is demonstrating the way to realize beauty’s essence. He is so devoted to this way he doesn’t even seek to explain it to those who don’t understand. Such explanation requires the noise of seeking to convey with the mind to another mind that this is something the mind cannot understand. In fact, he warns anyone who thinks: “I have a spiritual eye that sees and understands.” / Don’t fool yourself. The essence of beauty is not something to be understood just as the eye sees not light itself. Instead, it is when the mind is emptied of observations and understandings that the mind ceases to impede the more subtle yet profound language of the heart. Commitment to such quietude of mind calls for deepening humility. So many traditional Sufi practices seek this aim. And within such expanding humility the light burning inside reveals what it reveals to the open, receptive heart. Such revelation is the domain of the essence of beauty, of which all manifestations of beauty are but drops of an endless ocean. When we come to realize this, as much as we may still enjoy the lesser (outer) manifestations of beauty, we will always be drawn to the more profound and endless essence of beauty. We will also see that the beauty of the pearl is truly in everything, even if veiled by forms that turn away from that inner light thus giving the appearance of being other than beautiful.
Also know that if we come to “see” the Light, we are able to see all the objects the light illumines. Not that we need to be All-Seeing, but nothing within the Light will be beyond our ability to “see” it: nothing will prevent the Light from revealing any object (and its attributes) to us. The Light of the Beloved covers all of creation. But, perhaps more importantly, we will realize how this Light is within: the invitation to surrender everything in every single moment to be a perfect reflection of that Beautiful Light we call the Beloved. In every instance of beauty is the sacred invitation to receive the revelation of the Beauty of all beauty, the Beloved. And every pearl is suggesting in its own quiet way for us to embrace the quietude (of mind) that allows this revelation to be...
