The Sufism of the Rubáiyát, or, the Secret of the Great Paradox

Part 2

Chapter 24,259 wordsPublic domain

Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Ether, the elements that compose the sum of all that under heaven blows, And if ye then should ask, how they their birth received, or whence they came, or of what consist, or where they go, and of their final destiny? THIS WILL ALL AGES ANSWER! HE ONLY KNOWS! HE ONLY KNOWS!

The Heavenly signs are but the SYMBOLS of that BOOK, whose chemistry Birth's secrets here make plain. Thus are written in characters eternal, where none can erase one word of those recorded histories of MEN, of THINGS, of WORLDS. From off its open pages bound in HEAVEN'S ETERNAL BLUE, Here then is the VEIL, the LAMP, the VOICE WITHIN; learn thou to be LORD and MASTER, PROPHET, PRIEST and KING. Thy BIRTHRIGHT here now enter, and know ye the LAW OF LAWS, the WISE MAN RULES, THE FOOL DOTH TREAD WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO GO.

Thus from the Law of Life and Death we learn, and why with hate and strife this earthly urn doth burn. Yet a Voice from out of the DEPTHS doth SPEAK "MURMUR NOT"! Make ye the best of life, Waste not thy OPPORTUNITIES! For when ye once have onward passed, to CLAY YE NEVER SHALL RETURN.!!

This is the way of Happiness and how to live free from vain regrets; Whatsoever thy mind findeth to think, think ye only on such things as ye will never have to here unthink. Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do only such things as ye will never have to here undo. That which ye give, seek never to reclaim, nor profit make of friendship, nor from the STRANGER within thy gates, excepting what the LAW prescribes as lawful and as just, This is an old but well proven Path, and KISSES FROM SUCH LIPS AS THESE DRY NEVER, NEITHER PARCH THEY THE MOUTH OF THE GIVER, OR THE GIVEN.

In passing through this Life of Clay, I came across a Barren Waste of life, and questioned of a friend its name, he answer made, INSANE! INSAN¡Ǝ! And when I asked if here the Potter's hand had not surely blundered, seeing so many monstrous shapes in clay called MAN, He but answered "Nay, the same hand made the poison, that gave the antidote." Ah, Friends and Foes, let us here unite, and make war on this all consuming vice; don't blame the Potter or his clay, we have but here OURSELVES to BLAME.

Listen a moment whilst I quote from a book that no man wrote; it is from Mother Earth, so friends give ear, attend! attend! "It is you who knead and mould, not I, I'm but the plastic side of life, and THOU THE POTTER who doth spin this wheel of life continually." Thus, Oh Brothers and Sisters learn, who will while here give birth to child, Seek ye to mould it free from fear, seek ye to mould it strong and firm, let no thought its mind pervert, mould it TRUE and FIT for BIRTH. MOULD IT FRIEND, OH MOTHER MOULD, IN THAT LIKENESS GOD OF OLD, THOUGH THY NAME ON EARTH IS MAN, YET OF THAT KINGDOM, PRINCE!. A CHILD DIVINE ART THOU.

That which we mould again returns to earth, and this is a lesson, friends, which the Bright Ones unto thee have sent! "The Beauteous Lily that neither toils nor spins will to the earth return again. Pure was its perfume and its life, pure its color, snowy white; from its seed shall others come, which will bloom, then fade and die." May we in such simple trust, hope again a lip to touch, FAIRER MOTHER, FAIRER CHILD, GOD and MAN UNITE AS ONE.

Let not this Cup of Life contain that Bitter Drug, Remorse by name, nor to Brother nor to Friend let us cause a burning tear; Since these tears again give back SALT FOR SALT AND SMART FOR SMART. Never let thy salt tears fall on this clay to bring forth more. Drink not then from this Cup of Pain, for here is the secret of the Potter and his wheel-- Life is the clay with which the Soul doth spin, the Potter is the will by which the wheel is turned. The Pot so called the Mind, which doth the thoughts contain, Experience is Life's Wheel which ACTION TURNS! Do Good, it recompenses with PEACE and BLISS, the EVILS here performed with PAIN and DEATH. Thus do we learn of the unwinding of life's entangled skeins, of FEAR, of HATE and of all THINGS UNLOVABLE.

Yet there's another WINE which fresh from Life's vintage into the CUP OF IMMORTALITY is drawn. [27]It is in color RUBY RED, resurrected from the DEAD. Drink ye! Drink ye! of this wine, the product of the VINE OF VINES. They who from this CUP do DRINK with ETERNAL BLISS do meet. Born of the perfumes of the flowers, watered by these tears of ours, nourished by the stress of life, OUR CROWN OF THORNS THE CROWN OF GLORY WINS.

[27] The grapes must pass through the press to give up the wine; so must we through our earthly experience give up the material before we can accept the spiritual.

So when Death's Angel doth us call, instead of pains its joys we know. The FEARS AND STINGS OF DEATH WERE MADE BY EARTHLY PRIESTS BUT NOT THE POTTER'S GENTLE HANDS. This dark wine quaff and the cup to earth return, for you that stream have crossed and the further shore attained. There's where thy soul its heavenly garb assumes, of which this dust of earth is too gross its frame to build.

This life is but the Pathway that unto FREEDOM LEADS, from pains and greivous sorrows, to where the soul is free. To roam to worlds and spheres sublime and gather there from off the vines those ripened grapes for wine. From limits then it's freed and towards its sun it soars, and there in BLISS SUPREME THAT SOUL IN GOD IS MERGED.

Thus the body is a tent wherein the soul a day or so must dwell, when Death again that life relieves, And that freed soul above must speed to some new realm of thought unknown to it. Would that all this simple truth did know, there would be then no fear of that after life to come.

Here then we learn that Law of Fate, as into this world we're born from different planes of life. And here we all must tarry till this Earthly Life has run, when turning down this earthen cup, The fluid of the soul is poured into a vase of finer ware. Countless thousands have come and gone through these SILENT GATES OF FATE, Which but open once for birth, then close till death, as ripples follow ripples on a wind swept lake.

Thus do we lift veil after veil before, thus do we drop veil after veil behind, Onward, ever onward, do all who are born progress, none from this wheel break free, none can this law control. Born of endless rounds, from sphere to sphere we climb, through countless suns of systems, through countless terms of years. Systems of worlds we leave, whilst approaching unknown suns, with colors of nameless hues, for which no tongue a name hath found. ON THOSE HEAVENS THE SUNSETS REST, AND THE TINTS OF THE MORNING SKIES.

Ah, questioning Friend, what is it you would know, from whence Existence came, and how Existence stays? This is the Cross you'll carry, as long as you will cast the RUBY of the PRESENT in the DUST HEAP OF THE PAST. It was not BORN, nor does it ever DIE; it from no place came, nor of anything was it; UNBORN, ETERNAL, EVERLASTING, DEATHLESS, IT WILL REMAIN, though all should PASS AWAY. This is the Secret that the Wise alone can solve, how EXISTENCE the thread doth cut, which perchance divides those FOUR. THE FINITE FROM THE INFINITE, AND THE FALSE FROM EVERY TRUE.

Could you right here this problem solve of what is false and true, no more would heaven yonder be, no more would erring thought heaven's truths obscure, For at last the false is here out grown, and the Finite Mind ceases to reflect the evils of the past, which are forever lost in forgetfulness; And only the Infinite Thoughts (which are life's pearls) are then reflected in that Mind Supreme. So whilst in this home of clay we live, could we for a moment grasp this CAUSE SUPREME in its entirety, which moveth all, that life doth know, to GOOD, TO BETTER, THEN TO BEST; God will here and there alike be known, and of that SUPREME PEACE we will stand on earth possessed. So seek within this TREASURE HOUSE, for the KEY you'll surely find, which will unlock the Palace Gates and all mysteries there contained. And seated there, all pure and white, that KING OF KINGS who reigns supreme is known of all celestial hosts, as THOU, OH SOUL, DIVINE.

A secret here I have to tell which I'll write between these lines, how one may find [28]the SERPENT COILED within the HUMAN SPINE. Deep in the Breath of the Senses its secret presence you will find, running divided, yet united, it is the BREATH OF LIFE DIVINE. It brings to name and form all thought, and though these change and pass from sight, it ever here remains to bring that WISDOM OF THE GODS TO MEN.

[28] This means the seat of all functional activity.

Look to thy body there to find the Mystic Numbers it contains, the Coccyx Four on which the Sacrum Five do rest, where spirit matter joins, and the TREE OF LIFE AGAIN PUTS FORTH. Upon this NINE, though to FIVE this NINE returns, rest the DORSAL TWELVE, the Sacred Temples of those Mysteries from which the tribes of IS and RA were named, In the Cervical Seven dwell supreme THOSE POWERS OF GOD ENTHRONED IN MAN; these do contain the THREE IN ONE of which the ages have all sung, about that TRINITY SUBLIME which moves the worlds to GOOD. Now THREE in ONE, and FOUR PLUS FIVE, and TWELVE plus SEVEN, and you have found those MARKS THIRTY AND TWO OF PERFECT BIRTH.

There is a LINE that all may find, stretched from the utmost heavens (or maybe far beyond) which towards the earth comes unerringly, Which has by all Sages here been called "THE PLUMB LINE OF THE UNIVERSE," adored and reverenced by all the Wise. And where this Line the Earth doth GREET the LEVEL FORMS on which all MEET, There the SETTING SUN YOU WILL THEN FACE, AND LIFE'S FATAL SQUARE will upon THEE FALL NO MORE. Being thus FREE and ACCEPTED of the GODS, RAISED by the MASTER'S HANDS, EXALTED from the DEAD, to GREET again, and yet again, THY BRETHREN. Brothers, tell them who have the rule forgot, how time is measured dot by dot; how the MASTER from the EAST must RISE and in splendor sit upon the noonday skies. How at HIGH TWELVE upon that ARCH DIVINE HE SITS, and the QUARTERS of the world doth there survey each noon. And upon that [29]TRESTLE-BOARD, which is watched and guarded by the FOUR REGENTS, HE the orders writes, for the MASTERS to transcribe. Then that MYSTIC LINE HE crosses and hastens to HIS FALL, and thus are the days all reached, in which HE and all HIS FELLOW-CRAFT REPOSE MUST SEEK. None can here deny that this forms not a perfect day, for it has been TRIED and PROVED by that UNERRING LINE. NO YESTERDAY, NO TOMORROW, ALL IS ENDLESS DAY ENWRAPPED IN ENDLESS NIGHT, IN WHICH ALL SLEEP, IN WHICH ALL WAKE, BOTH HERE AND THERE.

[29] These Jewels of Masonic Lore must appeal to all true readers of the TRESTLE-BOARD. May they hear the fraternal voice of the past, which is now speaking through the lips of the present, and seek that reward which alone can come when the earthly lodge is closed and the heavenly is declared open for the work to all who have been found worthy and qualified.

Thus in the hands of mortals are placed the BUILDER'S TOOLS, the PLUMB, the GUIDING LINE 'twixt HEAVEN and the TOMB. The SQUARE most blessed of all KNOWN TOOLS for it reveals THAT GLORIOUS CROSS from which the WISE their LORE OF LIFE HAVE GAINED. And though it's hidden FOURFOLD DEEP its ROOT can be obtained, which will the CUBE-STONE form again, OH, MYSTERY SUBLIME. Born thus of Earth, by Air, by Fire and Water Tried, NAILED to the CROSS the PROOF OF LIFE TO FIND. Ushered in the EAST the way of birth for all, in the SOUTH is MANHOOD reached, in the WEST where all must FALL, it is the PLACE OF PEACE which all must haste to reach; It is there that you MARK WELL and the FATAL SQUARE REVERSE, the NORTH of DEATH doth know from whence ye have come forth, To take within thy hand THE BUILDER'S MYSTIC TROWEL.

And having built my EARTHLY HOME, one day in its porch I sat, and coming through its shades and glooms was a FACE THAT FIXED ITSELF upon my memory. It was my SOUL INVISIBLE that brought a MESSAGE DIVINE, which from EARTHLY FETTERS SAVED ME and in FREEDOM bade me RISE; To those EFFULGENT SKIES OF SKIES, the FOUNTAIN HEADS FROM WHENCE DO FLOW THE WATERS OF ETERNITY. And from a CHALICE wrought of GOLD the WINE of IMMORTALITY WAS POURED and having drunk that Wine of Wines, I returned the [30]Cup which from Gold was made.

[30] The Cup wrought out of gold here refers to our collective experiences.

Thus having quenched my thirst of years wherefore I asked of Him, are there so many here, who spend their lives in tears, And waste their days in arguments over what is RIGHT or WRONG? He in these powerful words His answer gave! "ALL MEN AND WOMEN WERE EQUAL MADE! AND OF TEARS AND SORROWS GAVE HE NONE TO MAN; NONE CAN SUFFER EXCEPT THOSE WHO SUFFERING CHOOSE." Which sufferings being but DELIVERANT PAINS OF BIRTH, GIVE TO THE SOUL ITS FREEDOM. To my second question He answered thus! WHO DARES OF RIGHT OR WRONG TO JUDGE, since the motive of a crime in ages past has disappeared, and crimes that were unknown to them are living here with you? But to those who seek TRUE JUDGMENT this is the way it's found! There is a Judge who never errs who sits in the human heart, whose judgments are not heard without, but in life's deeds are PROVEN. No human tongue can yet define, nor will it here be given, that power on earth to understand the INFINITE LAW OF HEAVEN.

To meet my needs through life he gave these beauteous words of praise! THOU MIGHTY PEACE, TRUTH BREATHING LORD, OF ALL THE HORDES OF DARKNESS AND OF LIGHT ADORED. THOU subduer of fears and sorrows which this earthly life infest, and LEADER FORTH TO THAT FUTURE REST BEYOND THE GRAVE, WHERE DWELL THE SAGES OF ALL THE PAST. In that NAME thy refuge seek, take thou thy refuge in its LAW OF PEACE, take thou its hand of FUTURE HOPE, and rest thou in its LAW which worketh unto GOOD, to BETTER and to BEST. Thus was I taught of the LOVE DIVINE.

[31]This life is the vine on which the grape doth grow, and fresh from its PRESS THE WINE OF LIFE DOTH FLOW. And there on the WASTE HEAP of sorrow lies the PULP OF WANTONNESS, from which the fool a strong and hurtful beverage brews, that works DESTRUCTION UNTO ALL WHO OF IT DRINK! THEY WHO ARE CLEAN NEED NO STIMULANTS, EXCEPT THAT ONE CONTAINED WITHIN THE VINTAGE OF LIFE'S EXPERIENCE. All other wines are rods of pain in which REMORSE IS FOUND in many garments dressed. BEWARE! BEWARE!! Many men do question thus, Why was it put here if a curse? The swine the question here might put, Why must he eat what's on him thrust? Present no more such reasoning pray for the answer is here given. NONE BUT THE FOOL THE WINE OF EARTH DOTH QUAFF, NONE BUT THE WISE THE WINE OF LIFE DO DRAW.

[31] All that this life is, is the sum total of what the preceding one was.

Here I am compelled to write about another form of vice; some endure it in its LEGAL FORM whilst others are slaves to a NAMELESS FORM; Never Brother, never Friend, wreck thy life on the shoals of shame, nor cast thy virtue in the dust. NO TWO WRONGS WILL ONE RIGHT MAKE, NO HANDS IN PRAYER CAN A FOUL DEED CHANGE, OR A VIRTUE MAKE! Ah, this is the BITTER CUP OF LIFE and whosoever from it drinks, into the dust descends. BEWARE! BEWARE!!

The means that do the ends of life defeat, are: DRINK! FORNICATION and other UNLAWFUL ACTS committed by the FLESH, GAMBLING and UNTRUTH. No threats of HELL, no hope of HEAVEN, can lift the cloud that doth enshroud a DEFILED EARTHLY TEMPLE. SUCH FLOWERS AS THESE FOREVER DIE, USELESSNESS HAS NO PLACE IN CREATION'S FERTILE FIELDS.

Oft has the WAY on earth been blazed, that all the PATH might see and rightly follow. Sages the [32]PATERAN have placed at every crossroad. And though so many have pushed those DARKENED DOORS aside, NONE HAVE RETURNED OF THAT WAY HERE TO TELL! WHICH TO DISCOVER, ALL FOR THEMSELVES MUST TREAD.

[32] Pateran means a leaf which travelers used to place at the cross roads to show the way to their followers.

Yet some may question the Wisdom of the Law, that FREE SALVATION grants to ALL ON EARTH WHO FALL. Yet falling they must rise again, OH SLAYER OF OUR FOES, RENUNCIATION IS THY NAME! With THEE we fight the hordes of PAIN, and PASSION SLAY, and thus destroy the CAUSE OF ALL OUR ILLS. EACH HIS OWN SALVATION WINS! EACH ALL EARTHLY SIN MUST HERE RENOUNCE! THUS HAVE THE WISE ALL TAUGHT.

Let us call HIM THE ALL MERCIFUL for HE the PATH doth LIGHT, so man from MORTAL DARKNESS may be led into the LIGHT. Hear ye then this simple, yet most ancient of the truths, how man can gain the knowledge of life beyond the tomb. "CONTROL THYSELF, and with thy senses send thy soul unto its elements, there to wring out the SECRET of its BIRTH and END." And the gentle voice of the SILENCE whispers soft and low, and bids me reader, write you the answer here below! I MYSELF AM HEAVEN, I MYSELF AM HELL, I AM THE CAUSE CREATIVE, I AM THE WAY, THE END.

This then is a vision of heaven that FULFILLER OF ALL DESIRES, and this is the shade of GEHENNA the sorrows that life acquires. Cast thyself boldly on this ocean, FEAR NOT THOUGH THE CURRENT IS STRONG, thy body's the BOAT, thy WILL the HELM, thy LIFE the SAILS doth fill. And serenely sitting, all composed, thy Soul doth grasp the helm and steers thy Barque through storms and stress, in safety past the SHOALS of DEATH. With its cargo that's consigned to HIM WHO RULES THE WINDS, THE TIDES, OH MASTER PILOT, HAIL TO THEE! THOU GIVER OF ETERNITY.

Coming events their shadows cast, on this all have agreed; In an endless procession that Mirror reflects the acts, the thoughts, the deeds, Oh, happy the man who has led a good life, who fears not in that Mirror to gaze, For he sees that VIRTUE REWARD HATH WON, AND THAT THE WAGE OF SIN IS DEATH.

Some in this life would have you believe that this FATE you cannot evade, for all EMBODY here again, and thus by the LAW OF BIRTH outrun the ACTIONS of PAST LIVES? Friends, you're reasoning in quicksands which in the end engulf; last night no more returns to earth though followed by countless suns; Neither the soul once freed from clay to a body of clay returns, nor doth the Spirit inhabit again this cast off garment of earth. THIS IS THE LAW; OH MORTALS LEARN, ALL YE WHO LOVE THE TRUE.

This is the LAW of LIFE written bold that all may read aright and learn THE WAY OF MASTERSHIP! THOUGHTS ARE THE SHUTTLE OF LIFE'S WORKS, EXPERIENCE THE WARP, AND LIFE THE WOOF, THE CLOTH THE DEEDS WHEN SPUN, which cut according to RIGHT MEASUREMENT fit well, and the garment of every soul becomes. REASON MEASURES ALL! AND WISDOM GUIDES, and thus are the garments of life both small and great by a strict measurement made, wherein the law declares. THOU THYSELF THE LAW OF LIFE DOTH RULE; LIFE! THOU ART RULED BY ALL THE WISE; HE WHO THUS DOTH KNOW, KNOWS ALL IN LIFE TO BE, AS THE FUTURE LIFE'S DETERMINED BY THE PRESENT ONE WE LEAD.

[33]There is a GARDEN of which the Wise have told, with a RIVER that flows throughout, which when divided has FOUR HEADS, Oh, Students find this out. There is a "WORD" the Wise declare though "LOST" it's yours to find, that would unite these FOUR again; of this there is no doubt. It is FOUR-FOLD when opened out and the CROSS it brings to view; your life's engraved upon its "SQUARE" of which no erasion can be made nor "THY MARK" carved there be effaced.

[33] This paragraph refers to the center of creative energy or the Garden of Iram. The Four Rivers symbolize the seasons, body, mind, soul, spirit, earth, fire, air, water, in their process of ivolution and evolution and its symbolic character is the Swastika Cross.

This inverted bowl we call the sky, is that Garden we've been told; the FOUR HEADS there have thus been named the LION, the MAN, the BULL, the BIRD. [34]Within these names four more are found; SPIRIT, SOUL, MIND, and BODY and yet again four more you have BIRTH, YOUTH, MANHOOD and AGE. When added TWELVE all told they make, and the names of the TRIBES reveal, from which all things their being take, and yet there are four to spare; REPTILES, BEASTS and BIRDS of song, with FISH of various kinds, when added go to make the MAN, OF SIXTEEN PARTS ALL TOLD.

[34] This paragraph gives the symbolic names of the divine qualities that are found in man.

Who then doth hold this SECRET of the WAY, which from this CARNAL HOUSE of clay to FREEDOM makes? Or are we like the ever changing sea, IMPOTENT to change its currents or the wind? It is only a sluggard who doth question the reason of his birth; the Brave like soaring eagles rise high above the earth, They but know the PATH of DUTY, its GOLDEN WAY they tread, where trod the ANCIENT FATHERS who dissolved this life of earth. Thus look not on HIGH the GOOD TO FIND, nor search for it BELOW; GOOD IS THE WHOLE, AND DEATH BUT LIFTS THE SCENES AS THEY UNFOLD.

This world no more endures than THOU or I, only the MAKER for 'twas HE who loosed its soul and thine to learn, From whence came all, to where all go, the destiny, the end. And should'st thou not learn from whence all pain doth spring, as ripple follow ripple so doth pain forever follow pain. Till FREED FROM SENSUOUS YEARNINGS, THY HEART TO GOD RETURNS, THIS IS THE FINAL CONQUEST, THIS IS THE FINAL END.

And thus was man made and placed in this GARDEN OF IRAM fair, with his soul to comfort and give cheer, till DEATH makes free again. He in this INVERTED BOWL is poured, and there must remain 'tis said, till dust to dust returns again and that FREED SOUL has winged its way to where the DEATHLESS DWELL.

He out of his earthly origin wrought his desire for upward striving, for the Wise the RIGHT do prefer to the SWEET, Whilst the Foolish the SWEET do prefer to the RIGHT and thus they're bound on this WHEEL of PAIN till they the KNOT untie again, Which is the END AND THE BEGINNING OF THINGS.

Now in this GARDEN a SERPENT was placed and a man from the hand of a woman did taste, Not the WOMAN of this CLAY nor any FRUIT of earthly NAME, but EXPERIENCE wrung from life and handed down from birth to birth. GOD HAS JOINED THESE TWO IN ONE, WEDDED HERE FOR LIFE TO COME, EVER FAITHFUL! EVER GOOD! THEY MAY HERE BE UNDERSTOOD.

[35]He ate of the GOOD and the EVIL OF FRUITS from the hand of the woman who dwelt by his side, And after he'd tasted he stood face to face with the laws he had taken in vain. The bitter thus changed the sweet did become, hate changed to love and sorrow to joy, strife had ceased and peace had come. When he had thus conquered lust, he had also conquered thirst; that man from pain doth free become, WHO THE BATTLE WINS, THAT CONQUERS SELF.