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archetypes —
metaphysical realities and energies beyond human comprehension.
Love, for example, describes a metaphorical condition or state that
exists both inside and outside of space and time, immanent and transcendent.
Ultimately, metaphors point to Wholeness and Unity, to the majesty
and beauty, to Jalaal and Jamaal of Allah.
The
Hubble Space telescope represents a gnostic metaphor for a view
of the Universe that shatters the Newtonian-Cartesian preconceptions
of classical physics. At this instant, it relays pictures about
the macrocosmos that are grander, more beautiful and astonsihing
than Galileo with the telescope ever could image.
Modern astrophysicists have calculated that since the movement of
creation — the Big Bang — there are at least 15 billion
galaxies and that the galaxies in the cosmos follow the same life
cycle described by Sufis of birth, groowth, death and rebirth. Stars,
like human beings, never actually die, rather their raw materials
of iron, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen are continuously being recycled
into space as cosmic dust, new stars, plants and life. Everything
in the expanding universe consists of energy, and energy simply
changes from one state to another in its cosmic ascent to Allah.
The Hubble captures the beautiful intentionality of Creation expressed
in the Hadith: "I was a hidden treasure desiring to be known,
and I created the universe so that I might be known."
Man being an integral part of the cosmic story as the steward of
the universe carries the beauty of the entire universe within. We
are a microcosmos of the greater macrocosmos, we are all connected
together into a simple, holographic world in which there is no beginning
or end, no time or space. We are, as Rumi described it, "windows
to other universe." In short, you and I, the complete ONE,
are eternal, timeless and boundless. There is no center out there
for wherever we are, that is the center, the still point of the
cosmos. Amir-Al-Momenin Ali understood implicityly the holiness/wholeness
of each person in the web of life when he declared:
"You
though yourself a part, small;
Whereas in you there is a universe, the greatest."
Let
Hubble be the new lens of perception which will lead us to the heart
of Existence by lifting the 78,000 veils of sseparation that prevent
us from experiencing the rapture and beauty of the Sacred. When
the veils are lifted, we will be transformed through the wormholes
of ignorance into the parallel sublime universe of perfection.
The picture that Hubble portrays of the cosmos, along with the discoveries
made in modern physics by Einstein, Heisenberg and Bohr reveal a
universe dramatically different from the mechanistic-dualistic-reductionstitc
picture drawn by Newton, Descartes, and Bacon in the 17th century.
First, the universe today emerges as
holographic. The universe can be described as a perfect diamond
comprised of various points. Each point within the diamond constitutes
an integral part of the whole without which the whole would not
be complete. Everything that individually exists in the universe
is a microcosmos of the greater macrocosmos. We are literally, as
popular songs descirbe, the "universe" or the "world."
Even more mysteriously, cycles of inhalation/exhalation involve
breathing the same 1 million atoms breathed by Lao Tzu, Buddha,
Socrates, Christ and the Prophet Mohammed. Breath has been described
by Sufis as the life force, the intangible energy that links man
to the Divine. The word inspiration literally means in the spirit
of the Sacred. Spirit, the underlying energy of the universe links
all of us to the Divine, constitutes the sine qua non of existence.
Secondly, modern physics indicates
that life is essentially whole and one. Unity prevails at the core
of intelligence, but awareness of Unity remains lost at the sensory
level. Perception paints the wolrd as many and varied in size, volume,
diversity and quality—an infinity of variety appears to prevail
at the level pf physicality. But at the subatomic level or in the
world of the Sufi, another picture emerges—a picture in which
every being connects with every other being in an ocean of empty
space or dark matter. What unites the universe is energy, but energy
and its fields moves too fast for the doors of perception to apprehend
it. Because of its speed of 186,000/second, we confuse the sensory
map, the physical form, for the spirituality unseen territory, namely
the Sacred. It’s at the level of energy of consciousness that
Oneness occurs and not at the level of personality. "I though
I was person and then discovered that I am part of the Divine."
The imperceptible Oneness of energy permeates the entire life experience.
In the classroom, for example, what really brings teacher and student
together is energy, mutual fields of attraction. Energy accounts
for the exquisite choreography that guides the dance as teacher
and students merge into a sublime whole. As one, they arrive at
a higher level of existence--reaching a transcendental state of
timeless joy. this explains why every encounter represents a holy
encounter--for it holds out the probability of a Divine joyous breakthrough
ending the agony of separation. Joy puts us into attunement with
the larger whole pulsating with compassion, mercy and love. "Earth
and heaven do not contain me, but the heart of my believing servent
contains me. . .
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