Resting Places of the Soul
Camels at the Watering Place, by Jean-Leon Gerome (1857)In Sufism there is the idea of the maqam, a resting place in the desert, a place to relax and water the camels, a respite for a time.
The soul has maqams. The soul rests in places of beauty.
Maqam (Lit. “station”): One's spiritual station or developmental level, as distinct from one's hal, or state of consciousness. This is seen as the outcome of one's effort to transform oneself, whereas the hal is a gift. “Maqam” is also a term for “scale” or “mode” in Near-Eastern music.
~ from the Dances of Universal Peace Glossary of Terms
What enlivens my soul can change at different periods of my life. I can be drawn to a certain spiritual path or practice, then totally lose interest in it and become interested in something else.
Here's the question:
Am I awake enough to notice? Can I follow my soul?
My heart has become capable of every form:
It is a pasture for gazelles,
And a monastery for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols,
And the Ka'aba of the pilgrims,
And the tablets of the Torah,
And the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love:
Whatever path Love's camel takes,
That is my religion and my faith.
~ Ibn al-Arabi, quoted in Perfume of the Desert,
edited by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanuk
posted by Darrell Grizzle | 3:19 PM
3 Comments:
Great post. I, too, have been on a with very varied resting places.
Leave it to the Dances of Universal Peace to pair the idea of spirituality with words like "station" and "developmental level". For me, those ideas are only useful if you intend on making comparisons which usually wind up being comparisons with other people...and even comparisons with oneself are not very useful in the end. Comparing can even be a form of violence.
I find it more useful to keep my attention on the idea of acceptance. Not that I'm very good at it. Practice, practice, practice!
Yes, in beauty, in art, in a gaze or in music. Ah, music - "music is what feelings sound like."
Post a Comment
<< Home