65 - Ibn 'Arabi's Vision of Beauty

            For the Sufis, the propensity of the divine nostalgia which manifests in the human being as love is fulfilled by the act whereby God creates Him/Herself. There is thus a generating of the miracle of the vision of beauty and the majesty that evidences the orderliness of the divine planning of the universe. Consequently for the Sufis our involvement in the creative act of what we perceive in beauty ranges at all levels of our being, including our celestial bodies.

            In fact our evaluation of beauty calls upon a resonance at the higher levels of our being. Indeed, the vision of a beautiful object, being, action, or work of art, carries our consciousness and attunement surreptitiously into celestial spheres. The contemplation of beauty triggers off self-discovery.

            For the Sufis, beauty is the objective of the intention behind the formative process of the universe. It is in the universe that God reveals the many-splendored potentialities of the virtuality of beauty inherent in His/Her essence to the ones who are able to grasp it.

We shall show them Our Signs on the horizons and in their souls.

Qur'an (41:53)

            The Sufis give some clues as to the landmarks mapping the spheres. These may serve to pilot one as one ascends from sphere to sphere.

Now His/Her journey in God involves the dissolving of their composite nature and acquaints them with what corresponds to them in each world of being, by passing with them through the different sorts of worlds.

Ibn 'Arabi

            Let us follow the itinerary proposed by the Sufis in their discovery of beauty in the many-tiered universe.

ALAM AL NAZUT. The physical plane

            Granted that the ground floor is the physical level of reality framed by time and space and where a projection - as in a hologram - of a formless reality appears in tangible constructs endowed with form, the form of objects conveys the meaningfulness that programmed them.

God reveals His/Her intention through signs.

Ibn 'Arabi

            The substance is just the support system of the form that conveys the meaning.

ALAM AL ARWAH. The etheric plane.

            The Sufis sometimes interpose here the sphere corresponding to our etheric, astral or subtle bodies or even our aura, which will act as the body of resurrection.

            As for the Sufis, they have spiritual journeys in the intermediate world during which they directly witness spiritual realities that are embodied in forms that have become sensible for the imagination; these sensible images convey knowledge of the spiritual realities contained within these forms.

Ibn 'Arabi

            Ultimately a subtle form transpires through the outer form (like a countenance behind the features of a face). Moreover that subtle form which manifests as a configuration rather than a profile is actually the form of the subtle matter that transpires through the grosser matter.

            The shift of our consciousness and attunement from the perception of gross matter to that of form and then to that of subtle matter and then to that of subtle form is looked upon as the first fumbling steps, in the journey that will lead the aspirant into the celestial spheres in search of the divine intention.

            One can fashion the subtle fabric of these bodies imprinting them with the hall-mark of one's celestial body, and with the wisdom gained in one's experience on earth, according to the form one wishes to manifest.

            If the forms reveal meaning it is because they serve as expressions of a language which articulates that meaning. It is as though God were endeavoring to reveal His/Her intention in the measure of each creature's ability to grasp what is revealed rather than be impressed by the devices whereby it is revealed. Traditionally that language is spelled in sound (the verb). The Sufis refer to the 'names' of all things.

God revealed to Adam the names of all things.

Qur'an

            Indeed, each object is endowed with a frequency pattern. Although objects may produce sound-waves when struck, basically what is meant by a frequency pattern is a pattern of frequencies of energy. And this is precisely what the Sufis mean by 'saute sarmad', pure vibration.

            Hence at this level our qualities, considered by the Sufis to be subtle forms, are also characterized by their frequency patterns and therefore are articulated by the Sufis in the form of the names (asma).

MITHAL. The level of metaphor.

            To hoist oneself to the sphere of metaphor, one needs to imagine in order to experience; beauty reveals to us the divine meaningfulness buried in ourselves.

            To qualify to be appraised of the revelation of the divine intention through His /Her names, one needs to contemplate these names (in the practice with the wazaif) discovering in the seed bed of one's personality the same beauty one sought outside. For this, one needs to cleave to the level of metaphor that is easily masked by one's own personal mental constructs (khyal).

            The transformation that one undergoes by proceeding thus opens up one's knowledge of these and through these, the divine intention. Our appreciation of beauty as perceived through the mediation of the world brings us in contact with the celestial spheres of imaginary forms (and this includes formative processes). Rather than assuming that these forms are static we need to realize that they are ever newly generated by dint of the activity of the creative imagination of our minds functioning at this lofty level (mithal).

            In so doing we participate in the divine creative act that spawns all creation: Our imaginings are extensions of the divine imagination behind the fashioning of the universe. Let us also bear in mind that these evanescent forms or formations have their existence irrespective of whether or not they are actuated in physical matter.

MALAKUT. The angelic spheres

            Furthermore, the Sufis recognize a celestial sphere where the states of consciousness corresponding to the attunement of the soul fashions the forms and formative processes that shape the universe. In their ecstasy aroused in the exercise of austere disciplines, the Sufi dervishes are tuned in resonance with the souls of beings at this level who convey something of the nature of the inspiration that animates them. Thus this level can be acceded to by either discovering in oneself the guilelessness of the angelic beings who have not yet incarnated on earth or the wisdom of the masters who having disincarnated, convey the know-how acquired on earth to the sphere of Malakut.

            Ibn 'Arabi refers to:

"...heavenly encounters with the spirits of earlier prophets and saints. "

            At this level which appears as a dream in a dream, one realizes that the forms at the physical level (nazut) and at the level of metaphor (mithal) are configurations that manifest higher levels of reality; that beings are indeed embodied spiritual realities.

            Thus the Ascensions of the saints are the Ascensions of their spirits and the visions of their hearts, the vision of forms in the intermediate world and of embodied spiritual realities.

Ibn 'Arabi

            At this level, one does not suffice oneself with trying to have some clue of the eternal model behind that hologram that is the world by earmarking clues in the 'signs' in which God reveals something of His/Her being, in the world or in one's personality. Rather one accedes to the second mode of cognizance, according to Ibn 'Arabi:

            There is a further perspective: you discover in your consciousness the act of the divine consciousness discovering Himself through your discovery of Him through you.

Ibn 'Arabi

JABARUT. The level of pure splendor

            Beyond this sphere, the Sufis recognize a sphere at which beauty eschews all forms. Consider this level as that at which the (non-spacial) archetypes manifesting at the existential realm as forms have their seat. One recognizes a degree of perfection in its beauty beyond any perceptual image. At this level there is no form, one does not perceive, one is attuned to pure splendor. It is simply a matter of allowing oneself to be moved by bewonderment and glorification.

            We have hoisted ourselves at a level beyond existence - the state of potentiality - within which lies the:

"...possibility of existing or not existing...But having been once existentiated, there is no way in which things can return to the state of potentiality.

Ibn 'Arabi

            Since this plane can never be the object of our perception, nor can we espy in it the signs or traces of the divine nature, it can only open up to our awareness through divine revelation.

            For the wise, nothing appears as a 'discrete entity' but everything is seen as: "the face of reality"  -  Ibn 'Arabi

            Ibn 'Arabi gives His disciples the clue as to how to hoist themselves to this sphere:

            Then the spiritual traveller leaves behind in each world that part of the world which corresponds to it.

Ibn 'Arabi

LAHUT. The sphere of the archetypal attributes.

            The Sufis describe the next sphere (lahut) as being the level where the divine essence (the quintessentia of the alchemists) permeates all living things by imprinting each sphere in the descending order with the seal of the attributes with which it is predicated. The Wazaif are the names of these attributes.

 So the glories of the Face are lights pertaining to the Essence; between us and them are the veils - the divine name...the divine names are relations, (not ontological realities) occasioned by the entities of the possible things." ...The essence never reveals itself as such but only to a causal quality.

Ibn 'Arabi

            We are referring here to a, so to speak 'vertical causal chain' instead of the usual causal inference based upon the inexorable advance of the process of becoming. Looking down (as it were) from His/Her lofty vantage point the Sufis recognize by analogy the hallmark of these archetypes (the divine attributes) in the forms that express the divine intention in the language of beauty.

            This recognition comes both in the scenes of nature and in their own personality. The clue is to try and imagine how things would look from the divine vantage point whereby God discovers His/Her attributes through our participating in this discovery by earmarking the traces of those attributes in our personality and moreover actuating them in our personality.

ALAM AL HAHUT. The divine essence behind manifestation

            Ultimately, the Sufis refer to a level (Hahut) at which the divine essence eschews any predication and therefore appears as a void, which is described as darkness. At this level, the Sufi mystic grasps the cognizance that God has of the principle of His/Her being unmediated by the attributes, qualities, names, forms and potentialities which convey some clue as to His/Her essence by qualifying it. This is the secret treasure.

The real Being is exclusively God as essence (dhat) and His initial expression pure spirit ('ayn) beyond His names ...The one who is immersed in the vision of multiplicity is in the world in the aspect of the divine names, and the names of the world; and the one who is immersed in the divine unity is with God in the grasp of His unity irrespective of the worlds... When that which has never been vanishes (from your sight) and that which has never cease.

Ibn 'Arabi

            At this level the mystic grasps the cognizance that God has of Him/Herself in the principle of His/Her being whereas by the mediacy of the attributes, names, and qualities which manifests His/Her essence by qualifying it, it becomes known in a somewhat derived manner.

            The one who is immersed in the vision of multiplicity is in the world in the aspect of the divine names, and the names of the world; and the one who is immersed in the divine unity is with God in the grasp of His unity irrespective of the worlds...All that one knows of reality is through the qualities which are relations occasioned by the entities of the possible things. If these veils were lifted, unity would erase the existence of the entities of the possible things, and they would cease being described by existences, since they only become qualified by existence through these names.

            When that which has never been vanishes (from your sight) and that which has never ceased to be remains, then the sun of the ultimate proof by actual vision arises.

            Knowledge is a veil upon the known and vision the door at which one halts...You were the veil over your own eye.

Ibn 'Arabi

            The journey upwards as it were is reversed downwards whenever one has reached the highest level that one is able to relate to. The Sufis attach more importance to the descent whereby one embodies the states of consciousness attained.

            Thus he continues to pass through the different sorts of worlds, taking from each world that (aspect of himself) which he had left there and reintegrating it in His self, and he continues to appear in each successive stage (of being) until he arrives back on earth.

Ibn 'Arabi
