The Face in the Mirror









Enchanted Island
Enchanted island, emerald island of the gods,
The faces of the divinities lurk everywhere
In a presence imbuing with grace both art and life
In a land in which art is life itself.
A thousand masks, gods and demons abound,
The imaginal world pours forth in countless forms
And the rhythm of the gamelan and the drums,
The beat of that music and that dance
Pervading the heavenly roofs and verdant fields,
Reflecting in their green mirror the infinite sky.
The Divine seems to veil and unveil itself
In myriad forms beyond our ken,
And yet, I see here but the single Face,
The Face of the One cast in so many veils of beauty
In this celestial land of enduring grace
Enchanting the soul through its enthralling magic.

—Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Bali 1993



The Sun of my Perfection is a Glass
Wherein from Seeing into Being pass
All who, reflecting as reflected see
Themselves in Me, and Me in Them: not Me,
But all of Me that a contracted Eye
Is comprehensive of Infinity:
Nor yet Themselves: no Selves, but of The All
Fractions, from which they split and whither fall
As Water lifted from the Deep, again
Falls back in individual Drops of Rain
Then melts into the Universal Main.
All you have been, and seen, and done, and thought,
Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought:
I was the Sin that from Myself rebell'd:
I the Remorse that tow'rd Myself compell'd:
I was the Tajidar who led the Track:
I was the little Briar that pull'd you back:
Sin and Contrition—Retribution owed,
And cancell'd—Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, and Road,
Was but Myself toward Myself: and Your
Arrival but Myself at my own Door:
Who in your Fraction of Myself behold
Myself within the Mirror Myself hold
To see Myself in, and each part of Me
That sees himself, though drown'd, shall ever see.
Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,
And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return and back into your Sun subside

—Attar



'His eye in all things,
Sees only Brahman
Equally present,
Knows his own Atman
In every creature,
And all creation,
within that Atman'

—Bhagavad Ghita