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The Eighth Lesson: Sufiism.1289
And one by one back in the Closet lays.
“The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Here or There as strikes the Player goes;
And He that tossed you down into the Field,
He knows about it all—He knows—He Knows!”
* * *
“And this I know: whether the One True Light
Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite,
One flash of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.”
This is a glimpse of old Omar, with his Love and Sorrow so closely
intermingled—his Trust and his belief in Fate twin-like sharing his soul. His
distrust of the speculations of the philosophers causing him to ever seek the
Wine of the Sufi teachings which lead to God-intoxication. Life to him was
but the “Game He plays upon the Chequer-board of Nights and Days”—the
Release coming only from “the Grape, the Grape!”
And this, then, is a glimpse into the flower-scented land of Persian Sufiism—
we trust that the flowers that we have plucked from its Rose-Garden will not
have withered by the time they reach you. And we trust that the thorn on
the stem may not prevent your seeing the beauty of the flower—nor the
distance prevent your hearing the thrill of the Nightingale.
We shall not attempt to point out wherein the Sufi Teachings agree
with those of the Inner Teachings of the Yogi Philosophy—nor wherein
they disagree. You who have studied both should be able to make the
comparison without trouble—to point out the place at which Sufiism
emerges from the common Thought-branch, and also the direction in which
it grows away from our own stem of Truth. You should be able to analyze
the Sufi conception, separating its glorious perception of the Ever-Effulgent
One, and its expression of Love for Him, from the fatal touch of Pessimism,