Mahmud Shabistari’s poem, the Garden of Mystery, recently quoted in this post, speaks about the circle of existence, saying that ‘the basest –or the most ignoble– place,  … you-ness is the point opposite to Unity.’

This image tells us that when we are conscious of ourselves, when my ‘person’ is evident, we stand as far away from Unity as it is possible to be.  It also tells us that the journey from Unity to duality is followed by the return to Unity, for the arc of the circle inevitably returns to the place whence it began. The circle is an image of the journey from the Absolute Unseen into manifestation, and the subsequent return to the formless.

There follows a reference to fire and to melting gold.  A common religious image is one of a place in the afterlife full of fire, where the unworthy are sent; if we read it carefully, the imagery of the poem suggests that hell is not a place of punishment, but of purification, like the goldsmith’s crucible, where impurities are burned off. That means there is something of value that must be recovered, and when we cease to identify with what has no value, there is no longer any reason to fear.

What fear can you have of the fire of hell
when your body and soul are purified of existence?

When pure gold is melted in a furnace blaze,
as it has no impurity, what can burn away?

In other words, we all have the purest treasure hidden inside, veiled only by our claim to being ‘me’; the treasure is there, but we can not claim it because it cannot belong to an imaginary being such as I am.  This might make us think of the parable told by Jesus, of the servants given the ten talents of gold.  We have all been given something precious, and the servant who understands the value of the treasure and recognises his responsibility sees its value multiply.

In the same way, the one who has seen the veil of ego vanish in the flame of truth discovers gold shining everywhere.