The Vedas, Shastras and Puranas all give definitive explanations about what is True, but still, realization of one’s True Nature does not take place – Chapter 7 Sub-Chapter 10 – Dasbodh

When I first moved to Somerville in October 2018, I met my house mate who was a visiting Sorbonne educated Economist from Galicia. He introduced me to wonderful Flamenco and Galician Celtic music as we both spent an enormous amount of time in the kitchen sharing our meals while exchanging our life stories and recipes.

One evening, while we were both preparing dinner, he had mentioned that the Spaniards expelled the Muslims from south of Spain, of which I hadn’t known due to generally not having studied any European history and in fact was surprised to learn about the prominence of Islam in Spain. Soon after my housemate departed for Paris permanently, my good old bookish friend from London wrote to me about Cecilia Twinch’s Know Yourself. Cecilia posits that the  Risalat al-ahadiya could have been written by either Ibn’ Arabi or Awhad al-din Balyani both of whom originate in Andalusia. I had first come across Ibn’ Arabi in my early twenties from Hakim Bey’s zines, who wrote in admiration of both Ibn’ Arabi and Henry Corbin but never had the chance to read him as the books did not exist in my neck of the woods at that time. It would have cost far too much to order them back then. I had naturally forgotten about the Sufis as I my interests took me to the South and East of Asia. I was glad to finally be able to get a glimpse of Ibn’ Arabi now over a decade later.

‘My saintly wife, Maryam bint Muhammad b.’Abdun, said, “I have seen in my sleep someone whom I have never seen in the flesh, but who appears to me in my moments of ecstasy. He asked me if I was aspiring to the Way, to which I replied that I was, but that I did not know by what means to arrive at it. He then told me that I would come to it through five things, trust, certainty, patience, resolution and veracity”– Ruh al-quds & al-Durrat al-fakhirah – Sufis of Andalusia

It was refreshing to read about the formless from the Spanish/Damascus regions but I cannot say anymore as I do not know the formless. I do not know the one that is Alone.

Laks Indrakaran

Somerville, MA