The Valley of Insight into Mystery
The next broad valley which the traveller sees
Brings insight into hidden mysteries;
Here every pilgrim takes a different way,
And different spirits different rules obey.
Each soul and body has its level here
And climbs or falls within its proper sphere -
There are so many roads, and each is fit
For that one pilgrim who must follow it.
How could a spider or a tiny ant
Tread the same path as some huge elephant?
Each pilgrim's progress is commensurate
With his specific qualities and state
(No matter how it strives, what gnat could fly
As swiftly as the winds that scour the sky?).
Our pathways differ - no bird ever knows
The secret route by which another goes.
Our insight comes to us by different signs;
One prays in mosques and one in idols' shrines -
But when Truth's sunlight clears the upper air,
Each pilgrim sees that he is welcomed there.
- by Farid Ud-Din Attar, pp. 179-180, Penguin Classics translation
The next broad valley which the traveller sees
Brings insight into hidden mysteries;
Here every pilgrim takes a different way,
And different spirits different rules obey.
Each soul and body has its level here
And climbs or falls within its proper sphere -
There are so many roads, and each is fit
For that one pilgrim who must follow it.
How could a spider or a tiny ant
Tread the same path as some huge elephant?
Each pilgrim's progress is commensurate
With his specific qualities and state
(No matter how it strives, what gnat could fly
As swiftly as the winds that scour the sky?).
Our pathways differ - no bird ever knows
The secret route by which another goes.
Our insight comes to us by different signs;
One prays in mosques and one in idols' shrines -
But when Truth's sunlight clears the upper air,
Each pilgrim sees that he is welcomed there.
- by Farid Ud-Din Attar, pp. 179-180, Penguin Classics translation
I needed this passage today. I get tired of readings that seem to suggest that there is some uniform, linear path. That lines can be easily traced and summarized – this person drank alcohol and ended up in hell, that person committed adultery and is now in his fourth generation living as an animal. Be that as it may, and I don't want to just write off those accounts as wrong, but there are always other contributing factors; karma weighs and balances all karma creating events. That sort of moral summation is just so simplistic and it gets frustrating.
