There is a blindness Sufis call The Veil of Light caused by self-righteousness and religiosity that can be more dangerous than the Veil of Darkness created by vice.
How exhilarating to be soooo right! Sometimes the only thing that can break through the Veil of Light is finding yourself up to here in trouble. In the ecology of the soul, life's devastations have important work to do, like the creepy-crawlies in soil that break garbage down into humus.
Recognizing that there may be blessings in bad times encourages our roots to find nourishment in the darkness, even as we are being pruned down to nothing on the surface. To live among the ruins and sanctify the wastes, is how poet David Federman puts it. The passage of devastation is well-known to recovery groups, and one of the reasons for the unexpectedly honest strength one finds in AA groups.
O Luminous Being of shining lakewaters, And luminous still in clay sun-cracked and hardened, when the waters have gone.
O Luminous Being in the riches of harvest And luminous still in the famine that follows when harvests all fail.
O Luminous Being Suddenly bright in night lightning, You are luminous still in the darkness that settles when lightning is spent.
How exhilarating to be soooo right! Sometimes the only thing that can break through the Veil of Light is finding yourself up to here in trouble. In the ecology of the soul, life's devastations have important work to do, like the creepy-crawlies in soil that break garbage down into humus.
Recognizing that there may be blessings in bad times encourages our roots to find nourishment in the darkness, even as we are being pruned down to nothing on the surface. To live among the ruins and sanctify the wastes, is how poet David Federman puts it. The passage of devastation is well-known to recovery groups, and one of the reasons for the unexpectedly honest strength one finds in AA groups.
O Luminous Being of shining lakewaters,
And luminous still
in clay sun-cracked and hardened,
when the waters have gone.
O Luminous Being in the riches of harvest
And luminous still in
the famine that follows
when harvests all fail.
O Luminous Being
Suddenly bright in night lightning,
You are luminous still in the darkness that settles
when lightning is spent.
Mansur Al Halaj