I look into the mirror and see my own beauty;
I see the truth of the universe revealing itself as me.

I rise in the sky as the morning Sun, do not be surprised,
Every particle of creation is me alone.

What are the holy spirits? my essence revealed.
And the human? the vessel of my own form.

What is the ocean that encircles the world?
A drop of my abundant Grace;
And the purest light that fills every soul?
A spark of my own illumination.

I am Light itself, reflected in the heart of everyone;
I am the treasure of the Divine Name, the shining Essence of all things.

I am every light that shines,
Every ray that illumines the world.

From the highest heavens to the bedrock of the earth
All is but a shadow of my splendor.

If I dropped the veil covering my true essence
The world would be gone – lost in a brilliant light.

What is the water that gives eternal life?
A drop of my divine nectar.
And the breath that brings the dead back to life?
A puff of my breath, the breath of all life.

Fakhruddin Araqi (1213 – 1289) was an important mystic of the golden age of Sufism whose work was shaped by the writings of Rumi and Ibn Arabi. Born in Persia he was a child prodigy whose life was altered by a band of spiritual wanderers. He went to India and spent 25 years with a Sufi master, then traveled west eventually reaching Turkey. He believed in the primacy of love as the source of knowledge. His masterpiece was “Divine Flashes” which describes the “mysteries of Union” in the language of love that are classic expressions of Sufi love mysticism.

Reflection … there are various meditative practices that ask the meditator look deeply into a mirror; in Tantra, the male and female look deeply into each other’s eyes; the Buddhists speak of polishing the mirror until not one speck of dust is left. All of this looking into what …? Emptiness? Fullness? Life? The Mind? Looking in to see who is looking back? It reminds me of the hall of mirrors in which an image is reflected on and on into infinity. Perhaps we are all mirrors – or are we portals, openings in the material through which the infinite shines so dazzlingly that should the veil drop “the world would be gone – lost in a brilliant light.”