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Iranian Sufism and the Quest for the Hidden Dimension

Toward a Depth Psychology of Mystic Inspiration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Ali Shariat

Extract

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      “Being is an ocean in perpetual agitation,
      Of this ocean people perceive but the waves.
      On the apparent surface of the ocean, hidden in them,
      Look at the surging waves arising from secret depths!”

One of the leitmotifs of the literature of Iranian Sufism is the “quest for the Orient” (istishraq). It is an Orient that is neither localized nor localizable in the realm of positive geography. It escapes our normal perception; it is the mystic Orient, point of Origin and of Return, located at the “heavenly pole” of the cosmic North. It figures in that geographia imaginalis that is perceived only by the power of the imagination. It is located, then, beyond the devastated lands of this sensible world, lands that incarnate troubled and dispersed hearts for Iranian Sufism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 37 , Issue 146 , June 1989 , pp. 92 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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