Who was Ibnul Arabi? That is for the willing to find out and the InterNet is as good as any library.
I am now going to start making an attempt at Bringing together Buddhist and Islamic thoughts and if there are those who has greater insights into the matter please help me out. Tonight asI am writing this entry the mostly Chinese Buddhist population around the country are celebrating Vesak Day or the Buddha Gautama's Birthday and in its honor i am going to make this attempt for my sake as well as that of my fellow countrymen. Malaysia is a multi -Religious country and Buddhism and Islam exist alongside each other as does Christianity and Hiduism and a host of others. Religious tolerance is not an option here but mandatory for this nation to survive into the future and as such the need to bring an understanding of any given religion from the perspective of an open minded and an unbiased mind is crucial as I see it.
The Buddha was The Perfect (Enlightened) Man of Ibnul Arabi one among the many in the history of Man.
"The essence of the perfect man is a mode of the divine Essence. His spirit is a mode of the Universal Spirit. His body is a mode of the Universal Body (al Arsh) His knowledge is a copy or a reflection of the divine Knowledge. The Heart of the Perfect Man correspond to the Celestial archetype of al Ka'aba (alBaytulMa'mul). His Spiritual faculties corresponds to the Angels; his memory to Saturn; his understanding to Jupiter; his Intellect to the Sun and so on and so on..."
Here in not so many words Ibnul Arbi has described the Buddha Nature.
"The eternal Love of the One to behold His own Beauty and Perfections manifested in forms, and above all things to be known to Himself in and through Himself, found. Ibnul Arabi says, its completest realization in the Perfect Man, who alone knows Him and manifest His Attributes perfectly."
One has to do some Buddhist studies in order to see the simmilarity in what is being said here by Ibnul Arabi with regard to the Perfect Man and the the image attributed to the Buddha. I will not go into the details but briefly it was said that when asked of the existence of God and the afterlife the Buddha did not give a yes or no answer but answered with a half smile He kept a Noble Silence. One must realize that the time of the 'Historical Buddha' in India Hinduism was at its worse with the abuse of powers and privillages and human sacrifices was becoming a norm. The Historical Buddha was in essence a Bodhisatva who came to intervene and lead the people out of their spiritual blight. Hinduism accepted the Buddha as an Avatar of one of their Gods and thus there was no real conflict back then for them to accept him, however had he said I am God or the eesence or whatever of the One God, I am sure there would have been more suffering than he would anticipate.
One of the essence of the Buddha's teachings is the principle of form and emptiness, perhaps here we see God as emptiness wanting to behold Himself in forms. (re;The Heart Sutra).
"The One" in Ibnul Arabi's reference to God is to me the fact why the Buddha's teaching emphasizes upon the non existence of even the 'self'. The self itself is an illusion to the Buddha, perhaps the Buddha was trying to tell those of his time there is only 'The One' and not two as with the believe in a self would constitute another other than God.
"Their statement, "The Immutable Archetypes are in non-being," or "exist in non-being," does not mean that non-being is a receptacle for them, since non-being is absolute nothingness. Rather, what is meant is that while they exist in the presence of the divine knowledge, they are clothed in non-existence in the external world, and qualified by it. It is as if they were established in their external non-existence, then God clothed them in a garment of outward existence, whereby they become existent. And Allah knows best."
Shaykh al-Akbar Mohyiddin ibn al-Arabi
Fusus al-Hikam (Pearls of Wisdom) Translation: Dr. Mukhtar Hussain Ali
All in all, the following are details of groups of saints living on earth at any given time:
. In mystical revelation it is otherwise, for if you perceive mystically that the Haqiqa of Mohammed is displayed in any human form, you must bestow upon the Haqiqa of Mohammed the name of that form and regard its owner with no less reverence than you would show to our Lord Mohammed, and after having seen him therein you may not behave towards it in the same manner as before. Do not imagine that my words contain any tincture of the doctrine of metempsychosis. God forbid! I mean that the Prophet is able to assume whatever form he wishes, and the Sunna declares that in every age he assumes the form of the most perfect men, in order to exalt their dignity and correct their deviation (from the truth): they are his vicegerents outwardly, and he is their spiritual Reality inwardly
1.There are at any given time 4,000 Awliya living on earth. They are not known and recognized by the general public. In fact, amongst them one does not know the other and they themselves are not aware of the validity of their actions and devotion. All these are hidden from them and the general public.
2. Three hundred (300) from this group are statemen involved in the administration of this world. They control all transaction in the universe. They are the leaders of all pious people in the Divine Court of Allah Most High. They are known as AKHYAR.
3. Amongst these 300, there are 40 who are known as ABDAL.
4. Amongst these 40, seven (7) are ABRAR.
5. Amongst these 7, four (4) are AWTAD.
6. Amongst these 4, three (3) are NUQABA.
7. Amongst these 3, one (1) is known as the GHAWTH or QUTB. He is the most senior of them all and the Head and Chairperson of the spiritual assembly.
Further, you must know that the Essential names and the Divine attributes belong to the Perfect Man by fundamental and sovereign right in virtue of a necessity inherent in his essence, for it is he whose "truth" (Haqiqa) is signified by those expressions and whose spirituality (Latifa) is indicated by those symbols: they have no subject in existence (whereto they should be attached) except the Perfect Man. As a mirror in which a person sees the form of himself and cannot see it without the mirror, such is the relation of God to the Perfect Man, who cannot possibly see his own form but in the mirror of the name Allah; and he is also a mirror to God, for God laid upon Himself the necessity that His names and attributes should not be seen save in the Perfect Man. This obligation to display the Divine attributes is the "trust" (Amana) which God offered to the heavens and the earth: they were afraid to accept it, "but Man accepted it; verily he is unjust and ignorant" (Quran 33:72), i.e., unjust to his own soul in letting it suffer degradation (from the things of this world) and ignorant of his real worth, because he is unaware of that with which he has been entrusted… Beyond the plane of the Names and Attributes, which are ranged on the right and left of him according to their kind, the Perfect Man feels through his whole being " a pervasive delight, which is named the delight of the Godhead" (al-Ladhat al-Ilahiya)… Here he is independent of his modes, i.e., the Names and Attributes, and regards them not at all. He knows nothing in existence save his own nature (Huwiyya), contemplates the emanation (al-‘Hudur) from himself of all that exists, and beholds the Many in his essence, even as ordinary men are conscious of their own thoughts and qualities; but the Perfect Man is able to keep every thought, great or small, far from himself: his power over things does not proceed from any secondary cause but is exercised freely, like other men's power of speaking, eating, and drinking.”
I have taken a deeper gaze at Islamic philosophy in order to provide a more in depth comparison with the teachings of Buddha.Sufiism is to Islam as Buddhism is to Hinduism. both look into the true nature of what 'Is". Even though Buddhism does not openly acknowledge the existence of a God it has brought its believers up to the Gates of Heaven in the Islamic sense. I am talking about the Buddhism as I have come to understand to be the true meaning of the Buddha's teachings.I picked out the quotes above simply because they describe my thoughts an feelings on the matter especially when describing the attributes inherent in the Perfect Man, entities like the Buddha, Jesus Christ. and the Prophet of Allah (Pbuh). For me these and many that come after them only lesser in degrees like THe saints and Awlias, the Walis and Sages are the vanguard of God's religion. the Light of the Human Spirit.
"Our collective pursuit of materialism and our disregard for the sacred within all of life has had a devastating effect. We have dismissed our ancient role as guardians of the planet. As a result the sacred fire that we were supposed to keepburning, the light of the sacred that nourishes all of creation, is slowly going out. We can see this in a culture that is increasingly soulless and fractured. We vitally need to become conscious of what is happening to the sacred light. We need to recognize this growing darkness wich is a forgetfulness of the sacred within our own souls and within all of creation. Only when we are aware of what is happening can we begin to change our world." Llwelyn Vaughan - Lee Spiritual Ecology
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