Across the River: On the Poetry of Mak Dizdar

10. From Good to Bad

10. From Good to Bad From good to bad from sad to mad Beyond our mind beyond our god There is a tradition that the Messenger said: ‘‘God first created Intellect.’’1 Another is that he said: ‘‘The first thing God created was the Pen. Then He said, ‘Write what will be until the Day of Resurrection.’’’2 These two traditions or sayings appear to differ, but it is only in our badness and madness that we see them in this way. Whenever we assume that the god we know is God, our inner self adopts it as supreme , above all else that is; and thus we conceal the Self from ourselves . However, in this we are fettered and more: in our every condition, we are merely a sign written by the Pen. Intellect is the hobble3 with which the Infinite confines us within the boundaries from the Height to the depths of the Vale, from the fairest stature to the lowest of the low, from the most extreme proximity to nullity. It manifests itself at every level of existence, always unchanging. Intellect is thus the link between every thing manifest and its Creator. This is the From Good to Bad / 165 same as the Pen, with which God bestows existence on all things. All that is in existence came into being from Intellect or the Pen, which is their link with the Creator. The duality of Intellect and Pen is manifested by illumination. God is Light, and hence the light He sheds is always pristine in all His creation. The light that shines both is and is not the Light; it is the Light because there is nothing in existence that escapes the light shining upon it, and it is not the Light because the Light is eternally the one and the same, a hidden Light. Although there is nothing to be seen but the Light, it remains concealed from all sight. Intellect is thus the entirety of awareness and knowledge bestowed by the shining of the light on all things at all times. Both the instant and the thing are a record made by the Pen. The Light makes itself known through them by comparison with the darkness. The Light is eternally absolute, but there can never be absolute darkness. Every record therefore suggests a shadow and so is an indication of the nullity with which existence envisions itself when the Light is forgotten or concealed in it. Intellect or the Pen is thus the manifestation of God as Treasure, and hence all the signs of the Treasure and all the words are in Intellect . In Intellect or the Pen they are both Unity and differentiation: Unity because Intellect or the Pen is nearest to God, and differentiation because Intellect or the Pen is not God. This is why God is the Name that is the sum of all names, the sum of all that Intellect or the Pen has as givenness and receivedness. Intellect or the Pen receives everything from God. Since it both is and is not He, God the One, Intellect or the Pen reveals in differentiation His signs in the outer and inner realms. The Word, as the undifferentiated Intellect, becomes differentiated in all the words or all the names. The Unity of Intellect or the Word at the outset becomes manifestation by creation in multiplicity; and finally, all this is summed up in humankind: ‘‘And He taught Adam the names, all of them.’’4 Our knowledge of all the names also comprises the subtle differentiation between Intellect and Analytical Reason. Intellect is Analytical Reason; but the reverse is not true: Analytical Reason is not Intellect. 166 / Across Water: A Message on Realization The manifestation of our situation within the boundary between heaven and earth discloses itself at the human level as Mind. This means that we are able through Analytical Reason to attest to the finitude of that level of existence. If this level, in its perpetually changing nature, is named river, it is rational to admit that our finest potentiality lies across the river. In this way, existence acknowledges its array in this world and the other, in the seven heavens, and in the manifestation of Intellect, as always the same, through which God discloses Himself in an innumerable multitude of manifestations. Both Intellect and Spirit are creations by which God discloses Himself in shedding His light. This...