In Defence of Mysticism — Continued (2) / Aydin Areta

What I see across the expanse of history as the true struggle is a struggle between, on one side, forces that want the unique individuality of human beings crushed, independent human thought subordinated to domination, and human freedom and consciousness placed in chains. Throughout history these forces have confined human individuality in the name of tribe, tradition, official religions, ideologies, beliefs, and public opinion. These forces, those who have surrendered their being to them, and the instruments through which they have been imposed upon human beings across the world existed yesterday and exist today. On the other side of this historical struggle I see forces that, throughout history, have sought to release human beings from these bonds, enable them to overcome their fate, and expand their consciousness and freedom. These forces too existed in the ancient world and remain present today.

The boundary between this darkness and light does not run through any particular time or place. It passes through the souls of human beings who have lived throughout history and whose actions have given power to one of these two forces.

Within this struggle I look at my own history and at the world in which I live and ask myself: how can what may transform my future and the world from what they are into what they can become connect my past with the future? Can I move a little beyond the superficial and artificial dualisms of tradition and modernity, mysticism and philosophy, and look instead at the true role of these forces within both sides of my history?

Many people continually ask me why I place so much emphasis on the history of Iranian thought, the foundations of Mazdayasnian thought, and the Iranian mystical tradition.

What transformed my life years ago, at a time when I was continually and joyfully learning from Western philosophy, was reflection on Suhrawardi’s idea that there is a continuous line of thought connecting the Zoroastrian tradition and pre-Islamic Khosravani Wisdom in Iran with the Iranian mystical tradition from Bayazid Bastami and Husayn Hallaj to Attar of Nishapur—and that this same line of thought can also be found in the philosophical tradition of the Platonists throughout history.

The more I learned about this historical continuity of thought, the more I came to understand how the image of Iranian and world history before me had been shaped by ancient forces that still flow through our veins today.
Perhaps the oldest formulation I know that can reveal the fundamental root of Iranian mysticism is this statement attributed in the Persian source to Zarathustra in the Gathas: “My desire is that, by following the path you have shown me, I may join you and become one with you.”

There is an expression in alchemy—the knowledge that modern human beings understand as a childlike premodern understanding of chemistry—rendered as Monos Pros Monon. It can be read and interpreted in different ways, but its general meaning is “movement from the alone toward the One.” It can be understood as the movement of the lonely individual toward a coherent individuality—the movement of the individual toward individuation—or as the movement of the individual toward God. Yet in truth, within this way of thinking these are not two different realities, because there is no distance between realized individuation and God. (“There is nothing in my robe but God!” — Bayazid Bastami.)

This becoming-one with eternal light, this joining of the One, is the final valley and the annihilation toward which all mysticism can be interpreted as moving: a movement toward union. In Mazdayasnian thought, Ahura Mazda is the light of the world, the Light of Lights, and the human being is the embodied manifestation of this light. The echo of this thought can be heard continually throughout the history of our thought: “Far from all illusions and images — light of light of light of light of light of light.” In Yasna, Ha 30, we again encounter a statement attributed to Zarathustra with this meaning: “May Mazda help us, through the power of the ‘heart’ and ‘thought,’ to reach the source of knowledge.”

Human movement within this view, which I understand as foundational to Iranian mystical thought, is movement toward this light through the powers of heart and thought already present within the human being, because the human is the embodiment of that eternal light. Good thought, which joins good speech and good action, exists within the human being. With confidence in this power, the person rises and begins the cosmic struggle to pass through darkness and join the light.

Turning toward the Logos and believing in the logocentric human being who is connected with the truth of the world is, in this account, a foundation of Platonic thought. For precisely this reason, both Suhrawardi and the Renaissance Neoplatonists believed that the line of thought Suhrawardi called Khosravani Wisdom, and that Neoplatonic philosophers called perennial philosophy and primordial fire, had its roots in Iran and Mazdayasnian thought.