Document Type : Research Article
Authors
Roodehen Branch, Islamic Azad University
Abstract
1. Introduction
Attar is an Arif and Iranian poet in the early seventh century, and the creator of Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr that is one of the most prominent mystical works in the world literature. Although the story of birds’ travel has its roots in the past, Attar is not an imitator. He is an innovator in the artistic structure and concluding the story; traveling to other dimensions of existence, the expression of Simorgh in Si Morgh, the use of pun in expressing the height of similarity and selfness -knowledge of the birds. He has influenced poets after him such as Rumi and Sheikh Mahmud Shabestari.
In this paper, the author's purpose is to demonstrate analyzing ancient pattern of selfness, also its examples in Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayrof Attar based on Yong's psychology.
2. Methodology
In this research, Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr of Attar has been studied and the most important examples of ancient pattern of selfness are extracted and compared with Yong's psychology. The research method is library and descriptive-analytic.
3. Discussion
"Every religion has a Godlike example and a primitive script" (Eliadeh, 2011, p. 35), "which Yong calls ancient pattern". The ancient pattern of selfness is" the manifestation of human totality and the end of his/her growth" (Moreno, 2013, p. 66), from mythologists’ viewpoint “Only the first emergence of anything is meaningful and valid, not its successive manifestations."(Eliadeh, 2007, p. 43). Selfness in Yong's psychology has various examples in which some of its examples that is used in Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr are analyzed.
3.1. The Creation World and the Particle:
Attar describes the particle in the early verses of Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr. While this particle is the secret of mystic (minor world), it is also referred to as the first element in the creation of the world (great world), which the most beautiful and most comprehensive of these is the famous paradoxical distich which is the result of Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr.
In such a sea as the Great Sea, the universe is a particle and the particle is a universe (Attar, 2010: p. 239)
The above verses have two paradoxical images: The particle or elemental material that is the codename of selfness and the universe, which is also a mandala and a symbol of selfness, because "among mythological manifestations of “selfness” we often see the image of universe and in many images, we see a great man in a circle (mandala)" (Yong, 2010, p. 322) and universe is the largest mandala. The verses contain the mystical idea that the minor world is equal to the great world, and from science point of view, that the characteristics of macroscopic world are equal to those of microscopic world, because in physics also "particles are in the premise of elemental material that the whole world has been created from it" (Talbot, 2007, p. 45), but the first particle in mythology is interpreted as the first egg. Yong says "the seed is the elemental material in which the soul of world is imprisoned. Eagle or Simorgh (selfness symbol) comes out from an egg" (Yong, 2013, p. 261).
3.2. The Story of Birds' Travel and the Ancient Pattern of Selfness
In the story of bird's travel, there are also cases such as the community of birds and the perfection of seekers, the choices of Shahriyar, Si Morgh, Simorgh, Hodhod, birds’ travel, birds’ questions, the mountain of Ghaf, the seven valleys, the thirty, the mirror, the mirroring that all of them can be considered from analyzing point of view as ancient pattern of selfness, because it expresses the process of individuality and the evolution of birds or seekers, by which passing the process of individuality, namely, I (Si Morgh) reach to spiritual perfection or selfness (Simorgh) by mysterious tests and, according to Yong, it is a growth of human innate potentials.
-Chickens’ trip
In the myth of hero's travel, "the legendary hero is founder of something: a new age, a new religion, a new city, or a new way of life" (Campbell, 2005, p. 206), in his view, the hero begins a dangerous travel to the supernatural wonders and ultimately returns to the first place" (Campbell, 2005, p. 40). On this travel, “the first place of birds" is the "first place" or "the example universe". According to Yong, "the main task of hero is to develop the self-consciousness of selfness" (Yong, 2010, p. 164). In this heroic story, they are looking for a new martyrdom (Simorgh) and in a new place called Mount Ghaf to discover self-consciousness of selfness. "Selfness is usually found as a symbolic animal" (Yong, 2010, p. 310). "Simorghis a well-known manifestation of alchemy like an eagle and a crow. All of these symbols are supremely self-conscious, and we call it "selfness" (Yong, 2010, p. 260).
-Seven Valleys of Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr
Seven is associated with seven worlds, and in terms of geometric shape (7) is in the row of curved shapes that circle is its subset. Since the universe is a mandala, they are related to selfness.
"Seven are seven stages of transformation and seven of the highest degrees, and therefore, in the ritual of mystery and mysticism is called ultimate goal" (Yong, 2010, p. 93). "If this interpretation, which seven exactly represents the highest stage of illumination is correct, one can conclude that evolution process of individual's unconscious's term is over, and at a later stage, the collective unconscious is to be blossoming"(Yong, 2010, p. 94). Perhaps this is why Attar does not know all those masculinities enough in Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr by arrival of Si morgh in seventh valley, that is, as a result, Simorgh story was manifested as divine act on Si morgh, and they were immersed in divine act, not in divine attributes and essence.
This is all Valleys you passed through all in our act you passed through
This is al l men you drove through every soul you drowned through (Attar, 2010, p. 427)
-The World of Symmetries
Although Yong believes that in terms of psychology one cannot distinguish the symbol of selfness from the divine form, both of these concepts are of one nature and one gem. The divine form is "selfness" (Moreno, 2013, p. 64). But he believes that "selfness will never take God place although it may be a covenant of Divine Grace" (Moreno, 2013, p. 139). From Attar's point of view, everyone sees himself/herself as (his/her example case) not God (Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr, p. 427).
"The requirement of" selfness "is displacement of human psychological center; in that sense, then, I will be solved in selfness and human in God" (Moreno, 2013, p. 66). Solving I in selfness and human in God is the one that is called mortal in mysticism and in Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr, only I was solved in selfness, that is, in the divine form and not in the divine essence.
Though many have gone through you see yourself and selfness (Attar, 2010, p. 427)
Yong said that "it is not possible for psychological science to determine in a purely conceptual way the distinction between the image of God and God himself, because even the concept of selfness also represents something transcendental" (Moreno, 2010, p. 140). For this reason, Attar says that "you were both a Simorgh more or less". Because of this similarity, some researchers considered Simorgh as the symbol of God, not the divine form.
The birds at the end of this resemblance, which do not coincide with the ordinary logic ruling the world, expresses astonishment and drowned in astonishment, as if each one had a different form; Si Morghsees himself see full Simorgh, but Simorgh himself looks like Si Morgh. Versess appear to represent a rotational and Mandalay path in this mirroring, which represents the transformation process and the manifestation of integrity, because "the transformation process shows a rotational movement" (Yong, 2013, p. 48) and "the mirroring is the peak of unconscious acceptance and entering it into a general picture of the world" (Yong, 2013, p. 222). By this final mirroring, Attar provides a general picture of "there", from a position that was integral to the whole and integrity, and this integrity is only reached to a Godlike example called Simorgh in Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr.
4. Conclusion
The ancient pattern of "selfness" represents a kind of Godlike and a primitive graph in the creation of mankind, and reaching this Godlike example represents the end of his growth, and Attar, by help of various historical examples in a Mandalay path from particle to universe, the birds community and the perfection of seekers, the choice of Shahriyar, Si morgh, Simorgh, Hodhod, birds’ travel, birds questions, Mount Ghaf, seven valleys, thirty, Mirror, mirroring, and by using the Mandalay and circular path journey from self (component) to example self (the whole) and the rotation of verses to express the ultimate human development and development, the thing that mysticism interprets as the state of mortality, which Yong refers to as "solving I in selfness". From Attar's point of view, this is a death in Divine acts, since Simorgh manifests itself as a divine act on Si Morgh, and they were drowned only in divine action, not in divine attributes and essence. This is interpreted in Yong's psychology as the "evolution in an individual subconscious".
Yong, like Attar, believes that selfness (Simorgh) will never take God's place, although it may be a contract of grace. Because "divine form" and "God himself" are both transcendental, due to the similarity, some researchersconsiderSimorgh to be the symbol of God, not divine form.
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