Attar of Nishapur

 

Full name: Faridoldin Abu Hamed Mohammad Attar Neyshaburi (1145 – 1221). And his pen name was Faridoldin. Now he is known as Attar of Nishapur. 

Attar of Nishapur is one of the poets who influenced Rumi. I continue to read about Rumi, to learn more about Iran and culture of my friend who lives in Mashhad. 

He was influenced by Ferdowsi, Sanai, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Mansur Al-Hallaj, Abu-Sa'id Abul-Khayr, Bayazid Bastami.

He influenced: Rumi, Hazrat Ishaan, Sayyid Alauddin Atar, Hafez, Jami, Ali-Shir Nava'i and many other later Sufi Poets.

Attar practised the profession of pharmacist and personally attended to a very large number of customers. He is mentioned by only two of his contemporaries, Awfi and Tusi.

First poem I read of his:

Since there is no one to be our companion in Love

    the prayer-mat is for the pious; wine-dregs and vice for us. 

A place where people’s souls turn and twist like polo balls

    is not a place for rogues; so what’s that got to do with us? 

If the wine-bringers of the spirit sit with the devout

    their wine is for the ascetics; lees and hangovers for us.

Cure is for the purists, consternation for the broken,

    joyfulness for the do-gooders; while grief is our remembrance.

O pretender, you are not here to witness our wealth

    as the Beloved extorted all that we owned within us.

Words of experience came from the messenger of truth:

    O weary, as you make your way, shed your grief for us.

Attar was absorbed in sorrow along this Path.

    Because he’s absolutely finished, his solace is with us. 

Shams has told me to just meditate, don't worry about the 6 AM time. It's because he leads a fairly chaotic life where food from his mother arrives at 2:30, so he has to eat when we're meditating and then meditating after eating isn't exactly advised. I see our 2:30/6 time a solid, sacred, unmovable. Shams doesn't see it that way.

So I meditated at 5, even though if at 6 I might be meditating and my knees usually can't stand 2 hours straight sitting. In the end he came on at 6:30 and we talked before I had to get my daughter up at 6:45AM.

Shams says the Sufi poets are like one. They all sound the same. 

Shams slept over with Sepehr and his brother, and he had nightmares. He didn't sleep well. He's been struggling with keeping the position since he came back from Turkey. I had to get up to get my daughter breakfast, and turn off the camera so she could walk through, and to charge my laptop. He liked the side view, but I'm ashamed of my slouch. He didn't even notice my slouch. Likes to see different views of my room. 

Raw mindfulness can make you more unhappy. I'm annoyed by yet another minor change in the Insight Meditation Timer. I've lost my presets twice. I've sworn it off a few times, used other timers. I dislike the way it changes the centering every number that goes by now. Not a big thing, but it reminds me of how it's one of those popular apps that has to change things to justify premium subscriptions. It's part of the enshitification of life--greed.

I forgot to put raisins in my rice and beans, and I really miss them. I've come to really like raisins. I think when I was a kid peanut butter sandwiches and raisins were so omnipresent that it was until a few years ago that I began to like peanut butter again, and began adding raisins to things. I love raisins now in my rice and beans. 

I saw there was a new bio on the Thai Forest site. It's about Ajaan Jia Cundo (bio).