The title is taken from a famous essay of Henry Corbin, French philosopher, theologian and teacher, who studied Islamic philosophy and wrote treatises on it. The reference to 'imaginary' is by no means to 'something thought up' as in 'fantasy'; imaginary means belonging to a spiritual level as opposed to sensual.
Have you ever heard of the mountain of Qaf? and what lies beyond it? Persian folklore and Islamic Sufism abounds in tales and references to it. It is a point at which the material world as we know it, ends, and a new dimension begins. The visible Universe dissolves at this point and a new reality takes shape. I believe, there are 'abads' or cities beyond the legendary mountain, not imaginary places or symbols of cities, but cities as we know them with all their paraphernalia. Once a person reaches a spiritual transformation and crosses this mountain, he finds himself in just such a city as he may have witnessed on this earth, in fact he may have lived in one. But in those cities the reality is different, it is sharper and most prominent. Most of these cities according to Persian writer Al-Suravardi, are not located in a particular place as we understand the term 'locus', meaning 'the situation or location' which can be determined by the rules of distance and time as experienced on terra firma. These cities are 'out of place', they are in fact 'no-where' - beyond space and time. We cannot use a compass or a GPS to point towards them and calculate how long it would take us to get there or in which direction - east, west, north or south - do we have to be from where we are currently situated.
The mountain of Qaf is on the edge of our sensory and intellectual realm, it is a threshold to a spiritual world which has an existence, though different than the existence of this world.
I want to go the mountain of Qaf. In which direction should I go? This is a question I would be hard pressed to answer. Spirituality, the realm of spirits, the elevation of oneself from the mundane reality of everyday life is fashionable in my world. We are bombarded by new-age books on how to reach this spiritual escalation through certain number of steps - generally 7; Tv evangelists giving us ready-made recipes for a quick ascent to the higher world - whatever that means; yet we find ourselves further bogged down in the here and now, in the stark materiality of the things around us. We go to yoga classes, we take courses in trying to discover our inner-sanctum, we read books by 'authors' who through one miracle or another have found the perfect and true path to the soul. All these pursuits are, I reckon, to make us happier.
Happiness is most over-rated feeling in the present world. It is one thing we all vie for and desire, and in the process tend to lose the sense of spontaneity that is a prerequisite to it. A happy person does not necessarily announce to himself one fine moment that he is happy from now on. Happiness just is. And actively pursuing it through the very means that are inconsonant to it is of course labor wasted. We think people with money and power are happy - I have see much evidence to the contrary. We believe people dying of terminal disease are unhappy or should be, yet I have witnessed many who have made their peace with destiny and lead meaningful lives, realizing the true worth of life.
I believe happiness or contentment is a state where you have found yourself. This implies having lost yourself at some earlier point in time. Exactly so. To come to a 'place' which is utopia, meaning no-place' one needs to relocate in spiritual sense. One must cross the mountain so dearly spoken of earlier, that elusive of all mountains. To be happy one must like Khizir, the eternal wanderer, keep moving and keep going and hence keep learning.
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