This is a book summary of Know Yourself: An Explanation of the Oneness of Being by Ibn Arabi & Balyani—translated by Cecilia Twinch (Amazon).
This short book is worth reading if you are already in the deep end of nonduality. It is highly recommended by Rupert Spira:
Quick Housekeeping:
- All content in “quotation marks” is from the author(s) (otherwise it’s paraphrased).
- All content is organized into my own themes (not the author’s chapters).
- Emphasis has been added in bold for readability/skimmability.
Book Summary Contents:
The Oneness of Being: Know Yourself by Ibn Arabi & Balyani (Book Summary)
About the Book
“This short book deals with the importance of self-knowledge. In particular, it emphasizes that, due to the unity of existence, there cannot be more than one being, and that is what is called God.”
- “This short book introduces a view of the world which is very different to that held by many people. For some, it may serve a purpose in shattering preconceived notions and presenting an entirely new perspective which opens up a compassionate and responsive universe. It reflects an ardent desire to reach beyond the peripheral uncertainties of everyday life and discover, for ourselves, a certainty in the oneness of being which constantly flows through everything that is.”
- “This is a new translation of the first complete work attributed to Ibn ʿArabi (Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi, d.1240) to appear in a western language. The earlier translation has been instrumental in making Ibn ʿArabi’s name known again in the west over the last century, even though the author of the book is now considered by many scholars to be Balyani (Awhad al-din Balyani, d.1287), a near contemporary, who may well have been influenced by his thought.”
- “Ibn ʿArabi is most famous for his teachings on the oneness of being and human perfection. Ibn ʿArabi describes the world as the exteriorization of a single hidden reality. All that we see as creation is a divine self-revelation which is constantly renewed in different forms at every moment. Of all creation, human beings have the capacity to receive the complete revelation since they encompass all levels of existence. Every human being has the potential to become a complete mirror to Reality, therefore integrating all aspects of life in a balanced and appropriate way. Above all, the movement of existence is the movement of love for the sake of the revelation of beauty.”
- “Balyani tends to emphasize the illusory nature of the world. Ibn ʿArabi, on the other hand, does not deny the reality of the world but rather he sees the world as the place of God’s self-revelation.”
God & Oneness
“Praise belongs to God, before whose oneness there is no before unless the before is He and after whose singleness there is no after unless the after is He. He is, and there is not with Him any before or after, above or below, closeness or distance, how or where or when, time or moment or duration, manifested existence or place. And He is now as He has always been.”
- “He is not in anything and no thing is in Him, whether entering into Him or coming out of Him. It is in this way that you should know Him and not through theoretical knowledge, reason, understanding or conjecture, nor with the senses, the external eye or interior sight or perception. No one sees Him except Himself, no one reaches Him except Himself and no one knows Him except Himself. He knows Himself through Himself and He sees Himself by means of Himself. No one but He sees Him. His veil is His oneness since nothing veils Him other than Him. His own being veils Him. His being is concealed by His oneness without any condition.”
- “No one other than He sees Him. No sent prophet, perfect saint or angel brought close knows Him. His prophet is He, His messenger is He, His message is He and His word is He. He sent Himself from Himself, through Himself to Himself. There is no intermediary or means other than Him. There is no difference between the sender, that which is sent and the one to whom it is sent. The very existence of the prophetic message is His existence. There is no existence to any other who could pass away, or have a name or be named.”
- “God is the very being of eternity-without-beginning, eternity-without-end and timelessness even though in reality there is no eternity-without-beginning, eternity-with-out-end or timelessness.”
- “Everything passes away except His face, both outwardly and inwardly. This means that there is no existent but Him. Nothing other than Him has being and therefore has to pass away so that His face remains. There is nothing except His face.”
- “He was described as every day in a different configuration when there was no ‘thing’ other than Him. And He is now as He has always been, since in reality what is other than Him has no being.”
- “The existence of things is His existence, without them existing.”
- “The knower and the known, the one who arrives and what he arrives at, and the seer and the seen are one. ‘The knower’ is His attribute and ‘the known’ is His essence, and ‘the one who arrives’ is His attribute and ‘what he arrives at’ is His essence. In fact, the attribute and that to which it is attributed are one. That is the explanation of the saying, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. Whoever understands this example knows that there is no union or separation. The knower is He and the known is He, the one who sees is He and what is seen is He, the one who arrives is He and what he arrives at is He. No other than He reaches union, no other than He separates from Him.”
- “The seer and the seen, the one who finds and what is found, the knower and the known, the creator and the created, the perceiver and the perceived are one. He sees, knows and perceives His being by means of His being, beyond any manner of sight, knowledge and perception and without the existence of the form of sight, knowledge and perception.”
- “For the faithful one is the mirror of the Faithful One, so he is He in His eye, that is, through His sight. For if his eye is God’s eye and his sight is God’s sight, without any condition, he is not He through your eye or your knowledge, understanding, imagination, thought or vision, but he is He in His eye, His knowledge and His vision. Then if he says I am God, listen to him, because it is God who is saying I am God, not him.”
Blindness & Ignorance
“Anyone who does not know their self is blind and does not see. Until their blindness and lack of vision disappears, they will not grasp these meanings.”
- “You thought you were you, But you are not you and never were. For if you were you, you would be a lord And the second of two. Stop what you were thinking. Between His being and your being there is no difference. He is no different from you nor you from Him.”
- “What you think is other than God is not other than God but you do not know it. You see Him and you do not know that you see Him.”
- “What you think is other than Him is not other than Him. He is free from there being any other than Him. Indeed, other than Him is Him without any otherness.”
- “Whoever knows their self sees nothing except God, but whoever does not know their self, does not see God.”
- “Whoever knows their self sees their whole being as the very being of God, without any change in their essence or attributes. There is no need for any change since that person was not the existence of their own essence but was simply ignorant of the knowledge of their self.”
- “It is as if a person who does not know something, then comes to know it. Their existence does not disappear, but their ignorance disappears. Their existence remains as it was, without being exchanged for another, and without the existence of the ignorant person being added to, or mixed with, the knowing person: ignorance simply disappears.”
- “In those times of closeness and distance you were not anything other than God, but you did not know yourself and you were not aware that you were always Him, without ‘you’. When you reach God, that is, when you know yourself in a way that is beyond all condition, you know that you are Him, and you did not know before whether you were Him or other than Him. When knowledge comes upon you, you know that it is through God that you know God, not through yourself.”
- “When you know yourself in this way, without attributing any opposite, like, equal or associate to God, then you really know yourself. That is why the Prophet said, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord and not Whoever gets rid of their self, knows their Lord because he knew and saw that there is nothing other than Him. He pointed out that the knowledge of the self is the knowledge of God. In other words, Know yourself or Know your being, because you are not you but you do not know it. That is, know that your being is neither your being nor other than your being.”
- “Most of those who claim to know God make the knowledge of God dependent on the passing away of existence and on the passing away of that passing away. That is clearly an error and misconception. The knowledge of God does not require the passing away of existence or the passing away of that passing away because things have no existence and what does not exist cannot pass away. Passing away implies the prior existence of the thing that passes away. If you know yourself without existing and passing away, then you know God, and if not, then not.”
- “By making the knowledge of God dependent on the passing away of your existence and the passing away of that passing away, there is an affirmation of something other than God. The Prophet said, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. He did not say, Whoever annihilates their self, knows their Lord.”
Notes:
· “Among Sufis, one of the major topics of discussion has been the idea of the passing away of the individual’s existence and the passing away of the very idea of passing away, so that only the Real remains. Many possible stages of passing away have been discussed. Sufis often refer to successive levels of realization where it is seen that ultimately the only actor is God, all names and attributes belong to God, and even a person’s individual essence is not their essence but an individuation of the One Essence. These stages are referred to as: the passing away of actions, the passing away of attributes, and the passing away of the separate self in the Essence itself.”
Self & Knowledge
“If someone asks: What is the way to knowledge of the self and knowledge of God? The answer is: It consists in being aware that God is, and nothing is with Him. And He is now as He has always been.”
- “Whoever reaches this spiritual station knows that they are no other than God.”
- “Your being is His being, and the being of all created things, whether substance or accident, is His being.”
- “When you know yourself, your egoism disappears and you know that you are no other than God.”
- “The Prophet said, Die before you die, that is, Know yourself before you die.”
- “You are not you but you are Him and there is no you. It is not that He enters into you or that you enter into Him, or that He comes out of you or that you come out of Him. That does not mean that you have being and you are qualified by this or that attribute. What is meant is that you never were and never will be, whether through yourself or through Him or in Him or with Him. You have neither ceased to be nor are you existent. You are Him and He is you, without any of these imperfections. If you know your existence in this way, then you know God, and if not, then not.”
- “When this secret is revealed to you, you will know that you are not other than God but that you yourself are the object of your quest. You do not need to get rid of your self. You have not ceased, nor will you cease, to exist, without time and without moments.”
- “His veil is nothing other than His oneness and His singularity. That is why the person who has reached the essential truth is allowed to say, I am the truth or Glory to me. No one has truly reached Him, unless they see their attributes to be the attributes of God and their essence to be the essence of God, without their essence or their attributes ever entering into God or coming out of Him and without passing away in relation to God or remaining in God. They see that their self has never been their own, not that it was and then it passed away. Because there is no self except His self, and there is no being except His being.”
- “If you see things without seeing anything else with God or in God, but see things as Him, then you know yourself and such a knowledge of the self is knowledge of God, without doubt or uncertainty and without mixing anything temporal with the eternal, whether in Him or through Him.”
- “You do not see God as having ever created anything but as being every day in a different configuration which sometimes reveals Him and sometimes conceals Him, without any condition, since He is the first and the last, the apparent and the hidden and He has knowledge of everything. He manifests Himself in His oneness and hides Himself in His singularity.”
- “Whoever knows their self knows that their being is not their being, nor other than their being, but that they are the very being of God, without their being becoming the being of God or entering into God or coming out of Him, and without their being existing along with Him or in Him.”
- “It is evident that the knowledge that the knower has of their self is the knowledge that God has of Himself, because their self is no other than He.”
- “The benefit of the knowledge of the self is to know for certain that you are neither existent nor nonexistent, that you are not, never have been and never will be.”
Notes:
· “The Prophet meant by the word ‘self’ your being and your essential reality, and not the self which is called the blaming self or the lower self or the self which is known as the confident and peaceful self.”
· “By the word ‘self’, the Prophet meant ‘being’. The being of the one who reaches this spiritual level is no longer their being whether inwardly or outwardly, but it is the very being of God. Their speech is His speech, their actions are God’s actions, and their claim to the knowledge of God is their claim to the knowledge God has of Himself through Himself.”
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