Who Is the Potter? A Commentary on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam [1 ed.] 047301064X, 9780473010645

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Gnostic Press Ltd

Published

PO Box 36-344,

in 1991 by GnosHc Press Ltd Northcote, Auckland 9, New Zealand

Copyright

©

ISBN Printed in

Rosalie Dougan 1991 0-473-01 064-X

Hong Kong by

Colorcraft Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form whatsoever, without prior permission of the copyright owner.

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Note Preface

vii

ix

Introduction

xi

Commentary

1

I

cMbte

This commentary on the Riibaiyat of Omar Khayyam was extracted from the transcripts of tapes recorded at a series of fortnightly

meetings held from March

1984 to July 1985 at Abdullah Dougan's meeting room in Auckland. The format of these meetings

was question and answer (Abdullah insisted that esoteric knowledge could be gained only by asking a question) where Abdullah's pupils would ask whatever they wished about each quatrain and Abdullah would reply accordingly, thus aspects of the poem not touched on by pupils are not included in the commentary. Abdullah endeavoured to give the "framework" of each quatrain, encouraging pupils to ponder the meaning and gain their own understanding. Each quatrain is an individual poem and the images and symbolism used often change according to the context.

Vll

Note Abdullah Dougan died in September 1987 at the age of sixty-nine, leaving a dozen manuscripts to be published. The present work was prepared for publication by Steven Steff and Pat Field, with assistance from other pupils, under the guidance of Abdullah's widow, Rosalie Dougan. The cover and illustrations are by Pauline Thompson. Where terminology used is not explained in the text,

the reader

is

referred to Abdullah's earlier

works.*

1. The following works by Abdullah Dougan have been published by Gnostic Press: 40 Days: An account of a discipline (1978)

Probings (1979) The Quest Part The Quest Part The Quest Part

I:

Ideas (1981)

II:

III:

Negative Attitudes (1985) Positive Attitudes (1986).

VUl

Preface

Abdullah once said that the outer events of a conscious man's life could be interpreted symbolically, as

of that

they mirror the inner pilgrimage or quest

man.

imagination reflected

in

In the Rubaiyat to

see

the

life

we

can only use our

of

Omar Khayyam

the imagery of the verse, but

interesting to note that there are parallels

the

life

many

of Abdullah, a fellow Sufi Shaikh

centuries

after

it

is

between

who

Omar Khayyam, and

lived

the

world portrayed in the poem. Abdullah began reading the Rubaiyat at the age of seventeen and although he was not quite sure why he liked the poem, he continued to read it throughout his life. He carried a copy of the poem in his knapsack throughout World War II, a time when he was engaged in heavy fighting in Greece, Although a builder for Crete and North Africa. most of his working life, he was also a winemaker

IX

Preface for twelve years, a potter for ten years,

and

the

spiritual teacher to a small group of pupils for

twenty years.

Abdullah frequently

refers to the

poet of the Rubaiyat as "On\ar", as if he were recalling his thoughts about and feelings for an old friend.

He

admitted that he read the

years without fully understanding

poem it,

for thirty

but through

own work on himself and his spiritual development, he eventually found the key to the poem's meaning, as revealed in the following pages. his

S.G. Steff

lotrodactioo

line of the Ruhaiyat of Omar Khayyam has more meaning than almost anything you could read

Every

literature, with the exception of Hakim Rumi and Attar. Edward Fitzgerald's translation of this poem is remarkable because when he began it after being

in

Sufi

Sana'i,

given a copy of the Rubaiyat by a professor friend in 1856, he had not properly studied the Farsi

He was

language.

captivated by the

poem and

immediately began translating the quatrains with the help of a Persian dictionary.

Many

critics,

Fitzgerald

including Robert Graves, have said

could

not

have translated the poem

"Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) is widely celebrated as the supposed originator of the Rubaiyat, rather than as an easy-going amateur

correctly:

Orientalist

of his

who

constructed a mid-Victorian

own from an

poem

ill-understood classical Persian

XI

Introduction But the point all these critics missed was was only an instrument for what Allah wanted to happen. There have been many text."

that Fitzgerald

translations that

have

to better Fitzgerald's.

tried

They may have been more

correct in a literal

way

using the Farsi copies available, but Fitzgerald's was divine inspiration, something far superior.

poem

as translated

by Fitzgerald was a

major influence on the West

at that time, affecting

This

intellectuals

and men

in the street alike.

They

mostly interpreted the verses literally, however, the idea, the seed, was sown. Fitzgerald himself was unsure whether the poem was to be taken literally or not. That is the miracle. Fitzgerald's first translation was inspired for the benefit of all mankind and was part of a divine plan that had to If you approach the quatrains with that in be.

mind, the

poem

have a tremendous impact on understand it.

will

you as you try to Most people who read the Rubaiyat

Khayyam

see

Omar

as a materialist, an advocate of "enjoy

life

We

hope that by the time you have read this commentary you will see that he was quite the opposite. He was really a very cunning Sufi who now".

used

to

Khayyam

take pot shots at certain Sufis. is

much maligned

Omar

because people do not

understand him.

1.

Graves, R. and Ali-Shah, O. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Translation with Critical Commentaries, Cassell & Company

A New Ltd,

London, 1968.

XU

Introduction

The Rubaiyat is popular for many reasons, one of main ones being a justification for drunkenness and alcoholism. Its vast popularity with soldiers comes from this. Omar was a conscious man and he would have been aware something like this could happen, but we do not think he would have the

been concerned about

The

it.

Rubaiyat, like St John's Gospel in the Bible,

many translations, but if understand the esoteric quality of these works, the King James version of St John and has passed through very

you want

to

Fitzgerald's first edition of the Rubaiyat are best.

The King James version of the Bible has been in use from approximately 1600 until modem times. Several thousand translations of the gospels exist

but

the centuries more and more of the meaning has been lost. The King James although it suffered from interpolation

over

esoteric

version,

while being translated, has held together esoteric their

knowledge.

new

If

translations,

all

the

the Christians continue with their

religion

will

be de-

stroyed completely.

Allah works in mysterious ways. Whenever He wants something to come through in a pure way, will happen what He likes. it

in spite of everything.

'^VM xm

God

can do

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