The Illusion Of Separation And The Nearness Of The Real Poem by Mystic Qalandar

I. The Foundation

There is no independent 'I, '
and no truly separate 'other.'

Everything perishes
except His Face.

Every created thing passes away;
only the Face of the Real endures.

The self we call 'I'—
separate, autonomous, self-sufficient—
is none of these.

It is contingent.
Dependent.
Passing.

The Real alone
is Self-Subsisting—
without beginning,
without end.

Yet the essential
and the accidental
are not simply one.

The creature is not the Creator.
The servant is not the Lord.

And still—
in every face of creation,
the radiance of the Real
may be witnessed.

The deeper realization, therefore,
is not:

'I am God.'

It is this:

The independent 'I'
has no existence apart
from the One
upon whom its existence depends.

---

II. The Seeker's Illusion

The ego is subtle.

It can turn spirituality
into yet another possession:

I must attain God.
I must reach enlightenment.
I must become spiritually advanced.

And without noticing,
the seeker divides Reality:

I become the traveler;
He becomes the destination.

But where could the traveler go
that lies outside His Presence?

«'Wherever you turn,
there is the Face of Allah.'»

The journey, then,
is not toward a distant God.

It is the falling away
of the illusion
that He was ever distant.

You do not manufacture
Divine Presence.

You awaken
to what has never ceased
to be present.

The veil is not upon Him.

The veil is upon the seeing.

---

III. The Signs Are Already Here

Look directly
at the reality before you.

Turn your attention
from imagined destinations
toward what is already present.

His signs are here—
upon the horizons
and within.

The world is not an obstacle
to be escaped
before Truth can be found.

It is filled with āyāt—
signs,
traces,
disclosures.

And the nearest sign
is your own existence:

«'And within yourselves—
will you not then see? '»

Look.

See the sign within yourself.
Then see
the One upon whom
your very seeing depends.

Nothing lies outside
the encompassing knowledge
of the Real.

Not even a leaf falls
without His knowing.

The ordinary world
is not disqualified
from the spiritual path.

The body,
the soul,
grief,
joy,
thought,
silence,
remembrance,
contemplation—

all may become
places of unveiling.

The sacred is not elsewhere.

What must change
is not the world,

but the way
we behold it.

---

IV. The Paradox of Nearness

How can there be estrangement
from the One
who is already near?

«'We are nearer to him
than his jugular vein.'»

And:

«'He is with you
wherever you are.'»

Divine nearness
is not something to attain.

It is already absolute.

God is not somewhere far away,
waiting at the end
of a spiritual road.

The destination
is not elsewhere.

You do not need
to travel toward Him.

You need only
to awaken
from the assumption
that you were ever apart.

The Real is not absent.

It is our seeing
that is veiled.

He is the Reality
upon whom all realities depend—
present beyond every place,
nearer than every distance,
known before every knowing.

So relinquish
the desperate attempt
to arrive at Him.

Become still.

Listen.

Read—not merely with the eyes,
but with the heart:

«'We created the human being,
and We know what his soul
whispers within him.'»

---

V. The True Realization

The problem
is not union with Truth.

The problem
is mistaking the contingent
for the independent.

We cling to identities:

name,
status,
possessions,
achievements,
opinions—

even to the image
of ourselves
as spiritual.

All pass.

All are borrowed forms
within a passing world.

The human being
is more than the personality
assembled by memory,
desire,
circumstance,
and name.

Yet within the human mystery
there remains a sign
of Divine origin—

not Divinity itself,
but a dependent existence
pointing beyond itself.

So say not:

'There is no self;
therefore there is only
an impersonal Absolute.'

And say not:

'The creature is like God.'

For:

«'There is nothing whatsoever
like Him.'»

Yet:

«'He is with you
wherever you are.'»

Here is the mystery:

Absolute transcendence—
and intimate nearness.

No likeness—
yet no distance.

No identity—
yet no independence.

The servant is not the Lord.
The creature is not the Creator.

Yet neither servant
nor creature
possesses existence
independent of Him.

---

VI. The Mature Realization

I seek Him.

I discover His nearness.

I look back
and see that my seeking itself
was already
within His Presence.

The independent seeker
falls away.

What remains
is servanthood.

There is, of course,
a 'you'—
the human being,
the responsible agent,
the one who chooses,
acts,
loves,
strives,
and answers.

But even this agency
is not self-subsisting.

Its power is received.
Its existence is received.
Its very capacity to act
is received.

Thus realization
does not annihilate
human responsibility.

It annihilates
the illusion
of independent agency.

I act—
yet my ability to act
is from Him.

I seek—
yet my capacity to seek
is from Him.

I remember—
yet even remembrance
awakens by His permission.

And when the autonomous 'I'
finally falls silent,

servanthood remains.

Not:

'I am He.'

But:

'I am His.'

Not:

'I have reached Him.'

But:

'I awaken to the One
in whose nearness
I have always been.'

The journey ends
where the illusion began—

in the imagined distance
between the seeker
and the Sought.

There was never
a distant God
waiting to be found.

There was only
the veil of separation.

And beneath it—

the Face of the Real,

ever-present,
ever-near,
ever-enduring.

— MyKoul