basis for multiple cosmologies, as well as for the stations of unveiling as a
Sufiprogresses on the path toward the manifestation (tajalli) of God.
Several Sufis discuss not only the veiling of God for the protection of
humankind, but unveiling as a beneficence provided by God. In the
Niche of Lights, al-Ghazali describes God as the Opener of Eyes,
the Unveiler of Mysteries, and the Lifter of coverings.^16 The curtain in
the parable thus functions as both a physical spatial partition between the
mundane (painted) and the sacred (mirror) space, and a metaphor for
divine grace. The process of pulling it aside indicates the transitional
moment of revelation.
Al-Ghazali describes how the heart might lose its mirroring capacity to
perceive the Preserved Tablet: it might lose shape, become tarnished,
blocked, or face the wrong way. Intrinsic deficiencies in the heart include:
stains from previous disobedience to God or indulgence in bodily desires;
inattention to hidden divine realities; accepting opinion as truth; solely
following authority; and the inability to reason.^17 The emphasis on the king
as thinking through a problem, and then physically removing a veil,
suggests the comparative roles of reason and divine inspiration, elsewhere
indicated as a divine blowing aside of the veil.
The mirror trope reverberates with the metaphor of the clean mirror
representing the pure mind of the Buddha, described in the eighth-century
Platform Sutra. The metaphor develops as the‘polished mirror’in the story
of Great Master Mazu Daoyi’s enlightenment in theAnthology of the
Patriarchal Hall (952), and in the more popular Record of the
Transmission of the Lamp(1004–7). The earlier version relates:
Reverend Ma was sitting in a spot, and Reverend Rang took a tile and sat on the
rock facing him, rubbing it. Master Ma asked,“What are you doing?”Master
[Huairang] said,“I’m rubbing the tile to make a mirror.”Master Ma said,“How
can you make a mirror by rubbing a tile?”Master [Huairang] said,“If I can’t make a
mirror by rubbing a tile, how can you achieve Buddhahood by sitting in
meditation?”^18
Al-Ghazali’s identification of the polished mirror with the Chinese artisans
suggests a source for this metaphorical wisdom, but the meaning diverges.
Thekoansuggests that only self-abnegation beyond intention enables non-
being. Conversely, al-Ghazali’s self-conscious polishing of the mirror
guided by Sufipractice enables a heightened consciousness of the real.
Similarly, Plotinus elevates art as a revelation of the ideal already present in
(^16) Gruber, 2019 : 140–141. (^17) Treiger, 2012 :68–69. (^18) McRae, 2004 : 81.
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali between Plotinus and the Buddha 137