Optic

When the soul lies down in that grass

the world is too full to talk about

Ideas, language, even the phrase eachother

doesn't make any sense.

- Rumi

Similarities. Current talk in scientific circles are exploring the possibility of two matching pairs of eyes somewhere in the world. Lots of people might note “you have your mother's eyes” which seems true on the surface, but if you check it yourself closely in a well lit room you'll see the variation in tone and colour that are unique to you. Science has not proven that there are two people in this world that have the exact matching set of eyes. Not even identical twins.

Eyes are not a uni-faceted instrument. Eyes let us see the world around us and eyes let us reflect our thoughts and feelings about what we see. Eyes are both lens and mirror. Our pupils contract when we view something ugly or distasteful. Our pupils expand to let in something beautiful and pleasing. When you look into someone's eyes you can tell their thoughts and emotions far better than words. You can see a lie as well as the truth. You can cover your face except for the eyes and still the entire world of that person is there for the right person to examine.

As I began diving into research for Islamic context, pages of eyes with a tear drop kept popping up. The topic was softening of the heart. Your eyes are connected to your brain, and are a receptacle for what is in your heart. The eye is what connects our thoughts and emotions.

Dipping my bucket back down into the well of the web, I pulled it up to find an image of the black stone at Mecca staring at me. Like an eye. An eye. Singular. A third eye?

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The third eye or pineal gland has an unusual reference in the Bible. Mathew 6:22: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.” The pineal gland, or the third eye called an eye because it's interior tissue pinealocytes, is exactly like the rods and cones in the retina, which allow us to see. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of the wake/sleep cycle patterns. The pineal gland produces the substance called DMT. DMT is what makes us dream, melatonin is a step down from DMT.

What is our pineal gland seeing exactly? Or what is it capable of showing us?

It can show us some deep meaning. Like a gateway to understanding, the pineal glad will be activated by the philosopher's stone. But what exactly is the philosopher's stone?

A wiki gives us an historical account:

“Mention of the philosopher's stone in writing can be found as far back as 300 AD. Elias Ashmole and the anonymous author of Gloria Mundi (1620) claim that its history goes back to Adam who acquired the knowledge of the stone directly from God. This knowledge was said to be passed down through biblical patriarchs, giving them their longevity. According to Plato, the four elements are derived from a common source or prima materia (first matter), associated with chaos. Prima materia is also the name alchemists assign to the starting ingredient for the creation of the philosopher's stone. The importance of this philosophical first matter persisted throughout the history of alchemy. In the seventeenth century, Thomas Vaughan writes, "the first matter of the stone is the very same with the first matter of all things".

In Sura Al-Kahf when Moses is travelling with his servant boy, he meets up with Hazrat Khidr who has been awarded with great wisdom and mystic knowledge. Khidr acts as spiritual master to Moses. In angelic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam the philosopher’s stone or spiritual master or great mentor actually award the transformed soul or person  with  the (اہلیت) which may be translated as an ability of the person to observe the absolute truth as he has now been transformed. 

 

So in this prima materia, there is a semi solid gateway and a view to the other worlds. The philosopher's stone is not always an object but could be a person too. The quest for changing base metal into gold is understood through a quest for understanding. And all of this is informed by how we see.