Blog 3: Self-annihilation and self-discovery

Acrylic on Canvas. “The search for Simorgh”. 

Photography. “The Search for self.” 

Farid ud-Din Attar’s Conference of the Birds recounts the search for an ideal form of religion or faith leader embedded in a fundamental search for self. In this Sufi poem, the birds journey on a source for Simorgh, their proposed idealized spiritual king. On the journey, the birds travel through seven valleys, namely: Search, Love, Mystic Appreciation, Detachment/Independence, Unity, Bewilderment, and Fulfillment in Annihilation. These valleys represent necessary steps in purifying one’s nafs, or ego-selves in the Sufi way (Attar 14).

In the “Search for Simorgh” painting, I painted silhouettes of a flock of birds flying into the sunset. As we read and discussed Conference of the Birds, the concept of the quest stood out as a necessary component of finding oneself. Similarly in my “Search for Self” photograph, I captured tourists walking though a back corridor in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China in August 2013. My trip to China during the summer of 2013 marked a period of growth and maturity for me as it was the first time I traveled internationally without my family, and so as I photographed others walking along this seemingly endless path, the walk and my time in China also marked a journey of self-discovery for me too.