Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

[admin]

LIGHT

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

***

Seth, the reputed forefather of Israel, is only a Jewish travesty of Hermes, the God of Wisdom, called also Thoth, Tat, Seth, Set, and Satan. He is also Typhon — the same as Apophis, the Dragon slain by Horus; for Typhon was also called Set. He is simply the dark side of Osiris, his brother, as Angra Mainyu is the black shadow of Ahura-mazda. Terrestrially, all these allegories were connected with the trials of adeptship and initiation. Astronomically, they referred to the Solar and Lunar eclipses.

-- The Secret Doctrine -- The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

IN ORDER TO PASS FROM CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE MAGNETIC
FIELD
TO THE BODY OF LIGHT
ONE
HAS TO BE AWARE OF BURNING WITH A BRIGHT FLAME
THAT
ONE HAS THE FEELING OF BEING INCANDESCENT
TRANSPARENT
A CRYSTAL
ONE HAS THE FEELING OF BEING POROUS AS A MAGNETIC FIELD
CRYSTALLINE OR TRANSLUCENT AS AN AURA
THE BODY OF LIGHT EXTENDS
THERE'S NO SKIN ON IT
NO EDGES
NO FRONTIER
IT EXUDES RAYS
IT RADIATES



WHEN WE SAY LIGHT, WE DON'T MEAN THE ELECTRIC LIGHT OR
THE LIGHT OF THE SUN.
WE SPEAK ABOUT PEOPLE AND SAY: THIS PERSON HAS A LOT OF
LIGHT IN HIM, SHE HAS A RADIANT SMILE: WE KNOW WHAT WE
MEAN BY THAT, WE ARE WORKING WITH THE NOTION OF LIGHT.
AND YOU YOURSELF KNOW WHAT IT IS TO HAVE LIGHT WITHIN
YOU, THERE ARE MOMENTS WHEN YOU FEEL IT VERY STRONGLY,
AND THEN THE DARK CLOUDS OF GLOOM COME ALONG AND THERE
IS RESENTMENT AND DESPONDENCY AND THIS IS WRONG AND
THAT IS NOT RIGHT AND THIS PERSON IS UNFAIR TO ME AND WHY IS
FATE SO CRUEL TO ME AND SO ON AND ON ...
THE SUN HAS LEFT
OUR CHIEF PROBLEM IN THESE PRACTICES IS TO AVOID SIDE-
TRACKING INTO A PHANTASMAGORIA OF PURE FICTION. HOW CAN
ONE EXPERIENCE ONE'S LIGHT FIELD, UNLESS ONE CHANNELS THIS
FINE FACULTY OF INNER PERCEPTION IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO
PROMOTE ITS ACTIVITY? AND IS NOT CREATIVE IMAGINATION OR
REPRESENTATION PRE-STRUCTURED? MATHEMATICS IS PURE
REPRESENTATION, YET HAS PRACTICAL APPLICATION, BECAUSE IT
CONSISTS IN THE PERCEPTION OF THE STRUCTURE INHERENT IN
PHYSICAL REALITY, SENSED IN TRANSCENDENT AREAS OF
THE MIND, TRANSCENDENT PLANES OF BEING.



IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE SOUL PROJECTS ITS INTERNAL STRUCTURE
AND NATURE IN THE NEAREST POSSIBLE TANGIBLE WAY: AS AN
IMAGE WHICH CAN ONLY BE THE SHADOW OF WHAT IS? COULD WE
HYPOTHESIZE THAT, AS OUR INTUITION GRASPS EVANESCENT
VALUES, REACHING FURTHER AND FURTHER BEYOND THE
PHYSICAL, CREATIVE IMAGINATION PROJECTS THESE INTO FORMS
WHICH THEY ARE NOT, YET WHICH APPROXIMATE THESE JUST AS
THE OUTLINE OF THE FACE APPROXIMATES ITS COUNTENANCE.
WHEN WE LET OURSELVES BE CAUGHT UP IN THE FEATURES, WE
MISS OUT ON THE COUNTENANCE. SIMILARLY OUR REPRESENTATIONS
OF LIGHT MAY BETRAY REAL EXPERIENCE, YET IF WE ARE
ABLE TO REALIZE OURSELVES IN OUR LIGHT NATURE, INSTEAD OF
INDULGING IN THE HALLUCINATORY FORMS THAT MAY ARISE IN
OUR PRACTICES, THEN WE PROCEED FROM IMAGINATION
TO EXPERIENCE.

THE AIM OF THESE PRACTICES WITH LIGHT IS
TO ENVISION ONESELF AS A PURE LIGHT
PART OF THE WORLDS OF LIGHT

BY BECOMING SENSITIVE TO ONE'S NATURAL LUMINOSITY, TO DISCOVER
WITHIN ONESELF A SENSE OF TRANSPARENCY WITHIN THE
SPACES BETWEEN THE ATOMS OR CELLS OF THE BODY.



THE METHOD WE ADOPT WILL BE TO RECAPTURE REAL
EXPERIENCES THAT TRIGGER OFF SIMILAR EXPERIENCES WITHIN,
RATHER THAN IMAGINING THESE INNER EXPERIENCES. WE HAVE
ALL BEEN EXPOSED AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER TO THE
SHEER THRILL OF BEING LIT UP
INTENSELY,
BY THE HEADLIGHTS OF A CAR, THE FLASH OF A STROBE,
POWERFUL SPOTS, BLAZING ARCS
THE ATOMIC FLASH.

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

IT IS SUCH A TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE BECAUSE IT MAKES ONE
SUDDENLY AWARE OF AN ASPECT OF ONE'S BEING THAT MOST
TIMES REMAINS UNCONSCIOUS
OUR LUMINOSITY
THAT IS WHAT IS CALLED IN ESOTERIC SCHOOLS
AURIC CONSCIOUSNESS, CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE AURA

HERE OUR EXERCISES BEGIN





RECOLLECT AND RELIVE AN EXPERIENCE
IN WHICH YOU WERE FLOODED
BY THE GLARE OF A LIGHT.
RECALL HOW YOU FELT
WHEN LIGHTED UP,
THE EMERGENCE OF YOUR FEELING OF EFFULGENCE,
AS THOUGH YOU WERE DISCOVERING YOURSELF
AS SOMETHING YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN:
A LUMINOUS BEING
RADIATING RADIATING
LIKE A RADIO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCE
THE FORCE OF THE EXPERIENCE IS IN THE BLINDING INTENSITY OF
THE LIGHT RELIVED, AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE'S COURAGE IN
FACING IT: MORE SO, GOING RIGHT INTO IT, LIKE A MOTH INTO A
FLAME, LETTING YOURSELF BE BATHED, NAY, BURNED WITH
LIGHT.

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT YOU BECOME FLOODED
WITH LIGHT, BLINDED WITH LIGHT, EXPERIENCE THAT
WONDERFUL JOY BEING DRUNKEN,
STONED BY LIGHT.
AS PLOTINUS SAID: ONLY EYES THAT HAVE BECOME LIKE UNTO THE
SUN CAN LOOK INTO THE SUN.
THE MORE TRAUMATIC THE EXPERIENCE THE MORE IT WILL ACT
AS A CATALYST BRINGING TO THE FORE THE AWARENESS OF A
LUMINOUS FIELD, SOMETIMES CALLED BY THE ESOTERICISTS
THE MANTLE OF GLORY
THE BODY OF RESURRECTION
WHICH NOT ONLY ENSHROUDS THE BODY AND THE ETHERIC BODY
BUT ALSO INTERPENETRATES IT.





SUNYATA, THE VOID
BECOME LIKE A CRYSTAL,
CRYSTAL CLEAR,
TOTALLY RECEPTIVE TO THE PASSAGE OF LIGHT.
IN THE CRYSTAL THE MOLECULES HAVE
ALIGNED THEMSELVES
IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO ENABLE LIGHT WAVES
TO PASS.
MATTER HAS ADAPTED ITSELF TO BECOMING
TRANSPARENT TO LIGHT
INSTEAD OF VISUALIZING TRANSLUCENT ANGELS,
DISCOVER YOUR OWN ABILITY
TO LET LIGHT PASS THROUGH
YOUR PHYSICAL BODY.

BECOME NON-SOLID
LET THE BREEZE BLOW THROUGH YOU
THE LIGHT PASS THROUGH YOU
BECOME PURE SPIRIT



AT THIS STAGE ONE MAY FEEL A SENSE OF EFFULGENCE
THROUGHOUT, SOMEWHAT LIKE THE RING OF LIGHT BROKEN UP
INTO FLAMES AROUND THE SUN. SO LONG AS ONE STILL IDENTIFIES
ONESELF WITH ONE'S BODY IT WILL APPEAR THAT THE BODY IS
SURROUNDED BY A SHEATH OR SHROUD OF LUMINESCENCE. THIS IS
THE MOMENT TO IDENTIFY UNCONDITIONALLY WITH THE LUMINOUS
BODY. CONCENTRATE ON BOTH THE LIGHT OUTSIDE AND
INSIDE THE BODY AS A CONTINUOUS WHOLE, AND LIKEN THE BODY
TO A TRANSLUCENT CRYSTAL WHICH THE LIGHT
INTERPENETRATES AND OUTREACHES.

EXPERIENCE THE PENETRATION OF THE RAYS OF LIGHT THAT ARE
REACHING INTO THE BODY LIKE
X-RAYS
DISCOVER THE TRANSPARENCY OF YOUR BODY, ITS POROUSNESS, AS
THOUGH THERE WERE SPACES BETWEEN THE CELLS, BETWEEN
THE ATOMS.
THIS WILL STRENGTHEN YOU IN THE CONVICTION THAT YOU ARE A
BEING OF LIGHT AND WILL BRING BACK THE MEMORY OF THOSE
PLANES OF LIGHT THROUGH WHICH YOU PASSED, NOT ONLY ON
THE WAY DOWN TOWARDS INCARNATION, BUT IN WHICH
YOU STILL ARE.
EXPERIENCE YOURSELF AS BEING CREATED OUT OF THIS SPLENDOR
-- IT IS THE BEING OF GOD LOOKING THROUGH YOUR EYES,
NOT LOOKING DOWN UPON THE PHYSICAL PLANE, BUT LOOKING INTO A
CERTAIN LEVEL WHERE THE FORMS OF ALL BEINGS ARE
BORN AND EMERGE. DON'T FALL BACK ON IT, JUST GO RIGHT INTO
IT, GO RIGHT INTO THE PICTURE AND GIVE FREE EXPRESSION TO
THE ANGEL IN YOU. DO NOT STAY BEHIND LIKE THE SPECTATOR
THAT IS ON THE EARTH LOOKING INTO THE SKY, LET YOURSELF BE
DRAWN INTO THE PICTURE, NOT AS A BODY, BUT AS
A BEING OF LIGHT.



THE RELEVANT PRACTICES AT THIS STAGE ARE A KIND OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL CATHARSIS: TO BRING ABOUT A SENSE OF CRYSTALLINE
CLEARNESS BY ELIMINATING DARKNESS AND OPACITY.
THE STRENGTH OF YOUR LIGHT CAN LOOK INTO THE LIGHT, IT
OPENS UP ALL THE DARK RECESSES,
THERE IS NO REASON TO HIDE ANYTHING
ANY
MORE.
IT'S ALL OPEN

YOU ARE COMING INTO THE OPEN FROM THE DARKNESS. IT'S NOT
IMAGINATION BUT A TRANSFORMATION OF YOUR BEING. IT
DOESN'T HAVE TO TAKE ANY TIME, YOU CAN DO AWAY WITH ANY
DARKNESS RIGHT NOW. EVERYTHING IS COMING TO LIGHT NOW
VERY CLEARLY.
THIS IS THE MOMENT TO SEE THINGS CLEARLY



WASH THE EYES WITH LIGHT
FEEL THE CLARIFYING ACTION OF LIGHT UPON EYES THAT MAY
HAVE BECOME DULLED BY EGO, STRIFE OR EVIL AND UGLY
IMPRESSIONS. WASH THE EYES WITH LIGHT UNTIL THEY BECOME
COMPLETELY CLEAN, COMPLETELY PURE
THE EYES OF A CHILD
THE GLANCE OF INNOCENCE

WASH THE HEART CENTER WITH LIGHT, FEEL THE EFFECT OF
LIGHT UPON THIS CENTER, WHICH OPENS UP LIKE A SUNFLOWER
WHEN EXPOSED TO LIGHT. EXPERIENCE THE EXTENSION OF THE
RAYS FORWARD THROUGH THE SHOULDERS, THE SHOULDER BLADES,
DEPICTED BY ARTISTS AS THE WINGS OF ANGELS. FLOOD THE
CROWN CENTER WITH LIGHT. IT SHOULD REACT BY
FLASHING MORE INTENSELY THAN USUAL.
CONCENTRATION SHOULD BE FOCALIZED 5-1/2 INCHES
ABOVE THE SKULL

THE WASHING OF THE CHAKRAS WITH LIGHT IS PART OF A
GREATER EXPERIENCE, WHICH IS WASHING THE EMOTIONS FROM
ANYTHING THAT IS NOT TOTALLY BEAUTIFUL, MAKING OUR EMOTIONS
LUMINOUS, SUBJECTING THEM TO THE TEST OF AUTHENTICITY.
ANYTHING THAT FALLS SHORT OF TOTAL AUTHENTICITY
JUST HAS TO BE REMOVED.



IT IS AS THOUGH ONE WERE LOOKING THROUGH A ROUND DOOR
INTO A WORLD OF LIGHT WHICH IN TURN SEEMS LIKE A DOOR
OPENING ONTO
A STILL SUBTLER WORLD OF LIGHT

ONE'S ATTENTION MAY SHIFT TO THE THIRD EYE.
ONE WILL NOTICE THAT IT IS CONNECTED
WITH THE CROWN CENTER
AS THOUGH IT MIGHT BE
ITS EXTENSION,
IT APPEARS LIKE A BEAM
GENERALLY PURPORTED TO FLASH FORWARD
FROM THE PINEAL GLAND.
ROTATE YOUR EYEBALLS UPWARDS,
SLIGHTLY CONVERGING THEM TOWARDS THE FONTANELLE,
AND ORIENT THE BEAM RIGHT THROUGH THE CORONARY CAVITY
UPWARDS.



SOMETIMES IT SEEMS THAT WE ARE FOCUSED TO A HIGHER PLANE,
YET SEE NOTHING BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE TRAINING, JUST
AS A CHILD HAS TO LEARN TO REALIZE WHAT HE SEES, WHICH
FOR A BABY MAY APPEAR A BLUR. YET WE MAY LEARN TO DISCERN
THE PROFILES, MODES AND COLORATIONS OF HIGHER PLANES BY
TRAINING TO AWAKEN FROM OUR EVERYDAY CONSCIOUSNESS,
WRONGLY CALLED THE WAKING STATE. CHUANG TZU DREAMT HE
WAS A BUTTERFLY, AND WHEN HE AWOKE HE DID NOT KNOW
WHETHER HE WAS A MAN WHO HAD DREAMT THAT HE WAS A BUTTERFLY
OR A BUTTERFLY DREAMING THAT HE WAS A MAN. IF WE
COULD REMEMBER IN DIURNAL CONSCIOUSNESS WHAT OUR DIURNAL
CONSCIOUSNESS APPEARED LIKE TO US WHEN WE WERE
DREAMING, WE WOULD REMEMBER WHEN IN DIURNAL CONSCIOUSNESS
THAT WE HAD THE IMPRESSION IN OUR SO-CALLED
DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS OF AWAKENING FROM DIURNAL
CONSCIOUSNESS AS FROM A DREAM.

ATTENTION WILL TEND TO TRAVEL FROM ONE AREA OF THE AURA
TO THE OTHER, BRINGING ITS DETAILED STRUCTURE MORE PARTICULARLY
INTO VIEW: THE RADIATION FROM SHOULDERS AND
SHOULDER BLADES LINKED WITH THE HEART CENTER (ANAHATA),
COUNTERWEIGHED BY THE SYPHONISING EFFECT OF THE SOLAR
PLEXUS (MANIPURA) AS A SEA OF FIRE WITHIN, REACHING RIGHT
DOWN INTO THE CENTER AT THE BASE OF THE SPINE (MULADHARA).
AND CONTRASTING WITH THESE: THE SUPERIOR POLE,
THE CROWN CENTER (SAHASRARA) GUSHING UPWARDS FROM
THE FONTANELLE LIKE A FOUNTAIN OF BRIGHT LIGHT AND
FALLING BACK INTO A SPRAY OF MULTICOLORED DROPLETS EFFUSING
THE CENTRIFUGAL RADIATION FROM THE HEART AND
FALLING AROUND THE SHOULDERS WITH A FINE MANTILLA OF
LUMINOUS FLUID OF AMAZING HUES. THIS CENTER SEEMS TO BE
MULTIDIMENSIONAL, SO THAT SHOULD ONE DISPLACE ONE'S
FOCUS UPWARDS, ONE DISCOVERS AT EACH FURTHER LEVEL, LIKE
THE REFLEX OF THE PREVIOUS LUMINARY, EVER MORE SUBTLE AND
REMOTE WORLDS OF SPLENDOR.

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

SOME OF US MAY REMEMBER HOW IN THE MORNING WE COULD
SHIFT OUR CONSCIOUSNESS OVER THE THRESHOLD FROM A DREAM



TO DIURNAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND VICE-VERSA UNDER THE IMPULSE
OF A SEMI-UNCONSCIOUS WILL. WE SEEM TO ASSUME A
DIFFERENT PERSONALITY IN DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS, FREER,
MORE DARING, EMANCIPATED FROM THE SENSE OF IMPOSSIBILITY
WHICH HEMS US INTO FOSSILIZED PATTERNS IN EVERYDAY
THINKING AND BEHAVIOR. WE MAKE THINGS HAPPEN BY WISHING
THEM, BECAUSE HERE WE ARE NOT ONLY THE OBSERVER OF WHAT
WE EXPERIENCE BUT ALSO THE CREATOR. IN OUR CREATIVITY
WE PROLONG THE MAGIC ACTION OF THE CREATOR OF MAYA IN
THE OVERFLOW OF HIS IMAGINATION, WHICH IS ALL THAT REALITY
IS, WAS, AND EVER WILL BE: THE DANCE OF SHIVA. HERE
WE AFFIRM A NOBLER DIMENSION OF BEING THAN IN PERCEIVING,
FOR WE ARE NO MORE A PUPPET REACTING TO 'OUTSIDENESS', BUT
ACTIVELY INSTRUMENTAL IN
PROJECTING 'OUTSIDE' WHAT IS GLEANED INSIDE.
IN ORDER TO EFFECT THIS PROPENSITY WE HAVE TO APPLY A
DIFFERENT SETTING OF CONSCIOUSNESS ONTO THE UNCONSCIOUS
BORDERLINE AREAS WHERE THE RICHNESS OF CREATION IS HELD
IN ABEYANCE BEFORE IT MAY FIND A PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION
TO FOSTER ITS EXISTENTIATION AS A PHYSICAL REALITY, AND WE
MUST ALSO APPLY A DIFFERENT WILL THAN THE CONSCIOUS WILL,
WHICH IS INEFFECTIVE AS SOON AS ONE CROSSES THE THRESHOLD
BETWEEN CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. THE REASON IS THAT THE
FIGURATIONS OF THE CREATIVE FORMS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS ARE
GOVERNED BY A HIGHER WILL AND CONFORM TO THE LAWS OF A
HIGHER ORDER THAN IS ALLOCATED TO THE VERY LIMITED SCOPE
OF ACTION OF OUR CONSCIOUS WILL. WHILE FANTASY IS THE
OUTCOME OF THE CAPRICIOUS PLAY OF OUR HUMAN DIURNAL
WILL WITHIN THE LIMITS OF ITS FIELD OF ACTION, CREATIVE
IMAGINATION SPARKS THE CREATIVE FLOW IN ITS WOMB, IN ITS
INCOMPARABLY WIDER DIMENSIONS, FORCING A WAY FOR IT INTO
THE SYNAPSES OF OUR CONSCIOUS MIND, WHICH HAS TO READAPT
ITSELF IN ORDER TO ACCOMMODATE IT, GIVING BIRTH TO
CLEARER REPRESENTATIONS THAN OUR HUMAN WILL
COULD EVER FOSTER.



WE CARRY WITHIN US
DIM AND SHIFTING INTUITIONS OR THESE GREATER PERFECTIONS
BEYOND THOSE NORMALLY SEEN OR EXPERIENCED ON EARTH
WE TRY TO GRASP THEM WHILE REMAINING IN OUR EVERYDAY CONSCIOUSNESS, AND ATTRIBUTE OUR FAILURE TO THE ASSUMPTION
THAT THEY MUST HAVE BEEN PURE CONJECTURE, ASTRAL
FANTASY OR WISHFUL THINKING, AND SUFFER FOR WANT OF GIVING
THEM EXPRESSION IN OURSELVES, FOR THEY ARE KNOCKING AT
OUR DOOR, OFFERING TO FERTILIZE US WITH THEIR BOUNTY, AND
OUR FEELING OF SLIPPING FAILURE IS NATURE'S WAY OF REMINDING
US OF THE URGENCY OF FULFILLING THIS IMPERATIVE HUMAN
NEED.
UNDOUBTEDLY A PART OF OURSELVES IS CONTINUALLY ACTING
CONSCIOUSLY AT THESE LEVELS WORKING BACKSTAGE OF OUR
PERSONALITY, AND IF WE COULD INTEGRATE ITS EXPERIENCE INTO
OUR EVERYDAY AWARENESS, AS IS OUR MENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS
WITH OUR BODY CONSCIOUSNESS, WE WOULD BECOME MORE AND
MORE CREATIVE OF EVER GREATER BEAUTY, RICHNESS AND
LUMINOSITY,
RIGHT DOWN INTO OUR PERSONALITY.

-- The Rosicrucian Emblems of Daniel Cramer

IT IS THEN A MATTER OF NEUTRALIZING THE CRITICAL RESISTANCE OF THE
CONSCIOUS MIND IN ORDER TO MAKE ACCOMMODATION IN IT FOR THE
UNIVERSAL DIMENSIONS OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION, AND THEN REACH UP
AND FLOW OUT INTO THE PLACE
WHERE THE COSMIC PATTERNS
OF ALL CREATED THINGS
ARISE ON THE HORIZONS OF ONE'S VISION.

THE IMAGINATION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND AND THE UNCONSCIOUS WILL HAS MUCH
MORE COURAGE THAN THE INDIVIDUAL WILL BECAUSE IT HAS A VISION OF IMMENSITY
AS OPPOSED TO THE VISION OF NARROWNESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL WILL. IF YOU
TRUST THE ACTION OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL FORCES IN YOU TO PROJECT VISION
INTO YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND, AND THEN IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO BELIEVE IN
THE IMPOSSIBLE, YOU WILL BRING THE VISIONS OF YOUR SOUL RIGHT DOWN ONTO
THE SCREEN OF YOUR MIND AND SEE IT ALL WITH PERFECT CLARITY. YOU WILL
BECOME WHAT YOU SEE, THAT IS THE SECRET OF BECOMING, YOU BECOME WHAT YOU
THINK MAY BE YOUR VISION, BUT IT IS THE VISION OF GOD WITHIN YOU.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS

TO BE DONE

THE NECESSARY

AND THE IMPOSSIBLE

(IBN L'ARABI)

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

CLEARLY NOW IT IS A MATTER OF KEEPING THE DOOR OPEN
BETWEEN UNCONSCIOUS AND CONSCIOUS, SO THAT THE ELUSIVE
PATTERNS OF THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS MAY FLOW INTO
THE CONSCIOUS. AS THE CONSCIOUS WILL CANNOT OPERATE BEYOND
THE THRESHOLD BETWEEN THESE, ONE HAS TO TRUST
ONESELF TO AN UNCONSCIOUS WILL WHICH CAN ONLY BE TRIGGERED
OFF BY AN AUTOSUGGESTION OF THE CONSCIOUS WILL,
AFTER WHICH THE CONSCIOUS WILL MUST RETIRE, ABSTAINING
FROM ANY FURTHER INTERVENTION. ONCE THE CONSCIOUS WILL
OF A PIANIST HAS TRAINED HIS FINGERS, AN AUTOMATION TAKES
PLACE, TRANSFERRING CONTROL OF THE PLAYING TO THE UNCONSCIOUS
WILL. SHOULD HE THEN INTERFERE WITH HIS CONSCIOUS
WILL, HE WOULD DISTURB THE COURSE OF THE BUILT-UP
PATTERN OF ACTION WHICH THE UNCONSCIOUS WILL CAN NOW
PERFORM MUCH BETTER THAN THE CONSCIOUS WILL. YET THE
CONSCIOUS, CEASING TO WILL, CAN ACT PASSIVELY BY OBSERVING
OR LISTENING, CAN EVEN EXERCISE AN ACTION AT A DIFFERENT
LEVEL ALTOGETHER, ON AN OVERALL SCALE. FOR EXAMPLE,
IT CAN CONTROL ACCENTUATION AND PUNCTUATION, OR
MUSICAL INTERPRETATION IN GENERAL.



PRECISELY THE SAME APPLIES HERE TO THE CONTEMPLATIVE: YOU
MUST MAINTAIN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS AT THE THRESHOLD BETWEEN
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. OBVIOUSLY IF YOU SHIFT
TOWARD THE UNCONSCIOUS, THE CONSCIOUS BECOMES UNCONSCIOUS,
YOU CANNOT BRING YOUR EXPERIENCE THROUGH TO YOUR
DIURNAL MEMORY, AND CONSEQUENTLY FALL INTO THE STATE OF
SLEEP. SHOULD YOU SHIFT TOO FAR TOWARDS THE CONSCIOUS,
WHICH HAPPENS IF YOU REGAIN IDENTIFICATION, YOU LOSE HOLD
ON THE PATTERNS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS.

BY SUSPENDING ONESELF AT THE THRESHOLD
ONE KEEPS THE DOOR OPEN BETWEEN THE TWO

BY TRYING TO INTRODUCE CONSCIOUSNESS INTO THE UNCONSCIOUS,
THE SETTING SHIFTS IMMEDIATELY TOWARD THE CONSCIOUS.
BY LOSING A HOLD OF THE CONSCIOUS, THE DOOR IS
CLOSED IRRETRIEVABLY. THERE MUST BE A CONSCIOUS CONTROL
OVER THE UNCONSCIOUS WILL, TRAINING IT TO GLEAN ARCHETYPAL
PATTERNS IN THE UNCONSCIOUS AND PROJECT THEM INTO
IMAGES IN THE CONSCIOUS. TO PERFORM THIS ORIENTATING ACTION,
THE CONSCIOUS WILL HAS NO OTHER MEANS WITHIN ITS
GRASP THAN TO CATALYZE THE FLOW OF ARCHETYPES BY MUSING
UPON THE IMAGES WITH WHICH IT IS FAMILIAR, SELECTING
IMAGES WHICH TEND TO CONJURE INFINITE ELUSIVE AND
INSPIRATIONAL REMINISCENCES OF OTHER DIMENSIONS.





YOU BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE WIDER RANGES OF THE UNIVERSE
WHICH ARE ALL WITHIN YOUR REACH

WIDER RANGES OF YOUR SELF

REMEMBER THE BARDO THODOL. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE
COURAGE TO FACE THE CLEAR LIGHT, THEN YOU WILL BE
REMOVED TO WHATEVER PLANE CORRESPONDS TO YOUR ASPIRATIONS,
AND IF THOSE PLANES ARE PLANES OF SPLENDOR YOU WILL
BE LED INTO EXPERIENCING THE INCREDIBLE LUMINOUS BEINGS
OF THE HIGHER REALMS OF THE HEAVENS; AND IF YOU ARE
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE SPICY, THEN YOU MAY
START FINDING YOURSELF ON PLANES WHERE YOU EXPERIENCE
THROUGH THE SENSES; AND IF EVEN THAT IS NOT QUITE ENOUGH,
YOU MIGHT FIND YOURSELF IN DEMONIC WORLDS ... AFTER ALL,
SOME OF US SEEK THIS IN THE MOVIES.

YOU WILL ALWAYS LAND ON THE LEVEL
THAT CORRESPONDS TO YOUR BEING
IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU WANT

IF YOU ARE SEEKING FOR THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION,
THEN THIS IS THE WAY,
THE WAY IS OPEN TO YOU

BY BECOMING AWARE OF YOURSELF AS
A BEING OF LIGHT.

IMMEDIATELY YOUR WHOLE BEHAVIOR WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE,
YOU WILL BEGIN TO CORRECT THINGS THAT ARE NOT IN KEEPING
WITH THE BEING OF LIGHT THAT YOU KNOW YOU ARE. ONE MAY
FORGET IT AND THEN REITERATE THE EXPERIENCE AGAIN AND
AGAIN, UNTIL IT BECOMES SO DEEPLY IMBUED THAT ONE HAS TO
READJUST ONE'S WHOLE LIFE IN KEEPING WITH ONE'S EXPERIENCE.
THIS IS AN ESSENTIALLY CREATIVE PROCESS.



VISIONS OF LIGHT
COLORS AND LANDSCAPES OF LIGHT
TEMPLES OF LIGHT
ILLUMINATED FACES

ALL KINDS OF VISIONS OF THAT KIND THAT MAY OR MAY NOT ARISE.
WHETHER THEY ARISE OR NOT IS NOT IN ANY WAY AN INDICATION
AS TO WHETHER YOU ARE ILLUMINATED OR NOT.

THE KEY IS NOT TO SEE IMAGES

THE KEY IS TO BECOME LUMINOUS IN YOUR BEING

THIS WILL NO DOUBT OPEN UP AN AWARENESS OF THE ANGELIC
PLANES; THE REASON BEING, AS BUDDHA SAID, THAT IF YOU REACH
THE STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS CORRESPONDING TO A PLANE, YOU
EXPERIENCE WHAT IS ON THAT PLANE. IF YOU BECOME TOTALLY
LUMINOUS, YOU BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE THE CONDITION OF THOSE
ANGELS THAT ARE CALLED ANGELS OF LIGHT. IF YOU BECOME
TOTALLY IMMACULATE, BEYOND EMOTION, YOU EXPERIENCE THE
CONDITION OF
THE ANGELS OF PEACE.







STAY SUSPENDED AT THE THRESHOLD
THESE VISIONS OF BEAUTY START RUSHING THROUGH YOU
-- CLOUDS FROM OFF THE OCEAN --
YOU ARE RAPT IN A CONTEMPLATION OF PURE SPLENDOR
TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF IMAGES TO CONJURE WOULD BE
THOSE WONDROUS PANORAMIC SCENES OF A
BREATHTAKING
SUNRISE OR SUNSET WHERE THE SKY BREAKS INTO A FLURRY OF
THE MOST AMAZING MULTICOLORED HUES OF INFINITE SHADES
AND PATTERNS.
WHY DO THEY AFFECT US SO PROFOUNDLY, IF NOT THAT
THEY REVIVE IN US AN EXPERIENCE
PRESERVED IN THE UNCONSCIOUS STRATA OF MEMORY
FOR SO LONG
SUDDENLY EMERGING
AT THE SPECTACLE OF THEIR LIKENESS IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD.
AS ONE HOVERS OVER THE THRESHOLD, THE CONSCIOUS
REPRESENTATION OF THE SUNRISE OR SUNSET WILL
TRIGGER OFF THE UNCONSCIOUS PATTERNS OF
A LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL
WHICH WILL FLOW THROUGH TO OUR AWARENESS, PROVIDING WE
ABANDON ANY FURTHER CONSCIOUS ACTION AND CEASE IDENTIFYING
OURSELVES WITH OUR BODY OR MIND CONSCIOUSNESS. IT
IS THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE UNLIKELY, UNREAL AND IDEALISTIC,
EVEN IDYLLIC, WHICH THE CRITICAL MIND WILL ENSURE
IF ONE SHIFTS THE SETTING BACK TO
THE CONSCIOUS.

Brandenburger Tor, Deutchland Erwacht: Werden, Kampf und Sieg der NSDAP (Germany Awakes: Growth, Battle and Victory of the NSDAP, 1933]



1 Mai 1933 [May 1, 1933], Deutchland Erwacht: Werden, Kampf und Sieg der NSDAP (Germany Awakes: Growth, Battle and Victory of the NSDAP, 1933]



-- Das Feuervert am "Tag der Arbeit" [Day of the Working Class], 1 Mai 1933 [May 1, 1933], Deutchland Erwacht: Werden, Kampf und Sieg der NSDAP (Germany Awakes: Growth, Battle and Victory of the NSDAP, 1933]

***

Over and over again, in mass rallies so carefully staged that they left no one immune, [Hitler] pummeled home, with the force of a master magician such as has not been seen before or since, the startling doctrine that he and the people were one. Through torchlit night parades, striking military bands, cathedral-like arcs of light, and the patterns and colors of swastika flags, a religious fervor was created among audiences wearied with waiting for hours until he came before them, suddenly, late at night, thundered his oration, and left just as suddenly.

-- Gods & Beasts -- The Nazis & the Occult, by Dusty Sklar

MAINTAIN YOURSELF
ABOVE THE THRESHOLD

CONTIGUOUS TO IT
SURVEYING BODY AND MIND FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT
INSTEAD OF INTRODUCING DIURNAL CONSCIOUSNESS INTO
DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS, ONE INTRODUCES DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS
INTO DIURNAL CONSCIOUSNESS. AFTER THE CONSCIOUS HAS
TRAINED THE UNCONSCIOUS INTO SKIRTING THE BORDERLINE,
THE UNCONSCIOUS TRAINS THE CONSCIOUS TO SUPERIMPOSE ITS
DEEPER VISION UPON ITS OWN. IT IS AS THOUGH THE INNER EYE
WERE ABLE TO CONTEMPLATE
A TRANSFIGURED LANDSCAPE OF LIGHT
WHILE VAGUELY PERCEIVING THE EARTHLY PANORAMA, WHICH
LOOKS LIKE ITS PETRIFICATION IN A DIMINISHED DIMENSIONALITY,
LIKE A THREE DIMENSIONAL WORLD TO BE THE PROJECTION
OF A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL ONE AT A DIMENSION YOU CAN
ONLY GRASP IN DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS. BEING IN ONE'S DREAM
CONSCIOUSNESS ONE IS NOT CONSCIOUS OF BEING SITUATED AT
ANY POINT OF PHYSICAL SPACE AND THEREFORE CAN DISPLACE
ONE'S CENTER
WITHIN THE LANDSCAPE



SUCH IS THE WAY OF ACCESS TO THE HEAVENLY SPHERES OF
CELESTIAL SPLENDOR. THEY CAN BE REACHED BY A KEEN CONTEMPLATIVE
AT THE PRICE OF UNSPARING TRAINING AND INDOMITABLE
PERSEVERANCE, USING THE WILL TO NEUTRALIZE
THAT VERY WILL AND LET A MORE COSMIC ONE TAKE OVER. IT
SEEMS AT FIRST AS THOUGH ONE WERE REVIVING MEMORIES OF
PRISTINE CONDITIONS OF THE SOUL STORED IN THE DEEPER STRATA
OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, UNTIL ONE REALIZES THAT PARTS OF
ONE'S COMPOSITE BEING STILL FUNCTION AT THESE LEVELS. IT'S
JUST A MATTER OF FINDING THE CORRESPONDING STATE
OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

DISCOVER YOUR SELF AS A BEING OF LIGHT

NOT AS AN AURA BUT AS A PURE LUMINOUS CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH
LIGHTS UP ALL THINGS AS IT TURNS TOWARDS THEM. ALL THE REST
IS JUST THE LAMP THE SCAFFOLDING, THE OUTSIDE,
THE WRAPPING
THE LAMP THROUGH WHICH GOD SEES

IT HAS TO BE JUST AS LUMINOUS AS THE EYES WHICH SEE THROUGH
IT. IT IS A STATE IN WHICH YOU FEEL THAT WHEREVER YOU WALK,
YOU ARE BRINGING A LIGHT THAT SHINES, THAT THRUSTS A LIGHT
UPON YOUR PATH, AND WHEREVER YOU TURN YOUR FACE YOU ARE
CASTING THE FLOODLIGHT OF YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS UPON ALL
THINGS. AND EVERYTHING BECOMES CRYSTAL CLEAR. YOU SEE
RIGHT INTO THE INSIDE OF THINGS,
RIGHT INTO THE DEPTHS OF MATTER,
INTO THE SOULS OF BEINGS.

[admin]

BREATH



YOU HAVE TO BUILD THE CENTERS OF PERCEPTION IN THE HIGHER
BODIES. THEY'RE THERE BUT THEY'RE STILL ASLEEP. A BABY BORN
ON THE EARTH PLANE HAS TO START LEARNING TO USE HIS EYES
AND EARS AND TRY TO RELATE WHAT HE EXPERIENCES TO THE
PATTERN OF TIME AND SPACE. A BABY WILL REACH OUT TO THE
MOON; HE DOESN'T REALIZE THAT IT IS BEYOND THE REACH OF HIS
HANDS. AND SO WE HAVE TO PREPARE OURSELVES FOR
MEDITATION.



THERE IS A FACET OF OUR WILL WHICH ENABLES US TO INTERVENE
INTENTIONALLY IN THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE ANABOLIC
AND THE CATABOLIC SETTINGS, WHICH GOVERN THE SCOPE OF
PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL ACTIVITY. BY SLOWING
DOWN THE BREATH THE HEART BEAT SLOWS DOWN, AND THE
BALANCE BETWEEN THE SYMPATHETIC AND THE PARASYMPATHETIC
NERVOUS SYSTEMS IS SHIFTED TOWARD THE ANABOLIC RATE:
THE BODY BECOMES INERT, INSENSITIVE, THE AUTONOMIC FUNCTIONS
TAKE OVER INCREASINGLY, IT ESCAPES THE ACTION OF THE
WILL, TENDING TOWARD THE CATALEPTIC STATE.

PERIPHERAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS SUSPENDED AND CONSCIOUSNESS
SINKS INTO DEEPER AND DEEPER LAYERS. ONE PERCEIVES ARCHETYPES,
ONE ENVISIONS CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS, ABSTRACTIONS,
RATHER THAN THINKING CONCRETE OR CONTINGENT THOUGHT
PATTERNS OR IMAGES. BY THE SHEER FACT OF DOING CONSCIOUSLY
WHAT IS NORMALLY DONE UNCONSCIOUSLY, PARTICULARLY
WITH REGARD TO THIS MOST IMPORTANT OF HUMAN
FUNCTIONS REGULATING THE FLOW OF ENERGY AT ALL LEVELS,
ONE SHIFTS THE THRESHOLD BETWEEN CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
FURTHER INTO AREAS THAT FELL UNDER THE DARKNESS OF
THE UNCONSCIOUS, REACHING CONSCIOUSLY NOW INTO THE
ROOTS OF OUR ORDINARY THINKING:
FROM THE PARTICULAR TO THE UNIVERSAL.





FURTHERMORE, THE CONTROL OF THE BREATH MAY BE DIRECTED
TOWARDS ENHANCING THE MAGNETIC FIELD, TRANSFORMING OR
ORIENTING ITS ENERGY AS DESIRED. AS THE PHYSICAL BODY
DRAWS OXYGEN INTO THE BLOOD AND EXPELS TOXIC GASES, THE
PRANA MAYAKOSHA, THE ETHERIC BODY, SOMETIMES CALLED THE
MAGNETIC FIELD, REPLENISHES AND RECHARGES ITSELF WITH
COSMIC ENERGY, THEN DIGESTS OR TRANSMUTES THIS ENERGY,
CIRCULATING AND DISTRIBUTING IT THROUGH THE COMPLEX SYSTEMS
OF CHAKRAS (CORRESPONDING TO THE PLEXI OF THE AUTONOMIC
NERVOUS SYSTEM) THEN RADIATES IT, IN ENERGY PATTERNS
ACCORDING TO THE NATURE OF EACH RADIATING CENTER.
ONE CANNOT OTHERWISE ACCOUNT FOR THE ENERGY ACCRUED
DURING THE HOURS OF SLEEP. THIS PROCESS OF RECHARGING CAN
BE INTENSIFIED DURING THE SO-CALLED WAKING HOURS BY DOING
CONSCIOUSLY WHAT IS DONE UNCONSCIOUSLY DURING ONE'S
DAILY OCCUPATIONS. SHOULD ONE WITHDRAW CONSCIOUSNESS
FROM THE BODY AND ITS PERCEPTION, TONE DOWN ONE'S EMOTIONAL
VIBRATION AND MENTAL ACTIVITY, AND IDENTIFY ONESELF
WITH ONE'S MAGNETIC FIELD, CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFTS OF ITSELF
FROM BODY CONSCIOUSNESS TO ETHERIC CONSCIOUSNESS
EVERYTHING
IS ENERGY
IN MOTION
HOWEVER, IDENTIFICATION WITH THE ETHERIC OR ASTRAL
PRESENTS THE DANGER OF A LOSS OF THE SENSE OF REALITY IN
EVERYDAY LIFE, AND IN EXTREME CASES UNCONTROLLED OR EVEN
OBSESSIVE ASTRAL PROJECTION, SHOULD ONE LOSE THE ARIADNEAN
THREAD MAINTAINING A REMOTE AWARENESS OF THE PHYSICAL
BODY SIMULTANEOUS WITH ONE'S IDENTIFICATION WITH
THE ENERGY FIELD. CONSEQUENTLY, WE PREFER LEADING THE
BREATHING PRACTICES INTO THOSE CONNECTED WITH LIGHT,
AS NO HARM CAN COME TO ONE BY ENTERING INTO ONE'S
CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONE'S LUMINOUS NATURE.
THE BODY IS ITS CRYSTALLIZATION





HERE OUR PRACTICES WITH BREATH BEGIN

SLOW DOWN YOUR BREATH, SLOW DOWN YOUR HEART BEAT, THE
VIBRATIONS OF THE BLOOD, SLOW DOWN THE TONUS OF YOUR
EMOTIONS, CLEAR YOUR BREATH, CLEAR THE MIND OF THOUGHTS,
REFINE YOUR BREATH, SURROUND YOURSELF WITH A ZONE OF
SILENCE, SIMPLY BE INTENSELY AWARE OF BREATHING.

BECOME CONSCIOUS OF CONTRACTION AS YOU INHALE, EXPANSION
AS YOU EXHALE, CONCENTRATION AS YOU INHALE, RADIATION AS
YOU EXHALE. WITH THE EXHALATION EXPEL ALL THE POLLUTED
MAGNETISM FROM YOUR BEING. REACH OUT AS FAR AS YOU CAN GO
AND DRAW IN COSMIC ENERGY AS YOU INHALE.

BE CONSCIOUS OF THE CONVERGENCE OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE
INTO THE CENTER OF YOUR BEING, YOUR SOLAR PLEXUS, AS YOU
INHALE. CONSCIOUSNESS IS JUST A FOCAL CENTER IN THE TOTALITY,
AN EDDY IN THE SEA OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, AN EGG
IN THE TOTALITY. CONCENTRATE THE TOTALITY IN THE CENTER,
AS YOU INHALE.

THE SOLAR PLEXUS IS A RECEPTIVE CENTER. IT IS THE DEPTH OF
YOUR BEING, ALMOST LIKE A PIT, A DEEP SEA, A SEA OF FIRE.
INHALE DEEP WITHIN THE SOLAR PLEXUS, SUCK MAGNETISM INTO
THE VORTEX OF THE SOLAR PLEXUS, IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE
ROLLED WITHIN AND THAT YOU DISCOVER A NEW DIMENSION OF
SPACE WITHIN. IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE WALLED IN, SO THAT
THERE IS NO EXIT TO THE OUTSIDE, AND THEN YOU DISCOVER THIS
VAST EMPTY SPACE, AN INFINITY OF SPACE WITHIN.

THE HEART CENTER IS A CENTER OF EXPRESSION OF RADIATION, IN
FACT IT IS VERY MUCH LIKE THE SUN, IT IS THE CENTER OF THE
ETHERIC BODY. AS YOU BREATHE OUT YOU GO OUT FROM THE
CENTER, RADIATING INTO THE TOTALITY, BROADCASTING
MAGNETISM, WARMTH, LOVE, UNDERSTANDING, ENERGY,
LIKE THE SUN.



SO YOU BREATHE DEEP INTO THE SOLAR PLEXUS, THE SEA OF FIRE,
AND THEN BREATHE OUT, RADIATING LIGHT,
FROM THE HEART CENTER.



YOU BEGIN TO BE CONSCIOUS OF AN EMANATION, WHICH YOU FEEL
VERY PRECISELY AROUND THE SHOULDERS,
A MANTLE OF LIGHT
... BUT TO START WITH SIMPLY A MAGNETIC FIELD THAT SEEMS TO
BE CARRYING LIGHT AT ITS EDGES. A MAGNETIC FIELD CAN GIVE
OUT LIGHT, LIGHT IS AN ELECTROMAGNETIC PHENOMENON,
AND IN FACT
THE AURA IS BORN

IT EMANATES FROM THE MAGNETIC BODY. EXPERIENCE EXPANSION,
TO THE POINT OF MERGING WITH THE TOTALITY. DISIDENTIFY
WITH THE DENSENESS OF THE PHYSICAL BODY. EXPERIENCE YOURSELF
AS EMPTY AND LIGHT, INDEED ETHERIC, LIKE STEAM. THE
PHYSICAL BODY SEEMS TO BE THE CONDENSATION AND CRYSTALLIZATION
OF THAT STEAM, STATIC AND FOSSILIZED
AS COMPARED WITH THE PULSATION OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD,
WHICH IS BREATHING ALL THE TIME:
AS IT BREATHES IN IT CONTRACTS, AS IT BREATHES OUT IT EXPANDS.
AND THE SAME THING WITH THE LIGHT WHICH ISSUES FORTH:
IT IS LIKE A PULSATING STAR.





LET US ADD A FEW FACTS TO THIS BREATH. STAND UP AND HOLD
YOUR HANDS OUT IN FRONT OF YOU. AS YOU INHALE DRAW ENERGY
IN THROUGH THE SOLAR PLEXUS, THROUGH THE SOLES OF THE
FEET, AND THROUGH THE CAVITY AT THE TOP OF THE HEAD; SO WE
HAVE THREE INLETS FOR ENERGY: EARTH ENERGY, THE ENERGY OF
THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE EARTH, THROUGH
THE SOLES OF THE FEET,
PRANA OR COSMIC ENERGY THROUGH THE SOLAR PLEXUS,
CELESTIAL ENERGY THROUGH THE CROWN.
AND AS YOU EXHALE YOU RADIATE FROM THE HEART CENTER, BUT
YOU ALSO FEEL THE DILATION OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD THROUGH
YOUR SHOULDERS AND SEND OUT ENERGY THROUGH
THE PALMS OF YOUR HANDS.

WORK WITH THIS ENERGY NOW, SO AS TO BE ABLE TO REPLENISH
OURSELVES WITH MAGNETISM, TO BUILD UP MAGNETISM, TO HOLD
IT AND DIRECT IT AND MOST ESPECIALLY
TO PURIFY OURSELVES WITH IT.

THERE IS A POLLUTION PROBLEM WITH HUMAN BEINGS
IT HELPS TO KNOW JUST HOW TO CLEANSE ONESELF.

Key Concepts in Nazi Antisemitism:
3. Pollution
by Jonathan Harrison
June 27, 2008

On 13 March 1942, a Nazi court delivered a death sentence against Lehman Israel Katzenberger, whose age at that time was over 68 years, for the crime of 'racial pollution' under Article 2 of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor. Katzenberger was beheaded by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison in Munich on 2 June 1942. The presiding judge, Oswald Rothaug, declared that “It is sufficient for me that the swine said that a German girl had sat upon his lap.” He also stated that:

Together with his offense of racial pollution he is also guilty of an offence under paragraph 4 of the ordinance against people’s parasites. It should be noted here that the national community is in need of increased legal protection from all crimes attempting to destroy or undermine its inner cohesion.

Rothaug thus admitted that a key political strategy of the Nazi state was to maintain the 'cohesion' of its mythical racial identity by accusing Jews of polluting the body politic. Why did the Nazis pick this particular strategy and what were its historical antecedents?

Pollution is a syncretic political strategy which exploits a myth that appears historically in three different but overlapping contexts: religious, medical and nationalist. The strategy enabled the Nazis to overcome resistance to their political authority among religious believers, doctors, academics and the armed forces by tapping into their mentalities and igniting themes that were part of their institutional histories but were often marginalized during the century of relative liberalization that preceded the Nazi rise to power. Uncovering the genealogy of the myth therefore gives an insight into how the Nazis melded old and new prejudices into a dogma of genocidal force.

The link between pollution and social cohesion strategies has been noted by anthropologists. The most famous of these, Mary Douglas (1966), argued that pollution myths concerning the body were projected on to the entire group in order to symbolize dangers to its unity. Dirt signified "matter out of place" (p. 36) and came to represent pollution of the entire social order (p. 5):

Reflection on dirt involves reflection on the relation of order to disorder, being to non-being, form to formlessness, life to death.

Pollution thus came also to represent social death in certain caste systems. For example, Lifton (1986: 482) notes that the Japanese outcaste group, the Burakumin, used to:

bear the name "Eta", whose literal meaning is "full of filth", "full of pollution" or "abundant defilement".

However, anthropologists like Douglas were referring primarily to the social cohesion of minority sects, such as the Israelites in the Biblical era. Pollution myth only became genocidal when it was used by a majority against a stigmatised minority. In Europe, that process dates from the eleventh century, when the Church and state united to form a 'Persecuting Society' (R.I. Moore, 2001). From around the time of the First Crusade in 1096, Jews began to be accused of crimes such as 'ritual murder' and 'usury'. An example of the pollution discourse used to frame these accusations is provided by Robert Chazan (1997: 122):

William of Chartres, in concluding his report on the discussion between Louis IX and his advisers with respect to Jewish usury, has the king speaking of Jews as infecting his land with their poison. The discussion ends with the king telling his advisers: “Let those prelates do what pertains to them concerning those subject Christians, and I must do what pertains to me concerning the Jews. Let them abandon usury, or they shall leave my land completely, in order that it no longer be polluted with their filth.”

However, at this point, the alleged pollution was spiritual, not biological. The Jew was usually allowed (or forced) to convert to Christianity. This began to change in the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition, when converted Jews were accused of being false converts or 'Marranos' (pigs). Pollution began to find expression in peculiar beliefs about the Jew's Body (Gilman, 1991). For example, Beusterien cites this claim by a royal physician:

In 1632 Doctor Juan de Quiñones, an official in the court of King Philip IV, devoted an entire treatise to Jewish maladies, focusing on the allegation that Jewish males menstruated. He wrote: "every month they suffer from a blood flow as if they were women."

Even before the emergence of racial science, therefore, there was already a potential for the syncretic merging of religious and medical delusions about Jews. It was not necessary to invent biological racism from scratch, as its seeds were already in the culture of post-Inquisition Europe. The fact that was unique to the post-1800 period was the inclusion of classes below the ruling elites in the definition of the 'body politic'. This was due to the fact that race and nation functioned as tools of vertical integration. This had the effect of multiplying the numbers of groups eligible to be included in the myth of the nation, until it became a concept that was amenable to socialist and liberal applications as well as reactionary ones. We therefore find that, by 1900, Jews could be blamed by a range of political groups for a variety of national ills across the European continent, expressed in terms of biological degradation.

For example, in France, Jews were blamed for the loss of the Franco-Prussian war (Brustein, 'Roots of Hate', p.121), and this fuelled the Dreyfus Case two decades later. French and German nationalism borrowed from the 'degeneracy' theories of Gobineau, whilst German Volkish discourse took on a virulently antisemitic tone in the work of Wilhelm Marr and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Marr had been a socialist in his youth. In Italy, Cesare Lombroso was an assimilated Jew and a socialist who nonetheless believed that the "white race" was threatened by the innate criminality of degenerate breeds. In Britain, the Eugenics Society included such liberal figures as the Webbs, Beveridge and Keynes. Beveridge, the future founder of the Welfare State, wrote in 1905 that:

It is essential…to maintain the distinction between those who, however irregularly employed, are yet members, though inferior members, of the industrial army and those who are mere parasites, incapable of performing any useful service whatever…[The unemployable] must be removed from industry and maintained adequately in public institutions, but with the complete and permanent loss of all citizenship rights -- including not only the franchise but civil freedom and fatherhood [cited in Rose, 1999: 254-255]

The influence of these ideas on antisemitism became apparent in the passing of the 1905 Aliens Act, which was designed to keep out East European Jews (Gainer, 1972). Beatrice Webb, a leading Fabian, had referred to "the greed of the Jew" in her research into the textile industry in the East End; and the liberal economist J.A. Hobson had blamed financiers, "chiefly German in origin and Jewish in race" for the Boer War.

However, it should be noted that radical antisemitic parties fared poorly in national elections in Britain in 1906 and Germany in 1907, so there was no immediate risk prior to 1914 of such ideas leading to mass killing. It was Germany's defeat in 1918, followed by the displacement of educated elite groups by Germany's economic problems in the 1920's, that allowed the Nazis to intensify these ideas into forms of hatred that could appeal to mentalities that would be amenable to its policies.

The result of these alliances was support among carefully chosen elites for the kind of state murder discussed in the opening paragraph. Hitler declared that Jews were a "race of criminals" and was able to recruit enough doctors to carry out sterilizations, judges to pass death sentences, and SS men with PhD's to lead the Einsatzgruppen (Stahlecker, Rasch, Ohlendorf).

It was thus a simple exercise to escalate from individual judicial and medical murders to a mass genocide. The willingness of doctors and judges to knowingly conspire in individual murder leading to genocide is made clear in primary sources. On 11 May 1942, Dachau doctor Rascher wrote to Himmler that:

For the following experiments Jewish professional criminals who had committed race pollution were used.

Similarly, the correspondence from the Reich Minister of Justice Thierack to Reichsleiter Bormann dated 13 October 1942 revealed that:

With a view to freeing the German people of Poles, Russians, Jews, and gypsies and with a view to making the Eastern territories which have been incorporated into the Reich available for settlements for German nationals, I intend to turn over criminal proceedings against Poles, Russians, Jews, and gypsies to the Reichsfuehrer SS. In so doing I base myself on the principle that the administration of justice can only make a small contribution to the extermination of members of these peoples. The Justice Administration undoubtedly pronounces very severe sentences on such persons, but that is not enough to constitute any material contribution towards the realization of the above-mentioned aim.

Pollution had thus escalated from a 'crime' that warranted individual death penalties to a menace that required the extermination of all Jews.

THERE ARE ACTUALLY FOUR DIFFERENT PHASES: PURIFICATION
WITH EARTH, WITH WATER, WITH FIRE, AND WITH AIR. AND THESE
ARE ONLY THE OLD-FASHIONED TERMS; IN THE NEW AGE
WE WOULD SAY: THE SOLID, FLUID, IGNEOUS,
AND VOLATILE ELEMENTS.





THE FIRST PRACTICE IS PURIFICATION WITH THE EARTH ELEMENT.
STANDING UP, YOU BECOME CONSCIOUS OF THE GRAVITATIONAL
PULL OF THE EARTH ON YOUR FEET, THROUGH THE SOLES OF YOUR
FEET, YOU FEEL THE WAY THAT YOUR BODY IS BEING PULLED
DOWN TO THE EARTH. YOU EXPERIENCE THE GRAVITY PULL OF
THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE EARTH UPON THE MAGNETIC FIELD
OF YOUR BODY, NOT THE PHYSICAL BODY, AS THOUGH THE LOWER
PART OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF YOUR BODY WERE BEING
SUCKED INTO THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE EARTH. AS YOU
EXHALE, FEEL THE WAY THAT THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE
EARTH DRAWS THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF YOUR BODY TOWARDS IT,
AND AS YOU INHALE, BE CONSCIOUS OF THE WAY IN WHICH THE
MAGNETIC FIELD OF YOUR BODY DRAWS THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF
THE EARTH INTO ITSELF, JUST LIKE THE PLANT THAT DRAWS THE
EARTH AND THE WATER INTO ITSELF. BE AWARE OF YOURSELF AS A
MAGNETIC FIELD WHICH SURROUNDS AND PENETRATES
THE PHYSICAL BODY
BE AWARE OF THE EBB AND FLOW OF MAGNETISM
THROUGH YOUR SOLES.
AS YOU BREATHE IN, DRAW THE ENERGY UPWARDS THROUGH THE
BODY. AS IT PASSES THROUGH THE DIFFERENT CHAKRAS, IT HAS TO
BE FILTERED OR SUBLIMATED: THE LOWER EARTH ENERGY CANNOT
OR SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO THE FINER CENTERS, THEY MUST
BE PROTECTED. IT'S A CHAIN REACTION, A BILLIARD BALL EFFECT,
AS THE ENERGY RISES ALONG YOUR SPINE IT RELEASES THE LATENT
ENERGY IN THE DIFFERENT CENTERS, ONE AFTER ANOTHER, EACH
CHAKRA IN TURN ENERGIZES THE NEXT CHAKRA WHICH ENERGIZES
THE NEXT CHAKRA AND SO ON, UNTIL YOU HIT THE TOP AND
BREAK THROUGH THE BARRIER AT THE TOP OF THE HEAD. AND
THEN YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH IN A STATE OF SUSPENSE, AND AS YOU
EXHALE YOU BECOME LIKE A CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH THE
TRANSCENDENTAL ENERGY FROM ABOVE DESCENDS, SO THAT YOU
CAN LET IT FLOW OUT THROUGH THE HEART CENTER. YOU HAVE
TO LET THE CAVITY AT THE TOP OF THE HEAD REMAIN OPEN SO
THAT THE ENERGY FROM ABOVE MAY DESCEND.



YOU FEEL THE BUOYANCY,
YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS DRAWN UPWARDS AS THE
ENERGY RISES, JUST AS A RUBBER BALL ON TOP OF A FOUNTAIN
WOULD KEEP ON BEING LIFTED UPWARDS. BE AWARE OF THE WAY
IN WHICH THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF YOUR BODY IS PURIFIED AND
REPLENISHED BY THE EARTH, THE WAY THE EARTH DRAWS THE
DENSER ASPECTS OF YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD
INTO ITSELF.

IF YOU CAN BECOME AWARE OF THE OPPOSITE POLE TO THE
MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE EARTH, I.E. THE MAGNETIC POLE OF THE
HEAVENLY SPHERES, YOU WILL FIND THAT AS YOU BREATHE OUT
YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD IS PULLED DOWNWARDS BY THE MAGNETIC
FIELD OF THE EARTH AND UPWARDS AS THE MAGNETIC PULL
OF THE CELESTIAL POLE, AND AS YOU INHALE YOU DRAW THE
MAGNETISM OF THE HEAVENS AND THE MAGNETISM OF THE
EARTH INTO YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD. THERE IS AN ACCORDION
EFFECT, THE DENSER ASPECTS OF YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD ARE
DRAWN DOWNWARDS AND THE LIGHTER ASPECTS RAISED
UPWARDS: IT IS A KIND OF ORDERING, A KING OF FILTERING.
FILTERING IS THE PRINCIPLE OF PURIFICATION
WITH THE EARTH ELEMENT.







THE SECOND BAPTISM IS PURIFICATION WITH WATER. YOU
EXPERIENCE YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD IN ITS FLUID STATE. THE
FLUID COMPONENT OF YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD IS LIKE A LAKE
THROUGH WHICH A RIVER FLOWS, LIKE A KIND OF FLUID MAGNETISM
THAT IS CONTINUALLY CIRCULATING THROUGHOUT THE
ATMOSPHERE, WHICH HAS THE EFFECT OF WASHING YOU CLEAR,
CLEANSING YOU BY A FLOW, TAKING INTO ITSELF ANY OF THE
IMPURITIES IN YOUR MAGNETIC FIELD. YOU FEEL POROUS,
LIKE A SIEVE, WITH LOTS OF LITTLE HOLES IN YOUR SOLIDITY.
IMAGINE THE SPACES BETWEEN THE CELLS IN YOUR BODY, THE
ENORMOUS SPACES BETWEEN THE PARTICLES,
THE SPACES BETWEEN THE STARS.
LET THE ENERGY FLOW THROUGHOUT YOUR BODY,
NOT JUST AROUND YOUR BODY AS THOUGH YOU WERE
IMMERSED IN THE JORDAN,
BUT ALL THROUGH YOUR FLUID BODY. STAND ON YOUR TIPTOES,
LET YOUR HANDS JUST HANG IN THE AIR AS IF IN STILL WATER, AND
SHAKE YOUR HANDS AS HEALERS DO WHEN THEY CLEAR THEMSELVES
OF POLLUTED MAGNETISM IN THEIR FINGERS. BREATHE IN
THROUGH THE NOSE AND OUT THROUGH THE MOUTH, CLOSING
THE LIPS SO THAT THE BREATH IS BLOWN THROUGH THE LIPS. JUST
FEEL COMPLETELY RELAXED, AND LET THE ENERGY FLOW
THROUGH YOU FROM UPWARDS DOWNWARDS. AS THE ENERGY
FLOWS THROUGH YOU IT DISSOLVES ANY IMPURITIES
AND CARRIES AWAY ALL THE POLLUTION.

YOU ARE BEING WASHED CLEAN. YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU WERE
SOAKING WET, AS THOUGH YOU WERE HAVING A SHOWER. YOU ARE
HAVING A SHOWER INSIDE. YOU CAN EVEN FEEL THE FLOW
OF MAGNETISM THROUGH YOUR HAIR.





ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST SAID, "I BAPTIZE YOU WITH WATER, BUT ONE
COMES AFTER ME WHO WILL BAPTIZE YOU WITH FIRE
AND WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT."

BAPTISM WITH FIRE, WITH THE IGNEOUS STATE, IS A MORE
RADICAL FORM OF PURIFICATION. WE ARE IN A CONTINUAL STATE
OF COMBUSTION, EVEN THE HEAT OF OUR BODIES IS A PRODUCT OF
THIS BURNING PROCESS. IT IS A PERPETUAL HOLOCAUST IN THE
TEMPLE, WHICH IS CALLED IN THE VEDAS THE ETERNAL
SACRIFICE OF PURUSHA, THE SPIRIT, IN WHICH ALL CREATED
BEINGS PARTICIPATE. WE ARE CONTINUALLY UNDERGOING
THIS PROCESS OF COMBUSTION.

[O]bedience is a holocaust in which the whole man without the slightest reserve is offered in the fire of charity to his Creator and Lord through the hands of His ministers....the obedient man becomes a living holocaust most pleasing to His Divine Majesty.

-- Ignatius Loyola: 25 Most Evil People of the 16th Century C.E., by One-Evil.org

WE CAN EVEN ENHANCE THIS BURNING PROCESS. YOGIS ARE ABLE
TO ENHANCE THE HEAT PRODUCTION OF THEIR BODIES BY IMMERSING
THEMSELVES IN THE COLD WATERS OF THE GANGES
14,000 FEET UP IN THE HIMALAYAS, THEN WRAPPING THEMSELVES
IN A WET TOWEL IN THIS COLD, AND DRYING THE TOWEL
BY THE HEAT OF THEIR BODIES.





EVEN EMOTION CAN ENHANCE THE BODY TEMPERATURE. WHEN
ONE GETS INTO A TEMPER, ONE BURNS MORE INTENSELY, ONE IS
BURNING FOR THE TRUTH, LIKE JOAN OF ARC, ONE WILL STAND UP
FOR ONE'S IDEAL AT THE COST OF WHATEVER SACRIFICE IT MIGHT
MEAN, LIKE MANY OF THE JEWS WHO WERE BURNT
BY THE GESTAPO.

The Germans have forgotten how to hate. Virile hate has been replaced by feminine lamentation. But he who is unable to hate cannot love either. Fanatical love and hate -- their fires kindle flames of freedom. Passionlessness, matter-of-factness, objectivity, are impersonality, are sophistry. Only passion gives knowledge, creates wisdom.

-- A Soldier Believes in Plain Talk, by Ernst Rohm, Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich, by George L. Mosse

THE FIRE OF TRUTH PRODUCES
LIGHT AND ILLUMINATION
WE ARE ABLE TO BRING ABOUT ILLUMINATION BY BURNING
MORE INTENSELY IN OUR LIVES
BY BEARING THE COSMIC CROSS
BY OFFERING OUR SELF
AS A JOYFUL SACRIFICE
DECREPITUDE AND OLD AGE ARE A SIGN OF THE PROCESS OF
COMBUSTION WHICH HAS TRANSFORMED THE PHYSICAL BODY AT
ITS OWN EXPENSE INTO A SUBTLE BODY, INTO THE BODY
OF RESURRECTION. OUR SUFFERINGS ARE A SIGN OF BEING BURNED, OF
BEING ANNIHILATED IN OUR EGO.
THE MORE WE ARE SHATTERED THE MORE OUR CONSCIOUSNESS
RISES WITH GREATER BRIGHTNESS, GREATER INCANDESCENCE
WE GLOW
WE BECOME TRANSPARENT TO LIGHT

THIS IS THE PASSAGE FROM FIRE TO
LIGHT

And I looked, and beheld a white cloud, and upon the cloud I saw one sitting like unto the son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

-- Rev. xiv: 14.

***

THE ANGEL WHO DELIVERED ME FROM ALL EVIL. This is the same as the one mentioned in the verse: "Behold I send an angel before thee, etc." (Ex. XXIII, 20), who, as we have laid down, is the deliverer of the world, the protector of mankind, and the one who procures blessings for all the world, he himself receiving them first. This angel is sometimes male, sometimes female. When he procures blessings for the world, he is male, resembling the male who provides blessings for the female. But when he comes to bring chastisement on the world he is called female, being, as it were, pregnant with the judgement. Similarly, in the words, "the flame of the sword which turned every way" (Gen III, 24), there is a reference to the angels who are God's messengers, and who turn themselves into different shapes, being sometimes female and sometimes male, sometimes messengers of judgement and sometimes of mercy. In the same way, this angel can take all colours like the rainbow, and treats the world correspondingly.

-- The Zohar, translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon

ABRAHAM TURNED THE SWORD, WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE
SACRIFICED ISAAC, UPWARDS, AND IT BECAME THE FLAMING
SWORD WHICH BREAKS THROUGH ALL PLANES, RESULTING IN THE
PRODUCTION OF LIGHT. ALL THIS MAKES POSSIBLE, IN THE
HEKALOTH OF THE JEWS, THE PASSAGE OF SOULS FROM THE
FOURTH PLANE, THE PLANE OF THE SERAPHIM, WHO ARE ANGELS
OF FIRE, TO THE FIFTH PLANE, THE PLANE OF THE CHERUBIM, WHO
ARE BEINGS OF LIGHT. EVERYTHING SEEMS TO TEND TO MAKE
US PURE CONSCIOUSNESS. THE FIRE IS ONE'S VIBRATION TO THE
TRUTH, AND IT IS THAT WHICH TRANSFORMS ONE INTO A BEING OF
LIGHT.

IT IS A MATTER OF BECOMING AWARE OF THE PROCESS OF COMBUSTION
IN OURSELVES BY FANNING THE FIRE IN THE SOLAR
PLEXUS WITH THE BREATH, THEREBY REALIZING THE PURIFYING
IGNEOUS ELEMENT IN OUR MAGNETIC FIELD.

IN A CERTAIN SENSE WE ARE LIKE A FLAME. THE BUDDHISTS HAVE
THE IMAGE OF THE FLAME THAT PASSES FROM LOG TO LOG, BURNING
THROUGH LOG AFTER LOG; FOR THE FLAME TO PERSIST THERE
ALWAYS HAS TO BE ANOTHER LOG, OTHERWISE THE FLAME IS
EXTINGUISHED. THE LOWER ASPECT OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS
LIKE A FLAME WHICH DEPENDS ON WHAT IT CAN BURN. IN A CERTAIN
SENSE THIS FLAME IS OUR DESIRES, OUR CRAVINGS. WE ARE A
CONTINUITY OF CRAVINGS: THE CRAVING OF ONE BEING IS
CONTINUED THROUGH ANOTHER BEING, THE WHOLE OF LIFE
IS TENSIONED TOWARD THE FULFILLMENT OF DESIRE.

RESURRECTION IS THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE
WE ARE FIRE WHICH IS BURNING NOT ONLY OUR BODIES BUT OUR
PERSONALITIES
UNTIL THEY ARE PURIFIED AND ILLUMINATED
PURIFICATION HAPPENS WHEN THERE IS JUST COLD LIGHT.



IN THE HEART CENTER THERE IS HEAT AND LIGHT, IN THE THROAT
CENTER THERE IS HEAT AND NO LIGHT, AND IN THE HIGHER
CENTERS THERE IS JUST THIS COLD LIGHT AND NO HEAT. BY HAMMERING
THE FIRE IN THE SOLAR PLEXUS WE UNLEASH A CHAIN
REACTION WHICH WILL IGNITE THE LIGHT OF THE SUN IN THE
HEART CENTER, WHICH WILL THEN BE SUBLIMATED INTO THE
COLD LIGHT OF THE CROWN CENTER, A VERY COOL TRANSCENDENTAL
LIGHT CORRESPONDING TO THE LIGHT OF VERY HIGH
ALTITUDES, ALMOST FROZEN, IMMACULATE AND DIAPHANOUS,
RISING LIKE A FOUNTAIN OF LIGHT ABOVE THE TOP OF THE HEAD.



BREATHE IN THROUGH THE MOUTH AND OUT THROUGH THE NOSE.
AS YOU BREATHE IN THROUGH THE MOUTH YOU FAN THE FIRE IN
THE SOLAR PLEXUS, AND THEN AS YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH YOU
DRAW YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS UP THROUGH THE HEART CENTER,
THERE IS A SUDDEN EXPLOSION OF LIGHT IN THE HEART CENTER,
WHICH RISES UP TO THE FOUNTAIN OF LIGHT OF THE CROWN.
WHEN YOU BREATHE IN THROUGH THE MOUTH YOU KEEP YOUR
LIPS CLOSED, SO YOU HAVE A CURRENT OF AIR RUNNING THROUGH
YOUR LIPS DIRECTLY TO THE SOLAR PLEXUS. AS YOU BREATHE OUT
THROUGH THE NOSE THE HEART CENTER OPENS UP AND RADIATES
LIKE THE SUN, RADIATES ALSO BACKWARDS THROUGH THE
SHOULDER BLADES, FORMING A MANTLE OF LIGHT, RISING ALSO
UPWARDS THROUGH THE CROWN LIKE A FOUNTAIN OF LIGHT
THAT BREAKS THE LIGHT UP INTO ALL THE COLORS OF THE SPECTRUM,
ALL SCINTILLATING LITTLE SPARKS OF DIFFERENT
COLORED LIGHTS FALLING LIKE A SHROUD AROUND THE AURA.
YOU FEEL LUMINOUS, YOU BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE YOURSELF
AS A BEING OF LIGHT.

INHALE THROUGH THE MOUTH,
FANNING THE FIRE IN THE SOLAR PLEXUS

EXHALE THROUGH THE NOSE,
RADIATING LIGHT FROM THE HEART CENTER

KEEP YOUR LIPS CLOSED, SO YOU HAVE A CURRENT OF AIR RUNNING
THROUGH YOUR LIPS DIRECTLY TO THE SOLAR PLEXUS.

INHALE FIRE, EXHALE LIGHT





THE LAST AND MOST REFINED PURIFICATION IS THE BAPTISM WITH
AIR. IT IS BEST EXPERIENCED STANDING UP, IDEALLY OUT OF
DOORS IN THE WIND. BREATHE IN THROUGH THE MOUTH AND OUT
THROUGH THE MOUTH, MOUTH ALMOST CLOSED, BREATH VERY
REFINED. AND AS YOU BREATHE IN YOU FEEL LIKE AN EAGLE
RUFFLING HIS FEATHERS, LETTING THE AIR FLOW THROUGH
THEM. BREATHE IN THROUGH THE PORES OF THE SKIN, FEEL THE
WIND BLOW THROUGH YOU, PASSING THROUGH THE SPACES
BETWEEN THE CELLS, THE ATOMS OF YOUR BODY. FEEL THE
SPACIOUSNESS OF YOUR BODY: YOU HAVE NO EDGES, NO FRONTIER.
AS YOU BREATHE OUT YOU DISSOLVE IN THE AIR CURRENTS, THE
CIRCULATION OF THE BREATH OF THE WORLD. THE BREATH IS A
FISHING NET: THE OUTBREATH IS THE NET AND THE INBREATH IS
THE KNOT, BUT THE NET AND THE KNOT ARE NOT SEPARATE, THEY
ARE ONE. STAY IN THE SPACE BETWEEN YOUR BREATH. FEEL THE
AIR OF THE WORLD BLOW THROUGH THE THROAT CHAKRA LIKE A
FLUTE. KEEP THE BREATH LIGHT, ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLE, IN
THROUGH THE MOUTH AND OUT THROUGH THE MOUTH. ALLOW
THE FLUID MOTION OF THE WIND TO TAKE YOU WHERE IT WILL.
YOU MAY FEEL IT SWAY YOU, SPIN YOU, LIFT YOU UP LIKE A BIRD, ON
THE TIPS OF YOUR TOES, YOUR ARMS ARE WINGS, YOU ARE FLYING.
ALL DENSITY, ALL GRAVITY IS LEFT BEHIND. YOU ARE TOTALLY
RECEPTIVE TO THE EVER-FLOWING CURRENTS OF THE
BREATH OF LIGHT, THE HOLY SPIRIT.



PRANAYAMA

BREATHE IN FOUR BEATS, HOLD THE BREATH EIGHT BEATS.
BREATHE OUT FOUR BEATS. BREATHE IN THROUGH THE LEFT NOSTRIL
AND OUT THROUGH THE RIGHT, THEN BREATHE IN THROUGH
THE RIGHT NOSTRIL AND OUT THROUGH THE LEFT. IN KUNDALINI
YOGA, YOU ALTERNATE THE CURRENTS IN THE NADIS, THE IDA AND
THE PINGALA, THE SOLAR AND LUNAR NERVE CURRENTS WHICH
CRISS-CROSS UP THE SPINE AND MEET IN THE THIRD EYE,
AS IN THE CADUCEUS OF MERCURY.





THERE IS SOMETHING IN US THAT IS CONTINUALLY STRIVING
TOWARD THE FUTURE, AND AS YOU BREATHE IN THROUGH THE
LEFT NOSTRIL AND OUT THROUGH THE RIGHT YOU WILL FEEL THE
WHOLE FORWARD THRUST OF CONSCIOUSNESS THAT IS MOVING
YOU ALONG THE HORIZONTAL AXIS OF LINEAR TIME, YOU BECOME
FUTURE-ORIENTED. THEN AS YOU BREATHE IN THROUGH THE
RIGHT NOSTRIL AND OUT THROUGH THE LEFT YOU WILL BE MOVING
BACK IN TIME, IF YOU ARE CONSCIOUS OF IT YOU WILL BE
LOOKING RIGHT BACK INTO PAST LIFETIMES,
UNREELING THE WHEEL OF BECOMING AND
GOING RIGHT BACK
INTO PREVIOUS STATES.



NOW WE SHALL MOVE CONSCIOUSNESS ALONG THE SECOND AXIS,
WHICH IS VERTICAL INFINITE TIME ETERNITY. AS YOU BREATHE IN
THROUGH BOTH NOSTRILS TRANSFER YOUR ATTENTION FROM THE
SOLAR PLEXUS TO THE HEART CENTER, UP THROUGH THE THROAT
CENTER, THIRD EYE, BROWN CENTER, TO THE CENTER ABOVE THE
HEAD. AT THE END OF THE IN-BREATHING YOU HOLD YOUR
BREATH, AND THEN AS YOU BREATHE OUT YOU LOOK DOWN FROM
THAT HIGH POINT AND RADIATE THROUGH THE THIRD EYE,
THROAT CENTER, HEART CENTER. THIS IS THE VERTICAL AXIS OF
TRANSCENDENCE, THE LINE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AND DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS.

NOW IF YOU COMBINE THESE TWO PRACTICES YOU WILL COORDINATE
BOTH AXES, VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL, OF THE COSMIC
CROSS. BREATHE IN THROUGH THE LEFT NOSTRIL, HOLD THE
BREATH, BREATHE OUT THROUGH THE RIGHT NOSTRIL, BREATHE
IN THROUGH THE RIGHT NOSTRIL, HOLD THE BREATH, BREATHE
OUT THROUGH THE LEFT NOSTRIL. BREATHE IN THROUGH THE
SOLAR PLEXUS, TRANSFER YOUR ATTENTION UPWARDS. HOLD
YOUR BREATH ABOVE YOUR HEAD, AND THEN DO NOT BRING YOUR
CONSCIOUSNESS DOWN BUT LOOK DOWN FROM THAT VANTAGE
POINT AND RADIATE ENERGY THROUGH THE THIRD EYE,
THROAT CENTER, HEART CENTER.

[admin]

SOUND



FROM THE STANDPOINT OF OUR DIURNAL CONSCIOUSNESS, THE
WORLD APPEARS AS A NETWORK OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS; BUT IF WE
WERE ABLE TO MAINTAIN OUR CONSCIOUSNESS ON ONE OF THOSE
LEVELS FROM WHICH WE SOMETIMES SEE FLASHES OF INTUITION,
WE WOULD FIND THAT REALITY APPEARS UNDER THE FORM OF
VIBRATIONS
THAT ONE IS
ONESELF
A NETWORK OF VIBRATIONS

ONE HAS THE IMPRESSION OF BATHING IN A WORLD OF SOUNDS IN
WHICH EACH VIBRATION HAS ITS SCOPE, ITS DIRECTION, ITS SIGNIFICANCE,
ITS OWN PARTICULAR DURATION OF LIFE, AND EVEN
ITS OWN INDIVIDUALITY. WE DISCOVER THE INTERFERENCES, INTERRELATIONS
AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT VIBRATIONS.
A BEWILDERING WAY OF CONSIDERING THE UNIVERSE
OPENS UP: EVERY HUMAN BEING SEEMS TO BE A NOTE IN A
SYMPHONY, NAY, A SYMPHONY WITHIN A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL
SYMPHONY WHICH MAY BE PART OF THAT STILL VASTER
SYMPHONY

THE SYMPHONY OF THE SPHERES

IF WE ARE ABLE TO ATTUNE OUR CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE LEVEL
CALLED BY THE HINDUS THE AKASHA WE SHALL TOUCH UPON THE
ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS, ALL ACTIONS
A PLACE WHERE REALITY REMAINS
ETERNALLY UNCHANGED
INT HE PERENNITY OF AN ARCHETYPAL VIBRATORY
STRUCTURE



THE ESOTERIC TRADITIONS HAVE HANDED DOWN TO US THE KEY
TO TUNING IN TO THIS PLANE. IT IS THE 'MANTRAM' OF THE HINDUS,
THE 'NEMBUTSU' OF THE BUDDHISTS, THE REPETITIONS OF
KYRIE ELEISON OF THE HESYCHASTS, ORTHODOX HERMIT MONKS,
THE 'WAZIFA' OF THE SUFIS. SUCH TECHNIQUES DERIVE FROM AN
EXPERIMENTAL KNOW HOW THAT TEACHES ONE HOW TO ATTUNE
THE FREQUENCY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS IN SUCH A MANNER
AS TO ENABLE ONE TO BE RECEPTIVE TO VIBRATIONS OF A
DIFFERENT ORDER FROM THOSE GENERALLY PERCEIVED
BY THE EARS.

THERE ARE MANTRAMS IN SANSKRIT, IN PALI, IN TIBETAN, IN
JAPANESE, IN HEBREW, IN ARABIC. THE WAZIFAS ARE PROBABLY
ARABIC AND POSSIBLY EVEN PRE-ARABIC, OF THAT ANCIENT SEMITIC
LANGUAGE PRIOR TO ARAMAIC WHICH IS THE COMMON ROOT
OF HEBREW AND ARABIC. AND ALTHOUGH THE HISTORICAL
SOURCE OF THESE CURRENTS SEEMS TO BE FAR REMOVED FROM
ONE ANOTHER, THE SOUNDS SEEM TO CORRESPOND.



FOR EXAMPLE, IN AUM YOU HAVE THE A IN THE HEART CENTER,
THE U IN THE THROAT CENTER, AND THE M AT THE TOP OF THE
HEAD, WHICH IS VERY SIMILAR TO ALLAH HU, WITH THE DIFFERENCE
THAT THE M IS DIRECTED UPWARDS THROUGH THE CROWN
WHEREAS THE HU IS DIRECTED OUTWARDS THROUGH THE THROAT:
AND IN HINDUISM THE WHOLE TREND IS TOWARD UNITY, THE EXPERIENCE
OF ONENESS, WHEREAS IN SUFISM IT IS TOWARDS BECOMING
A CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH GOD MAY MANIFEST
HIMSELF IN MAN.

WE ARE DEALING WITH AN AREA WHICH SCIENCE HAS NOT YET
EXPLORED, BUT I AM CONVINCED THAT WITHIN THIRTY OR FORTY
YEARS THESE PHENOMENA WILL ENTER THE PURVIEW OF SCIENCE,
WHICH IN NO WAY NEED BE LIMITED TO THE PHENOMENA WHICH WE
DEFINE IN OUR PRESENT VIEWS AS PHYSICAL. THIS MAY THEN POSSIBLY
HELP ESOTERICISTS TO ELABORATE MORE PRECISE METHODS
THAN THOSE RATHER PRAGMATIC ONES BASED ON TRIAL AND
ERROR PRACTICED SO FAR.



LET US BEAR IN MIND THAT OUR PURPOSE IS NOT THE CURIOSITY OF
EXPERIENCE, BUT THE RESULTANT TRANSFORMATION OF OURSELVES.
IF THE UNFOLDMENT OF OUR BEING IS MEASURED BY THE DEGREE
TO WHICH WE INCORPORATE THE RICHNESS OF THE UNIVERSE,
EXPERIENCE IS ESSENTIALLY AN INTERPENETRATION AND INTERFUSION
BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF THE SAME
THING. HOW MUCH DO WE KNOW ABOUT OUR SENSITIVITY TO
SOLAR RAYS OR TO VIBRATIONS BEYOND THE KNOWN RANGE
OF THE EARDRUMS?



IF SOUND CAN BE USED AS A LANGUAGE, IT IS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATING
PHYSICAL OR PSYCHIC OR EVEN SPIRITUAL ENERGY:
LIKEWISE, SUPER-SONIC VIBRATIONS COMMUNICATE THEIR
ENERGY AND MESSAGES TO THE UNCONSCIOUS OR SUPER-CONSCIOUS.
WHAT DO WE KNOW OF THE OVERTONES IN OUR VOICES
THAT ARE PICKED UP BY THE UNCONSCIOUS OF OUR HEARERS,
COMMUNICATING A FAR GREATER RICHNESS THAN OUR OFT
INADEQUATE WORDS ....

THE VOICE OF SILENCE



ONE MIGHT CALL THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A WORD THE NON-PHYSICAL
REALITY. BY VIBRATING SYMPATHETICALLY WITH THE
RESONANCE OF THE CORRESPONDING SOUNDS, ONE DISCOVERS
THE REAL SIGNIFICANCE BEYOND THE CONCEPT OF THE MIND:
THE SIGNATURE, AYAT, THE IMPRINT, SIGN, THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
THAT REALITY OF WHICH MATTER CARRIES THE IMPRESS, THAT
REALITY THAT STRIVES TO MANIFEST ITSELF
IN AND THROUGH MATTER.

WE HAVE LITTLE IDEA HOW WE HAVE BEEN MARKED BY THE CONCEPTS
OF THE MIND STANDING IN THE WAY OF TRANSCENDENTAL
EXPERIENCE, FOR AT HIGHER LEVELS ALL CONCEPTS MUST DISAPPEAR
IN ORDER TO PLACE US FACE TO FACE WITH REALITY IN ALL
ITS NUDITY AND NAKEDNESS.



In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
1. By the Sky
and The Night-Visitant
2. And what will explain to thee
What the Night-Visitant is?
3. (It is) the Star
Of piercing brightness;
4. There is no soul but has
a protector over it
5. Now let man but think
From what he is created
6. He is created from
A drop emitted --

WHEN ONE PRACTICES THE MANTRAM OR WAZIFA, ONE BECOMES
THE SUBTLE INSTRUMENT COMMUNICATING DIVINE SIGNIFICANCE
TO ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS TRICKLING OVER THE THRESHOLD OF
THE UNCONSCIOUS THROUGH THOSE OVERTONES THAT ONE IS
TAUGHT TO BRING INTO RELIEF.

UNLIKE ORDINARY LANGUAGE, WHERE WORDS ARE LINKED TO
THEIR SIGNIFICANCE BY PURE CONVENTION, THE MANTRAM OR
WAZIFA HAVE BEEN HANDED DOWN FROM ARCHAIC LANGUAGES
WHERE EACH SOUND IS THE VIBRATORY COUNTERPART OF A
TRANSCENDENTAL SIGNIFICANCE. ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE EVERY
OBJECT HAS A SPECIFIC RATE OF VIBRATION, WHICH MIGHT
INCLUDE SEVERAL FREQUENCIES RUNNING PARALLEL.



AT TIMES ONE IS HIGHLY CONSCIOUS OF THE IMPERFECTION OF
THE MEANS WITH WHICH ONE COMMUNICATES WITH OTHERS; WE
ARE LIMITED BY WORDS, CONDITIONED BY THE CONCEPTS ATTACHED
TO WORDS BY OUR EDUCATION. THIS IS WHY ZEN
BUDDHISTS AND THE SUFI IBN L'ARABI PLAY WITH WORDS IN ORDER
TO DESTROY THE CONCEPTS. PARADOX IN NO WAY BETRAYS A
DESIRE TO SHINE BY ONE'S WIT, BUT TO EXPLODE CONFINING
CONCEPTS BREAKING THROUGH BEYOND.

THE MANTRAM HAS THE ADVANTAGE OF NOT BINDING US TO A
CONCEPT. THERE IS OF COURSE A DANGER IN ATTACHING A CONCEPT
TO A MANTRAM. IF YOUR TEACHER PRESCRIBES A MANTRAM
TO YOU, YOU ARE LIKELY TO ASK HIM FOR ITS SIGNIFICANCE.
SHOULD HE TELL YOU ITS MEANING, AND SHOULD YOU ATTACH
YOURSELF TO ITS SIGNIFICANCE SUCH AS YOUR MIND CONCEIVES
IT, YOUR CONCEPT OF IT WOULD STAND IN THE WAY OF YOUR
DISCOVERING ITS DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE.



THE TEACHER, THEREFORE, ENCOURAGES ONE TO DISCOVER THE
MEANING OF ONE'S SELF IN REFERENCE TO ONE'S SELF
IN THE COURSE OF THE REPETITION OF THE MANTRAM.

MAYBE ONE IS AT FIRST PERPLEXED AS TO WHY THE TEACHER HAS
TO BE SO MYSTERIOUS ABOUT IT, UNTIL ONE UNDERSTANDS THAT
HE IS OPENING ONE TO THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CONNOTATION
CATALYZED BY THAT PARTICULAR WORD, SO THAT, AT EVERY
FRESH STAGE, ONE DISCOVERS FURTHER MEANING IN WHAT AT
FIRST APPEARED AS AN EVIDENCE CONCEPT.

THE ADVANTAGE OF A MANTRAM IS THAT
IT DOES NOT HAVE A MENTAL SIGNIFICANCE
THEREFORE IT FORCES ONE TO SUPERSEDE
THE MENTAL CONCEPT

ALTHOUGH ONE HAS TO PASS THROUGH
THE MENTAL CONCEPT TO START WITH
TO GIVE ONE A SENSE OF DIRECTION.



IN THE WEST IT SOUNDS BRUTAL TO SAY:
THE PURPOSE OF THE MANTRAM IS TO DESTROY THE MIND
IT IS TO BYPASS CONCEPTUALIZATION
IN ORDER TO BREAK THROUGH THE RATIONALIZING STRATA OF
THE MIND
TO REACH OUT TO THOSE MENTAL LEVELS USUALLY REFERRED TO
AS
INTUITION
THE CURIOUS THING ABOUT IT IS THAT ONE HAS RECOURSE TO THE
BODY TO DETRACT CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE SEIZURE OF THE
CONCEPTUAL STRATA OF THE MIND BY FOCUSSING CONSCIOUSNESS
ON THE OVERTONES, BYPASSING THIS STRATUM TO REACH OUT
TO THE ARCHETYPAL ONE
A REASON FOR NOT REPEATING MANTRAM MORE OFTEN
THAN PRESCRIBED
THE DRAWBACK OF THE PHYSICAL REPETITION IS OBVIOUSLY ITS
HYPNOTIC EFFECT WHICH, BY DESTROYING THE INDIVIDUAL
CENTER OF CONSCIOUS WILL, THROUGH THE TAKE-OVER OF AUTOMATION,
BRINGS ONE TO THE FRINGE OF TRANCE, UNLESS ONE
STIMULATES CONSCIOUSNESS BY CHECKING ON THE QUALITY OF
THE SOUNDS PRODUCED AND FLASHING ON THE OVERTONES, OR
AT A FURTHER STATE
CONCENTRATING ON THE MEANING

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

THE FOCUS OF CONSCIOUSNESS THUS ACQUIRED WILL LIFT ONE
ONTO A LEVEL OF AWARENESS USUALLY CALLED REVERIE,
BECAUSE AS ONE DOES NOT GENERALLY KNOW HOW TO OPERATE
CONSCIOUSLY AT THIS LEVEL, IT SEEMS NEBULOUS.

WHEN ONE IS ABLE TO DO THIS
ONE WAKENS FROM THE REVERIE THRESHOLD
INTO
A STATE OF INTENSE LUCIDITY
WHERE
WHAT SEEMED UNREAL NOW ASSUMES ITS FULL REALITY
AND WHAT SEEMED REAL
NOW FALLS OUT OF FOCUS AND SEEMS ILLUSORY

A WORLD OF VIBRATIONS COMES INTO FOCUS
SUCH AS YOU HAD ALWAYS BELIEVED IN DESPERATELY AND THEN
GIVEN UP AS MAKE-BELIEVE



AT FIRST YOU THINK
YOU
ARE PRODUCING THE SOUNDS

THEN YOU FEEL LIKE
THE ORGANIST WHO HEARS THE MUSIC
HE TRIGGERS OFF AT THE OTHER END
OF THE CATHEDRAL AND FINDS IT DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT HE
IS PRODUCING IT, IN FACT, YOU NOW ENVISION YOURSELF AS THE
INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH THE SOUND PASSES AND THE INSTRUMENT
THROUGH WHICH IT IS HEARD. THIS IS BROUGHT ABOUT
BY LISTENING TO THE OVERTONES INSTEAD OF THE BASE SOUND,
THEN USING THE SCALE OF OVERTONES
AS A JACOBS LADDER
TO CLIMB



JACOB'S LADDER
IT IS LIKE LISTENING TO THE ECHO OF THE ECHO OF AN ECHO
ZOOMING IN ON THE REFLEX IMAGE OF THE REFLEX OF A REFLEX
ONE MUST BE SILENT IN ONE'S SOUL
TO LISTEN TO THE SOUNDS ONE SPLASHES INTO THE ETHER
THAT ARE REVERBERATED FROM ONE STRATUM OF THE ETHER FIELD
TO THE OTHER
THROUGH THAT SUBTLE TRANSFORMER
ONE IS CONNECTING WITH ALL PLANES OF THE UNIVERSE

-- The Pictorial Language of Hieronymus Bosch, by Clement A. Wertheim Aymes

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MANTRAM THEN CONSISTS IN FOLLOWING
THE OVERTONES OF THE SOUND BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE
RANGE OF THE EAR, INTO THE SUPERSONIC RANGE PICKED UP BY
THOSE AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS USUALLY REFERRED TO AS THE
UNCONSCIOUS. ONE CONTINUES TO LISTEN, BUT NOT WITH THE
EAR. THUS CONSCIOUSNESS IS INDUCED TO EXTEND BEYOND ITS
SPAN, SHIFTING ITS THRESHOLD WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS,
PROVING THAT THE CONSCIOUS CAN PICK UP STIMULI BEYOND
THE ACCEPTED RANGE OF THE SENSES.

THE CLASSICAL TECHNIQUES REQUIRE ONE TO REPEAT THE
PRESCRIBED MANTRAM A GIVEN NUMBER OF TIMES: 21, 33, 101, 10001,
ETC.; BUT IT IS BETTER TO INTERRUPT THE SEQUENCE IF ONE IS NOT
ENTIRELY SATISFIED WITH THE SOUND PRODUCED. THERE IS NO
POINT IN REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKE OR PERPETRATING THE
SAME IMPERFECTION OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
DO NOT CONTENT YOURSELF WITH THE SOUND PRODUCED.

IN FACT, ONE IS LIKE THE INDIAN MUSICIAN WHO, IN GUISE OF
TUNING HIS INSTRUMENT, IS ACTUALLY TUNING HIMSELF TO THE
RIGHT PITCH. AN INDIAN MUSICIAN MAY TAKE HOURS TO TUNE HIS
VINA. IT LOOKS AS THOUGH HE IS TUNING HIS VINA, BUT ACTUALLY
HE IS TUNING THE SOUL
YOU SAY THE SOUND, AND 'OH, NO, THAT'S NOT IT', SO YOU DO IT
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND YOU GRADUALLY GET YOUR
SOUL INTO A CONDITION WHICH ENABLES YOU TO PRODUCE THE
DESIRED SOUND IN THE CHAKRA. ONE FEELS THINGS IN ONE'S SELF
THAT ONE DOESN'T LIKE IN THE SOUND THAT ONE PRODUCES: IT'S TOO
PERSONAL OR IT'S TOO HARSH OR THERE'S TOO MUCH EGO IN
IT OR IT'S TOO INHARMONIOUS OR THERE'S SOME THING IN IT THAT
YOU DON'T LIKE: ALL THOSE THINGS WHICH YOU SUFFER FROM IN
YOUR SENSE OF BEAUTY, WHICH CAUSE DESPAIR
IN THE MINDS AND HEARTS OF MEN.







YOU KEEP ON TUNING INTO THE SOUND
TURNING INTO THE SOUND
YOU BECOME MORE AND MORE HARMONIOUS
MORE AND MORE IMPERSONAL

UNTIL YOU BECOME LIKE THE AEOLIAN HARP THAT THE GREEKS
USED TO EXPOSE TO THE HIGH WINDS ON THE HILLS: THE WINDS
WOULD BLOW INTO THE HARP AND PRODUCE
CELESTIAL HARMONIES.

WORK WITH THE SOUND UNTIL YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZED
THAT YOU COULD PRODUCE SUCH A SOUND AND IT SEEMS TO YOU
THAT YOU ARE JUST THE INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH THE
DIVINE PIED PIPER BLOWS THE WHISPER OF THE INCANTATIONS OF
HIS MAGIC SPELL.

IN THE ADVANCED TECHNIQUES, ONE SHOULD REPEAT THE
PRESCRIBED WORD ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES, OR A FEW TIMES
MORE, UNTIL OE STRIKES THE RIGHT NOTE, THEN LISTEN TO THE
ECHO PRODUCED, THEN LAUNCH THE SOUND AGAIN,
BUT INTERNALLY, SO TO SPEAK, WITHOUT SAYING IT ALOUD.

YOU HAVE THUS USED THE BODY AS A SPRINGBOARD TO PASS FROM
PHYSICAL SOUND TO ETHERIC SOUND.

NOW FOLLOW UP THIS SOUND IN THE ETHER, THUS STRENGTHENING
YOUR THOUGHT FORMS, BECAUSE, EVEN AS ONE CAN PRODUCE
A PHYSICAL SOUND BY THINKING IT AND WILLING IT, EVEN SO ONE
CAN PRODUCE A SOUND IN THE ETHER.

THEN YOU LISTEN TO IT:



YOU ARE
SIMULTANEOUSLY
THE CREATOR AND THE WITNESS
OF THE SOUND

ONE IS ACTUALLY WORKING WITH THAT MAGICAL INSTRUMENT,
CREATIVE IMAGINATION, IN THE REALM OF SOUND,
FASHIONING SOUNDS RATHER THAN FORMS. ONE ACTUALLY TUNES
ONE'S BODY OF VIBRATION LIKE A VIOLIN OR A CELLO BY
MODULATING THE SYMPATHETIC RESONANCE OF THE VOCAL
CHORDS. SHOULD YOU PLACE A HARP AND A PIANO IN THE SAME
ROOM AND ATTUNE THEM TO THE SAME PITCH, THE PERCUSSION
OF A CHORD ON ONE OF THESE INSTRUMENTS WILL SET THE
CORRESPONDING CHORD IN THE OTHER INSTRUMENT RESOUNDING
SYMPATHETICALLY. IN THE HUMAN BEING, NATURE HAS DEVISED
A MORE SUBTLE DEVICE: IMAGINE THAT BY TUNING THE PIANO,
THE HARP WOULD FALL INTO TUNE AUTOMATICALLY.



BECOME YOURSELF
PURE VIBRATION BEYOND SPACE
IF THE SOUND GENERATED BY THE VOCAL CHORDS INTO THE
VIBRATORY NETWORK OF THE UNIVERSE HAS THE FACULTY OF
TUNING ONE, IT IS BECAUSE IT LINKS ONE WITH THE COSMIC
SYMPHONY. THE REPETITION OF A PHYSICAL SOUND SETS OFF A
SOUND CURRENT, A VIBRATORY TIDAL WAVE IN THE ETHER BY
BUILDING UP ENERGY THUS SUBLIMATED THE SOUND CURRENT
FUNCTIONS LIKE A SILVER CHORD WHICH CARRIES ALL OUR
VIBRATORY IMPULSES ON ALL LEVELS TO AND FRO.

CONSIDER THE WAY THE ENERGY OF A FALLING STONE HITTING
THE SURFACE OF THE WATER OF A SEISMIC CONVULSION WILL SET
UP A RIPPLE, WHICH MAY EXTEND ACROSS THE ENTIRE STRETCH
FROM SHORE TO SHORE UNLESS OVERCOME BY THE INERTIA OF THE
WATER., LIKEWISE, THE SOUND OF THE MANTRAM SETS UP AN UNDULATION
IN THE NEIGHBORING AIR, VOIDING ITSELF INTO INFINITY,
UNTEEMED UNDULATIONS IN LESS AND LESS DENSE SUBSTANCE,
UNTIL ONE REACHES THE INERTIA ZERO POINT WHERE THE
WAVES SHOULD BE DEATHLESS.



IN THIS CONNECTION THE MANTRAM ACTS AS A FEED-BACK SYSTEM
OSTENSIBLY BRINGING PARTICULARLY TO ONE'S NOTICE THOSE
ASPECTS OF ONE'S SELF THAT ONE DOES NOT LIKE, THUS ENJOINING
UPON ONE TO OPERATE AN INTERNAL READJUSTMENT WHICH
IS IMMEDIATELY HEARD IN THE VOICE AND HAS A CONSEQUENT
REPERCUSSION IN THE VIBRATORY SHEATH.

THE MASTER IN THE ART KNOWS HOW TO MAKE USE OF ALL
SOUNDS, OPERATE ON ALL VIBRATORY LEVELS, PLAY ON ALL
SCALES. IN ONE'S SCHOOLING, ONE IS GIVEN IN THE COURSE OF
YEARS DIFFERENT SOUNDS TO WORK WITH, CORRESPONDING TO
SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS, IN ORDER TO ENABLE ONE TO EXTEND
ONE'S SCOPE. THIS IS A VERY VALUABLE SCIENCE PRESERVED
AS A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET THROUGHOUT THE AGES IN THE
ESOTERIC AND INITIATIC TRADITIONS OF THE WORLD AND
REVEALED TO A DISCIPLE AS HE ADVANCES, IN ORDER TO
PRECLUDE THE MISUSE OF THE SECRET WORDS FOR
PERSONAL GAIN OR THE PRESCRIPTION OF THE WRONG MANTRAM.



THE SAME MUST HOLD GOOD OF OUR VIBRATORY NETWORK

AT A CERTAIN STAGE IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOU ARE PICKING UP
NOT ONLY THE OVERTONES, OR EVEN THE ECHO OF THE VIBRATION
LAUNCHED INTO THE ETHER, BUT THE RESPONSE, REACTION OR
REJOINDER OF THE BEINGS WHOSE PARTICULAR WAVE LENGTHS
ONE HAS STIRRED AND QUICKENED BY RESOUNDING THEIR VERY
SPECIFIC VIBRATIONAL RATE, LIKE THE HARP AND THE PIANO. AS
THEIR NUMBERS MAY BE LEGION, ONE IS AWED BY THE BILLIONS OF
SOUNDS THAT ONE HAS SET INTO MOTION BY ONE'S OWN SOUND
THAT NOW APPEARS MISERABLY DWARFED!



ACCORDING TO THE SUFIS, THE ANGELS SEEK A MEANS OF
EXPRESSING THEIR GLORIFICATION -- LIGHT, VIBRATION -- AND WE
ARE BORN OF THESE. BY OUR ACTS OF GLORIFICATION
WE COMMUNE AND HENCE COMMUNICATE WITH THEM
AT THEIR LEVEL.

AT FIRST IT SOUNDS LIKE AN ELECTRIC MACHINE, OR VENTILATOR
FAN, OR SOME ELECTRONIC MUSIC -- MAYBE THE BEST
EXAMPLE IS THE SOUND OF THE AEOLIAN HARP. IT MAY SOUND A
LITTLE HUMDRUM AND MONOTONOUS AT FIRST, LIKE A CONTINUOUS
HUM, THEN ONE DISCOVERS MORE AND MORE RICHNESS
WITHIN THIS SOUND, NEW HORIZONS OF HARMONY, MANY SAY LIKE
A CHOIR OF ANGELS. IT WOULD BE A MISTAKE TO TRY TO DESCRIBE
IT BECAUSE IT HAS NO EARTHLY EQUIVALENT.

ONE RUNS THE RISK OF INDUCING PEOPLE INTO THE WRONG EXPECTATION.
SOME WILL RECOGNIZE FAMILIAR HARMONIES FORGOTTEN
ALL THIS TIME YET CONSIGNED ALL THE WHILE IN THE
REGISTRY OF UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY. IF A PERCEPTION (PROBABLY
PRENATAL) STIRS ONE, IT IS BECAUSE IT REVIVES A KNOWN
IMPRESSION WHICH SUDDENLY IS QUICKENED: A BABY DOES NOT
KNOW WHAT HE PERCEIVES UNTIL HE HAS PERCEIVED SOMETHING
SIMILAR BEFOREHAND. THUS THE REPETITION OF A MANTRAM IS
OPENING A DOOR TO THE HEAVENLY SPHERES. IT FOCUSSES ONE'S
SENSITIVITY TO PLANES WHICH ONE THEN INCORPORATES INTO
ONE'S PERSONALITY, THUS ENRICHING ONE'S INCARNATE NATURE
WITH THE ATTRIBUTES OF ONE'S SOUL WHICH MAY NOT HAVE
FOUND THEIR WAY DOWN INTO EVERYDAY REALITY YET. ONE
ACQUIRES A NOTION OF ONE'S REAL IDENTITY WHICH HAD BEEN
REDUCED IN ONE'S MIND TO ONE'S EARTHLY COUNTERPART.



THIS IS WHERE ONE'S AFFINITY WITH THE ANGELIC BECOMES
MEANINGFUL AND EXHILARATING, BY THE SPELL OF
THE RECOGNITION OF PRENATAL IDENTITY.





IMAGINE
YOU ARE STROLLING
IN A WONDER FULL SPOT
THE GRASS IS GREEN
THE SKY IS BLUE

NOW IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE HIGH
THROUGH RELIGIOUS OR MEDITATIVE EXPERIENCE, OR BECAUSE
YOU ARE IN LOVE, IN A STATE OF EUPHORIA, YOU WILL HAVE THE
IMPRESSION OF BEING CAUGHT UP IN A TRANSFIGURED WORLD,
LURED INTO THE COSMIC DANCE OF SHIVA. IT IS THE SAME COUNTRYSIDE,
AND YOU ARE THE SELF SAME PERSON, YET SOMETHING IS
CHANGED: SUDDENLY YOU ARE ABLE TO PERCEIVE WHAT YOU HAD
NOT BEEN ABLE TO PERCEIVE BEFORE. IT IS AS THOUGH
A LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL
HAD SUPERIMPOSED ITSELF
UPON AN EARTHLY SCENE.

SUCH IS THE ATTUNEMENT
TO
CELESTIAL SENSITIVITY



WE LIVE ON SEVERAL PLANES AT THE SAME TIME

'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war:' US generals given baffling PowerPoint presentation to try to explain Afghanistan mess
by Mail Foreign Service
28th April 2010

Its coloured charts, graphs and bullet-points are supposed to make the most incomprehensible data crystal clear.

But even the sharpest military minds in American were left baffled by this PowerPoint slide, a mind-boggling attempt to explain the situation in Afghanistan.

'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war,' General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander, remarked wryly when confronted by the sprawling spaghetti diagram in a briefing.

***



-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

THIS KNOWLEDGE REQUIRES VERY MUCH
PRACTICE AND CONCENTRATION INDEED.

MOREOVER, IT IS THANKLESS, BECAUSE, AFTER
REPEATING MANTRAM EVERY DAY FOR WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS, ONE
MIGHT ASK ONESELF: WHAT GOOD HAS IT DONE ME? HAS MY
CONSCIOUSNESS BEEN LIFTED IN THE LEAST? LITTLE DOES ONE
KNOW WHAT A BAD JUDGE ONE IS OF ONESELF, THAT ONE CANNOT
DETECT CHANGES IN ONESELF AS WELL AS OTHERS CAN.
CURIOUSLY ENOUGH, THESE PRACTICES CAN BEAR THEIR FRUIT A
LONG TIME AFTERWARDS, EVEN AFTER HAVING GIVEN UP THE
PRACTICE. IT TAKES A LONG TIME FOR A PROCESS TO MATURE
ONCE STARTED.



IT IS SAID IN THE HAKHALOTH, THE BOOK OF THE HEAVENLY SPHERES OF THE JEWS,
THAT EACH TIME A NEW SOUL DESCENDS IN THE OCEAN OF THE MANIFESTED REALM,
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD FROM YONDER INTO THE SEVENTH HEAVEN, IT GENERATES
A VIBRATION WHICH IS COMMUNICATED TO THE ENTIRE COSMIC OCEAN,
WHICH MEANS ALL CREATED REALMS, EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY, PHYSICAL AND
SUPER-PHYSICAL. AS EACH OF THESE VIBRATIONS BRING INTO RESONANCE A HOST
OF CONSONANT ONES THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE, THEIR UNIMAGINABLE INTERFERENCES
PRODUCE GLOBALLY THE SYMPHONY OF THE SPHERES REFERRED TO
BY PYTHAGORAS. EACH CREATURE AND EVERY SO-CALLED THING (ONE SHOULD SAY
BEING) IS A CRYSTALLIZATION OF A PART OF THIS SYMPHONY OF VIBRATIONS. THUS
WE ARE LIKE A SOUND PETRIFIED IN SOLID MATTER AND WHICH CONTINUES
INDEFINITELY TO RESOUND IN THIS MATTER
AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH
AND THE WORD BECAME
FLESH
AND THE WORD
BECAME FLESH
AND ...
IN THE MANTRAM PRACTICES ONE ACTUALLY KNEADS THE VERY
FLESH OF OUR BODIES WITH SOUND. THE DELICATE CELLS OF
THESE ELABORATE BUNDLES OF NERVE FIBERS THAT ARE THE
PLEXI OR GANGLIA OF THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, SUCH AS
THE SOLAR PLEXUS OR THE CARDIAC PLEXUS, ARE SUBJECTED TO A
CONSISTENT HAMMERING, WHICH UNDOUBTEDLY HAS A TRANSFORMING
EFFECT UPON THESE. THERE IS A KIND OF SEIZURE OF
THE FLESH BY THE VIBRATIONS AND AN ADAPTION OF THE FLESH
TO THE FORCEFUL SWAY OF THE VIBRATIONS. ALTHOUGH WE DO
NOT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE RECIPROCAL TRANSFERENCE OF
PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS, THE EXTENT OF
THE TRANSFORMATION IS CERTAINLY VISIBLE IN A PERSON ON
COMPLETION OF A FORTY DAY RETREAT. THIS ADAPTATION OF FLESH
TO SOUND IS REMOTELY REMINISCENT OF THE ADAPTATION OF
PHYSICAL MATTER TO THE PASSAGE OF INTENSE LIGHT RAYS, OF
WHICH WE HAVE AN EXAMPLE IN THE PHENOMENON OF
CRYSTALLIZATION.



PRACTICALLY SPEAKING THE MANTRAMS OPEN THE CENTERS
CALLED CHAKRAS IN HATHA OR KUNDALINI YOGA, AND THERE IS
AN ART IN KNOWING WHICH CHAKRAS TO DEVELOP ACCORDING
TO THE IDIOSYNCRASIES OF EACH INDIVIDUAL.

THERE IS HARDLY ANY DANGER IN DEVELOPING THE ANAHATA
CHAKRA OR HEART CENTER, WHICH IS A RADIANT, SOLAR AND
WARMLY VIBRANT CENTER COMMUNICATING LIFE, ENERGY, EXPANDING
SYMPATHY. MANY HIGHLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE PROTECT IT
INSTINCTIVELY FROM THE HARSHNESS OF HUMAN EGOS WITH A
HARD SHELL THAT BLURS ITS RADIANCE, WHEREAS THE INITIATE IS
TAUGHT TO PROTECT HIMSELF WITH INNER INDIFFERENCE WHILE
RADIATING LOVE.
WHEN THIS CENTER DEVELOPS
IT UNFOLDS LIKE A BUD IN THE SUN
THIS CAN BE SEEN BY PERCEPTIVE INITIATES. PEOPLE WHO ARE
HEMMED INTO THEMSELVES WILL BENEFIT BY THE OPENING OF
THIS CENTER. AN EGYPTIAN PAPYRUS SHOWS A HEIROPHANT
OPENING HIS NEOPHYTE'S HEART CHAKRA WITH A BEAM THRUST
FORWARD FROM HIS THIRD EYE. ONE CAN EFFECT THIS OPENING
ONESELF WITH THE THIRD EYE OR WITH THE USE OF THE
APPROPRIATE SOUND.



THE HEART CHAKRA
IS
PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE
TO AN EXPANSIVE SOUND
LIKE THE SOUND
AH
IT IS THEN A MATTER OF KNOWING
HOW
TO PLACE THE SOUND.

AH

THROUGH CONCENTRATION ON THAT
PARTICULAR SPOT IN THE BODY. CONCENTRATE ON THE HEART AS
YOU REPEAT THE SOUND "AH". THERE IS A CONVERGENCE OF ONE'S
ENTIRE ORGANISM ON THIS SPOT. THIS IS HOW VOICE TEACHERS
TEACH THEIR PUPILS TO PLACE THEIR VOICE HIGH OR LOW. THE
RESULT IS A CLEARLY CONCENTRATED PHYSICAL EFFECT:
AN AUDIBLE RESONANCE IS INTRODUCED INTO YOUR CHEST
ORIGINATING IN YOUR VOCAL CHORDS EXACTLY AS THE
VIBRATIONS OF THE CHORDS OF A VIOLIN OR CELLO
ARE COMMUNICATED TO THE RESONANCE BOX.

THIS RESONANCE BECOMES MORE AND MORE VIBRANT UNTIL YOUR
WHOLE BEING BECOMES VIBRANT. IF THIS PRACTICE IS PRACTICED
EVERY DAY, YOUR WHOLE BEING WILL BECOME HIGHLY VIBRANT
WITH LIFE AND ENHANCED ENERGY, BECAUSE THE "AH" HAS A
COSMICISING EFFECT, EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS TO
COSMIC DIMENSIONS.



THE "U" OR THE SOFT "OO" HAVE A TRANSCENDING EFFECT, IN
CONTRAST TO THE COSMICISING EFFECT OF THE "AH", AND
RESOUND IN THE THROAT CHAKRA OR LARYNGEAL PLEXUS
WHICH IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE VOCAL CHORDS. THE
SOUND "U" PLACES ONE IN A VERY SUBTLE FRAME OF MIND, ATTUNING
ONE TO HIGHER SPHERES. IT IS A HUM LIKE THAT OF THE
BEE, THE ONE HEARD IN A SHELL PICKED UP FROM THE SEASHORE,
OR THE MURMUR OF THE WIND IN THE TREES, OR THE FLAPPING OF
THE WINGS OF A DOVE. AS ONE PRODUCES THE SOUND, ONE LETS
ONESELF BE SENSITIZED AND LULLED BY IT, THEN PERMEATED BY
IT UNTIL ONE IS CARRIED UPON ITS WINGS
INTO YONDER HORIZONS.
IT IS DIFFICULT TO PRODUCE. MANY PUPILS MISTAKENLY RESOUND
IT IN THE HEART, WHICH OFTEN RESULTS FROM SINGING IT. IT
SHOULD BE PLACED FORWARD BETWEEN CLOSED LIPS, ALLOWING
THE OVERFLOW OF COMPRESSED AIR TO CAUSE A VIBRATION IN
THE PALATE. SOMETIMES IT IS STRATEGICAL TO MAKE A NASAL
SOUND, THEN LET THE SOUND SETTLE DOWN INTO THE PALATE.





THE SOUND "I" OR "EE" IS PLACED IN THE PINEAL GLAND, ABOVE
THE PALATE, KNOWN AS THE THIRD EYE. BUT IT SHOULD BE OBSERVED
THAT A NUMBER OF RISHIS REFER TO AT LEAST TWO
FURTHER CENTERS PLACED HARMONICALLY ABOVE THE FIRST
ONE AT A RESPECTIVE DISTANCE OF TWO FEET ABOVE THE CROWN
AND THE SECOND ONE SIX FEET. OTHERS SPEAK OF
A WHOLE CHAIN OF CHAKRAS.
ITS A MATTER OF CONCENTRATION
THE THIRD EYE
IS
THE POINT
THAT GOES OUT, THAT BEAMS FORWARD, JUST LIKE A NEEDLE OR A NAIL, THAT IF YOU
PUT THE SLIGHTEST PRESSURE BEHIND IT HAS A TREMENDOUS PENETRATING POWER.
YOU GO OUT INTO IT, EEEE. DON'T THINK ABOUT PRODUCING A BEAUTIFUL SOUND.
DON'T SING IT. IT'S SUPERSONIC, IT'S LIKE THE HISSING OF A SERPENT. WHEN YOU
CATCH YOURSELF DOING IT RIGHT YOU SUDDENLY FEEL AS THOUGH YOU WERE
HEARING THE SOUND OF THE PLANET MERCURY.



THE HIGHER YOUR CONCENTRATION POINT, THE HIGHER YOU
WILL BE LIFTED, TO THE EXTENT THAT ONE DOES NOT KNOW ANY
MORE WHETHER THE INSTRUCTIONS APPLY TO A SPECIFIC DISTANCE
ABOVE ONE'S PHYSICAL BODY OR WHETHER IT IS ABOVE THE
ETHERIC, ASTRAL OR MENTAL, BECAUSE THE BODY SEEMS NOW
WAY DOWN THERE SOMEWHERE! WHILE YOUR WHOLE BEING
IS CONCENTRATED (EKAGRATA) IN A SINGLE DOT, WITHOUT SURFACE
OR VOLUME, "THE FINE EDGE OF THE SOUL", THE LANCE OF PARSIFAL
THAT RISES HIGHER AND HIGHER AS A FILAMENT, IS REDUCED
TO ONE'S SIMPLEST EXPRESSION, AS IN THE BUDDHIST NIRVANA,
THAT ON ACCOUNT OF ITS SHARPNESS PASSES THROUGH ALL
OBSTACLES, LEADING BEYOND THE ANGELIC AND ARCHANGELIC
PLANES INTO THE ABSOLUTE.
WE ARE ALL FIRED BY THIS THIRST FOR THE ABSOLUTE, THIS NOSTALGIA
FOR A BREAKTHROUGH INTO A BEYOND; HOWEVER HIGH
ONE REACHES, ONE WOULD LONG FOR FURTHER HORIZONS, IF IT
WERE NOT FOR ONE'S FEAR OF NOT BEING ABLE TO RETURN, OBVIOUSLY
THE SAME THING AS THE FEAR OF DEATH, WHICH IS
NOTHING LESS THAN AN INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION WHICH
NATURE SAW USEFUL FOR ORDINARY PURPOSES. BUT THIS HAS



blip

TO BE SURPRISED IF ONE SEEKS FOR SPIRITUAL REALIZATION TO
THE EXTENT THAT THE ULTIMATE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE IS THAT
OF A DEATH THAT AVERS ITSELF TO BE RESURRECTION, BUT ONE
PASSES THROUGH A BLACK-OUT, LIKE A PILOT OPPRESSED BY
THE G FORCES.
THE "I" PROPERLY RESOUNDED AND DIRECTED UPWARDS
THROUGH THE CAVITY AT THE TOP OF THE CROWN CENTER WHEN
CONCENTRATED ON A POINT RECEDING FURTHER AND FURTHER
UPWARDS, WILL DRAW YOU BEYOND THE BLACK-OUT, INTO THE
AKASHIC REALMS, PROVIDING YOU MAINTAIN JUST ENOUGH BODY
CONSCIOUSNESS TO GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE YOU WILL NOT GET
LOST, YOUR BODY ACTING AS AN ANCHOR.



THE M IN THE YOGIC AUM FUNCTIONS AS A PROTECTION SAVING
ONE FROM DISINTEGRATION BY HOLDING ONE WITHIN THE
VIBRATIONAL FIELD OF THE SAHASRARA CHAKRA. ANOTHER WAY
OF COUNTERING THE DANGER OF DISINTEGRATION BY FLYING OUT
OF HAND TOO HIGH INTO A VOID IS TO STRENGTHEN THE VIBRATIONAL
CAPACITY OF THE SOLAR PLEXUS, MANIPURA CHAKRA, OR
EVEN THE SWADHISTHANA CHAKRA, CALLED IN ZEN 'HARA'. THE 'E'
OF ILLA 'LLA' IN THE ISLAMIC DHIKR, PRONOUNCED SOMEWHERE
BETWEEN 'I' AND 'E', GROUNDS ONE DEEP DOWN IN THE ENTRAILS.
THE SOLAR PLEXUS IS BASICALLY A RECEPTIVE CENTER AND THE
SEAT OF ACUTE SENSITIVITY IN MOST PEOPLE, OFTEN DISTURBED
UNDER EMOTIONAL STRESS, WHEN ITS VIBRATIONS FALL OUT OF
STEP. THE HARMONY OF THE WHOLE INSTRUMENT DEPENDS UPON
THE ATTUNEMENT OF EVERY CHORD.

ONE HAS THE IMPRESSION OF REACHING INTO THE DEPTHS OF
ONE'S BEING, PASSING OVER A THRESHOLD FROM OUTSIDE TO INSIDE
IN AN INVERTED SPACE; THEREFORE THE SOUND 'E' TRIGGERS
OFF STRANGE HARMONIC TRIADS OR EVEN SERIES INTO AN INVERTED
SPACE THAT OPENS UP INSIDE. THE SOUND IS DIFFICULT TO
PRODUCE BECAUSE WHILE BEING LOW IT SHOULD BE
VIBRANT LIKE A GONG.



MMMMMMMMMMM
eee
UUUUUUUUUUU
EEEEE
OOOӨOOO
THE 'O' AS THE JAPANESE PRONOUNCE IT REACHES RIGHT
DOWN INTO THE SWADISTHANA IN THE ABDOMEN. IT CERTAINLY
STRENGTHENS THE EGO WILL AND IS FAIRLY DENSE, BUT HAS THE
ADVANTAGE OF GIVING ONE STABILITY AND THEREFORE IS
RECOMMENDED FOR HYSTERICAL PEOPLE AND THOSE WHO TRY
TO FLY BEFORE THEY CAN WALK.

Pythagorean Tetraktys

-- Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, English Grand Lodge for the Americas

***

Some called the Tetraktys the great oath of the Pythagoreans, because they considered it the perfect number, or even because it is the principle of Health.

-- The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library, Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie

HAVING MASTERED THE VOWELS, ONE DISCOVERS THE VALUE,
MEANING AND EFFECT OF THE CONSONANTS. THIS IS PART OF THE
SCIENCE OF THE WORD OF WHICH CLUES MAY BE GLEANED IN THE
HEBREW KABBALAH AND THE JAFR OF THE MUSLIMS. SEE THE
MYSTERIOUS LETTERS FOUND PREFACING SOME OF THE SURAS OF
RAPT CONJECTURE SINCE THE ONSET OF THE HEJIRA,
PARTICULARLY BY THE SUFIS.



N IS FEMININE IN CONTRAST TO M, IN A SENSE AN ECHO OF IT, AS
IN THE WORD MAN (SANSKRIT MANAS); ALTHOUGH CONTRASTED
TO MORE MALE TONES LIKE P, THE M AVERS ITSELF TO BE NEGATIVE
(LIKE PA AND MA). THE CONTRAST IS EVEN STRONGER WHEN
CONFRONTED WITH HIGHLY MALE TONES LIKE R IN RAM. THE K IS
THE MOST MALE OF CONSONANTS (QADEM, QADIR, QAHR),
GENERALLY PRESCRIBED TO MEN, FORTIFYING THE VOWEL IT
PRECEDES AND USUALLY CONNOTING THE INCORPORATION OF
POWER OR LIFE, I.E., THE EGYPTIAN KA WHICH TRANSLATES MEANING
INTO CREATED FORM. THE R PROTRACTS THE RESONANCE OF
THE K, WHILE S THAT OF WATER AND T THAT OF FIRE, AS IN THE
WORD, 'ASTROLOGY' ORIGINATING IN THE ATLANTEAN WORD
'ASATAR'. T ALWAYS DRILLS A CHANNEL THROUGH ANY OBSTACLE,
AS IN FATAH: IN ITS SOFTER FORM, AS IN ISHTAR, ITS EFFECT
IS INSIDIOUS, LIKE WATER WENDING ITS WAY ACROSS THE ROCKS;
AND FINALLY IN ITS PUREST FORM, AS S IN SALAM OR SALIM,
IT IS PEACEFUL, I.E., TO GIVE SOLACE TO THE DYING.





'L' FEATURES THE GRAVITATIONAL MOVEMENT OF THE PLANETS,
THE UNFOLDMENT OF THE WHEEL OF LIFE, THE DANCE OF SHIVA.
IN ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY IT FIGURES AS THE ARC OF A CIRCLE, A
CIRCULATORY MOTION, ALWAYS GRAVITATING AROUND THE 'A'
ACTING AS A RADIANT CENTER:
THE CONCENTRIC AND THE CENTRIFUGAL.

THIS IS THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE UNDERLYING THE DHIKR:
LA ILLAHA ILLA LLA HU. LA IS NEGATIVE, AI AFFIRMATIVE,
COMPLETING ONE ANOTHER, AS ACTION AND PASSION
IN AN ETERNAL COUPLE.
THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION 'A' FLOATS
ON THE TIDAL WAVE OF THE PERENNIAL 'L'
IN HARMONIC SOUND CONDITIONS, BREAKING OFF ON A TANGENT
IN THE 'H' (HAMZA), WHICH SIGNIFIES THE TRANSCENDENCE
BEYOND ALL CREATED ASPECTS, AND STANDS FOR HU.
IT IS THE LEAST CONSONANT OF THE CONSONANTS,
RESOUNDING LIKE THE HUSH HUM HEARD IN A SHELL
PLACED AGAINST ONE'S EAR. WITHOUT THE ADJOINING VOWEL
ONE CANNOT HEAR IT.



AFTER PRACTICING THE WAZIFAS
LISTEN
TO THE HARMONICS
IN THE ATMOSPHERE

CLIMB THE LADDER OF THE HARMONICS

BECOME YOUR SELF
PURE VIBRATION
BEYOND SPACE

YOU HEAR IN EACH VIBRATION
THE HARMONICS OF THAT VIBRATION
AND THE HARMONICS OF THE HARMONICS OF THAT VIBRATION
FLOAT ON THE SEA OF VIBRATIONS
YOU ARE IN
SHABD NAHD

ABSOLUTE INNER SOUND



YOU CAN DO IT ONLY IF YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF WITH PURE
VIBRATION, BECAUSE IF YOU THINK OF YOURSELF AS YOUR BODY, IF
YOU THINK OF YOURSELF AS YOUR MIND, IF YOU EVEN THINK OF
YOURSELF AS CONSCIOUSNESS, YOU CAN'T DO IT.

CONSCIOUSNESS IS BORN AT THE LEVEL OF THE ARCHETYPES

THE CAUSAL PLANE

WHERE THE CAUSES OF ALL CREATED THINGS ARISE
THE INTENTION BEHIND ALL MANIFESTATION EMERGES
AND BEYOND THAT LEVEL THERE IS NO CONSCIOUSNESS:

JUST PURE INTELLIGENCE

WAZIFAS HAVE THEIR EXISTENCE ON THE CAUSAL PLANE, BUT
THEY ARE ALSO VIBRATORY CHANNELS TO THE PLANE BEYOND
WHERE THERE IS JUST PURE INTELLIGENCE. SO YOU MUST BECOME
PURE VIBRATION AND PASS ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE.



TO THE OTHER SIDE

[admin]

THE CAUSAL PLANE



SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE IS THE ART OF
MAKING A BEING BECOME WHAT HE
IS.
THE PUPIL SENSES BEYOND HIS PERSONALITY
THAT DIVINE MODEL WHICH HE IS,
YET OF WHICH HE IS ONLY VAGUELY AWARE,
THE TEACHER
IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE HIM SEE
WHAT HE IS
RATHER THAN TELL HIM
WHAT HE SHOULD BE.



THIS MEANS GRASPING INCOMPARABLY VASTER DIMENSIONS THAN
THE ONES USUALLY EXPERIENCED. ONE CANNOT KNOW ONESELF
IF ONE REDUCES ONESELF TO THE QUALITIES IN THE CONDITION
IN WHICH THEY APPEAR IN ONE'S PRESENT DEGREE OF UNFOLDMENT.
WE SO EASILY LET OURSELVES BE DRAWN DEEPER AND
DEEPER INTO THE LIMITATIONS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR
CONCEPTS, AND BE EXILED IN OUR HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, CONSEQUENTLY
SUFFERING FROM AN UNBEARABLE FEELING OF LIMITATION,
FRUSTRATION AND INADEQUACY. W4E CAN ONLY OVERCOME
THIS BE RE-EXPERIENCING OURSELVES AS PART OF
THE DIVINE NATURE,
OUR HOMELAND.

IF MAN IS URGED ON FROM STAGE TO STAGE
TOWARDS AN INEXORABLE ADVANCE,
OPENING UP VASTER AND VASTER HORIZONS OF PERFECTION,
IT IS BECAUSE SOMEWHERE IN HIS SOUL HE HAS A HUNCH
ABOUT A PURPOSE BEING SERVED BY HIS EXISTENCE
BEYOND ANYTHING HE COULD DO OR ACHIEVE.
THIS IS NOTHING LESS THAN MANIFESTING A PORTION
OF THE NOT-YET-MANIFEST ALLOTTED TO HIS ETERNAL BEING,
WHICH, THOUGH THUS APPORTIONED, IS HOWEVER SO
INEXTRICABLY
MINGLED WITH THE TOTAL RICHNESS OF THE NON-MANIFEST
THAT,
WHEREAS ON EARTH HIS PERSONALITY
SEEMS TO CONTRAST CLEARLY FROM THAT OF OTHERS,
AT THE SEED LEVEL,
IT SEEMS TO DOVE-TAIL AND OVERLAP AND INTERFUSE
WITH THE WHOLE FABRIC
THE PLANE OF ARCHETYPES.





THE EFFICACY OF THE USE OF THE WAZIFA AS A METHOD
OF SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT LIES IN THE FACT THAT, BY
INVOKING THE PARTICULAR ARCHETYPE IT STANDS FOR, ONE
EXTENDS ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND THE CORRESPONDING
QUALITY IN ONE'S SOUL (OR IN A PERSON, OR IN NATURE).
THERE IS A KIND OF ELASTICITY IN CONSCIOUSNESS THAT
KNOWS THAT IT CAN ALWAYS GRASP A GREATER NUMBER
THAN THE GREATEST NUMBER ONE HAS SO FAR IMAGINED,
A WIDER SPACE, A GREATER PERFECTION, ETC.
IT IS BEING AWARE OF ONE'S PERFECTION.
"HUMANITY, DIVINE LIMITATION;
DIVINITY, HUMAN PERFECTION."
(HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN)
IN ORDER TO GRASP THE PERFECTION
OF A QUALITY
WE MAY OBSERVE IN ITS LIMITED EXEMPLIFICATION IN US,
WE HAVE TO SHIFT THE FOCUS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS.
OUR LIMITED NATURE FALLS OUT OF FOCUS
OUR ETERNAL BEING COMES INTO FOCUS.
THIS IS THE POINT OF INGRESS
INTO THE CAUSAL PLANE:
THE PLANE WHERE ALL REALITY IS STILL
IN THE ARCHETYPAL STATE.





AT FIRST ALL WE EXPERIENCE IS THE PARTICULAR QUALITY WE WERE
DWELLING UPON IN THE REPETITION OF THE WAZIFA, BUT AS EACH
QUALITY IMPLIES ITS NEIGHBORS AD INFINITUM, AS LOVE IMPLIES COMPASSION,
AND POWER MAJESTY, AND SPIRIT PURITY, SO DOES ONE EXTEND
FROM THIS PORT OF ENTRY INTO WIDER AND WIDER STRETCHES OF THIS
PLANE, INCREASING ONE'S REALIZATION, AS ONE PROCEEDS FROM
BAFFLEMENT TO BAFFLEMENT.
ONE EXPERIENCES ONE'S SELF IN ONE'S ETERNITY
AS A PACKAGE
A NETWORK OF ATTRIBUTES
CHARACTERISTIC OF ONE'S ETERNAL ORIENTATION.
FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT WATCH THE WAY
THESE 'SEMINAL PRINCIPLES' HAVE BEEN CARRIED THROUGH
IN THE IDIOSYNCRASIES OR BENTS OF ONE'S PERSONALITY
IN THE COURSE OF
ONE'S
MANY REINCARNATIONS.



NOW CONCENTRATE ON THE ARCHETYPE YOU HAVE INVOKED IN THE WAZIFA,
WATCH THE CORRESPONDING QUALITY IN YOUR PERSONALITY WITHOUT
DESCENDING INTO PERSONALITY CONSCIOUSNESS,
CONSIDER YOUR PERSONALITY AS AN ASPECT,
A PROJECTION OF YOUR SELF,
NOT AS YOUR SELF.
MAINTAIN YOURSELF IN FOCUS ON THE CAUSAL PLANE
IDENTIFY YOUR SELF WITH THE BEING YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN
SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME,
ARE AND ALWAYS WILL BE.
IT MUST BE NOTED, HOWEVER, THAT AT THE CAUSAL LEVEL THE
PAST OR FUTURE ONLY APPLY TO THE OUTCOME OF WHAT ONE IS,
WHICH IS INVOLVED IN BECOMING, SO THAT ONE CANNOT THINK
ONE HAS BEEN INT HE PAST WHILE ONE IS FOCUSSED UP HERE. NO
SOONER DOES ONE PASS THE THRESHOLD INTO TRANSIENT CONSCIOUSNESS,
THAN IMMEDIATELY ONE'S ETERNAL BEING IS CONTEMPLATED
FROM THE HUMAN VANTAGE POINT THROUGH THE
MEMORY ONE HAS OF IT, AND THIS IS WHERE ONE FEELS AS
THOUGH ONE'S REAL SELF, OF WHICH ONE NOW HAS A
REMINISCENCE, HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE.





MAINTAIN YOURSELF AT THE VANTAGE POINT
OF YOUR ETERNAL BEING,
SEE WHAT YOUR PERSONALITY LOOKS LIKE FROM THIS ANGLE,
"ONE CAN ONLY KNOW AS MUCH OF ONE'S SELF
AS HE SEES
OF ONE'S SELF."
IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR CAUSAL BEING,
THE PERSONALITY ENTERS
INTO ITS PERSPECTIVE AS A PROJECTION OR EXEMPLIFICATION.
IF YOU ARE ABLE TO PERCEIVE POWER IN YOUR PERSONALITY,
IT IS BECAUSE YOUR SOUL CARRIES THE SEEDS OF DIVINE POWER.
NOR COULD YOU JUDGE WHETHER A PERSON IS PEACEFUL OR NOT
UNLESS PEACE WERE KNOWN TO YOU
IN THE IMPALPABLE DEPTHS OF BEING.
THE SIGHT OF THE EXEMPLAR:
YOUR POWER OR YOUR PEACE OR YOUR KINDNESS,
ECLIPSES THE ARCHETYPE.
BY SHATTERING THE PERSONALITY CONFRONTED WITH ITS
GROUND,
THE WAZIFA REFORMS THE PERSONALITY
OUT OF THE PRIMEVAL PRINCIPLE IN YOU
ACCORDING TO A NEW PATTERN.





IN ALMOST EVERY CASE THE INITIAL ENCOUNTER
WITH THE MAGIC OF VIBRATION
MAY BE UNDERTAKEN WITH THE WAZIFA
FAZ'L
WHICH MEANS BLESSING.
THE SOUND 'A' PLACED IN THE HEART CHAKRA
MADE VIBRANT BY TRANSFORMING ONE'S WHOLE BEING
INTO A GONG STRUCK BY THE HAND OF GOD
EVERY FRESH IMPULSE IN THE COSMIC RHYTHM,
THUS CAPTURED AND REACHED TO.





THE NAME OF GOD WHICH GIVES UNLIMITED SCOPE
TO ONE'S BEING
YA WAHHABO

THE OUTPOURING OF DIVINE POTENTIALITIES INTO CREATION,
AND IN PARTICULAR TO YOURSELF
LIKE A STREAM RUSHING FROM ITS SOURCE WITH GREAT FORCE.
IF YOU LISTEN TO THE PURR OF A MOUNTAIN STREAM, YOU MAY
DISCERN A LOW SOUND CREATED BY THE FRICTION OF THE
WATER
AGAINST THE RIVER BED,
AND A HIGH SOUND CREATED BY THE FRICTION OF THE WATER
AGAINST THE SURFACE AIR.
THESE ARE PRODUCED IN THE SOUND
'AH' OF WAHHA AND THE 'O' OF BO,
CREATING IN THEIR INTER-REACTIONS
NUMEROUS ECHOES AND OVERTONES.
THE USE OF THIS NAME INDICATES MOTION, PROGRESS INTO ONE'S
BEING OR UPON THE ENVIRONING CIRCUMSTANCES,
SHOULD THEY BECOME STAGNANT.





WHILE WAHHABO REFERS TO THE OUTPOURING
AND EXISTENTIATION
THE TOTALITY OF ARCHETYPES CARRIED BY THE FORWARD MARCH
OF STRUCTURES REFINING THEMSELVES IN THEIR INTRICACIES
IN THE COURSE OF EVOLUTION,

YA HAYYO
IS THE EVER CHANGING AND TRANSFORMING FLOW
OF LIFE ENERGY IN ALL ITS FORMS
TO EVER FARTHER SHORES BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING
IN THE CYCLE OF BECOMING ... OFTEN CONTRASTED WITH
YA QAYYUM,
THAT WHICH IS NOT TRANSIENT,
THEREFORE EVERLASTING, AND CONSEQUENTLY SURVIVING
THE FALLING CURVE OF DISINTEGRATION
ALL THE COMPONENTS OF THE FLOW OF LIFE AS IT PASSES LIKE A
FLAME FROM LOG TO LOG,
A CURRENT FROM CATHOD TO ANODE,
EVENTUALLY WEARING OUT
SIMULTANEOUSLY RECREATING EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES.





HAYYO
THE SAP RISING IN THE TREES.
THE FORCE OF LIFE SPROUTING IN THE BUDS IN SPRING,
THE POWER THAT PROPELS THE PLANETS'
ORBITS AROUND THE SUN,
THE WHOLE MOTION OF THE HEAVENLY SPHERES
THE HEAVING POWER OF THE WAVES OF THE SEA
AND THE CRASH OF THE THUNDER,
THE MYSTERY OF LIFE IN THE BIRTH OF THE CHILD,
THE WHOLE UNFOLDMENT OF LIFE,
LIFE BUBBLING OVER AND SPROUTING.
HAYYO
IS EVERYTHING IN YOUR BEING WHICH IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE,
LEAVES ON THE TREES AND THE CLOUDS IN THE SKY,
THOUGHTS IN THE MINDS OF MEN,
EVERYTHING THAT PASSES:
YOUR BODILY STATES, YOUR EMOTIONS, YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS,
CONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUALLY FLOWING, CONTINUALLY CHANGING,
THE DANCE OF SHIVA.



WHEN ONE SAYS
YA HAYYO
ONE EXPERIENCES BEWONDERMENT, LIKE A KIND OF NOSTALGIA,
AS ONE WATCHES ONE'S LIFE FLOWING FASTER,
SEEING IT IN A PANORAMIC VISION.
PONDERING UPON THE DIFFERENT EVENTS ONE MAY WONDER
WHY THINGS HAPPENED THE WAY THEY DID,
WATCH THEIR SEQUENCE, DISCERN THE LESSONS, GRASP THE LAW
OF CAUSATION.
THE EMOTION EXPERIENCED WHEN ONE IS CONFRONTED WITH THE
PASSAGE OF TIME
HAVING DISPLACED THE CENTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
ONE FEELS ONESELF CARRIED IN THAT FLOW IRRETRIEVABLY,
AS ONE DETACHES THE CENTER OF ONE'S BEING FROM THAT FLOW,
WATCHING IT, AS IT WERE, OBJECTIVELY,
ONE BECOMES AWARE OF THAT SOMETHING IN ONESELF WHICH IS
ETERNAL AND SURVIVES THE FLOW.
THIS IS THE MOMENT OF TRIUMPH OVER DEATH.



YA QAYYUM
LIFE EVERLASTING
NOT THE LIFE THAT FLOWS, CONTINUALLY RENEWING ITSELF
BUT THAT WHICH REMAINS
UNCHANGED BEHIND ALL CHANGE,
ETERNAL THROUGH THE PASSAGE OF TIME,
THAT WHICH LIFE BECOMES
WHEN THE ESSENCE OF THE ESSENCE OF THE ESSENCE HAS BEEN
EXTRACTED
DERIVED FROM THE FLOW AND GLEANED FOR SURVIVAL
IN EVERLASTINGNESS.



FROM THE HUMAN VANTAGE POINT,
WHAT YOU WERE ETERNALLY IN THE MIND OF GOD,
UNBECOME, UNFORMED,
YOU HAVE BECOME,
WHILE STILL REMAINING IN YOUR ETERNAL SELF,
THAT WHICH YOU WERE AND ALWAYS WILL BE.
FROM THE HIGHER VANTAGE POINT,
TRANSFORMATION IS THE UNREELING OF WHAT ALREADY IS.
QAYYUM IS THE VICTORY OF THE EVERLASTING,
THE VICTORY OF RESURRECTION OVER DEATH,
THE PROCLAMATION OF EASTER DAY:
'YOU ARE RISEN INTO ETERNAL LIFE BY THE FICTORY OF
RESURRECTION OVER YOUR FRAGILE TRANSIENCY.'
THIS IS WHAT SERAPHIEL ANNOUNCES AS HE BLOWS THE TRUMPET
ON THE DAY OF RESURRECTION.
THE QURANIC WORDS CORRESPONDING TO THIS WAZIFA ARE
"EVERYTHING PASSES EXCEPT FOR HIS FACE."

THE ONE WHO DISCOVERS THE MYSTERY
YA HAYYO YA QAYYUM
BECOMES INTOXICATED,
YA HAYYO,
THE RENEWAL OF LIFE IMPLIES DEATH
THERE IS NO GREATER INTOXICATION THAN SURVIVING DEATH
GOD UNDERGOES A THOUSAND DEATHS IN EVERY DEATH,
NOT ONLY OF OUR BODIES BUT OF OUR PERSONALITIES,
SO THAT WE MAY BE RESURRECTED BY THE SURVIVAL
OF HIS ESSENCE IN US
EVERY TIME THAT OUR LIMITATION GIVES WAY TO HIS
PERFECTION.

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

ANOTHER WAZIFA ASSOCIATED WITH THE WATER OF LIFE IS
YA QUDDUS,
(BOTH VOWELS IN THE THROAT CHAKRA),
YA WAHHABO
REFERS TO THE STREAM OF FORMATIONS AND FLOWS IN
THE TIME VECTOR
YA QUDDUS
REFERS TO THE SOURCE AND IS TIMELESS AND FORMLESS.
IN HINDU TERMS ONE WOULD SAY,
WAHHABO IS PRAKRITI QUDDUS IS PURUSHA.
KNOW THE STATE WHERE, HAVING LIFTED YOURSELF ON THE
WINGS OF DETACHMENT
ABOVE ALL THE EMOTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH FORMS
AND THE WELL-BEING OF THE EGO,
YOU RE-EXPERIENCE THE STATE PRIOR TO CAUSATION
THE STATE IS REACHED BY PURIFICATION UNTIL ONE
REACHES THE IMMACULATE CONDITION
TYPIFIED BY THE DIAPHENE LIGHT OF THE MOON
OR THE CLARITY OF THE DIAMOND.



MEDITATION IMAGE:

A CLEAR FOUNTAINHEAD OF WATER GUSHING OUT
OF A CRYSTAL CAVE,
GLISTENING IN SIDEREAL LIGHT.



FIND YOURSELF BACK IN A CERTAIN PLACE WHICH IS FAMILIAR TO
YOU IN YOUR UNCONSCIOUS,
A PLACE BEYOND TIME AND SPACE WHERE EVERYTHING IS
EFFERVESCENT WITH LIGHT.
IF YOU CAN FIND THAT CERTAIN PLACE INSIDE,
YOU RE-ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH YOUR SOURCE.
WE ARE ALL SUFFERING FOR HAVING BEEN TORN AWAY FROM OUR
SOURCE
WE NURTURE THE SEED FOR A PILGRIMAGE TO OUR ORIGIN.
THEREFORE IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH SIMPLY TO MEDITATE ON
THE IMAGE:
ONE MUST FIND THE CORRESPONDING IMAGE WITHIN ONE'S SOUL.
TO DO THIS ONE HAS TO TAKE A SPIRITUAL BATH,
RETURN TO A STATE OF ORIGINAL INNOCENCE.



HAVING SHED ALL EARTHLINESS, ONE BECOMES PURE SPIRIT.
QUDDUS
IS ATTRIBUTED TO THE ARCHANGELS, TO THE HOLY SPIRIT,
AND TO THE SOURCE OF THE WATER OF LIFE WHERE ELIJAH
QUENCHED HIS THIRST.
QUDDUS
A JET OF SUPER-CHARGED ENERGY THAT BREATHES LIFE
INTO ALL THINGS, VITALIZING ALL THINGS:
QUITE A DIFFERENT TYPE OF CREATIVE FORCE
THAN THE POWER THAT CREATES
AND PERPETRATES FORMS.
IT INFUSES FORMS WITH A NEW LEASE OF VITAL ENERGY.



YA RAHMAN
(DIVINE COMPASSION)
IS DESCRIBED AS A BREATH (NAFAS AR RAHMANI)
FREEING THE ARCHETYPES FROM THE SOLITUDE OF
UNKNOWING
LAUNCHING THEM INTO CREATION.
THIS FULFILLMENT OF THE NOSTALGIA FOR CAUSAL EXISTENCE
INEVITABLY CARRIES SUFFERING IN ITS WAKE
WHICH IS THE PRICE OF SENSITIVITY AND THEREFORE
AWARENESS.
RAHMAN IS FOLLOWED BY RAHIM:
COMPASSION FOR THE CREATURES WHO HAVE SUFFERED
FOR BEING THE BEARERS OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
INTO MANIFESTATION.
RAHMAN (THE MALE ASPECT),
EMANATING FROM THE DIVINE HEART CENTER,
IS AN EXTENSION OF LOVE BECOME ALL PREVAILING,
RAHIM (THE FEMALE ASPECT) IS
ALL-ENCOMPASSING,



THE HEART HAVING BECOME AN ACCOMMODATION
IT STRETCHES TO THE HORIZON OF THE UNIVERSE



LOVE REACHES THE QUALITY OF COMPASSION IN ITS FULLNESS IN
THE MOTHER.
THE MOTHER OF THE WORLD INCORPORATES ALL SUFFERING
BEINGS IN HER HEART.
RAHIM IS SHARING SUFFERING WITH THOSE WHO SUFFER.
RAHMAN IS ENJOYING THE FACT THAT ANOTHER IS HAPPY,
EVEN AT YOUR COST.
IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF JEALOUSY OR COVETOUSNESS.
THIS IS JOY IN BEING A CHANNEL OF DIVINE BOUNTY.
WHEN ONE SAYS RAHMAN,
ONE ENJOYS THE JOY THAT BEINGS HAVE
IN MANIFESTING THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.
WHEN ONE SAYS RAHIM,
ONE SUFFERS IN SOLIDARITY WITH THEM
IN TH KARMIC LOAD THEY ARE CARRYING,
PREFERRING TO CARRY IT ONESELF.
THINK OF THOSE PERSONS WHO ARE DIFFICULT TO LOVE BECAUSE
OF THEIR STRONG EGOS OR THEIR UNPLEASANT ACTIONS
TOWARDS YOU,
THINK OF THEM WITH LOVE MADE COMPLETE BY SHARING IN
WHATEVER SUFFERING THEY HAVE AND ENJOYING
WHATEVER JOY THEY ENJOY.

THIS IS THE PATH OF SAINTLIHOOD.

"IF YOU WISH TO FOLLOW THE PATH
OF SAINTS,
LEARN TO FORGIVE."
[HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN)





YOU CANNOT FOLLOW THE PATH OF THE MASTER WITHOUT
HAVING STARTED ON THE PATH OF SAINTLIHOOD,
WHICH ULTIMATELY PROVES TO BE THE GREATEST MASTERY,
BECAUSE TO LOVE ONE'S ENEMY ONE HAS TO OVERCOME
ONESELF.
OVERCOME ALL THAT RESENTMENT AND INTOLERANCE AND
BITTERNESS

BE FREE.

ONE CANNOT BE FREE WHEN ONE IS NURTURING A GRUDGE
IN ONE'S HEART.
YOUR ABILITY TO FORGIVE IS THE MEASURE OF YOUR GREATNESS.
YOUR ABILITY TO LOVE IS THE MEASURE OF YOUR CAPACITY FOR
THE GREATNESS OF GOD.
THE MEASURE OF YOUR LOVE IS THE EXTENT OF YOUR
FORGIVENESS.
IF YOU CANNOT EXTEND YOUR LOVE,
THEN EXPERIENCE HIS LOVE PASSING THROUGH YOU
TOWARDS THAT BEING:

THE GREATNESS OF HIS LOVE THE TREMENDOUS POWER

BE FREE.



IF YOU WISH TO FOLLOW
THE PATH OF SAINTS
LEARN TO FORGIVE



YA ALIM IS SUPREME UNDERSTANDING, THE UNDERSTANDING
BEHIND OUR UNDERSTANDING, THE EYES BEHIND OUR EYES, PURE
INTELLIGENCE BEYOND CONSCIOUSNESS, THAT IS BEYOND WHERE
THERE IS PERCEPTION OR COGNITION. THIS IS THE KNOWLEDGE
THAT CONFERS ILLUMINATION
WHERE ALL BECOMES CLEAR.

JE LANGER JE LIEBER [THE LONGER IT LASTS, THE MORE I LIKE IT]

YA ALIM
CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE DIVINE AWARENESS,
BEING AWARE OF BEING AWARE.
AL JILI DESCRIBES THREE DEGREES OF AWARENESS:
YOU SEE THE INTENTION BEHIND A SITUATION
(I) AFTER IT HAS HAPPENED
(II) AS IT HAPPENS (III) BEFORE IT HAPPENS.
IT IMPLIES SCANNING BEYOND THE SURFACE, GRASPING THE INTENTION
BEHIND THINGS, THE PURPOSE BEHIND THE INTENTION.
IF ONE FAILS TO SEE THE INTENTION ONE WONDERS WHY THINGS
HAPPEN THE WAY THEY DO, THINGS DO NOT SEEM TO MAKE SENSE.
THE IGNORAMUS SAYS, HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, LOOK AT
ALL THE CHAOS IN THE WORLD, ALL THE SUFFERING.
OBVIOUSLY THE PLANNER DOES NOT SCHEDULE THINGS TO FIT
WITH OUR PLANS.
IF YOU HYPOTHESIZE THAT THE OBJECTIVE PROPOSED BY THE PLANNER
IS TO TEST US THAT WE MAY REACH REALIZATION,
EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE.





YA ALIM IS OFTEN BALANCED BY
YA QADER:
DIVINE OMNISCIENCE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,
THE 'I' IN THE THIRD EYE WITH THE 'A' IN THE HEART.
YA ALIM MARKS THE CARRYOVER OF THE CENTER OF GRAVITY OF ONE'S
BEING FROM THE PERSONAL TO THE SUPER-PERSONAL CENTER.
YA QADER MARKS THE INCORPORATION OF DIVINE POWER INTO
THE BODY, CONVERGED INTO AND THEN RADIATED
FROM THE HEART CENTER.
WHEN ONE ABANDONS ONE'S OWN MEASURE OF APPROPRIATED
PERSONAL POWER, THERE IS A SENSE OF THE INVESTITURE OF
A POWER FAR BEYOND WHAT ONE WOULD EVER BE ABLE TO YIELD
OUT OF ONE'S OWN INITIATIVE.
ONE KNOWS ONE IS AT GRIPS WITH IT BY ITS OVERWHELMINGNESS.
WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT DIVINE POWER IS. WE MAY HAVE COME ACROSS
THIS POWER IN THE THUNDER OR AN EARTHQUAKE
OR A MAD ELEPHANT,
BUT OBVIOUSLY DIVINE POWER IS BEYOND
ANY OF ITS MANIFESTATIONS.



TO ENCOUNTER

IT

IS

TO BE

SHATTERED



THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO SHUN POWER
BECAUSE THEY HAVE SUFFERED FROM ITS ABUSE
FOR PERSONAL ENDS.

YET THE ABSENCE OF THIS QUALITY IN A PERSON LEAVES A LACUNA
WHICH MAY HAMPER THEIR NATURAL UNFOLDMENT.
THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE OF A SENSITIVE PERSON.

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THINGS TO BE PLANNED
THEY STILL HAVE TO BE DONE:
FOR THE INTENTION TO BECOME A REALITY,
ENERGY HAS TO BE LAUNCHED INTO OPERATION.
THE ONE CHANNELING THIS POWER IN THE DIVINE SERVICE
MAKES THINGS HAPPEN AND GIVES STRENGTH TO THE WEAK AND
DIS-SPIRITED.
IT IS A MATTER OF OPENING THE CHAKRA OF THE
HEART
BY THE EXPANSIVE EFFECT OF THE VIBRATION OF
THE LETTER
'A'
WHEN ONE HAS FREED IT
OF ALL PERSONAL LIMITATIONS.

THIS CAN BE HEARD IN THE VOICE WHEN THE CHEST BECOMES A
PERFECT RESONANCE BOX
AND THE VIBRATIONS PRODUCED ARE PERFECTLY CLEAR.



ISHQ ALLAH MA'ABUD L'ILLAH

GOD IS LOVE
GOD
IS
THE ONE
BELOVED
GOD IS THE ACT OF LOVE



ISHQ ALLAH MA'ABUD L'ILLAH
GOD IS LOVE, GOD IS THE ADORED ONE

THIS IS ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH THE DARVISHES OR MADZUBS,
THE GOD-INTOXICATED ONES, GREET ONE ANOTHER.
IT WAS NOT IN ORDER TO KNOW HIMSELF THAT GOD CREATED THE
UNIVERSE, BUT IT WAS OUT OF LOVE FOR YOU AS A PART OF HIMSELF,
BEFORE YOU WERE THRUST INTO EXISTENCE, THAT HE
CREATED YOU. EXPERIENCE BEING BORN AS AN EXPRESSION OF
DIVINE LOVE FOR THE BEAUTY WITHIN HIM WHICH IS SEEKING TO
MANIFEST THROUGH THE QUALITIES INHERENT IN THIS PARTICULAR
PROJECTION OF HIMSELF. THEN MANIFEST THE BEAUTY
OF THAT SOUL YOU CALL YOUR SOUL WHICH HAS BEEN COVERED
UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET.
THE REALIZATION THAT GOD'S LOVE HAS MADE ONE HIS BELOVED
STIRS INTO THE ONLY POSSIBLE RESPONSE: ONE'S ADORATION
OF HIM. FOR THERE IS NO COMMON MEASURE
BETWEEN MAN AND GOD.
DO YOU RECALL IN THE ACT OF ADORATION THE PRIMEVAL HIGH
MASS CELEBRATED IN THE HEAVENS IN WHICH GALAXIES OF
HEAVENLY BEINGS MANIFEST THEIR GLORIFICATION?
YOUR SOUL IS THE VERY LANGUAGE THEY USE TO EXPRESS THEIR
MAGNIFICATION.



THERE IS NO GREATER INTOXICATION THAN THAT OF LOVE
WHEN IT TRANSCENDS THE HUMAN OBJECT AND IS DIRECTED
TOWARDS THE DIVINE BEING.
IF ONE DOES NOT EXPERIENCE THIS LOVE, IT MAY HOWEVER BE
COMMUNICATED BY THE GOD-INTOXICATED.
ONE CANNOT EXPERIENCE LOVE FOR GOD UNTIL ONE
EXPERIENCES HIS PRESENCE.
THIS IS CALLED BY THE SUFIS "THE STATION OF INTIMACY"
WHICH IS REACHED WHEN ONE UNDERGOES THE TRAUMA OF THE
DEATH OF ONE'S PERSON
AFTER HAVING BEEN BURNING INTENSELY IN THE FIRE OF LOVE.

IT TAKES A STRONG LOVE
PROTECTED BY THE FREEING QUALITY OF FORGIVENESS
TO ENCOMPASS THE EGOS OF ALL PEOPLE
INCLUDING
THE INSULTS OF THOSE WHO DO NOT
UNDERSTAND.

IT IS EASIER TO GLORIFY GOD THAN LOVE HIS
CREATURES,
EASIER TO GLORIFY GOD THAN TO LOVE GOD.

THE REALIZATION OF BEING THE OBJECT

OF GOD'S LOVE

UNLEASHES ONE'S CAPACITY FOR LOVE

[admin]

DHIKR



LA ILLAHA ILLA 'LLA' HU
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD

ONCE WHEN ON A RETREAT IN AJMER, THE CENTER
OF THE CHISHTI SUFIS IN INDIA, FOR FORTY DAYS
REPEATING THE WAZIFAS (NAMES OF GOD), I WAS
FEELING SO HIGH, EXPERIENCING ALL THE DIVINE
QUALITIES, WHEN A MURSHID CAME TO ME AND
SAID, "THE TIME HAS NOW COME FOR YOU TO
MEDITATE SOLELY UPON THE DIVINE PRESENCE." I
SAID, "HERE I AM, MEDITATING ALL THE DAY ON
THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES, IT'S SO RICH AND WONDERFUL.
DO YOU MEAN THE DIVINE BEING BEYOND
QUALITIES" "YES," HE SAID, "NO QUALITIES, JUST
THE DIVINE PRESENCE." "WELL, I COULDN'T DO
THAT," SAID I, "MY MIND WOULD HAVE NO PATTERNS
TO WEAVE UPON." "YOU'LL DO IT, YOU'LL DO
IT," HE SAID. "hOW CAN I DO IT?" "BY REPEATING
DHIKR." "HOW CAN JUST REPEATING DHIKR DO
THAT?" "YOU'LL SEE, YOU'LL SEE, BUT ONLY ON THE
CONDITION THAT YOU ARE PREPARED TO BE
COMPLETELY SHATTERED IN YOUR SENSE OF THE
SELF, OTHERWISE YOU CAN'T DO IT." "YES," I SAID,
"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO."
SO I PROCEEDED ON A NEW RETREAT SOLELY
PRACTICING THE DHIKR.



"YES, NO QUALITIES, JUST THE DIVINE
PRESENCE."

"I COULDN'T DO IT."

"YOU'LL DO IT, YOU'LL DO IT."

"HOW CAN I DO IT?"

"YOU'LL SEE, YOU'LL SEE."

NO QUALITIES, JUST ESSENCE



ONE CAN LOVE HUMAN BEINGS AND PLANTS AND
ANIMALS,
ONE CAN LOVE BEAUTY IN ALL ITS FORMS,
ONE CAN LOVE THE DIVINE QUALITIES
MERCY AND COMPASSION AND JOY AND PEACE AND
LIGHT,
BUT HOW CAN ONE LOVE JUST THE BEING OF GOD?
AT FIRST IT SEEMS JUST IMPOSSIBLE, AND YET THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS.
BUT IT'S A VERY STRANGE KIND OF LOVE,
IT'S A LOVE BEYOND LOVE,
ALWAYS GOING BEYOND,
ALWAYS GOING BEYOND



WHEN YOU REPEAT DHIKR,
UNLESS IT IS A TOTAL EXPERIENCE, YOU WILL FIND IT TERRIBLY
BORING,
YOU WILL WONDER JUST HOW LONG YOU CAN GO ON SAYING THESE
WORDS.
THE ONLY ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE IS THE EXPERIENCE OF DEATH
AND RESURRECTION.
DHIKR GIVES ONE NO SCOPE FOR IMAGES,
IT IS TRANSCENDENT,
BEYOND ANY FORMS, IT'S ARID, IT'S AUSTERE,
REALLY IT'S VERY HIGH.
THE HESYCHASTS, THE HERMITS OF THE DESERT, ADVOCATED NOT
TO USE WORDS TO PRAY,
BECAUSE THEY EVOKE
IMAGES WHICH WILL HOLD ONE ON THE PLANE OF
CREATED FORMS.

THOSE VERY ATTRIBUTES WHOSE CONTEMPLATION IS SO ENRICHING
BELONG TO THE MAGIC REALM OF IMAGERY,
THE PLANE OF MAYA,
GOD'S IMAGINATION WHICH MANIFESTS IN THE FORMS OF ALL
CREATED THINGS
THAT WHICH IS BEYOND ALL FORM.
AS LONG AS ONE IS INVOLVED IN THE FORMAL,
ONE WILL NEVER COME INTO CONTACT WITH THAT ULTIMATE REALITY
WHICH IS BEHIND IT.
SUFIS CALL FORM THE VEIL UPON THE FACE OF THE
CONTEMPLATIVE
VEILING THE LIGHT OF GOD THAT WOULD SHATTER HIM.
ABU YEZID BISTAMI CALLS IT
A LURE, A VEIL, AND A HOAX ...
"THE ONE WHO IS INVITED TO THE DIVINE BETROTHAL
WILL NOT SUFFICE HIMSELF WITH THE VEIL OF THE BELOVED."





THERE COMES A TIME WHEN ONE EXPERIENCES SUCH A NEED FOR
THE ABSOLUTE, FOR THAT COLD REMOTE EMOTIONLESS BEYOND
WHERE NOTHING STIRS, WHERE THERE IS NO AGITATION, THERE IS
JUST THAT VERY IMMACULATE, ALMOST UNREACHABLE HEIGHT OF
THE ALONENESS OF GOD. THIS IS WHERE THE LAST SYLLABLE OF
THE DHIKR LEADS. DHIKR EXPRESSES THE ABSOLUTELY HIGHEST
POINT THAT ONE COULD EVER ATTAIN, ONE NEVER DOES ATTAIN
IT, BECAUSE IN ORDER TO GET ANYWHERE NEAR IT ONE HAS TO DIE
AND RESURRECT IN GOD. THE PRACTICE OF DHIKR IS LIVING THAT
MYSTERY TO THE EXTENT OF TOTAL INVOLVEMENT ... IT IS MORE
THAN ENJOYING AND ADMIRING ALL THE BEAUTIFUL ASPECTS OF
GOD, WHICH IS GLORIFICATION. IT IS SHARING THAT STATE
WHEREBY GOD WITHDRAWS FROM THE MULTIFARIOUS SPECTRUM
OF HIS MANY-SPLENDORED ATTRIBUTES INTO THE ALONENESS OF
HIS UNITY. MAN EXPERIENCES HIS ETERNAL PRINCIPLE. DHIKR IS
NOT OF THE NATURE OF VISION, WHICH ALWAYS IMPLIES DUALITY,
ALWAYS THE SUBJECT WHICH IS ME CONTEMPLATING THAT OBJECT
WHICH IS GOD, WHICH I SEE MANIFESTING THROUGH ALL
LIVING THINGS. WHERE THERE IS DUALITY, ONE TRIES TO REACH
BEYOND THIS MANIFESTATION INTO THE ORIGINAL ARCHETYPES.
WHERE ALL IS ONE, THE VERY ARCHETYPES
FALL OUT OF FOCUS.



"OH YOU WHO HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM GOD
IN HIS SOLITUDE
BY THE ABYSS OF TIME,
HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO REACH HIM
WITHOUT DYING?
(AL HALLAJ)

HOW CAN THE OUTPOURING OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE
FLOWING OUT OF THE ESSENCE
GIVE YOU THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ESSENCE? ...
"HENCEFORTH THERE IS NO NEED FOR PROOF
IN ORDER TO GRASP THY REALITY."
(AL HALLAJ)





THE ATTRIBUTES ARE CALLED BY THE SUFIS AYAT,
WHICH MEANS THE SIGNS.
BUT THE VERY SIGN WHICH MANIFESTS GOD IS ITSELF A VEIL.
THERE ARE MOMENTS WHEN ONE CANNOT STAND ONESELF
BECAUSE ALL ONE KNOWS OF ONESELF SEEMS LIKE A VEIL
EVERYTHING AROUND ONE SEEMS SHAM, DECEPTIVE,
DISAPPOINTING, AND ONE FEELS THE CALL FOR THE SOLITUDE,
FOR RETIREMENT. THERE IS A NEED TO FREE ONESELF FROM
THE EMOTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE QUALITIES AND
EXPERIENCE SERENITY, YET TO ISOLATE ONESELF
OUT OF ONE'S OWN VOLITION
WOULD BE ISOLATING ONESELF IN THE POVERTY OF ONE'S OWN
EGO,
THE IVORY TOWER OF SPLENDID ISOLATION,
GIVING VENT TO THE DESIRE FOR HTE ABSOLUTE.
THEREFORE THE DEATH THAT SPELLS LIFE CAN ONLY RESULT FROM
THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE OVERWHELMING DIVINE LIFE THAT
SHATTERS.
GIVE UP ISOLATION,
THEN GOD MARKS YOU WITH THE STAMP OF HIS UNITY.
THE HIGHER STAGES IN MEDITATION CANNOT BE REACHED BY
ONE'S OWN ACTION,
BUT SOLELY BY GRACE.



TO BECOME THE INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH GOD BECOMES A
REALITY ONE HAS TO DIE TO ONE'S SENSE OF AUTONOMY IN ORDER
TO SURVIVE IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF HIS UNITY. THIS IS NOT THE
DEATH THAT BRINGS ONE BACK TO THE ORIGIN (AZALIAT) BUT THE
DEATH THAT TAKES ONE INTO ETERNAL LIFE (QIAMAT.). SUCH IS
THE MEANING OF THE DHIKR. NOT THE DISMANTLING AND THE
DISSOLUTION OF THE EGO CENTER BUT THE INTEGRATION OF THE
EGO CENTER INTO THE TOTAL UNITY. THE RELINQUISHING OF
ONE'S OWN QUALITIES TO MAKE ROOM FOR PURE BEING, WHICH
MAY THEN MANIFEST ITS QUALITIES AT WILL, IRRESPECTIVE OF
WHATEVER QUALITIES ONE HAD APPROPRIATED AS BEING ONE'S
PERSONALITY. THEREFORE THE DHIKR IS NOT SIMPLY RETURNING
TO THE STATE IN WHICH YOU WERE IN THE BEGINNING. THE CONTEMPLATION
OF DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OR QUALITIES TENDS TO
ORIENT ONE BACK TO THE STATE IN WHICH ONE WAS IN THE
BEGINNING, BUT THE DHIKR MEANS THAT GOD HAS BECOME
THROUGH US A REALITY SO THAT THROUGH THE DEATH OF OUR
EGO HE MAY PROCLAIM HIS UNITY. IT IS A CONTRADICTION IN
TERMS, SAYS AL HALLAJ, TO PROCLAIM HIS UNITY IF YOU ARE
CONSCIOUS OF BEING THE ONE WHO PROCLAIMS IT. IT IS ONLY
WHEN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS OF YOURSELF HAS DISAPPEARED ALTOGETHER
BY ELIMINATING THE VERY ROOTS OF YOUR PERSONALITY
THAT YOU MAY SERVE AS AN INSTRUMENT IN WHICH GOD
PROCLAIMS HIS UNITY. THE SUFIS ALWAYS USE BOTH TERMS FANA
AND BAQA TOGETHER. IT IS NOT SO MUCH THE DISSOLUTION OF
THE EGO AS THE OVERCOMING OF ITS ISOLATION WHICH MARKS
THE DHIKR: THEREFORE, IT IS THE ULTIMATE PRACTICE.



SHOULD ONE REPEAT THE DHIKR WILLFULLY ONE DEFEATS THE
WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE DHIKR.
THE FORMULA IS VERY POWERFUL AND ONE IS EASILY TEMPTED TO
SAY IT FORCEFULLY.
THE DHIKR CAN STRENGTHEN THE EGO IN A VERY DANGEROUS WAY
UNLESS IT IS DONE IN SUCH A MANNER THAT ONE LETS THE DIVINE
POWER TAKE OVER.
IT IS VERY SUBTLE, ONE GETS VERY EASILY CAUGHT UP
IN ONE'S EMOTIONS.
IT EXPRESSES THE HIGHEST OF EMOTIONS AND THEREFORE THE
MOST IMPERSONAL.
THE WHOLE ART OF LIFE IS TO KNOW HOW TO CHANNEL POWER
WHILE BEING FRAGILE AND SELFLESS IN ORDER TO BE
RECEPTIVE. THE MAN OF GOD IS A KING IN A BEGGAR'S GARB,
A PALACE IN A RUIN.
THE COLLAPSE OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR BEFORE THE OVERWHELMING
GREATNESS AND THE SENSE OF IMMENSITY.
IT IS WHEN ONE ALLOWS THE DIVINE MADNESS TO INFLATE ONE'S
EGO
THAT THE WORLDLY MANIFEST THEIR DISAPPROVAL BY SCORN,
FOR AN EGO RESENTS ANOTHER EGO.

HAVING EXPERIENCED BEING CARRIED BEYOND THE CONSCIOUSNESS
OF OURSELVES AS SEPARATE BEINGS,
WE ARE BROUGHT BACK INTO OUR LIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS OF OURSELVES,
THIS TIME HOWEVER TRANSFORMED BY THAT VISION,
BECAUSE ONE CAN NEVER BE THE SAME AFTER ONE HAS HAD THAT VISION.
MAYBE THE NEXT TIME ONE WILL BE STRENGTHENED A LITTLE MORE
UNTIL ONE IS ABLE TO MAINTAIN THE DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUOUSLY,
AND THE VISION OF THE SELF DOES NOT TAKE ANYTHING AWAY
FROM THE VISION OF ONENESS.

ALL HALLAJ REACHED THAT STAGE WHEN HE SAID,
"THE LIGHT OF THE DIVINE AWARENESS HAS RISEN IN MY HEART
LIKE THE SUN OVER THE HORIZON,
AND IT WILL NEVER SET."



THE LIGHT

OF THE DIVINE AWARENESS

HAS RISEN IN MY HEART

LIKE THE SUN OVER THE HORIZON,

AND

IT WILL NEVER SET.



IT IS GOD WHO RECITES THE DHIKR THROUGH YOU.
THIS IS WHEN THE PRACTICE REALLY BECOMES EFFECTIVE.
THE SHEIKS AMONGS THE SUFIS ARE REQUIRED TO UNDERGO VERY
EXACTING TESTS ... REPEATING THE DHIKR TWENTY TWO
THOUSAND TIMES A DAY FOR FORTY DAYS.
EVENTUALLY YOU BECOME THE DHIKR.
YOUR BODY IS JUST LIKE A FLUTE ON WHICH THE DHIKR IS BEING
PLAYED,
AND NOTHING IS IMPORTANT, YOU ARE NOT IMPORTANT, NO ONE ELSE
IS IMPORTANT,
ONLY THE DIVINE PRESENCE IS IMPORTANT.
THEN IT COMES THROUGH WITH TREMENDOUS FORCE.
YOU ARE JUST IN IT AND IT IS NOT YOU WHO IS SAYING IT.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOUT IT.
IN FACT, IN YOU REALLY HAD IT IN YOU, THEN YOU COULD WHISPER
IT OR BREATHE IT
AND IT WOULD BE JUST AS POWERFUL

IN THE HIGHEST DHIKR YOU OVERCOME ALL NEGATION,
THERE IS NOTHING TO NEGATE; YOU CAN ONLY NEGATE ILLUSION
IF YOU ARE STILL IMMERSED IN IT.
THE TWO BASIC PHASES ARE NOW:
(1) YOU BECOME THE IMMENSITY, THE TOTALITY:;
(2) YOUR BEING BECOMES THE INCORPORATION
OF THAT IMMENSITY THAT IS GOD.



HEARKEN
TO THE SOUND OF THE REED
EVER SINCE I WAS TAKEN FROM MY BED
MY CRY HAS SET TO TEARS
ALL THE WOMEN ALL THE MEN
I WANT A HEART TORN BY SEPARATION
THAT I MAY FULLY DECLARE THE AGONY OF YEARNING OF
EVERY ONE FAR FROM HIS TRUE LOVE WHO REMEMBERS
THE JOY OF UNION
&
I HAVE SUNG THIS SONG WITH ALL KINDS OF BEINGS
MISERABLE & HAPPY
I SEEK THE FRIEND WHO KNOWS THE SIGN
ONE
WHO WILL MINGLE HIS SOUL WITH MINE
THE SECRET OF MY SONG IS NEAR
WHO CAN SEE WHO CAN HEAR
BODY IS NOT VEILED FROM SOUL, NOR SOUL FROM BODY
YET WHO IS GIVEN LEAVE TO SEE THE SOUL
THE CRY OF THE REED IS FIRE
NOT WIND
WHOEVER HOLDS NOT THIS FIRE LET HIM BE NOTHING
THE FIRE OF LOVE SETS THE REED TO FLAME
IT IS THE SURGE OF LOVE
IT IS THE TRUE COMPANION OF EVERY ONE PARTED
FROM A TRUE FRIEND & LOVER
THE SONG HAS TORN THE VEILS WHICH SHROUD OUR HEART
IT TELLS THE HISTORY OF THE BLOOD-SPATTERED WAY

JELALUDDIN RUMI



THE CLASSICAL FORMULA OF THE DHIKR IS
LA ILLAHA ILLA 'LLA' HU

IN ITS EXOTERIC SENSE IT MEANS:
THERE ARE NOT SEVERAL DEITIES, THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD.
ESOTERICALLY IT MEANS:
THERE ARE NOT SEVERAL BEINGS, THERE IS ONLY ONE BEING.

IT WILL BE OBSERVED THAT THE INTONATION OF THE FORMULA
OSCILLATES FROM THE A TO THE L AND VICE VERSA,
SHOWING AN INTRINSIC POLARIZATION.
LA IS NEGATIVE, AL AFFIRMATIVE,
COMPLETING ONE ANOTHER AS ACTION AND PASSION
IN AN ETERNAL COUPLE.
THE A, DIVINE MANIFESTATION,
FLOATS ON THE TIDAL WAVE OF THE PERENNIAL L
IN HARMONIC SONIC UNDULATIONS.
IN THE ARABIC A (ALIF) IS WRITTEN LIKE A STRAIGHT LINE, AND
THE L IS A CURVE LIKE THE ARC OF A CIRCLE,
AND SO ONE GOES FROM THE VERTICAL PRINCIPLE,
WHICH IS ALWAYS THE LINE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
HEAVEN AND EARTH,
BETWEEN TRANSCENDENCE AND POLARITY ON THE EARTH, TO THE
CIRCLE,
WHICH IS ALWAYS THE PRINCIPLE OF CREATION,
THE WHEEL OF BECOMING, OF TRANSFORMATION,
THE CIRCLE OF LIFE,
THE VORTICES OF THE GALAXIES,
THE STORMS OF STARS IN THE HEAVENS,
THE GALGANIM OR BEINGS OF LIGHT
DEPICTED IN THE SEPHIROTH OF THE JEWS,
AS IN THE WHEELS OF THE VISION OF EZEKIEL.



WE HAVE TWO PRINCIPLES:
THE VERTICAL LINE DESCENDING FROM ABOVE, FORMING A
BRIDGE BETWEEN GOD AND MAN,
TWO POLES OF THE SAME THING,
AND THEN THE CIRCULAR PRINCIPLE,
WHICH GRAVITATES AROUND A CENTER.
THE WORD ALLAH THEREFORE STARTS FROM THE POINT AT THE
TOP OF THE LINE
GOING DOWN AND THEN MOVES INTO THE CIRCLE, COMING BACK
TO THE ORIGIN AGAIN,
THUS EVOKING THE WHOLE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE.

NOW AT THE END OF THE WORD ALLAH THERE IS AN H (HAMZA),
WHICH IS THEN FOLLOWED BY A U,
REMINISCENT OF THE H THAT STANDS FOR THE HIGHEST NAME OF GOD IN THE
KABBALA:
JUST THE H ALONE, NEVER PRONOUNCED BECAUSE WITHOUT A SUPPORTING
VOWEL.
THE WORD EHIE
BEING THE NEAREST APPROXIMATION TO IT --
A WORD WHISPERED IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES.



THE H REPRESENTS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PRINCIPLE TO THE A AND
THE L,
IT IS THE TANGENT LEADING ONE OUT OF THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF THE L
PERPETRATED BY THE A.
THE WORD HU STANDS FOR THE NON-MANIFEST,
THE PERSON NOT PRESENT, THAT PART OF GOD THAT HAS NOT
APPEARED IN CREATION,
BEYOND THE REALMS THAT MANIFEST HIM
EITHER IN FORM OR IN TIME AND SPACE OR EVEN
THROUGH CONSCIOUSNESS.
INDEED, IT IS EVEN BEYOND CONSCIOUSNESS.
WE ARE REFERRING TO THE ARUPA PLANES OF THE BUDDHISTS, THE PLANES
BEYOND FORM.
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MAN IS A VEIL
CONCEALING THE REALITY OF GOD IN THE STATE OF
NON-MANIFESTATION.
WE ARE OURSELVES THE VEIL
COVERING GOD'S REALITY.



ON A PILGRIMAGE TO AJMER
ABOUT A HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE HAD CONVERGED ON THE TOMB OF
KHWAJA MOIN-UD-DIN CHISHTI,
SOME OF THEM SUFIS FROM PLACES LIKE MONGOLIA AND LYBIA AND CHINA.
AT NIGHT
LISTENING TO THE MUSICIANS EXTEMPORIZE ON THE VERSES OF THE SUFI POETS,
SOME DARVISH CARRIED BEYOND THEMSELVES BEGAN TO SHOW THEIR
REVERENCE
A GESTURE THAT SOON BECAME A GYRATION.
THIS IS THE DARVISH DANCE WHICH MAY GO ON UNTIL DAWN;
EVERYBODY GETS VERY HIGH.
WHEN THE MURSHIDS LEAVE, THE DARVISHES CONTINUE THEIR DHIKR
CONVERSING IN SONG AND GESTURE,
COMMUNICATING THEIR ECSTASY TO EACH OTHER,
THEIR SOULS SOARING HIGHER AND HIGHER.
ONE OF THE SONGS THEY SANG WAS
ALLAH HU,
THEY WENT ON AND ON AND ON,
AND THE WHOLE COMPANY WAS IN A STATE OF RAPT
INTOXICATION.
A BREATH OF GOD WAS BLOWING UPON OUR SOULS.



THE MODE OF RECITATION OF THE DHIKR VARIES FROM SCHOOL
TO SCHOOL.
HERE IS THE METHOD FOLLOWED BY THE CHISHTI SUFIS.
THERE ARE ACTUALLY FOUR STAGES. NUMBER ONE:
LA ILLAHA, THERE IS NO DIVINITY.
THE LA IS INTONED WHILE DESCRIBING A CIRCULAR MOTION OF
THE HEAD:
THIRD EYE FACING LEFT SHOULDER, SOLAR PLEXUS,
RIGHT SHOULDER.
ILLAHA IS INTONED AS ONE REACHES UPWARDS TO THE APEX OF
THE CIRCLE.
ALL THE WHILE ONE IS DENYING THAT THINGS ARE THE WAY THEY
LOOK,
UNMASKING THE HOAX OF MAYA.
THE DARVISH SAYS THIS MOST CATEGORICALLY AND
UNCOMPROMISINGLY.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO LEARN HOW TO SAY
"NO"







NUMBER TWO: ILLA, EXCEPT, A SIGNIFICANT WORD BECAUSE IT
MARKS EXCLUSIVENESS: THE EXCEPTION CONFIRMS THE RULE.
THERE IS SUBTLE METAPHYSICAL SEMANTICS BEHIND THE WHOLE
FORMULA. THE SOUND OF THE I IN ILLA PRODUCED BY THE
DARVISH IS QUITE INCREDIBLE: LIKE THE SOUND OF A CRYSTAL
GLASS THAT HAS BEEN HAMMERED BY A SPOON. THIS IS INTONATED
WHILE THRUSTING THE HEAD DOWNWARDS LIKE AN ARROW, THE
THIRD EYE FACING THE SOLAR PLEXUS, ALL THE WHILE DENYING
THE ASSUMPTION OF BEING WHAT ONE BELIEVES THE SELF TO BE.
BOMBARDING THE SOLAR PLEXUS WITH THE THIRD EYE HAS A
TRANSFORMING EFFECT UPON THE CHAKRA, OPENING IT UP LIKE A
LOTUS. THIS IS THE POSITION IN WHICH THE ESSENES WERE BURIED.
SOME OF THE HESYCHAST CONTEMPLATIVES USED TO MEDITATE
BREATHING THEIR BREATH INTO THEIR ENTRAILS. THE
SUFIS CALL THIS PART OF THE DHIKR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE
IDOL, THAT IDOL THAT YOU HAVE MADE OF YOURSELF. FOR EXAMPLE,
YOU THINK, "AH, VILAYAT IS DEAD, LONG LIFE PIR!"
THAT IS THE IMPERSONAL VEHICLE OR CHALICE FOR GOD'S
PRESENCE. THE ANNIHILATION OF THE SELF IS MORE TRAUMATIC
IF ONE EXPERIENCES THE SHATTERING EFFECT UPON ONE'S PERSON
OF THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE DIVINE IMMENSITY. IT IS THE
CONFRONTATION WITH GOD THAT OBLITERATES THE SENSE OF
EGO-NESS, RATHER THAN ANY EFFORT TO DISSOLVE ONE'S EGO INTO
THE VOID.



NUMBER THREE: ALLAH ('LLA')
THE MEANING OF ALLAH IS "THE WORSHIPPED ONE."
ACCORDING TO ARABIC GRAMMAR, WHEN THE FIRST A OF A WORD FOLLOWS
THE LAST A OF A PREVIOUS ONE,
ONE ELIMINATES THE A IN THE SECOND WORD.
AS IT IS CONSIDERED BY THE PIOUS DISRESPECTFUL TO ERADICATE ANY LETTER
OF THE WORD ALLAH,
THE FIRST A IS UTTERED INAUDIBLY,
CARRYING A SLIGHT BREAK INTO THE FORMULA WHICH IS AESTHETICALLY
HARMONIOUS.
THIS IS THE GREAT PROCLAMATION,
THE PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE GREAT NAME OF GOD:
THE SUPREME MOMENT OF GLORIFICATION,
ONE'S PARTICIPATION IN THE COSMIC
HALLELUJAH
WHICH ORIGINATED ALL FORMS.
IT IS SAID BY THE DARVISH WITH GREAT EMPHASIS.
IN GLORIFICATION MAN ATTAINS HIS FULFILLMENT,
ESPECIALLY IN ITS ULTIMATE FORM
IN AFFIRMING UNITY, WHERE ONE IS NO MORE THERE TO AFFIRM IT.
ONE DISCOVERS ONESELF AS THAT ONE AND ONLY BEING,
BEING LOST IN THE VISION OF ONENESS.



BEING LOST IN THE VISION OF ONENESS.

SUCH IS THE ULTIMATE AFFIRMATION,
UNACCEPTABLE TO THOSE WHO ARE STILL CONSCIOUS OF
THEMSELVES.
THAT IS WHY AL HALLAJ WAS CRUCIFIED.
THERE COMES A TIME, SAYS HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN,
WHEN THE GODLY SOUL CRIES,
ANA'L-HAQQ, I AM THE TRUTH.
WHEN YOU MAKE THE ULTIMATE AFFIRMATION,
YOU ARE A KNIGHT, OR THE TRUMPET
THROUGH WHICH GOD MAKES HIS PROCLAMATION,
THAT IS WHERE YOU CAN DECLARE IT WITH GREAT FORCE,
AND THIS ACCOUNTS FOR THE POWER OF THE DARVISH.
IN FACT, ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF A
HUMAN BEING IS WHEN HE SAYS
"SO BE IT" OR "I WILL."
THIS IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM SAYING "IT MAY BE,"
"I AM NOT SURE," "IT LOOKS AS THOUGH" ....
THE CREDO IN THE CATHOLIC MASS AFFIRMS THE FAITH THAT
DOES NOT HAVE TO REST ON REASON:
ONE STANDS FOR WHAT ONE BELIEVES
BEYOND EVEN THE PROOF OF THE CONTRARY.

Take the famous utterance, 'I am God.' Some men reckon it as a great pretension; but 'I am Gael' is in fact a great humility. The man who says 'I am the servant of God' asserts that two exist, one himself and the other God. But he who says 'I am God' has naughted himself and cast himself to the winds. He says, 'I am God': that is, 'I am not, He is all, nothing has existence but God, I am pure non-entity, I am nothing.' In this the humility is greater.

--Discourses of Rumi, translated by A. J. Arberry

ACCORDING TO THE HEKALOTH OF THE JEWS,
EACH TIME A NEW SOUL IMPINGES UPON THE SURFACE
OF THE OCEAN OF LIFE
IT PRODUCES A VIBRATION IN THE GREAT SYMPHONY OF THE
SPHERES
THAT IS REVERBERATING THROUGHOUT THE COSMOS.
DHIKR MEANS RECOLLECTION,
TO REINSTATE THE PROMISE MADE AT THE BEGINNING OF TIME
AT THE MOMENT OF THE BIRTH OF ONE'S SOUL IN PRE-ETERNITY
WHEN ONE SAID
"I WILL."
RECOLLECT, REDISCOVER IN THE DEEP LAYERS OF THE
UNCONSCIOUS
THE PRIMEVAL COVENANT WHERE ONE MADE THE GREAT
PROCLAMATION
THAT INVESTS ONE WITH ONE'S MEASURE OF RELATIVE
AUTONOMY.
THE SOLEMN PROMISE
WHEREBY ONE PLEDGES ONESELF TO SUZERAINTY TO THE DIVINE
SOVEREIGNTY
TO FULFILL THE DIVINE WILL, YET ANSWER FOR IT ONESELF.
THAT IS WHY HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN SAYS,
"LET THY WISH BECOME MY DESIRE."



NUMBER FOUR: THE H AT THE END OF ALLAH ATTENDED WITH A U
GOD'S REPLY TO ONE'S INVOCATION
COMES IN THE FORM OF THE PRONOUN IN THE THIRD PERSON: HIM,
PERSON NOT PRESENT.
THE NON-MANIFEST, FREEING ONE FROM THE CIRCLE OF BECOMING
ON A TANGENT.
THROUGH US HE BECOMES ANA,
THE SUBJECT THAT EXPERIENCES,
WHEN WE INVOKE HIM BEYOND HIS ATTRIBUTES WE FOCUS ON THE
PERSON NOT PRESENT HERE AND NOW,
AND HIS ANSWER, INSTEAD OF BEING I AM THAT I AM, IS
HE IS THAT HE IS:
HUWA,
THE MOST IMPERSONAL MODE OF EXPRESSION.
HU IS THAT HE WHO WEAVES THE ARIADNIAN THREAD THAT YOU
THOUGHT WAS YOU INTO HIS UNITY.
YOU CRANE YOUR NECK,
YOUR WHOLE BEING IS IN THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE STATE OF
SUSPENSE,
THE DOORS BETWEEN THE MANIFEST AND THE NON-MANIFEST ARE
OPEN,
AND YOU ARE TRANSFIGURED EVEN AS YOU ARE PULVERIZED
BY THE SUDDEN FLASH OF IMPONDERABLE LIGHTNING.
HOW CAN YOU EXPERIENCE THE NON-MANIFEST
EXCEPT BY IT MANIFESTING TO YOU?
ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT THERE TO
EXPERIENCE IT.



HUWA
IS VERY MUCH WHAT THE UPANISHADS CALL PARATPARAM,
BEYOND THE BEYOND.
THE THRESHOLD MOVES FORWARD, LIKE THE
HORIZON,
THE FURTHER YOU ADVANCE THE FURTHER IT
RECEDES,
YOU NEVER REACH IT
THE FRONTIER, ("BARZAQ") DESTROYS
ITSELF
AS YOU ADVANCE.
THERE IS NO MORE MANIFEST OR NON-MANIFEST
OR GOD AND ME,
BUT ALL IS ONE.



WHEN THE DHAKIR REACHES THE STATE OF REALIZATION
HE WATCHES, AS IT WERE, FROM ABOVE
HOW THE SPIRIT STIRS THAT LUMP OF FLESH CALLED THE BODY
INTO A MOTION
SWINGING THE HEAD AS HIGH AS IT CAN GO
CATAPULTING THE INDWELLING CONSCIOUSNESS
INTO THE IMMENSITY
AND HOW AGAIN THAT VERY FLESH IS IMPRINTED
WITH THE IMPRESSION OF THE BOUNTY GRASPED BY
CONSCIOUSNESS.
THEN IT IS CLEAR THAT WHAT IS ULTIMATELY GAINED IS
REALIZATION OF THE DIVINE INTENTION, BECOME A REALITY IN
THE PERSON.



THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD
THE DHIKR SHOULD NOT BE PRACTICED
WITHOUT BEING PRESCRIBED BY AN AUTHORIZED SUFI
IN THE TRADITION OF THE SILSILA (THE CHAIN OF TRANSMISSION)
THERE ARE NUMEROUS FORMS WHICH MAY NOT BE GIVEN HERE



AFTER MASTERING THE INTONATED FORMULA
IT MAY BE REPEATED INTERNALLY ON THE RHYTHM OF THE
BREATH:
ONE BREATHES OUT LA ILAHA
AND IN ALLA 'LLA
HOLDING THE BREATH AS ONE THINKS HU,
THINKING THE WORDS, NOT INTONING THEM.
THIS IS CALLED FIKR-DHIKR.
WHEN YOU HAVE ACCUSTOMED THE VARIOUS PARTS OF YOUR
BODIES TO BE EXPOSED TO CERTAIN SOUNDS,
YOU WILL FIND THAT THEY STIR TO THE INTERNAL SOUND
CURRENT
THUS SET INTO MOTION, ACTING EVEN MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN
THE SPOKEN WORD.
IN THIS FORM IT IS EASIER TO CONCENTRATE ON THE MEANING OF
THE DIFFERENT PHASES GIVEN ABOVE.
ONE'S WHOLE BEING BEGINS TO OSCILLATE ON A COSMIC IMPULSE
THAT TOUCHES UPON THE AXIOMATIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ENTIRE
LIFE PROCESS.
LAUNCHING AS IT WERE A SOUND CURRENT
INTO ONE'S VERY CIRCULATORY SYSTEM.



THE PRACTICE ATTAINS ITS ULTIMATE EXPRESSION WHEN ONE CEASES TO
THINK OF THE WORDS,
ONLY CONCENTRATING ON THE MEANING,
WHILE PERFORMING THE MOTION OF THE HEAD, PERHAPS LESS AMPLY, MORE
INTERNALLY.
THIS IS CALLED FIKR AS-SIRR, THE SECRET OF THE FIKR OF THE DHIKR.
BEHIND ONE SIGNIFICANCE ONE DISCOVERS A DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE,
THEN A YET DEEPER ONE, DIVING DEEPER INTO THE DIVINE INTENTION,
"MA'ANA," THE CONCEALED SECRET, SIRR AL GHAYB, THE CONSTERNATION OF
INTELLIGENCES.
ONE MAY REACH A POINT IN THE REALIZATION OF THE DHIKR
WHERE TO NEGATE ILLUSION IS SUPERFLUOUS BECAUSE IT HAS FALLEN OUT
OF FOCUS.
IN THE FIRST PHASE THERE IS A SENSE OF IMMENSITY AS ONE EXTENDS INTO
OUTER SPACE,
COEXTENSIVE WITH THE TOTALITY;
IN THE SECOND PHASE ONE INCORPORATES THE BOUNTY OF THE UNIVERSE AS
A POINT OF CONVERGENCE.
AT THIS STAGE THE PRACTICE BECOMES COSMICALLY POWERFUL,
ACCOUNTING FOR THE INCREDIBLE MAJESTY OF THE DARVISH
THE KING IN BEGGAR'S GARB, A PALACE IN A RUIN,
THE LIVING DEAD WHO GIVES ETERNAL LIFE.

[admin]

THE CHAIN OF THE SUFIS



AT A TIME WHEN THE BREAKING DOWN OF RELIGIOUS, INTELLECTUAL
AND CULTURAL BARRIERS BETWEEN EAST AND WEST
FOSTERS RICH FERMENTATION OF IDEAS, AND A RE-EVALUATION
OF IDEALS, THE AGE-OLD TRADITION OF SUFI ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY
AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE PERENNIAL UNFOLDMENT
OF HUMAN THOUGHT REMAINS BUT LITTLE KNOWN EXCEPT
TO A FEW SPECIALISTS AND ENTHUSIASTS. YET AN EXPLORATION
OF ITS TEACHINGS THROWS A REVEALING LIGHT ON THE
PROBLEMS THAT THE WEST HAS USUALLY TRIED TO FATHOM WITH THE
MEASURING-ROD OF SPECULATIVE THOUGHT; AND IT MAY YET HAVE
AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO MAKE TO TODAY'S
SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE

"Just tether your ass and commend it to God," goes a Turkish proverb. The West has always been of the belief that Islam is stagnant as a religion. Nothing is further from the truth; Islam is more viable than the Christian religion. It has proven its viability. The following exploration clearly shows us the well-spring of the power of Islam, it is up to us to make the well-spring useful to the Christian religion as well. It was living water from this well-spring that brought everything to fruition in the early period of the Church, and which produced the most glorious flowering of the Middle Ages; only rationalism and materialism blocked this well-spring.

-- The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons: The Key to the Understanding of Alchemy, by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorf

A MESSAGE IN OUR TIME.

OUR APPRECIATION OF THE UNIVERSAL VALUE OF HUMAN
THOUGHT HAS BEEN GREATLY HAMPERED SO FAR BY OUR
ACQUIRED HABITS OF PIGEON-HOLING KNOWLEDGE INTO
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AND WATER-TIGHT RELIGIOUS GROUPS; WE
DISTINGUISH GREEK PHILOSOPHY FROM VEDANTA AND THE EGYPTIAN
MYSTERIES FROM THE KABBALA OR ZOROASTRIANISM, OR
CHRISTIANITY, OVERLOOKING THE CURRENTS AND CROSS-CURRENTS
THAT HAVE RUN FROM ONE SYSTEM (AS WE CALL IT) TO
THE OTHER, OR THAT PART PLAYED BY THOSE POWERFUL
THOUGHTS, ACTING AS POLLEN, FERMENTS OR CATALYSTS THAT
HAVE THROWN THESE GROUPS INTO BLOSSOM, ENRICHED THEIR
CONCEPTS, OR OPERATED THE SUDDEN AND PROFOUND TRANSFORMATIONS
THAT HAVE AT TIMES GALVANIZED CIVILIZATIONS
TO THE POINT OF TAKING THE LEAD FOR A TIME. FURTHERMORE,
ONE MUST NOT OVERLOOK THE PERSONAL STAMP OF THOSE WHO
HAVE REVEALED NEW BELIEFS UPON THE SURFACE OF THE SAME
OLD PROBLEMS THROUGH THEIR OWN INDIVIDUAL OUTLOOK, OR
SHALL WE SAY, THEIR METTLE.



WHEN THE TORCH OF MYSTERY TEACHING THAT ILLUMINATED
GREEK THOUGHT WAS IN DANGER OF BEING EXTINGUISHED BY THE
CLOSING DOWN OF THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS UNDER JUSTINIAN IN
THE YEAR 529, IT WAS RESCUED AND REVIVED BY THE AWAKENING
ARAB WORLD WHICH INHERITED THE "FALSAFA" (ARABIC FOR
PHILOSOPHY) FROM THE HANDS OF THE NEO-PLATONISTS, DAMASCIUS
AND HIS BRETHREN, AT THE COURT OF THEIR ROYAL PERSIAN
HOST, NURSHIVAN, WHO HAD GIVEN THEM ASYLUM. THE
PHILOSOPHICAL CONTROVERSIES OF THE KHORASSAN SCHOOLS
WERE DOMINATED BY THE CROSS-CURRENTS BETWEEN THE PLATONISTS
CALLED ISHRAKIN, OR ILLUMINATED, BECAUSE THEY
REGARDED INTUITION, OR THE INTROSPECTIVE LIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS
AS THE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE, AND THE PERIPATETICIANS,
OR MASHAIN, WHO ATTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE TO
DIALECTICS AND THE INTELLECT. NO DOUBT, NOT ONLY THE NEO-PLATONIC GNOSIS BUT EVEN ITS TERMINOLOGY CAN BE
TRACED BACK TO THE WRITINGS OF THE SUFIS. BUT THE SWEEPING
AND CATEGORICAL NATURE OF THE ISLAMIC SHAHADA THAT IS
THE AFFIRMATION OF THE SOLE EXISTENCE OF GOD, TOGETHER
WITH THE DENIAL OF ANY OTHER EXISTENCE, INEVITABLY CALLED
FOR A TEARING RE-EXAMINATION OF THE "IMAGO MUNDI" OF THE
NEO-PLATONISTS, THAT HYPOSTATIC PROCESSION FROM THE ONE
AS PLOTINUS HAD OUTLINED IN THE ENNEADS. THE CONCLUSIONS
REACHED IN THIS SOUL-SEARCHING OF THAT MOST INTREPID OF
THINKERS ARE FAR-REACHING AND CANNOT LEAVE US INDIFFERENT.

SIMILARLY THE ZOROASTRIAN BACKGROUND WHERE THE NEW
CONQUERORS OF PERSIA ESTABLISHED THEMSELVES, STEEPED IN
THE AGE-OLD WISDOM OF THE MAGI WHOSE WORK HAD BEEN
DESTROYED BY THE PILLAGE OF ALEXANDER'S TROOPS,
CHALLENGED THE MORE ENLIGHTENED OF THE FAITH TO RE-EXAMINE
IT IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR SWEEPING OUT-LOOK. SO
MUCH SO THAT SHIHAB-UD-DIN YAHYA-AS SUHRAWARDI WHO WAS
PUT TO DEATH IN ALEPPO AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-SIX REFERRED TO
HIMSELF AS THE SPIRITUAL SUCCESSOR OF SUCH PERSIAN MAGI AS
KHOSRAU, ZOROASTER, JAMASP, FRASHAOSHTRA, BOZURGMEHR.



BUT HE INCLUDED IN THIS CHAIN OF TORCHBEARERS OF THE
ESOTERIC TRADITION EMPEDOCLES, PLATO, PYTHAGORAS, PLOTINUS,
PROCLUS AND HERMES, WHO FORM A PROPHETIC FAMILY,
WHOSE MISSION IS "THE CLOSE SAFEGUARD OF THE DIVINE PROOFS
UPON THE EARTH." THE BREATH-TAKING PERSPECTIVES OPENED
ON THE COSMOLOGY OF THE HEAVENLY ORBS BY AVICENNA IN HIS
"KITAB AL SHIFA" AND SUHRAWARDI IN HIS "HIKMAT AL ISHRAQ"
(PHILOSOPHY OF LIGHT) REINSTATE THE ANGELOLOGY OF THE
ZOROASTRIANS, WHICH IS THE MOST DETAILED SYSTEM KNOWN,
EVEN MORE SO THAN THAT OF THE KABALA, WHOSE ANGELOLOGICAL
SYSTEM HAS ENTERED SUFISM BY THE DOOR OF ISMAILISM.
CURIOUSLY ENOUGH THE ANCIENTS CONSIDERED PLATO
AS THE DISCIPLE OF THE PERSIANS THROUGH A LEAKAGE
TRICKLING THROUGH THE DARDANELLES OR ACROSS ASIA MINOR;
CONVERSELY, THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE ZOROASTRIAN ANGELOLOGY
WERE LATER SHAKEN IN THE MIND OF AVICENNA BY
THE THEOLOGY OF ARISTOTLE, THAT APOCRYPHAL MANUSCRIPT
ATTRIBUTED BY THE ARABS TO ARISTOTLE WHICH WAS NOTHING
BUT AN EDITED TRANSLATION OF THE ENNEADS IV AND VI AND A
FRAGMENT OF PORPHYRY. SUHRAWARDI WENT YET FURTHER,
CORROBORATING AND ENRICHING THIS "INTERPRETATIO MUNDI"
BY THE FRUIT OF HIS MEDITATIONS ON THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF
KNOWLEDGE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF ISLAM.



THE OLD MYSTERY SCHOOLS OF EGYPT, SUPERSEDED AND
CORRUPT AS THEY WERE, ALSO LEFT A FERMENT THAT HAS FERTILIZED
THE SOIL OF SUFISM. THEY HAD GIVEN RISE TO THE
TREMENDOUS RESEARCH IN METAPHYSICS, ARITHMETIC, ALGEBRA,
SYLLOGISTICS, MEDICINE, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY, THAT HAS
RADIATED FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH CENTURIES FROM THE
SCHOOLS OF ALEXANDRIA, THE SO-CALLED SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL
SYNCRETISM. HERE THE ESOTERIC HERITAGE OF EGYPT, AS BORNE
BY HERMES AND OTHERS, THAT OF THE HELLENISTIC CULTURE BY
PROCLUS AND THE MANICHEANS, AND THAT OF ISRAEL BY DENIS
AND THE NESTORIANS AMALGAMATED INTO A "CORPUS HERMETICA".
THIS CORPUS BOLSTERED THE GROWTH OF THE EXACT
SCIENCES IN THEIR FORMATIVE STAGES IN BOTH EAST AND WEST
AND GAVE ALCHEMY ITS RICHNESS AND POWER TO THE EXTENT
THAT PSYCHOLOGISTS TODAY STILL FEEL THE NEED TO GROPE
INTO ITS MYSTERIES IN ORDER TO ENABLE THEM TO MAKE AN
EXACT SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY. THROUGHOUT THE PROGRESS OF
SECULARIZATION OF PHILOSOPHY IN EAST AND WEST, THE BELIEF
IN AN HERMETIC KNOWLEDGE AVAILABLE ONLY TO THE INITIATED
AND COMMUNICATED BY A SAGE, SUCCESSOR IN THE SECRET
TRADITION TO HERMES AND FURTHER BACK TO THOTH, HAS NEVER
COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED. IN ISLAM THE FIGURE OF HERMES
WAS ASSUMED BY KHIDR OR BETTER STILL IN THE ESOTERIC
TRADITION BY IDRIS, THAT INEFFABLE MASTER OF THE HERMETIC
MYSTERY KNOWN ONLY TO THE FEW, WHO REMAINS THE HIDDEN
(BATIN) INITIATOR BEHIND THE OUTER (ZAHIR) PIR'S TEACHING.
THIS ESOTERIC SCIENCE TOGETHER WITH ITS EXOTERIC
DISCIPLINE WAS SPREAD IN ARAMAIC ASSYRIA
AND MESOPOTAMIA.



ONE OF THE SUFI HEIRS TO THE EGYPTIAN MYSTERY CULTS AND
HERMETIC WISDOM WAS THE EGYPTIAN DHUL NUN MISRI, (BY HIS
REAL NAME, ABU FAYE THAUBAN IBRAHIM MISRI) 798-856, WHO IS
PASSED DOWN IN THE HISTORY OF SUFISM AS A NEAR LEGENDARY
FIGURE FOR HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE THEN ALMOST FORGOTTEN
HIEROGLYPHICS, WHICH HE DECIPHERED FROM EGYPTIAN
TEMPLES, HIS MASTERY IN THE ART OF ALCHEMY AND KABALA,
AND HIS ERUDITION IN HERMETIC WISDOM. BY ACCUMULATING
INITIATIONS IN THESE ESOTERIC DISCIPLINES HE WAS ABLE TO
COMBINE THEIR DOCTRINES IN AN OVERRIDING GNOSIS -- OR
VISION OF UNITY -- BROADENED YET BY HIS OWN
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE.



DURING THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES, THE ISMAILIS INJECTED
ISLAM WITH THE IDEAL OF INTER-RELIGIOUS RECONCILIATION
AND DIFFUSED THE FRUITS OF THE FINDINGS OF THE SCHOOL OF
ALEXANDRA. AN INDICATION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIC CHARACTER
OF ISMAILISM MAY BE TRACED IN THE IKHWAN AL SAFA, WHICH
GIVES AN ALL-EMBRACING PANORAMIC VIEW OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
IN THE TENTH CENTURY. THIS MYSTERIOUS SECT, WHICH
SOUGHT TO ESTABLISH THE FATIMID IMMAMAT, WAS FOUNDED BY
MAYMOUN AL QUADDAH AND REACHED A DEPTH OF INTROSPECTIVE
ANALYSIS AS YET UNSURPASSED IN THE ANNALS OF METAPHYSICS
UNDER THE IMPULSE OF NAZIR KHUSARAU E JAMI AL HIKMATAIN
(THE BOOK LINKING THE TWO WISDOMS). IT WAS THE INFLUENCE
OF ISMAILISM THAT INTRODUCED ELEMENTS OF SUFI
ESOTERICISM INTO THE WEST THROUGH THE CONTACTS MADE
WITH THE CRUSADERS. THUS THE CATHARS, WHO INTRODUCED
THE ROSICRUCIAN SECRET ORDER INTO THE MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN
MILIEU, BRANCHED OFF FROM THE STEM OF THE SUFI TRADITION.
THE LEGENDS OF PARSIFAL THAT PENETRATED GERMANIC
FOLKLORE THROUGH THE DRUIDS, THE CELTIC ONE IN CRESTIEN
DE TROYES FABLES, AND THE SAXON ONE, THROUGH THE KING
ARTHUR LEGENDS, REVEALS THE TRACE OF AN ENCOUNTER
BETWEEN ISLAMIC AND CHRISTIAN INITIATES. ACCORDING TO THE
TRADITION, PARSIFAL'S FATHER WAS AN ARAB, AND THE WORD
PARSIFA BETRAYS A PERSIAN ETYMOLOGY -- PAREH-FAL MEANS: "LE
FOL PUR" OR "LE FOU D'AMOUR" (IN ARABIC PARS MEANS PURE AND
WAL OR WALI, SAINT, OR FRIEND OF GOD). THE GRAIL LEGEND
BROUGHT BACK FROM PALESTINE BY THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS
INTRODUCED THE MYSTERY TRADITION INTO CHRISTIANITY. THE
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN TERMINOLOGY: KNIGHTS OF PURITY
AND IKHWAN AL SAFA, WHICH MEANS "BROTHERHOOD OF THE
PURE", WAS FOSTERED DURING THE CRUSADES.

THERE ARE MORE EXAMPLES OF THE INFLUENCE OF SUFI THOUGHT
UPON CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM THROUGH THE SPANISH SCHOOL
THAT FLOURISHED DURING THE FOUR CENTURIES FROM THE



THIRTEENTH CENTURY ONWARDS. RAMON LULL (1235-1315), WHO
MAY BE CONSIDERED AS THE INITIATOR OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF
CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, WROTE IN THE "BOOK OF THE LOVER AND
THE BELOVED", WHICH WAS FRAMED IN TYPICAL SUFI TERMINOLOGY,
OF HIS MEETING WITH "CERTAIN MEN CALLED SUFIS WHO
SET DOWN WORDS O LOVE AND BRIEF EXAMPLES WHICH GAVE
US GREAT DEVOTION, AND THESE WORDS WHICH DEMANDED
EXPOSITION AND BY THE EXPOSITION THEREOF THE UNDERSTANDING
SOARS ALOFT, AND THE WILL LIKEWISE SOARS AND IS
INCREASED IN DEVOTION". THE DISTINGUISHED CONTEMPORARY
SPANISH ARABIC SCHOLAR AND WRITER, PROFESSOR MIGUEL ASIN
PALACIOS, HAS ATTEMPTED TO PROVE IN "ISLAM AND THE DIVINE
COMEDY" THE INFLUENCE OF THE ESOTERIC DOCTRINES OF ISLAM
OF DANTE'S "DIVINE COMEDY." HE HAS ALSO SHOWN THE
INFLUENCE OF AVERROES ON ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
AND OF IBN L'ARABI ON RAMON LULL.

THE CONVERSE IS EQUALLY TRUE: HASSAN BASRI (D. 728), WHO IS
CLAIMED AS THE FIRST AFTER HAZRAT ALI IN THE "ISNADS AND
SILSILS" OR "CHAINS OF SPIRITUAL AFFILIATION", ATTRIBUTED TO
DAVID AND JESUS THE AUSTERE PRACTICES UPON WHICH HE
MODELLED HIS LIFE. AS A MATTER OF FACT THE WORD SUFI IS
OFTEN ATTRIBUTED TO THE PRECEDENT HE SET BY WEARING A
ROBE OF WOOL (SUF IN ARABIC), FOLLOWING THEREBY THE
EXAMPLE OF JESUS, FOR WHICH HE WAS CRITICISED BY IBN SIRIN, A



CONTEMPORARY SCHOLAR WHO "PREFERRED TO FOLLOW THE
EXAMPLE OF OUR PROPHET WHO CLOTHED HIMSELF IN COTTON."
THE KHIRKA OR ROBE MARKED ALREADY AT THAT TIME THE
CLEAVAGE BETWEEN THE NON-CONSERVATIVE SUFIS AND THE DOGMATICS
OF THE FAITH. ABU HASHIM OTHMAN IBN SHARIK OF
KUFA, WHO IS CREDITED WITH HAVING SET UP THE FIRST TRUE
SUFI KHANKAH OR MONASTERY, IS SAID TO HAVE FOLLOWED, IN SO
DOING, THE EXAMPLE OF A CHRISTIAN AMIR WHO FOUNDED THE
FIRST MONASTIC EDIFICE IN RAMLEH IN PALESTINE. ABU HASHIM
WAS ATTACKED FOR THIS BY THE IMMAMITES ON THE STRENGTH
OF THE HADITH "YA RABANIH FIL ISLAM" (NO MONKERY IN ISLAM).
THIS WAS TO BE FOLLOWED BY THE KHANKAH SI RIBAT, BUILT BY
THE DISCIPLES OF IBN KHARRAM AT JERUSALEM IN 855.

SUFIS MAY BE TRACED DOWN TO IBRAHIM BEN ADHAM, WHO
LEARNED THE TRUE MARIFAT OR GNOSIS FROM FATHER SIMEON
AND A GROUP OF CHRISTIAN ANCHORITES WHO GAVE HIM
ASYLUM AND COVERED HIS HIDING WHEN HIS LIFE WAS IN DANGER
IN THE SYRIAN DESERT. IT WAS THROUGH HIM THAT BUDDHIST
INFLUENCES ARE SAID TO HAVE PENETRATED INTO THE MOSLEM
WORLD. FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF PRINCE SIDDHARTHA, THE
BUDDHA, IBN ADHAM, WHO WAS PRINCE OF KHORASSAN, LEFT HIS
PALACE TO DON THE PAUPER'S ROBE AND TAKE UP THE BEGGAR'S
BOWL (KASHKOUL) AFTER HAVING HEARD A VOICE BECKONING
WITH THE WORDS "IT WAS NOT FOR THIS THAT THOU WAST
CREATED." ROAMING AS A MENDICANT HE LEARNED, THEN TAUGHT,
A SYSTEM OF SELF-DISCIPLINE (ZUHD) WHICH WAS THEN IN ITS
FORMATIVE STAGE AND WAS FURTHER DEVELOPED BY HIS PUPIL
SHAQIQ WHO ADVOCATED "TAWAQHUL", ABANDON IN GOD. HE
GAVE HIS PUPILS THE FIRST PRECEPTS IN METHODS OF CONTEMPLATION
(MURAQUABAH) KNOWN TO THE SUFIS AND PRACTISED
THE PRESENCE OF GOD THROUGH "FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD"
(KHOLLA).





THE PHENOMENON OF OSMOSIS BETWEEN ISLAMIC AND HINDU
THOUGHT CAN ALSO BE TRACED BACK BY FOLLOWING CROSS-
CURRENTS. THE PORT OF BASRA ON THE RED SEA CONDUCTED
DURING THE SEVENTH CENTURY THE FLOW OF INDIAN CULTURE
INTO THE ISLAMIC WORLD. A STUDY OF ASTRONOMICAL AND
ASTROLOGICAL TABLES, TOGETHER WITH MATHEMATICAL METHODS
(THE SINEWS INSTEAD OF THE CHORD IN TRIGONOMETRY)
AND MEDICINE USED AT THE TIME PROVES THIS. BUT A CROSS-
CURRENT FLOWING NOW FROM THE SCHOOLS OF BASRA, BAGHDAD
AND KHORASSAN SOON TURNED THE TIDE IN THE
OPPOSITE DIRECTION WHEN THE GNOSTIC SCIENCES DEVELOPED
BEYOND THOSE OF INDIA. THE CHALLENGE OF ITS SINGLE DIVINITY
SET BEFORE THE MINDS OF MANY INDIAN THINKERS A NEW PROBLEM
OF INTEGRATION WHICH HAD FAR-REACHING EFFECTS. IT
GALVANIZED THE THEN DECADENT INDIAN CULTURE INTO RENEWED
SOUL-SEARCHING, FORCING IT TO OUTREACH ITSELF,
AND IT CATALYZED A NEW FORM OF SYNCRETISM, OR A SPIRITUAL
SYNTHESIS, SURPASSING IN ITS UNIVERSAL CHARACTER EVEN THAT
OF THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA. FROM THE EARLIER MASSIVE
CONVERSIONS THAT WERE EFFECTED BY THE POWER OF THE WORD
RATHER THAN THE SWORD IN INDIA ONE MAY JUDGE OF THE
SPIRITUAL ASCENDANCY OF MALIK BEN DINAR AMONG THE
MOPLARS OR HALLAJ AMONG THE DUDWALARS AND THE PINJARAS
OF GUJRAT, OR YUSUF AL DIN SINDHI AMONG THE MOMANS, OF
KUTCH, OF ABDALLAH HARAZI AMONG THE BOHARAS OF GUJRAT,
OF NASIR E KHOSRAU AMONGST THE TRIBES OF WAKHAN AND THE
AFRIDIS, AND NOUR STAGAR AND SADRAL DIN AMONGST THE
KHOJAS OF GUJERAT WHO ARE OF THE ISMAILI SECT OF WHICH HIS
HIGHNESS THE AGA KHAN IS THE LEADER TODAY. THE MOGHUL
INVASION OF NORTHERN INDIA FOSTERED THE EXODUS INTO INDIA
OF MANY SUFI FRATERNITIES AND ORDERS THAT PLAYED THE
LEADING ROLE IN CONVERSIONS: MOIN-UD-DIN CHISHTI (634 A.H.) WHO
WAS THE FOUNDER OF THE CHISTIA ORDER IN AJMER FROM
WHICH PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN DESCENDS IN SPIRITUAL
AFFILIATION, PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SETTING THE IDEAL



OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION, FOLLOWED BY THE MOGHUL EMPEROR
AKBAR WHO CONVENED THE FIRST INTER-RELIGIOUS CONGRESS IN
THE WORLD AT HIS COURT. QUTB KHAKI WAS ALSO A CENTER OF
SPIRITUAL RADIATION THAT DREW THOUSANDS IN DELHI.



IT WAS DURING THIS DYNAMIC PERIOD BETWEEN THE LATTER
HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH AND THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURIES IN INDIA THAT THE SANSKRIT SACRED TEXTS
WERE TRANSLATED INTO PERSIAN AND THE ARAB TEXTS INTO
THE INDIAN DIALECTS. IT WAS AT THIS TIME THAT BIROUMI
TRANSLATED THE YOGA SUTRA OF PATANJALI FROM SANSKRIT INTO
ARABIC AND LEFT NUMEROUS STUDIES ON INDIAN PHILOSOPHY OF
A COMPARATIVE NATURE THAT WERE WIDELY SPREAD IN THE
ARAB WORLD, AND PRINCE DARASHIKH WAS ENCOURAGING MUTUAL
COMPREHENSION THROUGH THE EXCHANGE OF CULTURE.
THE PROFOUNDER MINDS OF THE TIME WERE SEEKING A RECONCILIATION
BETWEEN THE METAPHYSICAL DOCTRINES THAT WERE
THUS CONFRONTED. THIS MEANT A COMPLETE AND UTTER REEVALUATION
OF ALL THE PROBLEMS AND CONCURRENTLY THE
ESTABLISHING OF A TABLE OF CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE
TERMINOLOGIES NOT ONLY OF VEDANTA AND SUFISM, BUT ALSO
OF JAINISM, MAHAYANA, SAMKHYA, HINAYANA, TANTRA, AND THE
SCHOOL OF SHANKARA ON THE ONE HAND, AND ON THE OTHER HAND,
THE WHOLE COMPLEX WE HAVE EXAMINED SO FAR.

Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wha Guru
THERE IS BUT ONE GOD, TRUTH IS HIS NAME,
GREAT IS HIS INDESCRIBABLE WISDOM.

KABIR (1518) FOUND A HAPPY COMPROMISE IN HIS POEMS. A MUSLIM,
THOUGH THE DISCIPLE OF A HINDU GURU, RAMANANDA, HE
TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES THE ISLAMIC IDEAL OF THE UNITY OF GOD,
TOGETHER WITH THE VEDANTA METAPHYSICS. SIMILARLY, THE
MOVEMENT THAT GAVE RISE TO THE SIKHS UNDER GURU NANAK
(1539) WAS A FURTHER EFFORT TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION, AND
MORE: A SWEEPING OVERBRIDGING. THE ADIGRANTH, OR SACRED
TEXT OF THE SIKHS, CONTAINS MANY HYMNS BY SUFIS AMONGST
WHOM IS SHAKARGANJ (664 A.H.) OF PAKPATTAN.



WHATEVER BE THE UNDERCURRENTS OF EXCHANGE, IT IS GRATIFYING
AND EXCITING FOR THE STUDENT OF COMPARATIVE
RELIGION TO SEE VEDANTA, ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY CONVERGING
UPON ADVAITA AND MONISM (AHADIAT); INDEED JUST AS THE
DIVERSITY OF THE OLYMPIAN GODS WAS LATER SEEN AS THE
MANIFOLD ASPECTS OF THE SINGLE ZEUS, WHO BECAME THE DEUS
OF THE CHRISTIANS. ONE MAY COMPARE THE CURRENTS THAT
LEAD THE PRE-ARYAN, DUALISTIC, REALISTIC JAIN PHILOSOPHY OF
MIND-VERSUS-SUBSTANCE TO THE VEDANTA OF SHANKARYACHARYA,
OR THE ETHICAL DUALISM OF ZOROASTRIANISM OR THE METAPHYSICAL
DUALISM OF THE PERIPATETICS TO THE INTEGRATION
OF THE ISMAILIS AND THE MONISM OF IBN L-ARABI, OR THE FORMALISM
OF ST. AUGUSTINE THROUGH ST. THOMAS AQUINAS' IDEALISM
TO MEISTER ECKHARDT'S MYSTICISM. THIS GIVES EVIDENCE
OF THE INEVITABLE MARCH OF THE HUMAN SOUL FACED WITH
THE TASK OF ASSIMILATING POINTS OF VIEW AT FIRST SO CONFUSINGLY
CONTRADICTORY AND YET FUNDAMENTALLY UNIFYING.
"GOD IS THE RECONCILIATION OF OPPOSITES"
SAYS THE SUFI KARRAS.



WHAT INTERESTS PARTICULARLY THOSE DRAWN TO THE ESOTERIC
LEARNING IS NOT THE THEORETICAL OR HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF
THIS PROBLEM, BUT THE FACT THAT THE PHILOSOPHICAL COGITATIONS
MEETING THE PROBLEMS HAVE LEAD TO A PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISCOVERY OF OUR FUNDAMENTAL NATURE, WHICH
IS NONE OTHER THAN THE NATURE OF GOD. THUS THE GREAT
PROGRESSION OF SUFISM IS NOTHING LESS THAN AN EXPERIMENTAL
ADVENTURE INTO THE PSYCHE.

BUT THE ERA OF GLOWING, BURNING DIVINE LOVE,
FORESHADOWING GREAT STRIDES IN MYSTICAL ACHIEVEMENT,
WAS OPENED BY A LADY SUFI SAINT OF BASRA, RABIA (801). THE
"GRACE OF LOVE," AS MARGARET SMITH HAS CALLED HER.
LIKE ST. THERESA SHE FORSOOK MARRIAGE, SAYING, "THE CONTRACT
SHOULD BE ASKED OF HIM, NOT OF ME, FOR I LIVE IN THE
SHADOW OF HIS COMMAND." LIKE ST. THERESA SHE PRAYED TO BE
SPARED THE GRACE OF THE EXPERIENCE OF HEAVEN, THAT MUST
NEEDS BE A FURTHER TEMPTATION WITHHOLDING THE YEARNING
SOUL FROM COMPLETE UNION. LIKE ST. THERESA SHE SET UP AN
EXAMPLE OF LOVE AND SELF-ANNIHILATION TO BE FOLLOWED BY
SUFI MYSTICS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME, RATHER THAN THE
QUEST FOR PERFECTION OR NOSTALGIA FOR LIBERATION
THROUGH SELF-DISCIPLINE. IN A FAMOUS QUATRAIN SHE DISTINGUISHED
HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE, OR RATHER PERFECT AND
IMPERFECT: "I LOVE THEE WITH TWO LOVES, A LOVE THAT IS
PASSION, AND ONE WHICH DECIDES THOU HAST EARNED AS THY
DUE. THE PASSIONATE LOVE IS THE THOUGHT WHICH FORGETTING
ALL ELSE IS OF YOU, AYE, FOREVER OF YOU. THOU EARNEST
THE OTHER BY RENDERING ASUNDER ALL VEILS AND DISCLOSING
THYSELF TO MY VIEW. NOT MINE BE THE PRAISE FOR THE ONE
OR THE OTHER, THE PRAISE AND THE THANKS ARE
ALL THINE FOR THE TWO."



THE GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF
THE DOCTRINE WERE ESTABLISHED BY A PENETRATING AND SYSTEMATIC
MIND; ABDUL WAHID IBN ZAID (D. 793), WHO CODIFIED, AS
IT WERE, MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE. HE WAS THE FIRST TO PERCEIVE
THE ROLE PLAYED BY ISOLATION IN MYSTICISM AND HE BAPTIZED
THE TERM IFRAD -- THUS PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE SUBTLE
PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE MADE BY AL
HALLAJ. AT THE SAME TIME HE WAS ABLE TO FOLLOW THE WORK
ITTISAF (DEIFICATION) TO ITS ULTIMATE CONCLUSIONS, THUS
FORESHADOWING THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE INTRINSIC UNITY OF
ALL EXISTENCE WHICH ALL HALLAJ ELUCIDATED WITH SUCH SKILL,
OPPOSING IT TO HULLUL, THE IDEA OF INCARNATION, WHICH IS
FORBIDDEN IN ISLAM, AS IT IS ASSUMED THAT IT IMPLIES THE DUALITY
OF SPIRIT AND MATTER AND THE EXISTENCE OF DIVINITIES
OTHER THAN GOD. IT WAS HE ALSO WHO DISTINGUISHED ISHRAQ, OR
THE DESIRE OF GOD, FROM MUHABBA, WHICH MARKS
THE CONSUMMATION.

BUT IT WAS AL MUHASIBI (856) WHO WAS THE GREAT FORERUNNER
OF THE SUFI DOCTRINE. THIS ROLE HE FULFILLED BY INTROSPECTIVE
ANALYSIS (AS HIS NAME INDICATES). SCRUPULOUS AND
METHODICAL, HIS WORK ASSUMES THE FORM OF A PHILOSOPHICAL
CONFESSION IN WHICH THE TECHNICAL VOCABULARY OF HIS
PREDECESSORS IS ARRANGED AND SYSTEMATIZED. HIS STYLE
REVEALS AT TIMES A STRIKING CONCLUSION; FOR INSTANCE:
"ENDURANCE IS TO OFFER ONESELF AS A TARGET FOR
THE ARROWS OF PAIN."



WHILE MAINTAINING THE FORMS CONSECRATED BY DOGMA, HE
YET PASSES FROM FORMALISM TO THE CORRESPONDING
EXPERIENCE, AS FOR INSTANCE IN HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE
MUSLIM AFTER-LIFE, FROM THE LAST JUDGMENT TO THE BEATIFIC
VISION IN KITAB AL TAWAHHUM, WHERE HE MAKES USE OF
THE DOGMA TO DESCRIBE THE MYSTICAL STATES WHICH HE
EXPERIENCES. IN HIS EXEGESIS OF THE "STATIONS" (MAQMAT) AND
"STATES" (AWHAL) HE WAS A PRECURSOR OF DHUL NUN. ACCORDING
TO MUHASIBI, REASON NEED NOT SET ITSELF UP AS JUDGE
WHEN MAN IS PASSIVELY OPEN TO DIVINE INTUITION; IT IS
THEREFORE NOT NECESSARY TO JUDGE IN ORDER TO DECIDE -- AN
ATTITUDE STRANGELY FORESHADOWING THE THESIS OF
KRISHNAMURTI IN OUR TIME.

WITH BASTAMI, SUFFISM ENTERS INTO THE PHASE OF THE GREAT
MYSTICAL INTROSPECTION. HE TESTED HIMSELF TO THE VERY
BRINK OF DEATH IN AN INTENSE SOUL-SEARING AND INTROSPECTIVE
EXPERIMENTATION. THIS ANCHORITE, WHO LIVED IN
THE CAVES OF NORTHERN IRAN, WAS AN UNCOMPROMISING
STICKLER FOR UNBIASED TRUTH, DISCARDING ALL THEORIZATION,
AND STRIPPING HIS SOUL NAKED OF ALL THOUGHTS AND
EMOTIONS IN ORDER TO REACH THE DEPTH.

FOR YEARS HIS SOUL STRUGGLED TO FREE ITSELF FROM THE NON-SELF
BY THE DEATH-RAY OF NEGATION AND ANNIHILATION,
SUFFERING NOTHING UNREAL AROUND HIM OR
IN HIMSELF.



RATHER THAN BELIEVE IN THE UNITY OF ALL BEING, HE
PREFERRED REALIZING IT; AND THIS HE FOUND COULD ONLY BE
ACHIEVED BY REDUCING HIMSELF TO UNITY. TO THIS END HE ENDURED
THE MOST TERRIBLE PRIVATIONS. HE WAS ONE OF THE
FIRST TO GRAFT HIS MEDITATION UPON THE NIGHT JOURNEY OF
THE PROPHET TO JERUSALEM AND HIS ASCENSION TO THE FOOT OF
THE THRONE OF GOD. TO WIT, THE ITINERARY TO THE SEAT OF GOD
DEPICTED IN AVICENNA'S HAYIBN YAQZAN, OR IN THE "FLUTTER OF
GABRIEL'S WINGS" OF SUHRAWARDI, AND THE "CONFERENCE OF
THE BIRDS" (MANTIQ AL TAIR) OF FARID-UD-DIN ATTAR. IT WILL
BE REMEMBERED HERE THAT AL HALLAJ HAD NAILED THE IMPERFECTION
OF MOHAMMED'S EXPERIENCE FOR HAVING FAILED TO
PENETRATE WITHIN THE DIVINE SANCTUARY, REMAINING WITHIN
A DISTANCE OF "TWO DARTS OF AN ARROW". COULD BASTAMI HAVE
SECRETLY STRIVEN TO EMULATE OR EVEN SUPERCEDE THIS EXPERIENCE
AND ATTEMPTED TO PASS THE THRESHOLD OF THE
MYSTERY? NO DOUBT HE THOUGHT IT WAS THE MISSION OF THE
MYSTICS AND OF THE SUFIS IN PARTICULAR TO TREAD THE PATH
ALREADY BROKEN BY THE PROPHET AND LEAD HIS FIRST ATTEMPT
TO CULMINATION. DID HE SUCCEED? THIS IS DIFFICULT TO ASCERTAIN,
FOR HOW CAN ONE OVERLOOK THE CONTRADICTION
BETWEEN THOSE EXCLAMATIONS -- "SO NEAR DID HE BRING ME
THAT I BECAME NEARER UNTO HIM THAN THE SPIRIT TO THE BODY" --
AND HIS DISABUSED VITUPERATIONS AGAINST THE HOAX OF
CREATION -- "AH, GOD MISLEADS THEE IN THE MARKET-PLACE OF
THIS WORLD AND IN THE NEXT YOU WILL ALSO FIND YOURSELF IN
THE MARKET-PLACE AND DISCOVER THAT YOU ARE FOREVER THE SLAVE
OF THE MARKET"? OR WAS HIS REBELLION AGAINST DUPERY
NOT A REACTION AGAINST THE COMPENSATIONS PROMISED BY
THE FAITHFUL IN THE PARADISE OF AFTER-LIFE, WHICH HE DENOUNCES
AS A VAST HOAX KEEPING ONE YET LONGER AWAY
FROM THE ULTIMATE REUNION IN THE ESSENCE WHICH IS THE
ASPIRATION OF EVERY SOUL.



BASTAMI DESIRED ARDENTLY TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO THE
DIVINE "I", FOR HE THOUGHT THAT MAN'S AIM WAS TO INCORPORATE
GOD IN HIS PERFECTION: "HE RAVISHED ME AND PLACED
ME BEFORE HIM AND HE SAID: O ABU YAZID, MY CREATURES WISH
TO SEE YOU, AND I TOLD HIM: BEAUTIFY ME WITH THY UNITY,
ADORN ME WITH THY WONDERS AND ENRAPTURE ME WITH THY
UNIFYING NATURE, SO THAT WHEN YOUR CREATURES SEE ME, THEY
SHALL SAY: WE HAVE SEEN YOU. MAY YOU BE THAT AND MAY I NOT
BE THERE." IT WAS BASTAMI WHO FIRST USED THE METAPHOR OF THE
MIRROR; SEEN FROM A CERTAIN STANDPOINT, MAN IS THE MIRROR
REFLECTING GOD'S ATTRIBUTES; BUT AS MAN IS, IN HIS ESSENCE,
GOD, GOD IS THE MIRROR. THIS PLAY ON WORDS, JUMPING FROM
THE PARTICULAR TO THE GENERAL, IS EXEMPLIFIED AS FOLLOWS:
"I AM THY MIRROR, BUT I BECOME MYSELF THE MIRROR." HERE LIES
THE HOAX OF CREATION. THIS AUSTERE HERMIT, WHO CALLS
HIMSELF "THE SMITH OF HIS EGO", SAW IN THE DESTRUCTION OF
IDOLS IN BIRUMI'S TRANSLATION OF THE PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
A PARALLEL TO HIS OWN INDOMITABLE QUEST FOR THE ABSOLUTE.
IS NOT THIS THE EQUIVALENT OF THE NEGATIVE HALF OF THE
GREAT MUSLIM SHAHAD "LA ILLAAH ILLA 'LLA HU" (NOTHING EXISTS,
GOD ALONE IS). THE DESTRUCTION OF IDOLS IS PURSUED BY
REPEATED NEGATIONS AND ANNIHILATIONS, BY THE NEGATION OF
THOUGHT AND EMOTION AND EVEN OF THOSE CONCEPTS OF GOD'S
ATTRIBUTES THAT ARE IDEALIZED, EVEN IDOLIZED
IN MEDITATION.

THESE UTTERANCES SHOW TO WHAT EXTENT THE LOGIC OF THE
MYSTIC OUTREACHES EVEN THE LAWS OF ORDINARY GRAMMAR.



THE MYSTIC UNION "TAWHID" FOLLOWS ONLY WHEN THE PROCESS
OF NEGATION IS COMPLETED AND THE EGO IS COMPLETELY ABSENT,
WHEN THE HUMAN BEING HAS REDUCED HIMSELF TO UNITY. THEN
ONLY CAN THE REAL "I" PREDICATE ITS BEING, AS IN AN EXCLAMATION
THAT HAS SINCE RUN DOWN THE GENERATIONS OF
SUFIS AS AN ELECTRIFYING IMPULSE EJACULATED AT A MOMENT
WHEN HIS VERY NOTION OF I OR ME WAS TRANSFIGURED INTO THE
ETERNAL I: ("GLORY BE TO ME, HOW GREAT IS MY POWER"). "BUT
LET THERE NOT BE ONLY ME", HE CONTINUED IN HIS ECSTASY;
HOW PREGNANT AN IMPLICATION OF GOD'S GENEROUS DESIRE TO
SHARE HIS BEING OR CONSCIOUSNESS BY REPEATING IT AD INFINITUM
BY THE MAGNANIMOUS OUTPOURING (FAYD AL AQDAS AL RAHMAN)
AS AL JILI OUTLINED IT!

IT WAS JUNAID'S CIRCUMSPECT BUT PENETRATING ANALYSIS IN
"DAWA AL ARWAH" THAT REVEALED THE DOCTRINAL FOUNDATIONS
OF HALLAJ'S EXPERIMENT WITH THE SELF, WITHOUT ANY
PRETENCE OF HAVING ATTAINED UNION HIMSELF. A CONTEMPORARY
OF HALLAJ (HE DIED IN 922), HE TOOK THE TWO TERMS
"FANA" AND "BAQA" -- ANNIHILATION AND SURVIVAL -- WHICH
KHARRAS HAD ALREADY BROUGHT TO LIGHT AS TYPIFYING THE
TWO ASPECTS OF THE SUFI MEDITATIONS, AND DREW UP A RELATION
BETWEEN THE SECOND ONE, THAT IS SURVIVAL, AND THE
IDEA OF ETERNITY, OR EVEN PRE-ETERNITY. THIS HE DID BY
ELABORATION IN A MEDITATION ON WHAT IS NOW COMMONLY
KNOWN AS THE "PRE-ETERNAL COVENANT" ALLUDED TO IN THE
QU'RAN. ACCORDING TO JUNAID, GOD SPOKE TO MEN AT A TIME WHEN
THEY DID NOT EXIST IN THE MEASURE IN WHICH THEY WERE IN
HIM. IT WAS A TYPE OF EXISTENCE DIFFERENT FROM THAT
GENERALLY ATTRIBUTED TO CREATURES, SUCH AS GOD ONLY
KNOWS. GOD KNOWS OF THEIR EXISTENCE. HE SEES THEM IN THE
BEGINNING WHEN THEY ARE NON-EXISTENT AND UNCONSCIOUS
OF THEIR FUTURE LIFE. THIS GOD SPOKE TO THEM
IN THEIR UNFORMED EXISTENCE.



SEEN IN THIS LIGHT, MEDITATION ON THE SHAHADA IS A PROCESS
WHEREBY THE CONTINGENT IS SIFTED FROM THE ETERNAL, AND
THE SOUL THUS PURIFIED RETURNS TO ITS ORIGINAL CONDITION
(BIDAYAH) BEYOND TIME AND AS A PURE THOUGHT, A MERE POSSIBILITY
IN GOD'S CONSCIOUSNESS. THIS BASTAMI HAS ALREADY
FORESEEN. "I CONCERNED MYSELF TO REMEMBER GOD", HE SAID,
"TO KNOW HIM, TO LOVE HIM, TO SEEK HIM. WHEN I HAD COME TO
THE END I SAW THAT HE HAD REMEMBERED ME BEFORE I HAD
REMEMBERED HIM, THAT HIS KNOWLEDGE OF ME HAD PRECEEDED MY
KNOWLEDGE OF HIM, HIS LOVE TOWARDS ME HAD EXISTED
BEFORE MY LOVE OF HIM, AND HE HAD SOUGHT ME BEFORE
I HAD SOUGHT HIM."

JUNAID'S ANALYSIS PROCEEDS FURTHER INTO THE MEDITATIONS
ON THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES, SHOWING HOW THE ATTRIBUTES OF
THE LOVER ARE CHANGED INTO THOSE OF THE BELOVED IN AN
OVERBEARING IDENTIFICATION: "THOUGH FROM MY GAZE
PROFOUND DEEP AWE HATH HID THY FACE, IN WONDER AND
ECSTATIC GRACE I FEEL THEE TOUCH MY INMOST GROUND."

THE NAME OF IBN MANSUR AL HALLAJ AWAKENS A DEEP RESONANCE
IN THE HEART OF EVERY SUFI, FOR HIS WAS THE LIVING EXAMPLE
OF THE ESSENTIAL TRUTH UNDERLYING SUFI DOCTRINE. THIS
"QU'RANIC CHRIST" AS PROFESSOR MASSIGNON HAS CALLED HIM,
WAS CONDEMNED FOR HERESY, EXCOMMUNICATED, TORTURED
AND CRUCIFIED FOR HAVING PUBLICLY GIVEN VOICE TO AN EXPRESSION
WHICH SHOCKED THE ORTHODOX MOSLEMS OF HIS
TIME. AND YET THAT ASSERTION WHICH EXPRESSED THE FINAL
CULMINATION OF HIS INNER EXPERIENCE AND THE FRUIT OF HIS
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE WAS SIMPLY THE CONCLUSION AT WHICH
THE VERY LOGIC OF THE ISLAMIC DOCTRINE MUST INEVITABLY
ARRIVE; IT WAS THE CORONATION OF THAT FAITH IN A SINGLE GOD
WHICH IS THE VITALIZING POWER BEHIND THE CURRENT RUNNING
THROUGH THE TRADITIONS OF JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY
AND ISLAM.



'ANA' L HAQ



WHAT THEN IS THAT PRODIGIOUS SAYING WHOSE MERE PRONOUNCEMENT
SET IN MOTION THE TREMENDOUS TRIAL IN
BAGHDAD ON A RAISED PLATFORM, SOMEWHAT RESEMBLING THAT
OF JOAN OF ARC? THE TRIAL LASTED NINE YEARS. WHAT WAS THE
HUMAN UTTERANCE THAT, OWING TO THE IMPORTANCE OF THE
DOCTRINAL POSITIONS IT OPPOSED AND THE VEHEMENCE OF THE
PASSIONS INVOLVED, ALMOST SPLIT ISLAM AND IN FACT DEALT THE
KHALIFAT A BLOW FROM WHICH IT NEVER RECOVERED? IT WAS
NOTHING OTHER THAN THE MUSLIM ADVAITA -- OR RATHER, THE
VERY ESSENCE OF SUFISM, WHICH BEGINS WHERE THE OTHER
ENDS, JUST AS THE ADVAITA TRANSCENDS AND OUTREACHES THE
VEDANTA WITHOUT BEING FOREIGN TO IT: THE ONE IS THE
NECESSARY AND LOGICAL CONCLUSION OF THE OTHER. THE DANGEROUS
AND FATAL EJACULATION OF AL HALLAJ -- "ANA'L HAQ"
(I AM THE TRUTH) WHICH GOES STILL FURTHER THAN THE "NA
AZ MA SHANI" OF BASTAMI; YET ESSENTIALLY THEY ARE THE
NATURAL AND INEVITABLE CONCLUSION OF THE ISLAMIC
SHAHADA -- I.E. THE AFFIRMATION OF THE DIVINE UNICITY.

ONLY ONE

THAT IF GOD ALONE EXISTS, ALL THINGS, AND MAN IN PARTICULAR,
MUST NECESSARILY EXIST IN GOD; THEY ARE THEREFORE IN THEIR
ESSENCE GOD, OR TRUTH -- THE ARABIC NAME FOR TRUTH BEING
MERELY A PRIVILEGED NAME FOR GOD. IF HALLAJ HAD SAID
"ALLAH AL HAZ -- GOD (IN HIS TRANSCENDENTAL ASPECT) IS THE
TRUTH, OR "HUWA AL HAQ" (HE IS THE TRUTH) IT WOULD HAVE BEEN
A COMMON STATEMENT. HOWEVER AL HALLAJ DECLARED THAT
GOD ALONE EXISTS: THEREFORE HE IS THE ONE SUBJECT AND THUS
HE ALONE CAN WITNESS HIS EXISTENCE.



ONCE THE MYSTIC HAS UNDERSTOOD THIS, GOD IN HIS IMMANENT
ASPECT CANNOT BE REFERRED TO IN THE THIRD PERSON. AND IT IS
PRECISELY THE IMMANENCE OF GOD THAT IS REFERRED TO IN
THE SHAHADA. BUT THE LAYMAN PRESUMES TO DECLARE THAT
GOD IS UNITY, WHEREAS FOR HALLAJ, ALL THE MYSTIC SEEKS IS
THAT PART OF HIM WHICH IS GOD SHOULD DECLARE ITS UNITY
WITH GOD. THE ILLUSION OF THE PERSONAL SELF INTERPOSES ITSELF
AS AN OBSTACLE TO GOD'S AFFIRMATION OF HIS UNITY, EVEN
IN UNIFICATION. AL HALLAJ DID NOT WANT ANY VESTIGE OF THIS
ACT OF IDENTIFICATION TO REMAIN.

"O LORD, REMOVE BY THY SELF, MY 'IT IS I' WHICH TORMENTS ME,"
HE CRIES, LONGING FOR MYSTICAL UNION AND EXASPERATED BY
THE PERSISTENCE OF THE FEELING 'IT IS I'.



ACCORDING TO MOSLEM TRADITION, IT WAS THE REFUSAL
OF SATAN TO RECOGNIZE THE DIVINE IN MAN THAT CAUSED HIS
DOWNFALL -- A TRUTH WHICH AL HALLAJ DID NOT FAIL TO
EMPHASIZE AT THE TRIAL. IN A DREAM JUNAID HAD SEEN SATAN
JUSTIFY HIMSELF BY POINTING OUT THAT IN SO DOING HE HAD
MERELY OBEYED AND RESPECTED THE SHAHADA IN RECOGNIZING
NO OTHER GOD BUT GOD. BUT HALLAJ REPROACHED SATAN WITH
HAVING TAKEN REFUGE IN THE UNICITY OF GOD WITHOUT ALLOWING
HIMSELF TO BE CARRIED AWAY BY THE MYSTERY OF HIS
UNITY. AND IT IS WITHIN THIS CONTEXT THAT AL HALLAJ ATTACKS
THE ALL-EXCLUDING SOLITUDE OF A MYSTIC SUCH AS BASTAMI, IN
WHOSE ATTITUDE THERE WOULD BE SOME DANGER OF BEING SATISFIED
WITH INNER SOLITUDE AND OF ISOLATION IN AN IVORY TOWER
FROM WHICH, BY DINT OF EXCLUDING ALL, ONE MIGHT FINALLY
EXCLUDE GOD HIMSELF. THAT IS WHY AL HALLAJ REPLACES
THE TERMS "TAJRID" AND "TAFRID" USED BY BASTAMI, WITH THE
TERMS "IFRAD" AND "INFIDAD" -- TO OUTSTRIP THE ONENESS OF ISOLATION
BY ALLOWING GOD TO PROCLAIM HIS ONENESS THROUGH
YOU. THESE ARE THE TWO PHASES THROUGH WHICH ST. JOHN
PASSED: "BECAUSE THOU HAST LOST ALL, ALL SHALT BE GIVEN BACK
TO THEE TRANSFIGURED AND ALL SHALL BE THINE." THE FIRST
STEP TOWARDS THE "TAWHID (MYSTICAL UNION) IS THE SUPPRESSION
OF "TAFRID" -- THAT IS, THE SOLITUDE OF ISOLATION. THE
"TAJRID" HAS BEEN COMPARED BY MASSIGNON TO THE SARVIKALPA
SAMADHI OF THE VEDANTA -- THAT IS, ABSORPTION IN A DIVINE
ATTRIBUTE, CONTEMPLATION WITH SEED -- AND THE "TAFRID"
TO NIRVEKALPA SAMADHI, WHICH IS THE ABOLITION OF ALL FORMS
AND DETACHMENT OF THE SELF FROM EVERY ACT. IT IS WITH THE
RENUNCIATION OF ACTION THAT THE RENUNCIATION OF ISOLATION
BEGINS. THIS IS THE "FANA AL FANA" OR "PARANIRVANA".

"MYSTICAL UNION" SAYS AL HALLAJ, "CONSISTS IN THIS: THAT YOU
REDUCE YOURSELF TO YOUR UNITY IN PROCLAIMING THE UNITY OF
GOD -- AND THUS GOD MAKES YOU THE WITNESS OF YOURSELF." THIS
IS TRULY AN ASPIRATION OF THE SOUL TO ITS SOURCE (THE SOURCE
OF ITS BEING), TOWARDS ITS PRIMORDIAL ACT OF EXISTENCE.



THOSE WHO JUDGED AL HALLAJ ACCUSED HIM OF "HULUL" -- I.E.,
OF HAVING AFFIRMED THE INFUSION OF THE SPIRIT INTO A HUMAN
BEING (I.E., WHAT ISLAM REPUDIATED IN THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION
OF CHRIST'S INCARNATION); EVEN THOUGH HALLAJ SPECIFIED
THAT THIS INFUSION (OR INSUFFLATION, TO REFER TO THE TRADITION
ACCORDING TO WHICH GOD BREATHED LIFE INTO ADAM
THROUGH HIS NOSTRIL) IS ONLY COMPLETE WHEN, AFTER THE
TRANSFORMATION OF HIS ATTRIBUTES, HE BECOMES
TRANSUBSTANTIATED AND A DEFINITE PERSONALITY.

THIS SAINT, WHO WITH ALL HIS STRENGTH CALLED FOR DEATH IN
ORDER TO LIVE, IS INDEED A STRANGE FIGURE.

"THEREFORE KILL ME, MY FAITHFUL COMRADES," HE SAYS, "FOR
ME, SURVIVAL IS DEATH AND TO DIE MEANS LIFE. I FEEL THAT THE
ABOLITION OF MYSELF IS THE NOBLEST GIFT I COULD MAKE AND
MY SURVIVAL AS I AM, THE GREATEST WRONG." DO NOT THESE
WORDS REMIND US OF ST. THERESA'S SAYING: "I DIE FOR THE
WANT OF DYING"?

IF WE FOLLOW THE DEVELOPMENT OF HALLAJ'S THOUGHT WE SEE
HIM RUSHING TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHICAL SUICIDE BY A SORT OF
ONTOLOGICAL NECESSITY SIMILAR TO THAT OF SOCRATES AND
PYTHAGORAS. HE LITERALLY FORCES HIS JUDGES TO CONDEMN
HIM. THERE IS AN ANECDOTE WHICH ILLUSTRATES HIS HASTE FOR
THE FINAL CONSUMMATION. HEARING THE NEW YEAR TRUMPETS HE
REMARKED: "AND WHEN WILL OUR NEW YEAR'S DAY COME? WHEN
MY BODY IS ANNIHILATED, I SHALL BE CLOSE TO GOD." THIRTEEN
YEARS LATER, WHILE HE WAS ON THE PILLORY FOR THREE DAYS,
A DISCIPLE ASKED HIM IRONICALLY: "HAST THOU RECEIVED THY
NEW YEAR'S GIFTS?" HALLAJ REPLIED, "YES, AND I AM ABASHED,
FOR I HAD NOT WISHED TO HASTEN TOWARDS MY JOY" -- REFERRING
TO A VERSE OF THE QU'RAN (XLII, 17) "THEY CRY OUT, LET
HER COME, THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN MAN, BUT THOSE
WHO BELIEVE AWAIT HER COMING WITH A LOVER'S TREPIDATION,
FOR THEY KNOW THAT SHE IS THE TRUTH."



BUT IT WAS HIS WORDS AT THE EXECUTION, WHEN HIS HANDS AND
FEET WERE CUT OFF AND HE WAS EXPOSED ON THE CROSS FOR
THREE DAYS, THAT MOVE US THE MOST DEEPLY BY THEIR NOBILITY,
WHICH ECHOES THE PLEA OF JESUS CHRIST, HIS EXAMPLE:

"OH LORD, I ENTREAT THEE GIVE ME TO BE THANKFUL FOR THY
GRACE WHICH YOU HAVE BESTOWED ON ME. YOU HAVE CONCEALED
FROM OTHERS WHAT YOU HAVE REVEALED TO ME -- THE
GLORIES OF THY SHINING COUNTENANCE. YOU HAVE MADE IT
LAWFUL FOR ME TO BEHOLD THE MYSTERIES OF THY INNER
CONSCIOUSNESS AND MADE IT UNLAWFUL FOR OTHERS. AS FOR
THESE OTHERS, THY SERVANTS, ZEALOUS OF RELIGION, DESIROUS
OF THY FAVOR, WHO HAVE GATHERED TO KILL ME, FORGIVE AND
HAVE MERCY ON THEM FOR IF THOU HADST REVEALED WHAT THOU
HAST HID I SHOULD NOT SUFFER THIS. ALL PRAISE BELONGS TO
THEE IN WHATSOEVER THOU DOST DECREE."



ALTHOUGH AVICENNA (1037) NEVER ADMITTED ANY INITIATION
INTO A SUFI ORDER, HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE EVOLUTION OF
SUFI THOUGHT HAS LEFT AN IMPORTANT IMPRINT, FOR HIS
ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE WAS CROWNED BY INSPIRED INTUITIONAL
VISIONARY ALLEGORIES IN WHICH THE FLAME OF PERSONAL
AWARENESS BREAKS THROUGH THE RAFT OF HIS METAPHYSICAL
CONSTRUCTION. SUCH IS THE ALLEGORY CALLED BY
IBN YAQZAN IN WHICH HE RECOUNTS HIS MEETING WITH THE
ANGEL WHO DESCRIBES TO HIM THE LAYOUT OF THE REGIONS
BEYOND. AVICENNA'S COSMOGONY IS NOT THE DEAD PICTURE OF
OUR MODERN MECHANICAL "IMAGO MUNDI" BUT A LIVING AND
MOVING SCENE IN WHICH THE GREAT COSMIC DRAMA IS PLAYED,
AND WHICH IS INHABITED BY BEINGS IN THE FORM OF PURE INTELLIGENCES
(AQL) WORKING THEIR WAY TO MATERIALIZATION. IT IS A
STEP BEYOND, AFTER THE ARISTOTELIAN COSMOGONY WHICH IT
INHERITS IN PART. BUT THE UNIVERSE OF AVICENNA IS MOVED AND
INHABITED AND ILLUMINED BY SOULS, ANGELS OF LIGHT (MALEIKA)
INCORPORATING THE PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE, AND THEREFORE
HAVING PROCEEDED FROM THE ONE (ACCORDING TO THE NEO-PLATONIC
CONCEPTION). IT IS THE NOSTALGIA OF THESE SOULS,
SOULS OF THE PLANETS AND STARS TO MANIFEST THE UNMANIFESTED
AND AT THE SAME TIME TO REUNITE AT THEIR SOURCE, WHICH
EXPLAINS THEIR RESTLESS ENERGY THAT MANIFESTS ITSELF AS
MOVEMENT. THOUGHT IS THE GENESIS OF BEING. FROM THE
FIRST INTELLIGENCE (THE "ONE" OF PLOTINUS), PROCEEDS AN
ARCHANGEL GENERATING ITS OWN ANGEL, MATERIALIZING ITS
OWN ORB AND DEFINING ITS OWN ORBIT OR SPHERE, UNTIL THE
ADVENT OF THE LAST ARCHANGEL, GABRIEL, WHO GENERATES A
MULTITUDE OF ANGELS, THE SOULS OF MEN. HE IS THE HOLY SPIRIT
WHO BREATHES LIFE. BUT THE SHADOW, LUCIFER, IS GENERATED
FROM THE VERY FIRST STAGE IN THE PROCESSION OF HYPOSTASES,
WHEREBY, ACCORDING TO THE PYTHAGOREAN PRINCIPLE, "WHEN
FROM THE CAUSE EMANATES THE ONE, THEN IS EMANATED
LIKEWISE THE NON-ONE." IN OTHER WORDS, THE SHADOW IS
DISSOCIATED FROM ITS LIGHT AT THE INCEPTION OF MANIFESTATION.
THEREFORE THE HUMAN SOUL IS SPURRED TO MOVEMENT



AND STRIFE BY ITS NOSTALGIA TO MEET ITS ARCHANGEL AND RETURN
FROM WHENCE IT IS EXILED; AND IT IS THE HIERARCHY OF
LIGHT BEINGS WHO TURN THE SOULS IN THE DIRECTION OF THE
DAWNING LIGHT AND DRAW THE SOULS TOWARDS THE SOURCE
OF LIGHT, THE ORIENT, FROM THEIR EXILE IN THE OCCIDENT
(HENCE THE TERM 'ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY", THE "AURORA CONSURGENS"
OF JACOB BOEHME, AND HENCE THE NOSTALGIA FOR
FREEDOM FROM THE FRUSTRATION OF EXILE THAT IS FELT BY MOST
SOULS. THE CULMINATION OF LIFE IS REACHED WHEN ONE MEETS
ONE'S ANGEL. THIS IS THE REUNITING OF THE SELF (NAFS) WITH
THE HIGHER SELF (AQL) AFTER THEIR FIGHT IN THE SHADOW OF
ILLUSION LIKE THE BATTLE OF JACOB WITH THE ANGEL.



SHIHAB-UD-DIN YAHYA-AS SUHRAWARDI'S (D. 1191) ANALYSIS OF THE
PROBLEM OF INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE AND HIS COSMOGONY SURPASSES
EVERYTHING THAT WAS REACHED BEFORE HIM. THIS
YOUNG INITIATE AND MARTYR, WHO WAS REFERRED TO EARLIER
AS THE SUCCESSOR OF THE ZOROASTRIAN, GREEK AND GNOSTIC
TRADITIONS, HAD BASTAMI'S THIRST FOR SELF-MADE DISCOVERY
TOGETHER WITH AN ERUDITION IN METAPHYSICS SURPASSING
THAT OF AVICENNA. HIS KNOWLEDGE AND INITIATION INTO THE
ZOROASTRIAN MYSTERIES AND IN PARTICULAR ITS ANGELOLOGY,
TOGETHER WITH HIS CARE TO CHECK THEORIES BY EXPERIENCES,
ENABLED HIM TO OVERHAUL AVICENNA'S SYSTEM AND PUSH IT
MUCH FURTHER. THIS HE DOES IN A REMARKABLE BOOK CALLED
"HIQMAT AL ISHRAQ" (THE WISDOM OF LIGHT) WRITTEN, AS HE
DESCRIBES, DURING A MEMORABLE DAY AFTER HAVING RECEIVED A
VISION OF ZOROASTER AND HERMES AND HAVING BEEN INSPIRED
BY THE HOLY SPIRIT -- A DAY WHEN ALL THE SEVEN PLANETS
WERE IN CONJUNCTION IN THE SIGN OF THE BALANCE (LIBRA).
EACH HYPOSTASE OF LIGHT EMERGING FROM THE SOURCE, THE
"FLAMBOYANT MAJESTY" OR ORIENT OF LIGHT (THE XVARNAH
OF THE ZOROASTRIANS) PROCEEDS FURTHER INTO MATERIALIZATION,
MULTIPLYING THE SOURCE INDEFINITELY AND
COMMUNICATING ITS PROPERTIES TO THE NEXT HYPOSTASE.

PROCEEDING FROM AHURA MAZDA, LIGHT THEREFORE MANIFESTS
THROUGH THE SEVEN ARCHANGELS OR DOMINATING LIGHTS,
THROUGH THE ARCHETYPES OF THE SPECIES (SUCH AS THE ETERNAL
IDEAS OF PLATO) OF WHICH THE FIRST IS GABRIEL, THE HOLY
GHOST OR PARACLETE, TO THE GOVERNING LIGHTS OF SOULS
THROUGH WHICH THE ARCHANGELS GOVERN THE UNIVERSE. ONE
MAY DISTINGUISH AMONGST THE LATTER THE MOTOR ENERGIES
OR SOULS OF THE ORBS AND PLANETS, THE SOUL CONDUCTING
EACH TYPE OF EARTHLY EXISTENCE OR SIMILAR FORMS OF EXISTENCE,
ON OTHER PLANETS, AND FINALLY THE SOUL OF EACH
INDIVIDUAL HUMAN BEING.



BEHIND THE SCENE OF MANIFESTATION IS A GREAT DRAMA, AND
THE GREAT BATTLE IS FOUGHT BETWEEN THE FORCES OF LIGHT
AND DARKNESS WHEREIN THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL -- THE
ANGELUS VICTOR -- PLAYS THE LEADING ROLE. MAN ALSO IS
INVOLVED IN THIS BATTLE AND CAN BE AWARDED A DECORATION
FOR HIS GALLANTRY IN THE FORM OF A ROBE OF LIGHT, THE ROYAL
XVARNAH OF THE ZOROASTRIANS, THAT IS THE AURA. THE BATTLE
FOR LIGHT IS THE EXODUS FROM EXILE IN THE OCCIDENT
TYPIFIED IN THE TRADITION BY THE FLIGHT FROM EGYPT. IT IS THE
CONFINEMENT IN SPACE THAT IS EXILE. SO SPACE MUST BE OVERCOME
BY REACHING THE "PLACE OF NOWHERE" (NAKUJA ABAD) BY
REACHING BEYOND THE SPACE LIMITED BY THE CATEGORIES OF
THE BODY. THIS EXILE HAD ITS PURPOSE, FOR IT WAS HERE
THAT LIGHT WAS ABLE TO BURST OUT. SUHRAWARDI CALLS THIS
"THE GREAT BREAKDOWN", REFERRING NO DOUBT TO THE TRADITION
ACCORDING TO WHICH THE PROPHET CAUSES THE MOON
TO SPLIT ON THE SACRED WORDS "ANA AL SHAMS" (I AM THE SUN).
THE BREAKING OF THE RECEPTACLE OF LIGHT IS SYMBOLICAL
OF THE PASSAGE FROM THE EXTERIOR (ZAHIR) TO THE
INTERIOR (BATIN) -- IT IS THE FREEING OF LIGHT, REMINISCENT
OF THE ISMAILIAN TRADITION OF THE BURSTING OF THE COLUMN
OF LIGHT, OR THE TREMBLING OF THE COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE
SEEN BY ISAIAH IN HIS VISION, OR AGAIN THE TEARING OF THE
VEIL IN THE SANCTUARY AT THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION.

I WANT TO BE FREE

IT IS THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS AND MAGI TO FREE THE LIGHT
IMPRISONED IN MEN AT THEIR EXILE AND TO TURN THEM TOWARDS
THE DAWNING LIGHT AT ITS SOURCE. THIS MISSION STARTED WITH
ADAM AND IS CONTINUED BY THOSE WHO WORK FOR THE ARCH-ANGEL OF THE HUMAN SPECIES, GABRIEL, WHO INSPIRED THE PROPHETS
AND SAGES -- "THE GUARDIANS OF THE DIVINE PROOFS UPON
THE EARTH." "DELIVER THE PEOPLE OF LIGHT AND LEAD LIGHT
TO THE LIGHT" HE EXCLAIMED IN PRAYER.





BUT PERHAPS IT WAS IN THE SPHERE OF CONTEMPLATION THAT
SUHRAWARDI'S LIFE PROVED THE MOST REVEALING, FOR HERE
HE SHOOK TO THEIR CORE ALL OUR PRECONCEIVED IDEAS ABOUT
KNOWLEDGE. IN THE FIRST STAGE, IN MEDITATION, WE THINK WE
ARE A CONSCIOUSNESS CONCENTRATING UPON AN OBJECT,
SOMETHING TANGIBLE, OBJECTIVE, UNAWARE THAT WE ARE BEING
DUPED BY AN ANTHROPOCENTRIC MIRAGE: FOR WHAT WE THINK
WE KNOW IS ONLY A REFLECTION OF REALITY; THIS IS SPECULATIVE
KNOWLEDGE, KNOWLEDGE OF THE MIRROR (SPECULUM.)
SECONDLY YOU REALIZE THAT EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE IS TO
BE FOUND WITHIN YOU IN YOURSELF, REFLECTED AS IN A MIRROR
SO THAT YOU DISCOVER THAT WHAT YOU ARE CONTEMPLATING
IS THE REFLECTION OF THE UNIVERSE IN YOURSELF AND THAT
YOU ARE THE MIRROR. THIRDLY YOU REALIZE THAT IT IS NOT YOUR
CONSCIOUSNESS THAT IS AWARE, BUT THAT IT IS ONLY A CHANNEL
OF THE DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS AND THAT YOU ARE ONLY A WITNESS
OF THIS PHENOMENON. FINALLY YOU UNDERSTAND THAT
THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ANOTHER PRESENCE OR SUBJECT THAN
THE ONE AND ONLY BEING; AND YOU REALIZE THAT HE IS THE
ONLY KNOWER. THIS ANLAYSIS REMINDS ONE VERY MUCH
OF BASTAMI.

"FOR THIRTY YEARS GOD MOST HIGH WAS MY MIRROR, NOW I AM MY
OWN MIRROR AND THAT WHICH I WAS I AM NO MORE, FOR "I" AND
GOD" REPRESENT POLYTHEISM, A DENIAL OF HIS UNITY. SINCE I AM
NO MORE, GOD MOST HIGH IS HIS OWN MIRROR. BEHOLD NOW I
SAY THAT GOD IS THE MIRROR OF MYSELF, FOR WITH MY TONGUE
HE SPEAKS AND I HAVE PASSED AWAY."

-- The Rosicrucian Emblems of Daniel Cramer: The True Society of Jesus and the Rosy Cross, by Daniel Cramer

ACCORDING TO SUHRAWARDI, THERE IS NO KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
AS OBJECT (MARIFA). CONTEMPLATION OF THE SHAHAD OR AFFIRMATION
OF THE UNITY OF GOD BROUGHT SUHRAWARDI TO A
BREATH-TAKING CONCLUSION, AROUND WHICH HIS WHOLE
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE GRAVITATES. THE GENERALITY AMONGST
THE FAITHFUL SAYS THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD, NOT REALIZING
THAT BY SO ASSERTING THEY TESTIFY TO THEIR OWN SEPARATE
EXISTENCE AS THE ONE WHO MAKES THE STATEMENT, AS AL
HALLAJ HAD POINTED OUT. SOME HOWEVER AFFIRM "THERE IS NO
HE (HUWA_ BUT HE," REFERRING TO GOD IN THE THIRD PERSON,
AS TO A PERSONAL REALITY; BUT THIS AGAIN LIKEWISE TESTIFIES TO
THE EXISTENCE OF THE SUBJECT. THE MYSTIC HOWEVER WHO
ENTERS INTO A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD REFERS TO HIM IN
THE SECOND PERSON AS THEE, HOPING FOR THE MERGING
OF THEIR "I" WITH THIS "THEE", BUT STILL PRESERVING THE
DUALITY THEY WISH TO OVERCOME. THE FINAL REALIZATION IS,
HOWEVER: "THERE IS NO I EXCEPT I," THUS BRINGING KNOWLEDGE
FROM THE OBJECTIVE TO THE SUBJECTIVE LEVEL. IF THERE IS NO
OTHER I THAN GOD, THEN EVERY REALIZATION AND AFFIRMATION
IS MADE BY GOD AND THE TONGUE THAT PRONOUNCED IT IS THE
TONGUE OF GOD. HENCE THE LOGIC OF AL HALLAJ WHO CRIED
OUT "ANA'L HAQ", FOR THE ONLY SUBJECT WHO CAN AFFIRM A
PREDICATE IS GOD. THEREFORE THE LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE IS NOT
AN OBJECT, A RAY THROWN UPON PHENOMENA; IT IS THE SUBJECT
HIMSELF THAT ILLUMINATES HIMSELF. KNOWLEDGE AND CONSCIOUSNESS
ARE NOT SOMETHING THAT IS ADDED TO THE ESSENCE:
THEY ARE THE INNATE PROPERTY OF THE ESSENCE, AND IT IS THIS
SELF-SAME LIGHT THAT IS THE SUBJECT THAT MAN APPROPRIATES
AS HIS INTELLIGENCE, OR IDENTIFIES AS HIMSELF.
"TO THE LIGHTS OF THE LIGHT OF GOD CORRESPOND LIGHTS
IN THE HEARTS OF MEN" WRITES SUHRAWARDI, "AND TO THE SECRET
IN THE SECRETS OF LOVING HEARTS THERE IS
A DIVINE SECRET."

HU ALLAH ANNA, ANNA ALLAH HU

[admin]

THE SUFI MASTERS



SUFISM CARRIES A PERFUME
THAT STRIKES A NOTE PARTICULARLY IN THE NEW AGE
BECAUSE THE DARVISH LIVES INTENSELY
THE GLORY OF CREATION
LETS HIMSELF BE CARRIED INTO ITS MYSTERY
BY THE TRANSFIGURING MAGIC OF LOVE,
RATHER THAN COGITATING UPON THE NATURE OF REALITY
IN THE BLIND ALLEY OF OPINION.
HE LOSES HIMSELF THUS
IN THE OCEAN OF DIVINE INEBRIATION.

HOW ELSE CAN ONE FIND ONESELF
THAN BY LOSING THAT WHICH ONE THOUGHT ONE WAS?
THIS MEANS TOTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE SUPREME ACT
OF TRANSFORMATION
-- NO HALF MEASURES:
"UNTIL LOVE HAS QUICKENED A SOUL, IT IS LIKE
AN UNFLEDGED BIRD,"

SAYS RUMI,
"ENOUGH OF PHRASES AND CONCEIT AND
METAPHORES"
"I WANT BURNING,
BURNING."



HOW CAN ONE FACE LIGHT WITHOUT BEING BLINDED,
HOW CAN ONE ARREST THE SECRET OF SECRETS
WITHOUT BEING DUMBFOUNDED AND PERPLEXED,
HOW CAN ONE UNDERGO TRANSFORMATION
WITHOUT BEING SHATTERED?

"WHEN TRUTH HAS OVERWHELMED A HUMAN
HEART,
IT EMPTIES IT OF ALL THAT IS NOT TRUTH.
WHEN GOD LOVES A BEING,
HE KILLS EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT HIM"
AL HALLAJ.
"MY ATTRIBUTES WERE ANNIHILATED IN HIS,
NOR DID HE ATTRIBUTE TO ME ANY OF HIS
ATTRIBUTES,
BUT THAT I ATTRIBUTED IT TO HIM"
BASTAMI.

"HE ANNIHILATED ME IN RECREATING ME,
EVEN AS HE CREATED ME IN THE BEGINNING
WHEN I WAS NO THING"
JUNAID



FOR HALLAJ PRE-ETERNITY IS NOT ENVISIONED IN A TIME
RELATIONSHIP,
BUT IN TERMS OF THE "DIGNITY OF ONTOLOGICAL PRIORITY."
RAZI

"IN THEIR EXTINCTION CREATURES SUBSIST,
WHEREAS IN THEIR ESSENCE THEY NEVER EXISTED ON EARTH."
JILI

"HE PRE-EXISTED HIS CREATURES IN PRE-ETERNITY,
ENCOMPASSING THEM WITNESSING THEM
IN THE BEGINNING
WHEN THEY WERE NOTHING, APART FROM THEIR ETERNAL BEING
IN WHICH THEY WERE FROM ALL PRE-ETERNITY."
JUNAID

THIS PROCESS RECURS CONTINUALLY THROUGH LIFE.
"THOSE WHO HAVE PLACED THEMSELVES UNDER DIVINE
GUIDANCE
ARE OVERWHELMED AND OBLITERATED
OF ALL THEIR ATTRIBUTES
"...DID HE NOT OBLITERATE EVERY TRACE OF ME
BY HIS ATTRIBUTE?"
BASTAMI



BASTAMI DESCRIBES THE CYCLE OF ANNIHILATION AND
RE-INSTATEMENT
AS A RECURRENT TEST FOLLOWED BY REBIRTH,
RENDERED IN HIS AUSTERE LANGUAGE
ALMOST IN TERMS OF A TRANSCENDENTAL ALGEBRA.
HE SAID,

'OH I.'

"DO NOT BEGUILE ME IN MY EGO."
RETORTED BASTAMI, THINKING IT WAS A TEST,
AND APOSTROPHIZING HIM
'OH THOU.'
GOD THEN REPLIES
'OH THOU'.

OBVIOUSLY HE HAD NOT YET DIED SUFFICIENTLY IN HIS EGO
TO WITHSTAND THE CHALLENGE OF THE DESIRED REALIZATION.

"HE LOOKED UPON ME FOR A MOMENT WITH HIS EYE OF POWER,
AND ANNIHILATED ME IN HIS BEING,
AND BECAME MANIFEST TO ME IN HIS ESSENCE.
I SAW I EXISTED THROUGH HIM.
I REMAINED WITHOUT SOUL OR BODY LIKE ONE WHO IS DEAD
... THEN DID HE REVIVE ME WITH HIS LIFE
... THEN HE SAID TO ME 'OH THOU',
AND I SAID 'OH I'.
WHEREUPON GOD SAID 'THOU ART THEE ALONE',"
GOD'S VISION OF THE WORLD IN THE VIEW POINT OF HIS UNITY.



"THOU DIDST CONTRIVE THIS 'I' AND 'WE'
IN ORDER TO PLAY THE GAME OF WORSHIP WITH THYSELF,
THAT ALL 'I'S' AND 'THOU'S' MIGHT BECOME ONE SOUL
AND AT LAST BE SUBMERGED IN THE BELOVED."
(RUMI)

BUT THERE IS A LIMIT TO THE ECSTACY ONE CAN TAKE.
JUNAID SAYS:
"HAVING OBLITERATED EVERY TRACE OF ME BY HIS ATTRIBUTE,
GOD MAKES THE SOULS AGAIN PRESENT TO THEIR EGOS,
CAUSING THEM TO FIND THEIR SPECIFIC NATURE
WHEREUPON THEY ARE REMOVED FROM THEIR COMMUNION WITH
HIM
AND HIM WITH THEM."

"SOMETIMES HE MAKES THE BELIEVER IN THE DIVINE IMMANENCE
A WITNESS OF HIS UNITY,
AND SOMETIMES HE DIVERTS THE BELIEVER IN THE DIVINE
TRANSCENDENCE
FROM HIS ALL-EXCLUSIVENESS,
BY REVEALING HIS MULTIFARIOUS FORMS."
OUR VERY IGNORANCE IS THE WAY HE PROTECTS US
FROM THE KNOWLEDGE THAT OVERWHELMS,
OUR BLINDNESS HIS SHIELD FROM THE LIGHT THAT BURNS THE
EYES,
OUR EGO, HIS PROP FOR THE DELICATE PLANTS OF OUR
PERSONALITIES
UNTIL WE KNOW HOW TO SURVIVE DEATH.



"I AM THE WINE
OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT,
... MY VERY BEING IS INTOXICATION:
THOSE WHO DRINK OF MY CUB
AND YET KEEP SOBER
WILL CERTAINLY BE ILLUMINATED:
BUT THOSE WHO DO NOT ASSIMILATE IT,
WILL BE BESIDE THEMSELVES
AND EXPOSED TO THE RIDICULE
OF THE WORLD."
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN



THOSE EFFIGIES TAKEN FOR REAL
BY THOSE WHO WOULD BE ANNIHILATED
BY
THE 'REALITY OF REALITIES'
ARE A PROTECTION AGAINST THE 'CONSTERNATION OF
INTELLIGENCES'
EXPERIENCED BY THE DARVISH AS INEBRIATION.
THE VERY VEIL THAT IS DEEMED TO ENSHROUD
THE DIVINE COUNTENANCE
IS THE MIST IN THE EYES OF THE NOVICE
WHICH ITSELF, HOWEVER, BETRAYS THE CONTOURS
OF THE DIVINE FACE:
THEREFORE IN ALL THINGS, ONE DISCERNING MAY READ
THE 'SIGNS'
OF THE NATURE OF THE LOVED ONE,
AND INDEED THERE IS ECSTACY
IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF THAT DIAPHANOUS FABRIC
'IN WHICH A DRAFT OF HEAVENLY BEAUTY IS MIXED'.

YET "HOW CAN YOU BECOME FREE WITHOUT THE WINE OF HIM,
O YE WHO ARE CONTENT WITH THE SIGN OF HIM."
(RUMI)
HOW MUCH GREATER IS THE RAPTURE OF THE ONE
INVITED TO THE DIVINE BETROTHAL?
FOR HIS IS THE PRIVILEGE OF RENDING THE VEIL ASUNDER
IF HE DARE CONFRONT THE PRESENCE
OF THE KING OF KINGS FACE TO FACE.
"FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT STAND THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE LIGHT
OF MY INTELLIGENCE
I HAVE CREATED THE WORLD OF OBJECTS AS A SCREEN,"
(HEARS GILANI)
"AND FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT STAND THE SOLITUDE OF MY
UNITY,
I HAVE CREATED THE REALMS OF LIGHT AS A SCREEN."



HALLAJ, HOWEVER, REACHED THE POINT OF NO RETURN:
"THE SUN OF THE ONE I LOVE HAS RISEN IN THE NIGHT,
RESPLENDENT,
AND THERE WILL BE NO MORE SUNSET ...
I SAW MY LORD WITH THE EYE OF THE HEART,
AND I SAID 'WHO ART THOU' AND HE SAID, 'YOURSELF'."



WAS IT THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD THAT BASTAMI SOUGHT
RATHER THAN LOVING GOD?
TRULY ENOUGH THERE WAS IN HALLAJ A STRUGGLE WITH
HIMSELF
TO OVERCOME HIS EGO

"O TAKE AWAY THIS 'I AM'
FROM BETWEEN YOU AND ME."

BUT HE DID NOT CHALLENGE THE DIVINE ORDER
WITH HIS WILL.
BASTAMI DID:
"I SLOUGHED MYSELF OF MY EGO AS A SNAKE OF HIS SKIN
AND LO I WAS HIM ..."
"I REACHED THE THRESHOLD OF NONBEING
AND SOARED WITHIN IT,
PASSING FROM DENIAL TO DENIAL
... THEN I ATTAINED THE REACHES OF DEPRIVATION
THE THRESHOLD OF UNION,
AND SOARED WITHIN IT BY DINT OF DENIAL
IN UTTER DESTITUTION
UNTIL I WAS BEREFT OF DEPRIVATION
IN MY ABANDONMENT
AND WAS DEPRIVED EVEN OF MY DESTITUTION
BY THE SHEER DENIAL OF DENIAL
AND THE DEPRIVATION OF DEPRIVATION.



THEN I ATTAINED UNION

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

BY THE SEVERING OF CREATION FROM THE INITIATED
AND THE SEVERING OF THE INITIATE FROM CREATION."
THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY 'THE WAY OF LIBERATION'
AWAY FROM CREATION

NOT THE WAY OF LENDING ONESELF TO GOD'S EVER RENEWED
RECREATION
OF ONE AS AN ACT OF LOVE.
THEREFORE HALLAJ LETS GOD ANNIHILATE HIM
AND EARMARK HIM FOR HIS CREATIVE PROVIDENCE
RATHER THAN FORCE THE PORTALS OF THE ABSOLUTE
BY DINT OF PERSONAL WILL.

GOD SAYS TO BASTAMI,
"YOU ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO STAND THE SOLITUDE OF MY
UNITY."
AND BASTAMI ANSWERS,
"THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT."
JUNAID, TOO, ADVOCATED "ANNIHILATION OF THE EXISTENT,
AND RETURNING TO THE STATE IN WHICH ONE WAS BEFORE ONE
WAS INVOLVED
IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING,"
WHILE HALLAJ IS ETERNALLY CONSCIOUS
OF GOD'S PRESENCE AND OPERATION WITHIN HIM,
RIGHT DOWN INTO THE FLESH.

IS NOT THE PURPOSE OF CREATION
'TO MAKE GOD A REALITY IN ONE'S BEING'?



"THOU ARE THERE AS THE TEARS BETWEEN MY
EYELIDS,
THE WALLS WITHIN MY HEART
... THEY IMAGE IN MY EYES,
THY RECOLLECTION ON MY LIPS.
THERE IS NOTHING
IN MY HEART AND ENTRAILS
THROUGH WHICH I DO NOT COMMUNE WITH THEE ...
THY IMAGE IN MY EYES,
THY RECOLLECTION ON MY LIPS,
THY ABODE IN MY HEART,
BUT WHERE DOST THOU ABIDE? ... IS IT ME? IS IT THEE?
THAT WOULD BE TWO GODS;
FAR FROM ME THE AFFIRMATION OF TWO
... THERE IS A PERSONAL BEING WHICH IS THINE
AT THE BOTTOM OF THAT NEGATIVITY I CALL ME,
ALWAYS
TO ADD MY PLENITUDE TO THE PLENUM
WOULD BE HYPOCRISY.

WHERE IS THY ESSENCE
SEPARATED FROM MINE?"



ONCE ONE REALIZES THE HOLINESS AND PURPOSEFULNESS OF GOD'S
INFILTRATION
INTO THOSE PRECARIOUS CONSTRUCTIONS BUILDING UP
A PERFECT MODEL,
ONE CANNOT THINK OF THE PERSON AS A TRANSIENT EFFIGY IN
THE PLAY OF MAYA,
BUT AS A REALITY COME TO STAY,
ON CONDITION THAT HE PERPETUALLY TRANSMUTES HIMSELF

BY BEING GROUND AND KNEADED IN THE CYCLE OF DEATH AND
REBIRTH,
AS THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE IS TRANSMUTED
IN THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION.

'GODNESS, HAVING BECOME GOD' (ECKHARDT).
"O THOU WHO ART ABSENT THERE, WE HAVE FOUND THEE HERE"
(JILI).
GOD, ABSENT (GHAYB) IN HIS PRE-ETERNAL OCCULTATION,
WHEN HE CONTEMPLATES THE ATTRIBUTES,
BECOMES PRESENT BY CONVERSING WITH AND WITHIN
THE SOULS OF THE INFINITE IMAGES OF HIMSELF,
MORE PRESENT THAN THOSE PRESENT,
BY THE SHEER FACT OF THINKING ABOUT HIM.
BEING EAGER TO FULFILL GOD'S PURPOSE IN HIM,
RATHER THAN GIVE VENT TO HIS NOSTALGIA FOR BEYOND,

HALLAJ CONCERNS HIMSELF WITH THE TRANSFORMATION
TAKING PLACE IN MAN
THUS RECREATED AFTER THE ANNIHILATION (FANA) OF THE
INDIVIDUALITY
THAT HAD ISOLATED ITSELF IN ITS OWN EGOTISM
THAT HE MAY SUBSIST (BAQA) ETERNALLY IN GOD IN
POST-ETERNITY



BY HIS VERY CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE UNION OF HIS BEING WITH
THAT OF GOD, ETERNALLY IN GOD.
HE SAW IN HIS DEATH, ACCEPTED AS A GIFT, EVEN AS THAT OF LIFE,
THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE.

OF COURSE, FACED WITH THE VERDICT OF DEATH
WITH ITS UNKNOWN IMPLICATIONS,
THERE IS A MOMENT OF SOUL SEARCHING.
"HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT, HAVING TAKEN MY ESSENCE IN THE
BEGINNING
TO SERVE THEE AS A SYMBOL,
THOU SHOULD NOW WITH THAT THIS THY ESSENCE IN ME,
THOU SHOULDST NOW WISH
THAT THIS THY ESSENCE IN ME,
MY BODY,
SHOULD BE TORN ASUNDER,
HUNG UPON A CROSS,
MY ASHES SCATTERED TO THE WINDS?"
THE TRIUMPH OVER THE ANGUISH OF DISSOLUTION ...
AS AN INCENSE, BEARING THE PROMISE OF MY RESURRECTION."
YES, DEATH ACCEPTED AS A GIFT,
THE ULTIMATE VICTORY, THE OVERCOMING,
BECAUSE IT FORESTALLS ETERNALISATION OF THE ESSENCE.
FIRST "O TAKE AWAY THIS CHALICE,"
FAMILIAR WORDS
TYPIFYING THE CRUEL PRELIMINARY TO EVERY AUTHENTIC
INITIATION
INCLUDING THE CORONATION OF THE KING OF THE WORLD UPON
THE CROSS
"... WHY HAS THOU ABANDONED ME?"
THE SUPREME TEST ARRANGES EVENTS.
WE ARE ABANDONED PRECISELY WHEN WE NEED GOD MOST.

"BELOVED,
SINCE THOU HAS MADE ME SMILE, TURN NOT AWAY THINE EYES,
ONCE THOU HAS POURED THE WINE OF THY MAGIC GLANCE
INTO THE CUP OF MY HEART."
(HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN)

THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHALICE OF POISON,
THE PRICE OF RESURRECTION,
ACCEPTING THE UNACCEPTABLE
BECAUSE ITS DIMENSION SUDDENLY REVEALS COSMIC INTENTION.
"HE WHO INVITES ME TO THE DIVINE BANQUET
HAS OFFERED ME TO DRINK
FROM THE CUP WHICH HE HIMSELF DRINKS,
AS A HOST TREATS AN HONOURED GUEST."
HOUSE COULD HE REFUSE?
THIS WAS THE MOMENT OF OVERCOMING THE SUPREME VICTORY
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN.
"THOSE WHO ARE GIVEN LIBERTY TO ACT FREELY IN HEAVEN
ARE NAILED ON THE EARTH;
THOSE WHO ARE FREE TO ACT AS THEY CHOOSE ON THE EARTH,
WILL BE NAILED IN THE HEAVENS."
(AL HALLAJ)

DO YOU KNOW THE STATE OF ABANDON,
AFTER HAVING BEEN UNFOLDED BY THE DIVINE LOVER?
"TURN ME NOT ASIDE, BELOVED, TURN ME NOT ASIDE,
ONCE THOU HAS GRANTED ME THY FAVOUR,
STARVE ME NOT OF A KISS
AFTER THOU HAS ENFOLDED ME: GRIEVE ME NOT.

ONE WOULD EXPECT ONE SUFFERING SUCH ORDEAL TO LONG FOR
DEATH TO COME
HASTILY AS A WELCOME RELIEF;
BUT NO, HE WISHED TO PARTAKE DEEPLY IN ITS EXPERIENCE,
DRAGGING HIS BODY INTO THE VERY TESTIMONY OF DIVINE UNITY.
"HE WHO KNOWS THE MEANING OF DEATH WAITS FOR IT
REVERENTLY,
FOR IT IS THE MOMENT OF TRUTH."

HERE HIS SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY REACHES ITS HIGHEST FULFILLMENT;
TO LIVE IN EXTREMUS THE THRESHOLD OF REALIZATION:
THAT WHICH SAYS ME, I, IS THE UNCREATED,
IN SUFI TERMS, TRUTH INSTEAD OF REALITY

'ANA' L HAQQ
AND THAT IS WHAT I MEAN BY GOD

"LO I AM NIGH" (AU'RAN).

"IT SUFFICES TO THE SUPPLICANT IF GOD ALONE PROCLAIMS
UNITY."
THAT IS WHEN ONE HAS LOST ALL CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONESELF.
MUSLIMS ARE ENJOINED UPON TO REITERATE THE PROMISE MADE
IN PRE-ETERNITY,
BY AFFIRMING THE UNITY OF GOD.
LA ILLAHA ILLA'LLAH.

YET TO PRONOUNCE THIS,
WHILE YOU ARE STILL CONSCIOUS OF YOURSELF AS THE ONE
PROCLAIMING
IS A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS.
"THE PROPOSITION
ATTESTING UNITY CIRCULATES WITHIN THE MULTIPLICTY OF
APPARENT SUBJECTS"
(HALLAJ)

"GOD ALONE CAN MAKE US PRONOUNCE A REAL TESTIMONY
BY MAKING US CONSCIOUS OF HIS UNITY,
BY HIS VERY OPERATION WITHIN US
OF THE ACT WHEREBY HE MAKES US DENY OUR SELF
IN OUR HEART,
AND BY AFFIRMING HIMSELF BY HIS PRESENCE."
(HALLAJ)

"WHEN THE DIVINE ESSENCE REVEALS ITSELF THROUGH THE NAME
TRUTH,
THE CREATED NATURE OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE VANISHES.
ALL THAT REMAINS IS HIS HOLY AND TRANSCENDENTAL ESSENCE."
(JILI)

IT IS THEN GOD RESURRECTING OUT OF OUR DEATH
WHO PROCLAIMS HIS UNITY
THE UNIQUE SUBJECT BEHIND ALL OBJECTS
AND THE UNIQUE OBJECT BEHIND ALL SUBJECTS.
THROUGH US AT THE THRESHOLD WHERE WE MERGE INTO HIS
UNITY.

"WHERE THE UNITS ARE ERASED, THOU ART THAT UNITY."

FOR, IN ORDER TO TESTIFY TO HIS EXISTENCE, HE HAS TO EXIST
THROUGH US,
TO SURVIVE PERENNIALLY THE FALLING CURVE OF TIME
BY RESURRECTING THROUGH OUR RESURRECTING
BEYOND THE THRESHOLD OF TRANSIENCY OF EACH MANIFESTATION
OF HIMSELF,
THROUGH US: HIS PROCLAMATION OF HIS UNITY IN HIS CREATURES
HIS VERY CREATIVE POWER,
AND WHEN MAN IS BEING RECREATED AFTER ELIMINATING
ANY NOTION
OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY OR SEPARATENESS
THEN GOD CONSCIOUSNESS ARISES.
"WHEN GOD EFFACES THE NAME OF THE SERVANT
REPLACING IT WITH ALLAH SO THAT IF ANYBODY CALLS 'ALLAH',
HE WILL ANSWER 'HERE AM I'."
THIS IS THE ULTIMATE FULFILLMENT:

AFTER REALISING ONESELF TO BE THE EYES THROUGH WHICH GOD
SEES,
ONE IS THE DIVINE GLANCE,
ONE'S 'I' NOW LOOKED UPON FROM THIS VANTAGE
POINT,
NO MORE AS ONESELF
BUT AS THE WINDOW THROUGH WHICH THE DIVINE GLANCE
SCANS
THE MOVING SCENE OF LIFE.
TO SHARE THIS EXPERIENCE,
IT IS USEFUL AT THIS STAGE TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN TWO
LEVELS OF AWARENESS
OR TYPES OF EXPERIENCE.
FIRSTLY THE EXPERIENCE THAT GOD HAS OF HIMSELF
THROUGH US
AS BOTH THE OBJECT IN WHICH HE SEES HIMSELF
AND
THE SUBJECT THROUGH WHOM HE SEES HIMSELF.
IN US HE CAN ONLY SEE AS MUCH OF HIMSELF AS WE ARE ABLE TO
MANIFEST OF HIM
THROUGH OURSELVES,
WHICH IS THE MEASURE OF WHAT WE HAVE REALIZED OF HIM
IN US
AT A GIVEN MOMENT.

AS IBN L'ARABI SAYS,
"SUCH IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE IMAGE
WHICH WE DISCOVER OURSELVES TO BE,"
IN WHICH HE CREATES HIMSELF IN A MANNER
THAT IS LIMITED
BY THE VERY CONTINGENCIES OF EXISTENCE,
SO THAT IN MANIFESTING INCREASINGLY
THE BOUNTY OF QUALITIES
WITHIN THIS IMAGE,
WE CONFER UPON GOD, THE ABSOLUTE ESSENCE,
A MODE OF BEING,
IN WHICH HE IS MIRRORED.
WE ARE THUS THE 'SECRET' OF HIS SOVEREIGNTY
THAT IS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF US
THAT EXPRESSES ITSELF
AS OUR MANIFESTATION OF HIM,
THEREFORE HE IS THE "SECRET OF SECRETS,"
SAYS IBN L'ARABI.
THIS IS SPECULATIVE KNOWLEDGE, SAYS SUHRAWARDHI:
HALLAJ GRASPED THE DANGER
OF REDUCING ONE'S EXPERIENCE OF GOD
TO 'WHAT GOD SEES THROUGH OUR EYES'
WHICH PERFORCE IS LIMITED
BY OUR VERY LIMITATION AS CREATURES.

"CONFRONTED WITH THE DIVINE ESSENCE,
THE ONE WHO SPEAKS BECOMES DUMB,
THE ONE WHO IS AGITATED BECOMES MOTIONLESS,
THE ONE WHO SEES BECOMES BLINDED.
IT IS TOO NOBLE TO BE GRASPED BY INTELLIGENCES,
TOO LOFTY FOR THOUGHTS TO REACH IT
THE ONE WHO BREAKS THE SEAL IS WITH GOD IN HIS ESSENCE"
SAYS JILI

AYAT
THE SIGNS OF HIS PRESENCE.
DISCOVERING THE FOOT-PRINTS IN THE SNOW
IS NOT THE SAME AS SEEING THE BEING
WHO WANDERED THERE IN FLEETING TIME.
"HENCEFORTH, THERE IS NO MORE BETWEEN THOU AND ME
MY ELUCIDATION, OR DEMONSTRATION, OR SIGN SERVING AS A
PROOF.
THE PROOF IS HIS, FROM HIM, TOWARDS HIM.

"SPECULATIVE KNOWLEDGE IS RELATIVE TO GOD'S OVERFLOWING
BEYOND HIS ESSENCE,"
SAYS HALLAJ
"BUT HOW DOES WHATEVER QUITS THE ESSENCE
KNOW THE ESSENCE,
O YE WHO ARE REMOVED FROM HIS TRANSCENDENCE
BY THE ABYSS OF TIME."
THE FINAL SCIENCE

(THE INTUITIVE GRASP OF THE DIVINE INTENTION)

WHICH GIVES US AT THE VERY MOMENT OF ITS REALIZATION
THE SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE REAL RELATIONS BETWEEN
PERISHABLE THINGS,
THEIR DIVINE ALLOCATIONS, LINKING US CONSTANTLY
BEYOND THE NETWORK OF EVENTS
TO THE INTENTION OF GOD BY A PARTICIPATION TO THE LIFE OF
HIS ESSENCE.

"HENCEFORTH, SOMETIMES HE LOOKS UPON ME, AND SOMETIMES
I LOOK UPON HIM.
IF HE WISHES, HE CAN SWOOP DOWN UPON US FROM HIS HIGH
PINNACLE,
ONE DISCOVERS HIM INSIDE IN HIS 'INTENTION'."
(SUHRAWARDI)

AND AS RESPONSE TO THE NOSTALGIA OF GOD
WRAPPED IN THE BEGINNING OF TIME IN THE SOLITUDE OF HIS
UNITY,
IN THE DARK CLOUD OF UNKNOWING FOR ANOTHER HIMSELF
THROUGH WHOM HIS LOVE MAY MANIFEST IN THE FORM OF A
BELOVED,
MAN MAKES HIM THE ADORED ONE

ISHQ ALLAH MA'ABUD L'ILLAH

WHEREAS MAN'S LONGING FOR THE SECLUSION OF THE ETERNAL
PRINCIPLE OF HIS BEING
OF WHOM HE DISCOVERS HIMSELF TO BE
THE IMAGE
OR WHOSE IMAGE HE DISCOVERS IN HIMSELF
IS HIS RESPONSE TO GOD'S WITHDRAWAL WHEREBY HE RESORBS
THE ESSENCE
OUT OF THE ESSENCE OF THE ESSENCE OF ALL CREATED THINGS
INTO UNITY WHERE NO ATTRIBUTES, NO FORMS, NO MULTIPLICITY,
NO INDIVIDUATION APPEAR ANYMORE.

"GOD WAS AND THERE WAS NO THING WITH HIM."
(HADITH)

WE ARE PULLED IN TWO OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS,
OUR NOSTALGIA TO CONTEMPLATE THE IMAGE IN THE WORLD OF
EXILE,
OF SHADOWS,
AND OUR YEARNING TO ORIENT OURSELVES TOWARDS
THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT
OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS, THE LIGHT OF LIGHTS: 'NUR AL ANWAR'.
LIKE THE PLANETS WE ARE EQUILIBRATED BETWEEN
THE CENTRIFUGAL FORCE
DUE TO THE WEIGHT OF THE DENSITY OF OUR MATERIALITY
AND THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE OF OUR AFFINITY WITH THE LIGHT,
WHICH ILLUMINATES OUR INTELLIGENCE.
THE BALANCE BETWEEN THESE TWO DETERMINES OUR PLACE
OUR RANK IN THE HIERARCHY OF THE BEINGS OF LIGHT,
THE CELESTIAL PLEIADES OF SOULS OR INTELLIGENCES,
ARCHANGELS, CHERUBS, SERAPHS, ANGELS, EFFULGENT BEINGS.
EACH LIGHT BEING IS RELATED TO EACH OTHER LIGHT BEING
IN THAT EACH LIGHT BEING DRAWS ITS BEING,
AND CONSEQUENTLY ITS LIGHT
FROM THE BEING WHO IS HIERARCHICALLY ABOVE HIM,
AND IS THUS LINKED UP THROUGH A WHOLE CHAIN OF
INTERMEDIARIES
TO THE SOURCE OF ALL LIGHT: 'NUR AL ANWAR',
THE FLAMBOYANT ZOROASTRIAN XVARNAH,
THE CROWN OF GLORY OF THE DIVINE KING,
THE ONE WHO DISPENSES THE SOVEREIGNITY OF LIGHT.
EACH BEING IS ENDOWED WITH HIS DIMENSION OF
SUBSTANTIALITY
WHICH HE CONTEMPLATES TOGETHER WITH THAT OF ALL OTHER
BEINGS
IN THAT WORLD OF EFFIGIES WHICH WE TAKE FOR REAL
WHEREAS THEY ARE MERE SHADOWS OF THE WORLDS OF LIGHT.
YET THE LIGHT THAT IS THRUST UPON ONE,
GIVING THE KNOWLEDGE OF ONESELF,
EMANATES FROM A BEING WHOSE LIGHT SURPASSES
THE LIGHT WE CAN WIELD.

HE IN TURN DRAWS HIS LIGHT FROM THE BEING
HIERARCHICALLY ABOVE HIM.
THUS OUR HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS DERIVES ITS LIGHT
FROM THE ARCHANGEL OF THE EARTH WHO DERIVES HIS LIGHT
THROUGH THE ARCHANGELS OF SUNS AND GALAXIES
(ANWAR MODABBIRA)
RULING OVER EVER INCREASING DOMAINS TO
THOSE SUPREME SOVEREIGN LIGHTS
(ANWAR QAHIRA AL QAWAHIR)
THE DIVINE MAJESTY.
WHEN, LIKE THE HELIOTROPE, WE TURN TOWARDS THE ORIENT
FROM WHICH THE LIGHT OF THE ARCHANGEL OF THE PLANET
DAWNS UPON US,
IT MAY COME TO PASS THAT WE DISCOVER OURSELVES IN HIM
AS A BEING OF LIGHT AS HE IS AND LOSE OURSELVES
IN FARTHER AND FARTHER REACHES OF PURE LUMINESCENCE.
THEN AGAIN, CASTING OUR GAZE UPON THE HORIZON OF
THE WEST
LETTING EVER HIGHER GRADES OF LIGHT PASS THROUGH,
WE SHALL DISCOVER THE ARCHANGEL-ARCHETYPES OF ALL CREATED
THINGS,
THE ETERNAL MODELS OF ALL LIVING THINGS.
THE SPECIES AS LIGHT BEINGS (ARBAB AL ANWA),
AND ENVISION PHYSICAL OBJECTS AS SHADOWS
OF THE WORLD OF PURE IMAGES AND FORMS
(ALAM AL MITHAL, THE WORLD OF MYTHS)
IN SUSPENSE, JUST LIKE THE IMAGES ARE SUSPENDED IN A MIRROR,
THIS IS THE HORIZON (BARZAQ) BETWEEN THE WORLDS
OF PURE INTELLIGENCE AND MATTER.
SUCH IS THE IMAGE IN WHICH GOD CONTEMPLATED HIMSELF
IN ETERNITY
BEFORE THIS IMAGE BECAME THE EVER RECURRENT
FORMS IN WHICH HE EXISTENTIATES HIS LOVE.

"LO, THE ANGELS OF GOD ADVANCE
TOWARDS THE WANDERERS WHO KNOCK AT THE GATE
OF THE HIGH VESTIBULES OF LIGHT,
LURING THEM TOWARDS THE ORIENT OF LIGHT ...
WHEN THE DIVINE LUMINARIES HAVE CONVERGED UPON A HUMAN
BEING,
THEY INVEST HIM WITH ROBES OF LIGHT,
HE IS GIVEN SOVEREIGNTY AND HELD IN ESTEEM."
EACH ADEPT EXPERIENCES THAT WHICH IS PROGRAMMED FOR HIM
AT THIS STAGE, ('MAQQAM') OF DEVELOPMENT.

SOME MAY ENVISION GOD
AS THE PERFECTION OF QUALITIES UNDERLYING ALL CREATED
THINGS,
HIS FOOTPRINTS IN CREATION.
SOME MAY DISCOVER THEMSELVES AS THE IMAGE OF GOD
IN WHICH GOD SEES HIMSELF PROJECTED.
SOME MAY GRASP GOD AS THE WITNESS
COUNTENANCING HIMSELF IN THEM AND ALL THINGS THROUGH
HIS EYES,
"HE IS AT THE SAME TIME THE ONE WHO KNOWS AND THE ONE
IN WHOM HE IS KNOWN."
IBN L'ARABI

SOME SEE MANIFESTATION AS A REVELATION OF KNOWLEDGE,
SOME AS A FULFILLMENT OF LOVE.
"GOD WISHED TO CONTEMPLATE HIS ESSENCE IN A GLOBAL
OBJECT,
WHICH BEING ENDOWED WITH EXISTENCE, RESUMES THE DIVINE
ORDER,
WITH A VIEW TO MANIFESTING HIS MASTERY TO HIMSELF."
IBN L'ARABI

THE DARVISH NIFFARI ANSWERS:
"IT WAS IN ORDER TO KNOW HIMSELF THAT GOD CREATED YOU,
IT WAS OUT OF HIS LOVE FOR YOU, THAT HE EMERGED FROM HIS
SOLITUDE
OF UNKNOWING."
HALLAJ LEADS US INTO A TRANSCENDENTAL EXPERIENCE OF THESE
TWO PHASES.
HE FASHIONS A FORM BY THE CREATIVE FORCE OF HIS GLANCE
WHICH STRUCTURES
A SHAPE OUT OF THE FORMLESS ATTRIBUTES OF CREATION IN
PRE-ETERNITY:

SECONDLY,
HE HANDS HIMSELF OVER IN US AS OUR VERY CONSCIOUSNESS AS
AN ACT OF LOVE:
HE SAID THAT THROUGH LOVE MADE INTO REALITY
HE WOULD MAKE EVERYTHING VISIBLE
(WHICH IMPLIES POLARISING ORIGINAL UNITY INTO SUBJECT AND
OBJECT).
HE LOOKED INTO PRE-ETERNITY, AND CREATED A PICTURE.
THIS PICTURE IS THE MIRROR OF THAT COUNTENANCE;
WHEN GOD BEHOLDS ANYTHING, HE CREATES HIS PICTURE IN IT
FOR ALL ETERNITY."
NOW COMES THE SECOND AND DECISIVE STEP:
"THEN HE CONVERSED WITH IT, ACCLAIMED IT, GLORIFIED IT, AND
LOVED IT."
IN THIS CONVERSATION IN PRE-ETERNITY
HE NOT ONLY ESTABLISHED US AS AN IMAGE BUT ENDOWED US
WITH THE GREATEST OF GIFTS:
FREE WILL.
OUR WORDS 'I WILL' IN THE ETERNAL COVENANT
"WHEN WE WERE STILL IN THE LOINS OF ADAM,"
SHEER VIRTUALITIES, WERE OUR FIRST ACT OF FREE-WILL,
ESTABLISHING OUR IDENTITY FOR ALL TIME.

THE PROMISE IN ETERNITY, REITERATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN
IN OUR LIFE.
NOT SIMPLY THE FULFILLMENT OF
HIS DESIRE TO KNOW HIMSELF
EVEN IF LATENT,
ESTABLISHING MAN IN THE DIGNITY OF A PARTNER
IN THE COLLOQUY OF LOVE,
MAKING HIM THE BELOVED.
MAN IN TURN RESPONDS TO GOD'S LOVE
BY MAKING HIM THE OBJECT OF HIS GLORIFICATION.
'ISHQ ALLAH, MA'ABUD L'ILLAH'.

THE ECSTASY OF DISCOVERING THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES IN ONE
IS GREAT INDEED,
BUT WHAT OF THE ONE OF DISCOVERING ONESELF
AS THE 'THOU' TO WHOM GOD SPEAKS
IN HIS LOVE DIALOGUE?

"IT IS AS THOUGH I WERE A 'THOU' TO WHOM
THE WORD OF GOD WAS ADDRESSED,
BEYOND THE THOUGHTS THAT COME TO ME
REFERRING TO MY ATTRIBUTES."

WHAT IS ECSTASY?
IT IS AN INCITEMENT,
THEN A GLANCE OF GOD THAT GROWS AND GLOWS
IN THE SECRET OF HEARTS ...
HERE I AM, O MY TRUST, HERE I AM, O MY BEING,
O MY MEANING'
I CALLED THEE, NO IT WAS THEE WHO BECKONED UPON ME.
HOW COULD I HAVE DEEMED TO ASK 'IS IT THOU', IF THOU HADST
NOT ALREADY WHISPERED 'IT IS ME'.
O END AND AIM OF MY DESTINY, O MY LANGUAGE AND MY
STAMMERING."
HE WAS ACCUSED OF REVEALING THE SECRETS OF LOVERS.
"HAD WE NOT FORBIDDEN YOU TO WELCOME A GUEST?'
THAT GUEST WAS GOD.
"HE BECAME NOAH AND WENT INTO THE ARK
WHEN AT HIS PRAYER, THE WORLD WAS FLOODED.
HE BECAME ABRAHAM AND APPEARED
IN THE MIDST OF THE FIRE WHICH BLOOMED WITH ROSES
FOR HIS SAKE ...
THEN HE BECAME JESUS AND ASCENDED TO HEAVEN AND GLORIFIED GOD.
IT WAS HE THAT WAS COMING AND GOING IN EVERY GENERATION
THOU HAST KNOWN,
UNTIL AT LAST HE APPEARED IN THE FORM OF AN ARAB
AND GAINED THE EMPIRE OF THE WORLD ...
NO, NO. 'TWAS EVEN HE TAHT CRIED IN HUMAN SHAPE
'ANA' L HAQQ'.
THE ONE WHO MOUNTED THE SCAFFOLD WAS NOT MANSUR
(AL HALLAJ)
AS THE FOOLISH IMAGINED."

RUMI'S SOUL OUTSTRIPPED APPERTAINANCE TO A PARTICULAR
RELIGION:
"I AM NEITHER CHRISTIAN, NOR JEW, NOR GARR, NOR MOSLEM.
I AM NOT OF THE EAST, NOR OF THE WEST, NOR OF THE LAND,
NOR OF THE SEA,
I AM NOT OF NATURE'S MINT, NOR OF THE CIRCLING HEAVENS.
I AM NOT OF EARTH, NOR OF WATER, NOR OF AIR, NOR OF FIRE.
I AM NOT OF THE EMPYREAN, NOR OF THE DUST,
NOR OF EXISTENCE, NOR OF ENTITY.
I AM NOT OF INDIA, NOR OF CHINA, NOR OF BULGARIA,
NOR OF SAQSIN.
I AM NOT OF THIS WORLD NOR OF THE NEXT, NOR OF PARADISE
NOR OF HELL.
I AM NOT OF ADAM, NOR OF EVE, NOR OF EDEN AND RIZWAN.
MY PLACE IS THE PLACELESS, MY TRACE IS THE TRACELESS;
'TIS NEITHER BODY NOR SOUL,
FOR I BELONG TO THE SOUL OF THE BELOVED.
I HAVE PUT DUALITY AWAY, I HAVE SEEN THAT THE TWO WORLDS
ARE ONE.
ONE I SEEK, ONE I KNOW, ONE I SEE, ONE I CALL.
HE IS THE FIRST, HE IS THE LAST, HE IS THE OUTWARD,
HE IS THE INWARD;
I KNOW NONE OTHER EXCEPT
'YA HU' AND 'YA MAN HU'"
(JELAL UD DIN RUMI)

[admin]

A MESSAGE IN OUR TIME

IN THAT LABORATORY OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIMENTS THAT IS INDIA,
SUFISM CAME TO BE ACCEPTED IN THE COURSE OF THE CENTURIES
AS A HOLY FEATURE OF THE COMMUNITY, EVEN BY THE ORTHODOX,
AS IT BECAME INTEGRATED INTO THE "SHARIAT" (THE OBSER-
VANCE OF THE RULES OF MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LIFE). GHAZALI HAD
EXPLAINED THE RULES AWAY AND MOST GAVE UP THE HERESY OF
THEIR EARLY PREDECESSORS LIKE BASTAMI, HALLAJ, AND SARMAD,
BECOMING SO INTEGRATED INTO ORTHODOX LIFE THAT THEY
HAVE BEEN HAILED AS "THE PROOF OF ISLAM."

IN INDIA, THE IMPACT OF SUFISM MADE HISTORY, WHILE AL
HALLAJ AND ABU YAZID BASTAMI ARE SAID TO HAVE VISITED INDIA,
AND AL HUJWIRI IS SAID TO HAVE HAD A FOLLOWING, THE
BREAKTHROUGH CAME WITH KHWAJA MOIN-UD-DIN CHISHTI.
COMING FROM NORTHERN IRAN, HE BROUGHT THE CHISHTI
ORDER TO AJMEER, AND IT SOON HAD RAMIFICATIONS IN DELHI
WITH KHWAJA QUTUB-UD-DIN BHAKHTIAR KAKI, HIS SUCCESSOR. IT
IS SAID THAT A GREAT SECTION OF DELHI TOOK "BAYAT" (INITIA-
TION) INTO THE SUFI ORDER. MANY A MOGHUL KING SOUGHT
GUIDANCE AT THE FEET OF A SUFI PIR O MURSHID, WHO WOULD BE
LIVING IN THE MOST AUSTERE SIMPLICITY EVEN WHILE HANDLING
LARGE SUMS OF MONEY USED FOR THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN.

WILLOW BASKET

THE SUFIS' UNDOGMATIC RECOGNITION OF GENUINE
SPIRITUALITY, WHEREVER IT WAS LIVED, FOSTERED A CLIMATE
OF MORE THAN RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: A REAL SPIRITUAL COM-
MUNION BETWEEN HINDUS AND MUSLIMS. MANY A SCHOLARLY
MIND TOYED WITH THE IDEA OF BRIDGING THESE TWO CURRENTS.
PRINCE DARAH SHIKU, THE HEIR TO THE THRONE TO THE EMPIRE,
WROTE A TREATISE ON THE CONFLUENCE OF THE OCEANS, "MAJ-
MUAH AL BAHREIN", AND EMPEROR AKBAR FOUNDED WHAT WAS
PROBABLY THE FIRST COUNCIL OF RELIGIONS IN THE HISTORY
OF THE WORLD AT FATEHPUR SIKRI. THIS COMMUNION WAS
SYSTEMATICALLY UPSET WHEN POLITICS FELL INTO BIGOTED
HANDS, AND THESE BOLD ATTEMPTS AT BRIDGING RELIGIOUS
DIFFERENCES WERE OVERTURNED. THE REACTIONS THAT
BROUGHT AURANGZEB (WHO KILLED HIS BROTHER DARAH SHIKU)
TO THE THRONE SWEPT SUFISM FROM THE CAPITOL, AND THE
SUFIS SOUGHT THE DISTANT BUT RELATIVE SECURITY OF AURAN-
GABAD. A FEW PIRS DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES THROUGH THEIR
WRITINGS: GESUDERAZ, SHAH IMULLAH JEHAN ABADI, ETC.
PRAYERS, RECITATIONS, AUDITIONS (SAMA) HAVE BEEN HELD AND
ARE STILL HELD AT THE TOMBS OF SUFI SAINTS THROUGHOUT
INDIA AND PAKISTAN.

HAZRAT KHWAJA ABU HASHIM MADANI, (SEE SILSIL P. 703), A VERY
FINE SCHOLAR FROM THE HEDJAZ (ARABIA), ON VISIT TO THE
NIZAM OF HYDERABAD, HAD RECEIVED HIS INITIATION AND
SUCCESSION FROM A GREAT DARVISHOF HYDERABAD, SHAH HASAN
QIBLA KALIMI DAHLEVI (THE SPIRITUAL SUCCESSOR OF MAULANA
NASIR UD DIN DALE MIYAN SAHIB). THE SCHOLAR MADANI WAS AT A
LOSS TO FIND AN ANSWER TO HIS METAPHYSICAL QUESTIONS THAT
WOULD SATISFY HIS BRILLIANT MIND FROM THE DARVISH IN PACTCHED
ROBES, LOST IN DIVINE CONTEMPLATION. AT LAST, ONE NIGHT,
WHILE HE WAS DOING HIS PRACTICES, THE DARVISH CAME IN AND
SAID: "I AM THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION." INDEED WHAT
MORE ELOQUENT AN ANSWER THAN A BEING TRANSFIGURED
BY ECSTASY?

PIR O MURSHID INAYAT KHAN WAS ENJOINED BY HIS MURSHID,
HAZRAT ABU HASHIM MADANI, (WHO INTIMATED THAT HE HAD
RECEIVED THE ORDER, HUKM, FROM KHWAJA MOIN UD DIN
CHISHTI, THE FOUNDER OF THE ORDER IN INDIA), TO BRING THE
MESSAGE OF SUFISM TO THE WEST.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN WAS CRITICIZED BY THOSE WHO CON-
SIDERED SUFISM TO BE EXCLUSIVELY ISLAMIC. YET, ALL HALLAJ WAS
CRUCIFIED, SHIHABUDIN SUHRAWARDI EXECUTED, ABU YAZID
BASTAMI LET OFF ON GROUNDS OF PRESUMED INSANITY, AND IBM
L'ARABI WAS ALWAYS ON THE MOVE. ON THE OTHER HAND SOME
OF THE SUFI ORDERS TODAY INCLUDE QUITE LARGE PERCENTAGES
OF HINDUS AND SIKHS, VIZ ABDUL LATIF IN SIND.

WHEN HAZRAT INAYAT WAS CRITICIZED BY FELLOW DISCIPLES FOR
HIS INTEREST IN ALL RELIGIONS, THE MURSHID TOOK HIS DEFENSE,
SAYING THAT HE HAD BEEN EARMARKED FOR A GREAT
WORLD MISSION.
QUITE A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF RESEARCH HAS PROVEN THE
INFLUENCE OF VARIOUS SPIRITUAL CURRENTS OF RELIGIOUS
THOUGHT UPON SUFIS: HINDUISM ON BASTAMI, CHRISTIANITY ON
HALLAJ, HERMETISM ON AL MISRI, ZOROASTRIANISM ON
SUHRAWARDI, BUDDHISM ON BALKI.
(SEE CHAPTER: CHAIN OF THE SUFIS)
MANY SEEM TO HAVE IGNORED PROPHET MOHAMMED'S RELIGIOUS
TOLERANCE AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING RELIGIOUS GRASP OR THE
INSTRUCTIONS IN THE QU'RAN RESPECTING ALL PROPHETS.

UNDOUBTEDLY ISLAM FOSTERED AN UNQUESTIONABLY
OVERWHELMING INFLUENCE ON THE GROWTH OF SUFISM, SO
THAT SOME TAKE THE VIEW THAT IT IS JUST THE BREADTH OF
VIEW, CONDEMNED BY THE ORTHODOXY, THAT IS THE REAL ISLAM.
THE PROPHET SAID, "THE REAL ISLAM IS EXILED, EXPATRIATED,"
AND SO HAVE SUFIS ALWAYS BEEN. IT IS NOT SURPRISING, THERE-
FORE, THAT OUT OF THIS ALL-ENCOMPASSING AND CONVERGING
TREND, A MESSAGE OF UNITY SHOULD HAVE EMERGED
IN OUR TIME.
PIR O MURSHID INAYAT KHAN, A SUCCESSOR TO THE SILSILAH
(LINEAGE) OF SUFI PIRS IN THE CHISHTI ORDER, WAS ENJOINED BY
HIS MURSHID TO CROSS TO THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE AND
BRING THE SUFI MESSAGE TO THE WEST. HIS MESSAGE OF SPIRI-
TUAL UNITY BROUGHT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN A WORLD E-
MERGING OUT OF SECTARIANISM AND DOGMATISM, CLAMORING
FOR A NEW WORLD IDEAL THAT WOULD LINK TOGETHER THE
ASPIRATIONS OF ALL RELIGIONS. HE FOUNDED A CEREMONY
CALLED THE UNIVERSAL WORSHIP IN WHICH THE TEXTS OF THE
WORLD'S RELIGIONS ARE READ AND REVERED ON THE SAME
ALTAR, NAMING ALL THE PROPHETS OF ALL TIME,
KNOWN AND UNKNOWN.

ONE OF INAYAT KHAN'S LAST ACTS IN THE MIDST OF HIS WESTERN
DISCIPLES BEFORE HE PASSED AWAY WAS TO LAY A FOUNDATION
STONE IN THE CENTER OF A CIRCLE HE HAD DRAWN ON THE GREEN
SLOPES OF MONT VALERIAN, NEAR PARIS, FOR WHAT HE CALLED
"THE UNIVERSEL." THIS WAS TO BE THE MEETING PLACE OF THE
NEW AGE: A TEMPLE TO HOUSE THE UNIVERSAL WORSHIP, WHERE
ALL PEOPLE WOULD FIND THEIR TRADITIONS HONORED AND
WHERE THE ONE OMNIPRESENT GOD MIGHT BE WORSHIPPED IN
HARMONY WITH THE BASIC BELIEFS OF ALL THE WORLD'S
RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.

UNLIKE TEMPLES, MOSQUES, AND CHURCHES OF THE PAST WHICH
WERE BASED ON ANIMAL, VEGETABLE OR GEOMETRIC MOTIFS AND
PATTERNS, THIS CENTER WOULD BE BASED ON THE FORM OF THE
HUMAN IN A COSMIC CARDINAL DIMENSION: FOUR SEATED
FIGURES GAZING OUT ACROSS THE FOUR DIRECTIONS IN
A BLEND BETWEEN SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE.

THE ABOVE DRAWINGS ARE A CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECT'S RENDERINGS OF
INAYAT KHAN'S VISION OF THE UNIVERSEL. OTHER AND FURTHER IMPRESSIONS
WOULD BE WELCOMED.

TOWARD THE ONE, THE PERFECTION OF LOVE, HARMONY AND
BEAUTY, THE ONLY BEING, UNITED WITH ALL THE ILLUMINATED
SOULS WHO FORM THE EMBODIMENT OF THE MASTER, THE SPIRIT
OF GUIDANCE ... WE RECOGNIZE THEE AS RAMA, AS KRISHNA, AS
SHIVA, AS BUDDHA, AS ABRAHAM, AS SOLOMON, AS ZOROASTER, AS MOSES,
AS JESUS, AS MOHAMMAD, AND IN MANY OTHER NAMES AND FORMS
KNOWN AND UNKNOWN TO THE WORLD ...
MAY THE MESSAGE OF THE REACH FAR AND WIDE,
ILLUMINATING AND MAKING THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY AS
ONE SINGLE FAMILY IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

"BELOVED ONES OF GOD, YOU MAY BELONG TO ANY RACE, CASTE,
CREED OR NATION, YOU ARE ALL IMPARTIALLY BELOVED BY GOD.
YOU MAY BE A BELIEVER OR AN UNBELIEVER IN THE SUPREME BE-
ING, GOD CARES NOT. MERCY AND GRACE FLOW THROUGH ALL OF
GOD'S POWER WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF FRIEND OR FOE."

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN, THE SUFI MESSAGE, VOL. 6
"A SUFI MESSAGE OF SPIRITUAL LIBERTY"

Whole Earth