Robert Abdul Hayy Darr: Spiritual Principles of the Naqshbandi Path

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Naqshbandi, R

Peace, one and all…

A beautiful talk by Robert Abdul Hayy Darr.  May it be of benefit.

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

Yesterday I Polished My Mirror

Peace, one and all…

Yesterday I polished my mirror,
Made it bright and placed it before myself.
I saw so many faults of my own in the mirror
That I forgot other people’s faults completely

Ruzbehan Baqli, Quatrain 3 (Source)

Shaykh Kabir Helminski: Movement as Worship of the One

Peace, one and all…

A beautiful exploration of movement and worship, as transmitted through sacred Mevlevi tradition.  This wonderful talk also explores some of the symbolism of the whirling ceremony (sema).  May it be of benefit.

Source: SFH Mureed

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

Sheikh Kabir Helminski: Collectedness and the Mantle of Ecstasy

Peace, one and all…

A beautiful reflection on some important verses from the Masnavi serif, by Kabir Dede.

When Jafar advanced against a certain fortress,
to his thirsty throat the fortress became a single gulp.
Riding alone, he charged up to the fortress,
so that they locked the fortress-gate in dread.
No one dared to meet him in battle:
Any more than a sailboat’s crew would attack a leviathan.

The king turned to his vizier, saying,
“What is to be done in this crisis, Counselor?”
He replied, “You should say goodbye to your pride and cunning,
and present to him your sword and shroud.”
“Why,” said the king, “isn’t he just a single man alone?”
He replied, “Don’t underestimate this man’s singleness.
Open your eye: look well at the fortress:
it is already trembling before him like quicksilver.
He sits in the saddle, his nerve unshaken,
as if all the East and West were at his side.

Several men rushed forward, like Fida’is,
and flung themselves into combat with him.
He struck each of them with just a blow of his mace
and they fell headlong at the feet of his steed.
God’s action had bestowed on him such collectedness
that he was confronting a whole people single-handedly.
When my eye beheld the face of that emperor,
quantity became nothing in my sight.”

The stars are many; though the sun is one,
When it appears, their foundation is demolished.
If a thousand mice put forth their heads,
the cat feels no fear or apprehension of danger.
How should a throng of mice advance
if they have no collectedness in their souls?
The collectedness in outward forms is a vain thing:
listen, beg from the Creator collectedness of spirit.

Collectedness is not the result of material quantity:
know that body, like reputation, is built on air.
If there were any collectedness in the heart of the mouse,
a number of mice would arise in indignation,
And, rushing up like assassins,
would without hesitation throw themselves upon the cat!
One would tear out her eyes,
while another would rip her ears with its teeth,
And another tear at her side:
there would be no escape from their unified alliance.

But the soul of the mouse has no collectedness:
at the cry of a cat its wits fly out of its soul.
The mice are paralyzed by the wily cat,
even if the mice are a hundred thousand.
Does the butcher care how big the flock is?
Can your daytime thoughts hold off slumber forever?

He is the Lord of the kingdom: He gives collectedness to the lion,
so that he springs on the herd of wild asses.
A hundred thousand savage and courageous wild asses
are as naught before the onset of the lion.
He is the Lord of the kingdom:
He gives to a Joseph the kingdom of Beauty,
so that he is like rainfall from white cumulus clouds.

He bestows upon one face the radiance of a star,
so that a king becomes the slave of a girl.
He bestows upon another face His own Light,
so that even in the darkest night
it can discern the good from the bad in everything.
Joseph and Moses brought the light of God
into their cheeks and countenances, and into their inmost centers.
A flashing beam shot forth from the face of Moses:
and he wore a veil to cover his face.

The radiance of his face would have overwhelmed all eyes
just as the emerald dazzles the eyes of the deaf python.
He asked God to make that veil
a covering for that powerful Light.
And God said, “Listen, make a veil of your felt cloak,
for the garment of gnosis can be trusted,
because that cloak has absorbed the Light:
the Light of the Spirit shines through its warp and woof.

Nothing will be a repository except a mantle like this:
nothing else can endure Our Light.
If Mt Qáf should arise as a barrier,
the Light would shatter it like Mt Sinai.”
Divine omnipotence has given the bodies of men
the ability to support the unconditioned Light.
His power makes a glass vessel the dwelling-place of that Light
of which Sinai cannot bear in the least.
A lamp-niche and a lamp-glass have become
the dwelling-place of the Light
by which Mt Qáf and Mt Sinai are blown to pieces.
Know that their bodies are the lamp-niche and their hearts the glass:
this lamp illumines the empyrean and the heavens.
Their light is dazzled by this Light
and vanishes like the stars in this radiance of morning.

Hence the Seal of the Prophets has related
the saying of the everlasting and eternal Lord—
“I am not contained in the heavens or in the void
or in the exalted intelligences and souls;
I am contained, as a guest, in a faithful heart,
without qualification or definition or description,
so that through the medium of that heart everything,
above and below, may win from Me sovereignties and fortune.
Without such a mirror neither Earth nor Time
could bear the vision of My beauty.

I caused the steed of mercy
to gallop over the two worlds:
I fashioned an expansive mirror.
In which fifty wedding-feasts appear in a flash:
face the mirror; don’t ask me to describe it.”

The gist is this: Moses made a veil of his cloak,
he knew the penetrating nature of that Moon.
Had the veil been of anything except his raiment,
it would have been torn to shreds,
even if it had been a solid mountain.
That Moon would penetrate iron:
how could the veil withstand the Light of God?
That veil was, itself, aglow:
it had covered a mystic in moments of bliss.
The fire is latent in the fuel
because the fuel was meant to burn.
Masnavi 6.3029-3082

And Were Met By Wealth

Peace, one and all…

‘We sought poverty and were met by wealth.  Others sought wealth and were met by poverty’
Ibrahim ibn Adham, Attar Memorials of the Saints

Meister Eckhart: Counsels on Discernment 8

Peace, one and all…

In his eighth counsel, Meister Eckhart explores the need for zeal.

Counsel 8: Of constant zeal for the highest growth

A man should never be so satisfied with what he does or accomplish it in such a way that he becomes so independent or overconfident in his works that his reason becomes idle or lulled to sleep.  He ought always to lift himself up by the two powers of reason and will, and in this to grasp at what is best of all for him in the highest degree, and outwardly and inwardly to guard prudently against everything that could harm him.  So in all things he will lack nothing, but he will grow constantly and mightily.

Dr Umar Abdullah: One God, Many Names

Peace, one and all…

A beautiful lecture on the names of God, by Dr. Umar Abdullah.

True Poverty

Peace, one and all…

A short, but powerful exposition on the topic of spiritual poverty, known as faqr in Arabic.

For Water is Sweet When it Flows

Peace, one and all…

‘Travel, for water is sweet when it flows, and when it settles, it stagnates’

Bishr al-Hafi, as quoted in Attar’s Memorials of the Saints

And Every Day Of It Has Value

Peace, one and all…

‘God gave a life, and every day of it
has value no one knows except for Him’
Masnavi 1.2201

Meister Eckhart on the Will

Peace, one and all…

More on the will from Meister Eckhart:

‘It is good when our will becomes God’s will, but it is far better when God’s will becomes our will.  When your will becomes God’s will and you fall ill, then you would not want to become well again against God’s will, but you wish that it should be God’s will for you to become well again.  And when things are going badly then you wish it might be God’s will for things to improve.  On the other hand, if God’s will becomes your will and you fall ill – so be it!  If your friend dies – so be it!  God’s will be done!’ (On Detachment, 91 f.)

‘A free mind is one which is not deceived by anything and is not bound to anything, it is one which has not bound its best part to any specific manner of devotion and which does not seek itself in anything, living rather in God’s will and stripped of itself’ (On Detachment, 190)

Readings from the Evrad-i Serif 2

Peace, one and all…

In recent posts, our readings have begun to focus on the question of will (Kabir Dede on the Will; Meister Eckhart: Counsels on Discernment 3).  This question is also brought to the fore in our current portion of the Evrad-i Serif.

Our readings are all drawn from the Quran, and although these verses explore the question of will in interesting and forceful ways, it is their particular arrangement that is especially noteworthy.

Our present portion opens thus:

‘Had We sent down this Quran on a mountain, truly, you would have seen it humble itself and break apart out of awe of God.  Such are the parables We offer to human beings, so that they might reflect.

God is He other than whom there is no god; the One who knows what is hidden and what is manifest, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature’s senses or mind: Hu, the Infinitely Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful.

God is He other than whom there is no deity: the Supreme Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace, the Inspirer of Faith, the Preserver of Security, the Exalted in Might, the One who subdues wrong and restores right, the One to whom all greatness belongs!  Utterly remote is God, in limitless glory, from anything to which people may ascribe a share in His divinity!

Hu is God, the Creator, the Evolver, the Bestower of form!  To Hu belong the Most Beautiful Names.  All that is in the heavens and on earth declares His praises and glory: for He is the Exalted in Might, the All-Wise!
(Surah al-Hashr 59:21-24.  You can listen to a beautiful recitation of these verses below)

These verses declare the infinite and incomparable majesty of God, in forceful and evocative terms.  All power, authority, knowledge and beauty belong solely to Him: anything we possess is given to us by Him, and is effectively on loan to us.  Even though we may possess beauty or knowledge or power, it is always and in each instance His.  Thus, our will to power, to learn and to perceive beauty are really His.   In a strange, paradoxical way the more we understand our abilities as belonging to Him, the more fully ‘ours’ they become.  Or, perhaps, the more clearly we understand His absolute ownership, the more authentically we can enter into our own partial occupancy, our own derivative ownership.  The more we fully we realise  our own weakness, the more fully we can enter into His strength.  The more we are able to take back our own projections, and the more fully we are able to let Him be God, the more human we are able to be.

Ibn Arabi makes this clear throughout his writings.  This example is particularly instructive:

‘Your attributes are His.  Without doubt, your appearance is His appearance.  What is in you is in Him.  Your before is His Before; your after is His After; your essence is His essence – without Him entering into you or you entering in Him, for ’Everything is perishing but His Face’ (Surah al-Qasas 28:88)’ (Ibn Arabi, Kitab al-Ahadiyyah)

The Evrad then explores this strange paradox by offering these subsequent verses:

‘And to everyone who is conscious of God, God always prepares a way of emergence,

and provides for him/her in ways he/she could never imagine; and for everyone who places trust in God, God is sufficient.  For God will surely accomplish His purpose: truly, for all things God has appointed an appropriate measure’
(Surah al-Talaq 65:2-3)

‘And so, be patient, even though they who are bent on denying the Truth would all but kill you with their eyes whenever they hear this reminder, and though they say, ‘See, most surely he is a madman!’

For this is nothing less than a reminder to all the worlds.’
(Surah al-Qalam 68:51-52)

‘…to everyone who will to walk a straight way.

But you cannot will it unless God, the Sustainer of all the Worlds, wills it’
(Surah al-Takwir 81:28-29)

To be truly conscious of God is to realise that all things are His; at best, we are merely guests, even in the depths of ‘our’ own being.  Understanding that our will is already encompassed in His will is both deeply humbling and deeply liberating, freeing us from the urge to control life.  This awareness is a deeper ‘way of emergence’, a deeper liberation from the limitations of our workaday egos.

Striving to live this way is also important because it demonstrates that we live in a magical universe, in a realm of unlimited possibilities and of infinite potentiality.  We are provided for in ways we could never imagine, both within and beyond ourselves.  Living in a world of infinite potentiality requires that we strive to trust in God, and realise that the Divine is absolute beneficence, and absolute sufficiency.

‘…for all things has God appointed an appropriate measure’ is an interesting phrase.  It reminds me that that ‘my’ will has a limit, beyond which lies His will.  It also reminds me that the trials and tribulations of my own life are measured out for me: I am challenged, but never overwhelmed, stretched but never obliterated.  Moreover, this ‘I’ within me that demands and urges is itself limited.  There are deeper levels of being within me, beyond this passing ego; there are hidden depths below the shallow waters of conventional reality.

‘And so, be patient…’.  Wait in patient readiness for all that Hu might work within and beyond us.  Wait in calm alertness for His unfolding will.  ’For this is nothing less than a reminder to all the worlds’.  It is a reminder to the universe around me.  It is a reminder to the universe within.

‘And to everyone one of you who wills to walk a straight way.  But you cannot will it unless God, the Sustainer of all the worlds, wills it’.  It is His will that is primary.  Our will only becomes a reality when it harmonises with His.  This underlines the need for harmonisation, with God, with myself and everything around me.  And, as Meister Eckhart makes clear in his counsels, this involves an inner emptying, a giving-over of ourselves to Him, in Him.  In Counsel 20, Meister Eckhart says this:

‘And therefore, if you wish to receive your God worthily, be sure that your superior powers are directed toward your God and that your will is seeking His will, that you are intending Him, and that your trust is based on Him’ (Counsels on Discernment, 20)

Merciful One!  Join our wills to Yours.  Help us to will for ourselves what You will for us.  Help us to accept life in all its diversity.  Help us to see that all things come from You, for our betterment.

Related Posts

• Spiritual Dialogue 1
• Readings from the Evrad-i Serif 1

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

Like Beloveds Will…

Peace, one and all…

 

‘I am the lover of Love, and Love is my lover as well.
The body has become the lover of the soul, and the soul
the lover of the body.
Sometimes I embrace its neck with my two arms,
and sometimes it pulls me by the hem of my robe, like beloveds will’
Mevlana, Quatrain 934

Shaykh Fadlalla Haeri: Human Cosmology of the Self (Volume One)

Peace, one and all…

Shaykh Fadlalla Haeri offers a wonderful exploration of the cosmology of the human self in these video lectures (source).  Enjoy, and may all who pass by be blessed.

Part 0

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

The Rose Stands Alone

Peace, one and all…

The wrecked heart has snared itself in your braided hair…
Slay it with a glance! A heart so trapped deserves it.

If you should give what our heart desires…
pour it into our hands, your gift is its own reward.

Such a rose doesn’t need exotic perfumes
but keeps a stash of fragrance deep in its pocket.

Ah, beloved, in the dark night alone
I burn myself up like a blazing candle.

I warned you songbird, at your first glimpse of love:
watch out! The rose stands alone and won’t be moved.

Forget the cheap lords of this passing world -
the treasure of your soul is a palace of its own.

Scorched to the core, Hafiz continues to flirt and tease
but in keeping the covenant he’s fidelity itself.
Hafiz Shirazi

Essentially An Eye

Peace, one and all…

A human being is essentially an eye;
the rest is merely flesh and skin:
whatever the eye had beheld, he is that.
A jar will submerge a mountain with its water
when the eye of the jar is open to the Sea.
When the interior of the jar has a channel to the Sea,
the jar will overwhelm a river as great as the Oxus.
In the same way whatever speech Muhammad uttered,
those words were really uttered by the Sea.
All his words were pearls of the Sea,
for his heart had a passage into that Sea.
Since the bounty of the Sea is poured through our jar,
why should anyone be amazed that the Sea itself
should be contained in a Fish?
Masnavi 6.812-817

Our Exile and Homecoming

Peace, one and all…

You are not really a hunter, seeking Me,
instead you are My slave and lie at My feet.
You devise means to attain to My presence
but you are helpless either to leave or to seek Me.
The search for Me causes you anguish;
last night I heard your heavy sighs.
It is within My power to end your waiting,
to show you the Way and grant access.
So that you may be released from this whirlpool of time,
and may at last set foot on the treasure of union with Me,
but the sweetness and delights of the resting-place
are in proportion to the pain endured on the journey.
Only when you suffer the pangs and tribulations of exile
will you truly enjoy the homecoming.
Masnavi 3.4152-4158

Tu Karimi Man Kamina: Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Peace, one and all…