|
| HOME |
|
| TEMPLE OF KARNAK |
'The Sufi must act and speak in a manner which takes into consideration
the understanding, limitations and dominant concealed prejudices of his audience'
Ibn El-Arabi
|
|
| (c) Shoaib Ahmed 2005 |
|
CONTENTS: Shah, Jung, Awareness & Consciousness, the Teacher & the
Student . Interpretation of Dreams . Conscious & Unconscious, & The Guru . Truth & Understanding . The Modern
Sufi Group & Human Transformation . Levels & Phases of Development, & Union in Love (Rumi) . Dissolution &
Coagulation . Hazrat Inayat Khan . Contemplation, Creativity & Supercelestial Spheres...
|
|
|
<<There is a still deeper
sphere to which our memory is linked, and that is the only sphere of
the universal memory, in other words the divine mind.
Hazrat Inayat Khan>>
|
|
| Hazrat Inayat Khan (1926) |
|
|
* Idries Shah: <<Sufism itself is
a much more advanced psychological system than all systems developed so far in the Occidental World. This psychology
in its essence is not Eastern but Human.>> C. G. Jung:
<<What we consider to be a specifically Occidental invention, that's to say psychoanalysis and all the impulses taken
their origen in it, it is only a beginner's attempt when compared to ancient traditional art.>>... In Sufism the
central issue is development of awareness and consciousness, leading the human person from a state of unawareness to
levels of higher consciousness. The path is regarded as a process of transformation
towards the Self. Sufism requires three elements, the teacher, the student and the spiritual community, the Sufi group.
In the Sufi context is the teacher who attracts the student as soon as the student is ready. Part of the transformation process
experienced by the Sufi-student happens beyond the boundaries of time and space, leading into mystical experience,
which cannot be conveyed with words...
|
|
| (c) Ahmad Azzubaidi |
|
|
| (c) Ahmad Azzubaidi |
* The Sufi teacher is without
a name. He or she doesn't work through teaching but through being. The presence of the teacher is
a nourishing spiritual motherliness, supporting the students in their growth. For that purpose, it is necessary to
be together, not in communication but in communion. In the initial phases, the teacher assesses the student's level
of development, he diagnoses the student's present diffulties and problems, daily life problems as well as spiritual problems
and starts the work at this very point. Part of the work is the interpretation of dreams,
which mirror the inner state of the student and his level of spiritual development. Dreams and all soul experiences during
the night are essential on the Sufi path.
| The Remaining Skeleton |
|
| (c) Abd Allah Masad |
* The behaviour of the teacher is unpredictable.
The master treats his or her students very differently in accordance with their needs. A genuine master treats every person
differently. A Sufi teacher directs the student in such way thet he will attain knowledge and understanding through his
own effort and his own experience and development. The teacher reads the student's mind, diagnoses and observes the movements
of the conscious and unconscious, gives attention to dreams and
all inner experiences, and helps to understand them. The student remains entirely free; he or she never submits to the teacher
but can only advance on the path to the extent that he or she surrenders to the power of the teacher or the Guru principle (Gu-ru means dark -gu- to light -ru-). There is no gain, no academic knowledge, no prestige but many things to lose: self-concepts
and sel-images, personal convictions and opinions, personal values, etc. The Sufi path starts where the person beings to recognize
that he or she understands nothing, that there is only confusion... A real Sufi student is above all moved by
longing and yearning for Truth, Understanding, The One, The Absolute, Love, Nothingness.
Every Sufi aspirant has to take his place in human society, in his family and his job. Sufis are not in this life for
personal reasons. In all areas the first concern for a Sufi aspirant is to bring order into daily life. Being a Sufi you have
to accept all aspects of life and have to be seriously involved with love, thus discovering the divine hints and the
divine presence everywhere.
| Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society |
|
| Two Women |
|
| (c) Ameen Azzawi |
* In former times there were Dervish orders and Sufi tariquats. They have become the modern
Sufi groups. The Sufi community is a place to offer mutual help and assitance and growth, a spiritual
brotherhood and sisterhood. Sufi groups are determined by the commitment to the same goal and meditation practice. They are
essentially open and welcoming communities. The group cares for the problems of members, newcomers or guests.
There are no ritual conditions for membership, inclusion is based on the attraction to the Sufi path... Study work in
a Sufi group is unpredictable: there is group meditation, working with dreams, discussing problems, Sufi jokes,
laughing, tea, telling stories, lectures, empathy, communion in silence... Sufi learning is learning how to learn, being in
contact with others, becoming more and more silent and open in meditation. Sufi groups are laboratories for human transformation. Sufism is the path of the loving heart.
|
| (c) Baker Abd Alraheem |
* There are numerous descriptions of the levels and phases of development in Sufi literature: Orientation and attraction by
Sufism; Learning how to learn; Intuition, inner experiences though meditation, expanding consciousness; individuation or becoming
who you are; the power of love or being a lover; mystical experience of Oneness and Nothingness. Sufis are experts of the
human psyche, but above all they are mystics. Their goal is not individuation but the realization of God... All mystics
describe their experience in God in the language and with images of intimate embrace, as a union
in love. Rumi: 'Whereve you are and however
you feel, always tend to be a lover.' Love is the universal power of transformation. On the Sufi path, love is generated from
heart to heart by the spiritual leader. It is the opening of the heart chakra that is given highest attention. Preparing
yourself and emptying yourself is done in meditation. The Sufi student learns to perceive the different forms of love, to
make more and more empty space for love. Genuine understanding on the Sufi path is gained only through love.
| Elixir Magazine |
|
| Consciousness, Conscience, and Culture |
|
| FRACTAL OF THE ALCHEMICAL STAGE OF DISSOLUTION |
|
| (c) Dennis William Hauck |
|
* In the first stages of the retreat
process, we use the alchemical model which describe the dissolution
(solve) of the dross; the notion of who we are stands in the way of who we might be if we would be what we could be.
After the stages of dissolution come the stages of coagulation: Some has to die
for the new birth to occur. The materialization of spirit and the spiritualization of matter happens in us. We are the
laboratory for this alchemy.
|
|
|
* The Sufis explore the areas of the psyche in the
art of contemplation. This occurs by keeping oneself suspended
at the threshold between sleep and day consciousness, leaving as it were, the door ajar between those two very different
perspectives... The Sufis foster creativity by cultivating that
'organ' of creativity which they call 'creative imagination'... Instead of the unconscious communicating to the conscious
clues to its message by dint of symbols, the consciousness of the Sufi wanders in the areas of the unconscious which he/she
envisions as being the celestial, sometimes super-celestial spheres.
|
| The Tree of Life and its Spheres |
|
|
|
