What is a Sufi?

»Man´s greatest need today is for the exploration of the human personality, in order to find there the latent inspiration and power upon which to build the whole structure of his life. For life means not only to live, but to ennoble oneself and reach that perfection which is the innate yearning of the soul. The solution to the problem of the day is the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity of man.« Hazrat Inayat Khan

Sufism is not easily defined, for it is neither a religion nor a doctrine. It is not made up of a body of dogma which one must follow, and it does not require its constituents to rely upon specific, prescribed rituals or techniques as part of a spiritual practice. It is not distinctive of any particular race, nation, or church; it has existed across cultures, over centuries. Sufism is a way of looking at the world and a way of living in the world. Yet even when no particular form can be precisely defined, it is possible to describe some of its characteristics

Rather than requiring withdrawal from the world, Sufism practices immersion in life, bringing one's highest ideals into everyday practice. It is a way for humanity to awaken to the abundance of life, both individually and collectively, in every area of human enterprise. Sufism is a contemporary response to the needs of the time and culture within which it exists.

»If anybody asks you, "What is Sufism? What religion is it?" you may answer, "Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which one thing is most important, and that is to seek God in the heart of mankind."

There are three ways of seeking God in the human heart. The first way is to recognize the divine in every person and to be careful of every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech, and action. Human personality is very delicate. The more living the heart, the more sensitive it is. But that which causes sensitiveness is the love-element in the heart, and love is God. The person whose heart is not sensitive is without feeling; his heart is not living, it is dead. In that case the Divine Spirit is buried in his heart.

A person who is always concerned with his own feelings is so absorbed in himself that he has no time to think of another. His whole attention is taken up with his own feelings. He pities himself: he worries about his own pain, and is never open to sympathize with others. He who takes notice of the feeling of another person with whom he comes in contact, practices the first essential moral of Sufism.

The next way of practicing this religion is to think of the feeling of the person who is not at the moment before us. One feels for a person who is present, but one often neglects to feel for someone who is out of sight. One speaks well of someone to his face, but if one speaks well of someone when he is absent, that is greater. One sympathizes with the trouble of someone who is before one at the moment, but it is greater to sympathize with one who is far away. And the third way of realizing the Sufi principle is to recognize in one´s own feeling the feeling of God; to realize every impulse of love that rises in one´s heart as a direction from God; realizing that love is a divine spark in one´s heart, to blow that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one´s life.« Hazrat Inayat Khan

Love itself is the healing power and the remedy for all pain.      Bowl of Saki, October 15, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan There is no greater power than love. All strength comes with the awakening of love in the heart. ... If there is any protecting influence in the world, it is no other than love. In all aspects of life, wherever we find protection, its motive is always love, and no one can have trust in any protection, however great, except the protection that love offers. If a giant were to frighten a child, the child would say, 'I will tell my mother.' The strength and power of any man is too small in comparison with love's protection which the mother affords her child. Love can heal better than anything in the world.    from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/V/V_19.htm Behind all this world of various names and forms there is one life, there is one spirit. This spirit which is the soul of all beings is attracted towards unity, and it is the absence of this spirit which keeps the world unhappy. To a person who has just had some unpleasantness with his brother or sister, his food is tasteless, the night without sleep, the heart restless, the soul under a cloud. This shows that we do not necessarily live on food; our soul lives on love, the love that we receive and the love that we give. The absence of this is our unhappiness, and the presence of it is all we need.    from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/X/X_5_7.htm True life cannot be ours until unity is achieved. It is the work of religion to promote the spirit of unity, in the knowledge and love of God to whom all devotion belongs. Man often seeks for psychic, occult, and magnetic powers. This is not the purpose of religion; these developments come of themselves. Where there is life and love, there is magnetism; love itself is the healing power and the remedy for all pain.    from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_1.htm The dark clouds brought romance between Thee, my Beloved, and me.    from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/say/nirtan_alankaras.htm    ~~~ Love itself is the healing power and the remedy for all pain.

FANA 
by Michael Gest for CSUChico class on the Ecstatic Poetry of Jalal uddin Runi

The life style of fana which is lived by mystics, is a point of view, about where you find value in life. This point of view is called living from the view point of another ego rather than your own. All of us live somewhat in the ego of our mother and or father. In Mevlana’s teachings in the Sufis of his time, the other ego is either one's mentor, guru or, in Mevlana’s situation, his teacher Shams, or in the ego of the prophet, or in the ego of God. The most famous of persons who have exemplified living in the ego of the prophet is St. Francisco who loved Christ so much that he became the mind of Christ. Of course Jesus is an example of one who lives in the ego of God. The word fana, means effacement. It is by living in the personality or values of another that one can accrete the power of that other person. Or we would say, the power of their state of being. Having more than one point of view, frees one from the imprisonment of one's own limitations. The Sufis identify chain of power which is linked from master to master all the way back to the prophets.

In creative writing and poetry, this freedom from our own thinking, our own styles, our own security and comfort level, allows one access to subtler planes of mind which exist in the mind world as free mental energy also delimited by concepts. Additionally, when one puts the face of another onto ones writing, you have at your reach their thinking and their talents and their creative urge and abilities combined with your creative way to find your expression within their being. In the case of Mevlana, all the way back to David, the poet in the bible in Psalms.

When I was trying to myself grow up, I always thought my great grandmother was a litlle bit crazy. She would interrupt every gathering with her ecstatic expositions. Now I look to her because I have discovered that if people think I am a little crazy, they don’t expect me to be a little too sane. How free it is to be able to try to be who you really are. It is the inside out of the crooner (Sinatra) “ I’ve done it MY way.”

Here is examples of the Sufis practice of fana and attunement.:

Often times, a teacher will efface his thinking in the attunement of his or her teacher. Here is an example from The Bowl of Saki with Commentary

We are always searching for God afar off, when all the while God is nearer to us than our own soul. -- Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Commentary from Hazrat Murshid Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chishti):

Differences in planes are not differences in time and space but differences of rates of vibrations. One plane is formed from another in the same region, called akasha or accommodation, by change of rate of vibration. Consequently all planes may be regarded as all spaces. God, being the source of formation and the essence of energy, is therefore in all times and all spaces and places and can be found by a change in pitch, by a tuning of the soul.

So long as soul is regarded as something different than material, something different from mental existence, one finds differences not soul. Since God is to be found in the mental and material, God is therefore the nearest thing. Really it is God Who is searching for God, and we are the very thing we are looking for, only in our ignorance we do not know this.

In the example above, the commentator starts with attunement of the master and then goes off in a slightly different direction where the planes have the same attunement but wear different faces. Can you imagine having the mind of Christ now in our time? Christ said himself that we all have this. This ability of fana gives us the ability to surmount time and space, using a greater scope of the mental plane than the scope which can be one's own self. We can learn from another, not only by transference, but by the product of transference.

Albert Schweitzer writes

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. 

Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude, of those who have lighted the flame within us”

~ Albert Schweitzer 

This technique is excellent when one has writers block. So how do you do it when we are writing?

Hopefully presented at the next lesson.

A Dervish’s Dream For Iran

February 22, 2010

Several years ago the friendliness, sincerity, and the pure faith of the Gonabadi dervishes attracted me and, with the grace of God, I became a dervish.

My dervish sisters and brothers have for years been under pressure in Iran, and we have tasted bitter discrimination for the crime of simply being dervishes.

Can you imagine what it is like not to have psychological security in the country of your ancestors? Isn’t it surprising that an establishment that claims it represents God on earth is worried and frightened over the ways people worship?

In Iran, the authorities regard our worship and prayers to God as political acts. Therefore our houses of worship are being destroyed right over our heads. 

No one would ever imagine that the dark Middle Ages could be repeated in Iran, a country  with an ancient civilization and where the first human rights charter ever was recorded.

The Sufis have had to endure the so-called Islamic punishments merely for praying and reciting the name of God. My sisters and brothers who are serving our country in the four corners of this land are being fired from their jobs simply because they are Sufis. The work permits of lawyers who dare to defend the rights of the dervishes are being cancelled to prevent them from being our voices in the unfair trials that are being held.

State opposition against Sufism and dervishes has reached new levels since President Mahmud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. The dervish houses of worship in Qom and Borujerd were destroyed, and there have been attempts to eliminate the names of prominent dervishes from the pages of Iranian history. The authorities also break up our charity organizations and shut down our cultural centers.

Security agents have banned covering news related to the pressure and attacks against dervishes, and they have repeatedly blocked our websites and blogs.

On February 18, 2009, they bulldozed our Hosseinieh (house of worship) in Isfahan, so we decided to gather on February 22 in front of the parliament to emphasize our legal  rights and make ourselves heard to the representatives of the people. But on that day, which later was named Dervish Day, our peaceful presence in Baharestan Square was met by antiriot police forces. More than 800 dervishes -- men and women who came to Tehran from across the country -- were arrested and sent to detention centers on the accusation that they were violating national security or disrupting public order.

Finally, more than 100 of the detainees were transferred to Evin Prison. Most were released after being interrogated, except 15 who were held for three months in solitary confinement for protesting their treatment.

I told myself at the time that this is just the way the current authorities deal with dervishes. But since last June’s presidential election, I have seen that they deal the same way with anyone who, for one reason or another, is not considered one of them. Anyone who stands up to the current regime is charged with waging a war against God or trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment. Many have been shot at, and some have been killed.

The treatment of dervishes in Iran is a long, bitter story. Now it seems clear that that the lack of concern for our plight over many years has resulted in the rule of a power-hungry clique of lawbreakers who are moving our country steadily toward a narrow religious dictatorship.

But Sufism teaches that hatred can be destroyed by love and kindness. It teaches that oppression can be ended by patience and perseverance. I dream of a day when my country, Iran, is once again a champion of human rights where every human life is considered sacred and where the faiths of all -- Christians, Jews, Sunnis, Shi’ia, and others -- are universally respected. I dream of the day when justice and law will prevail in Iran.

The author is a 27-year-old dervish living in Iran, who for fear of reprisal wishes to remain anonymous. The views expressed in this commentary are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.

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In the Garden with Murshid Sam Lewis

In The Garden with Murshid Sam has been Reprinted!

Monday, 22 June 2009 15:52

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Beloveds,

We are very happy to announce a new printing of the book In the Garden with Murshid Sam, our first offering from the newly formed Ruhaniat Publications.

The book has been completely redesigned with beautiful new graphics by Murshida Fatima Lassar and a new introduction by Murshid Wali Ali Meyer. The text has remained the same and has been rearranged for clarity.

According to Asha Greer,

I have just received my spectacular copy of the book In the Garden with Murshid Sam.

It is full of Sam and the practices are both simple and useful. It is not only a chronicle of his life but an excellent manual for teachers and students which all of us are in our work of taming the negativity which contributes to the confusion and suffering of the world.

I recommend it to everyone.

Look for it on the book table at Sufi Camps and events. You can also order a copy by mail for $16.95. Shipping costs are the same as above. Shipping costs within the United States are $5, to Canada $7 and overseas $12.

If you order more than one copy, please contact us for shipping prices.

To order your copy, please contact the SRI secretary at 808-214-8682.  We are in the process of setting up a new distributor for our publications as of January 1, 2010.

Love and Blessings,

Ruhaniat Secretariat