THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.sufi,alt.islam.sufism,alt.consciousness.mysticism,talk.philosophy.misc,alt.religion.gnostic
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (haramullah)
Subject: truth, Truth, sufism and Sufism
Date: 6 Sep 1997 12:02:34 -0700

49970822 aa2 

assalam alaykum, my kin.


Egeriae@aol.com:
#># It is not that there is *a* mailing list, it is that there are so many with
#># people muddying the water and little is clear.  

getting on my goggles and wetsuit, I will accept the visibility.  there are
many times in my life where I will understand nothing.  these are the times
I am most alone with myself and have the deepest potential to grow.


#># If we drop the pebble of truth into each of these pools, how do we find the
#># one with the Stone of Truth?  

by the way the ripples form in response.  do they go out on all sides?  do they
emit a variety of beautiful rings?  do they have turgidity and calmness at once?
surely the Stone of Truth (on the side of the Ka'abah') is of such diversity
as to include all the variables.  how rounded are the rings, then?


#># ...howit is that so many people have so many different versions if there is
#># only One Absolute Truth?  Truth can not be one for each customer... that is
#># illogical.
  
Habib:
#> ...whether or not there is only One Absolute Truth, each person's
#> experience of it is uniquely their own.

perhaps that precious experience is the same as that One Absolute Truth,
varying per the perfect body with which we may associate it, that
excellent self to whom it appears to be happening, and typically
filtered through the perceptions of our beautiful, limited minds.


# I am somewhat confused... if there were ten Sufis in a room and they all
# contemplated Truth, would not they be sharing the same view?  

each would see it through hir own eyes at a different position within
that room.  imagine an infinitely-faceted jewel in the center of the room,
blossoming rays of fractionalized light and shadow.  each of us within
its field obtains perception of a different influence, has a different
experience of the that centrality.  like the philosophers and the
elephant, we may be prone to identifying what we have found works for
us with what works for all (becoming fundamentalist for a time).

I would learn whatever reflections of you may have of that jewel, and
bid you shift about the room a little to get different perspectives. ;>
we can dance spritely in the field of Truth's effulgence.


# ...arrive at a destination wherein other Sufis reside.  

oh dear.  there are so many challenges before this approach.  where are
the other sufis?  are they in some organization identifying with its
name?  are they part of a conservative tariqa?  are they part of a more
liberal and inclusive network?  do they associate with people who call
themselves 'sufi' at all?  do they evince certain qualities?  do they
sometimes take on alternative appearances so as to deceive or instruct?
with all this uncertainty, how will we ever locate them?

and even then, do all the other sufis, presuming for the moment that we
may locate them, attain to the same destination?  will that destination
be the same for every one of them?  will they know when they have or
have not reached it?  will they reach it before or after they die?  is
that destination something I will want also?  oh the complexities have
only just begun.


# ...do not all Sufis share the same Truth?   

this question I answer differently, taxonomically.  

Sufis (Muslim sufis) appear to vary according to the tariqa and even
within the tariqa individuals vary as to what they consider to be 'true'
in an intellectual sense.  I have noticed that sheikhs may gear the 
instruction toward the sensitivies of the individual student, for this
one providing a sure and certain intellectual ladder, for that one
coming to their assistance in destroying all intellectual solutions via
rigorous logic so as redirect them back to themselves.

sufis (en toto) seem even more varied than this, though an awful lot of
them seem to presume that the Truth of the matter is that 'truths', or
self-contained and exclusive knowledge systems, are perspectives on some
unspoken Truth beyond it, that religion and spirituality are manifestations
of culture and time, particular systems addressing the needs of those who
needed to participate.  

some suggest that this results in a kind of 'nihilism' on account of 
their obsessive focus on the intellectual as the revealer of wisdom.  
it becomes 'nihilism' when instead of saying 'Truth is so variable and 
alive that we can only point to it in the moment' she says 'there is 
no Truth at all to point to so I won't bother'.
 
do all sufis share the same Truth?  if 'Truth' is the fact of 
experience and whatever condition this may include, then all sufis 
share this, though they may have different abilities to realize what 
is happening, to whom it may be occurring, and what is its significance.


# I am so pleased when others help me untangle the cobwebs in my mind. 

cobwebs within cobwebs.  have a care that you don't get caught up in
my tangles too. :>

peace be with you, 

haramullah
 tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
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