THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.sufi,alt.islam.sufism,alt.religion.gnostic,talk.religion.misc,alt.consciousness.mysticism
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (haramullah)
Subject: Various: Sufism and Process
Date: 23 Dec 1997 21:35:49 -0800

49971101 aa2 

assalam alaykum, my kin.

often it seems we come together and exchange words about the husks,
saying 'the fruits are the same, pay no attention to the husks even
though these appear different based on cultivation'.  let us point to
the fruit and ignore the husks if they are so deceptively different.


ASHA101@aol.com:
# ...all religions are exemplars of various states of consciousness. That if
# one divided the one conscioiusness into the various states the religions
# would represent them....

	The Transmission of *Baraka*

	Abdul-Qadir called together all of his adherents in Baghdad and
	said to them:

	'I beg you never to forget what I am now going to tell you,
	because otherwise you will become the source of greate error.  I
	address those of you who will remain more ignorant than the
	others, because the Knowers and the Attainers will never make
	the mistake which I shall now describe.

	'During the period of Duty and Repetition {certain exercises}
	many people acquire the capacity to affect others with a strange
	experience.  This produces trembling, excitement and many 
	other feelings, and signals a stage of awareness.  There may be
	visions of great teachers, or of divine influence.

	'Acting upon the unprepared "heart," such experiences
	must instantly be stopped, because they cannot progress to real
	contact with the Divine until something else has been cultivated
	in the disciple.

	'This opening of capacity, once discovered by the ignorant
	or raw, spreads especially among villagers and other simple 
	people, until they indulge it regularly, thinking it to be a true
	state.  It is in fact merely a signal, a sign of something.  When it
	occurs, it must be reported, and those who experience it should
	undergo an appropriate period of preparation.

	'Persistence in this practice in the past exhausted the capa-
	cities of the followers of saints and prophets, all deludedly be-
	lieving themselves to be the recipients of *Baraka* (grace).  Those
	who Attain dare not induce this state once it has appeared.
	Those who indulge it may never Attain.

	'Follow only the practices of the Teacher, who knows why
	these things occur and who has to adjust the study accordingly.'
	-----------------------------------------------------------------
	_The Way of the Sufi_, by Idries Shah, chapter on the Qadiri
	 Order, Arkana Books, 1990; pp. 146-7.
	______________________________________


# The sufi, ...is the one who represeents the knowledge of God that
# one has if the names of God were taken away, but this knowledge does not
# occur outside of the names....

	Ibn El-Arabi of Spain instructed his followers in this most an-
	cient dictum:

	There are three forms of knowledge.  The first is intellectual
	knowledge, which is in fact only information and the collect-
	tion [sic] of facts and the use of these to arrive at further 
	intellectual concepts.  This is intellectualism.

	Second comes the knowlege of states, which includes both 
	emotional feeling and strange states of being in which man 
	thinks that he has perceived something supreme but cannot
	avail himself of it.  This is emotionalism.

	Third comes real knowledge, which is called the Knowledge 
	of Reality.  In this form, man can perceive what is right, what
	is true, beyond the boundaries of thought and sense.  Scholastics
	and scientists concentrate upon the first form of knowledge.
	Emotionalists and experientialists use the second form.  Others
	use the two combined, or either one alternatively.

	But the people who attain to truth are those who know how
	to connect themselves with the reality which lies beyond both
	these forms of knowledge.  These are the real Sufis, the Der-
	vishes who have Attained.
	----------------------------------------------------------------
	Ibid., p. 85.
	_____________


	*On Study in the World*

	Sufism is a study which is not scholastic.  Its materials are taken
	from almost every form of human experience.  Its books and
	pens are in the environment and resemble nothing that the 
	scholastic or enthusiast even dreams about.  It is because recita-
	tions, effort and books are included in this kind of study, and
	because Sufi teachers are called 'Teacher', that the fact of a
	specialized communication has become confused with academic
	or imitative study.  There is, therefore, 'Sufi Study' and 'ordin-
	ary study', and the two are different.  The position is as if 
	'mouse' and 'elephant' had both been given the same name.
	Up to a point (being quadrapeds, being grey, having tails) this
	inexactitude is of no moment.  After that, it becomes necessary to
	distinguish between the two.  This distinguishing takes place 
	in a Sufi circle.

	
	*On Dervish Assemblies*

	Superficial students imagine that when dervishes meet they
	are all of a similar rank, or that any dervish can attend the meet-
	ings of any other, the difference being only in degree.  In fact,
	it is the composition of the circle which is as important as the
	circle itself.  Similarly, rank in the Way may hold good in one
	assembly and not in another.  This is why teachers in one circle
	become pupils in another.  Collections of interested parties, reli-
	gious enthusiasts and would-be learners grouped together are 
	often mistakenly called 'dervish circles'.  These may or may 
	not be preliminary to such circles, but they are not circles.
	----------------------------------------------------------------
	Ibid., from 'A Sufi Notebook', by Pahlawan-i-Zaif, pp. 252-3.
	_____________________________________________________________

	
# ...by dividing it all up into differenet religions, or different states 
# of consciousness one should not loose sight of the fact that it is really 
# only one religion, only one state of consciousness, our dividing is only 
# done to serve a useful purpose. 

	The Mystery of the Sufis

	This Urdu song is sung by followers of the nineteenth-century
	Chishti saint Sayed Mir Abdullah Shah, whose shrine is in Delhi.  The
	intention is to show that Sufis are known by somethign which they 
	all share, something not portrayed adequately by names, ritual or
	regalia; though all these things have some relevance to the mysterious
	interior unity of being.

		I see a free man sitting on the ground.
		At his lips a reed-pipe, the robe is patched,
			the hands work-worn.
		Can this be one of the Great Elect?
		Yes, O my Friend, it is He!

		Sheikh Saadi Baba, Sultan Arif Khan, Shah Waliullah el-Amir.
		Three waves from one sea.  Three kings in beggar's garb.
		Can they be the High Elect?
		Yes, O my Friend, all is He!
		All is HE, all is HE, all is HE!

		Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jew and Sikh.
		Brothers in a secret sense -- yet who knows it internally?...
		O Companions of the Cave!
		Why the axe, the begging-bowl?
		Why the sheepskin, horn and cap?
		Why the stone upon the belt?
		See: when in your blood flows wine.
		All is He, my Friend, all is He!

		Do you go to the mountain-tops?
		Are you sitting in a shrine?
		Seek him when a Teacher comes,
		Seek the jewel within the mine!
		All is He, my friends, companions, ALL is HE!
	-------------------------------------------------------
	Ibid., p. 137.
	______________


	Mulla Nasrudin dreamt one night that he was in Heaven.   So
	beautiful all around -- a silent valley, sun rising, and the birds
	singing, and he alone under a tree.  But soon he started feeling
	hungry, and there was nobody, apparently nobody, around.  But
	still he said, 'Hey!  Is there somebody?'  And a very handsome man
	appeared and he said, 'I am at your service, sir.  Whatsoever you
	say I will do.'  So he asked for food.  And whatsoever he asked
	was immediately supplied.  Not even a single moment was lost:
	the food was there.  He ate to the full, slept well.  And this con-
	tinued.  Whatsoever he needed ... he needed a beautiful woman
	and the beautiful woman was there.  Whatsoever he needed!  He
	needed a bed in the night and the bed was there.

	And it continued for a few days -- but how long...?  He
	started getting fed up, bored.  Everything was too good, really too
	much.  He couldn't tolerate it.  He started looking for some misery
	because everything was so beautiful.  He started looking for ten-
	sions, because he had never lived without tensions, some anxiety,
	something to be sad about and depressed.  And everything was so 
	blissful, unbearably blissful.

	So he called the man and he said, 'It is too much!  I would
	like to have some work.  Just sitting empty-handed, I am getting
	fed up.'

	The man said, 'Everything I can do for you, but that is not
	possible.  I cannot give you work.  Here, that is not possible.
	Whatsoever else you need I am ready to give.  And what is the
	need to seek for work?  When everything is supplied immediately,
	you don't need to work!'

	Mulla Nasrudin said, 'I am fed up!  It is better to be in Hell
	then, if no work can be given.'

	The man started laughing and said, 'Where do you think you are?'
	----------------------------------------------------------------
	_Journey Toward the Heart_, by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho),
	 Harper and Row, 1976; pp. 133-4.
	_________________________________

peace be with you,

haramullah
 tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
-- 
(emailed replies may be posted); http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi; 408/2-666-SLUG
  join the esoteric syncretism in alt.magick.tyagi; http://www.abyss.com/tokus