=kit093.txt

KIT 93 - TAWHID - ONLY GOD

            We confront the crowning enigma of the implications of
the awakening attained "beyond the existential level" when we face
the critical turning point of real life situations again, without
losing sight of that transcendent awakening. 

"When one does not see anything other than God, the void (khala)
is impossible. . . for such a being, a retreat (khalwa) is not
possible."
IBN 'ARABI

            For the Sufis, in the ascetic seclusion one would be
missing out on the opportunity that life offers, whereby God
reveals His being in the measure of our capacity to countenance
the clues covertly intimated through the existential realm. We are
witnessing a radical reversal of perspective:  granted our
objective is to awaken beyond the limited, commonplace, personal
vantage point, what point could there be in one's incorporation in
the fabric of the universe if one alienates oneself from it? One
would be missing out on the purpose of life altogether.

"The man who shuts himself away from all men, however highly
evolved he may be spiritually, will not be free in the higher
spheres . . . The man conscious of his duties and obligations to
his friends is more righteous than he who sits alone in solitude."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            I trigger off the transit into life by espying distant
echoes of a remote inflow of what one might call "know-how",
featuring the way in which the distillate of existential
experiences (wisdom) is being fed back at this lofty level into
the programming of the universe. Otherwise, whatever is gained by
experience, by the interaction between the fragments of the One
Being, would be lost, which wouldn't make sense.

"For tonight, the teeming world gives birth to the world
everlasting."
RUMI

"That which is taxed of finitude will become eternal." 
JAMI

            These elusive impressions serve as the chain linking
me to an anchor beyond my reach in the "world." But I do not wish
to lose my perspective, the awakening gained in the ascent. I
distinguish two stages leading to awakening in life: 

            (i) Hu manifests as Allah so long as I abstain from
trying to experience what is happening, but simply exult in
glorification

"If the huwa (beyond subjectivity) were apparent, it would not be
huwa, but ana (the paramount subject)."
IBN 'ARABI

"Huwa manifests as Allah only if I cease to identify with the
experiencer (the subject: ana) because the ana stands in the way
of this manifestation."  
IBN 'ARABI

            (ii) I regain my sense of being the spectator, then I
can only address God as "Thou", anta.

"Should the ana outlast while Huwa manifests as Allah, then we
have anta (Thou)."
IBN 'ARABI

            As I intone "Hu", I become aware of the way the
realization I attained in the state of Hahut transformed my whole
being at all levels, including the configuration of the my subtle
bodies, then the material body, starting with my celestial shroud
and becoming concrete in the descent towards manifestation. Now
the challenge consists in maintaining the divine point of view
while recovering one's personal identity.

"My contemplation has brought to light the pure essence of my
existence so that I have not found another than myself in my
extinction and in my perennity." 
IBN 'ARABI

            While there is no way in which we can discover the
ultimate realty, Haqq, which is the ultimate condition of God, we
may be invited to participate in the divine vision whereby He/She
sees that reality projected in the mirror of the universe as in
that reflection of His/Her Being that constitutes our
personalities. To accede to this mode of cognizance, we need to
serve as a mirror, that is, abstain from interposing our reason or
our act of consciousness, rather simply allowing our understanding
to be transfigured by this unfamiliar way of looking at things.

            Paradoxically, this ineffable reality may be revealed
from within the existential perspective, rather than beyond
existence (which is that which is sought in the yogic Samadhis).
And therefore, for al Hallaj, the Sufi dervish must abstain from
isolating him/herself; then, absorbed in the divine unity, he/she
is co-opted by the divine unifying operation to be integrated in
His/Her divinity (infirad, rather than tajrid or tafrid; L. Gardet
defines tajrid as isolation from any objective input, and tafrid
as retraction of one's self from any act (operated by the self).
In contrast, al Hallaj advocates infirad, the passive of the
verbal form).

"It is God who elects him and draws him into His state of
isolation that he may participate in the mystery [of the divine
solitude]."
GARDET

            Therefore now, rather than losing myself, I can see
myself inextricably intermeshed in the total being of which I am
clearly an integral element. It is a shattering and at the same
time overwhelming experience.

            At this point, as we intone Huwa, turning our head
towards our heart, we are invited to extrapolate between all the
perspectives encountered in the course of the whole recitation of
the dhikr. This would mean, then, (i) expanding the outreach of
our vantage point, (ii) seeing the "outside" from "inside", (iii)
hoisting one's consciousness "beyond the beyond", (iv) now to
partake in an overview of the way things appear on earth. This
represents a kind of tour de force, challenging all the views we
have encountered so far. In fact it could be defined as
stereoscopic consciousness:  being able to extrapolate between the
perception vouchsafed through our personal vantage point and the
transcendental one.

            How can this be achieved? It is a matter of keeping
constantly in mind one's connection with the totality of which one
is a part, while acquiescing that one has gained some kind of
relative autonomy as a visitor on planet Earth.

"True exaltation of the spirit resides in the fact that it has
come to earth and has realized there its spiritual existence." 
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

Tracing back the stages I passed through in the ascent, I avail
myself once more of the creativity of my imaginative faculty:

"Imagination causes archetypal notions to descend into perceptible
forms."
IBN 'ARABI

            "The same data must be recaptured at each of the
degrees of being, or levels through which they had to descend in
order to reach the mode of being corresponding to the plane on
which they are evident to our ordinary consciousness."
CORBIN

            Moreover, one needs continually to keep oneself highly
attuned by offsetting one's consciousness so as to grasp the
splendor that is striving to transpire behind the sometimes
offensive appearance of things.

"There comes a time in one's evolution when every touch of beauty
moves the heart to tears; it is at that time that the Beloved of
heavens is brought to earth."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            Note that as we hoisted our concentration from 'la
ilaha' to 'illa', we shifted our awareness from the perceptual and
interpretive mode to grasping the emergence of the world and
ourselves from the implicate state; then, when we hoisted our
consciousness from 'illa' to ''llah', we shifted from the world of
metaphor to thoughts bereft of any form or image whatsoever. Now,
as we intone 'hu', we descend into the realm of configurations and
matter. Our intelligence discovers itself by awakening in the
atoms of the cells of our bodies.

"Thoughts shift from the perception of the senses to the imaginary
ones; then the intelligible thoughts will descend upon you in the
form of perceptions." 
IBN 'ARABI

"You will observe the engendering of the possibilities lying in
the spiritual plane into the corporeal world." 
IBN 'ARABI

            Let us now see how this attunement and perspective is
going to affect our daily lives. Passing though the stages of the
dhikr, we have not only been discovering unfamiliar perspectives,
beaming new light upon our problems, but awakening dormant
faculties. The shift in outlook triggers off transformation. Let
us now consciously awaken the innumerable faculties governing the
programming of the whole universe, dormant in ourselves.

"In man is awakened that spirit by which the whole universe was
created."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

Realization needs to be backed up by doing:

"In order to gain God consciousness, the first condition is to
make God a reality, so that He no longer is an imagination. . . At
present there exists only in the world a belief in God; God exists
in the imagination. It is such a soul, which has touched upon
divine perfection, that brings to earth a living God, who without
him would remain on in the heavens. . . If there is any sign of
God to be seen, it is in the God-conscious one." 
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

The clue consists in experiencing God discovering Him/Herself as
oneself.

"How is higher consciousness attained? By closing our eyes to our
limited self and by opening our heart to the God who is all
perfection, who is in heaven and on earth, within and without, who
is visible, audible, perceptible, intelligible and yet beyond
man's comprehension. . . . The key to spiritual attainment is to
be conscious of the Perfect One who is formed in the heart."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            "The Sufi's task is to be instrumental to God's
purpose in the very creation of the world. Here lies the secret of
the Hadith Qudsi that lies at the basis of all Sufism: "I was a
hidden treasure. . ." "
(HIK, apparently)

"Divinity resides in humanity. It is also the outcome of humanity.
Divinity is to God what the drop is to the ocean:  the drop is of
the same nature as the ocean, but in comparison it is only a
drop."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            "The fulfillment of this whole creation is to be found
in man. And this object is only fulfilled when man has awakened
that part of himself which represents the master, that is, God
Himself. It is in man that the divine perfection can be seen. God
knows Himself through His manifestation. Manifestation is the self
of God, but a self that is limited, a self that makes His
perfection known to Himself when He compares Himself with the
limited self we call nature. Therefore the purpose of the whole
creation is the realization that God gains by discovering His own
Perfection though our imperfection." 
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            The key is, rather than thinking of God as other,
discover the various levels of Godness in yourself.

"The soul of every individual is God, but man has a mind and a
body which contains God according to the accommodation."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            How do we reconcile this with the thought which we
came across and which led us to the Hahut or Samadhi state: "work
through the ties with the life of the world"?  Having loosened
these, we are able to reconcile what would seem like the
irreconcilable: involve ourselves with unconditional love with all
beings, while not being dependent upon attachment or gain.

            "The way of those who renounce is to know all things,
to admire all things, to get all things, but give all things and
to think that nothing belongs to them and that they own nothing."
(HIK, apparently)

            "He who arrives at the state of indifference without
experiencing interest in life is incomplete and apt to be tempted
by interest at any moment; but he who arrives at the state of
indifference by going through interest really attains the blessed
state."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            Here lies the enigma:

            "Indifference gives great power; but the whole
manifestation is a phenomenon of interest. All this world that man
has made, where has it come from?  It has come from the power of
interest.  The whole creation and all that is in it are the
products of the Creator's interest. But at the same time the power
of indifference is a greater one still, because, although motive
has a power, yet at the same time motive limits power. Yet it is
motive that gives man the power to accomplish things. On the other
hand, so long as a man has a longing to obtain any particular
object, he cannot go further than that object."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN


SYNOPSIS

A = Subject/Object perspective  L=  Identity: body, psyche subtle
and celestial bodies (according to level of identity)  I = 
personal subject, witness  H= ultimate reality.  U = The aspect of
God actuated as the existential reality

LA:  

            You experience reality biased projection of psyche. (L
> psyche, A > reality as existential)

ILAHA:  

            The subject realizes the delusion (the first step
towards awakening). The witness (I) is extended, grasping reality
(A) from an all-encompassing span. The representation that the
psyche (L) carried of reality is now replaced by an objective one.
But to be germane, the new representation of reality (the second
A) needs to be adumbrated by the divine point of view (H).

 ILLA: 

            The witness in you (I) is looking within. Of necessity
your identity shifts from the first (L)  your physical body
(Nazut) to the second (L) your subtle body (Arwah, in Yoga
tanmatra). Concomitantly from your psyche (Khayal), to a new mode
of thinking (Mithal) you project the reality you discover
internally (Arwah) and now identify with. Reality is now off-set
from the time/space frame of ordinary experience and seems to flow
recurrently into the way it transpires in the physical world and
also as your psyche; you grasp the physical world (A) "from
inside-out" dynamically instead of statically; that is: instead of
simply ingesting the input from the physical and social
environment, interpreted and assessed by conditioned assumptions,
you can envision it (A) unfolding from its seedbed, like a plant
releasing the genes that were previously turned virtual. By the
same token, you can envision these potentials unfurling as the
idiosyncrasies of your personality The creative thrust of the
universe in you fosters the genesis of form (physical or
idiosyncratic) from subliminal patterns of energy which thus
materializes as matter (the physical body:  Nazut) or subtle
matter (the subtle body:  Arwah) or at the level of thinking as
the psyche, Khayal, or the creative mind (at the level of
metaphor:  Mithal

'LLAH: 

            Since creativity integrates the different modes of
reality (which vary from one level to another), you now realize
that the creativity materializing as you, while emerging from
within, includes patterns hailing from all levels. My
consciousness is now hoisted from that unsounded first "a" of the
word Allah which represented my grasp of reality emerging from
within (Mithal) to the second "a" of the word Allah which
represents reality at the archetypal level (Lahut) . To reach the
perspective grasped at the (Lahut) level, you will need to let go
of your identity from your previous identity with your etheric
body (Arwah) and shift your identity into your celestial effigy
(Malakut, which is like a countenance without substance),
represented by the first (l) of the word Allah; next, you shift
your identity into identifying with being pure intelligence beyond
form, time and space (Jabarut) , represented by the second "l" of
the word Allah).

H: 

            When intonating the "h" of the word Allah, we leave
not only the existential world out of focus, but even the
programming behind it to touch upon the reality that it unfolds
and actuates.

HU:

            The "u" of hu indicates the descent through the
spheres. We would be discounting all that is gained by the
interfacing and osmosis fostered at the existential level if we
did not awaken in the perspective of the world while extrapolating
it with the perspectives encountered at each of the levels
explored in the entire dhikr.  

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