=kit105.txt

[ SOS I got I guess. ('(sa)' says I) ]
[ Toenote kit105_1] 

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KIT 105 - STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH THE EGO

The question confronting us now is what are the methods whereby we
may identify with our real being? Let us explore the stages. Here
we discern four dimensions discovered as we pass through the
stages of the Sufi practice of the Dhikr. Each describes the
realizations and attunements experienced in the Dhikr. Every new
phase represents a breakthrough of realization and every new
insight triggers off the next breakthrough.

(1) COSMIC: EXTENDING OUR IDENTITY BEYOND ITS MIDDLE RANGE: LA
ILAHA

Meditation presents skills to extend our identity beyond the range
of our perfunctory, skin-bound self-image: 

(i) envisioning our physical body as made of the fabric of the
galaxies, 

(ii) sensing our etheric field, which is like gossamer, and has no
boundary (like a vortex), 

(iii) extending our consciousness into the vantage point of
others, 

(iv) the antipodal perspective, envisioning the universe as
thinking through our thinking. 

Freed from the constraint upon the bounty of our being and the
meaningfulness of our problems due to our inadequate self image,
the richness of our real being now is able to flow unimpeded;
moreover, freed from the personal bias, we need not resort to the
inadequate stratagem of the ego, but can rely on the strength and
richness of those features of our real being which emerge to meet
the challenges of life.

"We occupy as much horizon as we are conscious of. The world of
one individual is as tiny as a grain of lentil, and that of
another as large as the whole world."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

At the outset, our behavior is reactive, adaptive. While the Yogis
point out (in the stage called Savitarka Samadhi) that our
assessment of our problems is unreliable because it is evaluated
from the personal vantage point (flawed by illusion), the Sufis
consider that they are clues about the Divine programming beyond
our ken. While our problems present us with a challenge to muster
appropriate qualities in ourselves to meet the tide of demands,
our faulty assessment of these would misrepresent this challenge.
Action offers a process of self-discovery, like a sculptor
discovering his/her statue by fashioning it (in fact his/her self)
which evading the world would not offer. However, by reacting on
the strength of our faulty assessment, our handling of the problem
would not match the problem in its reality. Besides, we would not
enlist all the resourcefulness of our being.

(2) TURNING WITHIN: ILLA

ARWAH is a state subliminal to our diurnal state.

"In the world, you are here, and everything is without you; you
are contained in space. In the dream state, all that you see is
contained within you."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN
[ Noted as a quote from HIK in SOS; Kaivan fails to do so. ]

"God is hidden within His creation. Awaken the God within."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

In this setting of consciousness, we can find the vaster reaches
of ourselves as they overlap with those of others within
ourselves.

"All things and beings on the surface seem separate from one
another; beneath the surface, they approach nearer to each other,
and in the innermost plane, they all become one."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

Now we see our problems in their context, everything in its
interrelationship with everything else. The strategy devised to
deal with the problem when we envision ourselves, as a "discrete
entity", does not match the wider issue. While Yogis consider our
self-image as illusory, and as misleading as our assessment of our
problems, the Sufis consider that our idiosyncrasies are clues
that reveal the Divine nature funneled as us. 

Hence, once more we see the fallacy of identifying ourselves with
"the traces" (the features of our personality), rather than the
reality of ourselves they reveal.

If we are still limited by our personal self-image, the best that
can happen is our capturing the fresh blossoming in our
personality which we imagine are emerging from the universe "as
other." When turning within, we discover that seedbed of our being
self which is co-extensive and isomorphic with the universe, God,
(therefore not "other"), organizing itself as it surfaces as our
personality.

(3)        TRANSCENDENT: 'LLAH

This is the lofty thrust of awakening beyond the ordinary human
level of consciousness. It is triggered off by "a passion for the
unattainable." The key consists in a first step of downplaying
(Murshid uses Nelson's metaphor of "turning the blind eye") our
personal perspective, and our limited sense of identity, in order
to highlight the higher range of "who we are."

"The soul's unfoldment comes from its power, which ends in
loosening the ties of the lower planes."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

One may distinguish here three steps.

(i) MALAKUT

First those aspects of ourselves, normally masked by the ego's
ploy, which are guileless, defenseless, innocent, holy  -  that
thrive on glorification  -  celestial. Ibn 'Arabi points out that
at this level, imagination is superseded; at this level there are
no more forms, not even the countenance behind the face. Buddha
says: "beings of pure radiance." To discover and enlist this
dimension of our being, we need to forego any strategy of the ego.
This is the perfection of "ahimsa", nonviolence, the way of
Christ, KHATUM AL AWLIYA (the seal of the saints).

We will eschew thinking of ourselves as being a victim, being
called upon to be an avenger to vindicate our self-respect.

"It is the situation we are in that makes us believe we are this
or that. When man lives this limitations, he does not know that
another part of him exists which is much higher, more wonderful,
more living, and more exalted."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

Our quest for beauty is stymied by the dastardly act. In a
spiritual school we learn to create beauty in ourselves rather
than simply seek to enjoy it outside.

"All that man considers beautiful, precious and good is not
necessarily in the thing or the being, it is in the ideal. The
thing or being causes him to create beauty, value and goodness in
his own self."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

At this level, we become aware of our aura of light, with which we
identify ourselves. We discover that it configures our real being,
while revealing the distortions due to the famous strategy of our
ego. Both are intertwined, like the picture of Dorian Gray. Here
we have something concrete to work with, because we can  -  like a
sculptor  -  reverse the distortions. To achieve this, we have to
peel off the attitude, charged with the emotional attunement, that
is causing the distortion, to unveil our beautiful inner being.
Our countenance becomes radiant. If we wish to be high and
radiant, this is the only way: eschew bearing a grudge. Otherwise
we slip back into the commonplace. Where then is spirituality? It
is not in dogma, nor in ritual, nor in a sanctuary. It is in the
reality of the process of inner transformation. It is in
struggling with ourselves to live up to our ideal when faced all
around with iniquities. This struggle with ourselves instead of
with others will give us spiritual power.

An example of this saintly attitude was illustrated by a Sufi Pir
of the Chishti Sufi Order.

An apt description of manipulation could be illustrated by someone
seizing our house, then inviting us for tea. If we protest, the
usurper says: "I want harmony!" What did Ganji Shakar do? He left
his Khanqah and thousands followed him. He became a very beautiful
holy person. If he had countered with his ego, he would not have
become that radiant being. The person was more important than the
house.

We find that if we let ourselves be affected, we lose our power.
Therefore our power needs a shield, and that is inner calm, inner
freedom, psychological immunity.

"The real proof of one's progress on the spiritual path can be
realized by testing in every situation how indifferent one is."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

(ii)        JABARUT. The two LL's of the word ALLAH

At this stage, we realize that the real witness is the
consciousness of the universe (which is traditionally attributed
to God) funneled down, or rather focalized, as the light of our
consciousness.

Our glance becomes like two beams of light, or the head-lamps of a
car, making the unseen visible. The light of our soul infiltrates
through the light of our consciousness, then through our glance.

"Wipe away the phantasmagoria of images, then HAQQ will emerge
from inside."
JAMI

"You thought that you were the Spectator, the witness, of what you
experience, but the real witness in you is your angelic
counterpart - the witness in the Heavens."
SHAHABUDDIN SUHRAWARDHI

"There is a further knowledge: God makes Himself known to us
through Himself and reveals to us His knowledge of Himself by
Himself."
IBN 'ARABI

(iii)       LAHUT: The last "A" of 'LLAH

At this stage (Lahut) we discover that dimension of ourselves that
is not reduced or limited either by our bodiness or our psyche.

"How is higher consciousness attained? By closing our eyes to our
limited self and opening one's heart to the God who is all
perfection."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"Once the soul realizes itself by being independent of the body,
the soul naturally begins to see in itself the being of the spirit
The Sufi practices that process whereby he is able to touch upon
that part of life in himself that is not subject to death. Rising
above one's earthly condition."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN


"(Lahut) ... a particular phase of existence where one feels
raised above the conditions of life"
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

The light of our higher being descends upon the light of our
consciousness.

(4)        HAHUT: the H of ALLAH

At the stage of Hahut, there is no more difference between "the
light that can be seen" and "the light that sees."

(5)        The overview: TAWHID.

In this further step we are 
[ SOS:  'extrapolating gbetween the two, in a third step (iii) by]
transfiguring our personal identity pattern 
[ Kaivan: and ]
[SOS:  fourthly (iv) by] 
"making states of consciousness corporeal and psychological."
 
[ The preceeding paragraph, which is the first instance I've
noticed of a textual omission by Kaivan, is problematic, because
it notes steps (iii) and (iv), but no (i) nor (ii).
I suppose that indicates a hasty rewrite by PVK. ]


At the stage of Tawhid, the light of the Divine witness is
threaded through the light of our glance.

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COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY:

[ SOS I got I guess. ('(sa)' says I) ]
[ Toenote kit105_1] 
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A bric_a_brac of quips and brakcets. 