=kit112.txt

KIT 112 - AWAKENING LEADING TO ILLUMINATION

A series of studies on Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan's teachings will
be featured in some of the forthcoming Keeping In Touches, based
on the database for a curriculum which is being sent by the
Secretariat to Center Representatives for monthly classes. The
relevant excerpts of Pir-o-Murshid's teachings will then be
published in a booklet upon completion of the course. Alongside
these, corresponding excerpts from the ancient Sufis will be
furnished, and sometimes Yoga and Buddhist texts which apply to
Pir-o-Murshid's Message of the Unity of Religious Ideals.

I well realize it would be congruent to observe the sequence of
themes set forth in the database for the curriculum. However, it
is sometimes imperative to first state the objective and then
outline the steps leading to that objective. Hence this
presentation-our first-a kind of introduction.

There are many valuable and exciting things we pursue, enriching
to our psyche, which are more readily available today thanks to
the significant progress of technology. We need also to reckon
with the chores we do to obtain and maintain them; moreover, we
mostly find ourselves battling with the stress of simply surviving
to "keep up with the Joneses" as life becomes increasingly
demanding. However, in this medley of interests and
responsibilities, it is well to assess priorities, to eschew
prioritizing "the urgent" rather than "the important." Go for the
best, at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of values (and I must say,
most challenging, and most enthralling and transforming):
illumination, enlightenment.

Watch to what extent the values which we ordinarily pursue in our
social environment-as it has developed in our day and age-are
conditioned, and to what extent we are clear about what we really
rate highly, and uphold our self-esteem. It is a serious
reflection on our alertness if, albeit somewhat enriching our
personal idiosyncrasies, our pursuits tarnish our personality. It
is ingratiating to realize to what extent our quest for
illumination in the course of our meditations can transfigure our
whole being-body and psyche-and unfurl qualities lying in wait.

Watch what qualities and defects that such or such pursuit may
exercise upon our personality. If we pursue what delights our
soul, and this gives us a sense of fulfillment, our whole being
will blossom. Of course the most satisfying quest, felt by the
more aware, fulfills a daunting need to see meaningfulness in
life, and meaning in our own life. We become alerted by a
surreptitious intuition that to assess circumstances on their face
value is deceptive-a simplistic mode of thinking-that there must
be some congruent planning, or intention, or meaningfulness behind
occurrences, appearances.

That this programming needs to account for the somewhat whimsical,
unpredictable nature of our personal incentives represents a
surprising view, and strikes a whole new breakthrough, in contrast
with traditional thinking. It validates human incentive and
creativity. It stands at the core of Pir-o-Murshid's message, and
is, moreover, paralleled by Ibn 'Arabi's insight.

"The Divine mind becomes completed after manifestation. The
creator's mind is made of His own creation. The experience of
every soul becomes the experience of the divine mind."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"When God sent Himself down to the waystations of His servants,
their properties exercised their influence over Him. Hence He only
determines their properties through them."
IBN 'ARABI

That this programming, which we strive to be apprised of, should
take into account our own volition makes the whole process of
awakening most intricate, because it points out to us the
importance of realizing the reciprocity of the Divine and human
dimensions of our own being and the Divine and human dimensions of
God. Only in this realization can we understand Pir-o-Murshid's
teaching.

"Man is Divine limitation and God is human perfection....The soul
conscious of its limited existence is man; and the soul reflected
by the vision of the unlimited is God."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"Thou art not Thou, Thou art He without Thou. Not He entering into
Thee, nor Thou entering into Him, nor Thou proceeding forth from
Him, or He proceeding forth from Thee."
IBN 'ARABI

We also find the reciprocal thought:

"The soul of every individual is God, but man has a mind and a
body that contains God according to the accommodation. The key to
spiritual attainment is to be conscious of the Perfect One who is
formed in the heart."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"God makes Himself known by projecting His shadow. This shadow is
Him and not Him."
(IBN 'ARABI, appaently, but maybe HIK )

"Understand whereby thou art He and whereby Thou art other than
He. The soul of every individual is God, but man has a mind and a
body which contains God according to the accommodation."
IBN 'ARABI

We may discern our ability to shift our perspective, in a first
step, from "that which appears" to "that which transpires through
that which appears", for example personal problems, or most
particularly the way that "whom you really are" is trying to
surface and unfurl as your personality. In a second step we may
try to decode the "software" of the universe that determines the
"hardware" of the cosmos. This gives us a sense of "awakening" -
actually, there are several awakenings. In fact this is now our
most prized objective: awakening.

As we meditate, we can actually grasp in our own being the way in
which the bounty of the cosmos is squeezed into our personality,
albeit virtually present, while regaling us with its many-
splendored potentials and wide compass (the holistic paradigm as
applied to the psyche).

"The soul may be considered as a condition of God, a condition
that makes the Only Being limited for a time."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

There are more such quantum leaps in our thinking - or, shall we
say, in our realization. They occur as traumatic shocks coined as
"awakenings" - not just an identity jolt, but discovering that
super-logic that defies our commonplace (syllogistic) logic -
which Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan calls "the reason of reasons."
Indeed this is, rather than awakening from sensory perception and
the resultant world-view, awakening from our commonplace
conceptual thinking.

"Not knowing that God experiences this life through us, we are
seeking for Him somewhere else."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"When all idea of this external being is gone, then comes the
consciousness of the unlimited being of God."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

In what manner is awakening related to illumination? This quandary
could be better framed by asking: what relevance does illumination
have to awakening? We may ascertain a clue in the paradoxical
behavior of light. In the first place, light distinguishes itself
from other physical phenomena in that it has no mass, which is
precisely the criterion that defines matter for non-scientific
minds. Secondly, it can only be known by its interaction with our
body cells, particularly our brain cells, and those of our retina.
It escapes our grasp beyond these transducers. This conundrum
could be aptly illustrated by flying fish in murky water; all we
know is how they behave when observed above the water, but what
occurs under the water is usually ascribed to our inadequate sense
of the void. Light therefore lends itself most welcome as a bridge
between the known and the unknown, the ponderable and the
imponderable, body and mind, the existential world and its
(Divine) programming. It illustrates most aptly the paradox of
illusive thoughts. As we meditate, let us observe how thought gets
coagulated, so to speak, in order to be tangible to our
consciousness.

"The pure consciousness has so to speak gradually limited itself
more and more in order to enter into the external vehicles such as
the mind and body in order to be conscious of something."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"Knowledge is of things in their forms and characteristics,
whereas realization is of things in their deeper reality."
ABU BAKR AL WARRAQ

On the other hand, when we realize that it cannot be reduced to
that ephemeral "apparition", it eludes our grasp. Without trying
to clinch it, to stalk it, we have to shift our sense of being the
personal observer to identifying with the ineffable observer.

"Not being is the mirror; the world the reflection; and you are as
the reflected eyes of the Unseen person. In that eye, His eye sees
His own eye."
SHABISTARI (1880 P.15)

The great art of illumination then consists in shifting our
perspective, just like in a hologram, from one perspective to
another, highlighting one perspective while downplaying another by
means of shifting our sense of being the observer. By "closing
one's eyes", Pir-o-Murshid does not mean ignoring, but simply
downplaying a perspective in order to highlight another. It is
only at a later stage that we are able to extrapolate between both
perspectives.

"How is illumination attained? by closing our eyes to our limited
self and opening our heart to the God who is all perfection."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

In the next issue, we will be describing the practices with light
prescribed by Pir-o-Murshid for attaining illumination, and
parallel views of the ancient Sufis.

"It is by this process that man becomes like a luminous star."
(HIK, apparently)
    
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