=kit117.txt

KIT 117 - THE UNIVERSEL / THE MESSAGE

If we ponder a moment about the teaching which we have shared
throughout the years, it becomes evident that we have been
training mureeds in meditation skills with a view to helping them
introduce further dimensions into their lives, to consequently
unfurl latent potentials, and to be better able to meet the
challenges of their lives by applying the insight gained through
spiritual awakening in real life situations. Thus we have been
obviating the danger of the fallacy of the "Spiritual Bypass", of
which many spiritual groups have been accused, by making their
disciples otherworldly and therefore unable to deal with their
personal problems in the world in our day and age.

On the other hand there are other issues in our life than our
personal problems: the need for adumbrating our personal beings
through transpersonal spiritual values, an attunement to the
sacred. A movement is erupting in the Sufi Order, particularly
amongst the more long-standing Representatives, for the universal
dimension of our teaching. This beckons us to eschew our personal
concerns and transcend our personal identity.

"The false ego is what that ego has wrongly conceived to be its
own being. It is not that the false ego is our ego, and the true
ego is the ego of God, it is that the true ego which is the ego of
God has been reduced to a false ego in us."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

It is the notion of God as the antipodal pole to our personal ego
that shifts our identity from its constraint in our personal
dimension. The personal pole of our being - commonly called our
ego - figures in our psychological defense system. It protects us
from the egos of others, and can lead us to try to dominate others
to upholster our self-esteem. It has been bequeathed to us by our
conditioning, devised in the course of evolution in its primeval
stages. To evolve, one needs to substitute for this level of
conditioning the higher modes of programming of the universe, and
this is where we find freedom from the more primitive modes of
conditioning.

The only way to wean ourselves from this bumptious notion of
ourselves (however incongruously flawed it may be by a sense of
inadequacy) without incurring psychological withdrawal symptoms,
is to discover and eventually identify with the higher levels of
our being, which correspond to higher attunements of our
consciousness of sublime spheres of the universe that we ascribe
to God. When we have negotiated this step, we realize that the
deep thrust behind all our teachings is the Message. Personal
development is only a component of the fulfillment of our being.

"Just as at one time there was a call from everywhere to guard
self-interest, now the moment has come for the message to be given
for men to understand and consider one another. The happiness and
peace of each individual depends on the happiness and peace of
all. The complete joy is in sharing one's joy with another. The
selfish one enjoys himself and does not care for others. Whatever
he enjoys, things of the earth or things of heaven, his enjoyment
is not complete. In this third stage, following, the message is
fulfilled, when he has heard and pondered upon it and passed the
same blessing to others."
(HIK, I suppose)

The Sufi Order, or Esoteric School, was the school for training to
open the door to the spirituality of the future, called the
Message.

"Our activity in the line of religion - which is a side activity,
considering the Esoteric School and esotericism as the main
activity - is still the answer to the cry of the whole humanity,
not the Esoteric School. Before the soul has expressed its cry, it
has reached the heart of the messenger."
(HIK, presumably)

PIR-O-MURSHID clarifies that the Sufi Order is not a sect

"The Sufi Order is a school that represents the embodiment of all
the schools, and is answering the need of the present day. The
Sufi Order, therefore, is the body composed of those interested in
spiritual attainment who have been initiated in the Sufi Order
which was formed in 1910, when the Sufi message was brought to the
Western world."
(HIK, apparently)

To reach out beyond the boundaries of the personal self, one needs
to be concerned about others, about the human family, about the
Planet. By dedicating ourselves to service, we nurture the cosmic
outreach of our own being. Here lies the step transiting between
the Esoteric School - the Sufi Order, and the Message.

"The whole humanity is as one body; and any organ of that body,
hurt or troubled, can cause trouble to the whole body,
indirectly."
(HIK, presumably)

This can require sacrifice of personal greed beyond personal need,
also self-abnegation, ambition, conceit, (which may require us to
forfeit status).

When Pir-o-Murshid founded the "Universel" in that historic
ceremony of Hijerat Day on September 13th 1926, he was doing more
than placing the cornerstone of a temple of all religions...

"The other need just now is the need of a Temple for the Universal
Worship. When your Murshid was brought here, destiny settled him
here. Spirits were moved to take this piece of ground, that a
temple be made here. But now that destiny has made your Murshid
settle here in Suresnes, not very far from here, in this vicinity
a miniature Temple may be erected; and on such a model, however
small, that it may be copied in the different countries."
(HIK, apparently)

 ...but announcing the next step: the Universel emerging out of
the Sufi Movement.

"I wish to say a few words on the subject of our efforts in
constructing something [The Universel]. We have come together,
brought together by destiny in friendship, in sympathy, in love,
and this must have a special meaning. And that special meaning is
that we are constructing something, we are building something in
the air. And this building is not a building for a certain time.
This building is built for centuries to come."
(HIK, apparently)

These statements made by PIR-O-MURSHID as he was approaching the
fulfillment of his life bear testimony to two last wishes: First,
that a temple of all religions be built in Suresnes...


"Someone asked me, "But why must it be in a place like Suresnes?
If the Sufi message sought from a practical point of view what is
best for its earthly progress, certainly we should ignore that
mystical significance which is working behind our efforts. There
is a mystical outlook, there is a mystical significance, there is
a mystical point of view which is different from that which we
call a practical point of view. Things of great significance are
beyond what we call our practical point of view."
(HIK appaently)

[ OK, sports fans, let us have two editorial rules:  Quotations
are enclosed in "quotation marks", and ellipses ... are used only
to indicated that text has been omitted from a quotation. 
Eliipses are not used to indicate ....  a graceful pause in
phrasing.  Dashes will do --- adequately for that. (sa) ]

dedicated to serve the message of unity.

"It is our thoughts and our feelings which will serve in this
temple as stones and bricks and tiles, and it is our feelings
which will hold this temple for centuries to come. My earnest
mureeds are the trustees of what is given and will be given; to
collect it, to guard it, to protect it, and preserve it for future
generations. This opens up a different thought before my mureeds;
every mureed has a contribution to make to this temple, and the
best contribution he can make is his devotion, his faith in the
message, his sincere service to the Cause, his sympathy, his
friendship with Murshid."
(The preceeding paragraph is apparently a quote from HIK)

We feel the urgency of doing something for others rather than for
ourselves. Pir-o-Murshid was a pioneer, sensitive to the pulse of
the trend through which our human family has and is going.
Listening to what he called the cry of humanity, he pointed out to
his fellow beings where a crucial fallacy is causing suffering and
misery at a world scale, to meet a dire need.

"There is lightning, there is thunder, and the rain falls; and
there are wars and disasters before the message comes. Storms are
very often warnings of what is to follow, and the different kinds
of battles and revolutions are often warnings, before the coming
of peace the deeper the sorrow, the higher the voice of the heart
rises, until it reaches the throne of God; and that is the time
when the answer comes. And at this time when the world is upset
this message conveys to the world the divine message... The Divine
message is the answer to the cry of souls, individually and
collectively."
(HIK, apparently)

Pir-o-Murshid sounds an alarm that resonates with our own concerns
in our day and age, and beckons us to rise to the call. Only a
change in thinking can bring this about individually and
collectively. There are intonations erupting though the words
spoken by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan that bespeak the cosmic
dimensions that mark the stature of a prophetic message.

"There is something in the whole creation, which is like an alarm
clock set for a certain time to make a sound, so that one may
awaken. That clock sounds through all the activity of evolution,
and when a certain point of evolution is touched man is awakened
by the alarm: that is the word that was lost. It has its echo in
the longing. When a person cannot wake up in the morning of his
own accord, then the alarm clock awakes him. The prophets were
this alarm."
(HIK, apparently)

Pir-o-Murshid diagnosed the malaise in an area that affects
millions, billions of people: religion.

"People think that the reason for war is mostly political, but
religion is a greater warmonger than any political ideas. It is
often for no other reason than clinging to the personality of
their particular teacher, claiming for him superiority over other
teachers, and degrading a teacher held in the same esteem by
others, that people have separated themselves from one another,
and caused most of the wars and factions and contentions which
history records among the children of God. Rejection of the
stranger, and belief only in the one whom he has once
acknowledged, has kept man in darkness for ages. Man has held fast
to one prophet and ignored the others, because although he knew
his religion he did not know the message. He has taken the book as
his religion without recognizing the message."
(HIK, apparently)

[ Footnote (sa) kit117_1 ]

"There is a tendency in the human race which has appeared in all
ages: it leads man to accept every expression of the message which
has been given him, to be won by it, blessed by it, and yet to
fail to recognize who the messenger is. The followers of each form
of the message profess devotion to their Lord and Master, by
whatever name he had in the past, but they do not necessarily know
the Master. What they know is the name and the life of the Master
that has come down to them in history or tradition; but beyond
that they know very little about him. If the same one came in
another form, in a garb adapted to another age, would they know
him or accept him? No, they would not even recognize him, because
it was not the message but the form that they accepted in the
past; a certain name or character; a part but not the whole. Man
refused to believe the Masters and their teachings, whether of the
past or future, if their names were not written in the particular
tradition he believed, or if he had not heard their names in the
legends handed down for ages among his people."
(HIK, apparently)

"Therefore the people of that part of the world who have
acknowledged the Hebrew prophets do not for instance recognize
Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, or Vishnu and Shiva simply
because they cannot find these names in their scriptures. The same
thing occurs in the other part of humanity, which does not count
Abraham, Moses or Jesus among its Devatas, as it does not find
those names written in the legends with which it is familiar. Even
if it were true that Brahma was the same Devata whom the Hebrews
called Abraham, and if Christ was the same Master whom the Hindus
have called Krishna, yet man would not recognize as one those whom
he has distinguished as different, having a higher opinion of one
of them and a lower opinion of the other."
(HIK, apparently)

"The work of the Sufi Order is to give the combined theory of the
Semitic line of mystics and of the Hindu line of mystics, the two
joined together. By Semitic I mean not only the line of Moses, but
it included Christ also. There are also two distinct mystic lines,
and both are joined in what is called the Sufi message. Besides
this, to interpret this in a modern form is the meaning of the
message."
(HIK, apparently)

The premises of religious unity were already present in Islam and
particularly in Sufism.

"We have sent our messengers to every part of the earth."
QUR'AN

This calls for a particularly relevant statement recorded as a
HADITH of the Prophet Muhammad in Muslim's SAHIH:

"On the day of the resurrection, God will show Himself to His
servants in a form that they have not known. It will not be the
form of the God of their faiths, but some form from among the
divine determinations in which other determinations have known
their God. Then the servant will deny and reject Him and take
refuge in God against this "false" God, until at last God
discloses Himself to them in the form of their own faith. Then
they would recognize Him."
(Apparently a HADITH from SAHIH)
CF. H. CORBIN, CREATIVE IMAGINATION ACCORDING TO IBN 'ARABI,
ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL, P 199.
Also W. CHJITTICK: THE SUFI PATH OF KNOWLEDGE, STATE OF NY
UNIVERSITY PRESS 1989.


In this same vein, the Sufis recognize the differences in the
faiths of people.

"The God who is in a faith (says IBN 'ARABI) is the God whose form
the heart contains, Who discloses Himself to the heart in such a
way that the heart recognizes Him. Since the form in which He
discloses Himself in a faith is the form of that faith, the
theophany takes the dimension of the receptacle that receives it,
the receptacle in which He discloses Himself. That is why there
are many faiths. To each believer the Divine Being is He who is
disclosed to him in the form of his faith. If God manifests
Himself in a different form, the believer rejects Him. And that is
the reason why dogmatic faiths combat one another."
H. CORBIN, OPUS CIT. P. 197

"Every instant the Loved One assumes a new garment.
He became Noah and went into the ark when at his prayer the world
was flooded.
He became Abraham and appeared in the midst of the fir, which
bloomed with roses for his sake.
Then he became Jesus and ascended to heaven and glorified God.
In brief, it was He that was coming and going in every generation
thou hast known,
Until at last He appeared in the form of an Arab, and gained the
empire of the world.
The lovely Winner of Hearts became a sword in the hand of Ali.
No, no, it was even He that cried in human shape "Ana 'l Haqq".
There is no transmigration, nothing is transferred,
Rumi has not spoken and will not speak words of infidelity; do not
disbelieve Him!"
RUMI: SELECTIONS BY REYNOLD A. NICHOLSON, GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN,
LONDON  1964.

To understand what is meant by the Message, our minds need to
grasp the meaning of perennity: a continuity in change.

"Those who limit Christ to the historic period of the life of the
prophet of Nazareth surely limit the message, in spite of his open
declaration that he is the first and the last. Christ also said,
"I have not come to give a new law, but I have come to fulfill the
law", which means that no new religion has ever been given,
although the world has taken it so. Those who came with this
message of religion have given it in diverse forms, in accordance
with the evolution of the people at that particular time, but the
religion was one and the same."
(HIK, presumably)

These are the premises that have flowered in the message announced
by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan.

We are living at a time when the world is gradually, though
sometimes reluctantly, weaving itself into a whole. Many welcome
this message of mutual understanding and respect while recognizing
the differences. The Universal message is not syncretism: 

"The Sufi does not say this religion is greater than the other,
nor does he come out and say this religion and that religion are
equal. He leaves it to the individual to think as he thinks. He
only holds his service as the proof of admiring all the teachers
and respecting all the scriptures, which are respected by
humanity."
(HIK, presumably)

It makes it easier to understand another religion to one's own if
one sees how they emerged in the course of history.

"To every individual, nation, and race, there is a special
message. Every prophet had to speak in the manner of the time in
which he lived, and according to the evolution of that time. Also,
the custom of each country differs from that of other countries;
the manners and life differ. If the messenger is born in one
country and has to give his message in another country, surely he
has to consider the way in which the people there look at life,
and to give his message accordingly. That the Messengers came
successively did not mean that they were to give different
Messages, but that they should correct the corruption made in the
message of the past by its followers; and also to revive
principles in order to suit the evolution of the period, and to
recall the same truth to the human mind which had been taught by
the past Masters but had become lost from memory."
(HIK, presumably)

"Their messages differ from one another in their outer appearance,
each message being given in accordance with the age of man's
evolution, and also in order to add a particular part in the
course of divine wisdom. Certain laws and principles were
prescribed by them to suit the country where the message was
given, the climate, the period, customs, manners and requirements.
For instance when wealth was esteemed the message was delivered by
King Solomon; when beauty was worshipped, Joseph, the most
handsome, gave the message; when music was regarded as celestial
David gave his message in song; when there was curiosity about
miracles Moses brought his message; when sacrifice was highly
esteemed Abraham gave the message; when heredity was recognized,
Christ gave his message as the Son of God; and when democracy was
necessary, Muhammad gave his message as the Servant of God, one
like all and among all; this put an end to the necessity for more
prophets, because of the democratic nature of his proclamation and
message."
(HIK, presumably)

"He proclaimed: la ilaha illa 'llah (none exists but God). God
constitutes the whole being, singly, individually and
collectively, and every soul has the source of the divine message
within itself. This is the reason why there is no longer the need
for mediation, for a third person as a savior between man and God.
For man has evolved enough to conceive the idea of God being all
and all being God, and has become tolerant enough to believe in
the divine message given by one like himself, who is liable to
birth, death, joy, and sorrow, and all the natural vicissitudes of
life."
(HIK, presumably)

The purpose of the Sufi message embodies a growing feeling amongst
many well advised people in our time to eschew sectarianism, one
of the calamities of our times, the cause of so much intolerance
and violence.

"The Sufi Movement will try to avoid sectarianism, which has
divided man in all ages of the world's history. The Sufi message
is not opposed to any religion, faith or belief; on the other hand
it is a support of all religions; it is a defense for religions
which are attacked by the followers of other religions. At the
same time the Sufi Movement provides humanity with the religion
which is in reality all religions. The Sufi Movement does not call
man away from his belief or church - it calls man to live it. The
Sufi Movement, therefore does not stand as a barrier between its
member and its own religions faith, but as an open door leading to
the heart of his faith."
(HIK, presumably)

The positive side is that it is not just tolerance. It is all-
encompassing and thereby announces the emergence, out of the
spectrum of diversity, the perspective of a world religion.

"Sufism is not a new religion or community. It does not want to
add a community to the world. At the same time the Sufi Movement
provides humanity with the religion which is in reality all
religions. It is the world message and that religion which will be
the religion of the whole humanity, a religion which does not
distract the mind of any person from his own religion."
(HIK, presumably)

When it comes to recognizing the one initially transmitting the
Message, Pir-o-Murshid's response is even more enigmatic, for good
reasons, and challenges the commonplace mind beyond its limits in
once more reconciling the irreconcilables - the continuity in
change. Pir-o-Murshid often quotes Christ:

"The key is in the words, 'I am Alpha and Omega ... I am the first
and the last.' Can that mean, 'I came only for a time, and then I
was called Jesus, and only then did I give a message; I spoke
neither before nor after that time'?' Alpha and Omega means First
and Last; always, continually present; never absent from the
beginning of creation to the end If one could only see that spirit
hidden behind different personalities, one would be constantly in
the vision of Christ."
(HIK, presumably)

PIR-O-MURSHID points out that in the past the voice of the message
needed to make a claim:

"There was a time when the world was not capable of seeing.
Humanity did not have enough realization to recognize the message,
which is why the claim of prophecy had to be made. But now the
world can recognize, sooner or later, what is right and what is
wrong. The warner, the master, the messenger of today will not
claim; he will only work. He will leave his work to prove for
itself whether it is true or false."
(HIK, presumably)

"Besides the message is not heard, not understood, not received
until the messenger has disappeared."
(HIK, presumably)

We are living in different times:

"Each prophet had a mission to prepare the world for the teaching
of the next; each one prophesied the coming of the next, and the
work was thus continued by all the prophets until Mohammed, the
Khatim al Mursalin, the last messenger of divine wisdom and the
seal of the prophets, came on his mission, and in his turn gave
the final statement of divine wisdom: 'None exists but Allah.'
There was no necessity left for any more prophets after this
divine message, which created the spirit of democracy in religion
by recognizing God in every being."
(HIK, presumably)

We are living at a time when several spiritual leaders have laid
claims to be the prophet or avatar.

"The messenger never makes claims. Thousands will listen to those
who claim to be messengers, but the wind of the spirit will
destroy all that is false. It is not the claim that makes the
messenger, it is the message. The being of the prophet, the work
of the prophet, and the fulfillment of his task are themselves the
proof of prophethood. He lives as a human being, subject to love,
hate, praise, and blame; he passes his life in the world of
attachment and the life that binds with a thousand ties from all
sides. Yet he does not forget the place from whence he has come."
(HIK, presumably)

It requires wisdom on the part of those fired by the power of this
universal message to avoid deterring people who perceive
proselytism in our enthusiasm, especially at a time when guru-
worship has proven so deceptive.

"I may warn it is never enough, and that is to keep in control
your appreciation, your enthusiasm, and your sympathy for Murshid,
and for the Cause, and always take care so as not to make the
message conspicuous in the eyes of the world. I very well know the
feeling of my sincere mureeds, who at the moment of appreciation
of the Message, of the blessing, wish that the whole world could
share with them."
(HIK, presumably)

Moreover from past experience, people have become (quite rightly)
wary of sects.

"The Sufi Order is not a community and not a religion; it is a
nucleus of the human brotherhood which is the inner call of every
soul without any intention of forming an exclusive community, but
to unite in this service the people of all different religions.
The Sufi Movement is not supposed to take the whole humanity in
its arms so that they should become members of the Sufi Movement,
but on the service of the whole humanity is the fulfillment of the
Sufi Mission.... It will share with them and it is sharing with
them unconsciously; but the ideal of its members is to invite
humans to become members of humanity...."
(HIK, presumably)

However when appraised of such a powerful thought, so important at
the present transit through which humanity is going, the need for
workers is felt as it was indeed in the time of Pir-o-Murshid.

"It is natural that it is difficult to have workers in a world
cause sufficient to provide everywhere there is need. But still
this must be understood, that as many workers in the Cause we
possess, so more facility and strength comes to the spreading of
the Cause. Although very few whose destiny it is to serve God and
humanity in this direction, we ought to feel ourselves blessed. In
the strength of that blessing, we should feel fully encouraged and
helped to serve God and humanity. Are the workers of this message
priests? No, they are the soldiers of the army of peace, the army
which is working to bring about peace in the diverse religions of
this world, which have disputed, argued, and kept themselves away
from one another, looking upon one another's religions as wrong."
(HIK, presumably)

We have been working on a curriculum for the Sufi Order - the
Esoteric School, but what could be the curriculum or the Universel
- the Message? Most of Pir-o-Murshid's teaching opens a
perspective on the wide vision of the spirituality of the future.
The second installment of the curriculum is on its way, showing
parallels point by point between Pir-o-Murshid's teaching and that
of the Sufis. There can be no doubt that the message emerged out
of Sufism. So where is the dividing line? Upon deep reflection and
meditation, it avers itself that it is absolutely not definable,
but a matter of growing to the realization of the vast spiritual
outreach that Pir-o-Murshid reconnoitered.

"People mostly think that the spiritual message must be something
concrete and definite in the way of doctrines or principles, but
that is a human tendency which does not belong to the divine
nature, which is unlimited life itself. I do not wish to give any
particular teaching to my mureeds on the subject of the Message,
because it is something which must come from themselves, a
realization which must spring from their own heart, that the soul
may become convinced from itself, and from within, without outer
teaching. Only as my mureeds will grow in the realization of the
Truth, so they will realize the importance of the Message, the
sacredness of the Message, and their own responsibility in the
delivery of the message of the time."
(HIK, presumably)

During those last years when Pir-o-Murshid was walking on the
Planet, a Siraj had suggested setting up a school of comparative
religion for the training of cherags. Pir-o-Murshid saw that this
was not the answer. For one thing, comparative religion is a
matter for scholars, and even most of these need to specialize in
one religion. The reason for Pir-o-Murshid's attitude is that the
message is not syncretism. It would not do justice to their rich
contribution to our spiritual heritage.

"Unity is not uniformity."
(HIK, presumably)

Efforts of comparing their tenets or dogmas show contradictions
and incomparabilities. It is easier to compare their methods of
meditation because here they prove to be complementary rather than
contradictory, here we are talking about experience rather than
belief.

"Instead of doing as the theologists in colleges who only want to
find what is the difference between Moses and Buddha, one should
look behind all religions to see where they unite, to find out how
the followers of all the different religions can be friends, how
they can come to that one truth. To say that the whole world must
belong to one Church, one religion, is as absurd as for all people
to wear one kind of dress. The world would become uninteresting;
the difference between them existed only in those principles and
rituals which were given to the people of that time and harmonized
with their standard of intelligence and evolution. Let the people
have Churches, beliefs, faiths, let them have different
conceptions of things as long as they are brought closer to the
realization of truth. Then they will naturally understand better
that it is true wisdom, which is the real light, that it is the
central wisdom which brings them together and which is the
inspirer of humanity. It is in self-realization that the mystery
of the whole of life is centered. Belief is a thing, but faith is
a being."
(HIK, presumably)

Even most of the followers of religions do not know their own
religion let alone that of others.

"Does every Christian understand the Bible? Does every Muslim know
the Qur'an, or every Hindu the Vedanta? No, they may know the
words of the verses, but not always the real meaning. Among the
Muslims there are some who know the whole Qur'an by heart, but
that does not fulfil the purpose. The whole of nature is a secret
book, yet it is an open book to the seer. How can man translate
it? How can man interpret it? It is like trying to bring the sea
on to the land; one can bring it, but how much?"
(HIK, presumably)

Besides, Pir-o-Murshid warned us against the bias that our
interpretation may incur by our very enthusiasm for the Message:

"When they give an interpretation of these secrets to others, they
become limited, for they take the color of his own personality and
the form of the thought of those to whom the message is given."
(HIK, presumably)

Syncretism freezes one in static conceptualization. Life moves on
- thoughts evolve.

"Advancement or progress is not standing still and stopping at one
ideal or principle. The work of the Sufi Movement is not to
collect all the rainwater in its own tanks, but to work and make a
way for the stream of the message to flow, supplying water to the
fields of the world. The greatest progress is a constant expansion
of the divine spirit, expansion in any direction so long as the
ideal of unity is applied."
(HIK, presumably)

However, are there not certain thoughts which - although already
articulated in the religions of the past and particularly in our
Sufi transmission that Pir-o-Murshid highlighted - that might
serve as guidelines for those enthused by the Message?

"The Sufi message is the awakening of humanity to the divinity in
man (not just personal awakening through meditation).... The note,
that the Sufi message is striking at the present time, is the
note, which sounds the divinity of the human soul - to make human
beings recognize the divinity in the human soul. It is the spirit
of all souls, which is personified in all ages as God. The Sufi
sees the vision of God, the worshipped deity, in His immanence,
manifest in nature, and life now becomes for him a perfect
revelation both within and without. What did the spiritual message
bring? It brought to the world a living God. The limitless God
cannot be made more intelligible to our limited self unless He was
first made limited. That limited ideal becomes as an instrument,
as a medium of God Who is perfect and Who is limitless."
(HIK, presumably)

The advanced views offered by the message cannot fit into the
framework of the commonplace mind and therefore cannot avoid being
paradoxical. It was imbedded mysteriously in the dogmas for the
beings of enlightenment; as the thinking of humanity evolves, it
needs to be articulated:

"God is in man and man is in God, yet God is God and man is man."
(HIK, presumably)

In what way can this help those who are fired by the perspective
of the message and wish to spread it to their fellow beings? 

"Warning comes in time as intuition to the soul. Nothing can
answer the purpose of humanity save the process of sages and of
the wise of all ages which leads souls to self-realization."
(HIK, presumably)

Since it is not proselytizing or propagating a doctrine, it can
only arise out of a deep experience and attunement.

"In this experience the consciousness touches a sphere from whence
it cannot get an impression of any name or form. The impression it
gets is a feeling, a feeling of illumination, of life, of joy.
What message does it give? It gives a message of God, which comes
directly to every soul. And what is this message? God says to the
soul, 'I am with you, I am your own being, and I am above all
limitations, and I am life, and you are more safe, more living,
more happy and more peaceful in this knowledge than in anything
else in the world."
(HIK, presumably)

This is where we need to prepare ourselves through the
realizations arrived at in the meditations we learn in the
Esoteric School.

"The spiritual man reaches higher than the human plane, touches
the divine plane, and brings the message from the divine to the
human plane. In this way, instead of remaining on the divine
plane, he arrives among his fellow men, for their welfare... Then
one knows that language which is the language of heaven."
(HIK, presumably)

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan's final bequest:

"Every person possesses this faculty in some form and to a limited
degree; but the spirit of guidance is found among few indeed of
the human race. Every soul has the source of the Divine message
within itself. This is the reason why there is no longer the need
for mediation - for a third person as a savior between man and
God."
(HIK)

  ____________________________________ 

* all quotes are from Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan unless otherwise
noted.
	
[ (comment (sa)  the preceeding note appears at the bottom of this
KIT, in green_font -- I suppose it is by PVK, but it might be by
the original publisher (and maybe editor) of the KITs -- ZR I
assume, but maybe Sharif Graham .  It may apply to all the KITs --
I suppose it does.

I would only add:  "Kids, don't try this one at home."  (USA
meo_pop phrase).  It's too risky.  If you quote a dude, write his
name at the bottom, and the name of the book from whence you got
that quote, and all the other little details too, if you can. 



=================================================================
================================================================

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY:
( of which the only occupant is 'sa')

"People think that the reason for war is mostly political, but
religion is a greater warmonger than any political ideas. ..."
[ HIK, quoted above]

[ Footnote kit117_1 (sa) ]

Rememger, that was written at least 85 years ago.  And times
change.

As for the conflict between the government of Israel and the
soi_disant and so_called 'Palestinians' -- I would say that
religion is a minor causal factor on their side at most, and a
negligible factor on our side.

On their side, I would say that the primary motivation is
socio_economic jealousy and opportunhism, largely instigated by
foreign governments, notably Iran and Syria.

On our side, I would side it is essentially a defenisve matter,
with a religious motivation to re_settle in the biblical land of
Judea and Samaria.  

I would not term that colonialism, since settlement is not a
matter of seizing matiral resources (excpet for essentially unused
land, and with the exception of drawing water from the underground
water_table -- that is a problem.
 
I have sene practically no Jewish bias against the Muslim
religion.

And I am not aware of much Muslim bias against the Jewish
religion.
Historically, the Muslims have treated Judaism with respect, and
in several culturally important instances provided the support
infrastructure for major Jewish cultural achievements -- the
Babylonian Talmud, and the Jewish culture of Spain.

It is only the Christians who have treated us despicably.

And as for the Jewish attitude toward Jesus, I would say that it
is not disagreement, but disinterest.  We do not regard the
purported teachings or that puported person as relevant.  As far
as I know, he has only one or two passing references in Talmud.  

When I was a child, USA 1940's, friends or neighbors would
sometimes ask me, What do Jews think of Jesus.  The stock answer
which I would give -- I think my mother suggested it to me -- was
-- We think he was a very good man, but we do not worship him.

Well, that is no doubt the answer of us elite eclectic
intelligentsia -- Ram Dass, ne Richard Alpert, exemplifies it --
but as for all them Jewish masses, I think they've got other
things to think about.

And anyhow, the more you think about Christianity, the crazier it
looks.  I mean, taking a Roman torture device as a religious
symbol -- and worshipping an erstwhile human being -- and all that
dress_up imitation of our Temple ritual -- and those cold stone
railway_station places of worship -- with davka gargoyles on the
roof probably pissing rainwater -- fry me an eggplant.

I mean, I've known some great, real Christians -- members of the
American Friends Service Committee ("Quakers", Society of
Friends), and Dorothy Day (a so_called Catholic Anarchist), and
most of the folks at New Buffalo commune -- and herabouts I see
some very nice_looking nuns from time to time -- bumped into a few
of them up on Gorda one time, they were walking somewhere,
yodelling -- and I do think that those of us who try to practice
Jewish religion have more in common with Christian
fundamentalists, espcially the USA Yahoo's who brought us Bushie, 
than with most folks who go to disco's -- even the Zenith disco --


---------------------------------------------------

In a previous note -- 

I won't make the time to go back and try to tidy up all that
stuff_and_guff , I've got about 3 months of stuff in my inbox, and
its an uphill walk on the ice to the privy with no moon most of
the time -- 

-- I spoke of meaningless as defined by the post_Wittgensteinian
use of the Verifiability Criterion of Meaningfulness -- 

the example in question was our criteria for rebuilding the
Temple, which that Rabbinute has deliberately and intentionally
set impossibly high  -- so I say, if so, let's stop speaking about
it -- I mean, sublimate it into the notion if the 'Universel' if
you like --  which is not  physical structure, except as a
symbolic reminder -- for all the work that went into building it
in Suresenes, and for all that it might be nice to at last have
one in Jerusalem -- which is where it should have been built
first, says I, and many felt the same way back then -- in the
1970's anyhow, as I've noted from a PVK Abode Camp remarks -- 


-- so anyhhow, meaningless really means that -- it's not simply --
"'Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, daruber muss mann schweigen"
(Wittgenstein, Tractatus, 7.0) -- and the quip I heard from C.D.
Rollins at Oberlin College in 1959 I suppose -- "and it can't be
whistled either" -- meaningles means, forget about it and go see
what the chicks made for lunch today.

Also -- I mis_named Helen Moore, who made the broken_pottery_cups
corn murals in the rebuilt New Buffalo Circle, as Helen Steere --
who was a real Quaker, she was girls counselor at an AFSC Workcamp
I went to in Matewan, West Virginia, in 1956 --- 

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