=kit097.txt

KIT 97 - WHY THE WAZIFA?

            The effectiveness of our practice of the Wazifa
presents us with a paradox: it depends entirely upon our
realization, while on the other had it confers realization. It
only works in the Sufi perspective of always looking at oneself
from two complementary points of view: the personal and the way
things look from the complementary (or opposite) point of view to
one's own which the Sufis call the divine point of view. It
requires us to push our point of view beyond its limitations in
infinite regress and therefore spells emancipation from
simplistic, commonplace thinking. This would be aptly illustrated
by our mind's ability to always imagine a number greater than the
number which we have envisioned so far. Without this dimension of
vision, the Wazifa is not a Wazifa and therefore cannot be
effective. If it is practiced as a method of boosting
psychological idiosyncrasies, it cannot possibly work. It would be
a simplistic view to assume that the Wazifa is a prescription to
develop a certain quality. This would be missing out on the very
seed bed out of which our personality may blossom.

            However, in Sufism, this complementarity honors our
incentive in participating in our own creativity by opening
ourselves to the revelation of the divine skill whereby the divine
artist fashions us - each uniquely ... this requires of us to be
sensitive to our intuition of a completely different way of
thinking and emoting than our own. Here we recognize two factors
in our creativity: unfurling latencies by the power of imagination
(at the Mithal level) and actualizing impersonal or transcendent
archetypes (at the Lahut level) into our personalities which are
their exemplars. Such is spirituality, it represents a further
dimension, complementary to the purely psychological one. It is
always challenging, unforeseeable, perplexing and exhilarating!

            As we know, the Sufis seek the fulfillment of the
purpose of life which requires cultivating that precious gift of
the universe to us: our human personality. Hence the importance
of, amongst all our spiritual practices: the Wazifa.

            While as we know, the prime orientation in Sufism is
awakening in life. However in the Sufi sense, to awaken in life,
one does need to unfurl one's potentialities and this requires
integrating all levels of one's being (wholistically, rather than
holistically).                              

ARTICULATING A REALIZATION BY MEANS OF AN IDIOM

            The Wazifa is the practice of invoking a divine name
repetitively. The name ISM ILAHI or ASMA'UL HUSNA is a label
conveying a quality.

"With us the name of everything is its outward form; with the
Creator it's inward essence."
RUMI

"The divine names are relations, not ontological realities,
occasioned by the entities of the possible things."
IBN 'ARABI

A mental association is established between the word and its
archetypal meaning. By mentioning the "name", one evokes the
meaning.

"Then God makes him journey through His names in order to show him
His signs. Thus the servant comes to know that he is designated by
every name. It is through these names that God appears to the
servant."
IBN 'ARABI

            In our human understanding, we ascribe a quality to a
person or ourselves, but if we envision this quality as God's
quality manifesting in us, it will open up our personality to a
totally different spectrum, magnitude and status. The Sufis
consider the idiosyncrasies of our personality as the exemplars of
the divine archetypal qualities. To unfurl these we need to refer
back continually to their archetype. The exemplar is known by
means of the archetype: for example if we know that a table is
round, it is because roundness is inherently written into our
sense of meaningfulness, and contrariwise, the archetype is known
by means of the exemplar. For example, after having seen many
roses, a child sees their difference with lilies.

            When practicing the Wazifa, it is important to assess
at which stage you are, and assess the next step in order to
progress. But one must never skip a stage, otherwise, one may have
to backtrack. Following are the developmental stages of the Sufi
initiate with regard to the Wazaif:

1) The Empirical Level:  NAZUT

Typical Wazifa: Ya ZAHIR

            The dawning of the evolution or consciousness is
evidenced by the rudimentary sensorial perceptual experience
accompanied by the commonplace naive interpretation: 'I feel this
object; it is hard, prickly, round ...I feel cold, hungry, angry',
This represents a rudimentary stage of human thinking. Any
physicist will confirm that matter is not the way it feels or
looks. And by the same token, our emotions can lead us into
subjective 'make-believe'. So our interpretation of experience
could be understood as 'this is the way things look from a
particular vantage point'. It represents therefore a limited
opinion, bearing upon a slither of the situation - for example,
'Note Dame in Paris looks like this', neglecting that this is the
way it is seen only from a certain angle and it looks totally
different from another angle; or again a light-buoy should not be
mistaken for the haven. Realization lies a long way ahead! and
that is the objective of those who are seeking for greater
understanding.

            The same applies to elementary subjective statements
which bespeak that the person is caught in a personal, hence
biased perspective for which the only therapy is to pull oneself
out of that perspective and see things from alternate
perspectives. And this applies pertinently to our perfunctory
interpretation of events in which we are involved which we judge
from our personal bias and take for granted.

            These are the trite modes of thinking that Yoga brands
as illusory or rather deluding maya. The Sufi view highlights the
way of avoiding being caught up in them: by considering them to be
clues, (signposts) that should never be taken for granted as such,
but could lead to the meaningfulness toward which they point. This
is what awakening is about. The signpost has fulfilled its purpose
when one has left it behind. Lingering in these perfunctory
judgments is getting into a rut without issue.

"We shall show them our signs at the horizons and in themselves."
QUR'AN

            At the Nazut level: the adept recognizes in the many-
splendored aspects of nature clues - ayat - matching qualities
that are meaningful to him/her. For example a lake at moonlight:
peace; a colorful dawn; splendor; etc. For the Sufis, at this
stage God wrapped in mystery, reveals Him/Herself through these
clues. Earmarking these clues will make the Wazaif that evoke them
more meaningful.

2) The Psychological Level:  KHAYAL  

Typical Wazifa: Ya ALIM

            At the Khayal level, we are on the lookout for clues
whereby God reveals Him/Herself through the way a paramount model
of excellence, which Sufis ascribe to the divine nature, is
exemplified in our own personality. Once more, we will gain some
sense of the Wazaif as we pinpoint the personality feature they
evoke in ourselves.

"Behold the world entirely comprised in yourself. The world is man
and man is a world."
MAHMOOD SHABISTARI                

3) The Introspective Level:  ARWAH 

 Typical Wazifa: Ya BATIN

            At the Arwah level, we are trying to stalk the divine
nature 'transpiring through that which appears,' making allowances
for the fact that there is bound to be distortion and defilement
in those very precarious and perishable signs, rather than relying
upon our interpretation of events. Here we find the converse:
rather than searching for the quality evoked by the Wazifa in our
personality, such as it is, we capture it trying to surface in our
personality as it unfolds.

"The one who tunes himself not only to the external, but to the
inner being, and to the essence of all things, gets an insight
into the essence of the whole being, and therefore he can, to the
same extent find and enjoy even in the seed the fragrance and
beauty of the flower."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            As we discover the more germane inner lining of our
psyche, we will be aware of the need to debunk the hoax of our
psychological projections upon our problems whereby we deceive
ourselves by our own assessments of our problems. 

"Thought grasps the form of the object directly without the help
of categories; illusion and imagination; done away with
impressions (samsara); all antecedent mental functions are
destroyed."
ELIADE

4) The Level of Metaphor (Creative Imagination):  MITHAL          


 Typical Wazifa: Ya KHALIQ

            At the Mithal level, (the level of metaphor), we
consciously participate in the creativity of our personality by
unfurling potentialities lying in wait, realizing that our
creativity customizes the divine creativity.

"The soul of man is the spirit of the Creator, and therefore has
within it the same power of creating by the power of mind as his
Creator has."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            At this level we capture the seeing sprouts of our
personality as they are surfacing by translating reality in the
mental and emotional mode into evanescent forms.

"Thus the ascensions of saints are the ascensions of their spirit,
triggering off the visions of their hearts whereby they perceive
forms in the intermediary world of embodied spiritual realities."
IBN 'ARABI

"Here all the essential realities of being are manifested in real
images. ... So what the soul shows to itself is precisely its own
image, since the earth it projects directly reflects the image
premeditated by the soul."
Vide CORBIN

[ I (sa) do not know the force, if any, of 'Vide' in the above
citation. ]
[Toenote kit097_1] 


            At this stage, we realize that God is revealing
His\Her qualities - sifat  - which we evoke in our Wazaif in the
unfurling of His\Her nature as our personality, albeit restricted
by the very limitations you wreak upon this process by your own
assessment of what you think are your qualities or defects.
Interestingly, these spontaneous thoughts that seems to arise from
within and coalesce into images are clues as to 'how God is trying
to manifest through me (and as me) by the qualities that I am
awakening in myself'.

            This requires of us to reverse our vantage point in
order to discover ourselves through the knowledge that God has of
Him/Herself through us.

God describes Himself to us through ourselves.

[ Note (sa):  I assume that the previous sentence is by PVK.  It
is not in italics in the hardcopy.  However, it is in blue_font in
Kaivan, so it might be a quote from Ibn 'Arabi.  But if so, then
most likely Kaivan had input from a different hardcopy than the
one I have. ]

"I know God through the knowledge that God has of Himself through
me."
IBN 'ARABI

5) The Celestial Level:  MALAKUT  

Typical Wazifa: Ya QUDDUS

            At the Malakut level, the recollection of our
celestial nature to which we attune ourselves, awakens qualities
in our self-creativity which would not have arisen if we had
continued to identify with our psychological self-image.

"As man evolves, he ceases to look down on earth, but looks to the
heavens. If one wants to seek the heavens, one must change the
direction of looking."  
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            This is triggered of by our giving vent to our
aspiration toward the sublime and the sacred.

"Man's grade of evolution depends upon the pitch he has attained;
it is a certain pitch that makes him conscious of a certain phase
of life."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

 This will awaken our memory of Deja vu prior to our birth.

"God acquaints them with what corresponds to them in each world by
passing with them through the different worlds."
IBN 'ARABI

            However it does require of us to let go of our
commonplace self-image.

"Now their journey in God involves the dissolving of their
composite nature and acquaints them with what corresponds to them
in each world of being, by passing with them through the different
sorts of worlds."
IBN 'ARABI

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

            At this point in our evolutionary development, we are
living an active and effective reciprocity between ourselves and
God - that is, between the qualities that have been actualized in
our personality, and the many splendored potentialities that are
still latent, the legacy of the divine archetypes manifest in our
celestial counterpart, but somewhat defiled in those exemplars of
the archetypes of our being that are our idiosyncrasies.

            It is only by glorification that our celestial nature
reveals itself to us. Thus our celestial nature serves as a bridge
in that reciprocal action between God and man or between the
divine and human poles of our being.

"Have Me present to your heart, I shall have you present in
myself."
QUR'AN

            Therefore according to the Sufis, 'we know God through
the knowledge that God acquires by our discovering God's qualities
in our idiosyncrasies'. This antinomy is found in Ibn 'Arabi's
description of two fundamental spiritual developmental stages:

I know God through the knowledge that He has of Himself by my
discovering Him.

[ I presume that the previous sentence is by PVK.  No italics [nor
quotes, of course] in hardcopy,  blue_font and italics Kaivan.]

6) The Level of the Divine Knower as Our Intelligence: JABARUT 

 Typical Wazifa: Ya SHAHID

            At the Jabarut level, we can see that our realization
of the full implications of each Wazifa changes dramatically, if
we reverse our assumption of being the spectator and invite the
Divine Witness to illuminate our point of view.

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

            The consequence is that, we can now see how our
assessment of our self-image was based upon our perception of our
personal idiosyncrasies, and how this perspective on our identity
was standing in the way of and thwarting the actualizing of the
bounty in store at the Lahut level of our being, those seminal
qualities or attributes - Sifat - which we invoke in our Wazaif.

            Whereas if we let the divine Witness presiding over
our consciousness prevail over our personal perspective, an
inherent knowledge accessed through the act of intelligence rather
than of consciousness that was being blocked by our judgment
breaks through, liberating us from our self-image and flooding our
awareness, "awakening the God within" (as Pir-o-Murshid Inayat
Khan says).

            "When consciousness is not conscious of anything, it
is resorbed in its ground which is intelligence."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN  

"Man attains insight into meaningfulness from the divine mind that
confers form to material beings. Therefore, to obtain insight into
meaningfulness, do not obstruct the gift from above, by excessive
attachment to the perceptual reality."
AVICENNA

8) The Archetypal Level: LAHUT 

[ The preceeding '8' is a misnumbering in the hardcopy, and in
Kaivan; it should be '7' -- sa ]

Typical Wazifa: Ya KEMAL

            Lahut. This about-turn in our vantage point (trying to
see things from the divine point of view will) open the way to our
accessing the Lahut level of our being, where we discover the
archetypes of which our idiosyncrasies are the exemplars.

"Know that there is no form in the lower world without a likeness
(mithl) in the higher world The forms in the higher world preserve
the existence of their likeness in the lower worlds. Between the
two worlds there are tenuities which extend from each form to its
likeness. ... These are like ladders for the angels, while the
meanings that descend in these tenuities are like angels."
IBN 'ARABI 

            Therefore we now discover our idiosyncrasies and the
potentialities of their being further deployed by grasping with
our intelligence (rather than our consciousness) the archetypes of
which they are the exemplars.

"Since the ephemeral being manifests the form of the eternal, it
is by the contemplation of the eternal that God communicates to us
the knowledge of Himself. ... You know yourself with another
knowledge, different from that which you had when you knew your
Lord by the knowledge that you had of yourself, because it is
through Him that you know yourself."
IBN 'ARABI

            The unfurling of the seeds of our personality
triggered off by the creative power of our imagination (at the
Mithal level) would be reiteratively tautological and therefore
would exclude the possibility for further improvement if it were
not for that extra-temporal, (extra-samsaric), open ended,
transcendent, archetypal matrix of our being at the Lahut level
carrying the inexhaustive possibilities of what we mean by
divinity - ULLUHIYAT - (just as the repetitive recycling of the
seed in the plant can only be relieved by mutation).

"Possible things become qualified by existence from behind the
veils of the divine attributes."
IBN 'ARABI

             Here is the break-through.

"The one who is conscious of his earthly origin is an earthly man,
one who is conscious of his heavenly origin is the son of God."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            From the moment that we can see things from the divine
point of view, we access dimensions of our being that transfigure
our personality radically. Here lies the secret of the Wazifa.
This is spirituality. While serving our creativity, imagining the
qualities evoked in our Wazaif, as we have seen at the Mithal
level, the level of creative imagination does limit the unfurling
of these qualities unless we call upon the eternal models of which
the seed-bed of our personality is an expression.

"One must avoid looking for one's instructions in the realm of
imagination...which only gives indirect indications regarding pure
archetypes."
IBN 'ARABI

            Here imagination is not proceeding from inwards
outwards, but from upward downward.

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

            Our being grows to its cosmic dimensions.

"When the inner nature manifested by man's inclinations and
faculties has become pure, he contemplates therein whatever is of
the same nature as in the cosmos."
SHAHABUDDIN SUHRAWARDI

            We participate in creating our being through our
glorification. By our attunement to the sacred. We awaken sublime
propensities in our being that would otherwise lie latent. We
awaken the God within.

"Allah al makhluk fi'l 'itiqadat": 
"God creates Himself through your prayers."
HADITH QUDSI

8) The Unitive Level:  HAHUT    

Typical Wazifa: Ya AHAD

            The Hahut level of our being represents a whole
different stratum. It is the reality that transcends the
existential state even as it manifests as our being.

"When the unreality of life fades away, its reality strikes my
soul."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            We have risen beyond the conditions in which God can
only be known by revealing Him/Herself through His/Her "signs"
which requires the existential state (at different levels) 

"At an advanced stage one learns to grasp God as He is in Himself
rather than the knowledge gleaned of Him. ... The one who is
immersed in the vision of multiplicity is in the world in the
aspect of the divine names and the names of the world. The one who
is immersed in the divine unity is with God in the grasp of His
unity, irrespective of the worlds."
IBN 'ARABI

            At this pinnacle, not only the existential state but
the programming is by-passed and that means it is unaffected by
the feed-back from the existential realm. That is why Buddha
called it not only beyond existence, but beyond non-existence, in
fact beyond conditioning. If you have a whiff of this state, you
will experience the most utter freedom, in fact liberation.

"The real Being is only and exclusively God in His essence dhat
and principle 'ayn; not under the aspect of His names. ... In the
station of unity, touching upon the unity, one accesses the
Supreme knowledge whereby the grasp of the qualities falls away;
indeed the qualities cannot add anything to the essence. ... If
the names disappeared the Named One would appear."
IBN 'ARABI

"Do not confuse the perfection of the manifestation through
existence where the essence is individuated (like the
manifestation of the totality in the parts), with the
manifestation of the essence to itself, in itself and for itself."
JAMI

Every time that you focus on an object, He will have already
escaped you.

"Knowledge is a veil upon the known."
IBN 'ARABI

            One feels called upon to forego one's sense of oneself
as an individual, but Hallaj points out that this would be
contradictory, because one would be availing oneself of one's self
to annihilate oneself.

"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]."
AL HALLAJ

            In this ultimate step, the switch-over occurs when we
are no more concerned with our personality, and qualities
generally, which are, according to the Sufis, the means whereby
God manifests Him/Herself. Therefore it is of the resort of the
dhikr rather than the Wazifa.

"When we are face to face, Beloved, I do not know whether to call
Thee me, or me Thee. I see myself when Thou art not before me;
when I see Thee my self is lost to view. I consider it is good
fortune when Thou art alone with me; but when I am not there at
all, I think it is the greatest blessing."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

9) The Level of the Overview of the Existential State:  TAWHID  

Typical Wazifa: Ya MAWJUD

            Tawhid. Having peered behind the curtain, back-stage
of the universe, we make an about-turn into 'awakening in life',
which we could call in Sufi terms 'Tawhid'.

            How do we awaken in life? Those veils that are the
appearance of things are only veils concealing reality until one
looks from behind the veils. Then we see the divine intention and
its fulfillment and realize that instead of being an illusion (a
veil) it was the drama and achievement of existence that was the
objective behind all that we have encountered in our ascent
through the spheres. The purpose of the blue-print of your house
is your house. 

"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
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
through our imperfection."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            This is the real, whereas reality was the virtuality
behind the real. It remains imponderable, bewildering,
enrapturing, wrapped in mystery, however much one strives to
decipher it. But if one switches over to look at real life
situations from the other side of the curtain then one discovers
the divine intentions in action.

"When thou perceivest, thou seest limitation openly, and thou
seest Me at the back of the unseen. ... And I considered the
veils; and lo, they were everything that has appeared, and
everything that has appeared in that which has appeared. ... Whoso
knows the veil, is near to the unveiling."
NIFFARI

"However it is the kind of knowledge that one can only achieve by
doing rather than knowing in theory. ... by actuating the divine
nature in my personality, I confer upon God a mode of existence."
IBN 'ARABI

"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

            To make God a reality, we need to express the divine
manner in our personality, hence the importance of the Wazifa.

            This is awakening IN LIFE.  Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
points to the sudden realization that triggers off this dedication
to our purpose in life.

In man is awakened that spirit whereby the whole universe was
created.

[ I (sa) presume that the preceeding sentence is by PVK.  In
hardcopy it is no italics.  It Kaivan it is blue_italics. ]

[ IMPORTANT EDITORIAL NOTE (sa):
All of my set of KIT's -- ie, this Save_As__Text_only copy of the
Kaivan set of KIT's -- should be cross_checked against the
origianal hardcopy, or better, against the original input,
presumably held by ZR at Suresenes -- as I notae elsewhere, in
1999 he had offered to bring me a CD of that input when he came to
Israel.
I am finding numerous instances where was I took as a quote from
HIK , because it is in italics and blue_font in Kaivan, is in
non_italics in the hardcopy, and hence is presumably by PVK, not
HIK.
I make that mistake when the passage in question is the not_last -
- usually, the first -- of 2 or more quotes, of which the last is
identified in Kaivan, and in hardcopy, as a quote from HIK.
When I make this assumption, I cite it as '(HIK)' or as '(HIK,
presumably)' or some equivalent phrase.
When the citation is in the hardcopy and in Kaivan, it almost
always occurs as 'Pir-o'Murshid Inayat Khan', though sometimes as
some equivalent honorific. ]


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

            The consequence is that, instead of loosing our
individuality or trying to annihilate it, we revalidate it in its
uniqueness.

"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

            One is overwhelmed by the discovery that, by trying to
see things from the divine point of view, one is conferring upon
God a mode of reality, hence the value of our personal
contribution to the total being of God, however small.

"Divinity resides in humanity. It is also the outcome of
humanity."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            At this stage, both our personal creativity at the
Mithal level and the impersonal dimension of our creativity,
attained by exemplifying the divinity of our being at the Lahut
level, integrate:

You will observe the engendering of the possibilities lying in the
spiritual plane into the corporeal world. 

[ I (sa) presume that the preceeding sentence is by PVK. It is in
non_italics in hardcopy, although it is in blue_font italics in
Kaivan. ]

"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      

            It is typified by that state in which, seeing oneself
mirrored in another, one recognizes that reality being distorted
by lenses, blurring it to the extent that one has failed to see
the underlying unity, which is what one means by God.  

"He brought the cosmos into existence upon His own Form. Hence He
is a mirror within which He sees His own Form. ...Thou art His
Form and He is Thy spirit."
IBN 'ARABI

"I am the mirror of Thy face, through Thine own eyes, I look upon
Thy countenance."
SEMNANI

            Of course, the ultimate secret is that rather than by
cognizance, the very configuration of our being, rendering states
of consciousness corporeal, is powered by divine love.

"I emanated upon thee a force of love so that you might be
fashioned according to my glance."
QUR'AN

            In the course of this peregrination through the stages
(maqqam) the Wazaif have revealed a meaningfulness that we could
never have clinched in our commonplace thinking, but through our
glorification. At first we were assessing values, now it is being
rather than meaningfulness that is revealed. It has been a journey
of us in God At first we were motivated by covetousness, then
indifference, lastly interest, nostalgia, love - ISHQ ALLAH.

"Indifference gives great power; but the whole manifestation is a
phenomenon of interest. All this world that man h as 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

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

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY:

[ I do not know the force, if any, of 'Vide' in the above
citation. ]
[Toenote kit097_1] 
[Toenote kit097_1] 
Unless, of course, M. Corbin had a brother who, although he could
sometimes come up with a good line, was either vacant_minded or
chronically broke. ]
