CURRICULUM OF THE SUFI ORDER
The teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Presented and paraphrased by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
Including parallels with the ancient Sufis
LESSON 8
FASHIONING THE SELF

Note: For the sake of the coherence in the sequence of steps in
this lesson it will be helpful if, occasionally, a few texts of
Hazrat Inayat Khan are repeated in a new context.

Our objective in this course of studies illuminated by Hazrat Pir
o Murshid's insight and practical instructions is to crown our
person with the cosmic and transcendent investiture with which we
are bequeathed by discovering it and unfurling it.

As one's awareness increases, one encounters an imperative need to
find fulfillment and meaningfulness in one's life.

"By the study of human nature, one realizes the nature of life in
general." 
(HIK), (UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS.) 

PRACTICE:

1) Ponder upon your life and ask yourself what you would like to
achieve and why.

2) Now consider your person (which we are used to calling our
'self') as an ephemeral, evanescent, ever-changing, ever-renewed,
many-tiered construct - a continuity in change - a formation
within the totality of the cosmos like a vortex, or whirlpool
without boundary, powered by the self-same force that moves the
stars and the galaxies (spurring your will), and piloted by your
intelligence which overarches the transcendent levels of that
construct (which you are) that enlists the code of the universe
customized as your intention.

Like a musical composition, you can make it what you will,
depending upon your sense of values, your insight or wisdom, and
your attunement. Albeit, you are not only the composition, but the
composer and even the instruments that play it (your body, your
heart, your personality).

PRACTICE:

Ask yourself what are the values that you appraise and would like
to pursue in your life. Make a priority list; you could redefine
it as you progress.

As we have seen in the preceding lesson, Lesson 7, Hazrat Inayat
Khan orients spirituality into concrete, practical activities:
translating our ineffable musings about the purpose of life or
belief in God into the fashioning of our self by working with the
person.

"There is no way of getting proof of God's existence except by
becoming acquainted with oneself. (Mind World p. 265.)  If you
dive deep within yourself, you will discover a universe in
yourself. "
(HIK), (THE VISION OF MAN IN GOD.)  

 "...that perfection lies in realizing the universe in man, he can
touch the depths where he is united with the whole of life."
(HIK)m (GATHEKA)

PRACTICE:

Acquiesce to the fact that if you treasure these values, it is
because they are latent in your true nature and are beckoning upon
you to pursue them in order to discover and actuate your
potentials.

Discovering yourself (or rather how you could be) is creative
unlike regurgitating your problems. Avoid this. It is
counterproductive. The reason is that our assessment is biased by
the fact that our consciousness is a limited focalization of the
consciousness of the whole universe.

"The pure consciousness has so to speak gradually limited itself
more and more by entering into the external vehicles, such as the
mind and the body, in order to be conscious of something."
(AKIBAT)
[ Sorry, I don't know if Akibat is a person, or a book or chapter
by HIK -- sa ]

The caution spelled by the Hindu theory of maya only points out
that things are not what they seem:

"There comes a time when all that he had accepted in his mind, all
that he believed, appears to be quite the contrary to what it was
before."
(HIK I suppose, unless it's that dude Akibat again)         
 
[ Cf. Jefferson Airplane:  "When your truth is found / to be all
lies / and all the love within you dies / Don't you want somebody
to love / .... you better find somebody to love ]

PRACTICE:

Keep in mind that your objective is to 'awaken' - that means to
downplay a perspective and highlight another which you had not
heretofore considered and now dawns upon you with greater
pertinence.

However the Sufis draw attention to the complementary view: that
they serve as clues as to what is enacted behind the facts.

JAMI:
"The world is an illusion but eternally reality manifests through
it." (1982, 125).

This is based upon a surat in the QUR'AN:

"God reveals Himself through signs (ayat) in the physical world
and also in your nature (psyche)."
[ PVK puts the word 'psyche' in quotes, but maybe it was in the
Quoran ]

[Footnote (sa= kitc08--1

Paradoxically, to grasp these tenuous revelations, one needs to
reverse the overt orientation of one's consciousness and turn
within. Therefore I suggest following the lead of your previous
assessment, but not taking it to be ultimate, just as if you
follow the pug-marks of a bear in the snow, you might find the
bear. The Sufis call this tawil.

"There are some realities of which I am vaguely aware; compared
with them all I have studied and done seems to be of no account."
(HIK, I suppose.  It is in italics.)

[ Toenote (sa/sa) kitc08_2]      


Consequently, rather than reckoning upon your assessment of your
problems, turn within to detect how they are related to qualities
or defects or incongruities in your own being.

"You are yourself the object of your realization."
(HIK, presumably)

INCLUDE ALL THE LEVELS OF THE RANGE OF YOUR BEING

As we have seen, consciousness operating in the human being is
limited, and therefore deceptive, yet a transpersonal
consciousness adumbrates it. We need to marshal all the levels of
our being (as far as we can encompass these) by stretching our
minds beyond its middle-range.

"We occupy as much horizon as we are conscious of."
(HIK, presumably)

"It is the situation we are in that makes us believe we are this
or that....When man lives this limitation, he does not know that
another part of him exists which is much higher, more wonderful,
more living, and more exalted."
(HIK, presumably)

"The outlook becomes wide, as wide as the divine eye." 
(HIK), (The Soul Whence and Whither)  

[ N.B. (sa).  I suppose that when PVK gives a sequences of
apparent quotes, of which only the Source of the last one is
noted, that that Source applies to the preceeding quotes in that
continuous sequence.  As this remark is preceeded by 3 continuous
quotes, in seperated paragraphs but not interrupted by
non_italized reamrks. 
Again -- When I attribute a remark to HIK, I do so with those
initials in parentheses, thus:  '(HIK)'.  When the Attribution is
by PVK, he does so with 'Hazrat Inayat Khan' or 'Pir o Murshid
Hazrat Inayat Khan' , not in parentheses.  He does however put the
Source in (parentheses=. ]

Consequently we need to complement the personal vantage point by
the antipodal pole of our consciousness. This beckons upon us to
call upon the notion of God as the transpersonal pole of our
being. 

"It is not self knowledge that leads to God knowledge, it is God
knowledge that leads to self knowledge."
(HIK, presumably)

PRACTICE:

Rather than imagining God as "other" and "up there," could you try
to represent to yourself that your being extends between two
poles: (i) your individual self which is, as we have seen, an
evanescent construct in which the totality of the universe is
converged, and (ii) the higher dimension of your being,
coextensive with all beings, which is, as Hazrat Inayat Khan says,
a "condition" of what you mean by God.

Now in assessing your problems and scanning yourself, you will be
overarching your personal vantage point with a paramount vantage
point, observing yourself as though the universe were discovering
itself as you. What a difference it makes!

IBN 'ARABI says:
"God created perception in you only that therein He might become
the object of His perception." 
(CORBIN, 1970, 174)

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN:
"The experience of every soul becomes the experience of the Divine
Mind. Not knowing that God experiences this life through us, one
is seeking for Him somewhere else." 
(UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS)

Our mind becomes saturated with impressions from the physical and
psychological environment that can aver themselves obsessive.

"The more the mind is allowed to go on without a purpose, the more
likely it is to become a vehicle or machine which all manner of
influences around it of other beings will employ instead of its
owner."
(HIK),  (EASTERN ROSE GARDEN)

Through meditation, one can take control of one's thought by
training the mind.

"Concentration is activity of the mind in the direction desired.
Train your mind. Control your thoughts and then use them for your
benefit. Create a thought, hold it. Learn to expel it. Check every
thought, every word, every act that you do not wish to occur. Ask
yourself what was I thinking? Why was I thinking it? Why think of
things that do not matter?"
(HIK, presumably)

How do we achieve this? HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN gives a clue:

"We can go out of our thoughts, ideas, feelings just as a cobra
sheds its skin." 
(HIK), (MENTAL PURIFICATION)

PRACTICE:

Try to pull yourself out of your thoughts. This requires one to
not be attached to their emotional charge.

This requires something else than mastery, a non-emotion:
detachment. It is a great secret - immunity. It is a matter of
freeing oneself from the emotional charge behind a compulsive
thought. This ability can be discovered. Somehow we are pulled
between our need for the sense of fulfillment that results from
the enrichment gained through our involvement with people, with
life, by accomplishment; and on the other hand we have a nostalgia
for freedom from the constraint that ensues and generally from
conditioning. Hazrat Inayat Khan illustrates our ability to free
ourselves emotionally by the mirror.

"If you find freedom in yourself, you will find that your soul is
just like a mirror which shows that object reflected in it instead
of its own existence."
(HIK), (SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS/PHILOSOPHY/ILLUSION AND REALITY.) 

"If you turn the mirror the reflections are gone. All life's joy
and sorrow, ups and downs, are reflected for the time being upon
the curtain of the soul, and after the mirror has turned, the
picture has disappeared." 
(HIK), (SPIRITUAL LIBERTY, AQIBAT, LIFE AFTER DEATH/ THE
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL)

[ Well, so much for Mr. Aquibat. A short_lived virtual Dude who
turns out to have been a sub_section in the works of HIK -- sa]

The attunement of the ascetic in the middle of life will alleviate
a lot of suffering. However, Hazrat Inayat Khan suggests that
rather than lamenting, we harness impressions as catalysts for our
personal creativity. Impressions seep deep in the unconscious
where they can be processed and find a resolution in our personal
creativity. Turning the mirror illustrates the ability to free
yourself from the emotional impact from outside.

PRACTICE:

Envision your consciousness as a mirror which, when turned towards
the environment is receptive to impressions and reflects them in
the environment (i.e., your actions reflect your impressions). Now
imagine that you turn the mirror inside.

"As the Sufi closes the door through which the soul is accustomed
to look out, it turns its back to the external world and sees
within."
(HIK),  (ESOTERIC PAPERS)

Now HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN presents the next paradigms: the
photographic plate, and a yet further one, the seed.

One needs to choose between those impressions from which one
wishes to free oneself and those that enrich one's being and make
these indelible. 

"Our mind is a receptacle to all to which it is exposed. It is
like a photographic plate. Its first impression is on the surface
and as the impression is retained in the mind, so it reaches the
depth of the heart."
(HIK, apparently)

Now the further paradigm:

"But the photographic plate is not creative... A soul not only
takes an impression like a photographic plate, but it becomes
nurtured by it." 
(HIK), (THE SOUL, WHENCE AND WHITHER? TOWARDS MANIFESTATION.) 

"A reflection on a photographic plate remains, but does not live;
the reflection upon the mind lives, and therefore it is creative."
(HIK),  (HEALING AND THE MIND WORLD, THE MIND WORLD)

THE SECRET OF CREATIVITY

But self-observation, jhana darshana in Sanskrit, while being the
first step is not sufficient. One needs to work with the self
creatively.

PRACTICE:

Instead of observing who you are, project how you could be. That
is: enlist the pull of the future instead of the push of the past.
Turning within, try to espy and capture the fountainhead of the
new qualities that are knocking at the door as they spark renewed
inspiration upon emerging through the threshold between the
unconscious and the conscious.

Acquiesce that you carry within yourself the same creative power
that configures the cosmos:

"In man is awakened that spirit by which the whole universe was
created."
(HIK),  (RELIGIOUS GATHEKA)

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN sees this creative power as bequeathed:

"The soul has in it a potentiality - a creative power as its
heritage."
(HIK),  (ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS)

This power is delegated.

"In the person who participates actively in his own creativity,
God can attain a greater perfection."
(HIK),  (RELIGIOUS GATHEKA, P 43.) 

"As the whole of nature is made by God, so the nature of each
individual is made by himself."
(HIK),  (SOCIAL GATHEKA, P 4)

PRACTICE:

Instead of the old-fashioned view that you are created by God
without your intervention or contribution, consider yourself as
the artist of your self; you can place into that work of art that
is your person whatever you wish.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN considers our personality as the finishing
touch in the creativity of the self:

"In the making of our personality, it is God who completes His
divine art."
(HIK),  (THE ART OF PERSONALITY)

PRACTICE:

The way to understand this is to imagine that you are studying
composition and given the task of improvising variations on a
theme given to you. You have a lot of leeway to bring out
potentials latent in the theme, and therefore must not forget the
theme.

Think that the theme of which your personality is a variation is
the personality which one endeavors to imagine to be the
personality of God.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN underscores that dimension of God that is
His/Her personality:

"People ask: "if all is God, then God is not a person." No doubt
it would be a great mistake to call God a personality, but it is a
still greater mistake when man denies the personality of God."
(HIK),  (UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS, THE GOD IDEAL)

He illustrates it thus:

"Though the seed does not show the flower in it, yet the flower
already existed in the seed." 
(Ibid.)

[ N.B.:  PVK clearly uses 'Ibid' sometimes to mean 'Ibid.' , 'Loc.
cit.' -- That is, 'the same author', 'the same book in the same
place as that noted in the previous citation' ]


In the perfecting of our personality, the personality of God is
actuated.

"Man, in the flowering of his personality expresses the
personality of God."
(HIK, presumably)

"It is in the God-conscious that God becomes a reality so that He
is no more an imagination; it brings to the world a living God."
(HIK),  (UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS, THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.) 

"It is in man that God is awakened. God is hidden in His creation;
awaken the God within."
(HIK loc. cit., presumably)

To perfect our fashioning of our self, we need to bring into
account our ability to endeavor to imagine God as the perfecting
of one's self.

"On one hand, man is limited and imperfect; on the other side he
represents the unlimited and perfect."
(HIK),  (ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS)

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

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY:

TEXT NOTE:
[ PVK puts the word 'psyche' in quotes, but maybe it was in the
Quoran ]

[Footnote (sa)-- Toenote, actually -- kitc08--1 ]

For all the Bushie Bullshit about 'western civilization', it was
Islam that preserved Greek knowlege, while Bushie's Progenitors
were eating raw pig on the hoof in the Black Forests of the Dark
Ages.

TEXT:
"There are some realities of which I am vaguely aware; compared
with them all I have studied and done seems to be of no account."
(HIK, I suppose.  It is in italics.)

[ Toenote (sa/sa) kitc08_2]      
  Amd PVK never dramatized himself, quite the contrary.  For all
that his robe, beard and carriage were striking.  He did sometimes
acknowlege that -- remarked that since they were doing away with
titles in the SO, he might consider himself obliged to shave off
his beard and become known as 'Mr. Khan' -- but then he would
imply, but that wouldn't quite fit -- I would comment, one is
entitled to a proper pride, as long as one ain't arrogating honors
above one's maquam, above one's zchut -- and that is R. Shlomo's
remark, To be humble is not to be -- or pretend to be, I would say
-- a Schmendrik .

I am of course trying to raise the ante for this discussion group
to include a basic knowlege of contemporary ba'al tchuva Jewish
religious terminology -- "davka with peppercorns I suppose" (sa) -
- 

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

