=kitc10b.txt

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 10, PART 2
THE UNIVERSEL, continued

Knowledge is found in the realization of people - not in the
abstract.

[ That sounds like a quote from HIK, but it does not appears from
the font to be one.
As I note elsewhere, PVK did once in effect say that to me in a
mid_197's Abode Camp class mini_darshan -- so it should be on tape
somewhere -- when I tried to ask him whether I should go back for
a Ph.D in philosophy, but wound up asking him only what he thought
of the value of philosophy -- he began by saying, some liken
philosophy to looking for a black cat in a coal mine without a
lamp.  ]


The present text may appear in some way as a repeat of Lesson 10.
It is a clarification devised as an introduction to the next
installments in which we shall be systematically exploring the
developmental stages step by step. Quotes repeated gain relevance
by being reiterated in new contexts. All quotes are from Hazrat
Inayat Khan. 

PROPOSED FOR NEXT INSTALLMENTS

We propose to explore in the teaching of Hazrat Pir o Murshid
Inayat Khan, the clues to find out who we are, to deal with our
problems, to make sense of our lives, to fulfill our life's
purpose, and to achieve what we wish to accomplish. This study
includes parallels with the ancient Sufis, also sometimes Yoga,
Buddhism, Kabbala, Christianity, Islam and, in addition, some
references to psycho-therapy and present day scientific theories.
Since many people eschew trying to figure out sophisticated
scientific views, while some are intrigued by the challenge,
references to these, as the case might be, will be placed in an
annex at the end of the installment. It is reassuring to find to
what extent these views corroborate experiences in meditation,
particularly some of Hazrat Inayat Khan's bold futuristic views.

Moreover, our purpose is to explore what light the views,
realizations, and attunements of the prophets, masters, saints and
great beings project upon our human problems in our day and age.
Hazrat Inayat Khan opened our perspective to this broad, cosmic,
ageless perennial spectrum. His universal message offers an all-
encompassing embrace which integrates the sometimes antinomous
points of view of these great beings followed by their
consequences in terms of popular beliefs in a cosmic symposium.
Therefore in the universal perspective, while having the incentive
to select a prophet, master or saint who is particularly close to
our heart, we could brainstorm a dialogue between this holy being
and a holy being of another religion to broaden our outreach, if
we consider it important to keep abreast with the evolution of the
prow of the thinking of humanity as it advances towards a unified
world-view.

"The collective working of several minds and the activity of the
whole world in one direction are governed by the intelligence of
the planet....There is a spirit that collects and accumulates all
the knowledge that every being has had."
(HIK)

This invites us to harness the realizations revealed to us during
our meditations, highlighting an alternate assessment of our life
situations as viewed from the perspective of wise beings.

"It is the situation we are in that makes us believe we are this
or that."
(HIK)

It consists in accessing knowledge through beings. 

"A mystic does not look at reasons as everybody else does, because
he sees that the first reason that comes to his mind is only a
cover over another reason which is hidden behind it. (The Path of
Initiation.) He does not see things through the reason he has
learned from the world, but he begins to see the reason of all
reasons, the reason which is covered by ordinary reasoning." 
(HIK), (IN AN EASTERN ROSE GARDEN)

For us to reach these perspectives and resonate with those lofty
attunements, we need to try to shift our consciousness into theirs
and see ourselves from their vantage point. This calls upon us to
endeavor to familiarize ourselves with these beings.

"In reality, there are no things, they are all beings. It is
simply a gradual awakening from the witnessing aspect to the
recognizing aspect." 
(HIK=, (GATHA I, INSIGHT, THE GLANCE) 

It involves a sustained apprenticeship. To learn this, we need to
first develop a clear grasp of the basis of their teachings - each
very different from the other. Then we need to familiarize
ourselves with these beings (as far as it goes) based upon the
traditional chronicles of history; in a third step we try to
reverse our consciousness by inverting it into that of the being
we have selected to inspire us (and incidentally by the same token
guide us).

"The same reality can look different according to the vantage
point from which you look at it."
(HIK)

This later step is facilitated by getting into the consciousness
of the chosen master, saint or prophet while repeating the dhikr.
Moreover, one could select an inspiring being for each wazifa. In
a future installment, we shall be working with the effect that
concentrating on a 'quality' has upon the form of our subtle body.


The first step is called Tassawuri Murshid, imagining how that
being looked in the past (the role of imagination).

"One may see faces never seen before that have once existed in the
world...." 
(HIK), (Githas)

In the second step called Tawajjeh, one imagines how it would be
to see things from their vantage point and attune to their
emotional attunement.

"The glance of a sage has the power to open every object and to
see through it."
(HIK)

We prepare ourselves by first earmarking a friend, then a person
whom one resents (if it be the case). Then an acquaintance whom
one admires or a role figure we have heard about. Then earmark a
wise or great person. It is a gradual process leading to the point
of really getting into the consciousness of the great prophets,
masters and saints; ultimately, through these, into the divine
consciousness. It requires of one to achieve precisely what all
religions teach, downplaying one's self-image, fana, in order to
discover the divinity of one's true being as a "condition of God"
(Hazrat Inayat Khan). This is called baqa.

"It is not his true self which is limited; what is limited is what
he holds, not himself." 
(HIK), (ALCHEMY.) 

"The ego itself is never destroyed. In the knowledge of the ego
there is the secret of immortality. If you dived deep enough in
yourself, you would discover your real ego." 
(HIK), (COSMIC LANGUAGE.) 

Where are you to find God if not in the God-conscious.... It is in
man that divinity is awakened, that God is awakened, that God can
be seen.... Not knowing that God experiences this life through us,
one is seeking for Him somewhere else. Man in the flowering of his
personality expresses the personality of God. 
(HIK), (THE UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS)

Hence the motto: fana fi Sheikh, fana fi Rasul, fana fi Allah;
leading to baqi bi'l Allah.  Thus through trying to see things
from the point of view of the prophets, masters and saints, one
reaches into God consciousness.

No doubt, as HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN says, "All is God but man has a
body and mind of his own," but in comparison with the cosmic and
transcendent outreach of the divine consciousness, our thought,
albeit customizing that thinking, pales in comparison. Our
emotions do likewise in comparison with divine emotion.

"So far there has only been a belief in God. God exists in
people's imagination as an ideal. Believing is the first step. By
this process the God within is awakened and made living. It is in
those who are God conscious that God becomes a reality so that He
is no longer an imagination.... The first thing a believer does is
to imagine. He imagines that God is the Creator, and tries to
believe that God is the Sustainer, and he makes an effort to think
that God is a Friend. But do not forget that God is beneath all,
beyond all, within all, and without all things, the sum total of
all that exists and which is knowable, but also what lies beyond
man's knowledge. 
(HIK), (ESOTERIC PAPERS/ SANGITHA I.) 

"But if this imagination is to become a reality, exactly as one
feels for one's earthly beloved (the emotions of) sympathy, love
and attachment, so one must feel the same for God." 
(HIK), (THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION)

In this study we will proceed systematically through the levels of
consciousness according to the Sufis while pointing out the
parallels with other esoteric schools.

I am appending here an improved topography of levels, including
the relevant chakras.

[ Oy McCoy.  The Kaivan KIT, I assume copied from the original
hardcopy KIT, has this as a Table, 6 columns wide, under which
there are 9 rows of -- cosmic planes, I suppose. 
By the time it gets into this text_only format, it's all a single
line.
I'll see if I can Save it any better.
And I'll try to make this text_only a biat clearer. -- sa ]

---------------------------------------------------------------
[ The 6 columns are, left to right: ]

YOGA
CHAKRA
SUFISM
BUDDHISM
KABBALA
SUFI-LATA'IF
    
---------------------------------------------------------------
[ Under 'YOGA', The first row is '9 (unity) Asamprjnata', thus:]

[ YOGA ]:
9 (unity)
Asamprajnata

[ CHAKRA ]:
Sahasrara	

[ SUFISM ]:
Hahut (eternal)

[ BUDDHISM ]:
Cessation of determined
(non-become)

[ KABBALA ]:
Kether

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Haqiya

---------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:
8 Sarbija

[ CHAKRA ]:
AJNA

[ SUFISM ]:
Lahut (treasury of archetypes, everlasting)

[ BUDDHISM ]:

Beyond consciousness & non-consciousness (peri-samsaric matrix;
very subtle mind)

[ KABBALA ]:
Chochma

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Khafiya

---------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:
7 Asmita

[ CHAKRA ]:
VISHUDA

[ SUFISM ]:
Jabarut (revealed)

[ BUDDHISM ]:
Beyond consciousness
(subtle mind)

[ KABBALA ]:
Bina

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Ruhiya

----------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:
6 Ananda

[ CHAKRA ]
WHEEL OF FIRE

[ SUFISM ]:
Malakut (celestial)


[ BUDDHISM ]:
Beyond existence and non-existence (body of bliss)

[ KABBALA ]:
Daath

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
(No Entry)

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

[ YOGA ]:
5
(No name)

[ CHAKRA ]:
Anahata 

[ SUFISM ]:
(No Entry)
 
[ BUDDHISM ]:
Infinity of consciousness

[ KABBALA ]:
Chesed / Din

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Sirriya

---------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:
4 Nirvekara

[ CHAKRA ]:
MANIPURAKA

[ SUFISM ]:
Mithal (creativity)


[ BUDDHISM ]:
Beyond the mind


[ KABBALA ]:
Tiphereth

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Qalbiya

----------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:

3 Nirvetarka

[ CHAKRA ]:
HARA


[ SUFISM ]:
Khayal


[ BUDDHISM ]:
Infinity of mind


[ KABBALA ]:
Hod / Netsach


[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Nafsiya

----------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:
2 Savikara

[ CHAKRA ]:
SVADISTHANA

[ SUFISM ]:
Arwah (subtle)


[ BUDDHISM ]:
Infinity of ether (emanation body)


[ KABBALA ]:
Yesod

[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
Qalabiya

----------------------------------------------------------------
[ YOGA ]:

1 Savitarka

[ CHAKRA ]:
Muladhara

[ SUFISM ]:
Nasut (matter)

[ BUDDHISM ]:
Infinity of space

[ KABBALA ]:
Malkuth
 
[ SUFI_LATA'IF ]:
(No entry)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
================================================================= 

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY:

For Information on Kbalah, speak to R. Yankele Shames, who as far
as I know (which is '03) still lives at Btt Meir off the
Jerusalem__Tel Aviv HIghway.  And Menachem Kallus, who you can
find by asking at R. David Zeller's  Yakar Institute, which is on
Rehov Ha__Lamed_Hey , in the Old Katamon neighborhood of
Jerusalem.

Me, all I know about kabala is that it's what the waitress brings
you after lunch.

But anyhow, from what I read in Kabalah for Frumie Teenagers. what
we got us for the 10 Sphirot is, in descending order:

Kether   (Ineffable)
Chochma  (Wisdom, Cf. PVK 'Pure Intelligence'; Cf. Prakriti)
Binah    (Insight, Cf. PVK 'Consciousness'; Cf. Perusha )

Chesed             (Grace, Magnanimity)
Gvurah (not Din )  (Limitation; not precisely 'Severity')
Tiferet            (Beauty)
Neetzach           (Eternity)
Hod                (Glory; Cf. PVK, Splendour)
Yesod              (Foundation)
Malkut             (Kingdom)

And these are exemplified by, respectively:
Abraham (Chesed); Issac (Gvurah); Jakob (Tiferet); Moses
(Netzach); Aaron the High Priest (Hod); Joseph (as Grand Vizer)
(Yesod); King David (Malkut)

So OK, that's what I got.

That does raise a few questions about this Table;

Da'at is knowlege, and the Amidah does include (in nusach Sfard,
but not precisely in Nusach Ashkenazi) a prayer for 'Chochma,
Binah, and Da'at')

But I don't know where if at all Da'at fits into the Tree of
Sphirot.

'Din' is often used as if it were roughly equivalent to Gvurah,
though I am tempted to say that Din is merely the Aristotelian
vice -- excess or defect. call it which you will -- of Gvurah.
Gvurah is limitation, like keeping your child from crossing the
street.  Din is severity, like stoning a guy who breaks the
Sabath, and so the Rabbi's said, We are to emulate the Divine
Attribute of Chesed, but are not to emulate the Divine Attribute
of Din.

So I don't see what 'Din' is doing her.

Much less do I see what it is doing conjoined with 'Chesed', to
which it would seem to be the antithesis.

Nor do I see why Hod is conjoined with Netzach.
The order I have is Netzach, and then Hod.
But PVK ranks Splendour as a very high Divine Attribute.  
For PVK, Beauty is but a manifestation of Splendour.

Amd I am a bit disappointed that the Islamic term 'Malakut' does
not correspond to the Jewish term, 'Malkut'.
But I suppose that's not a justified complaint.

OK, that's all I can do on tis now.

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





