PVK, COURSE ON MEDITATION, LESSON 17 PART II-LESSON 24 


Lesson #17: Practices with Light, Part II

	There is a much simpler practice: close your eyes, inhale, and converge the beams of the two eyes into a spotlight. Start working with the third eye. Concentrate on a beam of light that descends through the crown center like a shaft of light and then is refracted forward as a beam through some point in the forehead. Actually, the point is really the pineal Gland, in the middle of the brain and lower down. (See Lesson #11 chart for position of pineal gland.) as you exhale, that beam is aimed at the spotlight created by the convergence of the beams of your two eyes. That's a practice given to develop the third eye but it's important to draw the light from very high up, not just concentration the horizontal beam of the third eye, but link itup with the shaft of light that descends. 
And now,as you inhale, you reverse the process and you turn your eyeballs upwards and immediately the third eye will turn itself upwards, and your consciousness will rise in the fountain of light at the top of the head and you'll reach right up. 
	Exhale once more and bring all of that light down in the third eye, through the third eye. You could open your eyes Again and instead of concentrating on the light emitted by your physical eyes, you could concentrate entirely on the third eye. This is the secret of looking into the souls of men. Do not concentrate on, do not simply identify with, that beam that emerges from the pineal. You have to link it up with the spirit that descends. Otherwise you develop a kind of hypnotic gaze. That's just what we don't want. It must always be beautiful, impersonal, heavenly, pure, not Luciferian light, hut untainted. The Sufis call it "generous light." It's not an inquiring ego light; it's a giving light; it's a loving light. 
	One can avoid getting into a very personal trip by thinking, for example, of the glance of Hazrat Inayat Khan, a very sacred, divine glance that looks right into the soul but is not in any way inquisitive or personal. A glance that has become totally purified so one would like to say, bathe your glance in heavenly light." Take a bath of light, a shower of light. One way of doing that is to think of oneself as a crystal. One is both things: one is the light that shines through the crystal, and one is also the crystal, a hybrid. There's that part that is transcendent and that part which is eternal. We come across this all the time. So let's say, the molecules of your body are like molecules of a crystal and there are different types of light that we've been talking about: there's the light of the aura; there's the light of the heavens; there's the third eye which is the light of divine intelligence. It is the light of divine intelligence which is looking through the crystal and the light of the heavens that is illuminating the crystal. The whole idea is to identify oneself totally with being a being of light and then distinguishing the three different aspects of this: 1. The aura which is the individuated aspect, 2. the uncreated light of the celestial spheres which is the cosmic aspect, and 3, the light of the divine intelligence which is the transcendental aspect. Keep on practicing and practicing until this becomes so much a part of one's way of thinking and of feeling and of identifying oneself that eventually it's there all the time in one's daily rapport with people. The consequence is that one brings light to people and one is, oneself, luminous. One is always undergoing a kind of hath of light, and thoughts become absolutely crystal clear, and the emotions become very, very beautiful. 
	Do these practices every day if possible. Realize that it does take time, a lot of working with it, and eventually, one gets into it. It means getting up early in the morning: that's the only way to do it!  
	I want to speak more with you about working with the third eye. Having gone into the experience of the crown center, you turn your eyeballs upwards and you discover all this fountain of light (as I call it) at the top of the head. Then you begin to work with the third eye. The technique that I suggest is this: having your eyes closed, set your glance at infinity, then open your eyes, go back to the consciousness of infinity and open again. You begin to look upon your eyes as searchlights, not as organs that pick up impressions, but lamps. This is part of the whole description of magnetism. Magnetism is such that if you're working with healing, for example, you get to a point that you not only enhance the magnetism that oozes out of your being, but you are able to direct that magnetism through your hands. Then you're working with your hands, you get to a point where you can feel as though you have etheric hands that jut out beyond your physical hands, like reaching into the patient. That is the same thing with your eyes. You get to a point where you become aware of the light of your eyes that reaches out just like the searchlights of a car. And I'm not talking purely fictitiously, because, in fact, it's been discovered that the eyes do emit photons, so it's true scientifically. Not only the eyes, but all tissues. Every time a cell divides, there's a breakthrough of photons even with ordinary cells. It's particularly true of the nervous tissue inside the brain. The retinae of the eyes are particularly conductive. 
	All you do is sit in the dark, or you can just close your eyes. It's easier if you try sitting in the dark. Concentrate on emitting light through your eyes. Do this every day. You get to a point when you can envision these rays, these beams very very clearly. You can converge these rays, beams, slightly and they will meet at a point which forms a kind of spotlight suspended in the dark.  I don't know whether or not you've seen a hologram. One is able nowadays with a hologram, to project an image into a dark room. You can walk through that image, and yet it looks so very real. It's a kind of stereo effect of light. You're able to bring this three-dimensional image right in the middle of the room. It's the cinema of the future. What happens is that there is this pinpoint of light suspended in the dark and you are really creating it out of your own glance. It can be very beautiful. It doesn't have to be just a spotlight; it could become like a whole sparkling fireworks of light, something absolutely magnificent. You can move it forwards and backwards. Now if you turn your eyeballs upwards, those beams are going to reach upwards through the crown center right up into this fountain of light at the top of the head. They become the fountain. 
	When you've mastered this, start working with the third eye. Start being aware of a third beam that reaches out Or the center of your forehead. At least it appears as if it were so. It hit the spotlight, so you have three beams converging on that spotlight. 
	When you're working with the third eye,l advise you always to link up the beam of the third eye with its source. So imagine you are aware of this beam of light that descends through the crown center vertically, and that it's refracted in the head forward, through the third eye, just like the light of a prism is refracted, in the form of the light of your third eye. Perhaps you recognize the glance of the mystic. It's what we refer to when He say, "I am the eyes through which God sees," and "I am the divine glance." Your whole consciousness retracts back somehow and you're bringing the light through from a very high place, down through you. If you look at some of the pictures Or Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, you'll recognize that sort of focus or light, he's looking from a distance right into your soul. 
	When you set your eyes at infinity, you tend to do that. The glance descends from very high up and passes through your eyes. That is only possible if you displace the center of your consciousness above your head. That's why as you inhale, you turn your eyeballs upwards, to displace the center of your consciousness very high up. When you exhale, you maintain the vantage point of your consciousness very high the light of your glance descend through your third eye and reach out into the universe. 
	Imagine you are facing a very bright searchlight, or lights of a TV studio. The first action that triggers off the linkage between mind and matter is imagination. It has been ascertained that if you meditate on light, you radiate more photons than you do otherwise. We're not hallucinating. Something really tangible is happening. So face the light and just enjoy it. Don't try to protect yourself from it. For the moment, we're just imagining a light, so there is no danger to your eyes. Enjoy feeling lit up, reeling flooded with light in your chest, your head, your arms. In the second stage, you discover that the reason why you feel so happy being exposed to a bright light is because it makes you conscious of your own light. It brings out something that is already in you. Now, just he aware Or your own light which is really the divine light that is coming through. There are different ways of looking upon this. To start with, just feel as though you're glowing very intensely, like being in a state of incandescence. 
	Next, concentrate on your heart and experience it as a sun. Radiate from that sun. Let the rays of light cross through your body and reach out into a distance.That will make you aware of the radiance that is still inside the body, and the radiance that is outside the body. It's all one. It's all the radiance of the aura. I'm saying this so that you don't imagine that the aura is just outside the body, that the body emanates an aura. 
Let's approach this from a different angle. In the aura, there's a whole gradation between the infrared and the ultraviolet, between fire and what one calls light. If you concentrate on the bottom of your spine, you will enhance the fiery aspect of theaura, the bioplasm, and if you concentrate on the violet at the top of your head, you'll be enhancing the cold light without heat that is to be found in the higher regions of the aura. Your heart chakra is placed exactly in between those two, therefore radiating centripetally, or at the synthesis between these two extremes. 
	As you exhale, you could concentrate on the red color in the two lower chakras; as you inhale, concentrate more on the heart center which is yellow/golden/orange, then the third eye, where there's violet, and then the crown center where you get all the colors of the spectrum, and beyond that, just white or colorless. Turn your eyeballs upwards and reach with your consciousness as high as you can. It will seem like a fountain of light that keeps on rising higher and higher and breaks into showers of light on all sides. You might experience the multicolored lights of the spectrum and somehow, a white light that seems to emerge from the top of all that. You might be aware of a kind of pillar of light that descends in the center and reaches down into the chakra at the bottom of the spine but keeps on branching forward through the different chakras. It's like the Light of lights, connecting you, as all beings, with the source of light. 
	And now once more, come across the dichotomy that we've come across several times: in as much as you are conscious of your individual self, you are the instrument through which the light functions. In as much as you are able to identify yourself with the totality, you are this light, It depends upon the attunement of your consciousness. It is possible that you are able to experience yourself as both at the same time: as being your body, your aura, and the pure light of intelligence. There are at least three levels here.  
 
Lesson #18:  Practices with Light (continued)

	Before reading or practicing three or any lessons, be sure to do a breathing practice such as the purification breaths described in Lesson 2 or Shagall in Lesson 5. This will help you to absorb the material more thoroughly. 
	The sun rises above the horizon and we're going to do a practice which consists in drinking in the light of the sun through your eyes. Of course your retinae are very sensitive; you can burn your eyes very easily so it takes a lot of practice before you can really face the sun for some time. You have to protect your eyes. Remember, that in a few seconds, you could burn your retinae permanently. So be very careful with how you approach the sun. 
	The best way to protect your eyes to start with is to place your hand around your eyes, making a kind of frame, so that the glance is circumscribed by a frame. Keep the sun at the edge of that frame. It certain moments it's very difficult to have a very steady motion of your hand so sometimes the sun will enter intothat frame. Then you have to move the frame away by making a circular motion with your frame from right to left and then from left to right. Always keep your eyeballs centered in the middle of the frame and don't turn them towards the sun. You expose the rim of your retinae rather than the center. Next, make a motion from left to right; then from right to left, after that, up and down. For a very short time during this action, the sun will be inside your frame. Nest, arrange it in such a way that by moving slowly, you'll find that the light is in the frame a long time. If you move fast, it's very short. You determine exactly the length that you're able to stand the sun. If you have a kind of reflex of black, like a black spot in the sky, that means that you have over-exposed your eyes. In that case, you should close your eyes, and turn your back to the sun. This can be done if standing by a lake so that you look into the lake to cool your eyes if they are burned by the sun. 
	In lesson #17, we spoke of experiencing yourself as being your body, your aura, and being the pure light of intelligence at the same time. The best way of meeting the first one is to simply think of yourself as a crystal. Imagine that your body is a crystal. That's tantamount to experiencing yourself as being transparent or translucent. In other words, it's 8 totally different way of looking upon one's body. You know that there are spaces between the molecules of one's body, or within the molecules there are spaces, between the atoms, and those spaces are enormous in comparison to the size of the atoms. So the picture of a crystal is very appropriate. What makes the crystal become a perfect instrument for light to pass through it is that the molecules are all aligned according to certain geometrical patterns. The reason for this is that they all pulse at the same frequency, all the molecules, and consequently, the optimal position in which they can be packed is orderly, as a that has been packed in an orderly way can hold more in it. The consequence of this is that if you could get into the consciousness of every molecule, you would find that it has found a way of relating to the other molecules in a state of resonance. It's locked into a kind of cosmic harmony. Insomuch as there is any personal consciousness in a molecule or in an atom within a molecule, or within the electron within the atoms, it is expressing harmony far beyond its own volition. It's the cosmic harmony, and it's simply fitting into the resonance and going on pulsing without any variation in time and space. It's just as if time and space have been suspended. I would say that the overall consciousness is more important than the personal consciousness. In this case, there is very little personal consciousness and consequently, of course, the overall consciousness can come out more strongly in the form of what one might call the symphony of the spheres, or its participation in the symphony of the spheres, it's particular contribution to the symphony of the spheres. 
	While I've been describing this, I hope that you experienced what it would be like to be a crystal, to get into the consciousness of a crystal. Experience that wonderful readiness to oscillate atthe frequency in which it is supposed to oscillate by the conjunction of forces. Because of that, the crystal lends itself to the rays of the light of the sunburst through it, or a laser beam, for example. If you can get into the consciousness of a crystal, you experience what it's like to be 80 much in sync with the cosmic harmony that one also becomes an instrument of the light of the universe. So one feels oneself totally clear and luminescent and effulgent. Can you really get yourself into the consciousness of the crystal? It's truly at the sacrifice of freedom initiative,  complexity, variety, and fluctuations from sclerosed order. But, if the crystal is subjected to/exposed to the energy of light, then some of the electrons may tear themselves away from that sclerosed order and fluctuate and take a certain amount of freedom by traveling away from their orbital. When they have run out of energy, they have to fall back again into their orbitals and at that time, they radiate light. So they had been activated by light and now they themselves radiate the surplus light. Now, in their consciousness, can you experience that moment of glory when the electron is able to force itself from that sclerosed order and the joy of itself giving of light as it falls back into place again? And our bodies are like that! They are partly crystals. 
	If we think that we are a crystal we experience ourselves as a crystal and we do something to our body, to the nervous tissue. Actually, in practice the molecules of the proteins of our nervous cells will actually align themselves, because they are what is called aphasic liquid crystals. Nervous tissue has the same property as a crystal, except that it can he stretched, unlike the crystal. The crystal is rather static, not totally; it's vibrating all the time, but still, it has a very definite sclerosis and definite structure there. Imagine now what you're doing to your body by concentrating on a crystal. Your whole body, even the molecules of your flesh, are getting themselves ordered in such a way as to become favorable to the passage of light across you. Let's say the photons flow from the nervous tissue toward the outside, and from outside toward the nervous tissue. The consequence is that your aura is going to burn much more brightly. 
Concentrating on the body as being a crystal is not good enough. You have to undergo a kind of catharsis so that your thoughts become crystal clear.  Sometimes there's some confusion in the thoughts, caused when one isn't facing one's thoughts, or one isn't facing an issue.  So one has to clarify the confusion until the mind becomes like a crystal.  That's purification.  The confusion is sometimes due to a kind of compromise in the mind, a kind of ambiguity. 
	The emotions can also be crystalline, beautiful emotions, angelic, heavenly emotions. Celestial emotions will brook of no ugliness. It's a kind of sanctification in the realm of emotion. As a consequence, one's becomes an instrument of light.  One's aura burns more brightly. 
	And now we come to the last aspect of practices with light, and that is that the aura is still in the realm of what one calls created light, whereas beyond that there is the uncreated light, as the Christian fathers (Gregory of Nyssa or Jacob Boehme) would say. That is the light of pure intelligence (Ya Alim). So when you think of yourself as a being of light, are you thinking of your aura, identifying with your aura? Or are you identifying with being a pure luminous consciousness? Sometimes there's a confusion between the two. That's why it's important to distinguish between what the Sufis call the light that ascends and the light that descends. So the light of the aura, let's say, is in a certain sense the result of the sublimation of infrared into ultraviolet. That would be the light that ascends. But the aura is also illuminated and interfused with the light of pure luminous intelligence. That does not have any room; it's not located; it's totally spontaneous, like the Holy Spirit. So the ultimate state of the practice of light consists in consciously illuminating your aura with the light of divine intelligence. 
There's a practice of the sufi that consists in consciously illuminating our aura with the light of divine intelligence. The only way to do it is to experience yourself as pure luminous intelligence, cast your glance upon your aura, and interfuse it with heavenly light. This practice is described in Lesson 17. (Ya Alim is the wazifa used with this practice.)
 
Lesson #19: DHIKR 
 
Sufism is bathed in the shroud of mystery and the dhikr is perhaps the most mysterious of all the practices that one could possibly do. Let's start by the foundation, the words themselves: la illaha illa 'llah hu!  The words themselves are an extension of that famous word, Allah, which is really the conjunction of two principles: vertical or straight line, and the curve (arc of a circle). The straight line denotes the axis and is called the link between God and man/woman. For example, say you have two ends of the same thing. I often say you could think of yourself as being at one end, Polarized as an individual, and at the other end, totally impersonal and therefore, God. So instead of thinking of a dichotomy between God and man/woman, one should think of it as just being one reality that gets polarized at the bottom. That's what the axis represents. 
The circle, the lam, the "I" in the Arabic alphabet, is represented as the arc of a circle and represents the circular motion of the universes, the planets. The whole of life is cyclic: the life of a plant goes back to the seed and the cycle starts again, the cycle of existence. In Buddhism we have the wheel that keeps on moving, and indeed, when you say "'llah," you go into that experience of the ever changing cycles of existence which is, in a certain sense, repetitive. Although there is some progress in the mutation of a plant, yet it is like a wheel that is turning, but it advances as it turns. Now the beauty is that one can pass from one into the other, particularly, that one canpass from the circle on a tangent into the straight line. 
That's the great paradox of life, that one can pass out of the cycles of existence into resurrection. Birth is the opposite:  there is the descent and then one goes into the cycles of existence. I use the word "resurrection," which is very important for the Sufis. The mystic al-Hallaj, was condemned to death for having said, "Ana'-l Haqq," which means, "I am the divine Truth." That is exactly what we are doing when we say the dhikr. Murshid uses the words, "Make God a reality and God will make you the Truth." If he were speaking Arabic, he would say, "Make God a reality and God will make you Haqq," because in Arabic, there is a difference between "reality" and "actuality." In the modern language of psychologists, one would say, "Make God an actuality and God will make you a reality." Actuality exists in time and space, whereas reality is beyond time and space. There are different opinions about this, but some say that of all the attributes of God, love is the greatest, Isha; but others would say that of all the divine attributes, Haqq, Truth is the greatest. For al-Hallaj, truth was the being of God. God is Truth and what we call reality is a kind of derivation from the Truth. When al-Hallaj said, "Ana'-l Haqq," which means "I am the Truth," he was saying something which is rather like when Echeister Eckhardt said, "The soul is increatus increabile," which means uncreated and not subject to creation. In other words, he was claiming the divinity of man. This is what Murshid was saying when he spoke of the awakening to the divinity of man. 
Now what is the real meaning of resurrection, the esoteric meaning, not the belief of the notion?  It's like thousands of roses can die and fade away, but the perfume of the roses will live forever, so it isn't exactly the body that resurrects, but what has been gained by the soul, through the experience of the body in its interrelationship with the physical universe, is going to survive the disintegration of the body. Science would say, negentropy is built at the cost of entropy. On one hand, there is a dispersal of energy in the universe, on the other hand, there is a build-up of information. Resurrection is like all that is built up at the cost of dispersal of physical matter, and information is being built up. It is the quintessence of all that you've experienced being perpetrated, while the actual fact may be lost. Another example: a person may remember something but does not remember how he learned that information (the particular facts that led to his understanding. Rut he does remember what he knows. This is why the Sufis say, "resurrect now;" you don't have to wait for death to resurrect. 
When al-Hallaj heard about his verdict, that he was condemned to be burned to death, he prayed to God, "Oh God, how is it possible that having wished for the formation of this body..that Thou should now desire that it should be tortured and crucified and burned and scattered to the four winds?"  In other words, he saw the whole purpose of life was that God should become a reality, an actuality in this, and having wished for this, how could hiscondemnation be true? Then he said, "As an incense, promise of my resurrection," he would be "scattered to the four winds." It was very clear to him that in order to resurrect, the body had to be scattered. 
I said that we come to the question, "What is the purpose of existence?" Is it that God should become man? Is it that reality that has no form should assume a form and become activated in time and space?  But then, man is transient, so is that the purpose? If anything can be, it is because out of the transiency something is eternalized; that's why it is important. In other words, the value of life is because of resurrection. I am taking up an argument which you might find in considering the individual important to the Sufis.  The popular interpretation of Hinduism would say, it's only my body; it's transient; what's the value of it? I want to be liberated from the cycle of existence because it is all maya, illusion; it's all passing. This is not the standpoint of the great rishis; but the popular interpretation. The Sufi would say, "Oh, no, it may appear to be transient, but what is gained by the body is internalized by resurrection, and therefore, is valuable. Life is valuable and therefore, why do you want to escape from life?" So let us say that the purpose of existence is not attained simply by God becoming man (I'm using a term used in the Orthodox church), but by man becoming God. And that is why Murshid said, "Make God a reality and God will make you the Truth." In resurrection, men and women overcome their transient and personal natures in order to regain their pristine, divine nature, and that is the meaning of Allah. You have the descent, the motion in the circle (the cycles of existence) and then return back to the One. 
And now you can understand why this word, which is a miracle word, has such power in Islam. The power in Islam resides in the fact that it affixes this unity without any exception, so that so that is the way in which one can say that man is derived from God; there is only God. God is one being, not multiplicity. So Allah is an extremely important word, and I would say, a very important experience. The dhikr is the experience of what Allah means. 
So how does this happen in the dhikr? There are the Phases. So far, I've been talking about the meaning of the word Allah. Now, what does la illaha illa'llah mean? It's based on two principles - affirmation and negation. So first, you say, "La illaha" which means, "There is no." In literal translation it means, "There is no divinity except God." The la is a negation; illaha means divinity; illa means except, and 'llah (or Allah) means God. There is no divinity except God. Incidentally, when you have two "a's" one after the other, you do not pronounce the second "a." You do not say, "illa allah." You drop the one "a" and pronounce it "illa 'llah." Give careful attention to the two "l"s of "illa" and of "llah" so you hear a kind of gliding effect. The double "l"s give a certain something you can learn to appreciate in the beauty of the formula itself. When said with a thrust of energy,the dhikr is very vital and meaningful. 
The motions that correspond to the words are thus: First, one makes three quarters of a circle with one's head. Place your head facing your left shoulder and move across the solar plexus to the right shoulder and up to the crown center or zenith while saying "La." At the end of the motion, while at the crown center, say "illaha." (Do not say "illaha" strongly; the strength or accent is on "La.") Next, the head comes down toward the solar plexus with a thrust while saying "illa," except. When the head comes down, you experience the shattering of your being. What it really says is, "All of this is not what I think it is." Your notion of yourself and your self image are shattered by the divinity. Our two main mistakes are first of all, to think things are the way they look, and the second one is to think that we are what we think we are. 
So much for the negative aspect of the dhikr, that's the first half: "La illaha illa."  Then comes the positive aspect, 'llah. You see, it's only after you have gone through this shattering that you can proclaim the great name "'llah," and I call it participating in the cosmic celebration in the heavens. Lift your head straight up when saying "'llah." You think that you're glorifying God because you've gone through the shattering, but in fact, it is God who revives you out of that shattering, so you are going through a rebirth. As you are reborn, you glorify God. That's the 'llah." While your head is up, you say "hu." And that is the moment when you really live, because there is no other way of saying it, the divine presence. I think that moment is so sacred; it's the moment of suspense, beyond time and space. I think one should prolong that moment a bit. Most people do the dhikr too fast. If every time you say the dhikr, you think of what it means and go into the experience, you'll find that you have to do it slowly. Then you have the great moment of truth, of the divine presence. 

Lesson #20: The Positive Dhikr 

The dhikr that I spoke of in lesson #19 can be called the negative dhikr. While still aware of your being, you are shattered and only God exists. But what hardens if you don't have to be shattered any more, if you have already overcome the notion of the personal self? Then you have the positive dhikr. For example, when you say, "la illaha," instead of thinking, "All this is not God; it's just an illusion," you could do the opposite. You could extend your consciousness into the vastness, could see how this is all God, even the molecules are God. So it's a little bit like the same problem we find in doing the practices of Buddhism. Now when you look upon your body, instead of thinking, "This is not my body; it's lust dust," enter into the consciousness of the cells and the molecules and think, "Ah, this is the wonder of God manifesting in all this ingenious build-up of structures and activities; it's such a marvel." In this way you have gone beyond the illusion into discovering thatall of this is God (instead of saying this is not God). To clarify: when you say "La," instead of saying, "This is not God; it's all illusion," the positive dhikr is, "It's all God." That's a more advanced dhikr. 
The difference in accent between the negative and positive dhikrs lies in our state of consciousness. If you are in your personal consciousness during the second part of the dhikr, when you say "illa," you are being annihilated in your personal consciousness. but if you are in the divine consciousness, then you experience what Hazrat Inayat Khan calls, "...the divine perfection suffering from limitation in the human condition." In other words, you get into the divine consciousness and you experience what the Jews called "tzum-tzum." Tzum-tzum is like the contraction, the constraint, that the divine bounty has to undergo so that creation is Possible. And that's exactly what Murshid said when he spoke about the divine perfection having to suffer from limitation in creation. I often give as the best example of that, Christ being beaten by the soldiers, and instead of cringing, I see Him, on the contrary, keeping His head high and being conscious of being the divine being who is suffering this limitation at the hands of the conditions revellent on the planet. If He were to limit Himself to His personal consciousness, He would probably cringe under the whip of the soldiers. 
This consciousness of being the divine being is typical of the state of Hazrat Inayat Khan's consciousness.  Perhaps you have felt something about the being of Hazrat Inayat Khan and don't know what it is that impresses you so deeply. Well, that's the secret. He's conscious of the divine presence suffering from limitation in the human condition, in the conditions prevalent on the planet earth.  And that's the very meaning of the crucifixion of Christ, of the suffering of people in the concentration camps, of the beggars at your door.  It is the divine Being who is being crucified in those people, who is being tortured in the camps.  It is God who comes in the form of a beggar.
So, in the positive dhikr, you're experiencing God being shattered in you.  It's much more advanced.  When you say, "La," instead of just being down here and glorifying God 'up there' in the cosmic celebration, you realize, as Ibn al-'Arabi says, that your being is the glorification of God, in the same way that the work of an artist glorifies the artist.
The experience in the positive dhikr, when you say "Allah," after going through the shattering of the divine in human limitation, is the rebirth of God as you.  Instead of God "up there," and you here, glorifying God, God is being born as you.  that's the positive dhikr.
Another image that helps our understanding is that of the ocean, in which you see yourself as the wave emerging out of the ocean.  Actually, the wave does not emerge out of the ocean becausethere's no frontier between it and the ocean.  It is the ocean that emerges as a wave.  See the difference?  In the realm of science this is perfectly true.  For example, Mach's law of inertia says that any change in any part of the universe affects the rest of the universe because inertia remains constant.  That wave seems as if it's just local, but in fact, the whole rest of the ocean has to adjust itself to the motion in part of itself.  Therefore, you cannot consider yourself as being like an entity within this vastness; the whole vastness is involved in you.  You are that totality that has emerged in a certain way, in a certain location.
Another example is that of radio waves which emerge in the radio set as a sound, but it's all those waves that are spread out throughout the universe that emerge locally in that set.  So you are experiencing the emergence of God as you.  It's a very extraordinary feeling, a sense of "Just imagine what I am!"  I am the matter, the fabric of the universe.  But I'm more than that; I am also the thinking of the universe that has emerged.  Just imagine!  And I'm the consciousness of the universe that has emerged.  And then you'll get to the ultimate through, "I am the being of God that has emerged."  That's what we are.  When you realize that, you are so overwhelmed.  (That's why the dervishes are wild.)  You were kind of secure in your thought that you were who you thought you were.  It's like closing oneself in a little house; you think you're secure.  But dare you accept the vastness of your being?  Dare you accept the sacredness of your being?  That's the great challenge.  One would have though, "Beyond that, what is there?"  There's always something beyond.  The most frightening of all thoughts is, "I am that divine presence that I was trying to experience." 
Just imagine the one who loves his/her beloved, and finally realizes that he/she is the beloved whom he/she loves. That is epitomized in this very wonderful story, a visionary experience of something in Shahabuddin. Suhrawardi's description of an experience that he went through in meditation. He said he saw this wonderful being coming to him and he was overwhelmed by this being who was the fulfillment of all he'd ever looked upon as an ideal. He thought it was an angel that was coming toward him. Then he had difficulty in accepting that, in fact, this angel really resembled him, and finally, he discovered that it was his real self. That's the story of Jacob with the angel. And this is what happens in the positive dhikr, but it's not the being; it's the presence. 
The experience is epitomizes again in a visionary experience called, The Conference of the Birds. I won't go through the whole story, but the Hoopoe was the king of the birds because he had a crown. He started gathering birds around and telling them, "Why do we stay here?  Wouldn't you like to visit the King of this universe?"  Some of them said, "Oh, nonsense, I'm quite happy where I am."  Others thought it was really an exciting venture to go and try to find the King. They decided to go through drydeserts where a lot of them died of dehydration. They went through frost and cold and wind and fire and others died. In the end, only eight survived. When they finally reached the palace, they knocked at the door. The Chamberlain answered and said, "Why do you think that a motley lot like you can come into the presence of the King?" They answered, "We've come through all of this torment just to come into the presence of the King, and you refuse us?" The Chamberlain replied, "Well, come in and just sit down there." And they sat down in the palace, in the throne room, and waited and waited and waited and nothing happened. Then one of them had the idea of sitting on the throne. It was a very naughty thought, but...and finally all of them were sitting on the throne. Suddenly, they realized that they were the King whom they had been seeking. That's the story and the greatest of paradoxes. 
Dhikr of Light, I 
The dhikr lends itself to many varieties of experience. You have had several lessons on light and now you can integrate the movement of the dhikr in the consciousness of light. First of all, the simpler one. 
Exhale as you survey your aura with light from the searchlight of the third eye, sweeping the beam upon your aura. Begin with your head facing your left shoulder, move across the chest to your right shoulder and reach your head right up. 
As you inhale, thrust your head down toward the solar plexus and invest your aura with light. Your head rebounds upward as you continue inhaling, and you experience the sparkling and the flame of the aura. 
Now, as you hold your breath, you are suspended beyond the whole process. You return to the consciousness of just being pure intelligence, luminous intelligence (the samadhi state). 
Once more, go into the circle, surveying the aura with the searchlight of the third eye as you exhale. 
Now, as you inhale, thrust the light down upon the aura, invest it with a fresh dispensation of light and continue inhaling as you raise your head and experience the sparkling and the flaming up of the whole aura. 
Hold your breath in suspense, then go back into a circle and repeat the process. This is the classical way. It's a little bit difficult to understand how one invests the aura with energy as one inhales, but you get used to it and you will find that it is a very dynamic way of breathing. Your head comes down when you inhale because at that moment, you have already triggered off the sparkling and the flaming up of the aura. 
Dhikr of Light, II 
This method is easier but has less power: 
Inhale as you survey your aura. 
Exhale as you illuminate your aura from above. 
Inhale as you experience the flaming up of the aura. 
Hold your breath. 
Exhale without any particular thought, because you inhale as you go into the circle. 
It's less powerful, too long drawn, because you have two breaths instead of one. 

Lesson #21: The Second Dhikr - "illa 'llah hu" (Bowing Dhikr) 

I wish to repeat that what we seek to experience in the dhikr is the presence of God. This is different from the qualities of God we discover when we repeat the wazifas. In the practice of dhikr, there are no qualities, such as compassion, beauty or power. The dhikr is not the experience of manifestation but of presence. 
Now we will go into the second form of dhikr, which is just illah 'llah hu. Go into a quiet place, preferably alone, leave the world behind and turn within. Surround yourself with a zone of silence.  Place a sentinel at the doors, not only of perception, but also of conception. This means you've let your thoughts circulate in the twilight of consciousness, at the edge of your consciousness. Instead of letting yourself be encapsulated you have discovered this other space, the inverted space. You are still in contact with all things, but from inside, from consciousness to consciousness, without passing through the senses, and through the framework of time and space. 
In this state, you're beginning to let a thought beyond Your thought come through. Remember, and this is very important you are not the one who is trying to experience.  The greatest drawback is to think, well, now, what am I experiencing? No,it is the other way around. The personal self is, if anything, the object; it's not the subject. So what is important is not what you are thinking now. What is important is the thought that is coming through you. You can't determine with your will that you're going to think, like a theme of meditation, for example. That's not our method. We're trying to trigger off the breakthrough into a totally different dimension of thinking and experiencing: to divine consciousness. 
The best way to do this practice is kneeling because when you are sitting cross-legged, you're the center of the universe; everything is revolving around you. But when you're kneeling, you are passive with regard to whatever you're kneeling in front of. That's why there's a difference between meditation and prayer.Kneeling is the best station of the body for participation in the cosmic celebration in the heavens. In short, you're getting into the consciousness of the recluse. The first thing to do is to surrender your ego consciousness, or sense of identity. You can't get rid of it by any act of the will. The only way to let anything bring about a change is to allow a greater power than your own to shatter you. Let's say, the power of your power, the power from which your power comes originally or the will from which your power is derived. And that's what we mean by the divine power or the divine will. 
Whatever remains of one's personal consciousness has to lend itself to the divine operation, so there is a surrender there. The curious thing is, that once you have surrendered to God, to this consciousness of the divine will, then you are lifted up. You're recreated, reborn again. That's where both stages of the alchemical process come together almost simultaneously. On one hand, there's a dissolution of the ego, and simultaneously, you are reinstated again, totally renewed. Al-Hallaj says, "My nasutiat" -- that means my personal traits, my idiosyncracies -- "are fana," have been annihilated. "And as a consequence, Thy lahutiat" -- thy divine nature -- " is placed in the place of what was my personal nature." So these are two aspects of the dhikr:  there's the annihilation (what we call surrender) and then the reinstatement. The reinstatement is in the nature of personality as it manifests the divine qualities. That happens as one says, "illa 'llah."  When one says "hu," there is no question of qualities any more, such as my personality or whatever. There is only the divine presence. 
Manifestation and the divine presence are two very different things. Manifestation, the multifarious forms in which the divine Being manifests, appears, is displayed. That's the epiphany. The divine presence is totally unqualified. There are no qualities, just the presence. 
So it's "illa 'llah hu." Please do not say "illa Allah hu." It's 'Illa 'llah. It's important to emphasize those two "ll's," because it gives a richness to the intonation which you don't get if you just say the one "l." Al-Hallaj said that the hu is the answer to your call, so you say it in a different voice than the "Allah."  Al-Hallaj said it is God who answers through your voice, so when you say "Allah," you are the one who is calling, but when you say "hu," it is the divine Being who is using your tongue to speak to you. 
If you feel like it, you can bow quite deeply, or less deeply. You can bow even more internally, without having to display it overtly, if you like. There's no doubt that when you're on retreat or alone at home when nobody's about, that it's a wonderful experience to place your head on the ground as you say "illa". When you say "'llah," you really have to be feeling that you're being lifted by the divine being. You don't lift yourself; you prostrate, and then somehow, the divine action, the divine operation upon you, a will you pursue in yourself beyond yourwill, lifts you from that position of prostration. You pursue in yourself that lift that is given to you by raising your consciousness high. If you were to sit trying to experience samadhi, trying to lift your consciousness with your will, you'd find that you just couldn't do it. It doesn't work that way. It's a little bit like one is catapulted by this action that lifts the body, and the soul continues, following this lift further. A good example of this is Bellerophon, the rider of Pegasus. It is said that Pegasus wasn't allowed to reach Olympus, so at a certain stage, the rider had to set off on his own. Pegasus gave him that impulse upwards, and then at a certain moment, he flew off the back of Pegasus and took off, like a projectile triggered off by a first impact, a primer. So in the same way, there's that moment when, somehow you feel that you've been lifted, and you just let that upward motion proceed further up. Then there is that wonderful moment of suspense when you say "hu" but nothing's happening; there's no upward motion or downward motion; there's just a moment of suspense. That is the moment when there is the feeling of the divine presence beyond any kind of qualities, or forms or what have you. This is a totally different "way of experiencing," because in experiencing, you're always experiencing something tangible. This is a different attunement altogether. You stay in that state as long as possible. 
Now surround yourself with a zone of silence. Place a sentinel at the doors of perception. Feel how wonderful it is just to be free from all the circumstances, from the thinking of your mind, from your emotions, even free from being under the impact of the nature around you. Enclose yourself. Then there is the beauty of repetition because you don't have to do so much thinking. The repetition does it for you. 
It becomes more and more wonderful when one keeps on doing this for hours and hours. It has a magical effect upon you, totally transforms your whole attunement. However, there are a few things we have to avoid.  One is that we try not to bring in emotion of a personal nature. It's fine, but nevertheless it takes away the very sacred nature of the experience, and consequently, it becomes a less great experience. The most usual emotion that one brings in during the surrender, when the head comes down, is a sense of inadequacy, of being very fragile. Perhaps there's a sense of guilt, of one's weakness, maybe even anxiety. It's a feeling of handing oneself into the hands of God because there's a kind of fear in one. When one's head comes up, there's a tendency to exult in great joy, in a feeling of relief, of being free from all those things that are hanging heavily upon one, weighing one down. In the last movement, when one says, "hu," there's a tendency to experience peace. 
Our objective is to be really cosmic, and not just have a personal employment or personal experience. So we have to work with these emotions. The only way to do it Is to get into the spirit of the sannyasin (the recluse). When one says "'llah," there's a tendency to go out as in glorification. But the dhikris very internal. In this world, one tends to externalize oneself. You want to internalize deeply. 
The other tendency is exactly what Christ reproved, vain repetition. The act of repeating a thought, a word, has an advantage in that you're not thinking; the word takes over for you. On the other hand, you can very easily get into a rut and a routine repetition. So how do we do it? The only way to avoid simply vain repetition it to think of the meaning of each phrase as you do it. Otherwise, you're just saying the words, and that's all. I don't say that that's not helpful. Yes, these words are really magical; they have a tremendous power. But they have much more power when you really experience the meaning. 
As Fikr:
So what I suggest now is that we make the same gestures but instead of speaking the words aloud, we think them. You'll find that if you think the word instead of saying it aloud, it's easier to get into the meaning. So as your head comes down, as you prostrate, you simply experience the great joy of surrendering that tyrant in YOU that is the ego. As your head comes up you experience being lifted beyond yourself reinstated, reinvested with divine qualities. Exhale as you bow; inhale when your head and body come up; hold your breath during the hu. 
Third Dhikr: "Allah Hu"  Fourth Dhikr: "Hu" 
The next dhikr, which is very similar to the Surrexit, is "allah hu." It is important to understand that in the practices of wazifas and dhikrs, the sound that you produce is a feedback system, therefore, you are able to hear the condition of your soul. In this practice, especially, one feels the supplication. One feels a despair in some people, in others, a kind of affirmation of ego. It is interesting to watch your attunement from the sound you make. You can change your attunement to conform it to what you feel you would like to do. Learn how to listen to your voice. The Sufis say that you hear the voice that is pronouncing the dhikr as though it were at the end of the hall. 
I don't know if you've ever played the organ in a cathedral. There you are, pressing the keys, and there's that enormous sound filling the whole cathedral. That's the kind of experience you have when repeating a mantram. You mustn't be the person who's repeating the mantrum; you have to listen to the sound as if it were produced by something beyond yourself. Finally, you become the instrument of the power that is working through you and translate it in terms of vibration. 
Now the fourth dhikr is just "hu". It can be done by whispering hu...u...hu...u...u... and then you stop repeating the sound, and just let yourself be carried into the feeling or the "hu" which means, the divine transcendence (presence).

Lesson #22: Rearing the Seeds Of Our Inherited Qualities 
 
The objective is to work creatively with one's personality to unfurl dormant potentialities.
I.  How do we grow to the magnitude potentially programmed in our personalities?
II. What is the secret that unlocks the key to trigger off mutations so that we may develop the way we wish?
 
I.  First, one needs to discover within one's latent potential, those qualities which one wishes to cultivate.  They may be traced to:
a)  the psychological features inherited from one's parents, grandparents, etc.
 
Try to earmark the psychological features and emotional attunements of your father, then your mother, possibly your grandfathers and grandmothers, If you knew them, or from impressions of these received through your parents. If one of one's parents exhibited these qualities, namely, mastery or power or sovereignty, one does not need much convincing to realize that one carries these qualities in one's genes.  If one cannot find these qualities in one's parents, maybe they were present in one of one's ancestors, of which one has a profusion unbeknown to one.  
b)  Secondly, we may trace features in ourselves to our angelic inheritance.
These memories will arise if you develop innocence in your personality by eliminating any guile, manipulation, resentment or selfishness.  You may conduct your memory back in time, regressing into childhood.  At the core of your being, you will discover the child in you that has remained untarnished while the outer shell of your being has been marked by the stains of worldly strife.  Pir-O-Murshid describes this as the mirror that remains unscathed by the impressions it reflects.  You will rediscover this important factor in your constitution that exults in glorification.  It will give you a sense of "deja vu":  landscapes of the soul.
c)  If one finds oneself very different from either parents or those ancestors of which one has some knowledge, one may understand that one carries one's own eternal idiosyncracies through into one's earthly incarnations which include all qualities.  This is what the Sufis call "the divine inheritance."  
Usually our memory recollects events or mental musings that occurred since early childhood, but our memory stores in its unconscious depths, a great deal more impressions, maybe thememory of the whole universe.  To access these, one needs to follow the practices indicated in previous courses, notably #11, 12 and 13 of the Tibetan Meditations.  The motionlessness of the body contrasts with the unceasing movement of the world outside; one brings the mind to a state of quietude by fostering one's need to free oneself from conditioning (both mental and emotional) detachment, indifference, independence.  One practices self-transcendence; that is, one considers one's life as one might contemplate a panoramic landscape, all in one take.  Contrasting with the short-lived span of life on earth, transient and ephemeral, one has a grasp of one's being as having its existence irrespective of these episodes, as remaining somewhat unscathed and maintaining its own special identity while being involved in situations on the planet.
It is at those moments that one begins to have a sense of the unique and genuine features of one's real being, as one has always been, still is and ever will be prior, during and subsequent to incarnation on the planet, even while an ongoing transformation does occur.  Can you see that you are a continuity in change, like a tree, that having been recurrently cut down to the stump, grows again and again, retaining its own paramount features throughout the apparent change of form?  You will notice that these crowning features are in some way perfect; for example, one senses that in that eternal counterpart of one's being, one is endowed with an unmitigated sovereignty, undaunted will, mastery, splendor and majesty, an omniscient insight.  But what one makes of this in one's personality is most inadequate, in fact, a reduction, a degradation conveying little of what one is in the reality of one's being.
II.  Now this is where the creative work comes in, for having gleaned one's true identity, one may shift one's self image into what one has now discovered.  Now one considers one's personality quite objectively; for example, see how addicted and dependent one has become, how devalidated, how inextricably caught up in the way situations appear form one's limited vantage point.  
Should one earmark the features of one's eternal being, extrication it from our human inheritance, one will have touched upon a key that has the power to transform one's being beyond recognition.  
The next step consists in envisioning very precisely, how one's personality would be, how one would handle situations, relate to people if one would assume the features of one's real being.  Choose tandem qualities you wish to work with, for example, mastery/sovereignty; insight/wisdom; compassion/magnanimity; splendor/excellence; truth/sincerity; ecstasy/glorification; intuition/receptive.
If you have shifted your sense of identity to your real, pre-eminent being, you will discover all these and many more to be present to a degree that will sparkle your spirit with delightand optimism.  You will earmark these same qualities (their replica) but degraded, and maybe distorted in your personality.  Pir-O-Murshid says, "What is in the shoulder now moves down to the elbow, then the hand, then the fingers."  We did see that the personality is a blend between qualities inherited by human ancestors and your divine inheritance.
Now the work consists in seeing how the features inherited from your ancestors overshadowed those belonging to your divine inheritance.  Yet those of one's divine inheritance can prevail if one strongly and relentlessly identifies with them.  On the other hand, the inheritance derived from one's forefathers was originally the divine inheritance in them that most probably suffered from the limitations handed down to them through their forefathers, so that if we can perceive their eternal beings trying to emerge through their personalities, it will help us to give priority to inheriting their higher selves rather than their limitations.
Of course, it will help us to understand them better and in some cases, establish a better connection.  Our real beings will resonate with their real beings.  We will consequently find that the divine dimensions of our being resonate with those of our ancestors, even though our personalities may differ.  This may help people harmonize with parents they may have rejected or who rejected them.
The ingratiating fact is that we can mutate the ancestral inheritance just like breeders can mutate species of plants or animals.  The reason for this is because the seed carries within it the potential of infinite variations, thus giving scope to free will, otherwise, there would be no such thing as creativity.
In addition to the foregoing, one needs to take into account that the features of the psychological environment spill over into one's personality became they resonate with qualities already latent in one's own inheritance.  Their impact upon us is insidious, and can, in some cases, predominate over our ancestral and divine inheritance.
The discovery that one does not simply need to unfurl qualities already present (though not yet very developed) but one can mutate these at will like a variation on a theme, opens up new perspectives and is the only thing that affirms our status as aspects of God, gifted with free will, with creativity.
Imagine how you could be!  Creativity is always a vision of possibilities not yet entertained; it is future oriented.  That image of yourself as you would like to be will lure you forward.  You will adjust the present idiosyncrasies of your personality to approximate more and more to those of that image.  
Start with a quality, for example, insight or mastery.  Envision how you would be if your were continually highly aware and alertand were always guarded against the way things or situations appear.  Continually cast the light of your insight into all situations so as to be able to discern what is enacted behind situations.  Imagine how you would be if you were continually in control of situations, could act by self motivation rather than react to challenges.  This must be a very precise picture of yourself, transformed the way you would like it.
A helpful hint to inspire us to begin to work on this practice is the nightly review.  Each evening, before retiring or before falling asleep after you are in bed, think back over the day, beginning with the last hour and working your way backward through the day.  Earmark when you were in control of the situation and when you were not.  Don't analyze unnecessarily, but just make a note.  Then make an affirmation that tomorrow, you will be more aware of who you are and of who others are in their real beings.  See if this effort does not reap rewards.
                   
Lesson #23:  The Spirituality to Come, Part I

I'd like to give a sense of direction to the meditations for the future, In general, what would be the spirituality to come. I won't say the spirituality of the new wave because the new wave is already old fashioned.
First of all, one wants to avoid opening one door and getting into a meditative state and then closing that door and getting back into life again without any kind of relationship or coordination between the two. In general, I would say the spirituality of the future would be a spirituality without a belief system, dogmas: you're supposed to believe in this and you're supposed to believe In that. It would be a spirituality without dos And don'ts (prescriptions) and 8 spiritual activity without gurus. That means without people who proclaim to be superior and who have all the answers. It will be much more experiential and It will give much more scope for your individual incentive. The spirituality of the future will also have to take into consideration the advances that have been gained in the realm of science and technology, for example we have the new awareness by the fact that a few people have landed on the moon or are orbiting some of the planets, and we're already reaching out with our antennae, somehow, right out into and beyond the planetary system. In a way, one could say that we have all landed on the moon and seen the earth from outer space. Only a few of us have done so. It's part of a way of thinking which bids for a tremendous awakening of humanity even though it is just a few pioneers who are exploring the new dimensions. Somehow, those of us who are with it are beginning to feel the impact of these inroads into a new dimension of consciousness.
Rather than just losing oneself in a trance state and getting spaced out and finding that one cannot deal with the most elementary human problems, I think that the spirituality of our time will have to always have nitty gritty problems in our mindwhile we are reaching out to these wider vistas of realization. The spirituality of the future won't be solemn. Spiritual people won't have long faces, but will be full of joy and will communicate joy, because awakening joy is part of awakening realization. If one Is sad, there must be something wrong with one. It is an alarm that tells you something negative. Let us say that our understanding needs to be somehow updated in order to be able to give the support that's necessary to our realization, let's say, to the awakening of consciousness. So I will occasionally have to refer to paradigms, although, ultimately, of course, we are talking about experience and not about theories. In fact, the new spirituality is purely experiential. In the old days, people used to be happy with
First, the obvious objective is to be fully aware and alert and vital and vibrant and therefore, ultimately, to be able to see oneself in the universe, to say, "What am I doing in the universe? Where am l? Am I getting anywhere? Who am l?" Those are big questions that we don't know how to answer with our mind but the spirituality of the future takes it for granted that the mind has a kind of elasticity about it so that it is able to reach beyond its narrow view. Now one of the best models for us is to imagine the cells of a body that would be stuck within the environment and they would find their neighboring cells a nuisance constraining them within a very small area, and then the cells or the body that are like the blood cells, are able to circulate throughout the body. The smart cells of the brain, might have some kind of hunch as to the thinking of the whole body, instead of just being confined to that little area there like the cells were before. Think of yourself as a cell within this enormous being that is the universe which is what one has always called God, traditionally, but since there are many anthropomorphic projections in that word God, I'm using a word which Murshid used when he was thinking about the building of the Universel, and that is the universe. Or maybe the universe is the new word for God. And It doesn't hurt the sensitivity of people like scientists, for example.
Now if you transpose the universe to the scale of the human being, just imagine a person who has been living in a little village and is only immersed in the small problems of a village. When the villager starts going on a world tour, already the whole way of thinking of the villager is going to be very different. Now imagine that the villager takes off into the challenges of the future. I hope he/she might be okay. How would the universe appear if you are floating into outer space? If you get into the consciousness of a spaceman, you are looking at things from a cosmic point of view.
Try to get into that space age consciousness which I've often referred to when I've talked about Dr. Edgar Mitchell who described how, when he was hurtling down through space, after having landed on the moon, his body was exulting in the thought of homing, getting back home again but somehow he realized he hadbecome a new identity and that his body was kind of constrained in that new identity. He said that from the moment that he had gained this new identity, nothing could ever take it away again. So he made an experiment, not only of physically transporting his body away from the planet, but he also made an experiment at the psychic level, which is exactly the pioneering of the experiment that we shall be making now and in the future in the ultimate meditation. The ultimate meditation would be awakening into the universe. We've been saying, awakening into life. Well, not necessarily limiting your life to the immediate environment but being able to see the whole picture while you are involved in whatever it takes to deal with the day to day problems. But you're always seeing the wider context, you see, so you see your personal problems in the context of the wider perspective.
This may give you some idea as to why I present things the way that I do. For example, since that constraining effect of the body is due to the effect that we assume that we are skin bound, let's say, and the universe is outside us, I'm trying to overcome that impression that is so limiting to our understanding and therefore, to our meditation, in general, to awakening at all. That would be, to realize that the body extends far beyond the skin. There's the magnetic field for example, which is actually just as much the body as what we think of a the body. To scientists, the magnetic field is the electro-magnetic field, a physical phenomenon. Then again the aura is spread out throughout the universe.
Let's engage in a space age meditation. Sit up straight and remember this, just make yourself very alert, gird yourselves up because most people, when they're meditating, are half dead. So, we have to be very alert and very wary of being fooled. If you're alert, you're wary of being fooled by the way things appear.
Imagine, indeed, that you are a cell within that body which is the universe but you're not just a cell within that body. Understand that that cell is so much a part of the whole body that there's no way of fragmenting that body into cells. The cells would die immediately so that it's often said that the wave in the sea is the whole sea that emerges as each wave. That's one of the laws of physics, inertia. That means that if there's any motion in any part of the universe, the whole universe is involved in that motion. So If you are a wave let us say, there's no frontier, no boundary to your being. So that at one end of your being you're the totality and at the other end you are the focalization of that totality. So don't think of yourself as an individual that is skin bound, or can be cut out from the totality. Think that your body is actually not only made of the fabric of the planet, but continues to be formed and in fact, the planet was originally part of the sun, or at least the companion to the sun, from the big bang. So if you can just see your body as the convergence of the fabric of the universe, instead of thinking of it as you, then that would also be helpful. Your body is like a support system which enables your consciousness tofunction.
Imagine that you've landed on the planet earth and that you are able to experience what's happening on the planet although you yourself are a visitor from outer space. You're beginning to gain understanding of that universe of which you are the focalization. We are not just a cell, but somehow, the focalization of the mind of the universe and maybe even more, the emotion that manifested as the universe. Now step out of your village; step out of your immediate problems, of your concept of your problems and of your social environment, because you're beginning to have a hunch of the wider dimensions of your being. You'll suffocate in that very narrow environment and way of thinking that catches you up in your environment.
You set off in the next challenger and once you're orbiting ln outer space, you have the courage to leap out of the space craft and you begin to float in space. At first, you begin to think that you're a body floating in space. You begin to start thinking of yourself as a magnetic field. You're feeling that your magnetic field is interspersed and you see the whole universe as a force field. You see yourself as a force field within that larger force field but there's no boundary between one or the other and you're breathing so you're continually pulsing with that force field. You're drawing it in like a whirlwind. All of that force is being condensed as you breathe it in and breath out. The whole universe as a force field has an incredible power. Now, make the next step. You think of yourself as an aura and now you realize your aura is travelling at a speed of 186,OOO miles a second. Imagine that! Remember, for physicists light is physical matter, therefore, your aura is one aspect of your body. Maybe it's the essential aspect of your body. Maybe it is the mold in which your physical body (what we understand by physical body) lies.
Let's say, this aura extends so far that it would he tantamount to say that your being extends to the far corners of the universe. Actually, if you count the amount of seconds since you were born and multiply it by 186,000 miles, you will realize how far your aura has reached since your birth. In as much as you are a being of light, your being extends, well, if you like, to the far corners of the universe. It is therefore, interspersed with the light of the stars. Not only the stars, but the light between the stars. The whole universe is an ocean of light. Now remember, what you thought was your body is floating in space but now you realize that there are other dimensions of your body that you hadn't identified with and you begin to grasp something about the nature of your relationship with the universe. It is infinite.
In this state, the stars and the light of the whole universe appear as being like an ocean of light. You are not a fraction of this ocean of light; you are really a focalization, like a vortex, like a whirlpool within a lake, continually making itself by forming itself and continually directing into the ocean oflight. Somehow, in this state you begin to see yourself as a cosmic being instead of what you thought yourself, as a body down there on the planet earth. You can even see the planet earth now. You think, how is it possible that I see myself caught up in my little storms in my teacups? Now I'm beginning to realize my being, my real being I had gotten myself so limited in my concept of myself. It's incredible.
Now, you begin to get some identity; you begin to grasp something of the thinking of the universe and the way to do it is to shift your sense of identity from being even an aura. That is one aspect of the physical body. Now you are the subtle body of which the physical body is a crystallization. For example, there are several subtle bodies and the magnetic field is one of them. But let's try to reach beyond that and realize that you are a being of metaphor. It means that you exist as a reality that is not what one would understand as a physical reality but which is pure imagination. That imagination becomes reality on the physical plane. So you're beginning to realize yourself as a creative imagination. You're beginning to grasp that that is what the universe is, ultimately. You're beginning to understand something of the thinking behind the universe. 
Remember, you're floating in space; you're really out there. The way of looking at the planet and at your body is totally different than the way it was before. You are liberated from the narrow concepts of yourself that you had before. Now you realize that in fact if you have access to the thinking of the universe, it's because your mind is isomorphic with the mind of the universe. That means, your mind is of the same nature as the mind of the universe, not just a reaction of the mind of the universe, but a focalization of the mind of the universe. Now, you're not trying to understand the thinking of the universe, not trying to access the mind of the universe. You are the mind; you can discover the thinking of the universe is your thinking. See the difference? The more your sense of identity becomes cosmic, the less your individual parameter of your mind limits your understanding and you awaken further into the dimension of the universe. I'm not saying you have access into the dimension of the universe; I say you awaken into the thinking of that place, that cone which is the consciousness of the universe such as it has been converged into your mind. Now you are awakening from your vantage point. Can you see that this is the direction towards which the evolution of humanity can inevitably go. 

Lesson #24: The spirituality to Come, Part II

There is yet a next stage. That is that you are beginning to experience, to resonate with the emotion of which the software of the universe is only an expression. The software is not the ultimate. Behind the software there's an intention and behind the intention there is pure splendor. By splendor I don't mean splendor that is tangible in the form of beauty. I mean splendor that could be translated in terms of emotion. Somehow, at thisstage, you are moved to such a degree of bewonderment. In fact, the consternation of intelligence as you reach into the cosmic layers of your mind (which question a limited interpretation of your lower mind) triggers off a further level where you are experiencing ecstasy. All of a sudden, you become aware that the whole universe is just the projection of what one might call the symphony of emotions. Then the software of the universe works it all out beautifully. The software wouldn't have any purpose if it were not to serve something much more ultimate than itself which is, ecstasy. 
Somehow, all of a sudden, you realize that all the different levels of the universe, not only the physical one, are devices whereby that splendor is made known and concretized. It's just like in E.T. Why do you laugh and cry? Is it because of those shadows on the screen or is it because you somehow were able to - that E.T. became a reality to you, because you saw E.T. through the eyes of that lovely child. Then you find out that the head of E.T. is a turtle and somehow you feel that you've been fooled by a trickery of the cinema and you realize, that in fact, no, the reason why you're laughing and crying is because you had access into the thinking of Spielberg and he was using these devices only to convey his emotion and his thinking. Now translate in terms of the universe, and you will realize that the whole universe is a marvelous system of devices that are translating, in concrete terms, something that is beyond form and beyond understanding and beyond the human emotion, which one might call, the ultimate splendor. 
Life makes sense. With all its contradictions, paradoxes, soul searchings, we should apply our mind to see the meaningfulness behind it all and here the mind is kind of by-passed or overridden by an understanding (which is the understanding of the soul rather than the understanding of the mind) which takes into account the intention, the emotion instead. 
And now you realize that your lower mind is simply grappling with those devices and trying to make sense of those devices. People are grappling with their concepts of their problems instead of their problems. You can see that your creative imagination is doing exactly the same thing as the imagination of the universe. 
It is inventive; it is it is trying to give concrete expression to your nostalgia. It is the nostalgia of the universe coming through, customized by you into a pattern which will in fact, mutate the software of the universe. The software is not static. It is continually dynamic, continually mutating, and we are the ones in which the overall software is mutated. Can you see that?  We are the laboratory of the divine experiment. 
Now we are beginning to realize that because we were caught up in our skin bound identity, we tended to limit our identity to being the physical body. Now we're beginning to see that the reality of our creative imagination is much more, in a sense, basic than ourbody. Much more real, in a sense, because our body is just, as I say, like an extension or projection or a crystallization of the intention, just like the hardware of a computer is just the concretization of the software. It is a device to serve the software, not an end in itself. 
Now you're beginning to identify yourself with being that subtle body that the Tibetan's call, the subtle mind which is that creative part in you and which is, as I say, of the fabric of metaphor. All you have to do is go one stage further and realize that even that creative imagination is just a projection, just an effort to try to give concrete expression to something much more real, which you are, and which is the reality behind the universe. Then you begin to realize that that reality is the realization. One could say that every being is in life according to his/her realization. Realization is a very real thing. It's not tangible like the body or even your creative imagination can be projected in forms and landscapes of the soul but realization is the degree to which one is awake. That is what you are, basically. 
When you get to that point, when you can see that your body and your creative imagination are just extensions of your realization, now you have the ability to become whom you want to be. Maybe we should say, the first thing that happens is that you can see yourself in the universe, instead of seeing yourself down in that little village or network of human relationships or problems such as we imagine them to be. You realize how inadequate that picture is and how you get caught in the mind games and distortions of the psyche. Here, you don't let yourself be fooled any longer. Now you can see yourself as always having existed beyond time and space. Part of this realization is that space is evidence (let's say, our concept of space, it's only our concept) of the limitation of the mind, the inability of the mind to imagine that two objects coincide with one another, interpenetrate with one another instead of thinking of objects as having to be placed in different locations in space. When you reach a state of realization you somehow unmask the hoax of the concept of space and you realize that you don't have to be located in space to be. Space loses its meaningfulness at a certain level of awareness. 
Now your concept of time is also going to change. Let's be careful of jumping into the conclusion that either we're talking about the eternal, the timeless, the temporal (those are the old fashioned views which are due to the difficulty of the mind to reconcile the irreconcilables) so you can say that time is landscape just like space is landscape, like gravity. In fact, we're experiencing the limitation of the existential condition while losing nothing of this perfection, and then you will understand that the perfection of your being, the splendor of your being, is in some way, ultimately, untarnished by your inadequacies. It's very important to understand that there's a fine point in our being, the core of our being, which islmmaculate, which is like the child, innocent. Whatever, however much we proliferate the persona, the mask of our being, where we rub against other beings, where that is being jaded, like the outer petals of a flower, the inside petals are absolutely unscathed. What is more, there are new shoots which one cannot even see because as Pir-O-Murshid says, we think that we are a plant and the plant is a seed that has unfurled, but we can't see the seed anymore so we think it's just a plant. In fact, the plant manifests a little of the bounty that is potentially present in the seed. I'm not talking about limitations but at the end of the cycle of the plant, the seed re-emerges in the heart of the flower. So now, as you reach the state of realization - remember, you're out there in outer space (I say out there, but that's just from the point of view from the planet) - if you're really out there the planet appears at the edge of your consciousness as a little flying saucer circulating in space, orbiting the sun. 
And now you can look upon your being in the process that one calls self transcendence. You can see how you had let yourself be caught in a self image which is totally a notion; it's not a reality; it's an act of one's imagination. One imagines one is the way one thinks one is. You had got right down into the position of those cells that I talked about that were caught into their neighbors and couldn't see the whole picture. When you have shifted your consciousness into realizing the absolute universal inheritance of your being, as the Sufis call the divine inheritance, now you have the ability to work on your personality. You couldn't when you were identifying with your concept of your personality. There was no way in which you could change it. So the secret of transformation is what Murshid calls God realization. If you want a modern word for it, it is just exactly what we are doing now. It is discovering the bounty of the universe present within each one of us, just like the code of the whole universe is somehow potentially there in the DNA of every cell, not only the code of the body, but the code of the universe. 
The same thing is true then at all levels of our being. We carry the code of the whole universe at that subtle level which we call the psyche, and all the other levels, the mind and so on. That's the divine perfection. Now I want you to realize in conclusion that we don't have to just do what the plant is doing in unfurling the seed, that is in giving expression to the potentialities that are already there. We can mutate the seed. In fact, some plants do. There is a slight fluctuation, our degree of free incentive. Otherwise, the universe would never progress, would never therefore, use the potentialities that are petals in the center of the flower of our being, those invisible shoots. We can somehow use them, work with them, harness them, in order to become a new person. 
What the Tibetans say here and I think it's very important, is that since the self image is just a notion, we can change it.That is the greatest hope and fullness that one could ever entertain, that one can become what one wishes to become through awareness of the program behind one's being and awareness of one's degree of freedom to mutate that programming. Creativity is not just fantasy, that one just does one's thing without taking into consideration the whole harmony of the universe. It seems that one needs to have touched upon the emotion behind the universe and follow the whole process of creativity right down into the very structure of one's personality to make a change. You can't just work with your personality and try to change it. It doesn't work that way. You have to really be moved to the core of your being by the splendor, by the meaningfulness of the whole universe and see yourself as the focalization of this splendor, of this thinking. Therefore, the meaningfulness of Murshid's words when he says, "When we say God, we are really thinking of our concept of God; it's not God." It's the way that we very inadequately try to give some credence to a reality that is far beyond the scope of our minds. On one hand our minds are elastic; on the other, they are able to encompass infinity. What Murshid says, then, is that even our concept of God is functional in bringing about transformation in our being. The reason it is is because our concept of God is a way of expressing something which is real that we don't know how to express adequately. But there is a reality behind this concept and that's why it is functional. It is effective. 
What would be the practical application of this in everyday life? Now you're hurtling through space like Dr. Mitchell and you're beginning to let your body draw you more into the common-place focus one assumes in one's day to day living and somehow you can never forget this picture you have now gained. You're back into your problems again and you find that your problems haven't changed since and what is more, people don't realize that there has been any change in you at all because they will hold you to be the image that they had formed of you and even that you, yourself presented to them and now they are holding you to that image. As the Tibetans say, the change in your realization is going to bring a change in the subtle form of your being. In fact, most people can't see it but your subtle body has now become more beautiful. Some people see that your physical body and your personality have been dramatically changed. It doesn't matter that people don't realize. You are changed as long as you have the strength to hold on to your new identity. Somehow you will walk differently; you will think differently; you will say that when you see one is overwhelmed by the gift of one's being you can imagine what a gift it is. The supreme moment is expressed by Al Bastami when he said, while so overwhelmed by the divine perfection in his being, as his being, "Oh god, how great is my glory!" But one can only say that if one isn't aware of one's own personal limitation. If one is, the only thing one can say is, "Oh God, thank you for the splendor that you have invested in my being." Now you'll walk differently instead of slouching around. You will be able to communicate your attunement to beings who will feel that attunement and to help them todiscover their own beauty. You will become aware that you are like luminous intelligence that casts its light upon all beings and all situations instead of limiting yourself to the gross mind which is simply interpreting the appearance of things. So you will never let yourself go into judging things according to their face value. When people speak, you will always see from what place their thinking comes. You'll see there is a limitation in limitation in the way we see things, the blind spot in the eyes.  You will never let yourself be fooled, be caught in appearances, and therefore you will be awake in everyday life.


Lesson #25:  The Retreat Process, Part I 
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