100 - Modes of Thinking
Corresponding to Focalization
as seen in the Perspective of Sufism

Our notion of reality is a function of the setting of our consciousness. We can indeed distinguish several modes of thinking corresponding to the focalization of our consciousness.

1)         If we modulate our consciousness to the empirical perspective (nasut):

a)         we believe that we are the spectator

b)         reality seems to be composed of objects or particles (discrete building blocks)

c)         we identify with our consciousness, our psyche and our body.

We shall show them the signs at the horizon of themselves. Qur'an

2)         If we modulate our consciousness to the psychological perspective (khayal),

a)         the spectator in us projects its personal perspective upon events

b)         the object of our cognizance is our psyche, or thoughts, or those of others

c)         we identify with our consciousness and our psyche.

Behold the world entirely comprised in your self. The world is man and man is the world.Shabistari

3)         If we modulate our consciousness to theintrospective perspective, (arwah),

a)         we identify with our life field (subtle body or electromagnetic field)

b)         we adopt a holistic vision of the world: everything intersperses and is interrelated with everything else,

c)         our notion of being the spectator intermeshes with that of others (eventually an undifferentiated cosmic consciousness),

d)         we become more aware of our implicit mode of thinking, rather than the analytical.

The order of the world as a structure of things that are basically external to each other comes out as secondary and emerges from the deeper implicate order.  Dr. David Bohm

The one who tunes himself not only to the external but to the inner being, and to the essence of all things, gets an insight into the essence of the whole being; and therefore he can, to the same extent find and enjoy even in the seed the fragrance and beauty of the flower. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

4)         If we modulate our consciousness to the imaginative (or ideational) perspective (mithal)

a)         our consciousness is not receptive, (or perceptive), but configures ideas into images in our psyche,

b)         we discover potentialities dormant in our psyche,

c)         we identify with a dynamic self-generating self-image,

d)         we participate volitionally in the unfurling of these potentialities as our idiosyncrasies,

e)         our imaginative faculty represents to itself the elusive forms of our subtle body

f)          this is our personal participation in the recurrent creativity of       reality at the existential level.

So what the soul shows to itself is precisely its own image, since the earth is a being, it reflects the image premeditated by the soul. Corbin

5)         If we carry our memory back into peri-natalstates, (malakut),

a) our sense of identity straddles our identification with our psyche in the process of becoming intermeshed with our extra-terrestrial self-image,

b) we loose our sense of location in space,

c) weare able to envision ourselves as a continuity in change (we see ourselves as both (relatively) external and transient),

d) we are able to extrapolate in our self-image between the sublime and the defiled features of our nature, in both psyche and aura's configuration.

As man evolves, he ceases to look down on earth, but looks to the heavens. If one wants to seek the heavens, one must change the direction of looking. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

The soul's unfoldment comes from its power which ends in its breaking through its ties of the lower planes. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

6)         If we refer our consciousness into the perspective of its ground intelligence, (Jabbarut),

a)         we realize that the personal focus of our consciousness acts as a distorting lens,

b)         we access a mode of cognizance which is not based upon our interpretation of experience.

When consciousness is not conscious of anything, it is resorbed in its ground, which is intelligence.Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

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

7)         From thearchetypal (proto-critic, preliminary to experience) perspective, (lahut)

a)         we grasp the archetypes behind their exemplification at the existential level,

b)         we identify with the impersonal and (relatively) eternal seed bed of our personality.

Imagination causes archetypal notions to descend into perceptible forms.  Ibn 'Arabi.

Know that there is no form in the lower world without a likeness (mithl) in the higher world The forms in the higher world preserve the existence of their likeness in the lower worlds. Between the two worlds there are tenuities which extend from each form to its likeness. Ibn 'Arabi

8)         We reach a state transcending the existential perspective, (Hahut)

a)         undifferentiated unity. (Ahadiat) together with a sense of omniscience.

The one who is immersed in the divine unity is with God in the grasp of His unity, irrespective of the worlds. . . . In the station of unity, touching upon the unity, one accesses the Supreme knowledge whereby the grasp of the qualities falls away; indeed the qualities cannot add anything to the essence. If the names disappeared the Named One would appear. Ibn 'Arabi

9)         If, having reached the previous perspective, we adopt an overview of existential experience (tawhid)

a)         we grasp the unity behind multiplicity, (Wahdat)

b)         and the multiplicity within unity (Wahdaniat).

c)         We grasp the intention behind the programming of events.

The purpose of the whole creation is the realization that God gains by discovering His own Perfection through our imperfection. The fulfillment of this whole creation is to be found in man. This object is only fulfilled when man has awakened that part of himself which represents God Himself. At present there exists only in the world a belief in God; God exists in the imagination. It is such a soul which has touched upon divine perfection that brings to earth a living God who without him would remain on in the heavens... If there is any sign of God to be seen, it is in the God-conscious one. Hazrat Inayat Khan

SYNOPSIS

Fana-Baqa:

NASUT

Annihilation (absorption) of the subject (psyche) in the object (God manifesting as the cosmos).

fana bi'l madhhur 'an al dhakir

I espy God through perceptual clues.

God reveals His/Her nature through clues in the cosmos.

KHAYAL

Annihilation (resorption) of the object (cosmos) in the subject (psyche)

fana bil dhakir 'an al madhhur

I espy God through clues in my idiosyncrasies.

God reveals His/Her nature through clues in my personality.

ARWAH

Annihilation (dissolution of) the object (God revealing Him/Herself as our psyche) in the (furtherance of) the act (discovery of the seed of our psyche)

fana bi'l dhikr 'an al madhkur

I know myself through the knowledge that God has of Him/Herself through me.

God knows Him/Herself through the knowledge that I have of Him/Her.

MITHAL

Annihilation (deployment) of the act (imagination seed) in the (furtherance of) object (psyche)

fana bi'l madhkur 'an al dhikr

I espy God brainstorming through my creative imagination God reveals His/Her nature to me as it evolves by dint of my creative imagination.

MALAKUT

Annihilation (dissolution) of the subject (spectator) in the (prevalence of) (the divine existentating) act

fana bi'l dhilr 'an al dhahr

God knows me through the knowledge that I have of Him/Her at the celestial level.

I know God through the knowledge that God has of my knowledge of Him/Herself.

JABARUT

Annihilation (sublimation) of the (divine existentiating) act in the (prevalence of) the subject, (the divine spectator)

fana bi'l dhakir 'an al dhikr

God reveals to me the knowledge that He/She has of Him/Herself irrespective of the cosmos. God knows Him/Herself irrespective of the cosmos.

LAHUT

The persistence of the object (the divine programming)

baqa bi'l madhkur

Thanks to my insight into His/Her knowledge of the archetypes (sifat) of His/Her Being, God is moved to bequeath upon me a trans-existential matrix of being, adumbrating my existential inheritance.

By grasping God's auto-contemplation of the archetypes (Sifat) of His/Her Being, irrespective of the cosmos, I make God (originally a virtuality), into a reality through me, in me, as me.

HAHUT

The persistence of the subject (divine intelligence)

baqa bi'l dhakir

My knowledge of God irrespective of the cosmos is God's knowledge of Himself irrespective of the cosmos.

TAWHID

The persistence of the act (the divine Being)

baqa bi'l dhikr

I see God's intention in the cosmos.

God reveals to me His/Her intention in the cosmos.
