105 - Strategy for Dealing with the Ego

The question confronting us now is what are the methods whereby we may identify with our real being? Let us explore the stages. Here we discern four dimensions discovered as we pass through the stages of the Sufi practice of the Dhikr. Each describes the realizations and attunements experienced in the Dhikr. Every new phase represents a breakthrough of realization and every new insight triggers off the next breakthrough.

(1) Cosmic: extending our identity beyond its middle range: La ilaha

Meditation presents skills to extend our identity beyond the range of our perfunctory, skin-bound self-image: (i) envisioning our physical body as made of the fabric of the galaxies, (ii) sensing our etheric field, which is like gossamer, and has no boundary (like a vortex), (iii) extending our consciousness into the vantage point of others, (iv) the antipodal perspective, envisioning the universe as thinking through our thinking. Freed from the constraint upon the bounty of our being and the meaningfulness of our problems due to our inadequate self image, the richness of our real being now is able to flow unimpeded; moreover, freed from the personal bias, we need not resort to the inadequate stratagem of the ego, but can rely on the strength and richness of those features of our real being which emerge to meet the challenges of life.

We occupy as much horizon as we are conscious of. The world of one individual is as tiny as a grain of lentil, and that of another as large as the whole world.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

At the outset, our behavior is reactive, adaptive. While the Yogis point out (in the stage called Savitarka Samadhi) that our assessment of our problems is unreliable because it is evaluated from the personal vantage point (flawed by illusion), the Sufis consider that they are clues about the Divine programming beyond our ken. While our problems present us with a challenge to muster appropriate qualities in ourselves to meet the tide of demands, our faulty assessment of these would misrepresent this challenge. Action offers a process of self-discovery, like a sculptor discovering his/her statue by fashioning it (in fact his/her self) which evading the world would not offer. However, by reacting on the strength of our faulty assessment, our handling of the problem would not match the problem in its reality. Besides, we would not enlist all the resourcefulness of our being.

(2) Turning within: illa

Arwah is a state subliminal to our diurnal state.

In the world, you are here, and everything is without you; you are contained in space. In the dream state, all that you see is contained within you.

God is hidden within His creation. Awaken the God within.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

In this setting of consciousness, we can find the vaster reaches of ourselves as they overlap with those of others within ourselves.

All things and beings on the surface seem separate from one another; beneath the surface, they approach nearer to each other, and in the innermost plane, they all become one.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Now we see our problems in their context, everything in its interrelationship with everything else. The strategy devised to deal with the problem when we envision ourselves, as a "discrete entity", does not match the wider issue. While Yogis consider our self-image as illusory, and as misleading as our assessment of our problems, the Sufis consider that our idiosyncrasies are clues that reveal the Divine nature funneled as us. Hence, once more we see the fallacy of identifying ourselves with "the traces" (the features of our personality), rather than the reality of ourselves they reveal.

If we are still limited by our personal self-image, the best that can happen is our capturing the fresh blossoming in our personality which we imagine are emerging from the universe "as other." When turning within, we discover that seedbed of our being self which is co-extensive and isomorphic with the universe, God, (therefore not "other"), organizing itself as it surfaces as our personality.

(3)        Transcendent: 'llah

This is the lofty thrust of awakening beyond the ordinary human level of consciousness. It is triggered off by "a passion for the unattainable." The key consists in a first step of downplaying (Murshid uses Nelson's metaphor of "turning the blind eye") our personal perspective, and our limited sense of identity, in order to highlight the higher range of "who we are."

The soul's unfoldment comes from its power, which ends in loosening the ties of the lower planes.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

One may distinguish here three steps.

(i) Malakut

First those aspects of ourselves, normally masked by the ego's ploy, which are guileless, defenseless, innocent, holy  -  that thrive on glorification  -  celestial. Ibn 'Arabi points out that at this level, imagination is superseded; at this level there are no more forms, not even the countenance behind the face. Buddha says: "beings of pure radiance." To discover and enlist this dimension of our being, we need to forego any strategy of the ego. This is the perfection of "ahimsa", nonviolence, the way of Christ, Khatum al Awliya (the seal of the saints).

We will eschew thinking of ourselves as being a victim, being called upon to be an avenger to vindicate our self-respect.

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

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Our quest for beauty is stymied by the dastardly act. In a spiritual school we learn to create beauty in ourselves rather than simply seek to enjoy it outside.

All that man considers beautiful, precious and good is not necessarily in the thing or the being, it is in the ideal. The thing or being causes him to create beauty, value and goodness in his own self.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

At this level, we become aware of our aura of light, with which we identify ourselves. We discover that it configures our real being, while revealing the distortions due to the famous strategy of our ego. Both are intertwined, like the picture of Dorian Gray. Here we have something concrete to work with, because we can  -  like a sculptor  -  reverse the distortions. To achieve this, we have to peel off the attitude, charged with the emotional attunement, that is causing the distortion, to unveil our beautiful inner being. Our countenance becomes radiant. If we wish to be high and radiant, this is the only way: eschew bearing a grudge. Otherwise we slip back into the commonplace. Where then is spirituality? It is not in dogma, nor in ritual, nor in a sanctuary. It is in the reality of the process of inner transformation. It is in struggling with ourselves to live up to our ideal when faced all around with iniquities. This struggle with ourselves instead of with others will give us spiritual power.

An example of this saintly attitude was illustrated by a Sufi Pir of the Chishti Sufi Order.

An apt description of manipulation could be illustrated by someone seizing our house, then inviting us for tea. If we protest, the usurper says: "I want harmony!" What did Ganji Shakar do? He left his Khanqah and thousands followed him. He became a very beautiful holy person. If he had countered with his ego, he would not have become that radiant being. The person was more important than the house.

We find that if we let ourselves be affected, we lose our power. Therefore our power needs a shield, and that is inner calm, inner freedom, psychological immunity.

The real proof of one's progress on the spiritual path can be realized by testing in every situation how indifferent one is.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

(ii)        Jabarut. The two ll's of the word Allah

At this stage, we realize that the real witness is the consciousness of the universe (which is traditionally attributed to God) funneled down, or rather focalized, as the light of our consciousness.

Our glance becomes like two beams of light, or the head-lamps of a car, making the unseen visible. The light of our soul infiltrates through the light of our consciousness, then through our glance.

Wipe away the phantasmagoria of images, then Haqq will emerge from inside.

Jami

You thought that you were the Spectator, the witness, of what you experience, but the real witness in you is your angelic counterpart - the witness in the Heavens.

Shahabuddin Suhrawardhi

There is a further knowledge: God makes Himself known to us through Himself and reveals to us His knowledge of Himself by Himself.

Ibn 'Arabi

(iii)       Lahut: The last "a" of 'llah

At this stage (Lahut) we discover that dimension of ourselves that is not reduced or limited either by our bodiness or our psyche.

How is higher consciousness attained? By closing our eyes to our limited self and opening one's heart to the God who is all perfection.

Once the soul realizes itself by being independent of the body, the soul naturally begins to see in itself the being of the spirit The Sufi practices that process whereby he is able to touch upon that part of life in himself that is not subject to death. Rising above one's earthly condition.

(Lahut) ... a particular phase of existence where one feels raised above the conditions of life

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

The light of our higher being descends upon the light of our consciousness.

(4)        Hahut: the h of Allah

At the stage of Hahut, there is no more difference between "the light that can be seen and "the light that sees."

(5)        The overview: Tawhid.

In this further step we are  transfiguring our personal identity pattern and "making states of consciousness corporeal and psychological."

At the stage of Tawhid, the light of the Divine witness is threaded through the light of our glance.
