119 - Sincerity

We may go though a phase where we are preoccupied with an impelling need to understand (Alim), or the need to be in control of our life (Wali), display authority (Qaher), the need for vastness (Basit), the need to discover one's inner being (Batin), the need to love (Wadud), the need to have compassion (Rahman), the need for energy (Hayy), the need for nurturing (Muqit), the need for success (Ghani), the need for guidance (Hadi), the need for the sacred (Quddus), the need for awakening (Khabir), the need for light (Nur). There may come a time in one's life when the need to face oneself becomes imperative. Then the compellingness of truth becomes obsessive. Suddenly as though a veil had been lifted, one can see one's real intentions behind the hoax of justifications-one's motivations behind one's endeavors x-rayed in the clear light of sincerity, (ikhlas).

How is it possible that one had not spotted them before? One's ability to function in the world is so precariously suspended upon one's self-esteem to save one from the counterproductive despair of a bad self-image. It might materialize in sticking stubbornly to one's point in an argument, for fear of losing face, refusing to admit one's mistaken view even if one's unconscious is hinting to one that one is of bad faith. This is precisely what Pir-o-Murshid calls "the false ego," a crutch that serves the purpose of giving one self-confidence by self validation, like a cane, or a masque, or a costume, or a cigarette, or a title-a status. One may well experience a stage in one's life where one has a need for a status to bolster one's self-confidence and benefit by acceptance from "the world", until one reaches a stage where one does not need it anymore.

It is surprising to what extent one may fail to detect the hypocrisy of self deception damaging one's soul - by masking one's masquerade not just from others but even from one's own self by denying one's personality defects - which no doubt are devalidating to one's self-esteem - by sheer pretentiousness, parading an ostentatious affectation.

The hypocrite's ego is keenly affected by praise or blame. Abd el Qadir Gilani

The only way to heal one's soul from this spoliation is uncompromising sincerity, authenticity. This means first cross-examining one's own conscience, baring justifications, admitting any covert motivations behind one's actions if indeed one does not feel totally happy about them. It may mean relinquishing any claim of superiority based upon pretence. Then one is ready to admit to people up-front those flaws in oneself that one cannot subscribe to anymore.

If you wish to get rid of your enemies, repent at once. (ibid)

It is a common observation that a prepossessive disposition is efficacious in order to make way in the world, by dominating others to promote self-interest. But there is no escape from the choice between material gain and the beauty of one's personality.

Of what good if you win the world but lose your soul! (Words of Christ)

The soul tuned to God becomes as beautiful as God and begins to express God through all one does, expressing in life the Divine manner. Why is it a kingly manner? The word kingly signifies someone who possesses power and wealth in abundance. The soul tuned to God, before whom all things fade away and in whose eyes the importance of the little things of which every person thinks so much is lessened, begins to express Divine manner. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Admittedly the personal ego serves as a deterrent or a warning to people who might abuse one by taking advantage of one's good-will and selflessness. One's personal ego is a feature of one's defense system and therefore its weaning needs to be operated painstakingly to guard one from the opposite of megalomania: an inferiority complex. This is why the Sufis always compensate fana, commonly called the annihilation of the false self-or self abnegation-by baqa reinstatement, shifting one's sense of identity from the personal to the transpersonal-Divine-dimension of one's being. Unless one knows how to enlist a noble alternative to the soul-demeaning strategy, in order to secure profit for oneself or for one's fellow-beings, or indeed to achieve something of cultural value, one resorts to it.

Man desires power, because it is natural for him to gain. But he surrenders his kingdom to his little self, depriving himself of the Divine power that is in his heart. Somewhere a power is hidden in him. On coming to earth, man loses connection with that Divine power whose instrument he is, thus keeping not only himself but even God from helping His will to be done. Therefore the soul has in it a potentiality, a creative power as its Divine heritage. On the one side man is limited and imperfect; on the other side he represents the unlimited and perfect. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

How then can one wean oneself from the flaws of one's personal ego while maintaining one's self-validation? The answer is of course in calling upon the transpersonal dimension of one's ego.

Pir-o-Murshid declares:

The false ego is what that ego has wrongly conceived to be its own being. It is not that the false ego is our ego, and the true ego is the ego of God, it is that the true ego which is the ego of God has been reduced to a false ego in us. The only difference is that in one aspect it is the whole, in the other aspect it is a part; in one aspect it is almighty, in the other it has only a certain might, or a certain power; in one aspect it is unlimited, in the other it is limited. The difference between the Divine and the human will is like the difference between the trunk of a tree and its branches; and as from the boughs other branches and twigs spring. In a tree there is a trunk, and there are some prominent or large branches; from these there spring many smaller branches. So there are the powerful beings, the masters of humanity. Their will is God's, their word is God's word, and yet they are branches, because the trunk is the will of the Almighty.

To avail ourselves of this Divine power which we inherit we need to awaken it.

We inherit the Divine will as our own Divine heritage, and it is our consciousness of it which makes it greater. The fulfillment of this whole creation is to be found in man and this object is only fulfilled when man has awakened that part of himself which represents God Himself. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

To avail ourselves of our inheritance, we need to conquer it. Goethe

The clue is in one's faulty representation of God as "other" which stands in the way of calling upon the transpersonal dimension of one's being. If one is encapsulated in one's ordinary consciousness, it is admittedly difficult to include the impersonal, transpersonal area of one's being. It requires of one to reconcile complementary ways of identifying oneself: to grasp that, while being unique at the more personal level of one's being, at the highest levels of one's being one is co-extensive with all beings (which is what we generally mean by God). Here lies the secret of the "spiritual sovereignty" (Mughni) of the Dervish.

The secret then is to shift one's consciousness to the antipodal pole of one's being, trying to represent God (the Universe) discovering Him/Herself in the infinite personalized and unique expressions of Him/Herself as us.

You know yourself through another knowledge, different from that which you had of yourself, because it is through Him that you know yourself. Ibn'Arabi

The purpose of the whole creation is the realization that God Himself gains by discovering His own perfection through His manifestation. The Divine mind becomes completed after manifestation. The creator's mind is made of His own creation. The experience of every soul becomes the experience of the Divine mind. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan (Unity of Religious Ideals)
