95 - The Inner Journey Part I

We are all on a journey; life is a journey.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            The Sufis have consistently attempted to earmark the steps by which one progresses on the inner journey in what is called the Maqamat. From the discrepancies between the various systems, it avers itself that these steps differ from one individual to another. However, it is useful to cull a modicum of information in this regard.

            Abu Nassar al-Sarraj enumerated seven stages:  1) Tawba: owning one's guilt instead of trying to justify it - then repenting;  2) Wara: an untiring alertness with regard to one's conscience;  3) Zuhd: detachment and independence  with regard to worldly conditions (the two wings that enable the soul to fly according to Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan). This includes an impervious attitude towards people's judgment;  4) Fakr: poverty (Murshid points out the difference between want and need);  5) Sabr: patience. nature has a way of self-organizing or righting itself if we accede to forego our will to compulsively interfere. (This is true in some cases; notwithstanding, in my opinion, that using one's incentive may  be called for at some point. It is difficult  to determine when.) The shadow of this quality (patience) is obviously fatalism: a spiritual bypass;  6) Tawwakul: ordinarily interpreted as trust in God. It is the attitude that ensues from a supernal realization, acquired by the initiate at this stage, of a level of action that beside which our human strivings pale - a level that bypasses causal laws. Mystics prize the divine power that emerges in them through God realization and that makes things happen unaccountably;  7) Rida: a serene peaceful state in which one has overcome grudges, resentment, frustrations, and disenchantment.

            In his elaboration of Sarraj's sketch into 100 thresholds, Sheikh Abdullah Ansari, the Afghan Pir, unveils clue after clue, stage after stage for the assiduous searcher after awakening, stressing the need to make amends for guilt, whether the truth comes to you, or through you, making up for time lost , having the foresight to forsake attachment , observe honesty, overcome grief , fear, worry, hypocrisy, even to overlook habitual faults through dignity, scorning whatever is renounced, heeding one's conscience, devotion, hope, yearning, etc...

            Sheikh Jabbar Niffari points out that one cannot make the next step until one is ready for it:

As the mystic in his journey is transferred from one station in which he has experienced confirmation and presence, to another, he pauses between the two stations).

            Actually, we are venturing on two parallel, though not unrelated, journeys: 1) Our involvements, our know-hows, our accomplishments, mortgaged by the accumulated ballast that bogs us down and hampers our freedom, and 2) our inner journey which, if we do advance, manifests as insight, as an upgraded sense of values: a high attunement, as our dedication to our ideal, our quest for excellence and beauty, together with detachment and independence regarding worldly values. Note that we do not necessarily progress in either our inner or outer journey (sometimes the same patterns repeat themselves or even people regress instead of progressing). We will not progress unless we do something about it.

            The antinomy between our inner being and our personality was aptly portrayed as Janus, the twin faced Roman God. This disparity may be seen in, on one hand, the  influence accruing from both our ancestry and our environment and, on the other hand, our real countenance - hidden, yet transpiring from behind the mask: our face. The tell-tale of what our motivations are in life leaves a hallmark on our psychological and physical configuration as illustrated fictionally in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

            Both journeys are interrelated. 

The inner life is not necessarily in an opposite direction to the worldly life.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            If we have a strong enough commitment to the values we recognize in our inner perception, they will affect the way we handle situations in our lives. Counterwise, the means we use to pursue our objectives in our outer journey could impair our inner journey. (The means do not justify the end). While it seems obvious that the situations in our lives in which we involved ourselves at an earlier immature stage in our inner journey may obstruct our fulfilling the purpose we now wish to pursue in view of our present realization, it is in the way we handle these endemic situations that our spiritual ideals are tested and critically actualized. Pir-o-Murshid says that, one one hand we are tested in our love, but on the other hand, we are tested in our indifference. Contradiction? Or complementarity?

            We may gain a clearer sense of what the stages of the journey are in Pir-o-Murshid's teaching, if we look through the disparate testimonies of his own realization transpiring through his words. We may assess the stages of inner progress that we are going through. Actually, they correspond to the levels of our being, or spheres of reality, according to Sufism.

            What are the realizations corresponding to each level both in our outer journey and our inner journey?

1) Concern for an efficient support system:

            In the course of the outer journey, we are concerned with the well being of our physical bodies and commonplace minds, with  building a convenient, perhaps comfortable, certainly a more efficient support system for our lives; with living in "lifestyles"  instead of in caves, with the momentous progress in technologies, in transport, in communication, information, security measures, in psychotherapy, and in management. This stage corresponds to the levels described by the Sufis as Nazut.

2) We still assess things in our common mode of thinking:

            At this level, regarding the inner journey, we still see things from the point of view of ourselves envisioned as "discrete entities". We are concerned with the control of body functions (as in Hatha Yoga) and mental control (as in Raja Yoga). We assume that our individual consciousness is the spectator, not only of the physical world, including our own bodies, but of the psychological and social systems in which we are enmeshed, including our own psyches. This mode of thinking is at the level of Khayal. At this level, one may look for a role-model to help one discover one's self.

3) Discovering our interrelationship with the universe and with all beings:

            This is the level we reach by turning within and identifying with our subtle body. It is a feature of this step that people in our societies are more open to para-physical phenomena, and therefore promote well-being by the therapy of the subtle body (as in acupuncture or homeopathy).

            With regard to the inner journey, typically in this stage one acknowledges a wider outreach than our skin-bound representation of ourselves, portrayed as our self-image. This manifests as our trying to enhance the effulgence of our aura in meditation, for example. We also become sensitive to the effect of our inner attunement, and of our inner insight upon the configuration of our aura.

It is the exaltation of the spirit which is productive of all beauty.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            One begins to give credence to our inter-relatedness with all beings, we learn to shunt our consciousness into that of another.

One is in at-one-ment with all living beings and it gives one as much insight into another as the other person has of himself...not only the thoughts of that person, but his whole spirit is reflected in your spirit. In this consciousness, distance is no longer distance.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            This affects our outer journey because we become aware of the effect of our concupiscence, of our desire for material possessions or our ambition, and particularly of the unkindness towards others that may foster these gains.

            A further sign is in the domain of our thinking: we begin to think holistically. Instead of conceptualizing in categories of thoughts, we are able to reconcile the irreconcilables.

You realize that you are connected with all beings, that there is nothing and no one who is divided or separated from you.

 Man occupies a certain horizon, as far as he can expand.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            At this stage, one finds inspiration in communing with the attunement (tawajeh) of the beings towards whom one looks for guidance. This stage corresponds to the level called Arwah.

4) The need to be creative:

            Creativity surfaces by reaching out from inside. Our subtle body now acts as a feedback system that helps us be creative with our personality, which is actually a non space-like form. Now we gain further insight about ourselves by discovering ourselves in the way that the different pictures of ourselves are superimposed, and at the same time integrated in our personalities. As in a holograph, we can shift from one picture to another by modulating our focus. Thus, according to our attunement, we may recognize the innocent child in us within its distortion, intermeshed with the wisdom we may have acquired. Our progress in the inner journey is indicated here by our ability to extrapolate between these realities.

            Looking outside from inside, we learn to translate our attunement and insight into external forms - art, the environment - with which we surround ourselves - inventions, our handling of situations, etc.

At this level instead of idolizing a teacher, picturing his/her form or personality which one admires, one resonates with his/her attunement.

            Consequently we could define this stage in our inner journey as one in which we are gaining insight into the cosmic matrix of our being without losing its individual core. The journey avers itself to progress from our individuality to our cosmic dimension, instead of envisioning ourselves as discrete entities as we had done previously.

The process of going from limitation to perfection is called mysticism. ... Just as one's own sub-consciousness would awaken one at a certain time, if previously warned, in the same way the consciousness of God is the agency for awakening His manifestation. Yet man in this life of illusion has the same intelligence, the perfection of which he can realize in that state of consciousness where he is aware of his own perfection.

To become an illuminated soul is only a difference of consciousness.                    

When one is conscious of limitation, one is limited, when one is conscious of perfection, one is perfect.         

Therefore, our greatness or our smallness depends upon our consciousness. It is through consciousness that we become small or great, and through consciousness we either rise or fall, and through consciousness we become narrow or we expand.           

If consciousness of wealth makes one feel rich, and if consciousness of strength makes one feel strong, how much stronger and richer should he feel who is really God-conscious!                          

In the physical existence each individual is distinct and separate, but behind this physical existence all are one, the consciousness is one.

Akibat

By making many sacrifices, and practicing renunciation, he will attain that consciousness which is God-consciousness, in which resides all perfection.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            At this stage, instead of looking outside for guidance, one's guide is "whom one could be if one would be what one might be" - that is, the way God is in the process of becoming as oneself. The Sufis call this level Mithal.

5) We discover our celestial dimension:

            What are the clues to making the next step in the inner journey?

There comes a time in one's evolution when a passion is awakened in the soul that gives the soul a longing for the unattainable.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            There is an enticing longing to touch upon that intangible splendor of which we can only gather a clue at the existential level wherever beauty or majesty or excellence transpire - the sacred, perfection. This lies beyond not only our perception, but also beyond the grasp of our minds, and therefore is unattainable. This longing lures us further and further into a transcendental dimension, therefore our minds represent levels or spheres of reality beyond the existential.

In this experience the consciousness touches a sphere from whence it cannot get an impression of any name or form. The impression it gets is a feeling, a feeling of illumination, of life, of joy.

That which we see of our Beloved is the beauty displayed before our eyes; whereas that aspect of our Beloved which is not manifest to our eyes is the inner model of that beauty of which our Beloved speaks to us. There comes a time in one's evolution when every touch of beauty moves the heart to tears; it is at this time that the Beloved of heaven is brought to earth.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            It would evidence our simplistic way of thinking that it is to be found in the heavens (up there).

There is a place that you cannot reach by going anywhere.

Buddha

We occupy only as much horizon as we are conscious of. The next world is the same as this; and this world is the same as the next. Only that which is veiled from our eyes, we call the unseen world.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

This aspiration does inevitably have an effect upon our sense of values by making us weary of platitudes, of the commonplace, the trite motivations we see being pursued around us - which we ourselves had pursued.

There are strivings which pull one down in the eyes of others and in one's own consciousness, and there are strivings which raise one in the eyes of others and in one's own consciousness.

The moment a person feels that he will no longer remain in prison, the prison bars must break instantly of themselves.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

This will alter dramatically one's pursuits in the world.

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...Souls who have become conscious of the angelic spheres hear the calling of that sphere.

The more closely a person is drawn to heaven, the more the things of the earth lose their color and taste...Verily who pursueth the world will inherit the world, but the soul that pursueth God will attain in the end to the presence of God... The Soul's unfoldment comes from its power which ends in its loosening the ties of the lower planes...If you do not rise above the things of this world, they will rise above you.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

            However, Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan warns us against the sanctimonious disregard for what is important to others:

When he cannot put up with conditions around him, he may think that he is a superior person, but in reality the conditions are stronger than him.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

This longing will hoist one's consciousness into sublime spheres.
