Spirit Matters June 2021 by International Sufi Movement in Australia

Contents Editorial

Message from the National Representative

Message from Pir Nawab, Siraj-un-Munir

Universal Worship quotes by Hazrat Inayat Khan, contributed by Zubin

The Future of Universal Worship by Zubin

The Living Altar by Jelal Francisco Proaño

The Sacred Geometry of the Universal Worship by David

Kindling the Candles by Wali Vanlohuizen

The Sufi Temple in Cape Town, South Africa by Magda Alberts-van Essen

The Shared Table of the Universal Worship Service by Bhakti

On Being a Cheraga by Nuria

Yaqin’s Cherag Ordination

Cherag Circle

Serving the Message by Pir Nawab

Life, a Continual Battle by Hazrat Inayat Khan

The Unity of Religious Ideals by Nuria

Sacred Readings on the theme of the Unity of Religious Ideals

Social Gatheka 23, Music by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Celebrating the Centennial of Universal Worship by Azad

Topographies 2 by Karim

Contacts

Any text in light blue is a hyperlink. If you click on the page numbers on this page you will be taken directly to the article. Royalty-free photos used in this issue: Cover: Photo by Yaqin. Lanterns: Photo by Zahid Lilani on Unsplash. Candles: Photo by Artur Rekstad on Unsplash. Magpie: Photo by Beth Hope on Unsplash. Raindrops on leaves: Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash. Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine, Egypt: Photo by Seif Amr on Unsplash. Man with arms outstretched: Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash. Trees & riverbank: Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash. Desert in Morocco: Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash. Aerial view of coastline: Photo by Alex Siale on Unsplash.

Page 2 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Editorial This special issue of Spirit Matters celebrates one hundred years of the Universal Worship service conceived by Hazrat Inayat Khan. The first service was held in a house in London on the 7th of May, 1921. Since then there have been thousands of Universal Worship services held all over the world. To mark the centennial, Zubin and a number of other mureeds participated in an online discussion about the future of Universal Worship. You can find Zubin’s article about this special event on page 9. Pir Nawab has very kindly contributed to this newsletter as well and you can find Nawab’s thoughts about this very auspicious anniversary on page 7. We are very fortunate to have a number of articles written by a number of mureeds from around the world. Jelal from Ecuador has contributed an article about the Living Altar on page 14. David from Canada has provided some beautiful drawings and explanations about the Sacred Geometry of the Universal Worship on page 16. They have been published before in Spirit Matters but it seemed very appropriate to publish them again. From the Netherlands, Wali’s very eloquent article about the Universal Worship service and on being a cherag is on page 18. More of Wali’s articles can be found on his website: http://sufiviews.nl Magda’s fascinating account of the building of the Sirkar Sufi Universel in Cape Town, South Africa is on page 20. Bhakti’s recollections of becoming a cheraga is on page 23. Bhakti paints a vivid picture of Universal Worship services performed at various locations, including the dusty Outback. Nuria also shares her thoughts about becoming a cheraga on page 26. On page 30 we have a very apt sermon given by Nawab in 1995, entitled Serving the Message. We have some readings from the sacred scriptures contributed by Nuria, and a homily given by Nuria on page 42, and on page 53, you will find Azad’s article based on a homily that he gave in 2011. Following on from the last issue of Spirit Matters, Karim’s second essay in the series entitled Topographies is on page 58. You can find more of Karim’s articles online: https://tracksinapathlessland.home.blog Heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue, Yaqin

Page 3 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Beloved Sisters and Brothers Winter 2021 Autumn has been a busy time, and now we are coming into Winter. I have been involved with Rev Helen summers of Melbourne Interfaith in monthly Interspiritual Gatherings at St. Oswald's Church, where I would give a homily. The first one in March was on bringing Light from the Darkness, and the homily was on Music. The date of the Gathering was on Palm Sunday, so we had a rather small gathering, as many were on the Palm Sunday march in the city. Cath Connelly played her harp most beautifully - "Her music sits in that liminal space where music meets spirituality." I have known Cath for many years and have some of her CDs, so it was wonderful having live music to demonstrate its effect. I have played her harp music at our meditation sessions in the mornings of retreats, so some may remember it. Her piece of music 'The Thin Place' is a particular favourite.

The April Interspiritual Gathering happened to be on ANZAC Day, so the Homily was on The Battle of Life – Finding Peace. It was a topic I would never have chosen but one which led me into a new way of understanding the world - that one cannot have peace without war nor war without peace. This thought was mind-blowing for me, and I was not the only one troubled by it in the group. Page 4 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

We had a good turnout and great feedback and discussion. Leonard Cohen was a mystic and poet, so we used his moving and uplifting song Hallelujah with Cath playing it on her harp. I brought the words of the song, so we all sang along with great energy and enthusiasm. The words of Hallelujah reflect aspects of Jewish mysticism, and this was appreciated by those who were there. Now I've heard, there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor falls, the major lifts The baffled king composing Hallelujah Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you to a kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah You say, "I took the Name in vain I don’t even know the Name" But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn’t matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah

I did my best, but it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you And even though it all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah Due to amazing synchronicity, I just happened to find an old 1995 edition of the newsletter Caravanserai, which contained an excellent homily by Nawab on Serving the Message, given at the Spring Leaders retreat (1995) in the Universel Murad Hassil. So I scanned the relevant pages, and these too have found their way into this special edition on Universal Worship. In the meantime, we have had the 100th anniversary of the first Universal Worship service given by Hazrat Inayat Khan in London. Zubin organised a special Zoom Universal Worship service for 9th May for Australia on The Unity of Religious Ideals.

Page 5 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The homily and readings are included in this Spirit Matters. Writing the homily was a very illuminating experience for me as I read Volume IX on the Unity of Religious Ideals very carefully, together with the Cathas of Zarathustra. They contained some fascinating stories and history of Zarathustra and his teachings. Everything fell into place, and I finally realised much about Universal Worship and what it really means at a deep level. This celebration was very touching, and I especially found the children's reflections incredibly moving. How would it have been for us if we had been brought up in a Sufi family, knowing about the Unity of All? These young people were so confident and serene – deLightful! So it has been a very busy few months but I have loved exploring new topics. The next one for me will be on Deep Listening - the Aboriginal concept of Dadirri, Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness. Check out the Miriam Rose Foundation for a profound reflection on this sacred practice of Aboriginal Peoples of the Daly River region in the Northern Territory. Winter is the going inward and nurturing the inner life, the roots of our Being. Enjoy some rest and repose and listen to the Silence. Love, Nuria Page 6 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Page 7 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Universal Worship Quotes by Hazrat Inayat Khan, contributed by Zubin Hazrat Inayat Khan taught that the greatest purpose of religion, at any period, is awakening the divine spark of the human spirit which dwells in each person. Everyone has their own conceptions of religion which they hold as sacred. When the divine spark has been kindled in one’s soul, they feel inspired, and a greater power pours out through them. The awakening of that divine spark is living religion. There comes in time a fullness of a soul, when their service to the world and to humanity is a sign from a higher Spirit. This is evident in the life and teachings of all the great prophets, of Jesus Christ, of Muhammad, of Krishna, of Buddha and others who manifested the divine, and who, in their life expressed God fully. Through them a way of living a harmonious life was given to their followers. The Sufi Message of the Unity of Religious Ideals teaches us to respect all prophets and scriptures. No great teacher ever came on earth with the thought of dividing people into different sects. Nor did they come to make everyone the same, that would be like tuning all the keys of the piano to the same note. What is necessary is to understand how to create harmony among the different notes. When we come together for this message, we fulfill the desire of all the great prophets, and the Divine Will. The Universal Worship gives an opportunity to those belonging to different religions to worship together in harmony. It does not attempt to take anyone from their path, prophet or scripture. One learns to love one’s own religion and to understand the religions of others. It prepares us to sympathize with one another and to be blessed by all forms of wisdom which have come to us by the great Teachers of humanity. On the altar, candles are lit, and the scriptures of those who have taught wisdom are read. A talk is offered on the unity of religious ideals. The ones who seek the benediction of their prophet receive that benediction. Those who seek blessing from all these great ones who have come at different times, are blessed by all. Whether in a church or in an open place, when the altar of the heart is sincere, everywhere there is an answer to the feeling for worship. Thus, the work of the Sufi is to awaken in their heart the ever-increasing spirit of sensitiveness. With this the Sufi builds their character. They take themself to task if they lack beauty in expression, in thought, in speech, or in action. The expansion of the heart is the Sufi worship of God. Their love for all beings and for every being is their love for God, because the Sufi sees God in all. Love shown in friendship, forgiveness, sincerity, wisdom and devotion to family, to neighbours, to friends and to others, are actions of love towards God. Through the Universal Worship we may realize that there is one source from which all scriptures have come, and in this way we come to the realization which we seek through worship, through devotion: that there is only one truth. One should look at how they can be friends, how they can come to that one truth. For anyone who has ever reached it or will ever reach it, it is one and the same truth.

Page 8 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The Future of Universal Worship By Zubin The International Sufi Movement presented a webinar on the 15th of May, 2021, asking What is the Future of Universal Worship? We heard from spiritual leaders from other traditions and also from now mature young adults who grew up in Sufi households where Universal Worship services were held regularly. Two panel discussions addressed issues raised by the speakers and included questions from the audience. The panel comprised Pir Nawab Pasnak, Zubin Shore (Activity Secretary for Universal Worship), Darafshan Anda (Secretary for Brotherhood and Sisterhood Activity), and Sabura Allen. (Member of the Inter-Order Council in Eugene, Oregon) Hazrat Inayat Khan celebrated the first ceremony of the Universal Worship in the hope that followers of different religions might worship together in harmony. The webinar commenced with reference to the first Universal Worship conducted on the 7th of May, 1921, in a house in London. There was an acknowledgement that the ceremony was ‘divinely inspired’. It is experienced as more than the sum of its parts, from the kindling of the divine light; through the acknowledgement of all the prophets and scriptures that have gone before, and ‘all those known and unknown to the world who have held aloft the light of Truth through the darkness of human ignorance; to the final prayer to God, ‘the perfection of love, harmony and beauty’, residing in the heart of all human beings’ Listening to the experience of others is an important aspect of Unity, and the three spiritual leaders offered inspiring video presentations on broad ranging excerpts from Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teachings on the Unity of Religious Ideals. Those excerpts include:

Although those who have come to awaken humanity are different souls, there is but one spirit in them, and thus all that they have given to humanity is the same in essence. That religion which is the need of the human soul, has always been and will always be, - and not understanding that, man has very often revolted against religion. Intoxicated in a revolt against religion – man revolts also, ignorantly, against God, or form, or prayer, or anything which asks the deepest of his being. It has become the fashion to be an atheist. The outcome of this intoxication is that man is absorbed in material gain, and the spiritual gain and heavenly inspirations are away out of his sight. Father Jorge Julio Mejía, Minister, Society of Jesus, Columbia; Reverend Helen Summers OAM, Founder and Director, Interfaith Centre of Melbourne; and Rabbi Gabriel Hagaï, ordained Master and Lineage holder of the Path of Proximity, France; each gave brief responses.

Page 9 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

I highly recommend watching the online videos of their presentations. You can access the videos by clicking on the link at the end of this article. Only short excerpts can be included here. Any reporting here is unworthy of the inspiration they offered. All told stories, gave examples from their lives, and emphasised the importance of experience to deepen the belief that the same essence or spirit underlies all religions. Padre Jorge Julio Mejia: “We must preserve the unity that can only be realised in the heart, and thanks to the love that arises there, full of mercy, full of understanding and full of unity" “If we do not keep to the spirit in the texts that inspire the different religious traditions, we will not be able to understand each other, if we do not have in our hearts the possibility of accessing the spirit that all these texts have.”

Rev Helen Summers OAM: “The great spiritual prophets and messengers, taught from their own direct experience of the divine. Their teachings and the examples of their lives show that we too can experience the divine.” “For the spiritual journey, practice is needed, if we want to find water we need to dig a deep well. Our commitment to make time for our spiritual connection, on a daily basis, even when that commitment is not easy, will lead to that divine presence”.

Rabbi Gabriel Hagaii: “All religions are like instruments of a symphony. In a symphony you have many instruments, and every instrument plays a specific tune, and for the symphony music to arise, to emerge from the players, they all have to play together. And it is exactly like that with religions. We have all religions, and each religion is like a musical instrument, and you have the Message, which is like a tune, and the thing is that we have to play together. No musical instrument is better than another, no tune is better than another. It would be a reduction, it would be a loss of richness, of music, to play only one tune with all those instruments, or to reduce all the tunes to one instrument. Can you imagine the fifth symphony of Beethoven, played with only one hand on the piano? I mean it’s a loss of beauty.”

Page 10 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Panel discussion and audience questions reflected on the importance of listening to each other to remind ourselves of our essential Unity, the light of the message of the prophets, respect for religious ideals, learning from the written word, from experience, from service to others, the unifying aspects of poetry music and nature. I commend the speaker’s videos and the panel discussion to you.

Three people from South America and two from Australia responded to these questions: What was your experience of the Universal Worship growing up? How has the Universal Worship influenced you? What impression has Universal Worship had on your life What is your hope for the future of the Universal Worship? Are there any special stories or significant memories of Universal Worship you can share?

Tala Lopez: I am a young Ecuadorian Sufi. I am 26 years old, and I received my Sufi name and Sufi blessing when I was 5 years old by Murshid Nawab. The first time that I saw a Universal Worship ceremony it was in my first Sufi retreat, and for me the most important message that I received from the ceremony is that God’s light, God’s essence is present in every awakened heart. And also that there are many ways to know and to find God, through different sacred books, through different religions or paths and through different messengers. For the future I hope that the Universal Worship ceremony continues, bringing so much blessing and love and unity for this world that desperately needs it.

Taviz Lopez Puyol: Hello, I’m the daughter of Wali and Mujira, and the sister of Tala and Sita. I’m from Quito, Ecuador but I have been living in France since 2011. Universal Worship transmitted to me the idea of unity, of beauty, and this ability to find beauty in texts that could sometimes be contradictory or problematic at certain levels. It represented for me a moment when a common message could appear, overcoming the distinctions and differences that divide. And concerning my hope for the future of the Universal Worship, I hope that the message it carries will continue to spread and that the flame will continue to ignite hearts around the world. Page 11 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Vadan Betancur Gomez: I live in Columbia, a village where life goes on without drastic changes. Still, nowadays we find our inner search moves most intensely. I remember my father’s words when I asked him about birth and death. He shared his view with me, without imposing it on me. He told me ‘we all come from a divine, supremely abundant and generous light. As we are descending from there we take all the gifts, all the talents that we can, from that divine light. Then we arrive at life with a mission of sharing and expressing with others, those qualities that are hidden in our limited body.” Now I see the Universal Worship as the re-enactment of the source and destiny from which we all come and in which we participate beyond all the differences.

Yollana Shirin Shore:

I remember many, many Universal Worship services that were just a natural part of the environment of my upbringing. So for me to speak about the Universal Worship service now, it’s really thinking about what was is the impact to have that message of the unity of religious ideals as something like the air that you breathe, something that you take for granted in the formation of yourself as a person. For me I can say I’m very grateful to have had that message as a part of my growing up. I think its a beautiful and powerful practice.

Padraig Kabir Parkhurst: I’ve long felt that Sufism and the title Sufi isn’t something to be spoken of lightly, a title to be earned rather than used. With that disclaimer I will say that I grew up feeling a part of the International Sufi Movement and I still feel a closeness to the teachings of Inayati Sufism, and

Page 12 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

the Chistis more broadly. My parents became initiated when I was a year old, so as much as anyone in the West can be, I grew up surrounded by Sufism. To grow up in Sufism, was to me, to be immersed in music and poetry, especially that of other cultures. In our house there were sacred spaces, sacred because we treated them as such, and sacred texts. A little of the sacredness has brushed off on to music and poetry more generally. The prayers of the Universal Worship service felt like incantations, whose rhythms and intonations must be respected, along with the words themselves. Each week, or close to, we would gather in the worship room to perform a service, following which we would have tea and biscuits. While sometimes the readings from the service would be planned, more often than not they would be chosen at random. Pick a page and see where your eyes fall. I preferred this latter method, as the themes that emerged from it felt more organic. It was only later that I found out that this method is still used in Iran today to seek guidance from the writings of Hafiz and Rumi. But it was in this way that glances of the bits of the scriptures that aren’t usually drawn on, became visible. This going beyond the handful of passages that are usually referred to, led me to read some of these works from cover to cover, such as the Dhammapada, the Bhagavadgita and the Koran. It has been said that reading the Bible from cover to cover is a recipe for atheism. Thus far however, I have not found that to be the case. This familiarization with religion that the Universal Worship service provided, has instead, instilled a lifelong respect of both religious and cultural traditions which I hope to one day pass on to my children. All of the speakers blessed the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first Universal Worship. I will include Rabbi Hagaii’s words here: And may God Bless this 100th Anniversary of the first Universal Worship ceremony. May God bless you all. May you continue to enlighten the world with the light of spirituality, and the light of love and the love of goodness, and loving kindness and compassion, the light of wisdom. May we all worship God together, and elevate the consciousness of humanity to its real divine potential, that we may attain one day, Inshallah, by the will of God. May the blessings of god be upon you all. Thank you. An edited version of the webinar, The Future of Universal Worship, including eight speakers and two panel discussion and question sessions, is available online via this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1760nMRV-F51Scf_LB_6sF3kcHrbn_3yM? usp=sharing

Page 13 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The Living Altar By Jelal Francisco Proaño Jelal is a renowned sculptor who lives in Quito, Ecuador. He is also a Siraj of the Universal Worship.

In the Ceremony of Universal Worship with the Living Altar the sacred geometry remains intact; a glowing candle representing the Light of God, located at the top of the altar, sheds the radiance of its fire on the candles and books of the different religions arranged in the manner of a crescent moon. As the ritual unfolds, this light symbolically kindles the light of each religion and unveils the wisdom of the message zealously kept in the sacred texts of the religions like waves of the same sea. The ritual takes place exactly as it did one hundred years ago when Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan gave us this ceremony for the sun of the divine spirit to lighten the darkness of life, and for this each cherag with deep respect, appreciation and gratitude plays his role; one kindles the lights, another reads the selected texts of each religion, and the third delivers the sermon that concludes with the blessing.

Where does the original Universal Worship come from and how does it differ from the Living Altar Worship? We know that Murshid Hidayat Inayat-Khan was the first to do this at the Lake O'Hara retreats in Canada in the early 1990s, saying that this was his father's wish, and hence his determination to make it a reality. The retreats are an appropriate space because to have a living altar requires fifteen people in addition to the

Page 14 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

cherags. But it is not only a matter of replacing the brothers and sisters who hold the candles and books on the altar table that was always waiting for us ready in the hall; the most noticeable difference is that the altar is literally alive; the altar enters the temple in a solemn and orderly procession of white robes, giving the ceremony another dimension. The intimate and sober ritual that we know acquires an air of celebration, a great festival; one by one the candle bearers form the crescent moon, followed by those who carry the books as in the traditional altar. The cherags, as always, have their place in front of the altar. Then the different moments of the ritual take place normally until the blessing, which gives way to the departure procession. Before the procession starts, the bearers leave the candles and books on a beautifully decorated table waiting discreetly behind, so that when they leave, they leave the beautiful altar that we know. It is difficult to find the reasons for these occasional changes; perhaps it is only this yearning of human beings to seek and create beauty. In Latin America we do it every year in each retreat, it is already another of the exercises that occupy a good part of our time together and that help us to develop the bonds of love and brotherhood on our path. If we understand that natural religion is the religion of beauty, and true spirituality is not a fixed faith or belief, we can say that Universal Worship with a living altar is a welcome tool for our growth. Replacing the table with people while retaining the ritual allows us occasionally to rise above the barriers of norm and tradition, and for a moment to embody light and sound, to let the bearer of the candle or the book give a familiar and beloved face to the Message, to let the light of the candle join the divine light hidden in his soul and, like a burning torch, light the way, to let its voice be near and whisper in the ear of every heart, spreading its perfume around, touching souls. "When the soul is in tune with God every action becomes music". [Gayan, Boulas] When we perform Universal Worship we feel that we are serving God and as more of us officiate at the ceremony, we feel that each one is working for all, and so "His power works behind our action".

Page 15 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The Sacred Geometry of the Universal Worship By David Republished from Spirit Matters December 2016. Heartfelt thanks again to David for the wonderful drawings and explanations.

Divine Source

Unknown Unseen Unmanifest

Known Seen Manifest Point of Reception

The sacred geometry of the Universal Worship service was a project that Hidayat initiated in the 1980s at the Lake O’Hara retreats. It is interesting to know that Hazrat Inayat Khan himself initiated the geometrical exploration, as Hidayat recalled, by describing the formation of a pyramid over the altar as the service progresses. His life was not long enough to give us more personal guidance with this mystical concept. Hidayat encouraged us to develop his father's vision as a means to understanding the mystical qualities of the Universal Worship service. As a result, the Universal Worship can now be better understood as a visionary vehicle for experiencing the concept of the Divine Unity.

Page 16 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The dot is the most important of all figures, for every figure is the extension of the dot. It is the beginning. It is the One and All.

From the dot comes the line. From the line comes the cross. The vertical line represents Divine inspiration. The horizontal line represents material manifestation.

From the line and cross come the circle. The circle symbolizes the unity of the Divine and the material world. It symbolises motion, circular and spiral, in and out, the breath of life.

From the dot and circle come the Divine geometries, the mandalas. The eight-pointed star is derived from two squares set at an angle to each other, implying revolution and setting this symbol into dynamic motion. It corresponds to the musical scale of eight notes. It represents music as the universal language. The mandala is a ‘vehicle’ on which the ceremony of the Universal Worship can travel to its destination.

Inside the eight-pointed star can be found a square, representing the altar of the Universal Worship. The vertical and horizontal lines bisect the square, symbolising the known and unknown, the seen and the unseen. The centre of the square, the dot, represents the Divine at the centre of all things.

When projected into the third dimension, the dot (Divine Source) is located above the square (the altar). Joining the dot to the corners of the square creates a pyramid. The square plane represents man. The pyramid represents the relationship between God and man. The dotted back half of the square represents the unseen and the bottom pyramid, a reflection of the one above, represents the unknown. A crystal has been formed encompassing all aspects of the Divine and the material world. This crystal represents the power of transformation. It transforms single white light into the spectrum and vice versa. Thus, it is the symbol by which we can understand the One in All and All in One.

The altar for the Universal Worship is the half square at the centre of the mandala. On the surface of the altar is located a crescent moon shape, symbolising both the receptacle and the reflection. It is within this crescent that the candles representing the world religions are placed. The candle representing the Divine Light is located at the back of the altar under the symbolic dot. The crescent moon is created by the interaction of two circles relating to the geometry of the square and the circle of the mandala.

As the service of the Universal Worship proceeds the pyramid over the altar becomes more solid, the unity of God and man closer to realisation. In front of the altar, described by the inner circle of the crescent, is a five-star mandala, the symbol of illumination and the symbol of man. As the pyramid becomes more solid, the centre point of the five-pointed star, the heart of man, becomes a receptor point for the energy of the divine realisation. This point of reception is the location of the blessing at the culmination of the service. The star, symbolising man with outstretched arms, also represents the blessing. The solidification of the pyramid over the altar coincides with the giving of the blessing, the instantaneous link between man and God.

A large crescent shape is formed using the mandala circle as the inside circle of the crescent. In the service of the Universal Worship the crescent represents those who are attending, the receivers of the Divine illumination, as represented by the five-pointed star, the point of the blessing as transmitted by an attending cherag. The cherag giving the blessing is the messenger of the time, representing the heart of man in direct contact with the Divine. Hence the symbol of the star in the crescent moon, when understood how derived, is a significant symbol of the Universal Worship. The practice of all religions as one has the power of Divine realisation. The Universal Worship is one such form, and to the Sufi is a symbol of Sufism itself.

Page 17 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Kindling the Candles Contributed & translated by Wali Vanlohuizen From Soefi Gedachte, September 2010, Special Issue, 100 Years of Universal Sufism, pp34-37 For further articles refer to Wali’s website: http://sufiviews.nl

When invited for the first time to kindle the candles on the altar as a freshly ordained young cherag of only 17 years, I felt deeply pervaded by the splendour of the moment. To be allowed to transfer the Message as a living stream, to be a channel of light – light that is distributed but not diminishing. To kindle the light – that is the essence. To be receptive to what is alive, subtle, intimate, magnificent, radiant, which is warming the heart, and offering inner sight. For the ray of light that’s coming in is none else than the beam between your Origin, the Divine Sun, and the light of your inner self, the soul, your spirit. It raises your awareness receiving a glimpse of the divine consciousness. This is mysticism, the heart of religion. Mysticism is the motive of Universal Worship. That’s why it is universal. It is a vision of how religion originates in the kindling of the light in each of the six religions, each represented by a candle on the altar. Kindling is not just a grand symbol, it reveals an inner truth. For a moment, however short, the inner reality is unveiled. The Messengers of these religions acted as messengers of light. They reminded humanity of their very nature, light. The cherag is re-enacting their kindling. Page 18 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

What is fascinating to me in our Sufism is its magnificence, its subtlety and its intimacy at the same time – this touches me deeply and moves my heart. Particularly in how these three are interconnected inextricably. Magnificent is anchored in both the subtle and intimate, on the penalty of exteriorization - the light gets lost. On the other hand, when intimacy looses the view on magnificence it diminishes. The great task in universal worship is to optimize the inner tension en détente, a relaxed intensity. Our service is neither ritual nor ceremony. In contrast, it is a living stream, flowing from inside out, conveyed in love, creating harmony, radiating inner beauty; ritual and ceremony are but the instrument. A worthy vehicle for the Message. The cherag is the servant. Postscript: a few observations about the further functions in Universal Worship. The concept of kindling goes further: in reading the scriptures in Universal Worship, in selecting the passages, in preparing and speaking the ‘sermon’. Reading a text from the scriptures is as reviving the voice of that messenger, coming from a deep conviction in yourself. Selecting the text is looking for his voice: which scripture is the closest; is the translation adequate? Holding the sermon is as speaking from the spirit of the Message. Preparing the sermon after selecting the topic (which may be inspired from Gayan etc), it is suggested to read from Murshid’s teachings, evoking his spirit in your mind, reflecting your understanding of it, and then relating to the context in life today, where the message of this topic may resound. It is the reverse of choosing a nice topic that is not rising from the Message, and expressing one’s personal emotions. Giving the blessing is realized when the power and attunement of the altar is resounding in the words uttered in your voice, vibrating in your hands, arms and eyes. It is offering our limited self, charged with the purified qualities of mind and heart, to be guided, empowered and illuminated.

Wali’s remarks during the serai of 21 March 2021: The soul has three instruments. The body, the mind, and the heart, and in the practice of life, we identify with the body or sometimes with the mind, sometimes with the heart. And each seem to have a proper will by itself and these three wills are in conflict and are often in conflict with the identity of the soul. I see that - that as such a wonderful battle – trying to find the Light of the soul as our identity. And maybe, now and then, discover that light in the body when it may seem to radiate; or in the mind at a creative inspired moment, or in the heart when suffused with shining beauty. As a heritage from the angelic world or from the genius world, respectively. The peace of our soul as our identity – and to try and harmonise these three instruments into a wonderful harmony respecting each other’s identity in the Light of the soul, as a Divine Idea which is constantly working in our being. Page 19 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The Sufi Temple in Cape Town, South Africa By Magda Alberts-van Essen

Fortunately, it is again possible to hold services in the Sufi Temple again, but with COVID-19 precautions in place. The service on the 9th of May 2021 celebrated the centenary of the Universal Worship. The talk outlined gratitude for the past and hope for the future. Murshid’s presence was almost tangible... Afterwards there was a contemplative walk around the outside of the Temple, this being around a hundred steps. The first fifty steps focused on gratitude for the past, and the next fifty were to visualise the spread of the Universal Worship in the future. The ceremony ended with the gathering repeating together “May the message of God reach far and wide”. Hopefully the paragraph above gives an idea of how the Temple is used, and has been, for the last 42 years. The centenary service was approximately the 1000th Universal Worship held at the Temple, and over the years the atmosphere keeps building. The Sufi activities in Cape Town began in the early 1950s, led first by Sirkar van Stolk and then by Wazir van Essen. Sirkar and Wazir had worked closely with Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan from 1924-6 and both emigrated from the Netherlands to South Africa in the late 1940s or early 1950s. In the early years, mureeds’ classes, Universal Worship services and enquirers’ classes were held in private homes and in small rented halls. Sirkar van Stolk was a charismatic and much-loved leader and when he passed away in 1963 a need arose to commemorate him and his wish to spread the Message. It was felt that a step towards an earthly akasha for the Message would be appropriate and so a building fund was started towards a future Temple. This fund grew astonishingly. In the early 1970s a suitably secluded site was purchased in Newlands, a suburb of Cape Town. Without a big organized fund-raising drive, Page 20 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

more money came. A few years later it was decided to start building, even though there was still a shortfall of funding. And from then on things started falling into place. Wazir used to say that if a project was meant to be, the funding would come, and so it was. A young Sufi architectural student submitted a design for a Temple to his faculty, complete with a model of balsa wood and matchsticks. He had the Sufi Temple in mind, and received technical advice from a Sufi structural engineer. Pir-o-Murshid had indicated that such a Temple should have the shape of a sitting Buddha, and the design honoured this with a set of four geodesic domes. The central and highest dome symbolically represents the head of the Buddha, two of the lower ones are his knees and feet, and the fourth dome houses a cherags’ room, kitchenette and toilets. The domes are supported by brick walls and concrete arches.

In early 1978 an on-site blessing ceremony was held where the participants made a circle around the exact place where the Temple was to be built. It had been a rubbish dump, but after a big clean-out it was already a lovely spot surrounded by beautiful trees. Then a contractor built the brick framework and concrete arches, the stressed aluminium triangles for the dome were made by an engineering company, and the Sufis themselves, led by another engineer member, fitted the triangles which form the roof. Yet another Sufi, a garden architect, laid out the garden in between the existing trees. Apart from the financial support, many people contributed to the realization of the Temple dream and it is not possible to name them all. Yet it must be said that, while the birth of the idea was inspired by Sirkar van Stolk, the drive to its realization was led by Wazir van Essen, with his wife Zohra at his side. To honour Sirkar the full name of the Temple is the Sirkar Sufi Universel, though over the decades it has come to be known as the Sufi Temple. Page 21 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Building work was completed in early 1979 and in September of that year the bi-annual ten day long South African national summer school (or retreat) was held there, attracting quite a few prominent Sufis from Europe. In April 2020, during another national retreat, we commemorated the Temple’s 40 th anniversary. Since its completion two Universal Worship services have taken place there every month.

The altar, in the central dome, remains permanently in place, with the candles and books, so that in between services the altar still speaks of the unity of religious ideals. In normal times a mureeds’ meeting takes place every Wednesday evening. The side domes seat 150 people, but usually only two of these are used to accommodate the 35 to 55 people who attend services. The design and location of the building together with the regular Sufi activities there have built a special atmosphere of love, harmony and beauty, which is often remarked on by visitors. The beautiful secluded garden adds the dimension of nature. The Temple is also used for events such as yoga classes and weekend workshops on subjects sympathetic to the Sufi ideals. Although the COVID19 lockdowns have necessitated cuts in the normal programme, it was still possible for one or two cherags to come to the Temple for an abbreviated Universal Worship even during our strict lockdown, to keep the rhythm going. It goes without saying that the maintenance of a building such as the Temple and the surrounding garden involves a lot of work, much of which is undertaken by volunteers from among the Sufi community. Although the Temple is in a very secluded spot it has become fairly well-known in Cape Town, where it quietly fulfils its purpose as an akasha for the Message of God.

With this brief summary of the history of the Temple in Cape Town come warm wishes to Sufis everywhere, and an invitation for those who can make their way to Cape Town in the future, to come and see for themselves and to join in the local activities. Page 22 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The Shared Table of the Universal Worship Service by Bhakti (Originally published in Spirit Matters December 2020) When I first attended a Universal Worship service, I remember thinking, that it was beautiful, with a lovely atmosphere, but that it was not for me! Shortly afterwards we met Murshid Hidayat and were initiated. Murshid Hidayat offered us the gift of becoming cherags in the Universal Worship service, telling us that it would bring us ‘great joy’. Of course we accepted. I was given the role of lighting the candles and saying the first prayer. Although I had been raised as a good Catholic girl, I had long since left the Church and the world of formal prayer. I had been deeply influenced by both Buddhism and Krishnamurti, so did not ‘pray’ in any conventional sense.. I found Saum to be the most challenging of all the three prayers, but Hidayat had said that it would bring us great joy, and he had also hinted at the enhancement it would bring to our togetherness as a family. It was our task, and one, which we would fulfill willingly.

At the time we were initiated, Aziza commented, “Now, the work begins.” Within a very short time it literally began very fully with us both going to teach in a remote Aboriginal school, 530 kilometers west of Alice Springs. When we arrived in that remote desert community, having not received the wooden candlesticks we ordered before we left, we, on Zubin’s suggestion, improvised. Our first UWS held in our home in the desert, was with the dining table as an altar, and the UW candles stuck onto plastic plates with Blu Tack. There were no flowers to be found in that remote environment, and so I made do with a few scraggly bits of greenery. There was not much beside red sand to greet us. We closed the door to the community and entered the world of the sacred. Page 23 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

I remember the excitement when the candles finally made it to Kintore, arriving on the mail plane. Such joy! As often as we could, we celebrated the Universal Worship service every Sunday night, a very private family service, with our robes and candlesticks on our dining table, closing out the world and retreating into our own sanctuary. I can’t tell you how much joy, sanity and happiness it brought to our frenetic lives. In a fax, Hidayat told us that in celebrating the Universal Worship service there, we would be opening a conduit for those ancient energies to manifest. It felt a very sacred duty indeed. Often tired, we would be refreshed after the service and ready to start another week. Our children grew up with the Universal Worship service, and would later read the scriptures or light the candles. As they grew older and we moved to northern New South Wales, it became a Sunday morning celebration, where we would break out the fine china and have morning tea with scones, and almond biscuits on conclusion. We often sang the blessing together, and the children performed pieces for the musical interlude. When we went on holidays to Adelaide we carried a suitcase full of candlesticks and robes to share the service with Moulabaksh’s group in Adelaide. This was because on one visit we had to improvise with an ancient menorah and a Meissen candlestick perched precariously on a cake tin. Not good for the nerves of a clumsy candle lighter. Except for visits to Adelaide and Summer Schools it was a family event. We, at one time hired a room in the nearest country town, and opened the Universal Worship service to the public, putting out flyers and providing tea and cake afterwards. We had two participants in all the months that we pursued a more public practice! Then we bought a church!!! After a few attempts at a more public life, it once again became a private service. I used to conduct the service often in an empty church, with the door ajar, giving the sermon on whatever readings opened at the time. We were also involved in interfaith services, and on one occasion shared the Universal Worship service with the Harmony Group at the University of New England. We had a participant from each tradition bring a reading on the subject of harmony. We sometimes used our church for concerts. At one of these concerts we were privileged to have the internationally acclaimed Sikh musician Dya Singh and his group give a concert of devotional songs. In talking with him about the church, he told me the story of his father who was a musician in India. He was practicing at the temple, lost in communion with the Beloved, when an old man entered. He kept playing when the old man rose to leave. He rushed to offer hospitality to the old man and asked him why he was leaving. The old man replied, that the temple was full already, that there was no room, presumably because there were so many celestial beings, who had come to listen to the inspired music. I felt heartened that he was speaking to me directly saying that our prayers were never unheard.

Page 24 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

In Holland, Murshida Rabia Ana Perez Chisti spoke of her first public Universal Worship service, where she had prepared for her first public service with a beautiful altar, readings, sermon and refreshments, and advertised with flyers, to find that nobody came. Disheartened, she considered abandoning the service, when she heard a voice asking her to “Do it for Me.’ She did, and she re-delivered her first public sermon again to the assembled congregation of the Murad Hassil. We have celebrated the Universal Worship service in a number of different settings, including interfaith gatherings, where different participants brought something from their tradition to the shared table. Like shared meals, the fare is not always to everyone’s taste. Some are overly proud of their own cuisine, and will only try a little taste of another’s. Some are enthusiastic participants, sampling all cuisines. Some will listen and not take part, others offer suggestions for improvement! I love this concept of the Universal Worship service as a shared meal where everyone brings a plate. I remember my own initial response – nice, but not for me. Then our beloved Murshid prepared a special dish for us, telling us that we would grow to love it, and that it would nourish us, and bring us great happiness. He asked us to prepare it and eat regularly. Gradually the cooking has improved, so that the dish does sustain us. It has become a dish that we are proud to share with others, and hope that they will grow to love it as much as we do. As bearers of the light, we have the opportunity to provide a shared table for others to explore the eternal Message of Love, Harmony and Beauty, that flows through all religious traditions and all beings who ‘whether known or unknown to the world have held aloft the Light of Truth.’ Towards the One…

Page 25 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

On Being a Cheraga By Nuria

It was in the January of 1999 that I first attended an Australian Sufi Summer School in Adelaide. At this time, I first met Nawab and the many Sufis from around Australia who were there. It was at this Summer School that I was ordained as a cheraga by Nawab, although I confess to knowing very little about what this meant at the time.

Later that year, I attended an International Sufi Movement Summer School in Katwijk and met Pir-O-Murshid Hidayat for the first time and felt great love and joy in his presence. He made me smile. The siraj and cheragas at the Summer School attempted to teach me how to officiate at a Universal Worship, but I had great difficulty taking it all in, and I think that they must have despaired of me. But what I remember clearly was how the sacred scriptures were handled – beautifully, with the greatest devotion and respect. These teachings came from God, and that was communicated in the way the books were held and placed. Some years after this, when Safa and Yaqin moved to Melbourne, Safa not only trained us as cherags but drilled us over and over again until we got the Universal Worship service right. This training covered the feeling, tone and sacred geometry of the service. It was a good grounding. Safa also wrote a training manual for cherags, which is still being used. We in Melbourne began to take part in the Universal Worship services at our Australian Sufi Summer Schools. This is not to say that we did not make mistakes. In the heat of the moment, the mind goes blank, and things are forgotten. Nawab was very understanding, but he made sure that we got it right and learned from our mistakes. There was always a de-briefing afterwards! Over the years, I began to understand the meaning of the service and the sacred geometry of the altar and the participants. But it was by preparing the homily for Universal Worship that I learned the meaning behind the service. When I searched the

Page 26 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

sacred scriptures on a topic, I discovered that, in truth, all the great beings were talking about the same thing. All religions have the same base and come from the same source. The words, the time, the culture, are all different, but the meaning is the same. This was profound. The homily grew out of the readings. In this way, I began to realise the Unity of Religious Ideals that Murshid talks about and appreciate the Universal Worship in many ways and on many levels.

There is one memory I would like to share. One Winter retreat many years ago, we were having a Universal Worship service. I think it was after the homily that an Australian magpie walked into the room in front of the altar and looked at us. Total silence. I have never seen a magpie come right into the venue like that before or since. She would have walked through the kitchen, past reception, down two long corridors to get to us. We were told that she usually visits the kitchen begging for scraps but this was at the other side of the building. We felt it was a sacred moment and I still wonder what it means. Magpies are very clever. What was she seeking – what was she giving us?

Page 27 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Yaqin’s Cherag Ordination 22 April 2021

Page 28 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Cherag Circle

On the first Sunday of each month commencing on the 6th of June 2021, Zubin will hold a Cherag Circle from 9 -10.30am AEST by Zoom. All are welcome. Enquiries: zubin.shore@sufimovement.org Cherag - Farsi chirāgh, charāgh: lamp, light; guide, director. The term cherag is also used to refer to one who is ordained in the work of the Universal Worship of the Sufi Movement.

Bearing the Light Rain-diamonds, this winter morning, embellish the tangle of unpruned pear-tree twigs; each solitaire, placed, it appears, with considered judgement, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds — the indivisible shared out in endless abundance. Denise Levertov (British-born American poet, 24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997)

Page 29 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Serving the Message By Nawab Pasnak. A sermon given in 1995 at the Spring Leaders’ Retreat in the Universel Murad Hassil

We read in the Hindu scriptures: Shining yet hidden, Spirit lives in a cavern. Everything that sways, breathes, opens, closes, lives in Spirit, beyond learning, beyond everything, better than anything, unliving. It is the undying blazing Spirit, that seed of all seeds, wherein lay hidden the world and all its creatures. It is life, speech, mind, reality, immortality. It is there to be struck. Strike it my son! Take the bow of our sacred knowledge, lay against it the arrow of devotion, pull the string of concentration, strike the target.

We read in the Buddhist scriptures: In this world hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible. You too shall pass away. Knowing this, how can you quarrel? How easily the wind overturns a frail tree. Seek happiness in the senses, indulge in food and sleep, And you too will be uprooted. The wind cannot overturn a mountain. Temptation cannot touch the man Who is awake, strong and humble, Who masters himself and minds the law. If a man’s thoughts are muddy, If he is reckless and full of deceit, How can he wear the yellow robe? Whoever is master of his own nature, Bright, clear and true, He may indeed wear the yellow robe.

We read in the Zoroastrian scriptures: He, through his Holy Word, did first declare, His Light shall stream through all the Lights on high; Himself, all wise, the Law of Truth declared, That his light might glow as Love Supreme, Make it blaze higher, Mazda, through the grace Of Thine own Spirit, evermore the same. Thus may I realize Thee as the First, And also the Last O Mazda, in my mind, As Father of all Love, of Vohu Manu; Thus may I ever hold Thee in mine eye, As the true parent of the Eternal Law, As Judge Supreme of every act of man.

Page 30 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

We read in the Jewish scriptures: Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is King of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the nations; God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The prince of the peoples are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham; for the shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. We read in the Christian scriptures: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be sound, thy whole body shall be full of light. We read in the scriptures of Islam: Listen on the day when the Crier will call from near: The day when men will hear the fateful cry. On that day they will rise up from their graves. It is We who ordain life and death. To Us all shall return. On that day they earth will be rent asunder and they shall rush from it in haste. To assemble them all is no difficult task for us.

Page 31 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

We read in the Gayan: Verily the heart That reflecteth the divine light is illuminated. Verily the heart that is respondent to the divine word is liberated. Verily the heart that receiveth divine peace is blessed. Verily the heart That repeateth the sacred Name is exalted. Verily the heart that cherish the love of God will be crowned with divine glory on the last day. Beloved ones of God, The service of the Universal Worship is one of the many treasures left for us by our Master. With the spreading of the light from candle to candle across the altar, and the reverent recitation of sacred passages from the holy texts of the religions all across the world, it gives a beautiful picture of the ever-present radiance of the Spirit of Guidance. As we say in the words of the prayer Salat, “Thy light is in all forms, Thy Love in all beings,” and in this ceremony we celebrate the light and love which has come as a Message in from the denseness of the earth. Perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects of this service is to be found in the words of the different scriptures, each one presenting the same truth in a different way. Consider these examples of the language of light: in the Upanishads, we hear, “Shining yet hidden….the Spirit lives….it is the blazing undying spirit…..” In the Zoroastrian scriptures, it is written, “His light shall stream through all the lights on high…..the law of Truth declared that this, his light might glow as love supreme….” And in the New Testament, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be sound, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Or compare the spiritual purity of that Christian verse with that of the Buddhist text Temptation cannot touch the man Who is awake, strong and humble, Who masters himself and finds the law.

This play of similarity and differences in the voices of the Message is full of implication for us. But what do we really mean by voice? In physical terms, when the

Page 32 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

impulse arises in us to speak, as for example, when we pray, we bring into play an arrangement of muscles and structures to produce a vibrating column of air, a column which we shape with lips ad tongue to give meaning. The process is identical in every speaker – and yet, we each have our own distinct voice, as unique as a fingerprint. Even if we wish to, we cannot sound like anyone else. In just the same way, when the Spirit of Guidance has played upon the hearts of the Messengers, in each case, it has sounded a different note – although the source of inspiration has been the same. In the case of the Messengers, the variations have little to do with their personal natures, for the awakened ones do not teach from a personal point of view. It is more a difference of surrounding, for clearly the surroundings will influence the expression. Our Master often talks about the Message being like life-giving water, it takes different shapes, here the form of a pitcher, there the shape of a tank. Or, if we return to our metaphors of sound, imagine, if a sensitive and highly trained musician such as our Master were to sing under different circumstances – for a few friends in a social setting, say, or for his murshid, or by himself, high in the mountains just before dawn – in each case he would probably choose different music and render it with different feeling. In the same way the messengers, responding to the unstruck music of the divine, have given voice to it in different ways, in ways that were appropriate to the hearts of the hearers. Remember, the messenger ‘comest on earth when Dharma decayeth’ because there are souls that long to be uplifted. Someone once asked our Master, “Why are you here?” He replied, ‘A few were ready, and so I came.” So it has been with all the Messengers. In this way, not only have the needs of the searching souls been satisfied, but the evolution of humanity has been helped along by the expression of various idealized archetypes of divinity. In the Universal Worship, we acknowledge this, offering our reverence, our homage and our gratitude for the light of different Divine qualities. In the Hindu tradition, we see wisdom, in the Zoroastrian faith, we see purity, and so on. Of course it is not that we see that quality only in the indicated faith. The Buddha saw that all life is interconnected and the pain of one is ultimately the pain of all. Therefore he taught compassion for the suffering of all beings; but Jesus Christ, the embodiment of divine self-sacrifice said: ‘Love one another,’ and how can there be love or self sacrifice if there is no compassion? To return to our musical analogy, we could regard the expression of divinity this way: when a note is sounded, for example, when a string is plucked, we hear a certain tone – but as Pir O Murshid Hidayat pointed out earlier this week, if we listen more carefully, we will come to hear other tones contained in that note. There is a dominant tone, but there are also overtones of all the other notes of the scale, all sounding simultaneously. In the same way, the Messengers, the ones who have tuned themselves to the scales of heaven, have each sounded a particular note, a note that would resonate in the hearts and minds of those around them, but they nevertheless contained the whole scale – which might perhaps suggest the origin of their great charm. Page 33 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

It may be that in our consideration of the faiths of the world, of the Message as it has been given in different times, we tend to overlook that unseen part of the music – those to whom the music has been played. If we do so, it is not surprising – the beauty of the messenger lives on for thousands of years, making their words glow brightly long after the individual to whom they were spoken has faded from memory. And yet, it is worth considering the listener as well, for he or she has a role to play, the most important role. The Message of each messenger has this in common, the awakening vibration. As our Master said, the Message may sound like a soothing lullaby to those who prefer their sleep, but it is a clarion call for those who are ready to awaken. Life sleeps in the rock, but when the rock has been crushed, purified, melted and formed, it may at last become the fine strings of a musical instrument. Then the Life Eternal may pluck that string and through its movement awaken vibrations in its surroundings. This principle is beautifully illustrated by the construction of the sitar, which has an array of strings which are not struck directly, whose only purpose is to ring in sympathy with the sounded notes. By our sympathy to the Messenger, we also begin to vibrate in resonance with the Message, and help to amplify and to spread a vibration which is intended to awaken the entire world.

But now, a question might be asked: if we see wisdom in the Vedas and compassion in the sermons of the Tathagata, purity in the Zend-Avesta, divine law in the Bible, selfsacrifice in the New Testament and unity in the Koran, then what qualities might we see in the Sufi Message? It is a question worth asking because each one of us here today has, in all humility, offered ourselves to the work of the Message. We have felt a call from above and wish to answer. Like the body of a violin, we wish to catch the sweet note played above us, and amplify it for all to hear. But what is the dominant tone of that note? Of course, each one of us will answer that call in our own way – we cannot do otherwise, just as we cannot speak with another’s voice. And yet there must be a particular Divine quality expressed in the Message of our Master. What is it? In the words of our Master, words which have been quoted several times this week: “If anyone asks you, ‘what is Sufism?’ you may answer, ‘Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which one thing is most important, that is to seek God in the heart of mankind.’” By heart, we do not mean the physical organ that beats within our chest but the center of a person, the depth of the mind, and the seat of feeling-the most sensitive place within us that forms a bridge between heaven and earth. The Nizam of Hyderabad once wrote, ‘If only one knew how large the heart is! It accommodates heaven and earth, all the sea and all the land.” In Sufi Teachings, Our Master writes, “People look for wonder-working and surprises, for phenomena of all kinds. Yet the greatest phenomenon, the greatest surprise and the greatest wonder is to be found in one’s heart. If there is anything that can tune man to the highest pitch, that can tune the strings of his soul to the right note, it is only by the tuning of the heart. Page 34 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The one who has not reached his heart, has not reached God. ..If a miracle is to be found anywhere, it is in the heart, for when God has tuned the heart, what is there which is not to be found in it?” This is the essence of the Sufi Message – the tuning of the heart to the proper pitch, so that it can play the music for which it was created by destiny. And because we are humans, and not angels, we learn in our first lessons of love not in heaven, but here on earth. There is an old Christian hymn which says, “If you can’t love one another, how can you love God, Whom you have not seen?” And you know the the story about the great Persian poet and master Jami. Someone came, asking to be accepted as a student and shown the path to spiritual truth. Jami asked the would-be student, “Have you ever loved in your life?” The seeker replied, “No, never.” Jami said, “Go and love, first. When your heart has been melted in the fires of love, I will show you the way to truth.” Of course, to find that inner source, we must first do some excavation. We have spent a week here, digging hard within ourselves, working side by side to reach fresh water. Sometimes, perhaps, it is discouraging, but we have the encouragement of Our Master that if we dig long enough and patiently enough, in time the spring is released, and it begins to water our life with love, as it was intended. And that is the way to spiritual liberty which Sufism can offer the world today, the precious awakening of the heart which allows one to hear, in all humility, the voice of our Beloved speaking from within and from the center of everyone one meets. We only have to look at the emblem of the flying heart to confirm it. When we are able to overcome the limitations of ‘I’ and ‘my’, the heart becomes at last aware of the beauty of the Divine Presence, and rises in ecstasy above all distinctions and differences. From that viewpoint, names and forms matter little, as it becomes clear that we are all brothers and sisters of one single family. Therefore, the Sufi approach to spirituality might be understood as this: the one whose heart has been struck by beauty dissolves in love, and thenceforth strives to harmonize with all, regardless of belief, origin or grade. The more we can show that heart quality, the more we will be doing the work of the Message. It does not matter so much that we preach or teach, as long as we regard each one we meet as a brother or sister. And how much greater should our feelings be for the members of our Sufi family? If we do not overlook each other’s faults and open our hearts to each other, we have for that moment, turned our backs on the Message. But the moment we say, ‘Brother!’ or ‘Sister!’ from the bottom of our hearts, we have made the Message come to life. So let us go forth from this gathering with that light of Brotherhood and Sisterhood burning brightly in our hearts and whatever work we may be given on behalf of the Message, let us always be conscious of the privilege of belonging to this family- and if we truly see the light of the Spirit of Guidance in each other’s hearts, we will surely be in harmony with the Message of our Master.

Page 35 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Life, a Continual Battle (1) By Hazrat Inayat Khan From Volume VI—The Alchemy of Happiness Because life means a continual battle one's success, failure, happiness, or unhappiness mostly depends upon one's knowledge of this battle. Whatever be one's occupation in life, whatever be one's knowledge, if one lacks the knowledge of the battle of life one lacks the most important knowledge of all. The question arises, of what does this knowledge of life's battle consist? It comprises the knowledge of warfare, how to fight and how to make peace. Human nature very often makes the mistake of taking sides, either the side of war or the side of peace. But if one studies the history of nations and races one will find that it was this mistake which often caused their failure. There have been times when nations and races have developed in their character the knowledge of peace, for instance people such as the Hindus with their most ancient civilization; but it could not bring them complete satisfaction as one side of human nature was neglected and misunderstood. War comes from God in the same way that peace comes from God. A fruit has to go through many processes in order to become ripe and sweet. Sunshine and rain are both needed to make the fruit ripe; and that shows that war and peace both have their place. But with our limited understanding we do not always comprehend the justice of what is done to us. For instance, if a man had lived through all civilizations, he would think very differently from the ordinary man of today; and so it is with God in regard to His knowledge of the entire world. We are too limited to understand. In this present age it seems that the knowledge of warfare has developed; but on the other hand the knowledge of peace is absent; for the full knowledge of warfare is both the knowledge of battle and the knowledge of peace. This can be learned according to the mystics by battling with oneself, and by bringing about peace with one's own soul. The life of an individual being is not very different from the Life of the world. An individual person's home is not different from the world. An individual's body and mind and spirit form the whole universe. An individual life can fill the gap between the dawn of creation and the last day. Man does not realize how important is his own life, his self; and the study of his own life and his own self is a study of the greatest importance. A healthy person has waiting at his door several illnesses, several diseases, waiting for the opportunity when they can attack him. A person with wealth has many who wait at his door for the chance to take away from him what he possesses. A person about whom good is said, has many awaiting a moment when something bad may be said about him. A person who has power or position, how many are not waiting for the opportunity to pull him down and see him slide down from the place where he stands!

Page 36 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

And what does this show? Why is it so? One may give a thousand reasons, and yet no proper reason. The best explanation one can give is that life is a continual battle. The process of creation began like this. According to science light comes from friction. It is one power against the other power, fighting; and from these two different forces striking upon each other comes an effect, and that effect in reality may be called life. In this lies the secret of both love and hate. One sees in the animal kingdom that the first tendency of the animals is instinctively to fight one another. This tendency becomes modified; and it is its modification and its reduced force that produce in them what we call virtues. As it is said in the Quran that the world was created out of darkness, so wisdom comes out of ignorance. And the best knowledge is not only the knowledge of all that is good and beautiful, all that is harmonious and peaceful, but also the knowledge of the causes that are behind all the conflicts and all the battles chat one has to face in life. The reason why man generally lacks this knowledge is because when he is faced with a battle he wants to fight, instead of first wanting to learn how to fight. And the one who goes into life's battle without first acquiring the knowledge of warfare loses in the end. But one who learns about this warfare of life first learns its reason and its causes, becomes more capable of fighting the battle of his life. Christ pointed to this secret when he said, 'Resist not evil.' This means that if one resists or wants to fight a battle every time something in another person appears wrong or unjust, one will lose one's power. For the competent general is not the one who always attacks. The competent general is the one who stands firm in defence. His success is more secure than the one who is continually attacking. Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won, it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word. For this battle in life the first thing that is necessary is to keep the army in order. And what is this army? It is one's nervous power. Whatever be one's occupation, profession, walk in life, if one has no control over one's own nerves one will be unable to control that walk in life. Today people study political economy or various other kinds of economy, but the most essential economy is economizing the forces which make one healthy and strong through life. This army must be drilled and made to work at command. And one will find the proof of this when one can sleep at will, when one can rest and eat and work at will; then that army is really at one's command. The officers of this army are the faculties of the mind. These faculties are five: the faculty of retaining thought, the faculty of thinking, the faculty of feeling, the faculty of reasoning and judging, and that faculty in man which is the principal one, the faculty of 'I', or ego. Even in a body with strong nerves, when these five faculties which work

Page 37 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

as the generals of the army are not in working order, not clear, one cannot expect success in life's warfare. One should further study or practice the art of training these generals of the army in one's own body. Even with an army and with competent generals one must, however, have the knowledge of what one is battling against. For very often man is battling with his own real interest. During the battle it is an intoxication; he is battling but he does not know 'where he is going, and at the end of the battle, even if he is victorious, he will find that his victory is a loss. Today there seems to be a great seeking and enthusiasm everywhere; a new kind of urge seems to be aroused in humanity to understand life and truth. A very large number of people are looking for the best way of gaining the power needed to battle through life; and a small number again are looking for some way of bringing peace to themselves and to others. But both of these in their pursuit lack that balance which can only be brought about by understanding, by studying, and by practicing the knowledge of war and peace together. Without knowing about war one cannot thoroughly know about peace; without understanding peace one cannot thoroughly know about war. What is necessary at the present time is the study of life in general, and that means the knowledge of such questions as what is the purpose of life, what is really beneficial, what is nature, and where is the goal. It is no use practicing something before studying it. What does worldly wise mean? It means expert in this warfare of life; to know how to battle, how to make peace, why to battle, and what aim is accomplished by peace. But it should be clearly understood that the battle with oneself means peace, and the battle with another war. If a person has not practiced this on himself he cannot be competent to battle with others. When one discovers what is the secret behind this creation, one finds that out of one life, the origin and the goal of all, this life of variety has come. That is why the nature of the life from which this world of variety has come is peace, and the nature of this life of variety is war. One can neither be without war nor without peace. One might say that all war in life should end, but this has no meaning; one might just as well say that the world of variety should not exist. Where there is plurality there must be conflict; and although conflict seems a tragedy, the true tragedy is ignorance. Instead of wanting to end the battle of life, or instead of opposing peace, one should gather knowledge of life and thereby attain to the wisdom which is life's purpose.

Life, a Continual Battle (2) In this continual battle of life the one who stands firm through it all comes out of it victorious in the end. Even with all power and understanding, if one gives up through

Page 38 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

lack of hope and courage, one has failed. What brings bad luck in this life, in this battle, is a pessimistic attitude; and what helps man to conquer in the battle of life, however difficult, is an optimistic attitude. There are some in this world who look at life with a pessimistic view, thinking that it is clever to see the dark side of things. To some extent it is beneficial to see the difficult side also, but the psychological law is such that once the spirit is impressed with the difficulty of the situation it loses its hope and courage. Once a person asked me if I looked at life with a pessimistic attitude or if I was an optimist. I said, 'An optimist with open eyes'. Optimism is good as long as the eyes are open, but once the eyes are closed then optimism can be dangerous. In this battle drill is necessary. And that drill is the control over one's physical organs and over the faculties of mind. For if one is not prepared for this battle, however courageous and optimistic one may be, one cannot succeed. Another thing is to know something about this warfare; to know when to retreat and when to advance. If one does not know how to retreat and wishes always to advance, one will continually be in danger and become a victim of life's battle. There are many people who in the intoxication of life's battle go on battling, go on fighting; in the end they will meet with failure. Young people, strong and hopeful, who have had fewer difficulties, may think of nothing else but battling against all that stands in their way. They do not know that it is not always wise to advance. What is necessary is first to fortify the position and then to advance. One can see the same thing in friendship, in business, or in one's profession. A person who does not understand the secret of the law of warfare cannot succeed. Besides one must protect one's own on all sides. Very often what one does in the intoxication of the battle, is to go on and on without protecting what belongs to one. How many people in the courts and in law cases, for perhaps a very little thing, go on spending and spending money! In the end the loss is greater than the success. Again, how many in this world will perhaps lose more than they gain only because of their fancy or pride! There are times when one must give in; there are times when one must relax things somewhat; and there are times when one must hold fast the reins of life. There are moments when one must be persistent, and there are moments when one must be easy. Life is such an intoxication that although everybody thinks that he is working in his own interest, hardly one among thousands is really doing so. And the reason is that people become so absorbed in what they are trying to get that they become intoxicated by it, and they lose the track that leads to real success. Very often people, in order to get one particular benefit, sacrifice many other benefits because they do not think of them. The thing to do is to look all around, not only in one direction. It is easy to be powerful, it is easy to be good, but it is difficult to be wise – and it is the wise who are truly victorious in life. The success of those who possess power or of those who perhaps have goodness, has its limitations. One would be surprised if one knew how many people bring about their failures themselves. There is hardly one person in a hundred who really works for his true advantage, although everyone thinks that he does. The nature of life is illusive. Under a gain a loss is hidden; under a loss a gain is hidden; and living in this life of illusion it is very difficult for man to realize what is really good Page 39 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

for him. Even with a wise person, much of his wisdom is demanded by life and by its battle. One cannot be gentle enough, one cannot be sufficiently kind; the more one gives to life, the more life asks of one. There again is a battle. No doubt the wise gain most in the end, although they have many apparent losses. Where ordinary people will not give in, the wise will give in a hundred times. This shows that their success is very often hidden in apparent failure. But when one compares the success of the wise with that of ordinary people, the success of the wise is much greater. In this battle a battery is needed. And that battery is the power of will. In this battle of life arms are needed. And these arms are the thoughts and actions which work psychologically towards success. For instance a person says to himself every morning, 'Everybody is against me, nobody likes me, everything is wrong, everywhere is injustice, all is failure for me, there is no hope.' When he goes out he takes that influence with him. Before he arrives anywhere, at his business, profession, or whatever he does, he has sent his influence before him, and he meets with all wrongs and all failure; nothing seems worthwhile, there is coldness everywhere. And there is another person who knows what human nature is, who knows that one has to meet with selfishness and inconsideration everywhere. But what does he think of it all? He thinks it is like a lot of drunken people. He thinks they are all falling upon each other, fighting each other, offending each other; and naturally a sober person who is thoughtful will not trouble with those who are drunk. He will help them, but he will not take seriously what they say or do. In this world of drunkenness a person who is drunk naturally has to fight more than he who is sober, for the latter will always avoid it. He will tolerate, he will give in, he will understand; for he knows that the others are drunk, and he cannot expect better from them. Besides this, the wise know a secret, and that secret is that human nature is imitative. For instance, a proud person will always revive the tendency of pride in his surroundings; before a humble person even a proud man will become humble, for the humble one revivifies the humbleness in him. From this one can see that in life's battle one can fight the proud with pride, but also with humility and sometimes gain by it. From the point of view of the wise human nature is childish. If one stands in the crowd and looks at it as a spectator, one will see a lot of children playing together. They are playing and they are fighting and they are snatching things out of each other's hands, and they are bothering about very unimportant things. One finds their thoughts small and unimportant, and so is their pursuit through life. And the reason for life's battle is often very small when it is looked at in the light of wisdom. This shows that the knowledge of life does not always come by battling. It comes by throwing light upon it. He is not a warrior who becomes impatient immediately, who loses his temper suddenly, who has no control over his impulses, who is ready to give up hope and courage. The true warrior is he who can endure, who has a great capacity for tolerance, who has depth enough in his heart to assimilate all things, whose mind reaches far enough to understand all things, whose very desire is to understand others and to help them understand. One may ask, how can one distinguish between the wisdom of the warrior and his lack of courage in the battle of life? Everything is distinguished by its result. There is a well-

Page 40 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

known saying in English that all is well that ends well. If at the end of the battle the one who was apparently defeated has really conquered, doubtless it was through wisdom and not through lack of courage. Very often apparent courage leads to nothing but disappointment in the end. Bravery is one thing; the knowledge of warfare is another. The one who is brave is not always victorious. The one who is victorious knows and understands; he knows the law of life. What is sensitiveness? Sensitiveness is life itself. And as life has both its good and evil sides, so has sensitiveness. If one expects to have all life's experiences, these will have to come through sensitiveness. However, sensitiveness must be kept in order if one wants to know, understand, and appreciate all that is beautiful, and not to attract all the depression, sorrows, sadness, and woes of the earth. Once a person has become so sensitive as to be offended with everybody, feeling that everybody is against him, trying to wrong him, he is abusing his sensitiveness. He must be wise as well as sensitive. He must realize before being sensitive that in this world he is among children, among drunken men. And he should take everything, wherever it comes from, as he would take the actions of children and drunken people; then sensitiveness can be beneficial. If together with sensitiveness one has not developed one's will power, it is certainly dangerous. No one can be spiritually developed without being sensitive; there is no doubt that sensitiveness is a human development. But if it is not used rightly it has a great many disadvantages. A sensitive person can lose courage and hope much sooner than another. A sensitive person can make friends quickly, but he can abandon his friends quickly too. A sensitive person is ready to take offense, and ready to take everything to heart, and life can become unbearable for him. Yet if a person is not sensitive he is not fully alive; therefore one should be sensitive, but not exaggeratedly so. The abuse of sensitiveness means yielding to every impression and every impulse that attacks one. There must be a balance between sensitiveness and will power. Will power should enable one to endure all influences, all conditions, all attacks that one meets from morning till night. And sensitiveness should enable one to feel life, to appreciate it, and to live in the beauty of life. It is true that by the cultivation of will power one sometimes persuades oneself wrongly; there is that danger; but there is danger in everything. There is even danger in being healthy; but that does not mean that one must be ill. One must acquire balance between power and wisdom. If power is working without the light of wisdom behind it, it will always fail, because power will prove to be blind in the end. What is the use of the wise person who has no power of action, no power of thought? This shows that wisdom directs, but that one accomplishes by power; that is why both are necessary for the battle of life. What is most advisable in life is to be sensitive enough to feel life and its beauty and to appreciate it, but at the same time to consider that one's soul is divine, and that all else is foreign to it; that all things that belong to the earth are foreign to one's soul. They should not touch one's soul. When objects come before the eyes they come into the vision of the eyes; when they are gone the eyes are clear. Therefore one's mind should retain nothing but beauty, all that is beautiful. For one can search for God in His beauty; all else should be forgotten. And by practicing this every day, forgetting all that is disagreeable, that is ugly, and remembering only what is beautiful and gives happiness, one will attract to oneself all the happiness that is in store.

Page 41 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The Unity of Religious Ideals Homily given by Nuria on the 9th of May 2021 Beloved Ones of God. From the dawn of creation, humans have understood and transmitted the Divine Message. Indigenous peoples have their belief systems related to the natural world – the sun, moon, planets and constellations, rocks and mountains, trees, plants and animals such as Lion and Eagle. Fundamental to all religions have been Light (Sun) – the Divine Light, and Water – the Water of Life. Early civilisations of the Indus Valley brought forth the Vedas and later the Upanishads, the worship of Shiva and the great Avatars Rama and Krishna. Rama was the first Prophet and Ideal of the Hindus – he was trained by a Sage in all aspects of life and warfare. Princess Sita chose Rama from all her suitors, recognising him as her husband and Lord. The Ramayana is their most sacred scripture that tells of Rama's marriage to Sita. They lived happily together in the forest for many years, but Ravana, the king of Lanka, abducted her. He had been one of her suitors. She steadfastly lived only for Rama and refused Ravanna so Rama fought a great battle and brought Sita home again.

The life of Krishna is an ideal – Krishna means God – for he was god-conscious. Krishna, having no parents, was brought up by Yashoda, his foster mother, symbolising that earthly parents are only guardians, our real father/mother being God. Krishna was fond of butter and learned as a child to steal it from everywhere. Wisdom is the butter of life. When milk (life) is churned through a wheel, it comes out as butter, so wisdom is gained. Krishna stealing butter means that wherever Krishna found wisdom, he learned from it. Krishna benefited from everyone's experience. When he observed someone make a mistake, he learned from it. He did not only learn from his own experiences, but from others, so it was 'stolen'. The Bhagavad Gita is the teaching of life's warfare. The life of Krishna showed his people, the Gopis, a way of souls seeking perfection, recognising the Divine in natural human life. The whole of life in an immanence of God. Krishna was worshipped as a baby, as a husband with his consort Radha, and as a warrior – all aspects of his life were revered. Buddha was born a prince, but his philosophy and teachings were a reaction to the extreme idealism of the Brahmins. He saw the pain and suffering in the world and knew that human nature seeks happiness. Out of compassion for humanity, Buddha searched for a remedy for the limitations of life. In the study of life, he found that observation and analysis cleared reason of all darkness; he shone light into the darkness and produced clarity. He searched for the reason behind the reason of every situation. Buddha means reason, the Spirit of Guidance is called the Bodhisattva, who is the essence of reason. Reason in its essence is liquid; the cream is intelligence.

Page 42 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Zarathustra is said to have been born from the Huma tree - the tree of life. His spiritual attainment began with his relationship with nature. He appreciated, adored and worshipped the sublimity of nature and saw wisdom hidden in the whole of creation. From nature, he learned and recognised the being of the Creator and acknowledged His perfect wisdom. He meditated alone in a cave, and there he experienced visions of Ahura Mazda, Lord of Life and Wisdom. He travelled from village to village with his cousin, preaching what he had learned. At last, they were invited by the ruling Prince Kavi Vishtaspa to explain his new doctrine. Certain courtiers became jealous and smuggled dead matter, human hair bones, putrid nails under the pillow of the Prophet who stayed at the inn. He was accused of practising black magic and thrown into the dungeon. Immediately Vishtaspa's favourite horse was rolling on the ground in agony as his four legs disappeared into his stomach. No healers in the land could cure him. When Zarathustra heard this, he offered to cure the horse. But before he would cure the horse, there were four conditions: The first that Vishtaspa should embrace the new doctrine. He agreed, so Zarathustra stroked the right leg of the horse and recited prayers. Immediately the leg straightened. The second condition was that Zarathustra be taken to the queen's chambers to whom he would explain the new faith, and if she was convinced of its truth, she would embrace it. Permission was granted - Zarathustra convinced the queen, who gladly accepted the new faith. Zarathustra stroked the left leg of the horse, recited certain prayers, and this leg too straightened. The right represents the outer, and the left represents the inner. The Prophet's third condition was that the crown prince be asked to swear on his sword that he would accept the new faith and spread it throughout the land and beyond. The Prince agreed – the third leg straightened as Zarathustra stroked it and recited prayers. His last request was that the innkeeper be summoned and made to swear on pain of death, to tell the truth as to how the putrid matter came to be under the pillow of the Prophet. The innkeeper confessed the truth, pointing out those courtiers responsible. Vishtaspa ordered them beheaded, but Zarathustra pleaded them to be banished instead. As they were led out of the city, the horse was completely cured. The king was totally supported in his kingship. Zarathustra believed that plants, animals and humankind lived in perfect harmony with one another until a hostile spirit erupted and poisoned existence. One of his central teachings was the Gaush Urva which means the Soul of Cattle. In India, the cow is a sacred animal. She is gentle, meek and shy but complained that she was subject to aggression and violence, which crushed her. In answer to her prayer, Zarathustra was born. She blessed the Prophet and his followers and prayed that they might establish a peaceful existence through the good Mind both for the herdsman, his herds and mankind.

Page 43 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

In the Bhagavata Purana, Mother Earth wearing the shape of Cow goes before Indra, chief of the gods, and in the same words of Gaush Urva complains that she is oppressed and begs for a saviour. In answer to her prayer, Lord Krishna is born. In the Vedas, the cow is associated with the light of dawn. So we see that there are elements of the Vedas reflected in Zoroastrian belief.

Zarathustra extends his help to the suffering cattle and all animals, wild ones and wolves included, and the poor, downtrodden, and oppressed people who cry out for justice. He invokes the wisdom of the Good Mind so that he can inspire them to fight for their rights against corrupt princelings, evil-minded chieftains, and brutality.

Kneeling bull holding a spouted vessel. Proto-Elamite, Susa, Iran. Around 3100-2850 BC. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Zoroastrians were fire-worshippers. Sun is the symbol of Truth and Wisdom, so Fire plays a key role in the Zoroastrian Gathas as well as the Vedas. Atar (fire) represents the Fire of Thought both in Ahura Mazda and in the mind of Man. The Lie is burnt by Truth. Fire is a substitute for the sun. So Zoroastrians worship the God Ahura Mazda by looking at and bowing to the sun – the Light – the inner light of the soul. They keep a constantly burning fire in their place of worship. Fire purifies all things, and the Light within purifies all souls. Zoroastrians also worship before running streams of water, and water surrounds the central fire in their temples.

Page 44 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

The main point in the Teachings of Zarathustra is the path of goodness – the Good Mind / Truth. He separated goodness/Truth from badness/the Lie. God was all Good, and Satan was all bad. It allows humankind to understand evil (the small self) and the good (higher self or Divine) within us. Murshid argues that this split has deprived many of the realisation of God as the only Being. Everything is God, and God is everything. We learn to look for the good in the bad and the bad in the good. Everything contains its own opposite. Abraham was the father of three great world religions, with Jesus descended from Isaac and Muhammad from Ishmael. Abraham was a great mystic and yet lived the life of an ordinary human being. He was prepared to sacrifice his beloved son for the love of God. It symbolises the complete crushing of the human ego, of the limited self that can only be done for a higher gain. It is about self-control and mastery of the ego. The next step is self-sacrifice which is the inner religion of Christianity. Enoch was a great mystic who appears more in the New Testament than in the Torah, but whose teachings have been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and were known to the Essenes and Zoroastrians. Enoch encountered God on Mount Sinai and was said to have walked with God until he was no more. He did not die an earthly death but became one with the Divine. Moses experience of God on Mt Sinai was like a volcanic eruption – full of Light, Fire and the noise of trumpets – it was dangerous and went through his whole being so that he was in a state of illumination - in the annihilation of his small self. It was complete self-denial. Like Enoch, he was no more when he walked with God. Following this, Moses communicated with God regularly on Mt Sinai. God promised to lead Moses and his people and gave him the Laws – the ten commandments to guide him. Moses spoke with God as to a friend just as Zarathustra spoke with Ahura Mazda. In the gospels, Jesus takes Peter, James and his brother John the Apostle with him and ascends the holy mountain. Once on the mountain, Jesus "was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light." At that point, the Prophet Elijah representing the prophets and Moses representing the Law appear, and Jesus begins to talk to them. The essence of all that can be taught to bring out the good in the soul of mankind is to be found in the Beatitudes as taught by Christ.

The essence of the Beatitudes is to be meek and mild in ego. Ego is tyrannical, and all tyranny in the world is caused by ego. When ego is illuminated with divine knowledge, it begins to fade. It loses its tyranny and becomes mild – poor in spirit. When we detach from the things and people that we love and rise above the demands of the ego, we mourn – it is a great loss. We learn from the challenges of life and are comforted by the knowledge that we have been guided. Everything that happens, happens for a reason. We use reason to see the cause behind the cause for everything, much as the Buddhist teachings tell us. Blessed are they that mourn.

Page 45 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

If your Word is meek and sweet, you can win the world. But again, this means mastery over the ego. To be humble and sweet. To hunger and thirst after justice and righteousness, we must choose the path of Light over the path of darkness. We must choose the path of the Good Mind, just as Zarathustra also taught.

We must awaken mercy in ourselves before we can receive it from heaven or the earth. The Divine is merciful – we are not punished for our many shortcomings so that we can be merciful to others. Mercy attracts mercy. Blessed are the pure of heart: for they shall see God. This purity of heart is in thought, feeling and action – a purity that realises all as God and God as all. Peace and war are part of one of the same thing, we cannot have peace without war, and we cannot have war without peace. We must have insight into ourselves and into our enemies – to know yourself and your enemy is the art of war. But it should be clearly understood that the battle with oneself means peace and the battle with another means war. One can neither be without war nor without peace. Blessed are the Peacemakers. We must be steadfast in our beliefs and stand firm – not concerned if we go against the grain or norms of society. There are times when it seems that there is no gain in righteousness, but we will have achieved the kingdom of heaven in doing so. Often we will be persecuted for our beliefs, and people will say and do all manner of evil against us, as Zarathustra discovered, but if we hold faith as he did, the lie will be uncovered. Jesus experienced God speaking to him directly after his baptism - he then retired to the desert for forty days and forty nights to battle with his ego and overcome the temptation of the world. He returned to teach, heal the sick, bring justice to the poor and oppressed. All messengers had to battle with life, their enemies and often those closest to them. All Messengers have come to the earth with the Divine Message when Dharma decays – when the social system and structure breaks down, and there is a great need for a new unfolding of the message. Each message is suited to the time, culture and evolution of its people. Jesus came as a reaction to the materialism and power of the Pharisees when he overturned the tables of the moneylenders in the Temple, healed the sick and distressed and gave succour to the poor and oppressed. He taught self-sacrifice – overcoming ego or small self, and like Zarathustra was killed for it. Muhammad was an orphan, his mother a widow. Widows and orphans were badly treated in society in those days. He lived in the world, was a merchant, travelled and understood its peoples. He was known to be honest and trustworthy. His marriage to Khatija showed him as a man of devotion, loving, honourable man as a husband, father and citizen. Muhammad spent long periods in contemplation and meditation in the

Page 46 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

mountains of Gar-i-Hira. He experienced the Divine while meditating in a cave. There he heard the Word of inner guidance and was told to 'Cry out the sacred Name of the Lord'. In this, he found the echo of the Word which he heard repeated in the whole of nature – the sky, the moon, the plants all repeated the same Name. In Islam, the message was meant to unite humanity in one brotherhood, and yet it was found necessary to train individuals according to their evolution in life. Training was given in four grades, namely shariat, tariqat, haqiqat, and marifat. Shariat means the law, which is necessary for the generality to observe in order to harmonise with one's surroundings and one's self within. The law of shariat deals with all aspects of life, and that is why the Prophet of Islam had personally to experience all aspects of life. The Prophet as an orphan, as a warrior, as a politician, as a merchant, as a shepherd, as a king, as a husband, as a father, as a brother, as a son and a grandson, had to play different parts in various aspects of life in the world before he was ready to give this divine Law. Tariqat means the understanding of law besides the following of it. It means that we must understand the cause behind everything we should do or not do, instead of obeying the law without understanding it. Those who are less evolved are supposed to have faith and to submit to the law. The law is for those who cannot accept things that cannot be explained by reason. Haqiqat means knowing the truth of our being and the inner laws of nature. This knowledge widens man's heart. When he has realised the truth of being, he has realised the one Being; then he is different from nobody, distant from no one, one with all. This is the grade in which religion ends, and Sufism begins. Marifat means the actual realisation of God, the one Being when there is no doubt anywhere. When these four grades are accomplished, then Sufism comes into full play. Sufi comes from Saf, meaning pure; not only pure from differences and distinctions but even pure from all that is learnt or known: that is the state of God, the pure and perfect One. We see that the messengers and prophets have experienced the oneness and unity of the divine in nature and the world. They have talked with God and known the Spirit of Guidance. We learn to know the love, wisdom and intelligence of the source, trust the divine will and continue the battle of life in the inner and outer realms. In the Gayan, we find the wisdom of our Murshid; we see unity, love, harmony and beauty in nature and in the world. In this, we can find the answer to all our questions. May the Message of God reach far and wide.

Amen

Page 47 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Sacred Readings for Nuria’s homily on the theme of the Unity of Religious Ideals We read from the Hindu scriptures. The Form of the Lord in the Heart. One should meditate upon Krishna within the heart and make Krishna the ultimate goal of life. But for those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable – the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth – by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.

We read from the Buddhist scriptures: All the Buddhas are wonderful and glorious. There is not their equal upon earth. They reveal to us the path of life. And we hail their appearance with pious reverence. All the Buddhas reach the same truth. They point out the path to those who go astray. The Truth is our hope and comfort. We gratefully accept it’s limitless light. All the Buddhas are one in essence, Which is omnipresent in all modes of being, Sanctifying the bonds that tie all souls together, And we rest in its bliss as our final refuge.

We read from the Zoroastrian scriptures: Listen to the noblest teachings With an attentive ear. With you penetrating mind discriminate Between these two mentalities, Man by man, each one for his own self. Awake, to proclaim this Truth Before the Final judgement overtakes you. (Ys.30.2)

Page 48 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

With hands outstretched in adoration, and with fervent prayer in measured verse welling up from my heart, I would encircle You, O Mazda and you, O Truth, and you, O Good Mind, skilled in Virtue, for I am one of the faithful.

We Read from the Jewish Scriptures Exodus 19:16-19 and 33.7-19 When morning dawned on the third day, there was thunder, lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud blast of a horn. All the people in the camp shook with fear. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord had come down on it with lightning. The smoke went up like the smoke of a fiery furnace, while the whole mountain shook violently. The blasts of the horn grew louder and louder. Moses would speak, and God would answer him with thunder. Moses said to the Lord, "You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favour with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

We read from the Christian Scriptures: Philippians 2:11 (Imitating Christ’s Humility) If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of purpose Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but, in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of the others. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw Page 49 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more because God took him away. Mathew 5.3.12 Then Christ Spoke: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of Justice, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

We read from the religion of Islam: An –Nur Allah is the light of the heavens and of earth, His light is like a niche, Wherein is a lamp, The lamp encased in glass, The lamp as it were a shining star, From a tree the lamp is kindled, Whose oil is neither from the east or west, Whose light would well-nigh shine out, Even though flame touched it not, It is Light upon Light, Allah guideth into this Light whom he will, And Allah setteth forth parables to men, For Allah is the knower of All Things.

We read from the Gayan: What does it matter if Krishna was Christ, or Brahma was Abraham? One thing is true: that there was, there is, and there always will be a knower of God, a lover of souls, a server of humanity. The man who tries to prove his belief superior to the faith of another, does not know the meaning of religion.

Page 50 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Social Gatheka 23 Music By Hazrat Inayat Khan Humans have a longing for the Divine, and music is a way of bringing light into our lives. Music raises the soul of man to the highest realms. Every soul is not necessarily tuned to that pitch that it can benefit from music, nor is every music necessarily so high that it will exalt a person who hears it. However, for those who follow the spiritual path, music is most essential for their spiritual development. The reason is that the soul who is seeking for truth is in search of the formless God. It is, therefore, that in ancient times many of the prophets have been great musicians.

Sunrise on Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine, Egypt. Photo by Seif Amr on Unsplash.

There is a well-known legend of the life of Moses, a legend which tells how Moses heard a divine command on Mount Sinai, in the words 'Musa ke', Moses, hear' or 'Moses, ponder', and on this the revelation that came to him was of tone and rhythm, and he called it by the same name 'Musake'. And the words such as 'Music' or 'Musiki' have come from that word.

Page 51 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

David, whose song and whose voice have been known for ages, his message was given to the world in the form of music. The Goddess of learning, of knowledge among Hindus, whose name is Saraswathi, is always pictured with the Vina, and what does it suggest. That all learning has its essence in music. And besides the natural charm that music has, music has a hypnotic power, a power which can be experienced even now. It seems that the human race has lost a great deal of the ancient science of sound and music - our soul longs for music and harmony. Sound can be experienced at an inner level – the harp, the veena, distant bells, drums. It is not surprising that angels are so often depicted with a harp. They make heavenly music. Music reaches further than any other impression one gets from the external world. The beauty of music is that music is the source of creation. In other words, by music, the world was created, and it is again music with which it is withdrawn in the source which has created it. We read in the Bible that first was the Word and the Word was God. That 'word' means sound, and from sound, you can grasp the idea of music. Then there is an Eastern legend that has come from centuries ago, the legend that when God made man out of clay and asked the soul to enter, the soul refused to enter in this prison-house and then God commanded the angels to sing. And as the angels sang, the soul entered, being intoxicated by the song. In the traditions of the past, it was said that on the Last Day, there will be the sound of the trumpets before the end of the world. This shows that music is connected with the beginning of creation, with its continuity and with its end. Music is a source of meditation, and by so meditating, we can derive much more benefit than those who meditate without the help of music. We can experience the unfoldment of the soul, the opening of the intuitive faculties, and the heart, which opens to all the beauty which is within and without, uplifting us, and at the same time bringing that perfection and light for which every soul yearns. When we listen into music, nothing else exists. It can transport us onto other realms. When we concentrate on the music, there is no thought. The ego is at peace.

Page 52 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Celebrating the Centennial of Universal Worship By Azad This article is based on a homily that I gave at a summer school in 2011. As this is the centenary of the celebration of Universal Worship I decided to ‘dig out’ my printed copy of the homily and see if what I said still had some relevance in this ever-changing world, especially now as it is being ravaged by Covid 19. On second thoughts, it is not the Earth, but the human race which is be bearing the brunt of this virus – some people are of the opinion that this is payback by the earth for our poor custodianship of our planet! This brings to mind a poem by Gregory Orr: This is what was bequeathed us; This earth the beloved left And, leaving, Left to us. No other world But this one: Willows and the river And the factory With its black smokestacks. More of this later…. Back to the homily, where I said : ‘In some of the readings that we have just heard, the Hindu, the Buddhist, and the Zoroastrian, we are trying to get sense of the majesty and the mystery of God/Allah. The God of All Names and yet of No Names. “Brahman says….This is my Self within my heart, greater than the earth, greater than the atmosphere, greater than the sky, greater than all these worlds. All works, all desires, all scents, all tastes belong to it; it encompasses all this universe, does not speak and has no care”….. The Lord Buddha says: … “when I used to enter an assembly, I always became, before I seated myself, in colour like unto the colour of my audience, and in voice like unto their voice. I spoke to them in their language and then with religious discourse, I instructed, quickened, and gladdened them. My doctrine is like the ocean, having the same eight wonderful qualities….” But even though these attempts to give us some idea of a ‘concept’ of God, we soon realise that God/Allah is beyond all conception of the human mind.

“To try and conceptualize God, is to dethrone God” ( Pir-o-Murshid Hidayat).

Page 53 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

A concept is an abstract idea – an abstraction is the process of considering ‘something’ independently of its association or attributes. We humans are a questioning species: ‘Why I am here?’ Is there something better than this? What, if anything, is the purpose of my existence?’ I’m pretty sure most people have asked these questions or at least something pretty similar to them. So, acceptance is really ‘the’ very necessary attribute for us ordinary mortals to comply with, or to accept, if we are to make any sort of meaningful progress on the path to enlightenment. Many messengers have come on this earth and have taught and exhorted us with the divine message, but we, as yet, as a species have generally failed to heed their entreaties. “The message is the answer to the cry of the individual and collective souls. The voice of God is speaking all the time, but no one listens; therefore, God has manifested as man that He might speak with yet a louder voice. But even then man doesn’t listen. In the time of Christ, the inspiration was there, the voice was there and the divine power; but how few were those who listened and understood! It has always been so, and it always will be so” Murshid gives us a reason for our unwillingness to listen, and more importantly to act on these calls or entreaties. He goes on to say: “There are egos that are not willing and ready to accept all that attracts them. The more something attracts them, the more they rebel against it, suspecting it of being a temptation. Even if they see the reality of something that attracts them they consider the tendency of being attracted to be a weakness. There are egos who refuse to accept what their friend has accepted, and refuse to admire fully what that friend has admired. And even if they really wish to accept something that their friend has accepted, they will refuse to do so. For the tendency of that ego is to swim against the tide; it is the strength of that ego” (2011 Summer School Booklet) Strangely, or synchronistically the reading from the Bowl of Saki that day, the 17 th of March, St Patrick’s Day, 2011 read: “Verily He/She is victorious who has conquered him or herself ” And there is the nub of the problem, we humans will not easily or willingly submit ourselves to another’s will very easily, even it is God’s will. God may have manifested him/her/itself (despite God being genderless if you truly believe in a God!) in many guises but we should never, ever believe that God is somehow limited by these manifestations. I then referenced all the readings in the Universal Worship that had just been read. God was clearly present in all of these readings, but God was not limited in any way by this, quite the contrary! All of the gospels or readings displayed our sense of yearning for some sort of comprehension as to why we exist as a species at all! Do we really need to be reminded, continually, as to what is our purpose in life? Our purpose is to complete ourselves - a task left unfinished by God – purposefully! Why this reluctance on our part? Well, we have already been given the answer! It is our

Page 54 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

ego! Our self-inflated sense of importance that we have attached to ourselves, in what we think, what we do, and in our perception of who we think we are! If we accept, or believe that there is a greater purpose or a greater power then we have taken a step in the right direction, but this is only a step, albeit a significant one. It is the steps that follow which are of equal significance. All of the scriptures in this particular Universal Worship service pointed to a path that would lead to that direction. This path to making the message of Sufism not only significant to the individual, but hopefully by our examples, we would hopefully encourage, dare I say, even inspire others to help spread the message. A possible pitfall here is if we were to get the idea that somehow we were ‘more spiritual than others’. The problems posed by having what is called a ‘spiritual ego’ can be even greater than that which I would call the ‘ordinary’ ego. So, what are we to do? Here is the last verse of a poem – I don’t know who the poet was: The world is a temple teeming with idols So many gods, so many selves So many idols for us to break, But break as many idols as you may break, As long as you remain as a self There is one more idol to break. (Translated from Urdu) Sufism has no do’s or don’ts! This initially was one of the great attractions for me. The idea of being free from rules, regulations and dogma appeared to me to be very freeing and would be easy to adapt to. This was a mistake on my part; I couldn’t have been more wrong! It is difficult to be on the Sufi Path! It is challenging to be on the Sufi Path! At times it can be – as it must be – a solitary experience! So, do we ordinary human beings need reference, or anchor points, to give us some stability when we feel vulnerable or exposed? Well, preparing or searching through the world’s scriptures for a Universal Worship ceremony can be a reassuring exercise. Finding the similar themes and similar message, albeit expressed in the translations of the world scriptures, can be a reassuring lesson in validity and spirituality of, or in these diverse, and yet similar, messages. I recently had the task or pleasure of looking for the readings of the Australian centenary celebration of Universal Worship, and from the Christian scriptures I selected the reading of the Christ when he gave the Sermon on the Mount. All of the Eight Beatitudes were read out. Just, over eleven years ago I finished the homily and, believe it or not, synchronicity has

Page 55 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

again had a part to play. Here is the way that I ended the homily, verbatim: And Jesus when he preached the Sermon on the Mount said: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill. And finally, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. What a wonderful template to live one’s life to! Again, we could ask “So, what are we to do?” I, for one, have added the eight beatitudes to my daily practices! In the video of the celebration of the centenary of Universal Worship, Padre Jorge Julio Mejia gives a wonderful conclusion to his contribution. He said: I lived an experience promoted by the World Council of Churches, of bodies that worked in the social field and were from different Christian traditions. We were going to carry out an ecumenical experiment, which was not theological, which was not rational, and we set as our motto: To love and serve the poorest. And in serving the poorest of our neighbours we found that we had one soul, we had one heart, in service we served each other, we felt that we were one community and our unity was a marvellous service. We must preserve the unity that can only be realised in the heart, and thanks to the love that arises there, full of mercy, full of understanding and full of unity. Be well! What beautiful sentiments! Re-read that last paragraph! If we, as Sufis, only followed the sentiments expressed in that last paragraph we could claim, truly, to have completed ourselves! When we look at the carnage that has happened, and is now happening in Palestine, and closer to home at the treatment of our own indigenous peoples, it is worth repeating a the statement that was made in 2017 at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention held over four days near Uluru in Central Australia. It states:

We, gathered at the National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,00 years ago . This sovereignty is a spiritual nation: the ancestral tie between the land or ‘mother nature’ and the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must

Page 56 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. And still, they wait just for a simple acknowledgment in the Constitution of Australia of what is a simple established fact, and one that any other nation, in the world would be proud to say, that we have one of the oldest existing civilisations on this planet. Four Years on….. and still, they wait! Here is the full poem This is what was bequeathed us by Gregory Orr that I started this article with:

This is what was bequeathed us; This earth the beloved left And, leaving, Left to us. No other world But this one: Willows and the river And the factory With its black smokestacks

No other shore, only this bank On which the living gather. No meaning but what we find here. No purpose but what we make. That, and the beloved’s clear instructions: Turn me into song; sing me awake.

Page 57 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Topographies 2 (Stories and Metaphors on the Path of Return) by Karim

Refer to Karim’s blog site for further articles: https://tracksinapathlessland.home.blog The Muslim prayer known as the Opening or Al Fatiha, which the faithful recite at least five times a day every day, asks Allah/God to ‘guide us on the straight way, the way of those upon whom thou hast bestowed their blessings’, ‘not on those who have been condemned (by Thee) nor of those who go astray!’ Surah 1

Shari’ah literally means the well-trodden path that wild animals take to the waterhole. Tariqa is that path; it is also the path between oases or waterholes in the desert. Haqiq’ah is the source, Truth itself, literally in this case the sustenance of all life, the ‘waterhole.’ One does not need to become a Muslim to appreciate the beauty of such formulations as this.

It is through adherence to some form of acceptable behaviour (law) both on an individual and on a social or societal level that one walks the path into existence and it is from a deep inner need that one repeatedly has to have recourse to this water of life. Thus we find that what was first merely a ‘wild animal’ increasingly becomes used to/ tamed by adherence to a particular (because well-trodden) path, that carries him/her to the Sustainer of all life, in this case epitomised by the presence of the waterhole. Here in these three simple terms one finds the whole path to God realisation laid bare. It is up to us to walk that path into existence within ourselves. Page 58 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

It occurred to me in reflecting on this process to explore what a ‘straight way’ or ‘path’really is. As already seen in the Muslim’s daily prayers the supplicant asks God to lead him or her on this ‘straight path’ and not the crooked path. Whilst at first glance this may seem easy enough to understand, in fact such understanding is subject to ongoing modification as one’s awareness of this ‘path’ deepens.

There is a story, heard long ago, concerning pilgrims moving towards a sacred mountain from all points of the compass. If one were able to witness all of these individual and collective journeys at the same time, one might be forgiven for imagining them doing anything but following a straight path converging on a single point. Indeed, if one were able to witness these journeys at night, with each group of pilgrims holding aloft lighted torches, it would appear that their journeys were following perhaps quite random paths. Only one perspective allows us to see these snakelike progressions for what they are, and that is directly above the mountain itself, for the ground they each traverse is according to where they come from, and what they need to do to arrive at their destination. Similarly, each person’s journey is unique, coming into being, as Ibn Arabi tells us, through the journeying itself. Only we ourselves know why we turned left instead of right, as the circumstances on both the inner and outer planes dictated, given our intention to walk on this ‘straight’ path. Landscape gives us the best metaphor for this journeying, and given also that we are all coming from differing perspectives with differing capabilities, only God knows best.

* Thus it is that this concept of a ‘topography of the soul’s journey home’ began to gel for me as a way to comprehend the myriad ways each of us, both singularly and in concert with others of like hearts and minds, are able to negotiate and make sense of both our unique and collective ‘Paths of Return.’ But there is more to this than a neat conceptual framework, for it arose as a response to a perceived need for a deeper understanding of just how it could be that ‘everyone’s path is unique’ (Yahya to Ibn Arabi at the Station of Aaron during Ibn Arabi’s own Night Journey), whilst at the same time one was supposedly also on this ‘well-trodden path to the waterhole’ in concert with all the other followers of the Prophet Muhammad? Is there not some contradiction here, something that just does not make sense at some level? After all, if our journeys to God must ‘follow in the footsteps of the Prophet,’ then where is the room for any diversion such that Yahya can say that everyone’s path is utterly unique? It is said that when Muhammad spoke the lines of verse 153 (Surah 6) he drew a line on the ground then made a number of marks to the left and the right of it. Placing a finger on the line he began to recite: “Such is My way, in its rectitude! Follow it, do not follow the tracks (al-sabul).” And then he showed the marks he had made on either side of the line – “for they will make you stray from His way” – and he pointed to the straight line/path. (In The Meccan Revelations, Ibn ‘Arabi, Vol 11, chapter ‘The Law and the Way; The White Road, p79; Ed Michael Chodkiewicz)

Page 59 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021

Topography for those unfamiliar with the term implies a detailed attempt to map the territory to which it refers; but this mapping is this same territory reduced to lines on a map which a competent map reader could make sense of and thus – if attempting to cross such terrain – would be greatly aided (and in a sense directed to some degree) by such advance knowledge.

Such maps of course suggest that such ‘terrain’ is already in place and only awaits our ‘map makers’ hand to place it on the blank sheet of paper in front of us. Of course, given that ‘All paths come into being in the walking of them’ (Yahya again) one must say that our metaphor begins to look a little shaky even at the outset! None the less, let us press-on a little further to see if it can yield any further aid to us on these individually unfolding journeys.

Map makers try to include as much detail in such maps as they can in order to make them resemble as closely as possible the ‘terrain’ they are purporting to show us (no nasty surprises). This brings us to a further factor involved in such a process, one of ‘scale.’ Clearly the more detail one attempts to put at the would-be traveller’s disposal, the less space one can cover (if one looks at this metaphor as a timeline – see my blogged item ‘Timelines, Songlines, and other Dreamings…’) and the reverse is also true; the less detail the more time/space that can be covered of one’s journey. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to have it both ways. Ultimately we alone must walk our paths into being! No Masters, Seers, or indeed prophets can walk them for us, although one must acknowledge immediately here that they can certainly help us (after all, any half reasonable map is a blessing as we attempt to traverse strange or unknown country). One last point needs to be considered here though which may help us to extend our metaphor yet further. All such maps are viewed (therefore imagined as it were) from above; a bird’s eye-view indeed! Because of this what is seen is much less three dimensional than two, and details such as they appear for us on the map must therefore take on a symbolic value, which means that we must familiarise ourselves also with the use of such symbols before we attempt to use such forms to navigate this ‘terrain.’ Which – of course – brings us right back to the response of Yahya where he told Ibn Arabi that all such terrain (paths) come into being in the act of walking! However, having been thus walked, they become part of the fabric of an unfolding universe. ‘Tracks in a Pathless Land’ indeed!

Page 60 Spirit Matters Volume 25 Issue 2 June 2021