THE SOUL

The word 'soul' is used by different people in different senses. But the manner of its connection with the body proves it to be divine. Therefore, the Sufi conception of the soul is that it is the divine part of humans. Jung calls this the Self (higher Self with a capital). The small self is the ego. When the soul qualities arise in the heart and show themselves, this proves that it is the divine part in the human that rises, like the flame in the fire.

Soul is in all objects, both things and beings, but when it is recognised as soul, it becomes a soul. A Persian Sufi has said of the soul, 'God slept in the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable kingdom, awoke in the animal kingdom, and became self-conscious in man.' It is the description of the soul, starting in manifestation as one and manifested in variety.

One cannot see the soul because it is the soul that sees all things, and the soul has to become two to see itself, which can never be. The soul is the seer. As consciousness is realised by being conscious of something, and as the knowledge of things realises intelligence, so the existence of the soul can be proved by one's very existence. That part which exists in one or makes one existent, that part which sees, conceives, perceives, and is conscious of all things and yet above all things is the soul. It is the I in I am. As we say in the external zikr:-

This is not my body this is the Temple of God. This is not my mind this is the thought of God.

The Destiny Of The Soul

The destiny of the soul with the mind and the body is a momentary experience compared with the soul's everlasting life The soul with the mind and body are like three persons traveling together. The life of the body depends on mind and soul. The life of the mind depends on the body. However, the soul does not depend on mind or body for its life.

That is why the spiritual person, who realises being not as body and mind alone but as a soul, independent of body and mind, attains everlasting life. But for the external life experience, the soul depends upon the mind, and the mind depends upon the body.

There is no object or being that has no soul, but the word 'soul' is used in ordinary language only for that entity that is conscious of its individual being. The soul is the light, the mind is the furniture, and the body is the room. The furniture could be anywhere, and the room is a fitting place for it. But without light, neither room nor furniture is of any use, nor would life exist without soul.

The soul creates the mind, yet the soul is independent of the mind. Just as the body is created by the mind, but the mind is independent of the body for its life. It is the life of the body, which we call life on earth, and it is the life of the mind, which we call the hereafter. It is the life of the soul that we call life everlasting. Who lives with the body dies with the body. Who lives with the mind will live long with the mind and will die with the death of the mind; but who lives with the soul will live and live forever. Who lives with his individual self will live so long as his individual self lives, here and hereafter, and who lives with God will live the everlasting life of God. There is a saying of Nanak that, as a grain is saved from being ground in the mill by being in the centre, so the worshipper who lives with God is saved from mortality.

The soul is the originator and producer of the mind, and the mind is also the originator and producer of the body. The soul produces the mind out of its own self. Yet the mind is constructed fully after the formation of the body, and the soul becomes a spirit after the formation of the mind. The mind grows and evolves from birth but abstract thinking ‘comes in’ around fifteen years of age. This is when the adolescent mind expands and explores the world it sees. The soul holds the mind, and the mind clings to the soul, as the mind holds the body, and the body clings to the mind. The soul holds the mind as long as its activity is constructive, in other words, the soul holds the mind as long as it is engaged in the creative purpose. The spirit is the active principle (Jelal) and the soul is the receptive creative principle (Jemal).

When the activity of the soul takes another direction, it withdraws itself from the mind. As long as the mind has power, it still clings to it, though it becomes exhausted as there is no hold on the part of the soul. This can be seen when the aged and ill begin to lose their memory and become uninterested in thinking, speaking, or hearing.

In the same way, the mind works with the body. When the mind withdraws its activity for some reason or other, the body becomes disconnected from it, for it loses its hold of the mind. But if the body is still strong and healthy it clings to the mind; soon however it becomes exhausted, and this causes death and disease. Death is mostly caused by the withdrawal of the soul and the mind. It seldom happens that it is caused by the body, its weakness, or disorder. When the activity of the soul and the mind is constructive and drawn within, the body with a disease or a disorder continues to live. The cases where people lie for years with disease and pain are proof of this.

Certainly, no living creature can feel man's magnetism as much as man, yet even animals and birds are attracted to a person sometimes more than to their own element. This magnetism of man is not necessarily of his physical body.

It is his soul. The great mystic St Frances of Assisi had this magnetism and is always depicted with birds and animals. He is associated with the patronage of animals and the environment and has just been recognised by Pope Frances.

It is the same as what we call radiance or brightness. It is a light that is quite apart from the physical body. No illness, weakness, or age can take away this brightness. However, it must be understood that illness is always caused by the soul's withdrawal from the body, or by the body's incapacity to hold the light of the soul. Sometimes by stretching one's hands and body, one feels renewed strength, and brightness comes to one's mind and body. Sometimes, without reason, one feels depression, pain, and laziness, for which no one can suggest a cause except that the Light of the soul closes and discloses itself. When disclosed, brightness, freshness, and strength come. But when closed, depression, darkness, and weakness come. By knowing this, we can realise that those who have sacrificed every pleasure, wealth, comfort, or power in their pursuit of the soul are justified, for a loss in pursuit of a greater gain is not necessarily a loss. Those who become independent of the physical body by meditation experience the state of the highest bliss and attain everlasting life.

Man's heart is like a globe over the light of the soul. When the globe is dusty, naturally, the light is dim. When it is cleaned, the light increases. The light is always the same. It is the fault of the globe when it is not clear. When this radiance shines out, it shows itself not only through the countenance and expression of a person but even in a person’s atmosphere. The soul-power, so to speak, freely projects outward, and the surroundings feel it. The radiance of the soul is not only a power, but it is an inspiration too. A man understands better; there is less confusion, and if he is absorbed in the contemplation of something, be it art, science, music, poetry, or philosophy, he can get inspiration clearly, and the secret of life and nature is revealed to him.

Love is the best means of making the heart capable of reflecting the soul-power –love in the sense of pain rather than as a pleasure. Every blow, it seems, opens a door in the heart whence the soul-power comes forth. This reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s anthem: -

‘Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.’

It also reminds me that Pir Nawab once told me that my heart had to break (open) for me to see the light.

The concrete manifestations of soul-power can be witnessed in the depth of the voice, the choice of words, the form of a sentence or phrase, in every movement, pose, gesture, and especially in the expression of the man. Even the atmosphere speaks, though it is difficult for everyone to hear.

The heart may be likened to soil. Soil may be fertile or a barren desert, but it is the soil which is fertile that bears fruit. It is that which living beings choose to dwell in, although many are lost in the soil of the desert and lead in it a life of grief and loneliness. Man has both in him, for he is the final manifestation. He may let his heart be a desert where everyone abides hungry and thirsty, or he may make it a fertile and fruitful land where food is provided for hungry souls, the children of the earth, strong or weak, rich or poor, who always hunger for love and sympathy. 9 Jung understands the collective unconscious as a system of inherited psychic functioning from primaeval times. It is wrong to regard the unconscious as a derivative of consciousness. I believe that the collective unconscious is divine – the soul – I used to believe that the collective unconscious was God's consciousness deep within us.

This idea finds wonderful expression in Wordsworth’s ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, hath elsewhere its setting, and comes from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home.

Soul has a special relationship with death, for when we die (body and mind), the soul returns to the source – to the Divine One.

In its deepest reaches, Jung believes that the psyche (soul) participates in a form of existence beyond space and time. Thus, it partakes of what is inadequately and symbolically described as ‘eternity’.

The One exists beyond time and space – everything is contained in this unity, and the One contains everything – the whole Universe. But as a unity, the Divine cannot know itself. So the One created the manifestation out of itself. The one became two. Time and space are part of the manifestation, as is everything in it. It is a duality, and everything in it contains its own opposite. There is good in the bad and bad in the good. We cannot say that the Divine is all good, for it contains everything. Thus, through the manifestation – us- the Divine can know itself. It sees through our eyes and perceives through us. Everything that we know and is known by us is contained in the collective unconscious or soul. It exists forever. So it is our purpose to become aware – to realise the soul. We want only the best in us to continue. We want to become fully realised.

Death And The Soul

Our purpose is unveiling the soul, which often begins with an initiation of sorts –we must die before we die. There is a mystery in all initiations and every rite of passage. The end of a previous form of existence is felt like death. Initiation is a powerful experience – we leave behind the person we were and tread a new path, a new beginning, a new life – we are given a new name. Initiation has an equal effect on the initiator where some form of transmission occurs. I will never forget my initiations – there was always a profound change – a moving on –Towards the One!

My first initiation, bayat, took place after a long search and a dream. In the dream, I was running along a forest path with my Irish Wolfhound Jupiter (who was no longer alive, sadly). I felt free and happy. Then I came to a huge grapefruit tree –just like the one I had planted in my garden many years ago. The tree bore much fruit, and the grapefruit were huge – I needed two hands to hold even one. I picked some with joy and the following day, at a retreat, asked my teacher to initiate me. I was ready, and the fruit was ripe! Latifa insists that I was surrounded by light afterwards and took a photograph to prove it. I still have this image to remind me, and I have put it behind my picture of Pir-o-Murshid Hidayat.

I remember well an initiation with Pir-o-Murshid Hidayat many years ago. After the initiation, which was very moving, he asked me to give a sacred reading at the Summer School. I was terrified, totally unused to public speaking, introverted, quiet, shy, and with a soft voice. Hamida took me in hand and drilled me on how to speak and project my voice to the heart and wings outside the temple and read slowly with meaning. I wanted to run away – I knew I would get no help from anyone there. In the chapel beforehand, I fervently asked Hazrat Inayat Khan to help me - I felt that I could put myself aside and leave everything to him.

I remember standing rooted to a spot on the stage, shaking so much that my knees were knocking. All the senior Sufi were in the front row. Hamida motioned me from the back to move towards the microphone – I could not move. I remember nothing of the talk itself – I was not there. Afterwards, Murshid Hidayat came up to me, taking my hands in his and looking into my eyes; he said I gave the talk just like his mother had given it. He had tears in his eyes - that I will never forget. But I only now realise that this was part of my initiation. My quiet, timid self was gone; it was dead. From then on, I have been able to speak publicly – it is like I am in another realm, but I still do not always remember what I say, but I have learned to trust it.

In a recent series of lectures by Dr David Tacey on the Unveiling of the Soul, initiation was discussed relating to the high suicide rate amongst young people, especially Aboriginal boys.

Not much is written or known about initiation rites for women: in ancient tales, there is an indication of the process, as we have seen in the story of Cenerentola. 10

Given that the soul is feminine, the initiation practices for women are quite different. Hazrat Inayat Khan, when asked if it is true that people in the East believe that woman possesses no soul, replied ‘Yes it is true, they have every reason for it, for they know that woman is soul itself.’ 11

In Indigenous society, there is ‘secret men's business and ‘secret women's business. The following only concerns the young male experience as told to Dr Tracey. Adolescence lasts for many years in our culture as a time between childhood and maturity. An Aboriginal elder told Dr Tacey that: -

‘For us, adolescence lasts five days – the length of the initiation. Before initiation, he is a child; after initiation, he is an adult’. (Personal communication, June 2003)

In his study of youth culture and its ‘irreverent’ styles of spirituality, Tom Beaudoin writes:

‘Like its related trend, tattooing, the permanent cut of body piercing is more than just teen folly. To pierce one’s body is to leave a permanent mark of intense physical experience, whether pleasurable or painful. The mark of indelible experience is … proof that something marked me, something happened. Contemporary youth are willing to have experience, to be profoundly marked, even cut, when religious institutions have not given them those opportunities.’ 12

Joseph Chilton Pearce argues that young people instinctively know that there is more to life than what secular society presents. They eagerly await something big to happen:

A poignant and passionate idealism arises in early puberty, followed by an equally passionate expectation in the mid-teens that ‘something tremendous is supposed to happen’ and finally by the teenager’s boundless, exuberant belief in ‘the hidden greatness within me’. A teenager often gestures toward his or her heart when speaking of these sensibilities, for the heart is involved in what should take place. 13

With regard to suicide ideation in students and young people, Mircea Eliade suggests that:

‘In modern nonreligious societies initiation no longer exists as a religious act. But the patterns of initiation still survive, although markedly desacralised, in the modern world’. 14

In a meeting with Charles Ilyatjari, a ngankari or spirit doctor of the Pitjantjatjara people, Dr. Tacey asked about the high rate of suicide in his community, especially among adolescent boys.

12 Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2002), p. 53.

13 Eckersley, op. cit., p. 176-77.

14 Eliade, op. cit., p. 188.

He asked what could be done to prevent suicide in his community. His response shocked him when he said:

‘There’s too much worry about preventing suicide and not enough worry about showing these boys how to die in ceremony. If we show them how to die in ceremony, their living takes care of itself’. (Personal communication, June 1997)

In the same spirit, Mircea Eliade wrote: ‘In initiatory death … men die to something that was not essential; men die to the profane life.’ 15

David Mowaljarlai expressed his concern about the young men in the Kimberley who had succumbed to petrol or glue sniffing or ‘chroming’. Mowaljarlai visited a hospital which had a whole ward full of young men who had damaged their brains from chroming. He explained the situation in this way:

‘All these boys, you see, lack ceremony. They haven’t died in initiation. If you take away the sacred law, you take away their lives.’ (Personal communication, November 1996)

‘If you bring forth that within yourselves, that which you have will save you. If you do not have that within yourselves, that which you do not have within you will kill you.’

Initiation is a powerful process that continues in our practice and in dreams; In big dreams or meditation, death occurs. Sometimes these experiences act as an initiation experience.

An examination of failed suicide attempts has shown that some survivors have had ‘near-death experiences’ which have profoundly affected their future lives – for the better. Afterwards was no fear of death or of life – they understood their purpose and made something good out of their lives.

Thus we must ‘die before we die’ or be ‘born again’ as Christ has said. The Prophet Mohamed and Jung have related profound near-death experiences.

I wonder if these were initiatory.

It is through these ‘initiations’ and experiences that the soul is unveiled. In the Sandman series, many have found the experience of death and being faced with our darkness. Sandman has a dreamlike or nightmare imaginary – the ‘hero’ is Morpheus, after all. Jung has heavily influenced the writer Neil Gaiman, so the series works on a deep archetypal level which hooks into the psyche. It has the effect of a dream that profoundly affects people. It has had this effect on me. I think that watching this sort of thing could have an initiatory effect on people and change their lives.

Perhaps it is through graphic novels and similar series that young people face the issues and rites they must face. Sandman certainly shows these facets of humanity from Death, what happens when we do not follow our dream, to serious evil and its resolution, and true friendship.