Saturday, September 24, 2005

LOVE
“Loving is why my heart beats a path to your door.”
Bill Champlin
The quote is a line from a 70’s rock and roll song from a West Coast band that never really made it big but had some very good tunes. I liked them and I always liked that line, for a lot of reasons. First of all it is just good poetic phrasing, simple words conveying complex meaning. Next it suggests romantic devotion willing to dare for the sake of romantic love. It identifies the heart as the responder and the initiator of an action. Then, if we step back and remove boy/girl from the equation, it can be made to speak to Divine devotional love or the response to the call. Quite a lot to get from a single line in a rock song. When you look, this kind of thing is everywhere as I am sure everyone knows. Actually allowing ourselves to experience the emotion the poet speaks to is, however, more subtle.
In Sufism Love is Wadud, the state of Divine creative energy that is the reason for the Universes. Pir Vilayat expresses it this way, “From the solitude of It’s Unity, the Divine Being fragmented itself out of love for the possibility of you and I.” I hope I have that right. I am sure it is close to what he says. Just imagine the quality of energy that expresses itself by creating the immense vastness of the many planes of existence solely for the love of the possibility of you and I. Does this not make the purpose of your life all that much more precious?
It took me a long time to get close to Wadud. Maybe because to the English speaking ear it sounds a little silly. Sounds like you are saying, “Hey dude, what’s up?” Maybe you are. What one is doing though, in repeating any of the Sifat, the Divine attributes of Allah, is reaching for the Cosmic emotion that the use of the word lies within. There is also a secret within the vibrational quality of the syllables themselves. That takes some work and some training to get to but it is there. According to Pir Vilayat’s saying, in the case of Wadud, we might be reaching for the reason existence exists. I have always found it interesting that the mystics choose to express this idea as Love. I am not a linguist so I am not sure but it occurs to me to wonder if this expression of the idea of Divine intent as Love did not at some time seep into the consciousness and become the various forms of meaning that the word currently has.
The above is a short excerpt from my next book. I thought maybe we could have a conversation around this subject.
Love & Blessings, Musawwir

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I for one cannot wait for your next book. I have no idea what Love is, though I use the word often and casually. "(The)Divine Being fragmented itself out of love for the possibility of you and I.” ...wow, nothing casual about that I think. And if Love is the reason existence exists, then it is important to at least try to understand what is meant by the word in that context. Love You...at least I feel I do...Sabura

Anonymous said...

I went to look up Ibn Arabi's discussion of the Divine Qualities. He says that we can never manifest all the qualities ourselves and so, in order to see God as well as possible, we must be constantly looking for the qualities manifested in everyone we meet. I think that is also love, to be open to the Divine Qualities, instead of oblivious primarily, but also defensive and distracted, which is a much easier way to be.

I want to remember this and am going to go read that again, because I work with very difficult people, some who are quite dark, perhaps manifesting Divine Qualities that I might have thought I didn't want to know so well, but hey, it's all Allah, and I think it allow me to also experience within myself Divine Qualities that are expressed in response.

molly said...

I love your book, musawwir. in fact, i've read it several times! I feel like i've been studying love all of my life. what it is. maybe what it isn't...but i'm finding some aspect of love in everything. i've begun to look at it as an energy instead of an emotion. it seems to eminate from the heart area when i hug someone, and i've felt my whole body feel something like it when i meditate. Once, in prayer, i asked if i could express Divine Love, and the response i had was no, not in human form. the idea of unconditional love is about as close as i feel i have gotten. sometimes awe when looking at art, pictures of the universe, or listening to music...or being with close friends and/or family. A lot of times, it's just being outside, feeling the breeze or watching the dapples of sunlight on the leaves, fireflys or clouds. That is how i find love.

Suriya said...

I 'm really tied up with work at the moment. I have patients waiting outside but I ve been missing on making comments.
Musawwir only one thing I have to say. You post makes me experience Ya Wadud. The heart just opens and has that menthol sensation all over...

Suriya said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I dont think I can say much, everyone answered just about the same as I would. I seem to be struggling lately with loving all, how does one love suffereing ? Isnt that included in all too ?

Go In Love ~ Shakti

Suriya said...

I have a question Musawwir
Do people experience the love energy in your heart the same way you experience it? I think I would answer no.The energy we have , the heart quality we have resonates something in their hearts and that is what they experience.
What would you say? Or is it that being Chistis we seem to develope the heart quality around the qualities of Ishq and Wadud ?
You may be wondering why I ask. A patient of mine who was in a Naqshabandi Tariqa but lost touch with his teacher started to get scared because his zikrs caused energy movements he did not understand.I was trying to explain it to him as energy movements he need not fear and thought a demonstration would help. Knowing how sensitive he was to energy , I started a fikr ( unspoken zikr) and he felt it immediately and he described it as a very gentle loving feeling with sad longing which I recognised as Ishq.I myself do not experience it as such. I experience it as a solid feeling of being centered in my heart and a sense of expansion and stillness.

Musawwir said...

Dear Suriya, You are right of course. Each person will experience any energy that comes to them from within or without based on their own peculiar personality. The energy itself is pure, however; every person has filters through which energies must pass on the way to some form of conscious awareness. What I tend to do when I am sitting with someone is see how I feel things within myself as I am concentrating on the other person. Then I will just ask them their experience and compare. Usually, as you just found out with your patient, there is some relationship that makes sense to both of us. You knew the energy even though he tends to experience it a bit differently. Something told you exactly what it was. Ultimately it is our own personal experience that is our real validation. We do seem to need to check with others though so perhaps what we are really doing is reassuring one another that we each individually and collectively exist.

Suriya said...

You are right Musawwir
It is just that I need reassuarance. These are the kinds of people I end up guiding because they need it since they do not understand their energy. I have you to consult .

Anonymous said...

I was thinking today about the word for "dear" or "darling" in Farsi. It is "jan" (pronounced John). . . the same word that is used for breath.

So the beloved is breath and spirit itself, and every breath should inhale and exhale love.

Anonymous said...

Greetings
this is all very deep and im not sure what im about to write here is fitting!?
There are many levels of love, or types perhaps i should say.
In order to love we need to first be at one with who we are, our innerself heart and soul are reflected in the mirror of ourself.
Love is never conditional, but it does require courage, the courage to open oneself to others. It is almost a willing surrender, teaching "thou not i".
"my heart has become an ocean Beloved since Thou hast Poured Thy love into it" - HIK.
Blessings