Practical Sufism in Italian

I came home from the store to day to find a package waiting  on my porch.  I tried to think if I had ordered anything but was pretty sure everything had been delivered.  Then I saw that the return address was the Theosophical Society so I knew what it was, a copy of my book.  What I was not expecting was to find that my book, Practical Sufism, has been translated into Italian.  How cool is that?  I am a happy boy. 
Many Blessings, Musawwir

INTENT

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INTENT

A friend of mine decided to read my whole blog from the beginning.  She pointed something out to me that I was not aware of.  She said that the first couple of years of writing the blog it was obvious that I was concerned about the number of readers I had and getting feedback from them.  Then that idea seemed to drift away and now I just write without being concerned for feedback.  Well, that’s not entirely true, I do wonder how people see what I write about but I’m also not all that worried about it and I no longer ask for feedback.  My intent now is to express something that wells up inside as best as I can, put it out there and let it go. 

One of my very best friends, a painter, once told me that people often asked him what he thought of as his best piece of art.  His answer always was that he was constantly working on the same painting; it just had lots of canvasses.  Which is as good a description of a life well lived as I can imagine.  His intent was constant.  Through all the ups and downs of normal life his persistent desire was to paint, to create art.  He also told me once that when a painting left his studio it was no longer his.  It belonged to whoever viewed it and their reaction and emotional response was theirs and not his. 

I guess just about everyone has watched Luke Skywalker strain to get the X Fighter out of the swamp; he almost starts to shake with the effort.  And then he gives up.  Yoda then lifts the fighter out of the swamp with no visible effort and looks with disgust at Luke.  What was the difference, besides experience?  Luke knew from the beginning that he couldn’t do it.   From the outset he knew he would fail.  His intent was to fail. 

Pir Vilayat often said that the most important thing to pay attention to in doing spiritual practices was intent.  You might mess up pronunciation of some Arabic or Sanskrit word, you might even get the idea behind the practice somewhat confused but if your intent was pure the practice would have its effect anyway. 

We live in a world where appearance seems to over whelm everything.  Models in magazines are photo shopped before the mag is printed.  Getting the right automobile so your friends are envious is paramount, etc.  So, if your intent is to live a shallow life, worried about appearance and nothing else you will be fine.  If however, your intent is to discover your true inner self and you are constant in your spiritual work then a life of struggle will be yours.  But in the end it will be worth it. 

Deep Regards, Musawwir

EDITING OTHERS LIVES!

EDITING OTHERS LIVES!

I think the cartoon above actually predates the Internet.  I seem to remember seeing this somewhere back in the early 70’s.  I thought it was true at the time and now even more so.  In fact, in my mind, the urge to edit has expanded from the need to alter others copy to a need to alter others lives. 

Have you ever noticed an impulse that we all seem to have when it comes to listening to the woes of others?  As we are listening we begin to formulate the advice we are going to offer.  It is almost unavoidable.  By the time our friend is finished talking, assuming we let them finish, we have already figured out what they are supposed to do and are all ready to offer these gems of wisdom for their deeply grateful consumption.  Then what happens?  We have all had this experience in one way or another, so what happens?  It is pretty rare that we are met with the gratitude we rightfully expect.  Sometimes yes, but most of the time something else takes place.  The person ignores our well thought out advice and continues to complain.  The person listens politely and ignores us, but stops talking.  The person listens half-heartedly and then goes on to explain why we are all wet.  Etc. etc.  All kinds of reactions, none involving gratitude, yet we continue to do this.  Why?

On the other side of this is our own reaction to the advice of others.  While we are complaining to someone about something we are also watching the other person to make sure they are really listening but, what we often see is the wheels turning and the very advice we know won’t work is about to be offered.  We don’t want it, all we really want is for someone to listen and agree with us, not offer anything, just listen.  Never the less the advice will come. 

So, we know both sides.  We continue to offer unwanted advice and we continue to expect to be able to complain without receiving any.  What is that definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 

Perhaps we can take a different approach.  One of the things that all of the people I guide know about me is that I do not give personal advice.  I will offer techniques or my own point of view about something but I will never tell someone, “You must do this!”  I learned this from Pir Vilayat and have often thought it was the best piece of wisdom he ever offered.  So, people who work with me rapidly learn that complaining isn’t very useful because I won’t comment.  And most of the people I know who also do this work feel the same way and adopt an attitude of Detached Compassion.   In other words, you want the best for everyone but you never claim to know what that is. 

Maybe you get all excited when you hear a story from someone, “he, she, they did me wrong and I am so pissed,” kind of story.  What fun, tell me more!!!  We do tend to get all interested when we hear this kind of thing.  However there will be a small little voice inside of us that is rather embarrassed that we find these stories engaging.  That’s the part of us that knows we are better then that.  So, perhaps you can listen politely without contributing.  Do that and see what happens.  For a time life will seem dull and boring but I guarantee that it will get interesting again when you find your true self finally feeling comfortable.  

Many Blessings, Musawwir

IF IT WAS FUN EVERYONE WOULD DO IT!

IF IT WAS FUN EVERYONE WOULD DO IT!

Spirituality is supposed to be happy time isn’t it?  That’s what they told me!  Peace, Love, Harmony, all that good stuff is just waiting for me.  And all that is true but there are some interim steps that must first be taken. 

It’s a reality about spirituality, the real thing, that it is hard work.  You truly have to want it in order to get any kind of effective transformation.  Even with the hard work nothing is guaranteed. 

I know there are all kinds of systems out there that promise results in three weekends of intensive experience or whatever they say they can do and you can give your money to them if you like but, ultimately, the real thing, is predicated on three important qualities.  Courage, Discipline and above all, Patience. 

Courage is needed to face your demons.  You know those hidden things within you that you don’t want to think about.  Those parts of you that are uncomfortable to consider.  We all have em.  Well most of us do.  If you are one of the rare ones who has never done anything stupid I applaud you and you can move on to the next step.

Discipline.  It seems simple.  Every morning you make sure that you get up early enough to spend fifteen or twenty minutes meditating.  You will need instruction on how to do it but really it is pretty simple to get started.  Or the instruction sounds simple anyway.  Just sit and breathe.  Easy enough right?  If you have already mastered this part, move on, other wise, set your egg timer for 5 minutes and see if you can sit perfectly still, paying attention only to your breath.  This is where discipline is learned. 

Next and last we have Patience.  Okay, I have been sitting here every day for a month now, breathing and all that, when do I get the good stuff?   What if I were to tell you maybe never?  That’s the thing, once you start on the spiritual path patience is essential.  Expectation of a result just gets in the way.  I do not care what the self help guru’s may say, nothing comes to you without these three elements and patience is the most critical.  This is why people want short cuts.  But short cuts are always temporary, not long lasting. 

And that is why I titled this article as I did.  I was having a conversation with one of my students and this phrase just fell out of my mouth.  I looked at it and realized that it works.  It is fun but sometimes if definitely feels like plodding thru mud.  That’s when we separate the sheep from the goats as the saying goes.  It’s a challenge to do this work and, like it or not, that’s how it is. 

Eventually, if you keep at it, there will come a time when you suddenly realize that you have changed, you are calmer, easier to be with.  No longer do you respond with anger or resentment, but with patience and empathy.  And you might not even notice when it happens, it just does.  Constant maintenance is necessary but by this time it will be as natural as opening the fridge for a glass of juice, just another thing you do. 

Ultimately we are responding to a deep need for ecstatic glorification, those moments of supreme ecstasy that transform us into the beings we are truly meant to be.  This is the true passion that emerges from within and demands to be known.  To respond is our great gift to ourselves. 

So get out there and strive. 

Love and Blessings, Musawwir

Aisle or Perimenter?

Do you know what kind of shopper you are; in the grocery store that is?  There are apparently two kinds of shoppers; perimeter shoppers and aisle shoppers.  Perimeter shoppers generally buy fresh food, aisle shoppers buy prepared goodies.  When thinking of the above photo I was struck by this thought.  I am definitely a perimeter shopper.  Very little of what I buy at the grocery store comes in a can or a box.  However, when I am behind someone in the check out aisle who has a cart full of boxes I wonder. 

This whole idea was brought home to me the other day when my daughter happened to remark that both Dawn and myself look much younger then our actual ages.  And she said it’s because we pay attention to our diets, as well as doing regular meditation and practicing Tai Chi. To me that is so natural that I never think about it so my daughter mentioning it was kind of a surprise.  Then I realized that paying attention in life to what is healthy is really an important exercise in self-discipline.    

The idea of self-discipline tends to bring forth images of self-denial and painful choices but it does not have to be that way at all.  It can actually be self-education, learning what is healthy and deciding to do that instead of what one had been doing.  And it does not have to all be done at once either.  Approaching healthy living in small increments works fine. 

Pick one thing that you know is inappropriate to your being and change that.  Some years ago I read an article in some magazine about weight loss.  The person writing said they used to sit and eat a quart of ice cream at a sitting, constantly, every night before bed.  When they decided to change that habit they didn’t stop ice cream but what they did do was buy really good gourmet ice cream and have a small scoop, savoring each spoonful.  They did this only very occasionally, not every night and not as a reward but just as something they enjoyed.  I like that approach very much. 

Ultimately any of these changes you decide on are based on another much more important decision.   That is, “I am tired of this and don’t want to do it any more.”

When that place is reached you are ready to effectively change your life.

Sincerely, Phillip Gowins

METAPHORS ARE IMPORTANT

METAPHORS ARE IMPORTANT!

I was talking with one of my friends on facebook about transformation and the process of unfoldment when we had the following exchange:

Her:  I feel like being tied to one end of a bungee rope that keeps me from taking off, and I keep wanting to turn around and just cut the darn thing off

Me:  why don't you

Her:  because it's a freakin metaphor and I have not found the freakin metaphorical scissors yet

I about fell out of my chair laughing.  It’s funny but it is also kind of how it can seem.  We really need these views in our lives.  We very much need to recognize when we are getting in our own way and, despite the frustration that that may bring, to at least realize that we have noticed the impediments.  That is a very important step in discovering the true self. 

What is the true self you may very well ask? 

The true self is, as Pir Vilayat would put it, “Who you would be if you could be who you should be.”  Wrap your head around that if you can.  We all tend to think that who we are is fairly fixed and, with the possibility of a few minor modifications, that’s it.  The reality is that we are all a work in progress and who we are in the present moment is the material we have to work with, not the final result.   We also tend to think that we are some kind of end product and though we intellectually know that the world is in motion and continually evolving, we don’t really believe it.  Nothing can possibly take place beyond what we now know.  

Do you notice the inconsistencies here?  Empirical evidence tells us that there is a constant flow of societal and physical evolution taking place but we don’t really believe it.  So, what to do?  

Maybe the first thing to do is to notice one’s assumptions; all of them.  Not in any negative or angry way, just notice.   Especially notice assumptions you have about yourself.  Some things are pretty fixed; male or female, genetic heritage, etc.  But all the rest are pretty flexible if you allow them to be.  The mystics say that knowledge of self is the path to knowledge of God, however you may see that idea known as God. 

My friend with the metaphorical bungee cord was realizing some of the assumptions that had at one time seemed so real but now were at best suspect and at worst holding her back.  The question then was how to let go of them.  What a mystic would advise is the constant awareness of these assumptions and the constant recognition that they are indeed assumptions and not who she really is.  Which is all very easy to say but in reality is pretty hard work.  This is where the comfort of spiritual practices, whatever they may be, come in.  Repetition of some kind of mantra or prayer is one of the best methods of changing one’s assumptions to eventually become who you would be if you could be who you should be.  The nature, style and cultural source of the prayer or mantra is not nearly as critical as one’s intent when repeating.  

There’s your main clue!  What is your intent?

Blessings, Musawwir

Resolution

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Res·o·lu·tion

[rez-uh-loo-shuhn]

noun

1.

a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group. Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.

2.

a decision or determination; a resolve: to make a firm resolution to do something. Her resolution to clear her parents' name allowed her no other focus in life.

3.

the act determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.; the act of resolving.

4.

firmness of purpose; the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute: She showed her resolution by not attending the meeting.

5.

the act or process of separating into constituent or elementary parts or resolving.

These are only some of the meanings one can find for this all purpose word.  There are others specific to the medical field, to optics and to computer monitors.  I did not want to list them all but, if you are curious, they are easy to find but they serve little purpose for the theme of this post.  What we are talking about here is the resolution one discovers when it is time to make a change in ones habit patterns and, by extension, in ones life. 

Every person who seeks out assistance in some form in changing a habit has come to a decision of sorts.  The next steps however are those that test one’s resolve.  The hypnotist provides the sub-conscious with the supporting programming that will aid you in making the desired changes, what the hypnotist cannot do is reach inside your brain and flip the appropriate switches to make sure that the changes are permanent.  That’s up to you.  And that is where your resolve comes in. 

As we explain to every client, with every suggestion you get to make a choice of whether to accept or reject the suggestion.  I think that is really important as it provides a safety valve for you.  There is then a very real conversation that takes place in which you decide whether or not to allow these changes to begin.  That is where a kind of passive resolve can come in so very handy.  Deciding from the outset, “I am going to do this and I trust this person to help me.” is the best attitude and will guarantee good results. 

This is the time of year when the common question is, “What resolution did you break already?”
 For the successful hypnosis client that question is very easily answered by, “I am becoming the person I have always been meant to be!”  

May the coming year be lived in the full knowledge that you are a being of beauty and joy.  

I intend to begin posting here after a two year hiatus. 

Sincere Regards,  Phillip Gowins

BOOK REVIEW

I was just notified by my publisher of a new book review for Practical Sufism. Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/books.php?id=20902

FRIENDSHIP REVISITED

"If a person has learnt the manner of friendship he need not learn anything more; he knows everything. He has learnt the greatest religion, for it is in this same way that one will make a way to God." Hazrat Inayat Khan
'Friendship in the path of God, friendship in the path of truth is greater than any friendship in life.' Abu Hashim Midani

I wrote about this theme four years ago. Reading back over it, it seems rather self-serving and ego centric. Oh well, we all move along at our own pace and mine seems to be that of a moderately self-aware snail. So, moving on
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In the past few months I have given five or six radio interviews about my book, Practical Sufism. The interviewers always begin by asking what Sufism is. My answer always is, "It depends on who you ask." I go on to say that Sufism is different things to different people but to me it is about understanding friendship. In this manner I make it clear that anything else I say is my idea and not any kind of doctrinaire expression. I also present the thought that understanding friendship is the foremost ideal to foster in this age of confusion and contention. But what is this friendship of which I speak and which seems to be so very important for the coming age?

First of all, let's establish that what we normally call friendship is really acquaintance. Acquaintances are people you know, in one way or another, whom you may or may not like. If you like them, you might think of them in various ways, often you will think if them as friends but you will also be thinking .what does this person do for me? How does this person enhance my own version of myself? As long as they are doing that for you, and you are doing it for them, you will remain friends. But, let that ideal slip in even the slightest way and then what happens? I had a hypnosis client the other day who firmly stated that she would be friends with a person right up until the moment that they hurt her. Then they were summarily ejected from her life with no more chances possible. That's it, done, never darken my door ever again. Because she has a lot of issues I did not point out that this might be a symptom of something deeper. But I think that it points out a fairly common way of thinking. Friendship is temporary, disappointment is always lurking, waiting to pounce. And then, when the expected disappointment appears, the only recourse is to defend and protect yourself. This is about as far from friendship as it is possible to get but it is our norm.

Friendship starts, must start, with being friends with yourself. That means knowing your flaws but still seeing that you are much more than your flaws, that you are a wonderful person who is living their life. Only then can you look to others and be their friend, unconditionally. The most important part of being a friend is overlooking the flaws of another. Knowing your own flaws you can easily see that the person before you is living their life, doing what they can and slowly understanding, just like everyone.

In Sufism God or Allah is often thought of as The Friend. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? Most of mankind’s religions create an image of a remote, judgmental, more or less arbitrary God that might or might not deign to grant a wish or interfere in affairs. For God to be The Friend however is a whole different way of feeling. A friend is someone who is always there, supportive, happy to be with you, unconcerned with your many faults. The Friend is with you regardless. It is natural to want to please your friend but what can you do to please The Friend, even though The Friend is unconcerned with being pleased? . In this case the pleasure of The Friend is gained by becoming your true self. And what does that mean? Among the many aspects of becoming the true self, perhaps the most important, as noted by Pir O Murshid above, is the development of friendship, for yourself and for others
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So, if your closest friend is God, how could you possibly feel that another person, also part of God, is anything less than your friend as well? See how this works? It isn’t hard at all but it does require some commitment on your part. Commitment you ask? Yes, commitment to The Friend.
Maybe commitment isn’t quite right. How about acknowledgment? Or, how about being friends with yourself? Since you are part of God, acknowledging God as The Friend is really acknowledging being friends with your own self. To acknowledge that God is your friend might seem like a stretch. But it isn’t really. If you already feel that you are part of the Universe and can see that your participation in the Universe is a worthy endeavor then it is not so very hard to see that the Universe or God likes you. How about that? You have already been told that God loves you, kind of like a parent loving an unruly child but God likes you and is happy that you exist? Think about that for a while and then let me know how that feels.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

Everything Matters

Nothing Matters

Everything Matters Exquisitely

Nothing Matters Exquisitely

"The consciousness is the intelligence; the intelligence is the soul; the soul is the spirit; and the spirit is God. Therefore consciousness is the divine element; consciousness is the God-part in us. And it is through consciousness that we become small or great, and through consciousness we either rise or fall, and through consciousness we become narrow or we expand."

Hazrat Inayat Khan

The above four stages of consciousness contain my very first lessons in metaphysics and spirituality. The fellow who explained them to me could be seen as my very first teacher, though that did not last very long. He was a very strange guy who was convinced that demonic possession was the cause of most mental illnesses. That would have been okay except that he worked as a counselor at the local mental health clinic and tended to tell clients this. Never the less he did give me the above, which I have used as a bench mark ever since.

Let's go through it.

Everything Matters: Think of your immediate environment and how you feel about it. How important is it to you. How much do you invest in demanding that the environment, the people you know, the things you do, conform to a certain standard that you have set? This is the stage of Everything Matters and we all go through it. It is a stage of total self involvement in which we believe that our very limited world is all that there is.

Nothing Matters: Many people move from the above into nothing matters. I hear it a lot from people who are getting ready to push through. It is one of the stages that a teenager goes through when he/she begins to question the dictates of parents and other authority figures. It was the guiding light of the early alternative movement. It is a misunderstanding of Maya – the veil of illusion spoken of in the Upanishads. Never the less we all must go through this stage of suspecting everything around us if we are to move on to the further stages.

Everything Matters Exquisitely: This is a place where a lot of spiritual type people tend to stop and feel content, which is fine. It is a place in which the world has expanded, the horizon has been pushed back and many new ideas and feelings are now evident for the spiritual seeker. It is where you are totally immersed in the sunrise and feel the life energy all around you. It is also a place where compassion for others really begins to become important. And it is a place where one might establish a very rigid set of rules about life and the Universe, which are not as limited as those still in the Everything Matters stage but are none the less limiting.

Nothing Matters Exquisitely: Imagine gazing at that sunrise mentioned above, appreciating it, in the moment, but not being at all attached to it. It is a stage beyond all stages because one realizes something very important. All of this is transitory. Only the soul matters in the end.

The above is how I think of these four stages of consciousness. You are free to make up your own definitions of course. I often change how I explain them when I am working with someone. There really is no fixed explanation, they exist as they are and then we attempt to give value with our words. So do as you like. I am simply offering them to you as a gift, as I was given this gift 35 years ago. Sometimes we need these kinds of things to help us gauge where we are in the pursuit of understanding consciousness. As Pir O Murshid says above – it is through consciousness that we become narrow or we expand. Which, when you think of it, was exactly what Pir Vilayat continually taught.

I will be curious to hear your comments.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

PATIENCE

How poor are they that have not patience!
Othello.Act ii.Sc.3.
William Shakespeare

Sometimes I find my patience is not what it probably ought to be. Usually when I see one of the people I guide going back over the same old ground I stand aside and just watch and wait for some kind of realization to appear for them. Occasionally, however, I do feel a flash of impatience and wonder why nothing seems to work. It is embarrassing that I should feel this way as I know better. Everyone moves at their own pace and I have absolutely no way of knowing what that pace will be. Nor do I have any right at all to hurry the pace. In fact that would be exactly the wrong thing to do. All I need do is remember the incredible patience Pir Vilayat had with me. It’s those flashes of unreasonable impatience that this article is about.
Another manifestation of my impatience is driving in this town. After 30 years of the hectic pace of New York City, Scranton, PA seems way too slow. Anyone driving 20 MPH or less on a New York City street would probably be pushed to the side of the road, but here it is the norm. I have been observing my emotions when I am behind one of these people, it is not pretty. You would think after 35 odd years of working on myself through spiritual practices that I would be constantly serene and calm; not so. After all these years of discipline I still find my impatience and anger surging to the surface. Will it never go away?
Since this is such an annoying question for me I thought to do some research in Hazrat Inayat Khan’s works. He has a lot to say about patience but here is something that he said that surprised me, though I suppose it should not have: “It is a great difficulty that the people in this land of America are losing this quality of patience more and more every day, because Providence has blessed them so much. They have conveniences, they have comforts, they are the spoilt children of Providence, and when it comes to having patience, it is very hard for them.”
And he’s right. That was written almost 100 years ago and it applies even more today than it did then. A hunter/gatherer type person absolutely must be patient; the game will only come when it comes. A farmer must be patient, planted crops take their time, sheep can only grow wool so fast, and a chicken lays only one egg a day. But here in America and in Europe and probably in other parts of the world that are enjoying the benefits of industrialization, impatience is the rule.
One of the things that I constantly stress to the people I guide is that there are three ingredients necessary for a spiritual life. The first is discipline, you must decide to do it and then follow through. The second is courage as you will be often faced with the need to reevaluate your opinions. And the third, and probably most important is patience. To expect something to happen just because you have decided you want spiritual experiences is probably not going to be very useful. Never-the-less it is how we often feel. What is happening, of course, is that our culture tells us that we can have it NOW because we can get INSTANT CREDIT! WHY WAIT? Of course that is not how it works in spirituality but the idea is so deeply ingrained in us that we have difficulty feeling otherwise; thus my flashes of impatience. I am one of the spoilt children of providence; so much for spiritual advancement.
Here is what I really think; this is an incredible opportunity. Yes, primitive man was patient; what choice did he have? We, on the other hand, have many choices, some might say too many choices, but that is how it is and it is possibly our greatest challenge. We have this wonderful opportunity to truly challenge ourselves and to use the world around us as our measure against our own internal truths. Screaming through the windshield at some 90 year old woman driving 20 mph, who does not hear you anyway, is an opportunity to have a look at your own experience. How does it feel? What is the source? Can you calm yourself and just wait? Working on patience then becomes a true spiritual practice.
We tend to think that spiritual practices must be unique or exceptional in some way, that they must have some kind of ancient mystical significance but, the truth is, almost any discipline is a spiritual practice if it shakes you out of your complacency and gets you closer to who you really are.
I will continue to work on my patience, noticing and occasionally catching myself in some silly impatient reaction. I hope you do the same.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

DOUBTS

”The course of human life involves so many disappointments, so many failures, so many heartaches, that no one can avoid doubting.”
Hazrat Inayat Khan

I want to talk about something that keeps coming up but is kind of difficult to describe. I will do my best however; because I think it is very important. What I have noticed over the years is that when a person is first initiated into the Sufi Order there is an initial period of excitement which is almost always followed by a crash. Perhaps this is only my experience but I have to wonder if others have not noticed it as well. What seems to happen is that a person will be initiated and be very enthusiastic for a week or a month and then they crash, they step back, they often disappear. This is not always true, not every time, but it is often true. I have long puzzled over this as I have also noticed this tendency to withdraw in myself.
I suppose at the beginning it all seems very romantic and exciting. You have just done something very unusual in our culture. You have decided to follow a path that you have no real understanding about, but there is something that draws you and you want more. It may be the magnetism of the guide, or maybe the exotic nature of the discipline, or some other reason. So you decide to do it, get initiated. That’s when the doubts start to creep in. I guess it is possible that there are some very rare individuals who never have a single doubt, but I have never met any. The question then remains, what to do about it?
Perhaps at the beginning, when the doubts start to creep in, a person has no real choice. The habitual personality will exercise its right to stay with its habits. This is probably why Pir Vilayat was constantly urging his murids to push on through. Never the less, we are stuck with who we think we are and, since we have just done something very out of the ordinary, our personality will naturally rebel.
Personalities, which are really our sub-conscious responses to the world, are pretty fixed in their attitudes. We learn early in life how to protect ourselves from the vagaries of the world. These protections and responses do not have to be sensible, not at all, but they do have to be reasonable to us. This is basic information that everyone who works with the mind knows. So we are somewhat fixed in our ideas of ourselves. Then we decide, for whatever reason, to challenge our inner mind, our sub-conscious, by taking initiation with some spiritual group or teacher. Almost the first thing to happen is our sub-conscious goes, “Wait a minute, this is not part of our world!” Then we have various choices. One choice that I see exercised a lot is to disbelieve what just happened and turn away from the teacher or group, telling yourself that they are stupid or unjust or something. At the other end of this spectrum is to go into some kind of funk for a little while, then to shake yourself and get to work on the psyche using the practices given. And then there are all of the varieties of experience in between these two extremes that are possible.
I guess it is normal enough in this world of disappointment to have doubts about something new that is out of the ordinary. We hear so much about people who are duped into some absurd cult that we worry and the worry brings doubts. I wish that I had an answer, but I don’t. About all that I can say here is that the only true way to find out if you have been duped or not is to follow through and watch the teacher or guide. Do they live a life of service? Or do they use people with no thought of return? It is up to you to judge. I would be very grateful for any comments that anyone might have as this is a great puzzle to me.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

Practical Sufism!

My book is now available from Amazon
Or you can order it direct from Quest Books.
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=2281

I am very happy with this new version of my book.

May Light and Beauty continue to manifest within us all.

Phillip Gowins

LABELS

"There is a mystical outlook, there is a mystical significance, there is a mystical point of view which is different from that which we call a practical point of view. Things of great significance are beyond what we call our practical point of view."
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

I rode a city bus the other day and deliberately sat in a seat reserved for seniors. It is still a bit odd to think of myself in this way. Most of the time I do not remember that I am 65 but then I see a sign, Admission $8, seniors $6 and I remember.

I think that most people who follow some kind of spiritual path have an automatic aversion to being labeled. Of course we all have them in all sorts of ways but we pretty much don’t like them or at least I don’t. Some labels you must simply accept, male or female, tall or short, etc. Other labels seem presumptuous as if you can only fit in this one box or possibly a limited number of boxes. Politicians do this all the time of course since they are sure that people have only a limited scope of understanding.

On the other hand, spiritual type people enjoy certain types of labels. We like to be seen as calm. Also we are prone to believe that we look younger then our peers who do not meditate, this probably only matters to those over 40. And I suppose most of us like to think of our primary label, I am a Sufi, I am a Buddhist, I follow Jewish mysticism, or whatever that primary label might be, Wicca maybe or a follower of The Course in Miracles or something similar. There are lots of labels like this that we certainly approve of.

I am seriously beginning to believe that all of these labels really only have one reality and that is separation.

I received an email the other day on my hypnosis site. It was from someone who is interested in hypnosis but he has a very strange take on it. He is convinced that most people who need hypnosis have an evil entity hanging around them and the hypnotist’s job is to exorcise this demon. I had to ponder this for a couple of days so I did not reply to him in a rude fashion. But wow, how limiting is that? While it is true that entities who attach themselves to people occasionally do exist, it is much rarer then some would like to think. And, despite what Hollywood would love us to accept, all they really want to do is to talk. What this kind of attitude does is severely limits the scope of the help a therapist can offer. And it shows very little understanding of the truth of our existence. In fact such an attitude assumes a type of reality that I find depressing. What this person really wants is to be a hero, another label. He wants to be able to say that he has the answer to all of life’s problems.

There are many people out there with similar claims. What they want is to be seen as heroes and to be able to claim heroism. This is understandable. We all want to be acknowledged in some positive manner by those around us. I admit to feeling a thrill of pride when I know I have helped someone. I have come to accept this as part of my make up. I also recognize that this is going to be true of anyone who is in the healing profession. We do it because we are led to be healers but we also have pride in what we do. And there is nothing wrong with this. What is wrong, I believe, is when we take a label and demand that this label be everything that we are and that all those around us must accept our version of the label.

I suppose labels are necessary so people know how to approach you and I guess that is helpful in a certain way. But it is also important that, once the approach has been made, that the communication be allowed to go beyond any pre-assumption that may have been in place initially. In other words let the person before you be all that they are, not just whatever you may think their labels imply.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

Hello Friends,
Yesterday I was interviewed by Voice of America Radio about the upcoming publication of my book, Practical Sufism. You can listen to the interview here: http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=47983

GENEROSITY

“When we live in harmony with the ways of Divine Presence, allowing loving-kindness, generosity and compassion to flow freely into the world through all that we do and say, then this journey called life becomes a great pleasure.”
Hazrat Inayat Khan

“I have three treasures which I hold and keep.
The first is mercy; the second is economy;
The third is daring not to be ahead of others.
From mercy comes courage; from economy comes generosity;
From humility comes leadership.”
Lao Tse

Humans are not by nature generous. According to Will Durant, the famous historian, humans have three basic imperatives; acquisitiveness, pugnacity and sexuality. The first because a hunter gatherer needed to get things in order to survive; pugnacity because fighting off other predators was the norm; and random sexuality because that was the deep physical impulse. This is how we lived for maybe a million years, no one really knows. But when we began to gather in larger groups certain moral standards were necessary in order to create some kind of harmony within the group. And generosity, among other moral customs, was born. For instance, it turns out that in many so called savage cultures, when a man made a kill it was his duty to call out as loudly as possible that he had done so that others within hearing might share in the food. But, as civilization slowly appeared and the idea of individual property took hold, generosity became a struggle.

Personally, I like civilization. I am quite happy with my lap-top which would not be possible in a nature culture. I like the idea of complex philosophical discourse, which is not possible in a culture that has no abstract words. I like my dentist and would not want to give up health care. So, this thought of generosity being a struggle seems to me to be a challenge for humanity in its current stage.

When I was living in New York City I made it a point of giving money to homeless people. At first I would always look at their shoes and if they had new shoes I would not give them anything. But then I realized that they may have just been given shoes by some homeless shelter. So I stopped worrying about that. Then I saw some homeless guy using a cell phone and that kind of freaked me out but then I realized that they are easy to buy. So I stopped worrying about it altogether and just gave money when I felt like it, regardless. And that is when I began to understand generosity.

Generosity is really very simple. It is sharing. We lost generosity when we declared that one person might have more property then another. It was a necessary phase, no doubt of that, but it does not mean that we should not continue to discover the many possibilities still open to humanity. We tend to believe that the way things are is the way they will always be, subject to minor modification. But why would we think that? Empirical evidence would seem to say that change is the only constant. We spend centuries building a city which can be destroyed in an hour or so by natural causes. Why would we think that anything is permanent?

If it is true that change is the only permanency then discovering the core of one’s being is essential.

Generosity is not just financial; it is system wide, so to speak, through all that we do and say. Initially generosity must begin with oneself. It is no good to begrudgingly offer a handout to someone in order to prove something, that is not generous at all, that is a kind of arrogance. Instead look to yourself. Do you see yourself in a loving generous way? Or, do you see yourself as deeply flawed with no recourse to healing? Think about it and then tell me.

One more thing; Pir O Murshid stated in the quote above that living in harmony with the Divine Presence is the key to allowing our generous loving nature to flow. And he states that the pay off, so to speak, is life becoming a great pleasure. It’s true. And it still starts with the self. Allowing one’s self to recognize that it is a part of God, a part of the Intelligent Universe and one has the right to a loving fruitful life is the first step towards becoming the vehicle with which the Divine Presence can in fact flow outward into the world.

The next article will deal with practical ways to create generosity within.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

THE INVITATION

"You have been invited to the banquet, why are you eating the scraps under the table?"
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

The above quote from Pir Vilayat is one I frequently repeat to people. It is often a surprise when I quote it to someone and they realize that they have been doing the very thing, avoiding the banquet. I also realize that I am as guilty as anyone. Why do we do this?

There seems to be a cultural imperative in our society that says that we are not really allowed to be honestly spiritual. I suspect that this is partially because the priest class, of whatever religion, including Islam (which is not supposed to have a priest class but does anyway) tends to need to maintain an air of superiority as if they somehow have an intercessory role with God. This leaves the rest of us more or less out in the cold not really allowed to be truly spiritual since we must go through an intercessor. That's part of it. Another part is the aura of disappointment that pervades our whole culture. I have spoken about this before and intend to keep speaking of it. Basically it says that you are not worthy unless you have things, expensive things. Conversely, you can rail against things and feel superior to the materialists while at the same time secretly suspecting that you are not worthy. That may be an even worse position. Another aspect is probably feeling that the banquet is a hustle. It's not really real. We have so very many stories of people being duped by various invitations, Scientology and Krishna Consciousness come to mind immediately but they are certainly not the only ones. The invitations from various groups totally assured of the rightness of their positions is huge. The means of discovering their legitimacy is limited.

A fourth aspect is a general sense that the men and women who sit in caves for 20 or more years, isolated from the world, in a constant state of meditation and prayer, are worthy. We must live in the world and are therefore, by definition, not as worthy. Ultimately you know that you are not allowed at the banquet, even though invited.

Whew, that's a lot. And I can probably come up with more but you get the idea, you can make your own list. By now you should be seeing that all of the above is an illusion. It is various aspects of the world desperately needing to convince you that you need an intercessor or that you are simply not up to it. The simple truth is that the invitation exists and it speaks directly to your heart.

There is a place in each of us that knows we belong. Whatever baggage we happen to be lugging around will want to deny this knowledge but it is there. I do not know about other esoteric groups but when a person is initiated into the Sufi Order International, the very last thing we say to them is, "Welcome to your spiritual family." I have seen people break down and cry at hearing these words; these simple words of welcome. To be told very sincerely that you are welcome can seem amazingly profound to the person, so common in our culture, who has felt isolated their whole life. It seems to be that a person can decide to stay isolated and alone and separate if they like, that is free will. Or they can decide to become part of a loving family if they so choose. And then what happens is that their psychology will change the group as they insist that their version of reality have some form of validity within the group. Still the invitation is there. What it really means is surrendering to that inner knowledge that you personally are a part of the being of God or part of the Intelligent Universe or however you would like to state it. And, as a part of the whole, you have the right to the banquet. What you do not have a right to do is to demand that the menu be exactly what you think it ought to be. That is the rub and causes more problems then just about anything else.

So, join the party, sit down at the table, sip the wine of ecstasy, sample the delicacies of forgiveness and detachment; but be aware that though your task is to relax, observe, learn, and decide for yourself; it is not to demand that others conform to your idea of what should be on the table. That is a no no.

The very first spiritual instruction I ever received was, "There are no rules!" This means to me that not only are the rules others state not valid but also any rules I might make up are also not valid. So? What is valid? The banquet; the communion with other souls, all souls. If there is a rule it would be to treat every single person, including yourself, as a friend. To do otherwise would be to deny the basic nature of God, which is that we are all in this together. Our only solid evidence of anything at all is that we all exist here, now. All the rest is speculation, interpretation and assumption that our spiritual experiences have any validity beyond our own selves.

Crawl out from underneath the table, sit with the other kind souls and dine. Once you do this all the rest of the things that seemed so very important will fade away and the simple joy of being with others who welcome you into their midst will be yours.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

WHO'S A MYSTIC?

"One cannot pretend to be a mystic; one is born a mystic. No doubt a mystic may develop in life, that is another thing, but if one thinks that one can imitate a mystic one is mistaken, one can never do it. Mystics apart, can a person imitate a singer and sing correctly, or imitate a painter and paint well, or a poet and make poetry? Never, either one is or one is not." Hazrat Inayat Khan

The above is an excerpt from Volume XI of the collected works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, from a chapter entitled The Mystic's Nature. Whenever I read something like this I have this impulse to turn around to see if anyone is looking over my shoulder and laughing at me. I don't really have that image but sometimes it feels like it. While it is true that a certain amount of self questioning is important, we tend to think that our sense of ourselves is really quite as it should be. Then we run into something that says, "What makes you think you are so cool?"

One of the pieces of advice that I continually give to meditation students and even sometimes to hypnosis clients is to admit to who you really are. What is meant by that piece of advice is that we are all magnificent in our own beings. For the people who are drawn mysticism it also means that we each have the depth within us to manifest the mystic, it is a matter of unveiling that mystic within and the first step to that is to admit that it exists. Or, as I often find myself saying, it's gotta be somebody, turns out it's you. On the other hand, as Pir O Murshid says above, imitation is probably not possible.

So, how do you know if you are discovering the mystic within or not?

The initial impulse is to look for some kind of sign, a minor miracle for instance, something to tell us that this impulse we have is real. At the same time we have all encountered people who are pretending and we certainly do not want to do that, or do we? Is a little pretense okay?

I once told Pir Vilayat that I was advising my students to pretend to a state so they could get some kind of feeling of what it must be like. He was not happy with me. He was very clear in saying that the experience must be authentic and not the product of pretense. So I asked how do you know. And he said that you just know, it is a matter of inner knowledge. At the time, this was some years ago, I was a bit confused and worried that maybe I was not really understanding the whole thing. I was questioning my own experiences, which I suppose is normal enough. After some years it became apparent that the experiences were real and I could relax, but it did take some time.

Am I a mystic? I don't know. I sometimes know things but as often as not I am wrong. Ultimately it seems that none of this matters. As Pir O Murshid says above, either you are or you aren't. So maybe the real key is to be content with who you are.

I do not know of a single person, up to and including the Pir, who does not have some messy stuff in their lives. Every one of us lives here, on this planet, which is filled with confusion, bad information, missteps, etc., etc. One of the major steps in discipleship is recognizing that your teacher/guide is human; that they make mistakes and have all sorts of issues. And once you get through that shock, you can relax and just do the work of discovering your true being. So, even though your personal life is a mess and the things you wish often do not turn out as you feel they should, never the less; keep going, do not give up. Becoming the authentic self that you already are and allowing the being within to emerge in a calm, serene manner is the true task at hand. We are all in this together and it can be fun if only we do not take ourselves too seriously.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir