More Than Words

What is Sufism?

What is Sufism?

The most obvious question of all is for us the most difficult question. But I’ll try to answer. Sufism is experience of life through a method of dealing with life and human relations. This method is based on an understanding of man, which places at one’s disposal the means to organize one’s relationships and one’s learning systems. So instead of saying that Sufism is a body of thought in which you believe certain things and don’t believe other things, we say that the Sufi experience has to be provoked in a person. Once provoked, it becomes his own property, rather as a person masters an art.

Q - So ideally, for four million readers, you would have four million different explanations?

In fact, it wouldn’t work out like that. We progress by means of Nashr, an Arabic word than means scatter technique. For example, I’ve published quite a number of miscellaneous books, articles, tapes and so on, which scatter many forms of this Sufi material. These 2,000 different stories cover many different tendencies in many people, and they are able to attach themselves to some aspect of it.

Suppose we get a group of 20 people past the stage where they no longer expect us to give them miracles and stimulation and attention. We sit them down in a room and give them 20 or 30 stories, asking them to tell us what they see in the stories, what they like, and what the don’t like. The stories first operate as a sorting out process. They sort out both the very clever people who need psychotherapy and who have come only to put you down, and the people who have come to worship.

If a pot can multiply: One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbor, who was giving a feast. The neighbor returned them, together with one extra one - a very tiny pot. “What is this?” asked Nasrudin. “According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,” said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbor’s pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. “Alas!” said Nasrudin, “they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?”

In responsible Sufi circles, no one attempts to handle either the sneerers or the worshippers, and they are very politely detached from the others.

No Guru

Idries Shah was once asked in an interview: 'You are the West’s leading exponent of Sufism, that rich religious tradition growing out of the Middle East. Why, at a time when new cults are springing up, do you refuse to be a guru? You could easily become one'

Shah's reply was:

There are a lot of reasons. But if we are talking about the teacher who has disciples, it’s because I feel no need for an admiring audience to tell me how wonderful I am or to do what I say. I believe that the guru needs his disciples. If he had a sufficient outlet for his desire to be a big shot or his feeling of holiness or his wish to have others dependent on him, he wouldn’t be a guru.

I got all that out of my system very early and, consistent with Sufi tradition, I believe that those who don’t want to teach are the ones who can and should. The West still has a vocation hang-up and has not yet discovered this. Here, the only recognized achiever is an obsessive. In the East we believe that a person who can’t help doing a thing isn’t necessarily the best one to do it. A compulsive cookie baker may bake very bad cookies.

The Golden Portal

In a city two persons where born, at the same day, at the same
time, in the same place. Their lives unrolled and each one lived
many different experiences.

At the end of their lives both died at the same day, at the same
time, in the same place. According to the legend,it is said that
at death we must pass through a great gate of pure gold, where a
guardian makes us certain questions so that we may pass.

The first one arrived and the guardian asked him:"What have you
made of your life?"

The person answered:"I knew many places, had many friends, had
businessess that made much money, my family had the best and I
worked hard."

The guardian asked:"What have you brought with you?"

The person said:"Everything was left behind, I do not bring
anything with me."

At this the guardian says:"I am sorry but you cannot pass,
because you have not brought anything with you."

Hearing these words the person sits down beside the portal crying
with great sadness of heart in not being able to pass.

The second one comes to the portal and the guardian asks :"What
have you done in your life?"

The second person answers:"From the moment I was born I was a
wanderer, I had no riches, all I sought was the love in each
persons heart, my family abandoned me, and I never really had
anything."

The guardian asks:"Did you find what you sought?"

The person answers:"Yes, it has been my only sustainance from the
moment I found it..."

"Very well, you can pass...!"

But with this answer the second person says:"The love I found is
so great that I wish to share it with this one sitting here
beside the door, suffering for his fortune..."

The legend says that this one's love was so great that it was
enough for both to pass through the portal.

The Message

A video that spreads the message... for sharing...



Thank You for sharing...

And thanks to Sophia for the link...

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The Unseen World

Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.
Every wonderful sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade,
But do not be disheartened,
The source they come from is eternal, growing,
Branching out, giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?
The source is within you
And this whole world is springing up from it.

~ Rumi ~


I shall be away for the next 2 weeks - Blessings

-

To Share

‘How can I capture beauty?’

you ask me.

‘Be an open-hearted hunter’

I say

‘Who upon snaring a bird

throws it back to the sky.’

‘But why?’

‘For beauty holds dear only

to a master who can share.’

SATAN'S MEETING

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said,

"We can't keep people from going to pray."

"We can't keep them from reading their holy books and knowing
the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship
with their GOD."

"Once they gain that connection with GOD, our power over them
is broken."

"So let them go to their prayers; let them have their covered
dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time
to develop a relationship with GOD."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil:

"Distract them from gaining hold of their GOD and maintaining
that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent
innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the
husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they
can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children."

"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no
escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that
still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever
they drive." To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going
constantly in their home and see to it that every store and
restaurant in the world plays non-religious music constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with God."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers."

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

"Invade their driving moments with billboards."

"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,
sweep stakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional
offering free products, services and false hopes.."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so
their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's
important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives."

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night."

"Give them headaches too!"

"If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they
will begin to look elsewhere."

"That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them distractions to distract them from teaching their
children the real meaning of life."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."

"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."

"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's
creation.
Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts,
and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in
gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled
consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time
to seek power from GOD."

"Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing
their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work!"

"It will work!"

It was quite a plan!

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing people
everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and
there.

Having little time for their God or their families.

Having no time to tell others about the power of GOD to change
lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his
schemes???

Does "BUSY" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

Amen.

Go, seek...

The Road Not Taken

I walked, for my feet carried me through wooded paths
amidst fallen twigs and trodden, scented crushed leaves.

And the sun tried to creep through like the soothing
arms of a morning mistress when she wakes..

there was freshness in folded air as it held me
in an embrace I long to return to,

where I am going only my destination can truly tell;
blind as I am to my follies and struggles...

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Land

Michael’s wanderings led him from one odd job to another; meeting new people, gaining new experiences. Never bored yet moving within a fabric of lack: lack of money, lack of security, lack of consistency; lack of knowing. This was coupled with a lack of caring beyond his immediate needs, and a lack of worry too. Perhaps it was a lack of gain.

Michael knew well enough that his ways were out of the net of contemporary society. He wasn’t being a member of the social formation; yet he was attempting, and hoping, to be a member of humanity. Things were changing; fixtures were seemingly becoming more fluid. Fixed notions of the self and how to interact with ones environment were breaking away from their moorings and casting adrift those who held dearly to their anchoring. Too many years, and too much reliance, upon an iron anchor of belief and hope was beginning to tear at people’s civilised psyche. Michael was noticing this infraction as he moved across the landscape of a country increasingly alien and unfamiliar. And the cities were burning.

Urban sprawls had slowly been turning into hardened wombs. Just like the Auschwitz experiments of injecting concrete into the veins of victimized death-camp inmates, so too had the degradation of negativity slowly been poisoning the urban veins with concrete viruses and piss-stinking twisted love. The painful cold heat of urbanity finally drove Michael away from the cumbersome cash-in-hand dishwashing jobs into the retreat of rural grasslands. It was the air too that Michael craved for; the open air of expanse and a Nature that did not bite in judgement but welcomed as family. And finally Michael rested upon a small farm in some hills far away from his home town, and took on the hired-hand of a farm labourer.

It was hard, manual work. It rubbed against his skin as much as it rubbed coarsely against his upbringing. Both his finger skin and his conditioning began to fall away from the soft-textured patterning. Back aching and body-battered did Michael often fall into bed at night – exhausted yet satisfied. Michael began to feel himself becoming stronger little by little each day.

The farm employers treated Michael well in the circumstances. He was treated almost as family, and ate at the same table and afforded the same privileges as everyone else who worked on the farm. The sole condition was that Michael pulled his weight and did his job well. For Michael this was demanding, yet fair. And so in this challenge Michael sought a life opportunity to fulfil. It had been a circumstance placed before him, either to confront or turn away.

The strength of will inside Michael’s chest urged him on to face this step like a compassionate hunter of the self.

Although Michael felt neither like a hunter nor a warrior, he still felt as if he was engaged in a constant war. Yet it was not a destructive war, nor a fearful one. It was a constructive war of apprehension and renewal; not knowing the prey until it spoke deep inside with the hunter’s own voice. As if to cure yourself you must first kill that which is most precious to you – your very own conception of self. The belief in you: yet that belief which is not you. To dig up the implanted and sew anew.

After two years on the farm Michael felt a strengthened change had come over him. Still quiet yet not timid, just like the lay of the land.

Waking Sleep

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.

Rumi

Reclaim Me - I Walk Through

Reclaim Me... alkaline fluid in the veins of an unknown...

In the midst of some music there is a burning

that cannot be undone, or done without.

Like it or not I walk through.

Cancerous or not I walk through...

Wondrous Harp, splintered filaments,
coppered Heart burnished to Gold:

nothing is sold but the Spirit Be.

If it could be done, I would.

If it can be done, I will.

I will...

The Eternal Embrace

A human embrace - through life into death and bones...

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed two skeletons thought to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old, locked in an embrace.

The pair from the Neolithic period were discovered outside Mantua, about 40km (25 miles) south of Verona.

"It's an extraordinary case," said Ms Menotti. "There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging - and they really are hugging,"

Real hugs should not be taken lightly... we carry them with us as we move through our ages...

From Italy mystery of prehistoric hug