Your free will, your power to choose good or evil, Is increased by the inspirations of the angel And the promptings of the devil! The angel and the devil presenting The opposing choices in us, Force us to exercise our free will This is a faculty within us!
RUMI MASNAVI VI: 2985, 3004-5
Prophets and masters come and go but human ignorance lingers on. This is what Sufis call betassubi – narrowness or spiritual intolerance and indolence. This will continue until there is total transformation of human consciousness.
A Sufi can exist anywhere, in any form. Sufism is the essential core of all religions. It has nothing to do with Islam in particular. Sufism can exist without Islam. However, Islam cannot exist without Sufism. Only with Sufism does any religion become alive. Sufism is the very essence, the very being, Sufism is the breath of Mohammad. Sufism is tariqat – the way to attain to oneness with God just as it happened to the Holy Prophet.
Whenever a religion is alive it is because of Sufism. Sufism is an affair with the ultimate! A love affair with the whole or TAO, or that which is the very pulse of the existence! It means that one is ready to dissolve into the whole.
Sufism is the innermost core of all religions. Zen, Hassidism etc. are just names of the same happening. These are only different names of the same ultimate relationship with God.
Sufism is the art of removing the hindrance between you and you, between the self and the self, between the part and the whole. Sufism is the methodology to dissolve the vanity of ego.
An ancient Persian dictionary gives the definition of the word in a very unique way. It goes in rhyme: SUFI CHIST—SUFI, SUFIST. WHO IS A SUFI? The dictionary answers A SUFI IS A SUFI. The phenomenon that we call Sufi is indefinable. ‘A Sufi is a Sufi.’ It says nothing and yet it says everything. It says that the Sufi cannot be defined. There is no other word to define the entire phenomena.
Sufism is a special kind of magic, a rare kind of magic. It can be transferred only from a master to the disciple, not from a book. It cannot be transferred by scriptures. No way can this be communicated through the mind. It is also just like Zen – a transmission beyond words. It is a wordless communion. Nothing is spoken, yet still everything is heard.
Sufism is the transmission beyond communion. It is like that happen from a lit candle to the unlit one. Nothing is visible yet still something happens. And the closer the unlit candle comes to the lit one something jumps and lights the unlit one. This is transmission without lamp. A communication without word! The disciple remains within the energy field of the master beyond time and space in a state of continuum. This he does through trust, love for the master, and introspection on the words of the master. Thus he goes beyond time and space. This is Sufi way.
You cannot have it without being related to an enlightened Master. There is no other way. You can read all the literature that exists on Sufism and you will be lost in a desert of words. Unless you find a guide you will not have the taste of the miraculous.
Sufism is not for so-called God-fearing people either. In fact this place is for the God loving people. Love knows no fear. Love is the disappearance of fear. Just like when light is darkness can no more be. And such a person has a totally different quality. A God-fearing person can never move into the deeper realms of religion. Sufi way can happen once you are open to love and its deeper realms. Then it matters not what is your outer garb.
God loving persons have a totally different quality. They are in search. They want to know. They want to be. They want to attain to inner oneness. They want to explode their blissfulness. And they want to know authentically. They do not want to have borrowed knowledge about it. They want to have a taste. They want to encounter, they want to face God. They want to look into his eyes.
But before you can become capable of looking into the eyes of God, you will have to become capable of looking into the eyes of a Master. From there you take off. The journey begins. Master is the one who looks like you. He talks and walks like you. Yet still there is something of the beyond. He is soaked in God. He is overflowing the blissfulness. And in that state whatever he says transforms you. It is the miracle of the unknown. Beyond time and space-a continuum!
The word ‘Sufism’ has many orientations and all are beautiful. Each orientation speaks of the inner state of the one who is expressing this.
One old Naqshbandi Master, Abul Hassan Kharqani, has said, ‘Sufism was once a reality without a name and now Sufism is a name without reality.’ For many centuries Sufism existed without a name. It existed as reality only. That is why I say Jesus was a Sufi! So was Mohammed! So was Mahabir! And so was Krishna! Anyone who has come to know God! Is indeed a Sufi!
The word ‘Sufi’ is a new coinage. It is of a German origin. It emerged out of German scholarship. Is not more than one hundred and fifty years old? In Arabic the word is tasawwuf. But both come from a root ‘suf’ which means wool.
Why should wool become the symbol of Sufism? The scholars go on saying that it is because Sufis used to wear woollen robes. That is true. But why! Nobody has answered it. The symbolism is that wool is the garb of the animals and a Sufi has to become as innocent as an animal. He has to drop all kinds of civilization, all kinds of cultures. He has to drop all conditionings and become again innocent like an animal..
When man becomes animal he does not fall back as is normally conceived. Instead he goes higher. When a man becomes an animal he becomes a saint. His becoming an animal is his conscious choice. He is no more a Hindu and no more a Mohammedan and no more a Christian. He is in tune with existence as deeply as any animal. He has dropped all kinds of philosophies, all conceptualizations. Mind is without any content. He is, but he is no more in the mind. Only then the highest good the Absolute Good arises! This is ‘summum bonum’ the ultimate good!
A saint is more like animals than like you. The difference between a master and you is his innocence and spontaneity. That is why he is more like an animal than like the so called human beings. When you want to love God you have to be without masks. You have to drop all deceptions. You have to be authentically whatsoever you are. You have to be choice less. Be whatsoever you are. In that primal innocence God descends. When you choose, you have to repress. The animal does not choose. Whatsoever is actually is. The animal simply accepts it. Its acceptance is total. It knows no choice. So does a Sufi.
A Sufi knows no choice. He is choice less aware. Whatsoever happens he accepts it as a gift, as a God-given thing. He trusts in the universal mind that is why when you come across a Sufi you will see such animal innocence in his eyes and in his being. To approve the definition you need deeper insight into the whole phenomena that is Sufism. You have to be a Sufi to know this. You have to be in the ocean like a fish to know what is ocean. You have to dive deep in the womb of the ocean to explore the inner treasures of the unknown. You have never known such treasures. This is the rare experience. Sufism is such rare experience.
As the animal is not a chooser, the Sufi is not a chooser. Choose and you deceive; choose and you start going false; choose and you become plastic.
We only pay lip service to God. And in reality we are surrendered to the Devil. The Devil is deeper because the Devil has been repressed. Whenever something is repressed it goes deeper into your being; you become only a hypocrite on the surface. By asserting the symbol of the animal Sufis declare, ‘We are simple people. We do not know what is good and what is bad. We know only God, and whatsoever happens is his gift. We accept it. We are not doers on our own accord.’ This is the first meaning of the word ‘Sufi’.
There is another possibility. The word ‘Sufi’ can be derived from ‘sufa’! It implies purity, cleanliness, and purification. That too is good. When you live a life of choicelessness a natural purity comes. But remember, this purity has nothing of morality in it. It does not mean pure in the sense of being good. It means pure in the sense of being divine! Purity is transcendence. For a Sufi, God is not an idea. Instead it is his lived reality. It is not somewhere sitting on a throne high in the heavens as is conceived by your religious people. No! It is here now. It is all over the place. It is everywhere. God is just a name for the totality of existence. Totality! Just Totality!
A Sufi has never been respected by the society. A Sufi lives such a rebellious life that the society has almost always been murdering Sufis. Crucifying them! Because the Sufi makes you aware of your falsity! He becomes a constant sermon against all that is artificial. He reminds you of your ugliness. He is a reminder against your inner inhumanity to human beings! Against your masks! Against all that you are and represent. A Sufi becomes a constant pain in the neck to the so-called society and to the so-called respectable people.
It happened that once Abu Yazid, a Sufi mystic, was praying. It is said God spoke to Abu Yazid and said, ‘Yazid, now you have become one of my chosen people. Should I declare it to the world?’ Abu Yazid laughed. He said, ‘Yes, you can – if you want me to be crucified. Declare!’
You declared about Al-Hillaj Mansoor! You made him declare “A’nal Haq…” and what happened then? They crucified him. Whenever you declare that somebody has attained, people crucify him immediately. They do not love you. The world cannot tolerate your people. So if you want me to be crucified, declare. And it is said that God never declared about Abu Yazid. He kept quiet. This has always been so.
Someone asked al-Hillaj Mansoor, the greatest mystic ever, ‘What is the ultimate in Sufi experience?’ Al-Hillaj said, ‘Come tomorrow! Tomorrow you will come to know what the ultimate in Sufi experience is.’ Nobody knew what was going to happen the next day. The man asked, ‘Why not today?’ Al-Hillaj said, ‘You just wait. It is going to happen tomorrow -the ultimate in Sufism.’ And the next day he was crucified. And when he was crucified he shouted loudly for his friend who had asked the question. He said, ‘Where are you hiding in the crowd? Now come on and see the ultimate in Sufism. This is what it is.’ The society lives in hypocrisy. So is the family. None can tolerate truth. Truth has to be crucified. Only those who are ready to be consumed by the fire will be ready to fall in love with Mansoor.
‘Sufa’ means purity. Purity in the sense that there is no content in the mind any more! Mind has disappeared. There is no mind, no thinking, and no thought. It is a state of Satori, or samadhi.
There is another possibility which comes from another word, ‘sufia’. The word means: chosen as a friend by God. Sufis say that you cannot search for God unless he has already chosen you. How can you search for God? You talk as if you have already known God. You can search only for that you have already known? You can never know the unknown. And god is both UNKNOWN and UNKNOWABLE. All initiative is from the side of God. He is searching for you. He goes on calling ‘Where are you?’ When he chooses somebody only then do you start choosing him.
The same is true about a Master. You think that you choose a Master? All Holy Nonsense! It is always the Master who chooses you. The very idea that you choose the Master is egoistic. A master goes on choosing many who are not yet even alert about it. But they have started moving the moment a master chooses. And so is the ultimate case with God. God chooses first. Then you start feeling a hunger for him. And it is only Sufis who have told it.
The fourth possibility comes from the Greek word ‘Sufiya’. ‘Sufiya’ means wisdom. Wisdom is not synonymous with knowledge. Knowledge is through scriptures, through others. It is borrowed. Wisdom arises in your own being. You are a light unto yourself. Wisdom means that you know! And when you know there is no question to believe. Knowledge is belief. And a man becomes a Sufi only when he has known. When he himself has known! When he himself has touched the reality! When he himself has seen the face of God! Then he becomes a Sufi. He has become wise. He is no more just knowledgeable, it is his own experience now.
BASED ON:
TAOSHOBUDDHA'S LEAVES FROM A SUFI HEART VOL 1
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