Offered by Camille Adams Helminski For the UNESCO International Rumi Symposium, Istanbul, May 2007 Bismillah arRahman arRahim Truly we are in the midst of challenging times. Mevlana also lived in the midst of very challenging times, yet what a possibility opened with the example of being that he unveiled. Continually he was “witnessing the garden,” seeing [...]
We lament the violent and disrespectful actions of a tiny minority of Muslims toward Christians in various parts of the world as a result of the Pope's recent remarks. Such actions only advertise the ignorance of those engaged in them and, as these images are aired by the media worldwide, contribute to the misconceptions of non-Muslims. These reactive outbursts are, for some reason, more likely to be picked up by television producers than examples of humility, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Acts of rage make for dramatic viewing; patience, forbearance, and similar virtues attract far less attention. But inflammatory remarks by world leaders and the rage and reaction they provoke are part of an especially counter-productive cycle of irrationality and do not lead to the mutual understanding and respect that we must attain in the circumstances of today's interconnected humanity.
There have always been schools of transformation operating behind the scenes of conventional life. These schools existed to free human beings from inner slavery and to awaken them to the responsibilities and joys of being fully human. Their teaching was based not on beliefs, but on principles that could be tested in everyday life. These teachings shed light on the unconscious assumptions that motivate most human behavior.
For me, dervishhood is a total commitment to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet, Mevlana Rumi, Shams, and all the blessed ones who traveled the way of love. There are many aspects to this following and over the years it has been shown to me that the sincerity of commitment to this path is manifest in knowing that one is a servant and living one's life in this truth. What are the practical aspects of this way of living? For me there are several dimensions, there is a state of being, an active practice, a quality of self-reflection and self-knowing, and a way of conduct in daily life.
"Welcome, welcome! Peace upon you," he says as he kisses Kabir and then me. His face is as bright as I remembered it. His voice is full with the vigor of life. He smiles broadly when he sees us and he is filled with delight as he introduces us. The living room is filled with people. I recognize the faces of my dear friends and devoted students of Dr. Ali. There is Dr. Ali Himdan, the talented calligraphic artist, and there is Ramadan who is Dr. Ali's nephew. I look around and see the room is as it was seven years ago. The windows are covered with green drapes, and the walls are adorned with Quranic verses and pictures of the sanctuaries of the Prophet and his family. The room is filled with books neatly arranged on shelves with the title of volumes colorfully written across the books' bindings. The furniture is the same simple chairs and couches with Damascene patterned cushions. We have entered into the presence of our master, our living Mawlana.
The recognition is beginning to dawn that we are on the threshold (there's that word again) of a major change in human life. It's even being talked about on the evening news. Thirty years ago we might have thought that this change would come about through a revolution in consciousness. People would begin to wake up! To some extent we have woken up. At the beginning of this millenium we -- and I mean the population of this whole world -- are more conscious of and sensitive to issues of gender, race, human rights, and ecology. At the same time, we seem to have created a frantic pace of life for ourselves and sometimes it seems that the developed world has slipped into the trance of materialism. The purpose of life is to have fun, right?
SAY: We believe in God and that which was revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ismail, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we surrender Qur'an 2:136
A spirituality adequate to the times we live in must first of all be centered in the reality of human completion itself. If it is based instead on any partial version of humanness, it will be insufficient. No matter what is sought to supplement this insufficiency, if the starting point is less than human wholeness, the result will only be distorted version of humanness. Sufism can be considered a path of completion in two important senses: First, it is a way that proceeds from and leads to human completion, the Completed Human Being (Insani Kamil). Second, it is a complete way that uses every possible effective means to orchestrate the transformation of a human being. Both of these facts--the completeness of the method and the completeness of the result--are of the highest significance.
Anyone who has probed the inner life to a certain extent, who has sat in silence long enough to experience the stillness of the mind behind its apparent noise, is faced with a mystery. Apart from all the outer attractions of life in the world, there exists at the heart of human consciousness something else, something quite satisfying and beautiful in itself, a beauty without features. The mystery is not so much that these two dimensions exist--an outer world and the mystery of the inner world--but that the human being is suspended between them--as a space in which both meet. It is as if the human being is the meeting point, the threshold between two worlds. Anyone who has explored this inwardness to a certain degree will know that it holds a great beauty and power. In fact, to be unaware of this mystery of inwardness is to be incomplete.
The Truth is the Kadim, the Ancient One; He is the being who has no beginning. Where can the one who is "created afterwards" find the one who has no beginning? How can he understand Him? Where is the soul and the great God that has created everything? It is that power that is within you, by means of which you move and attain liberation. It is the soul, but what is it when you have placed the soul underneath your arm?