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Admittedly, this reflection came as an intoxicant to write some impressive treatise. But I find upon rolling up my sleeves to expound on Highest Truth, I’m drawn away from writing and guided into listening.
Listen to the reed and the tale it tells...
[Mathnawi, I:1, trans. Kabir Helminski]
I hear the resonating song of separation as the reed and the mouth of the neyzen converge in a gentle kiss. The breath of the neyzen delivered to the reed begins with a silencing hush. Here, the body and spirit of the dervish vibrate coherently.
Remembrance, the breath
Body, the reed
Their fire igniting
the truth in between
Resonating in remembrance inspires a state that is essential to a fundamental purpose of existence... to return to our Highest Truth.
Devotional remembrance amplifies an energetic (frequency) response to the true emitting Source. Receiver and emitter converge in coherence, resonating as One; the truth-seeking Sufi, focuses on that Source, so that Source might guide us closer to It.
I was a secret treasure and I longed to be known...
[Hadith Qudsi]
We receive (and emit) many frequencies, interrupting our presence before Truth; whether it simply be from the sting of a slipped wrench and reactive expletive or the deeper existential catalysts that ignite the ego with pangs of regret, pride, envy, and anger. We are blessed with the struggle of walking between this formed world and that beyond, where at highest frequencies, a subtle misstep creates aching dissonance. The Loving One (al-Wadud) envelops our struggle, keeping us near. True Love (Ishq-e Haqiqi), in remembrance, is the balm for all reactive wounds and relief for internal incoherence.
Resonation is felt in the relationship between receiver and emitting source. This energy is universally unique and celebrates the awareness of truth within the core of our identity.
When a human being performs zhikr, their spirit—their heart starts to open... and the divine secret—the things you couldn’t understand or know about before—begin to be revealed to you...
[“The Coherence of Our Souls,” Kabir Helminski]
Words cannot describe Highest Truth; rather it is an energetic essence exuding profound and unique particularities. It is the this-ness of God where the limitlessness of the Highest Truth dissolves the limits of humanity.
Eyes see Him not through sight's observation,
but hearts see Him through the verities of faith.
[Imam Ali, A Shiite Anthology: The Vision of the Heart, trans. William Chittick]
...there are no letters or voices where the Truth is.
[Rumi’s Sun: The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz, trans. Camille Helminski and Refik Algan]
I will not find the heart’s Truth in the words of scholars and poets. It is in the silence of God’s Threshold where the true heart manifests.
Love itself describes its own perfection.
Listen and be speechless.
[Divani Shamsi Tabrizi, In the House of Remembering, Kabir Helminski]
In knowing ourselves, that we might know Truth, we turn from “I” consciousness toward Creator-consciousness. The voices of dervishes in unison or in personal, silent reflection (zhikrullah, salat, sema, muraqaba), cultivates coherence. There is refuge from, and clarity beyond, the discordant events around us. Here, the quest for true Truth converges with the Sufi practice of remembrance, guiding us through the distractions of false truths.
As human beings we can know that a single creative energy connects everything and that we are integral to it. We are one with the Whole. This is the Truth on the highest level.
[Living Presence, Kabir Helminski]
Receptivity to the current of love nourishes our relationships in this world. The current dissolves our illusion of separateness from Truth and from each other, revealing unity behind forms through a focused perspective and immersed presence.
...the human heart is a threshold between two worlds [spiritual inner and limited physical]... When we live in that reality and are aware of that presence, we are in remembrance.
[In the House of Remembering, Kabir Helminski]
We feel resonance in the heart’s threshold; where True love goes when it has no words.
I am tricked by my quest
for a poem’s last line
I keep remembering Her names
until the truth untwines
this tangle I’ve made
in the garden of love.
’Come in, O thou who art entirely myself,
not different like the rose and thorn in the garden.’
The thread has become single...
Whether the feet be two or four, they traverse one road,
like the double shears makes one cut.
[Mathnawi I:3077–81, trans. Nicholson]
We are each the entirety of the wheel of Truth; each spoke of our being traveling in 360 directions. However, each spoke moves centrally inward from the outer rim of earthly existence to the hub of non-existence. Many routes, one True destination.
The resonating sound of skilled musicians and vocalists is intoxicating. They are devoted practitioners; simultaneously both skilled player (emitter) and listener (receiver); each part of the whole and, thus, the whole Itself.
When we begin to develop an independent attention, one that can look outward and inward at the same time, we start to acquire the presence that is the enabling factor of all spiritual work.
[Living Presence, Kabir Helminski]
We too are musicians playing from the score sheet of truth, conducted by our Master; the chord of coherence plucked within our remembering hearts:
...coherence in a group is increased by the state of coherence of each individual...
[“The Coherence of Our Souls,” Kabir Helminski]
Our spiritual journey along the path of remembering is sustained each day in extraordinary moments of mundanity. So much to ponder and explain; let us pause and surrender in those moments between our words and breaths; while passing beneath the picketed shade and light of a forest-green, Allah-Allah-Allah...; in the pulsing glow of the traffic light, An-Nur; in the toils of turning the wrench, Al-Halim; awaiting the coffee to brew, As-Sabur. As we silently bow toward Beauty (even in disbelief), Al-Wali. Be comforted and resonate with Highest Truth.
Truth, it is I. Huuu.
~ Skip is a dervish living in Northern Virginia, USA. |
