1. Am Anfang eines jeden Studiums kann der Wunsch nach Aufmerksamkeit vor anderen stehen, aber wie es immer beginnt, es sollte nicht damit enden.

2. Studiere die Annahmen, die deine Handlungen leiten. Studiere dann die Annahmen, die hinter deinen Annahmen stehen.

3. Es ist sinnvoll zu fragen: “Warum habe ich das und das getan?” Aber besser ist zu fragen: “Wie hätte ich es anders machen können?”

4. Du hast einen langen Weg hinter dir, aber du weißt es nicht. Du hast einen langen Weg vor dir, und du weißt, was das bedeutet.

5. Im Vergleich mit einigen bist du schon weit fortgeschritten. Im Vergleich zu anderen bist du noch weit zurück. Beide Beobachtungen sind gleichermaßen unnütz.

6. Wenn deine Sehnsucht nach dem “Guten” sich auf Habgier gründet, ist sie nicht gut, sondern Habgier.

7. Wenn Du Liebenswürdigkeit benutzt, um Macht auszuüben, kannst Du mehr Schaden anrichten, als wenn Du grausam bist. Beide Verhaltensweisen sind falsch.

8. Der Wissende muß eine Funktion erfüllen. Der Unwissende kann nur versuchen, sich eine Funktion anzumaßen.

9. Versuche nicht bescheiden zu sein. Lerne die Bescheidenheit.

10. Nimm an, daß du zum Teil heuchlerisch und zum Teil rücksichtslos bist. Dann bist du der Wahrheit nahe.

Es begegneten sich einmal der Sufi Abu Said und der im Westen als Avicenna bekannte Philosoph Ibn Sina.

Als sie auseinander gingen, sagte der Sufi: “Was ich sehe, weiß er”.

Der Philosoph sagte: “Was ich weiß, sieht er”.

What have I been reading lately? Basically, Ruth Reichl and Idries Shah. I just updated my Goodreads profile to include recent books I’ve read.

When I was in California on my last trip, @lebetho loaned me Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise. Loved. It. So I downloaded Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table to my Sony Reader, read it in all of two days, and then downloaded Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. That was a short one, and I read it in one day. She another book I want to read, but it’s not available on the Sony Reader, so I’ll have to wait for our next trip to the US to get that one.

I also added a handful of Idries Shah books, some of which I’ve read parts of (in the Standby bookshelf on Goodreads), others I’ve read the whole book (in the Read bookshelf). So far, I’ve read them all in Spanish translation, because Agus got them all down here. Amazon has an Idries Shah page so you can see all of his books that they offer, in both languages.

My absolute best discovery as of late is that I can read on the stationary bike at the gym. I HATE the bike. I would so much rather be running, except that I can’t thanks to my tibia. And I can’t stand watching TV either, so the bike is generally a major bore for me. But when I was obsessed with Garlic and Sapphires, I brought the book to the gym and realized it was the perfect distraction on the bike.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. When I’m not at the granny gym, I’m reading on the bike at the REAL gym.

There was once a small boy who banged a drum all day and loved every moment of it. He would not be quiet, no matter what anyone else said or did. Various people who called themselves Sufis, and other well-wishers, were called in by neighbors and asked to do something about the child.

The first so-called Sufi told the boy that he would, if he continued to make so much noise, perforate his eardrums; this reasoning was too advanced for the child, who was neither a scientist nor a scholar.

The second told him that drum beating was a sacred activity and should be carried out only on special occasions.

The third offered the neighbors plugs for their ears; the fourth gave the boy a book; the fifth gave the neighbors books that described a method of controlling anger through biofeedback; the sixth gave the boy meditation exercises to make him placid and explained that all reality was imagination.

Like all placebos, each of these remedies worked for a short while, but none worked for very long.

Eventually, a real Sufi came along. He looked at the situation, handed the boy a hammer and chisel, and said, “I wonder what is INSIDE the drum?”

You can access the so-called poems by clicking on their titles in the right-hand column. There is also an introduction, called “*Eric Chaet.”

Tho, given
prevailing conditions
it is approximately
impossible
this collection
of so-called poems
exists—
as much as
Homer’s Iliad
or Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching
or Isaiah’s Book
or Dante’s Divine Comedy
or Whitman’s Leaves of Grass—
or a rock or water
or the Chinese Communist Party
or the American
Republican or Democratic Parties
or the Iranian or Russian government
or the national oil companies
of Brazil, Malaysia, or Mexico
as Somalia, Sudan, or Guinea
or BP or Shell or Exxon-Mobil
or Al-Qaeda or JPMorgan Chase
or the Bank of England
or Apple or Google or Microsoft
or various nuclear arsenals
or politically-awarded subsidies
or the cost of getting elected to represent people
who can’t afford to contribute to your campaign
even if they weren’t so furiously cynical, so fatalistic
so trapped in the herd they wrap themselves in for warmth
as light, photosynthesis, sight, as blood, bone, breath
or the place where you buy groceries, or the groceries.

Patience & perseverance
learning & practice
integrity & adaptability
refusal to accept what’s wrong
initiative & follow-thru
one life-time at a time.

I don’t find most poetry
whether ancient, modern, or contemporary
of much value to me—
but the poetry I find that is valuable
is valuable as little else is.
I hope you find these so-called poems of real value to you.
I wrote them with that intent.

///

///

Picture: U.S. Geological Survey

Egyszer egy városban a Nyugat legtávolabbi csücskében élt egy Fatima nevű lány. Jómódú fonó lánya volt. Egy nap így szólt hozzá az apja: ‘Gyere, lányom, elutazunk, mert dolgom van a Földközi Tenger szigetein. Talán találsz majd egy jóképű gavallért, aki férjed lehet.’

Elindultak, és szigetről szigetre utaztak. Az apa kereskedett, míg Fatima férjéről álmodott, aki hamarosan övé lehet. Egy nap Kréta felé utaztukban vihar tört ki, és hajótörést szenvedtek. Fatimát a víz Alexandriánál vetette partra félholtan. Apja meghalt és ő tökéletesen magára maradt.

Csak homályosan emlékezett addigi életére, mert a hajótörés és a tengerben töltött idő teljesen kimerítette.

Addig kószált a homokban, amíg egy ruhakészítő család megtalálta. Szegények voltak ugyan, de szerény otthonukba fogadták és megtanították mesterségükre. Így történt, hogy második életet teremtett magának, és egy vagy két év múltán boldog volt és megbékélt. De egy nap, amikor valamiért a tengerparton volt, rabszolgakereskedők szálltak partra, és magukkal vitték más foglyokkal együtt.

Hiába panaszkodott keserűen, Fatima nem talált együttérzést a rabszolgakereskedők szívében, akik Isztambulba vitték és eladták rabszolgának.

Másodjára omlott össze világa. Szerencsére kevés vásárló akadt a piacon. Egyikük faműhelyébe keresett rabszolgákat, ahol hajóárbócokat készítettek. Amikor meglátta szerencsétlen Fatima csüggedését, úgy döntött, hogy megveszi, azt gondolva, hogy így legalább egy kicsit jobb életet adhat neki, mintha más venné meg.

Hazavitte Fatimát, hogy felesége szolgálólánya legyen. Ahogy hazaért, megtudta, hogy minden pénzét elveszítette egy szállítmánnyal, ami kalózok kezébe került. Nem tudta hát megfizetni a munkásokat, így ő, Fatima és a felesége magára maradt az árbócok készítésének nehéz munkájával.

Fatima, hálából azért, mert munkaadója megmentette, olyan keményen és jól dolgozott, hogy gazdája visszaadta szabadságát, és megbízható segítője lett. Így történt, hogy viszonylagosan boldog lett harmadik szakmájában.

Egy nap így szólt gazdája: ‘Fatima, azt akarom, hogy ügynökömként Jávára menj egy szállítmány hajóárbóccal, és biztos haszonnal adj túl rajtuk.’

Fatima el is indult, de egy tájfun miatt Kína partjainál hajótörést szenvedett, és Fatima ismét egy idegen föld partjain találta magát. Megint keserűen sírt, mert úgy érezte, hogy életében semmi sem elvárásai szerint történik. Bármikor úgy tűnt, hogy a dolgok jól mennek, valami közbejött és lerombolta reményeit.

‘Miért van így?’ – zokogta harmadjára -’hogy bármit is csinálok, sírás lesz a vége? Miért kell ennyi szerencsétlenségnek történnie velem?’ Nem kapott választ. Így hát összeszedte magát, és elindult a földrész belseje felé.

Kínában senki nem hallott Fatimáról és senki nem tudott gondjairól. De élt egy legenda, mely szerint jön majd egy nap egy bizonyos idegen, egy nő, aki sátrat tud készíteni az Uralkodónak. És mivel eddig Kínában még senki nem tudott sátrat készíteni, mindenki élénk várakozással tekintett ennek a jóslatnak a beteljesedésére.

Nem akarván elszalasztani ezt az idegent, Kína uralkodói sorra minden évben egyszer követték azt a szokást, hogy hírnököket küldtek minden városba és faluba minden idegen nőért, akit az Udvarba kísértek.

Egy ilyen alkalomkor ért Fatima egy tengerparti városba. Az emberek tolmácson keresztül beszéltek vele, és elmondták neki, hogy meg kell látogatnia az Uralkodót.

‘Asszony’ – szólt az Uralkodó, amikor Fatimát elé vitték -’tudsz sátrat készíteni?’

‘Úgy gondolom, igen’ – mondta Fatima.

Kötelet kért, de nem volt kötelük. Visszaemlékezett hát fonóként töltött idejére, lent gyűjtött és kötelet font. Ekkor erős anyagot kért, de a kínaiaknak nem volt olyan, amilyenre szüksége lett volna. Így az alexandriai takácsoknál szerzett tapasztalataira alapozva erős sátoranyagot készített. Ezután rájött, hogy sátorrudakra van szüksége, de ilyenek sem voltak Kínában. Fatima visszaemlékezett hogyan tanították Isztambulban a famegmunkálók, és ügyesen erős sátorrudakat faragott. Amint ezekkel mind készen lett, törni kezdte fejét az általa valaha utazásai során látott sátrakon, majd egyszer csak összeállított egy sátrat.

Amikor Kína Uralkodója elé vitték ezt a csodát, ő cserébe azt ajánlotta, hogy Fatima bármilyen kívánságát teljesíti. Fatima úgy döntött, hogy Kínában telepedik le, ahol feleségül ment egy jóképű herceghez, és itt maradt boldogságban, gyermekeitől körülvéve napjai végezetéig.

Ezeken a kalandokon keresztül értette meg Fatima, hogy amit valamikor kellemetlen élményként élt meg, nélkülözhetetlen szerepet kapott valódi boldogságának elérésében.

Ez a történet jól ismert a görög folklórban, amelynek sok kortárs motívumában szerepelnek dervisek és legendáik. Az itt idézett változatot adrianople-i Mohamed Jamaludin sejknek tulajdonítják. Ő alapította a Jamalia Rendet ['A Gyönyörű'] és 1750-ben halt meg.

Idries Shah - Dervisek Történetei

“Forming a kind of initiated priesthood, secrecy is the general rule. A modern occultist cult sums up this almost primordial urge for secrecy in one of its dicta: Knowledge is Power; Knowledge shared is Power lost”¹

This rule has always been a problem for me… I mean, I’m writing a blog about my magical works, for crying out loud! While they may not think of it as a “problem” per sé, I can only assume that all the blogging magi out there have also been faced with this self same question: How much do you say?

Because there is Power to be lost in saying too much, I have no doubt of that.
You have to wonder whether a charm is still as powerful once its recipient has watched you gather the ingredients and drilled you about their purpose. Once you give them a chance to deconstruct the thing into its components (if only mentally) and understand your logic, is it still as effective?

Is it, in fact, still effective at all? I simply haven’t tried.

On the other hand, I do this because I love it. It fascinates me and shapes the manner in which I approach every other aspect of my life. The thrill that runs down my spine when I uncover new influences and inspirations is absolutely addictive, and what poor fool hunts down such exciting treasures only to bury them elsewhere and never tell a soul? Of course I want to talk about magic, it’s the best thing I know!

When I started this blog, I had resolved to publish here all my works in progress – all my sketches and musings leading finally to the creation of each œuvre – but there are too many details that would make no sense without an introduction, and too many components whose fragile energies I am simply not sure would survive divulging.

So what am I left with?

I can’t publish the skeletal user-friendly remains of my work, stripped of all their secret meat and precious tendons to leave you with nothing but skin and bone to view.
Neither can I, presumably, bore you with the convoluted difficulties involved in my shamanic scavenger hunts… where do you get cat bones while still abiding by a basic respect for life? If you use some sort of animal-friendly alternative, are you not stepping back from a line and limiting the game?

Furthermore, if you can accrue enthusiastic interest from your entourage – if those with whom you share your unsavoury graveyard escapades are drawn into your world, forced to ask and inquire and keep up with the game… well then are you not gathering more energy for your work?

Could it, in fact, add to your Power to share your metaphysical treasures with others?

If they know how hard you have fought to make their talisman, how long you worried over every detail and how pedantic you were in the timing and setting of the construction… might they not accord it a certain respect? Could their enthusiasm in fact serve to feed the thing itself?

This is only my second post, and I am at a quandry: the best magi that I know speak but rarely about their work, yet they must be every bit as addicted to it as I am. Am I proposing to make a farcical show of weak will in breaking the golden rule?

Tricky.

The last name of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was a household word in my father’s family, along with that of Gurdjieff’s major disciple, Peter Demianovich Ouspensky. I remember hearing these two strange sounding names from the mid-1940s when I was around age seven. Ouspensky died in 1947 and Gurdjieff in 1949, but their teachings remain important to a significant number of seekers and much has been written by their students, and students of these students, about them, especially Gurdjieff.

During my twenties, when I was hungry for glimpses of deeper structure and meaning in life, I began reading Gurdjieff the philosopher and psychologist, and Ouspensky the cosmologist and major explainer of Gurdjieff. I may not have pursued these writings so early and diligently had not their names been imprinted in me. I later read other explainers and interpreters of both these men because their writing is dense and, in Gurdjieff’s case, his written English is almost impenetrable to most readers.

Left, P.D. Ouspensky; right, G.I. Gurdjieff

By the time I was in my forties I had collected a large number of books about Gurdjieff and “the work,” as his legacy is known to his students, and a few by Ouspensky who was less prolific and had less of a following. I also had, and still have some, books by Rafael Lefort, Olga Arkadievna de Hartmann, Kathleen Speeth, John G. Bennett and Robert de Ropp which are, at least in part, pertinent to “the work”. And, to make even more clear what these two teachers taught I have their biographies by Colin W. Wilson.

In recent weeks I have been rereading books I have had with me for many years, some of which I will now give away, having now read them a sufficient number of times. This is how I am ‘taking leave’ of these teachers.

My last blog was written as a result of such a rereading. More recently I have reread Making a Soul by John G. Bennett, adapted from a series of lectures, including extensive responses to questions from the audience, in London, 1954, expounding upon critical elements of the writing and teaching of Gurdjieff.

Sitting in the quiet early morning of a Swedish late spring, with the sun’s light about to stream into my window at 4:15 AM, I ask myself what I have learned from Gurdjieff and all his interpreters. The one thing I will remember is that we are, most of us, most of the time ‘asleep.’ The subtitle of Colin Wilson’s biography of Gurdjieff is The War Against Sleep. Another thing I will remember is that Gurdjieff and his followers asked good questions about the nature of man and his place in the universe. Finally, I am grateful for his having introduced me to ways of thinking and being in other parts of the world.

What I cannot now accept in his teachings is the metaphor of man as a machine. He and Ouspensky and all who followed them are steeped in the atmosphere of science and mathematics which bloomed in the first half of the 20th Century. The appeal to logic, reason and science in all these writings, no matter how much there may be an acknowledgment of a force ‘higher’ than man, is, in my view, like trying to put a previously living organism back to together after having dissected it.

John G. Bennett

Also, in Bennett’s Making of a Soul, he makes such, to me, unacceptable statements as “…the fundamental principle of all science, which is the continuity and self-consistency of the natural order”, and “…everything in the universe is built upon one common pattern.” I have an aversion to the use of the noun ’science’ as if it were an independent agent causing things to happen or containing things that we try to discover. There is a scientific method that enables us to learn things about the universe and to make useful tools with this knowledge, but which is provisional and according to current theories, subject to revision.

Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Bennett, de Ropp and others often present linear and planar diagrams in the manner of organizational charts and systems analyses to buttress their arguments of how man and the rest of the universe are constructed and how they relate to each other. These are inevitably hierarchical in nature, where Man is higher than all other living things on earth and subordinate to unseen and variously named forces higher than him.

Bennett, however, asks a critical question: “Who am I that can say ‘my body?’” This is precisely a question asked by others whose perceptions are influenced by Zen Buddhism and by those who perceive man as part of a vibrant and dynamic whole, not separate, not ‘outside’ of himself looking at himself.

In addition to intellectual exercises, Gurdjieff and Bennett promoted music and dance as practiced by dervishes, Sufi Muslims, as a way to achieve certain understandings, as in the unity of The Whole. One can see an example of this in a film based on the book by Gurdjieff with the same title, Meetings With Remarkable Men. In the film, Bennett is briefly in a scene where acolytes in a British school for Gurdjieffian ways are dancing in presumed Sufi style. They array themselves around a diagram painted on the floor, The Enneagram.

The Enneagram is part of an ancient method of describing personality types, not dissimilar from the modern Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, based in Jungian psychology and widely used in organizations for team building and by others for self- and mutual understanding. Some scholars have asserted a relationship between the two methods.

Although fascinating and instructive, the adoption by Gurdjieff, then by others, of pieces of other cultures in The Caucasus, where Gurdjieff was born, and from parts of Western Asia such as Sufi dancing and The Enneagram, makes a kind of stew that requires endless interpretation for understanding.

As indicated in my opening words, I can now release many of the books in this realm of inquiry for others to read. I will keep some books because of their literary and historical value, and  to remind me of these former teachers who have now become friends with whom I have some respectful differences of opinion.

Books to be released:

I will keep these books:

I urge the reader to read the reviews underneath the links to these books for even more, and very interesting commentary.

As I retrieved and set aside these books for their proper distribution beyond my library, I came across this bookmark of unknown date, so I don’t know if the telephone numbers are current.  Please click on the image for greater clarity.

How to be Spiritual Amidst this Chaos?

                          By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

 Circumstances have overtaken man. His old languages are not sufficient to describe what is happening, and what is about to happen. To think in terms of a millennium or such tame concepts as ‘the eleventh hour’ is ridiculous. Better that he should realize that he is in an era which might be more accurately described as the ‘eighth day of the week.”  Idries Shah

                                               *     *     *

For the spiritual traveler, we are living in a complex and unique age; one of tremendous upheaval and great opportunity to solve problems. Turn on the television set and listen to the reports coming in from all across the world: religious wars, effects of global warming, famine, new strains of disease, drug wars, over weight children, advances in technology and people beginning to work together to solve problems of housing, job loss, and keeping their family together.  This combination of factors has been called the ‘eighth day of the week’ and the beginning of a new era; clearly, until many of these problems are resolved, if that is possible, the amount of unsettledness, fear, anxiety and personal worry for many will continue to grow. 

 For increasing numbers of people, the personal balancing factor to this stress and chaos, is spiritual development. It must be added to the mix and used with our other capacities to find solutions. Higher knowledge will not replace common sense, experience, hard work, or economic imperative.  That is not its function.  It is an added capacity which integrates and works alongside others.

The present discussion will examine some basic thoughts about being spiritual; and how spiritual capacity can help the traveler deal with this period of chaos and change.

                        What Does It Mean To Be Spiritual?

What does the term spiritual mean?  Spiritual is not an easy word to define, because there is an experiential aspect to it, with many levels and dimensions.  Sort of like love, which is a sublime experience and occurs in many forms; poets and song writers proclaim its virtues and sorrows, yet, no matter how fine the words, they are only an approximation.

Typical definitions include phrases such as: spiritual means of the spirit. This type of definition: defines itself using the same word, yet, surprisingly is reasonably accurate. Spiritual does mean of the spirit.

For the spiritual traveler, the soul is comprised of a spiritual energy fabric; this spiritual energy fabric is the source of life and powers our body, 5 senses, emotions and consciousness.  To the soul, there is a higher and lower aspect which corresponds to different parts of our functioning (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual); to further complicate, in some discussions soul/spirit are used interchangeably.

• The goal of spiritual paths, or being spiritual, is to add a measure of conscious spiritual awareness to the traveler’s individual life and day; this knowledge or awareness serves as an enriching, enabling element, so the traveler can complete daily & higher functions.
• For the most part, every day activity, work, and worry block the inner (spiritual) awareness from coming forward.
• All life operates through consciousness, which is awareness and energy on multiple physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels.  Through our soul, which is comprised of this spiritual energy fabric, we create our multiple levels of reality, every moment of the day.
• Each one of us is a creator of reality.  We are souls that have taken on a physical form to create our lives and participate in the higher design.  In order to do this, we must follow a spiritual path and lead a balanced life.
• A full life is a life where we express all the parts of self and participate in something higher.
• Increased spiritual capacity helps the traveler know what is going on around them; this knowledge helps them on a daily basis.

Characteristics of a Spiritual Person

Another way to help define spiritual is to examine personality traits of spiritual people.  These characteristics help us get a better understanding of what it means to be spiritual in daily life, however, there are problems here as well; while these traits are accurate, also, they can be said to exist in non-spiritual people:

• Spiritual people have a sense of humor and are not ‘stuffy old farts’- and enjoy laughing;
• Spiritual people are involved in their community and may work/raise a family;
• Spiritual people seek to help others as much as themselves;
• They are free with their time and energy- volunteer their efforts;
• A spiritual person demonstrates continual striving to get better;
• A spiritual person lives by their conscience;
• They try to live a life that is free of expectation and comparison to others;
• They try to look at different issues from a broad framework and entertain/respect the ideas of others;
• They are not on a power trip or trying to control the ideas/lives of others;
• Spiritual values are long held and they are genuinely humble.

 While the spiritual traveler acknowledges problems in definition and realizes they are seeking an illusive essence, there is another part of the consciousness that offers: ‘do not worry- you will know it, when you find it.’  Like love- spiritual defines itself and by adding this capacity to your life, you life will be fuller, more complete and you will be better able to face life’s ups and downs.

Routine Change or the End?

Opening of the 5th Seal by El Greco

Through increased information that is available via television and the internet, the average person viewing the unrest in our world cannot help but wonder: what is going on? Conversely, scientists and philosophers tell us, chaos and order are simply opposite ends of a continuum. Both are natural to life and necessary to the physical order. And so the spiritual traveler wonders: is this era simply a routine period of unrest- soon to be followed by a period of relative calm? 

Consider the following themes and ideas, and how each contributes to our fear and growing anxiety level.  Each of which can be found either in your religious/spiritual belief system or on your local television programs, nightly and weekly.

• Many religious/spiritual paths discuss a destruction/ending of sorts- of which many scenarios seem to coincide with this time period. Is this the end of the world?  Also, current scientifically based television shows describe ‘end of world’ natural disasters, questioning: will the world shift on its access?  Will a large meteor hit the earth?  Through global warming, will we send the earth into another ice-age?  When will the next super volcano erupt? Often these shows include prophetic references: are these events the earth changes that Cayce and other prophets have described?
• Some belief systems hold that previously there have been 4 destructions of the earth. The Mayan Calendar ends in year 2012; according to Sufi Tradition, the Stream of Life has died-up and will be replaced with the new Stream of Life.  Destruction and rebirth- natural cycles that have occurred many times?
• Recently, across the world, there has been a failure of government and large corporations to solve economic problems and timely react to natural disasters; also, for the average person, these institutions appear to have been at the center of many of the ills that affect us.  As a result, gradually, many are turning away from reliance upon authoritarian based models to individual based structures.  Slowly, we are collectively realizing that governments/corporations/religion alone cannot save us; we must all work to make the world better and begin this effort with ourselves. 
• More people are solving problems locally and gradually realizing that the world is made better one person at a time; this is the person centered approach.  Additionally, there is growing interest in spiritual paths that emphasize personal development.  Better individuals make a better world.
• Personal, Corporate, and Governmental Greed, along with Religious Fanaticism increasingly are threats to our way of life.
• Honoring the Earth Mother or destruction of the environment; how will it end?  Will we pull together or destroy the planet?
• Information explosion: boon or curse?  How ‘others’ manipulate us.

Understanding Emotion: Love and Fear

By nature, we are emotional and our reactions to life, through multiple feelings contribute to a richer, full experience. When something happens in daily life that is painful we all have a reaction to it.  We are multi-level beings and our emotions bring us both great joy and sadness. That is the way we are hardwired and for good health, must honor our feelings.

One model, suggests that all emotions arise from the 2 basic feelings of love and fear.  According to Frank Sant’Agata, all emotions can be traced back to these primary feelings.

“Love and fear are the only emotions we as human entities are able to express.  All the others are just sub-categorical emotions.  For example, on love’s side there is joy, peacefulness, happiness, forgiveness, and a host of others.  On the other hand, fear reflects: hate, depression, guilt, inadequacy, discontentment, prejudice, anger, attack, and so on.

 Love and fear can not coexist. Where one is, the other can’t be also.  The one will leave immediately, should the other enter its presence.  If you find yourself in a situation where you are experiencing great joy, and are suddenly overtaken by fear, the joy is gone! But it works the other way too: If you are terrorized, frightened, or otherwise threatened in any way, all you need to do is turn to the love within and the fears disappears.”

 Next time you are watching TV Talk Shows and the Host is trying to convince you of something, evaluate their presentation using the following criteria: is this a manipulation of the fear and reward stick.  Do as I say- good things will happen; if not, bad things will happen.  Most often, the media, politicians, some forms of religion, and corporations continually use this manipulation.  Unless you see the manipulation- it is very difficult to understand and disarm, particularly, when you are up against a formidable societal power structure.

 From a spiritual standpoint, we want to become masters of our emotions, so we can temporarily get beyond them.  When we are emotionally charged, most often, the quiet, spiritual part of ourselves will not come forward.  It will not operate under these conditions.

Daily Practices to Counter Fear

OK, so now that you have me totally paranoid, and frightened about the end of the world, what am I supposed to do about all of this?  Here are a few suggestions, from my personal tool box on life, to help you conquer your fear reaction, and more easily access that quiet part of yourself which is more peaceful and serene.                              

• Honor your Fear.  Express it in healthy ways- pray, kiss your children, and be grateful for what you have. Ask the Universe/God to help you go beyond your fear and live a full life.  Offer up a prayer of gratitude/thankfulness for what you do have and not what will be taken; turn to love and gratefulness. Ordinarily, the mind is so constructed it can only keep one thought in it at a time.
• Scenarios of the world ending are just that. Scenarios or potentials. Unless we collectively change and live according to the Golden Rule this is one potential.  Remember, you can only control yourself and work to make your world/life better.
• Lead a full Life. Participate in the world; try to make it a better place. Travel to the different parts of yourself and follow one of the great spiritual paths to completion.
• Live in the moment. All you have is this moment; try to make it work and be joyous for you.
• Happiness Calendar. Every day do something small that makes you happy. Laugh, tell a joke; make a telephone call to your friends. Research tells us that happy people have many small things they look forward to each day.
• NEWS Vacation. Take a vacation from your computer, the television set and reportage of the bad things on the NEWS.  Sit quietly or go for a walk; try to listen to that quiet part of yourself that knows where it is going.
• Pray.  Make each moment a celebration to life and offer up a song of gratitude for the opportunity to be here.
• Think Happy Thoughts. And when you find yourself becoming sad, angry, confused, remember, that from confusion comes order.  One moment we are happy and the next sad.  We have the capacity to create our own reality, and a happy traveler thinks happy thoughts. Tell jokes, laugh, or watch a funny movie.
• Avoid making comparisons between yourself and others; particularly what they have and you do not have.
• Monitor your expectations about life and people. Often, expectations are a trap that robs us of our happiness and peace of mind (i.e., I expected by this point in my life . . .  Or if I followed this spiritual path, I would be free of pain).
• Life can be glorious, but remember it’s a full-contact sport.  Chaos and order co-exist and are part of the Cosmic Plan.
• Be With Positive People.  Be selective with the people you hang around and what they speak/talk about. Positive/loving people are good medicine
• Avoid Alcohol/Recreational Drugs. Most are depressants and can affect your mood.
• Balanced Living. All things in moderation and strive to lead a complete, multi-level balanced life.
• Replaying Old Tapes.  Avoid going over and over, troubling things that have happened.  Some of this is necessary, but most often, we replay it too much.

Conclusions

 And the more we practice controlling our consciousness and awareness, and seeing the fear/reward manipulation about us, the easier it will become to think more tranquil thoughts.  Then, one day we will experience what lies beyond emotions; and the higher consciousness will emerge.

 Often for many events in life, we cannot control harmful outcomes; when something painful or chaotic occurs, we must feel and honor the pain.  Yet, experience teaches with a little hard work, we can limit fear and worry about potentials; all of us must learn to separate out what is a possibility, and learn to use the tools in our personal tool box to move past potentials and reach happier, more tranquil states. 

In 1969, it was during a BBC interview that Mrs. Beryl Worth, when questioned about her positive personal adjustment, to a recent potentially fatal diagnosis of cancer, answered in the following way.

‘I think it was St. Ignatius who was sweeping the corridor and his novices came and said to him, ‘If the world, if you knew the world were going to come to an end in 10 minutes, what would you do?  And he said, ‘Go on sweeping the corridor.” And that is just what I’m going to do.”

 In every moment, life is ending and beginning; life is joy and pain, chaos and peace.  With every moment, after we have experienced what we need to experience; we must learn and remember to go on doing our work, and ‘continue sweeping the corridor.’

                                                *          *          *

    References

Idries Shah, Knowing How To Know, The Octagon Press, London, 1998, p. 152.

 This quote appears online at Frank Sant’Agata, On Love and Fear, http://timelessmiracles.com/LightGuide/love.htm, and accessed 3/22/09.

 Interview with Mrs. Beryl Worth shortly before her death. BBC transcript “I’ll go on sweeping the corridor’ June 1969. Appearing in and compiled by: Cecil, Rieu, and Wade,

The King’s Son, The Octagon Press: The Institute for Cultural Research, 1981, p. 162.

                                                *          *          *

Also by Dr. Bitkoff, A Commuter’s Guide to Enlightenment, (Llewellyn, 2008) and Journey of Light: Trilogy, (Authorhouse, 2004); these books are available on Amazon.com or from publisher.  To contact author go to www.stewartbitkoff.com.

Nasrudin, standing utterly absorbed in the market square, was reciting an ode:

‘O my beloved!

My whole inner being is so suffused with Thee

That whatever presents itself to my sight

Appears to be Thou!’

A hag shouted:

‘And what if a fool should come into your range of vision?’

Without pausing, as if it were a refrain, the Mulla carried on:

‘… It appears to be Thou!’

A neighbor came to Nasrudin for an interpretation on a point of law.

‘My cow was gored by your bull. Do I get any compensation?’

‘Certainly not. How can a man be held responsible for what an animal does?’

‘Just a moment,’ said the crafty villager. ‘I am afraid I got the question back to front. What actually happened was that my bull gored your cow.’

‘Ah,’ said the Mulla, ‘ this is more involved. I shall have to look up the book of precedents, for there may be other factors involved which are relevant and which could alter the case.’

One evening Nasrudin quarreled with his wife and shouted at her so fiercely that she fled for refuge to a neighboring house, where he followed her.

As it happened, a wedding was in progress, and the host and guests did all they could to calm him down, and vied with one another to make the couple reconciled, to eat and enjoy themselves.

The Mulla said to his wife: “My dear, remind me to lose my temper more often- then life would really be worth living!”

Hello Friends,

I have gotten a lot of interesting responces to the interview I participated in about sufism. Ifelt though at most that the interview showed nothing baout Sufism itself only about my  experience and understanding of it which obviously is limited. Though nothing that is said about Sufism is sufism, Ihave copied a cool interview about it fund in Idries Shah’s The Way of the Sufi. Its jam pack with pointers that allude to what cant be verbalize. Enjoy

                                        DEEP UNDERSTANDING      

 

Question 1:  For how long as Sufism existed?

Answer: Sufism has always existed. It has been practiced in a very wide variety of ways; the outer shells of these being different, the less-informed have been misled into think that they are essentially different.

Question 2 : Is Sufism the interior meaning of Islam, or does it have wider application?

Answer: Sufism is the knowledge whereby man can realize himself and attain permanency. Sufis can teach in any vehicle whatever its name. Religious vehicles have throughout history taken various names

Question 3: Why should a person study Sufism?

Answer because he was created to study it; it is his next step

Question 4: Yet people believe that teachings which are not called Sufism are their next step

Answer:  This is due to the human peculiarity of having two forms of understanding: The greater Understanding and the Lesser Understanding. The Greater Understanding is when a person wants to understand but instead develops only a conviction that a certain path is true. The Lesser Understanding is the shadow of the Greater Understanding. Like a shadow, it is a distortion of reality, preserving only part of the original.

Question 5: Does the fact that Sufis have been such famous and respected figures not attract people to the study?

Answer: The Sufis who have been publically known are only a minority of the total of the Sufis: those who could not keep put of prominence. The attraction to a greatly esteemed figure by a potential student is part of the Lesser Understanding. Later he may know better.

Question 6: Is there a conflict between Sufism and other methods of thought?

Answer: There cannot be, because Sufism embodies all methods of thought; each has its usefulness.

Question 7:  Is Sufism restricted to a certain language, a certain community a certain historical period?

Answer: The obvious face of Sufism at any given time, place or community may often vary because Sufism must present itself in a form which will be perceptible to any people.

Questions 8: is this why there have been Sufi teachers with so many different systems and who have flourished in so many different countries?

Answer: No other reason

Question 9: Yet people like to make journeys to visit teachers in other countries, whose languages they may not even understand.

Answer: Such action, unless undertaken under special instruction for a certain purpose, can only be of use to the Lesser Understanding

Question 10: Is there a difference between what a man or woman wants to find, and what he needs to find for his inner life?

Answer: Yes almost invariably. It is the function of the teacher to arrange the right operation of the Answer to needs, not wants. Wants belong to the sphere of the Lesser Understanding.

Question 11: Is your division of Understanding into Greater and Lesser common to all Sufis?

Answer: Nothing which is put into words is common to all Sufis.

Question 12: What is common to all forms of Sufism?

Answer: The being of teacher, the capacity of disciples, the peculiarities of individuals, the interactions between the members of the community, the Reality behind forms.

Question 13: why do some Sufi teachers initiate disciples into several different Orders?

Answer: Because these Orders represent teaching entities which are constructed to deal with people in accordance with their personal individuality. People are different from one another.

Question 14: But collecting information about Sufis and their teachings cannot be a good enterprise leading to knowledge

Answer: This is a question of Lesser Understanding. Information about the activities of one body of Sufis may be harmful to the potential of another.

Question 15: Why are there so few indications of the school of Ahmad Yasavi of Turkestan and In El-Arabi of Andalusia?

Answer: Because in the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished.

Nasrudin climbed into someone’s kitchen garden and started filling a sack with everything that he could lay his hands on.

A gardener saw him and came running. “What are you doing here”?

“I was blown here by a high wind.”

“And who uprooted the vegetables”

“I caught hold of them to stop myself [from] being swept along.”

“And how does it come that there are vegetables in that sack?”

“That is just what I was wondering about when you interrupted me”.

Nasrudin had been out of town on one of his long hikes. As he entered the village, he saw the people hurrying, on and all towards the market place.

He asked a passer-by what was going on.

“Don’t you know? A man has been on the pilgrimage to Mecca. This year a hundred thousand people there- and he is giving a lecture about it.”

“From the excitement,” said Nasrudin, “I had almost concluded that the pilgrimage had come to him- not the other way about.”

11. Die Nachahmung der Tugenden anderer ist mehr Nachahmung als Tugend. Versuche herauszufinden, worauf diese Tugenden beruhen.

12. In der Isolation gibt es keine Praxis.

13. Wenn du einen Lehrer suchst, versuche ein wirklicher Schüler zu werden. Wenn du ein Schüler sein möchtest, versuche einen wirklichen Lehrer zu finden.

14. Je öfter du etwas tust, desto öfter wirst du es wiedertun. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist groß, daß Wiederholung nichts bewirkt – als weitere Wiederholung.

15. Zuerst bist du der Gewänder und der Gerätschaften der Sufis nicht würdig. Später brauchst du sie nicht mehr. Zuletzt brauchst du sie vielleicht um der anderen willen.

16. Wenn du nicht oft und echt lachen kannst, hast du keine Seele.

17. Wenn dir ein Glaube mehr bedeutet als ein Instrument, dann bist du verloren. Du bleibst so lange verloren, bis du begreifst, wozu ein “Glaube” eigentlich da ist.

18. Wenn ein Derwisch an deinem materiellen Wohlergehen interessiert ist, kannst du dich darüber freuen. Aber meist geschieht das nur, weil du auf etwas anderes noch nicht vorbereitet bist.

19. Wenn dich jemand um Hilfe fragt, glaubst du, er tut es, weil er allein nicht zurecht kommt? Vielleicht ist es ein Sufi, der dich mit seiner Aufgabe nur bekanntmacht, um dir zu helfen.

20. Wenn du faul bist, freu dich, wenn dich einer darauf aufmerksam macht. Er gibt dir eine Chance. Faulheit ist immer ein Fehler. Sie ist das Zeichen dafür, daß ein Mensch zu lange nutzlos dahingelebt hat.

> Diese 20 Sätze zielen auf die Überlistung des falschen Selbst, (vgl. die 3 Teile von Charles Tart) das kleinere Befriedigungen braucht. Dem Sufi geht es um Fana (das Verschwinden des falschen Selbst) und Baqa (das Bleiben des Wahren). Hinter dem vermeintlichen “Ich”, das vergänglich ist, liegt das wahre Ich, das charakterisiert ist durch das Bewußtsein der Wahrheit, der Wirklichkeit.

Wolf Büntig. Das Bedürfnis nach Beachtung wird in der psychologischen Literatur bisher weitgehend vernachlässigt. Das für mich Brauchbarste, was ich zu diesem Thema gelesen habe, fand ich bei Idries Shah in seinem Buch „Wege des Lernens“ im Kapitel ‘Characteristics of Attention and Observation’. Die Psychoanalyse beschäftigt sich zwar mit diesem Thema in der Objektbeziehungstheorie, doch auf einem abgehobenen, theoretischen Niveau, das die Gegebenheit eines wirklichen Bedürfnisses eher verschleiert als erhellt, z. B.durch die unglückliche Formulierung ‘gesunder Narzissmus’. Interesse am eigenen Körper und der eigenen Person ist Voraussetzung für Überleben, für Wohlbefinden und für Selbstkenntnis und so gesund wie der Durst für einen ausgeglichenen Wasserhaushalt; der Narzissmus hingegen bezeichnet die krankhafte Selbstverliebtheit. Gesunder Narzissmus ist eine ebenso sinnlose Bezeichnung wie gesunder Alkoholismus.

Ich folge in meiner Einschätzung Idries Shah: Das Bedürfnis nach Beachtung wirkt in praktisch allen zwischenmenschlichen Begegnungen. Alles, was Menschen miteinander tun – sei es geben und nehmen, verkaufen und kaufen, führen und folgen, lehren und lernen, predigen und horchen usw. – dient dem Austausch von Beachtung. Je bewusster das Bedürfnis nach, der Austausch von und der Umgang mit Beachtung ist, desto größer sind die Chancen, daß wir in einer Begegnung außer Austausch von Beachtung auch noch anderes bewirken können.

Laut Idries Shah können viele paradox erscheinende Änderungen von Meinungen, Bekanntschaften und Verpflichtungen auf den Wechsel einer Quelle für Beachtung zurückgeführt werden. Da die meisten Menschen häufig an einem Mangel an Beachtung leiden, werden sie fast immer durch ein Angebot an Beachtung stimuliert. Shah sieht darin einen der Gründe, warum neue Freunde oder Umstände den alten vorgezogen werden. Der gewohnte Partner hat meist wenig Chancen gegenüber der neuen Liebe, von der sich die beachtungshungrige Person endlich verstanden fühlt und die ihr besser zu ihr passend oder gar vom Schicksal für sie bestimmt erscheint. Meist dauert diese Einschätzung so lange wie der Reiz des Neuen bzw. der Hormonrausch der Verliebtheit, die irgendwann von der Notwendigkeit bewussten Austauschs von Beachtung abgelöst wird und, wenn’s gut geht, übergeht in das liebevolle Bemühen herauszufinden, wer der andere vom Wesen her wirklich ist jenseits der allzeit verfügbaren Quelle von Beachtung.

Idries Shah empfiehlt zur Lösung aus der Versklavung durch den unbewußten Drang zum Austausch von Beachtung: “Studiert, wie ihr Beachtung auf Euch zieht, schenkt, aufnehmt und austauscht.” beachtung