THE JOURNEY OF THE SELF
(Excerpts Only)

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Chapter 1
Stepping-Stones to Self-Knowledge

We must build a bridge if we are to reach the intended shore. In this first chapter, we will outline the assumptions and pose questions that will orient the reader to the knowledges of the self. Each stepping-stone on the way shares with the reader an aspect of the human situation as we observe it, that is, of the basic realities and facts of the life in which we find ourselves, of the personal, social and moral factors which influence us, and of the prime motives, basic needs and impulses of the self that drive us hither and thither.

The many stepping-stones of the human situation described in the following pages form a pathway which will give us access to an understanding of the self.

The Vortex of Creation

Humanity is caught in the dynamics of life. We are driven either to satisfy our desires and impulses – be they rational or irrational – or to avoid unpleasant disturbances and conflicts. At times, we are successful in this challenge, and at other times we fail.

It can be observed that we share a great many experiences in common, as well as many differences. We will look at how this situation arises. We will also consider the meaning of the one self, the drive for knowledge, and the quest for freedom when we know we are bound, and we will examine these points and many others so that we may attain a clear understanding of the dynamics of the self and its basic essence, For until the basic fundamental nature of all humanity is fully understood, there cannot be a proper understanding of individual or collective behavior.

The One Self

There is a primal or basic self – which can be described as patterns of expectations, desires, fears, needs and values – which is the same in all human beings. We may be different biologically and in our outer behavior, but the root of our motivations in life is the same. This model of the one Adamic self is the pillar of all Islamic teachings and is to be found in the Qur`an, the Prophetic traditions and the teachings of the masters and saints.

The Qur`an says that you were created from one self.

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The Many Profiles but One Face of Humanity

A great diversity in character traits can be observed within the one individual – childishness, innocence, aggression, domesticity, materialism, spirituality, adventurousness, reflectiveness, impulsiveness, and so on. All of these traits and many others are harbored within one bosom. Each individual being is like a new stream produced by fresh rain. Many such streams pour forth into the ocean of humanity from which they originated. <snipped>

The Challenge of Opposites

From childbirth onwards we are exposed to the dynamic flux of opposites, and must make choices concerning them. Some will give us satisfaction and contentment, and others will cause us suffering and pain. We are constantly placed in this position of continually having to make choices, in order to allow for the growth of our faculty of reasoning.

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The satisfaction of our needs, and the choices by which we attain that satisfaction, constitute our prime motivation. Together they spur the development of our faculty of reasoning and the understanding of cause and effect, and bring about our technological advancement. So nature, from the outset, drives us towards the development of our discriminatory capabilities through the necessity of having to make choices.

Wherever we look we are faced with opposites and we must make choices with regard to them.

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Attraction and Repulsion

The basic fundamental motivation behind all of our actions and behavior is based on either the power of attraction or the power of repulsion. At all times, we find that our actions are based on attracting what we perceive will bring about harmony and equilibrium, whilst repulsing whatever we perceive to be the cause of disharmony and disequilibrium.

This constant flux of attraction and repulsion, of push and pull, is the essential dynamism upon which everything in this existence depends and is balanced. Even at a cellular level, an amoeba will move toward nourishment and away from a toxic solution.

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Pleasure and Pain

At all times, we want to increase our experience of pleasure and contentment, and, conversely, reduce our experience of suffering and pain. Are experiences of joy and pleasure in this life representative of what is possible in the next consciousness or the hereafter? These experiences seem to act as tiny windows or glimpses into the inner state of pure bliss in another consciousness or life, that will be ours if we are properly prepared for it.

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Change and Non-Change

We emanated originally from a permanent or unchanging state, that prior to the act of creation. Change begins to take place at the point of conception. At birth, a child finds anything that changes outwardly to be disagreeable. The emergence from the womb itself is disagreeably shocking – hence the cry of the newborn which helps it to adjust.

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The Quest for Freedom

Among the greatest dichotomies to which we are constantly exposed is our quest for freedom whilst simultaneously experiencing restriction. We know that whatever action we take, its outcome will be limited, be it in the sphere of material achievement, moral progress or any other arena. For example, although the athlete has the basic potential and relative freedom to achieve new levels or to set new records, his incremental achievement seems to get smaller with each successive attempt and appears to be approaching a point in which the upper limit cannot be stretched any further.

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Freedom of No Choice

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To embark upon the voyage of discovery in an ocean with no boundaries, we need the most reliable and best-designed of vessels. Recognizing and knowing the limitations of our systems is the first step towards the journey of self-discovery. We have no choice but to seek ultimate freedom. This is only possible through self-awakening – from the limited to the limitless.

The Need for Security

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<snipped> at the physical level, we need the security of a healthy body, protective clothing and shelter. At the intellectual level, we need the security of knowledge. We need to be sure of the permanence of what we know. We want to be able to predict and be prepared. We shun disharmonious surprises. Even when we seek change, we wish to relate this change to a reliable base of known parameters.

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Basic Needs

At the outset of our journey in this life, we find that we share with our fellow human beings the desire for a sustained state of equilibrium – or as near to it as possible – in order to attain a state of contentment; and the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter have to be fulfilled before we can move on to attempt to satisfy our more subtle needs.

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It can, therefore, be said that as long as there are people whose basic needs are not fulfilled, there will exist disequilibrium and what we often consider as injustice. As long as there is injustice, there will be agitation and turmoil preventing the possibility of a lasting peace. So all the political and utopian cries for peace are empty rhetoric as long as basic needs remain unattainable to people.

The Hierarchy of Fulfillment

There are priorities regarding the fulfillment of needs. Potentially it is relatively simple to fulfill basic material or physical needs, because they are subject to causal relationships. Therefore, filling an empty stomach is easier than obtaining mental tranquility, and mental equilibrium is easier to achieve than intellectual fulfillment. Thus, people possessing material power seem to be better fulfilled in physical ways, but they still lack contentment in other, less material areas. They cannot buy what is missing in a shop – and they cannot get someone else to produce it for them. Total fulfillment still remains elusive.

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The Drive to Achieve and Succeed

We constantly create objectives and goals in order subsequently to achieve and neutralize those objectives. This is a typically hyperbolic or cyclical exercise in the process of experiencing life. These attainments are not just ends in themselves. For there is a tremendous dynamism in the process of achieving the goal, and the individual develops a wider and deeper sense of connection with the environment, the community and the world. When one takes into consideration the whole of the environment, one is more likely to achieve and succeed, for he will have examined all the factors which interact upon the path towards the objective, and will have considered the peripheral and subtle elements that may impinge upon the target. The attainment of these considerations and viewpoints will no doubt bring about a sense of satisfaction and confidence, in addition to the actual achievement of the goal in question.

Therefore the achievement of goals also results in broadening one's vision and horizons. The closer one is connected to the dynamic interplay of the factors that surround one, the more likely one is to succeed in achieving the goals. This is why many of us are attracted to centers of decision-making and authority, to presidents and kings, for it enables us to anticipate the change of events in advance in order for us to adjust to the course of things in good time. Thus, it is useful for anyone setting up an enterprise to select partners who are connected with other networks – political, scientific, and so on that they may feed back into one's own system. In other words, the wider and more varied the individual's horizons and the quicker the input/output feedback, the more successful is that person in adjusting the direction of his efforts to achieve or alter selected targets.

Successes or achievements in themselves are only temporary resting places on the ever-spiraling stairway of human unfoldment. No sooner is one objective achieved than we set out again on the path in pursuit of yet another goal. It is a continual process in which we set up desires and then set about to satisfy them, and, by doing so, attain a state of neutrality which brings about harmony, equilibrium and peace of mind – which, together with neutrality, is what we all truly desire and love.

How, then, do we reconcile this paradox of love of achievement (i.e. the peace of mind attained by the satisfaction of desires) with the ever-continuing process of setting out yet again towards new goals and objectives? Why are we caught in this perpetual process of attaining peace, and then plunging once again into the unknown struggle?

A Prophetic tradition says that if you fill the biggest valleys in this world with gold and give them away, it will never satisfy the desires of any single man. So desires as such never end, nor will the continual struggle to attain them.

The Roots of Greed

Greed is often related to fear, instability and insecurity. If material accumulation and possessions could bring us security and happiness, then it would be only too easy to achieve happiness. Insecurity, however, can lead us to the discovery that physical or material possessions are not enough. This experience potentially could lead one towards progress and the discovery of an underlying inner security, which is the happiness we are truly seeking.

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Peace

We are driven in all circumstances to seek the tranquility and equilibrium of peace. <snipped>

Peace comes about when agitations, desires and passions are calmed and settled, and a state of rest, equilibrium and contentment is attained. <snipped>

<snipped> One of the divine names of God is al-Salam, Peace.

Health and its Hierarchy

We need physical health in order to be aware of our body's need to attain equilibrium, so that the body and its mechanisms do not call our attention to it and distract us. Just as physical health means being in a state where there are no abnormal or disharmonious signals from the mind.

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Man, the Unified Being

Every aspect of the human being and his behavior, his desires, drives, expectations, actions, all follow a unific pattern of harmony and interconnection. If one becomes aware of the unifying process, then one experiences gatheredness, connectedness and harmony. If one is not aware of the overall pattern of the unifying force, then one's behavior will be erratic and generally unstable. Invariably this undirected behavior veers towards the edge of the intended path, bringing about experiences of disharmony, affliction, suffering and pain. Once off the path, destruction will be the inevitable result.

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For the Love of Life

Even in adverse conditions, we hang on to life, the young and the old, rich and poor, ill and well. Indeed, the whole of humanity at all times and in all places desires to prolong life and to preserve it. Why do we do this? When we are unhappy or suffering in life, why do we wish to live long, even though we know that death is imminent? How can we reconcile these two opposite aspects, the certainty of death and the wish to avoid death?

One explanation of this paradox is that life on this earth has a purpose. Once that purpose is accomplished, the attitude toward death changes. The power of life is like that of light – its purpose is to enable us to witness and experience knowledge and enlightenment. Although enlightenment has a beginning, there seems to be no end to it. Like an airplane, once it is airborne, there seems to be no end to its possibilities. That is why no one with a sound mind will fritter life away.

Life's purpose is to rediscover our original unified nature. Whilst interacting in the transient world, the perfection and the beauty of this experience lies in our ability to fix or stop time. The urgency to discover the meaning of life is because of its slipping by.

All aspects of our basic nature relate to the condition of the primal Adamic state, that is, to live in a true garden without concern or pressure of time – timeless bliss.

The Urge for Creativity

Our urge for creativity is similar in nature to our desire to proceed from the bounds of the known to the realm of the unknown. It is related to our intellectual and higher levels of expression.

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We are all the product of the natural creational process, and we too like to create. It is as though we are trying to participate in and echo the creational reality, or is it that we are trying to discover or follow the way of creation by imitating its method? Nature's beauty and creativity is boundless. Are we not trying to reflect the same truth of this endless beauty in our own creative expressions? One of the divine names of God is al-Jamal, The Beautiful. A Prophetic tradition says: Allah is beautiful and loves beauty.

The Drive for Knowledge

We generally associate fear, anxiety, enmity and distress with ignorance. Thus, we compare ignorance to darkness and knowledge to light. Essentially, we do not like darkness because it represents the unknown, and, as we have seen, we at all times wish to know. Our desire for knowledge is basic and elemental.

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Two Types of Knowledge

There are two types of knowledge available to man. One type is based on facts and information, is related to existential realities and deals with causality and that which governs the manifested existence of the objective world. This type of knowledge has its root in physical or outer reality. Let us call it factual and objective.

The second type of knowledge is more complex and is of a more permanent nature. This type of knowledge relates to higher or inner awareness and reality. For example, humanity has always honored such values as courage, generosity and loyalty, and has always condemned their opposites – cowardice, selfishness and disloyalty. We have valued wisdom, patience and forbearance and abhorred stupidity and impatience.

Therefore, this subtler or higher type of knowledge, which we may term as primal, fundamental, or inner knowledge, is an integral part of man's consciousness, and is more developed in such individuals as prophets, realized beings, gnostics and others who have gained greater access to that inner awareness and fulfillment. This knowledge has its root within the human heart, and access to it is available only as a result of the quest for and unfolding of our inner inherently noble essence.

This inner knowledge belongs to a subtle, multidimensional network which is stimulated by external facts and information, causing it to receive and evaluate this data then respond in the most appropriate manner. So the greater the development of our innate knowledge, the more will we be able appropriately to absorb, coordinate, relate and utilize the factual knowledge and external information which comes to us.

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Society, Culture, and Character

The development of the human self and its purification is essential to the establishment and maintenance of culture and civilization. The building of a noble character and the acquisition of virtue are an integral part of the development and growth of individuals and societies. We can only survive, both as individuals and as a species, as a result of behavior that is based on such stable noble character and virtue.

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Travel

Travel is always a reliable means of observing and acquiring knowledge of creation in this world.

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The Qur`an enjoins upon us to travel throughout the land, seeking knowledge by contemplating the example of those who lived before us. They too were subject to good and bad and the affliction of constant change. Although they may have built the most stable homes, their final abode is no longer what they had planned. In the Muslim world, one will still find the shrines of many saints and martyrs, rarely those of kings and rulers.

Language

It is curious to note how language allows individuals of different origins to relate, connect and unite with one another. It is through language that we find that although people differ in color or habits, they nevertheless resemble one another in the basic forces and powers that propel them to function. So language is a factor that takes apparent differences towards their root of basic sameness.

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Some languages are most suitable to communicate eternal or divinely revealed knowledge, such as Sanskrit, Aramaic or Arabic, while other languages, for example, are more adapted to conveying objective, scientific or technological information. Although most languages can also communicate the subtler aspects, ultimately, they are limited in their ability fully to communicate revealed knowledge, and that is why poetry and other forms (drawing and painting) of expressing the sublime often need to be utilized.

Religions

The purpose of divinely revealed knowledge and the Prophetic message was to reveal to humanity the most dependable and unchanging set of laws and codes of conduct, which would be in harmony with the natural and universal laws and realities. The Prophetic revelations describe man's life on earth as a process of growth and increase in knowledge and awareness, in order to prepare him for the next phase of experience, which is the state following the death of the senses. This state can be attained in exceptional cases purposefully and voluntarily in this life or commonly and involuntarily after the death of the body.

One of the original purposes of religion is to enable human beings to discover and practice the immutable, unchanging laws operating in the universe, whose origins are non-physical and which can be neither violated nor ignored. Human life is basically noble, and the essence of our being is of a subtle dimension to which we invariably aspire in order to experience the benefits that can accrue to us individually and to society as a whole. By following these guidelines, we are necessarily motivated towards a high degree of morality, thereby bringing about a state echoing that of the 'Garden of Eden' here on earth.

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It can be said that the fundamental aim of all religions is to assist humanity to bring about a 'Garden' environment in our lifetime which we long for inwardly, and to strive towards security, safety, harmony and unity. That is the unified sublime state of the self which we are inherently programmed to attain.

The path of Islam (harmonious submission) was followed by all prophets and messengers throughout history. However, the laws of Islam as a code were completed by the Prophet Muhammad only fourteen hundred years ago. So all religions are in harmony and all prophets and messengers reflected the same truth and confirmed each other.

The Intended Destiny

As has been noted, humanity has a natural tendency to seek and understand ways that will lead to a lasting and harmonious state. The ultimate harmony comes about by the discovery of and adherence to the unchanging laws of nature, and by molding our own individual direction and orientation to fit within those laws. Only then can conflict disappear, and our desires and wishes move in harmony with the original and ultimate purpose of creation.

The same rule applies to societies and nations. <snipped>

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Law and justice

There are generally two sets of laws. The first is man-made and is based on convenience, prudence and expedience. When it is used to govern, it tends to be flexible and changeable, more often favoring the strong and the élite within the community, thus resulting in a basically unjust and oppressive system of governance. This set of laws is empirical, and is established according to man's convenience, changing from time to time and reflecting the current state of the people and their social values, as well as being greatly influenced by socioeconomic factors.

The other set of laws is universal and does not change; it applies at all times. These laws have been revealed to humanity through the highly evolved and awakened prophets, messengers and gnostics, and are the body of laws which reflect and enhance the inherent values and virtues within us. These universal laws bring about lasting tranquility and stability – and therefore justice and natural harmony in existence. They relate to our behavior towards ourselves, towards other creatures and towards the source of all creation. Absolute justice is an attribute of the Creator, Allah, whose name is also al-`Adl, The Just.

The degree of success and durability of man-made laws, however, is related to how closely they approximate and reflect the universal laws. <snipped>

Morality, Virtue and Divine Law

All social systems throughout history show us that there are common norms and moral values which are regarded as good, and others which are regarded as bad. At all times, we find forms of behavior which are considered acceptable and desirable and others which are not.

In most desirable and stable societies, as we have mentioned earlier, we find the higher virtues, such as courage, have always been held to be desirable traits, and the opposite, such as cowardice, have been considered undesirable.

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The laws of the various revealed religious traditions have never contradicted one another. The laws and the message have always been the same. Rather, it was their emphasis and comprehensiveness which varied according to the extent of humanity's spiritual development and the state of its outer social form. When the ancient and slow-evolving Hindu spiritual teachings became increasingly ritualistic and socially oriented, Buddha arose with a teaching that strongly emphasized the development and awareness of the self and its psychology.

In a later age, the Prophet Jesus appeared at a time when the message of Moses had degenerated into a body of laws and regulations, crudely administered and abused by an élite group of religious custodians and through which the latter wielded great power over the masses. The emphasis of the teachings of Jesus was on the inner purification of the self and the renewal of the spirit of the law, in order to redress the imbalance which had occurred due to the crude application of the letter of the law.

However, the basic meaning and intent behind the law remained, and remain, universal and for all time. There was never any disagreement about the essence of the revelations brought by the prophets. All that differed were the rituals and practices of outer behavior – whether, for example, the orientation for prayer would be towards Jerusalem, or Mecca, or elsewhere, or whether the day of rest should be on Saturday, Sunday or Friday. But there was never any disagreement that there should be a direction for prayer, or that one day out of the week would be set aside for rest and renewal.

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Before we turn to our conception of the journey of the self, we need to establish an understanding of the basic nature and spectrum of the self. In the next chapter, we put forth a description of the self in all its aspects. For until the nature of the self is fully understood, there cannot be a proper understanding of individual or collective behavior.