THE JOURNEY OF THE SELF
(Excerpts Only)

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Chapter 4 (Continues)
Treatment, Cure and Fulfillment

Conditions of the Faculty of Discrimination

In considering the discriminative faculty, Tusi points out the following as the most severe of its conditions: (1) perplexity, which arises out of excess; (2) simple ignorance, which arises out of neglect; and (3) compounded ignorance, which arises out of perversion.

1. Perplexity. The source of this condition is excess, and it is related to being troubled by guile, cleverness or excessive ingenuity.

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2. Simple ignorance. The source of this condition is neglect, which manifests itself as an inadequacy in one's ability to speculate or discern, or as stupidity or foolishness.

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3. Compounded ignorance. The source of this condition is perversion, which manifest itself as a yearning for knowledge which does not assist in the development of the self, seeking instead essentially irrelevant information and facts that are not conducive or helpful toward one's growth and self-perfection.

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Other Conditions of the Self

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Grief

Grief is defined by Tusi as the result of many possible causes – the loss of loved ones, the failure to obtain a desired object, and so on. Generally, all causes are associated with a failure to satisfy a corporeal demand or appetite, allied with the regret that comes with that loss or failure.

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The Nature of Grief

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Treatment of Grief

A general remedy for grief is to reflect upon other people's lives and the variety of their desires, objectives and modes of existence. One will learn the truth of what has been already analyzed above as being applicable also in one's own life. One can only conclude that those people must be utterly irrational who, heedless of the nature of reality and the meaning of happiness, constantly pursue the gratification of desires that can in fact never be satisfied.

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Further Comments on Grief

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Sadness

One of the major causes of sadness (as distinct from grief or misery) is greed, in the sense of excessive, unrealistic desire and expectations. The constant remembrance of lost opportunities and of what might have been are the causes of sadness.

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Misery and Sorrow

Misery and sorrow do not occur to the animal self nor to the simplistic person. For example, simplistic people and innocent young children do not feel deep or lasting tragic emotion. For them, unhappiness is of a much less deep and more fleeting nature. For them also, the same is true of happiness; both sorrow and happiness come about rapidly and depart quickly.

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Treatment of Misery and Sorrow

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Conditions of the Heart

One of the Prophetic traditions relates that there is in the human being an organ and if it is sound, the body will be sound; if it is sick, the entire body will be ill – this organ is the heart.

Generally speaking, the conditions of the heart are considered to be connected with ignorance, uncertainties, doubts and other similar disturbed states that will cloud its clarity and direction. As a result, its unific connectedness is weakened and undermined. The condition of the heart, therefore, comes when there is a mixture of faith and denial of the truth, of trust in the one encompassing reality and doubt. When a person's heart is in this disturbed state, what emanates from him are confusing and contradictory intentions and actions. The end result for that person is ever-greater insecurity, disconnectedness, confusion and suffering.

This condition of the heart is different from the sickness that afflicts people of hypocrisy, for it is caused by the weakness of faith, knowledge and experience, whereas a hypocrite is one whose tongue professes a state whilst his inner heart is not in fact in that state. Hypocrisy, therefore, is not a condition of the heart as such, but a disconnectedness of the heart.

Treatment of the Conditions of the Heart

We are given indications of cures for the heart in the Qur`an:

To Him [Reality] ascend the good words, and the good deeds elevate them. (35:10)

The Prophet said, 'The good deed wipes out the wrong deed'. So the treatment can be brought about when we move on to better and nobler deeds, overcoming and leaving behind the old, selfish deeds. If one who is ill at heart wants to be cured, he has to turn to Reality in repentance and regret, and trust that he will come to understand, experience and know the truth.

The person who is ill at heart must also attend constantly to the improvement of his intentions, and to back up those intentions with continual better actions. Otherwise, such people will be as described in the Qur`an:

Do they not see that they are tried once or twice in every year yet they do not turn [to Reality] nor do they take heed. (9:126)

To turn to reality is to remember all – appropriate outer actions backed by pure intentions.

Others hold the view that the condition of the heart itself will lead to its own cure. When the self opposes its desires, then its illness will become its cure.

According to another view,⁽⁵⁾ practical advice is prescribed to treat the condition of hardness of heart. To begin with, one should fast. If after continued fasting one still finds that one's heart has not turned and softened, then one should increase one's prayers. If one's state still continues after that, one should make sure that one is not committing any act that is disagreeable or forbidden. If the condition remains, one must undertake to serve one's relations and friends and connect with them. If further remedy is needed, one must extend that kindness and service to orphans and other needy members of one's community. It is by extending oneself and giving to others that breaks the barriers of the selfish and encased heart. When love flows in action with no expectations, we know the heart is in a sound state.

Safeguarding the Health of the Self

The health and healing of the self, according to Tusi, is equated with the acquisition and retention of the appropriate virtues. He says that nothing has greater effect on the self or soul than a companion or close friend. For this reason, one must be on guard against the intimacy and fellowship of persons not adorned with noble talents, and especially against the interaction with those of immoral or defective character.

Another philosopher, Al-Kindi, says that the seeker after virtue should take advantage of the state of others' behavior which leads to bad actions, in order to censure oneself with the reproach of each act as if the action had actually proceeded from oneself rather than from others, thereby benefiting from them. Moreover, at the end of each day, one should carry out an examination of every action of one's own performed during that day.

Al-Kindi also says we should not be content, like a passive treatise or book, to instruct others in wisdom whilst we ourselves remain without it, or be like a whetstone, which sharpens iron but is unable to cut. Rather, we should be like the sun diffusing light from our essence upon the moon of the self, so as to lend its likeness to it. This is precisely the desirable state as regards the diffusion of virtue.

We can preserve the health of the self by following a sane and balanced way of life which can best be achieved by adherence to a divinely revealed code of conduct. This adherence on the inner level would bring the recognition of the higher powers and forces within the self, thereby enhancing the virtuous values within oneself.

As far as the world is concerned, the more worldly goods one employs to fill one's wants, the greater is one's true poverty, because the greater is one's dependency on transient, material objects. The less dependent we are on worldly possessions, the greater can be our inner strength and wealth.

The wisdom is to acquire habits of restraint and self-control, especially in respect of the gratification of appetites or whenever one is assailed by one of the lower elements, such as anger. If one can achieve these goals, then virtue follows as a matter of course.

Those who thus contain and restrain themselves, even though surrounded by fools, become shielded from folly, abuse and neglectfulness. These enlightened individuals are able to tolerate the presence of all kinds of evil and not be affected by them. The wayward life of others cannot influence or deflect them.

In summary, then, those who seek a means of preserving the health of the self, as we have mentioned before, must not pursue this quest in isolation. The knowledge and availability of a specialist are conducive to a rapid cure. The loving guidance of expert knowledge is indispensable. Apart from monitoring progress, the knowledgeable and awakened guide will skillfully encourage the seeker towards the ultimate freedom, by recognition of the limitations of enslavement – towards the highest form of freedom within and the perfection of the limiting factors of physical reality.

Once full understanding and experience of the symptoms and conditions of the self have been discovered, and remedies and cures have been practiced and applied, the individual can attain the wisdom of self-reflection and rehabilitation. The process of the awareness of the symptoms and the administering of the remedy can be developed by the individual to such an extent that the two aspects of the process become almost instantaneous, without much of a time lapse. The dynamics of self-knowledge are now at work and its time-loop is ever shrinking.

For example, when anger is aroused, an inner aspect of the individual instantly captures that state and signals the remedy. Such an evolved seeker can be said to have begun the mastery of one's self by the self. Where there is an ailment, there is also the cure, all too spontaneously – unitive in origin and uniting in symptom and cure.

This instant cure, rebalance and centralization of the being is the right ecology for self-fulfillment to set in. As we have said, every individual has within him the goal of self-fulfillment and the capacity for clear reflection, but it begins to be experienced only once the impurities of the heart are removed and held at bay.

This stage of maturity enables the seeker to start the process of higher unfoldment and transcendence. Up to this point we can call the processes of the seeker's healing both subjective and objective. From now on, it will be primarily subjective and experiential. Once the cybernetics of self-healing and self-awareness sets in properly, we are into the realm of self-knowledge and glorious self-unfoldment. This is the ambience of real self-fulfillment.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have examined the most prevalent conditions of the self, and have proposed various remedies and cures for them. In conclusion, we could add here that there are five steps of remembrance in the remedy of any of the self's conditions.

The first is to remember the origin of the condition (e.g. greed, desiring to own the world – which is impossible to attain).

The second is to remember the maintaining of it (which is a difficulty and a burden, and ultimately, impossible – for death will come).

The third is to remember the Creator, Allah.

The fourth is to remember that this condition is a barrier to further evolvement and elevation.

Finally, the fifth is to remember that there is no reality behind the condition itself.

In the final chapter, we will illustrate by examples how the self is already hallmarked by the unific stamp. We shall see how the self throughout its life manifests characteristics and tendencies towards its unific origin, and how, at all times, it is connected to the unific factor underlying it. All has emanated from One, by the grace of One, sustained by One and returning to One. The imagination of multiplicity in this world is part of the love and return back to the same One.

Notes