THE SUFI WAY OF SELF-UNFOLDMENT
(Excerpts Only)

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Chapter 10
The Path of Self-Unfoldment

What is it that screens us from reality or prevents us from living self-fulfilled and by God? The Arabic word for it is wahm. Wahm is illusion. It is like the film of the past in the mind. It is illusion which envelops or screens reality. It is illusion that is the barrier. So, if illusion is removed, then vision or witnessing must take place. It is because of illusion that we do not know God. But whoever has remembrance and discrimination and yearning is the man who will absent himself from illusion by insight. When you make yourself absent from illusion, clarity begins to take its place.

The freedom we are seeking, the objective of beingness that we aspire to, can be achieved if we act and do not react. We have found that the pre-qualification for that is to be empty, to be clean, to be clear. It is not to have standards of mental expectation to which we relate what comes to us from outside and then match it and simply respond in an automatic manner to it. This is not easy, and yet it is easy. It is easy because it is our real nature to be spontaneous, to be alive, to be inwardly free. We are all seeking these attributes. We are all aspiring towards inner freedom. The habits of twenty, thirty, or forty years, whatever our age, cannot be wiped away in one, two or three days. Even a machine that has been used to a certain tempo of existence cannot be retuned to an entirely different phase immediately. It will seize up or generate other problems. So time is necessary and patience is necessary. But time is also treacherous, we must act both urgently and patiently.

The most important requirement is energy. By energy, I mean the extent of yearning. It is the energy that makes us desperate for that state of beingness that we are talking about, which is the state of total inner balance, tranquility, peace, submission. It is the fuel that sends the rocket through the barriers of the self. No matter how much intellectual understanding we have of the science of self-knowledge, it is of no use and to no avail unless we are desperately, earnestly, honestly striving towards God. The extent of this yearning is related to the extent of non-hypocrisy in us.

The Qur`an attacks hypocrisy. The hypocrite is someone who says something which he does not contain or mean inwardly. In other words, his tongue is separated from his heart. His mind is separated from his heart, or from his innermost core. There is, therefore, a conflict, a break or separation in his inner being. This conflict is the same as the separateness of the 'I' from the world. If I say something to you with my tongue that is not backed by my heart, I have created a separateness of the 'I' from the world. If I say something to you with my tongue that is not backed by my heart, I have created a separateness in me, an inner conflict in me. So the sufferer is 'I'.

The basis of honesty, the basis of decent behavior as we all know and accept, is to do what you say you will do, to keep your contract. In other words, connect action, which is the extension of your thoughts, and thoughts, as expressed by your tongue. But we often say things which we do not mean. And the immediate result is lack of respect for me by me. When a child is crying and I want to quieten him, I make a promise which is not meant. By trying to fool the child, I have fooled myself and lost the child's trust. So you must do what you say. Until recent times, people in business used to say, 'My word is my bond.' No longer. There is no bond any more. Most bonds are broken.

The second condition of honesty is a higher level of self-respect, of beingness, and that is, you must say what you mean. In other words, there is no gulf or separation between your tongue and your heart. If I say I like the color of this jacket, I must mean it. Thereby I am whole. If I am trying to please you because I need your assistance or power, and I say how nice it is without meaning it, I have created a break or conflict within me. There is no honesty in this, no truthfulness.

The third thing about truthfulness, which is subtler and more difficult, and is the beginning of wisdom, is that you do not say everything that you think. Supposing I do not like this jacket? There is no point in my saying so. No positive purpose is served by my saying it. It is a waste of energy and time. So preserve the energy. But we have forgotten how to preserve the energy. Our energies are all dissipated because we are fragmented, like broken dishes, shattered, and not able to contain anything.

This basic human behavior is what we call adab. Adab is the science of correct behavior and interaction in different situations. Every situation has its adab, its code of conduct and behavior. When we are playing with a child, there is a certain correct behavior. If you are transacting a business, it has its code of conduct. You do not, all of a sudden, pull the man's arm and place him on your lap, as you might do if you were playing with your child. When you are learning something which is subtle and profound, there is a certain way of doing it. If you do not have the right approach with God, you will not arrive.

Correct conduct is what causes the proper interaction between the doer and the situation. Therefore, it is the connector, the unifier. There is nothing other than unity. There is no separation. Separation is our own illusion, created by each individual especially to envelop himself. What is the way out of this? How can I, the individual, the sum total of my past actions and thoughts, superimposed by the actions and thoughts of others, see this? The situation now is not a result of chaos, because for a thing to have happened various laws, physical and non-physical, must have taken place on this globe.

When the Prophet was told that something undesirable or wrong had happened, his answer was that, because it had happened, it must have been meant to happen. This is not fatalistic. It is perfection. It means that if we could really measure all the various forces at play, then we could see clearly and understand why the event took place. Because I was in a hurry and there was a banana skin and I did not see it, I slipped and broke a bone. The whole thing is due to my ignorance, my lack of knowledge about the banana and the situation. So I was careless and the price for it is this disaster. There is nothing to it. It is not to be judged, or given a moral value, for the penalty is inherent in it and is automatic. There is no guilt in it, but our society is guilt-ridden. That is why we must constantly, outwardly and inwardly, integrate ourselves by constant reminder to cut out the past.

In Islam, we wash in a prescribed manner before prayers, which is an act of cleansing, both outer and inner. If you concentrate on it, you are cleansing in a total manner. And if you ask forgiveness, and it is meant – if you really mean it – then you are forgiven, and the tail of the past is cut off. If you really mean you are sorry, you do not even have to say it – the result will be there. What matters is the heart's intention. When we mean it and say it, we integrate the outer and the inner. Otherwise, it is ritual. Ritual alone is of no value. It is like a shell, like a container. What is the use of a container if there is nothing in it? But nothing can be contained unless there is a sound container.

Integrating the inner and the outer

So we have come to the question of how do we integrate inwardly through the Path. In the Qur`an it says, 'and whoever wants to reach will find a way to God'. Those who are serious in the quest, those who are desperate, will find a way, because the way is from within you. The way is not from outside. Now, because of the complexity of the outer situation in this world, we desperately need to follow a clear-cut way outwardly, before we can recollect inwardly. So we depend on shari`ah (code of conduct) and sunna. Sunna is the way the Prophet behaved and acted. This is well documented and authenticated; we have many independent sources which confirm what he said and did.

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Dhikr, fikr and himmah: remembrance, discrimination and yearning

The Path lies in dhikr, fikr and himmah. Dhikr is the remembrance of God, from whom I am separated by my self. It is this illusion that is caused by me that is the cause of this barrier, separation. So it is a process of elimination. If I overcome the self, if I remove all of these images, all of these goggles that I have erroneously put on, then I am bound to be less separated from that which is the source of all beingness.

So remembrance is necessary for us to begin to dissolve the self. If I remember God at the moment of agitation and disappointment, if I remember the Creator of the entire cosmos, from Whom this life is allotted for a few years, then my own little misery, my own problem, put in the larger perspective, is bound to gain a measure of relief. It is bound to be a remedy for whatever situation I am in.

Remembrance begins as an outside activity. Then it belongs to the heart. How can I remember God when I am full of me? When the bucket is full of me, there is no room for anything else. It is a displacement process. A bucket of pure water with mud particles in suspension can be purified again if we place it under a tap which drips into it fresh clear water. In time, this bucket of mud begins to get clearer and clearer and begins to reflect more of its real nature of pure water. Our nature is that of purity. That is why we like purity – we are basically pure at source. So there is no room for personal guilt. Our heritage is purity and the simplicity of beingness. But, because of the activities which we undertake in the world, we begin to solidify the roles and images into a personality with apparently conflicting and often irreconcilable aspects.

It is by remembrance of God that I can begin to melt down the layers that I have created which are the source of my agitation, problems, and expectations. It is the most vital activity. A muslim prays five times a day, five formal and definable times for dhikr and salât (prayer). Five times to remember and submit to Allah, outwardly and inwardly.

Fikr is that light which is shed on a scene in order to discriminate: what is good and what is bad, what is lasting and what is not, right and wrong, black and white. If we are in a state of real remembrance, then discrimination will operate spontaneously.

Suppose we stop the moving film of our actions and freeze a frame. Dhikr freezes the 'frame' of action and fikr shines the torch of discrimination on it. Subsequent correct action will result from this. The film shows that I disliked your presence here to such an extent that I proceeded to punch you, and all of a sudden I see myself in this childish act, in the frozen shot of this film. If I catch myself in that instant, I am bound to discriminate and immediately correct the course. But we are often slow, and leave it too late. After I have done it I plead for forgiveness and say, 'It wasn't me!' What this means is that, after the event, I have had a replay of the act, because it was fresh in my memory, and in the light of discrimination.

Neither remembrance nor discrimination will occur unless there is himmah – energy, yearning to be true, full, alive. The more we have this energy, the more it becomes available. It is like tapping a source: the more you clean the head of the spring, the more clear water will flow. But because we are accustomed to living in a manner that is totally incorrect and harmful, and which we try to preserve, we are scared of change and shut ourselves up in our private rooms. It is because we want to preserve habits. We are afraid of opening our hands to drop the thorns which we have clasped and made ours. But, when the pain is deep and real, then great yearning will enable us to act, drop the thorns and find the freedom that was there to begin with anyway. You may ask, 'If it is so easy, then what are all these methods for?' In a way, it is like picking up new thorns at will in order to get rid of the thorn that has been aching in you all these years – the old self.

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So the three basic requirements of the Path are entirely interrelated. Each of them reinforces the others, both in quantity and quality. If I have greater awareness, then more discrimination will constantly illuminate my actions. Therefore, more of my new actions will be such that they are not likely to enhance the self in me. Slowly, one observes the vanishing 'I'-ness: arrogance, vanity, personality. So the outcome of the path towards self-knowledge is getting rid of the impermanent. Get rid of the 'I' and you will see the real self. It is a process of elimination. The embryonic seed of real knowledge is in everyone. But, in most cases, it has been tarnished or covered by the layers of the personality.

And those of you Allah has been most generous to are those who have the greatest taqwâ

Taqwâ is fear of God, devoutness, submission, and piety. Orientate and tune towards it. There is nothing other-than-God. There is only God.

The Qur`an says that Allah is closer to you than the jugular vein. What could be closer to you than that? There is nothing other than the oneness of reality, from which we have all of these attributes, phenomena and characteristics. There is nothing other than that oneness towards which, knowingly or not, we are veering. In most cases we veer in a zigzag manner. Because we have collected so many bad habits, we need to emulate, to copy, and to have a living example to follow. That is the Path's provision.

The science of the self is learned by transmission and not by prescription. It can be gained by keeping company and by example. Children follow the example of their parents. That is why parents are often ashamed when their child is misbehaving. The child is actually betraying the parents' reality. He is a mirror, a reflection. He has seen them quarrelling all the time, therefore he quarrels.

Wisdom is the knowledge that there is no end to our negative characteristics if we submit to them. Greed is a perverted search for real security – security in God. We are caught in the materialistic trap because we have it in mind that this is where our security lies and, therefore, competitiveness is necessary. The result of it is that man is at war with everything around him. We are cutting each other's throats. Basically, the source of this energy drive is the same as himmah. It is himmah diverted towards purely materialistic gains. In the end, we cannot keep our goods in the house because of burglars, and so they all end up in a safe, which we do not have easy access to because it is in another city. Where does it end? It does not require a great deal of intelligence to reach the conclusion, if only we follow it through. But we are usually mediocre and apathetic. We keep on consuming and collecting and postpone facing our reality until it is too late.

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Awareness and being

The extent of our awareness and discrimination are entirely the result of our inner energy and inner reality. Awareness comes if we take stock of ourselves – and not just for two minutes before we sleep, or once a week in a church or a mosque. If, without judgment – because judgment fragments awareness and creates a split – we become aware, we experience the thrill of pure awareness. Awareness is spontaneous and immediate. If you are totally aware, then your energy, your mind, is not dissipated by recalling anything from the past. That means that the memory bank is at its maximum efficiency, and that your energy is totally preserved and available now. We have a certain amount of energy at any given time. If you preserve that energy, you will experience the thrill of beingness – even if the experience is basically unwelcome, such as pain. If you can just be aware of the pain, you will have an amazing experience.

What we are talking about is very subtle. Your body must be at its best state; you cannot talk to people who are in physical pain and whose minds are agitated. You must be in a quiet place, in a reasonable environment, otherwise you cannot begin to exercise awareness. So catch yourself whenever you can, without judgment. Experience the beauty and the joy of beingness. Catch yourself when you are angry, and you will see that you are anger itself. Catch yourself at a moment of fear, and you will find you have become fear, and that in reality there is no fear. Who is afraid of whom? You will find that it is all your own doing. All these things are the projection of the mind due to the 'I'. I am afraid that an event which took place in the past may repeat itself. I am afraid because it hurt me then.

Fear and freedom

Fear is one of the biggest curses we inflict upon ourselves. If you face your self, you will find that it does not exist. The secret is to catch yourself the moment it occurs.

We all want freedom – inner freedom. We want freedom from our own imposition upon ourselves. We want freedom from the thorns of our self, by opening, expanding, and submitting to God. Outwardly, we must be disciplined. We must begin from the grossest – we can only begin from the outside. Animals eat, sleep, and reproduce, and die without worry. We do the same things and die full of worry, and yet call ourselves higher beings! And we create much more havoc and harm than animals. When animals have had enough food, they leave; but not man, for he continues to take revenge. Why? Because he has left the worship of God, and is worshipping the self.

Quietening the mind

We are all worshippers. But we must be cognizant of what we are worshipping. Islam is the essence of surrender and correct orientation and giving up the 'I'. We are all trying to reduce the pain caused by the mind. The man behind the conveyor belt in a hot assembly plant consoles himself with a plan for two weeks' holiday. What happens during those two weeks' holiday? He does not want to be disturbed. He wants to quieten his mind. The urge to quieten the mind is in everyone of us. The difficulty is in finding a method of doing it, so that we can put the pieces of the shattered self together.

So awareness and discrimination are basically our real human characteristics. As we become more aware, we become more discriminating. We know what is good or bad. We also know that private acts are often essentially harmful to ourselves. That is why we carry them out in darkness. When we do a good act, we tend to advertise it. We know and want to encourage that which is good and avoid the bad. Next we have to recognize the motive for our actions. However, we must not dwell on it much. We have to replace our so-called bad acts with good acts, in order to move on, in order to finish off the 'I', which is the source of all problems. There is no other problem. 'I' am the only problem. I am in my own way. There is nothing else. How to do away with me is a displacement process, an elimination process by God. The more you disappear, the more God appears.

The Prophet said, 'You are closest to God in prostration.' The act of prostration, in our prayers, is when you are in the lowest position, when your head is on the ground. That is the only position when the heart is placed higher than the head. The heart is the connecting vehicle, the vehicle through which we throb. When the heart and the head are united, then, and only then, are our actions correct and we are human beings. In prostration the heart is overlooking, overseeing, and there is the least of you because you have the least profile – there is less of the visible profile, and more of the inner profile.

The less there is in the outward, the more there is in the inward. The secret of one is the other. The source of one is in the other. The secret of the night is in the day. From maximum darkness comes greatest light. So the less there is of 'I', cause of pain and hankering, the more there is of self-fulfillment. The more there is discrimination, the more there is self-fulfillment, the more there is correctness, the more there is balance and spontaneity. Discrimination is our real nature. The more you are aware, the more you will be discriminating, the more you will be acting spontaneously and not reacting, and thereby be alive and joyful.

Surrendering oneself

The more you surrender yourself, the closer you are to God. The more I suffer, the less my mind meets its expectations, and the more I try to numb it or close in on it. Numbing is a perverted form of surrender. We are all trying to give up the mind and and surrender one way or another. Surrender into the highest and you will reach the highest. The Prophet Jesus called those with heavy burdens upon their shoulders to come and throw the weight on him and be relieved. Jesus was not talking to a railway porter with baggage. He was calling anyone with burdens and heaviness of mind to surrender that which was their own making.

Unless there is real surrender of the 'I' there can be no freedom. Like all other laws, this is another true law, a very subtle law. We give up the 'I' by recognizing its dependent existence, its falsehood. It disappears like a fever. To reach that, we need discipline and help. Even the material responsibility towards a family is a help. If, at the moment, I am full of myself, my vanity and my arrogance, then if I have a spouse and innocent children and other dependents, maybe my heart will soften and I will begin to share with others and reduce my self-centeredness. Expansion occurs by giving up a little, even if the reason is a child.

Although the beginning of surrender is hard, when expansion sets in, the self diminishes and bursts, like a bubble, as though it had never existed. For in reality there is only God; we are from God, and to God we return. All is totally dependent. There is nothing other than that reality. Everything else is superimposed upon it. The body is a physical growth superimposed upon the soul. The purpose of existence is to use the body for this discovery and to reach reality, and if we have not attempted that yet, we have simply abused a lot of oxygen and a lot of food. So the urgency is dependent on the extent of energy we can conserve, preserve and channel correctly towards the goal. No freedom can come unless we travel the path of self-unfoldment with clear boundaries and self-discipline.

A drop in the ocean contains the characteristics of the entire ocean, if only we are subtle enough to discern its secret. The secret of the ocean is in every drop. The secret of reality, the Secret-Giver, is in every heart. Life in one man is not superior or inferior to life in another. Life is from God and it is through a purified heart that we begin to see the beauty and the glory and the scintillating moment, the now-ness, the fullness of now. The intoxication of life, pure living. The totality and integrity of it all.

Microcosm and macrocosm

Man is the microcosm, and the outside world is the macrocosm. At the moment, we are not synchronized or aligned. The microcosm 'I' is not tuned to the macrocosmic world, therefore I suffer due to lack of understanding and am under the heavy weight of the ignorance which would lift once the tuning of the microcosm to the macrocosm occurs. This occurs through surrender, through giving up the 'I' which is the cause of the misalignment. Its elimination will illumine the alignment of the microcosm with the macrocosm.

We are inseparable from the entire cosmos, for we are its reflection. The fact you can see a star means that the seed of consciousness of the star is in you. The fact that you understand generosity means that the consciousness of generosity is in you. You contain all in a miniature fashion. You cannot see it because you have said, 'I am this and that', and have thereby superimposed the illusions of the self.

We have said that the beginning of surrender is hard, but when one begins to give up the self begins to diminish. Giving up materially is the start. Then one has to give up inwardly, which is what we are talking about: giving up the 'I'. God will make the path easy for whoever fears God. But those who fear other than God are at a loss.

And as for him who is mean and thinks himself independent of the needs and desires of the best path, We will ease for him the path to affliction and his wealth will not avail him when he perishes.

The two directions are clearly described. The security of wealth is of no avail when the end is near, so why can't one remember that now?

As we invest, we reap. The less we have physically or of the self, the lighter and freer we are. The meaner one is, the poorer one is at the end. For everything we do, we are awarded accordingly and instantaneously. We put our parents in old people's homes and we too end up the same way. In the East, we used to have life and death next to each other in the same household. Children were born in the same household harboring old people. There were few privacies and separations. But now we too in the East are living in two-bedroom apartments, facing television and eating frozen dinners and quarrelling.

Allah says

On Us the guidance

It is upon Us to show you the Path. Guidance is in our heart. We are following the inner guide when we truly submit to Allah.

And Ours is the Hereafter and the beginning

If we pay attention to the 'afterlife', we gain this life and the afterlife. If we pay attention only to this life, we will lose both. Action and result are not separate. The result of action is according to the intention. If my intention is good, so will the result be.

So I warned you of the fire that flames.

If we are not in the coolness of real contentment and on the path of ease, we are bound for the agitation of the Fire. We know the meaning of fire inside. We know what it is when we are burning with fear, anger or disappointment. No one reaches the Fire except the fool who does not heed the wanting.

The Path is clear, in black and white. Allah says,

None shall be cast in the Fire but the wretched, He who denied and turned his back.

So this is the warning, that if we do such and such, the result will be such and such. If we do not pay attention to the law of gravity, we will fall and break our neck. it is pure logic, action and reaction. If we have attachment, we will suffer as a result.

If you worship other-than-God, you will pay the price for it.

And will avoid the Fire he who fears Allah (who guards against evil). He who gives his wealth to purify himself.

Our fears are of other-than-God when we are pursuing Our self.

Giving is the start of expansion and freedom from attachment and enslavement. Giving is the purifier of wealth and the giver. In Islam we have to give a certain amount of our wealth each year. By purification, there also comes improvement and increase. Outwardly, we pay a tax; inwardly it is cleansing. The more we give, the more it becomes. And we find those who are completely generous – it is as though they had access to unlimited wealth. The person who fears God, the person who pays his tax, purifies his wealth, not because of the internal revenue service, but because he comprehends the wisdom of the tax and lives its reality.

And he does this without expectation of favor or recompense. Save seeking the pleasure – the Face of his Lord, the High, And soon he shall be content and satisfied.

So the Path is clearly indicated in the Qur`an and through the indications one reaches certainty. One vital aid on the Path is the keeping company of other seekers of God. The world we are living in now is so tumultuous, uncertain, and treacherous, that no matter what security we try to hang onto, we shall find it shaky, materially and otherwise. The importance of right companionship is more vital now than at any other time. Trust among ourselves can only be enhanced if we have the right company, because we basically want to trust. A lot of energy is dissipated when we are distrustful.