THE SUFI WAY OF SELF-UNFOLDMENT
(Excerpts Only)

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Chapter 9
Self-Fulfillment

As we have said, the individual responds to stimuli which come from outside and reacts according to his memory bank, and every action we undertake is the grossification of a mental demand or process. All the time we are trying to repeat a pattern that we were familiar with in the past, to avoid pain and to invite what we liked. We are trying to quieten the mind all the time.

If we are fairly healthy, if our emotions are not paining us, then by and large we can see a common denominator, which is an intellectual activity. If we do not have an emotional bias and we are traveling on a road with a knapsack full of food and we find three hungry people on the wayside, something is bound to stir in us to tell us to share. The more we get closer to the source of consciousness, the more we find that humanity has a common source. Correspondingly, the more I have identified with my various roles with my emotional and mental attachments and expectations, the less fulfilled I will be.

As we said earlier, happiness is a coefficient, which equals the number of desires achieved over the number of desires one has. We discovered that if one has no desires, one can, at all times, have a coefficient of 'one' for happiness – the only state of permanent contentment. The answer, as we have seen, is to have no desires.

Now, how can you have no desires and be active in this world? And what are the causes of these desires? What is the mechanism that causes all the insecurity and anxieties that we have in us at the moment?

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Seeking the cause

Once we have satisfied our body, we are well, once we don't have urgent emotional attachments or concerns or worries, then we veer more towards the subtler activities and the so-called cultural activities. And this is a process of broadening, a process of expansion. You will find also in worldly activities, the higher the sight of the individual is, the greater are his achievements. In other words, if the world of the individual is only himself and his family, then it is a small, limited world. And, if he takes on a whole community or a country, then his world is much larger.

We have ingrained in us this search for knowledge towards the higher, towards the subtler. As we have said, once the gross requirements are satisfied in us, we go towards the subtler. Once we recognize this, then the process becomes swift. Man's position in this world is that he is a seeker of his cause. The division between spirituality and materialism is artificial. Man functions through this instrument, this complex body, and there is no separation between it and his 'spirit'. Because we are not satisfied spiritually, or internally, because we have not got inner tranquility, we try to satisfy more and more externally. And that is why we have ended up swamped by quantity at the expense of quality: more and more objects and things, and less and less profundity and quality.

Our basic heritage is tranquility and peace and completeness. We all veer towards the same course, towards God. We all are functioning because of life in us. Life comes from God, the Creator. So, in every action, trying to satisfy our desires, we are actually on the path towards the Creator. The only difference is that most of us do not recognize it.

We all want happiness and we define happiness as desires achieved. When all desires are achieved, we say, 'I am tranquil.' Well, why can't we be tranquil to begin with? Who made me have all these multitudinous desires? There are basic needs, but we don't suffer from the lack of those basic things now, things such as shelter, clothes, food. It is ingrained in us, in our chromosomes, to keep the body alive as well as we can, in order to discover the purpose of it all – that is the purpose of living.

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Surrendering attachment

Nothing is wrong with the world. There is nothing wrong with creation. Everything is in a perfect form in its perfect place at the perfect time. It is my attitude towards it which causes me pain. The postman arrives and there is a letter for me informing me that a house in the countryside, which I love, has burned down and the roof has caved in. Those wonderful antique paintings are completely ruined. I am in ruins!

The Sufi (gnostic) says you have to surrender. There is nothing wrong with the house provided that when it collapses, you do not collapse with it. It is the surrendering of the ownership/attachment aspect of it. The fact is, you can only carry out an activity efficiently if you are not attached to it. You can only run a business efficiently if you are not attached to it.

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Inner peace and correct conduct

Quietening the mind is achieved only by discipline and proper behavior, by living according to proper laws that govern all interactions. This is what is called shari`ah. So far, what we have been talking about is haqiqah, the inner reality: the individual and the secret of beingness and unity. In order to contain and conserve energy, the individual must move within certain boundaries, be governed by certain basic laws. The source of this knowledge is imprinted in the chromosomes of the individual. 'Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself.' This is the basic of all moral conduct – the basis of all religions before they became tarnished and adapted, and all sorts of superimpositions were put onto them. It is the absolute code of behavior. Unless we have correct outward behavior, we cannot change inwardly.

The 'individual' is the product of all past actions and thoughts put together. If I am tidy in mind and healthy in body, you will invariably find the place in which I live also tidy and the food that I eat wholesome food. You could not be eating bad quality food and maintain a healthy body. Ultimately, you are what you eat. If I maintain a proper diet and live in a healthy manner, not overdoing it, in balance, then I have a balanced body. So, from the physical point of view, I am the product of what I do. See where a person lives and what he eats and you will know what he is. The outer and the inner are related. You cannot be tidy inwardly and confused outwardly. Invariably, the vessel oozes what is in it. You can hide it occasionally, just before the guests come you tidy up the room, but, as soon as you relax, your reality will show up. If you are a violent man, if you are a sick person, you can only be what you are in the long run and show it outwardly.

How can we begin to behave in a manner that is going to make us more self-fulfilled or happier? We are in this moment, in our normal state of behavior, acting according to outside stimuli. All of a sudden I see something happening – I match what is happening with the likes and dislikes in my mind and intellect, and I react towards it. Stimulus – individual – reaction. This is really our norm. Somebody says something that is nasty. I react and say, 'Don't be rude!' Somebody says something that I like, I react to it and say, 'You are right.' All the time we are taking in what comes from outside and reacting to it. Like reaction boxes.

How can we, as individuals, act rather than react? Take this simple checklist and discover for yourself. If the answers to the questions are no, then you are acting. Otherwise, you are reacting. Am I doing this in order to repel fear? To increase my security? Or my image? Or my position? Or my wealth? Through vanity? Anger? Fear? Love? Hate?

If my response is spontaneous, for God, not for anything else, then it is pure action. Only then is it spontaneous and correct action. Otherwise, it is only reaction. Every reaction leaves its tarnish on man. Every reaction accumulates additional clutter in man's mind. The subtler the tarnish is, the more difficult it is to wipe it off. This is the problem with all religions.

Islam is a way of living. It is a life transaction, and not a religion as such. Our blessed Prophet lived as a man, and we know how he lived. He traded, traveled, lived with his family, laughed, played with children, a smile always lit up his face, and he was generous. He was self-fulfilled. The self-fulfilled man lives every second of his life fully, to the brim.

Unless man is acting, he is reacting, because life is not a vacuum. The mind cannot be neutral or empty. You are either full or not. Life is dynamic. From the moment we are born, we are hooked into this dynamism until we die. We are enslaved by this reality. We are enslaved by God. And the purpose of existence is to recognize that the cause of what makes us happy or miserable is in our hands.

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