Sufi Meditation Instrument

Meditation Instrument

Sufism is a path towards the Truth where the provisions are love, its method is to look solely in one direction, its objective is God. These words from the great Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan may have seven levels of meaning according to Sufi tradition. Rather like with the teaching stories of the Mullah Nasrudin, whose humorous exterior veils deeper messages for those in the know, the student needs to engage with the message with various aspects of intuitive awareness.

Meditation Instrument

The outer wisdom can be taken literally at face value, such that what is said is what is meant, and no subtle hints exist to detract from the supreme value of making a clear statement of what should really be quite obvious to us. Yet in fact it becomes obvious only if only we are given to practice a similar degree of meditative contemplation as the master.

Meditation Instrument

However, a moment’s further thought awakens a new perception; we see that the obvious is in fact less commonplace than we thought at first – or why then does it need to be said? A difference exists between, on the one hand, what we know passively and can immediately agree with, and, on the other, what we can express clearly and undeniably unprompted and unassisted. The second is a deeper knowing. If we cannot say what we know, then do we really know it at all?

Meditation Instrument

Meditation Instrument? Words have an effect upon each of us beyond the level of mind; this effect is an aspect of their meaning equally as much as the intellectual, philosophical or instructive value. Words touch us emotionally, sometimes very strongly, yet often very subtly. Our awareness of this factor may need more attention, simply because it can be so subtle. We would be naïve to think that Murshid Inayat Khan knew nothing of this, and more realistic to understand that he chose his words carefully in order to touch us on all levels.

Meditation Instrument

Yet all words merely hint at knowledge, and we are left to decide what we choose to interpret from any teaching. Such choices are – bit by bit – creating who we are. They build the structure of our individuality, a unique identity being formed one choice at a time. Such decisions are not made in a vacuum of course; we are involved with our community and are accountable to our associates to a very profound extent for our opinions and beliefs. Thus the self-creating is actually to be seen as a cooperative affair; we co-create ourselves with those others who interact with us day to day. In truth, our sense of reality itself is a jointly held myth-vision that expresses the congregated wishes of all with whom we are connected.

Meditation Instrument

It is therefore less than responsible to accept the word of even the greatest of masters without forming an inner conviction of the value of those teaching within the framework of our own community. The master has her own agenda and her own limited community that formed the opinions, beliefs and teachings that came forward through her.

Meditation Instrument

Meditation Instrument? Yet, unless we learn to accept what we cannot understand, we get lost in the confusion of blinkered ignorance, and pride in our own short-sightedness, stubbornly insisting on proof like Doubting Thomas. We have to trust that there are others who know better than we do what is good for us, and yet we have to do this without allowing false prophets and corrupt priests to brainwash us into unhelpful attitudes and behaviours. It really is quite a conundrum!

Well it is Sufism, what do you expect?

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