Letter No.38 Sufism

Emerging from the Atlantis to the Sanctuary of the Spirit
Letter Nº 38

Self-discovery of its essence

Víctor Manuel Guzmán Villena

The mysticism is to realize the existence of the being or god: how? as a more real internal being. The oriental religions are mystical, while the three religions that have had origin in the Near East - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - are not, for its belief that god is "out" somewhere far beyond the man. Many mysticism groups exist inside these three religions and the Sufis is one of those groups within Islam.

The date of the Sufis eighth and ninth centuries A.C. They rebelled against the sumptuous luxury and corrupt power that arose in the days following the death of the prophet Muhammad and became ascetics, wandering the desert, wearing clothes made of coarse wool called suf in Arabia, from where its name it. They were described as foreign and travelers, for their walks through the desert and they were taking a life of abnegation, silence and renunciation.

The Sufis mainly originated in Persia, where the two religions, Hinduism and Buddhism had penetrated deeply. Muslims and the Sufis were not interested in creating a new religion. Because the truth does not belong to any religion but it transcends them all. They were the most rigid followers of Muhammad and their mystic idea transcends Muslim dogma. The great masters of Sufis founded schools where they guided his disciples in many practices and beliefs and their writings passed from one generation to another.

The progress of the disciple happened in seven stages, each stage by their own efforts.The ultimate goal for a disciple had several senses:be consumed in the fire of God love, see God revealed in its perfection, or abandoned him and filled with the glory of God.

The mystical journey was interested in discard the Me, leaving the disciple with his will of desire purifying his will. He had to learn to abandon the Me and bowing in the hands of God. The Sufis believe that graces given by God manifested in three ways: one was the heart that knows God, another was for the spirit that loves God, and the third one for in the most recondite of the soul, where is possible contemplate God.

The mystical knowledge of Sufis is called Gnosis. This is the God light, a so penetrating illumination that, as sword cuts the feelings of the disciple of “Me” forever and from there is not him, but god. The Sufis believe that the man cannot know anything until he is with himself. He cannot know God if God is not there to be found. Gnosis is the discovery of that “He found like in the western religions that there is not a separate me. The Sufis say the truth, the fact is that I is a purely conventionality and a personage of the language. All the acts, words, feelings and thoughts are not his but of god. The man was created to the god's image and all his attributes.

To their believers Gnosis is the realization that no one exist in the world that the unity of God. The other is an illusion. Manifest that God is known by name and a particular aspect. In one of these aspects it is said that it is in the sky, in other that in the ground, the reality is the same in everything. The true Gnostic (expert) is one that sees all with worship as a manifestation of god, therefore, every adorable thing receives the name of Ilah (god) although its own name is a stone, tree, animal, plant, man, etc.

Gnosis and love, the same spiritually meaning for the Sufis was the biggest goal, and the way to reach them was a high perception and a deep mystical grace. As in other religions, exist steps to be continued to help the disciple to reach the goals. These practices it was all important ones for the experience Sufi, without them it was not advanced in the footpath.

It is essential for the understanding of these practices to see first the essence of the Sufi faith. Essence is what the so-called Buddhists and Hindus as such-that. It is the internal reality, being the thing itself can be seen only when all the concepts about him have been thrown. The search for the Sufis have been discovering their very essence, their own reality, which is in themselves. The Sufis believe that the essence of man was hidden behind veils made by himself, like desires, hypocrisy, gluttony, etc. The exercise is used to remove the veil so the essence can shine like a light in the disciple.

Dervish was the name given to the Sufi disciple, and the Sufi masters of the past had their own schools, based on orders of dervishes. When the disciples had been accepted by the master of a dervish order, he had to start his training to be ready for new experiences, which with his ordinary mind he had not been capable of understanding. These new experiences take form and awake the five centers of lighting, called lataif. The method is to concentrate his conscience on some place of the head and the body, every place joined with a lataif. While the concentration penetrates in this area, the lataif is activated and produces a change in consciousness and an expansion of the mind to the essence.

The same way he has to learn the difficult truth, central point of the religions, of which his feelings of non-being are based on a real entity but on a changeable sea of sensations and thoughts that accompany him of a rapid movement that is imperceptible for the conscious mind, like the sequence in silences movement or the perpetual movement of the atoms compressed into only one body, they cannot be seen by a naked eye. He has to learn that he is not only one person but many. His states of origin and imaginations have created all his veils. The master helps him to see these aspects of himself after the lighting of the lataif, so that the same lighting is reinforced and integrates with the changes caused in him.

The Sufis gather together with an intention like the spiritual remedy, and then they separate when the above mentioned target has been fulfilled. They do not set up organizations and organic structure that they keep on existing after the group work has been realized. The Sufi's life will move back and it will be evident for itself in some another part. This gives to the whole movement Sufi an organic composition continuously creative and flexible, different to the common western organizations that are more formal structure. The Sufisms has penetrated deeply in Europe and America, and his followers study with the same devotion the Bible, the Vedanta, the Koran, the Cabala as well as religious thoughts of other sources.

Apparently the Sufis ideas have influenced some western writers. A writer whose books are very well-known, is Kahlil Gibran born in Monte Lebanon. Gibran spent most of his life in America and there he wrote. He thought by his poems, which is a Sufi's custom. His most well-known book is the Prophet, in whom he exhibits many aspects of life.

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