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Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
— RAMANA MAHARSHI
Peace is a quality of the soul. And like all real spiritual qualities,
peace is not achieved or earned by our efforts. It is given through
grace, like the peace Christ promised his disciples:
We might achieve some sense of peace this way, through effort and
struggle. But real peace is an aspect of the divine, and in the words
of the Sufi master Bhai Sahib, “How can there be effort with divine
things? They are given, infused.”
1
Real peace is a quality of pure being. The peace that Christ left with
his disciples, the peace “not as the world giveth,” is in all of us. It is
part of our essential nature. But like many qualities of the soul it
remains hidden, overlooked by our perceptions and ways of relating
that are so grounded in duality, conflict, and self-interest.
How can we help the heart of the world awaken? The first step is a
step in consciousness. The coming era is an era of oneness, and a
consciousness of oneness is emerging in our collective. We see this
consciousness reflected in the development of global
communication, the Internet, and in our recognition of ecological
interconnectedness. But we don’t see the deeper dimensions of this
consciousness, how it is part of life’s highest nature, how it contains
the divine qualities of peace, love, and real power.
Only the divine can heal and transform the world—the forces of
antagonism in the world are too powerfully constellated for us to
resolve on our own. But the divine needs our participation: we are
the guardians of the planet. And what is the nature of this work? In
our masculine culture we identify work with “doing” and activity.
But to hold a space for the divine requires the feminine quality of
“being.” Through the simplicity of living our inner connection to the
divine, living the awareness of the heart, we link the worlds
together and allow the higher energies to flow into life.
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can, as Judaism’s Midrash urges, “observe how all things borrow
from each other”:
day borrows from night and night from day…the moon borrows
from the stars and the stars borrow from the moon…the sky
borrows from the earth and the earth from the sky…All God’s
creatures borrow from the other, yet make peace with one
another….(1)
And in this era of oneness the seeker needs to shift her focus from
her own self-development to the development of the whole. This
requires that we leave behind patterns of spiritual isolation. By
leaving the cave and monasteries we can live the light of the heart
in ordinary life, in the marketplace where the density and darkness
of materialism needs to be dissipated.
It can be helpful to recognize that the divine within life has its own
natural rhythm, its own in-breath and out-breath, which we can
come to know and work with. The light and energy of the divine is
currently following ancient patterns that flow through our collective
psyche. We can help peace come into our world by trusting that
peace itself has the patience to work around resistances, that its
power is not scattered or wasted in conflict. The spiritual energy of
peace is currently working with the energy of discord, undermining
its arguments, changing the flow of energy from confrontation to
understanding. If we allow ourselves to be open to what is already
happening, we will begin to see and work with the consciousness of
oneness that is emerging.
SIMPLE ANSWERS
3
A thread is being woven in the inner worlds but we do not know how
to look. Harmony is being created, but we remain focused on
discord. The energy patterns of life are subtly shifting, the currents
that come from the deep are changing. Life is trying to redeem
itself, trying to shake off the debris of our power struggles.
The changes in life are so fundamental and simple, and yet they are
not easy to live. There are forces at work that push us outwards
towards complexity. These are the forces that take away our joy
and demand that we work harder and harder. They drive us into
conflicts we do not need, and always try to obscure the simple joy
of life, of being together and valuing our companionship. Fast food
and mega movies may glitter and catch our collective attention, but
we know in our hearts that something fundamental is being
overlooked. We do not need to drown in prosperity or impose our
beliefs on others. We have simply to recognize what is real and live
this in our own way.
4
Many people are frightened of real peace. It cannot be manipulated;
it has no role in power dynamics. In the clash of opposites we fight
to win, to impose ourself. Even our image of world peace is a
balance of power. What would happen if these power dynamics
were removed? How would we know who is in control? The drama of
power needs adversaries. A life of peace functions in a different
way. It does not belong to patterns of control. Peace and freedom
belong together.
The golden light of the oil of the “olive, neither of the East nor of
the West” is within us. It is the light of our divine nature, which is
also a part of life. How can our divine nature be other than the air
we breathe? Our breath is His breath. Through the breath the soul
and the body, heaven and earth are brought together. His light is
“the Light of the heavens and the earth.” Behind the appearance of
duality is the light of oneness, and real peace. We can live this
oneness, this primal union, or we can remain with an attitude that
sees only the continual conflict of opposites. The oil from the “olive,
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neither of the East nor of the West” is burning and shows us a
different way to live.
Those who love Him and remember Him have access to the light
that the world needs—the light of peace, the light of oneness. Our
world can never be saved by politicians or mediators, but by those
whose hearts are turned to the Real. This awareness belongs to the
core life, to a creation which celebrates its Creator. It is present all
around us, within us, part of the simple truth that we are here in
service to the divine. If we can see with the heart, not our
conditioning, we can awaken within the peace that is revealing itself
at this time. And through the simple combination of our spiritual
practice, our prayers, and remembrance, and our everyday life, we
can help to bring His light and His peace into His world.
FOOTNOTES
6
(1)
Midrash, Exodus Rabbah (31:15), trans. H. Freedman and Maurice
Simon.
Sufi Dreamwork
Published by Seven Pillars
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
— C. G. JUNG
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journeying Home. We are each taken to God in our own way,
according to the uniqueness of our individual nature, for “every
being has its own appropriate mode of prayer and glorification”
(Qur’an 2:186). It is so easy to try to identify with others, to walk
the path we see being lived by others. Others can inspire us, but we
can only walk our own path, follow our own dream, live our own
destiny. Our dreams tell our story, how the path unfolds within us.
When we share a dream, the uniqueness of our own path is given
attention. And through hearing the dreams of others we can see
how for each us the journey of the soul is different, demands
different qualities.
Deeper than the psychological are the spiritual dreams that speak
to us with the ancient images of the path, the bunches of grapes
that represent esoteric teaching, the wine of the Beloved that
intoxicates the Sufi. Or as in the dream of a room full of old men
carding wool, the dreamer is told of the process that says you are a
Sufi when your heart is as soft and as warm as wool. The depths of
the soul knows these symbols, even if they are unfamiliar to our
contemporary minds, and they remind us of the ancient road we are
traveling. But dreamwork is not just about interpretation, about
finding out what the dream means. Dreamwork is a dialogue, a
conversation between the dreamer and the world of the dream.
Through this dialogue we make a connection to a part of ourselves
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that the outer world often dismisses and invalidates. We reconnect
with our dreaming, with the soul as it speaks to us in this ancient
language of images and symbols. And when we share dreams in a
meditation group this dialogue is heard by other people’s hearts
and validated within a sacred space. This is an important
affirmation of the dream, and of the soul that speaks to us through
our dreams.
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this higher, faster level.
Spiritual dreams are those that come from the soul. They teach us
about symbols and the meaning that is hidden under the surface.
They guide us through the labyrinth of our psyche and tell us about
our real destiny. These dreams help us to uncover the real nature of
our being, to recognize its quality and bring it into our everyday life.
They have within them a “golden thread” that is the destiny of the
soul, our own direct connection to God.
This golden thread cannot be recognized with our rational mind, but
our symbolic consciousness sees it, and the consciousness of the
heart knows its purpose. Through working with this thread, seeing
how it is woven into our dreams and hidden within our daily life, we
discover that it belongs to the foundation of both our inner and
outer life. This thread is our deeper self living within us, giving color
and substance to the images of our psyche and also the texture of
our days.
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UNCONDITIONED FREEDOM
And dreams also point beyond our own individual self, our own
individual journey, to the greater whole of which we are a part.
Sometimes our dreams are not just an expression of our own soul,
but of the soul of the world, the anima mundi. Through these
dreams we can experience a vaster horizon than our self, and
maybe awaken to the transformation that is happening within the
whole world. For just as we change and transform, so does the
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world of which we are a part. Dreamwork can connect us to this
greater unfolding, to the primal changes that are happening to life
itself. And then we can play our part more fully, be a part of the
golden thread hidden within the world. We can realize and live the
primal connection between our soul and the soul of the world, and
be what is awakening.
Spiritual Empowerment
Published in edited version in the final issue of
Ascent Magazine, Spring 2009
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
First we receive the light, then we impart the light, thus we repair
the world.
— KABALISTIC SAYING
Every human being carries within them a light that belongs to God.
This light is our most precious substance. It is our divine essence,
our true nature. It is also potentially the most powerful force in the
universe, as it contains the power of the Divine, the Source of all
that is created. In the Upanishads this is described as:
In past centuries, the spiritual work with this light has focused on
the inner journey back to God, the reclaiming of our essential
nature, which is a state of unity. But there is another dimension to
the journey—the mystery of how our individual light works in the
world. It is through awakening to this mystery, and claiming our
relationship and responsibilities to the whole, that we claim our
spiritual maturity and respond to the real spiritual need of the time.
The divine power that resides in our heart and connects us all in an
unending flow of life and light has a role to play in the world, in both
the healing of past wounds and in the creation of the future. Our
own individual efforts—efforts born from fractured psyches and
corrupted souls—cannot undo the damage that has been done to
the earth or humanity, nor can it imagine what is truly possible. It
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will be through spiritual empowerment—through recognizing that
our individual light is part of a greater light—that the divine will play
its part in the co-creation of a new era.
But how do we wake up to this inner power? How can we allow the
divine light within us to work for the sake of the whole?
But this deep awareness of how our light contributes to the whole
has largely been forgotten. In the West we are the victims and
purveyors of spiritual censorship, a censorship so profound and
deep that we no longer even know of what we have been denied.
When the Catholic Church turned toward worldly power and denied
spiritual power they systematically deprived us of our spiritual
heritage The Gnostic Gospels were purposefully lost along with the
suppression of the Gnostics. Any other initiates who understood and
had access to real spiritual power, like the Cathars, were ruthlessly
repressed.
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How can we reconnect with this larger dimension of spiritual
wisdom that belongs not just to the inner journey of the individual,
but also to the evolution of the whole? Tibetan Buddhism
emphasizes the Bodhisattva path in which one works not for one’s
own enlightenment, but for the enlightenment of others. Specific
practices include symbolically creating a world of harmony and
perfection for all, and taking in others’ suffering and offering one’s
own happiness in exchange. These practices point to a larger
transformation. But do practitioners fully recognize the potential
spiritual practices have to change our world? Do they accept this
responsibility?
How can we recognize the part that we each have to play? First we
need to acknowledge the fundamental reality that we are
connected to each other, that spiritual gifts are given for the sake of
the whole. Some doors will only be opened with an attitude of
service—an attitude so undervalued in contemporary culture. Our
Western pursuit of individualism, our focus on the individual self,
has claimed spiritual treasures almost solely for the purpose of
individual development. We think love is given solely to help us feel
better. We long for peace so our troubles will go away. Only too
often we regard a spiritual path as a way to enrich our self. We
rarely live the primal truth that we are never given for our self, but
always for others.
Through spiritual practice light can return to the world: the divine
light that that is within us can start to heal and transform our
battered world. But only if we recognize this non-personal
dimension of our prayers, our meditations and devotions.
The time has come for us to ask how we can take this step towards
spiritual maturity—how can we retrain our spiritual awareness to
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focus less on our selves and more on the evolution of the whole?
How can we use our light to return to the simple awareness of unity
that can heal our fractured world and our selves:
The world is calling out for oneness, for unity, and needs the light of
all of us. It is a commitment we each have to make in our own way,
and cannot be forced. But we can be made aware of the real
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potential of our practice: that we can empower ourselves and the
world. Then we can reclaim what has been denied us and bring an
understanding of spiritual power back into the world. Our world is
never going to be healed by politicians or corporations. But it can
be transformed by the divine that is within each of us and within
creation.
One might ask: “Where are the sacred texts that tell us how to do
this?” There are many spiritual texts that speak about the wonders
of the inner journey, and the stages on this path. In Tibet, which
was one of the last places where there was real understanding of
spiritual power, there were some texts that explain this larger work,
but they have been burned, lost, or remain untranslated. In the
West we have a few hints in the way alchemy talks about the light
hidden in matter, the mystery of divine unity: “as above so below,”
and the relationship of microcosm and macrocosm, but there is no
description of how to work with this awareness in our contemporary
world.
Part of any adventure is a step into the unknown, and to allow the
limitlessness of what is possible. This lack of knowing is part of the
journey, part of our return to the Source, and is itself a process of
empowerment. The path will always bring us to a place inwardly or
outwardly that calls us to trust, surrender, and give ourselves
completely, and it is through this willingness to proceed into the
unknown that we discover how much we are helped, and held, and
how much power is truly available to us.
It is time to trust the light itself, trust the light that is within and
around us, trust the Divine to awaken and teach us. Just as we know
in our own journey the power of synchronicity, of connections being
made by an unknown hand, of teachings and wisdom being given
through dreams or intuitions.
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The first step is always just to say “yes.” There is a Sufi saying “It is
the consent that draws down the grace.” If we can say “yes” to our
own light and acknowledge that it belongs to all of life we step out
of the imprisonment of our individual self into the world that needs
us, that needs our light. Then we begin to live in the presence of the
divine, a divine that is not constricted by our patterns and plans,
our images of duality.
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moment, and in this reconnection we both empower and are
empowered. In our spiritual light is the light of the whole, and our
light is also in service to the whole.
FOOTNOTES
(1)
Katha Upanishad, Book II (The Ten Principle Upanishads, trans.
Shree Purohit Swami and W.B. Yeats), p. 34.
(2)
Isha Upanishad.
(3)
Abhinavagupta on the teachings of Non-dual Kashmir Shaivism.
Spiritual Ecology
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
19
also beginning to dawn upon us that these environmental changes
are accelerating, that time is running out more quickly than we may
realize. To quote a recent article in the New York Times by Paul
Krugman:
The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists
expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a
terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies,
catastrophe—a rise in temperature so large as to be almost
unthinkable—can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is,
instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present
course.1
20
disregard for the environment, and for the consequences of our
actions until it is too late. This is the product of a consciousness that
is cut off from the natural world and its interconnectedness. It
comes from an attitude that we are separate from the world around
us and can do with it as we want—an attitude that is unthinkable to
indigenous people who respect and revere the physical world, and
whose cultures protect the balance between humanity and nature.
Our western consciousness evolved through the birth of scientific
reasoning to treat the physical world as a mere object, something
mechanical whose laws we could learn and thus master. We
developed the gifts of science, but also began to create the
materialistic wasteland that we now inhabit. We banned the
symbolic world as something superstitious, and the understanding
of the relationship between the worlds that linked together all of
creation, the concept of the “Great Chain of Being,” was forgotten.
Rather than part of an interdependent whole, each part nourishing
and supporting the other, we became lords of a soulless earth,
which we sought to dominate and subjugate for our own ends.
We know for our individual self that real healing only takes place
when we our inner and outer selves are aligned, when we are
nourished by our own soul and the archetypal forces within us.
What is true for the individual is true for the whole. It is from the
energies within and behind creation that the healing of creation will
take place, because these are the beings that support, nourish and
help creation to develop and evolve. How can we heal creation
without the help of the devas and other spiritual forces that are
within creation? They are waiting to be asked to participate, for
their wisdom and power to be used. We need to once again work
together with the divine oneness that is within and around us.
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But how can we learn how to work together with the inner worlds
when our culture has dismissed them to such a degree that we
have forgotten their existence? We may talk about angels, and
even pray for their intercession, but do we really understand their
power, or that they are just one level of invisible beings? The
invisible worlds are present all around us even though we cannot
see or touch them, just like the wavelengths of light beyond the
small portion of the spectrum we can see. First we have to step out
of our dream of separation, the insularity with which we have
imprisoned ourselves, and acknowledge that we are a part of a
multidimensional living spiritual being we call the world. The world
is much more than just the physical world we perceive through the
senses, just as we are much more than just our own physical
bodies. Only as a part of a living whole can we help to heal the
whole. Just as we need to work together with the outer ecosystem,
we need to work together with the inner worlds. We need their
support and help, their power and knowledge. The devas
understand the patterns of climate change better than we do,
because they are the forces behind the weather and the winds. Just
as plant devas know the healing powers of plants (and taught the
shamans and healers their knowledge), so are there more powerful
devas that know and guide the patterns of evolution of the whole
planet.
But this shift in consciousness does mean that we will have to take
responsibility for our actions and attitudes. We can no longer walk
blindly, uncaring, on the face of the earth. Leaving behind the myth
of our banishment means accepting our faults and the damage we
have done in the inner and outer worlds. We are beginning to take
responsibility for the ecosystem, though we have not yet fully
realized that we will need to sacrifice our materialistic dream and to
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suffer the pain of withdrawal from this addiction. Taking
responsibility for the damage we have done in the inner worlds, for
example the sorrow we have caused the Great Mother by our
abuse, is a step we have not yet taken. Nor do we realize how we
have desecrated the symbolic worlds, whose sacred images are
today being used as just another way to sell materialistic fantasies.
Symbols and sacred images used to be a way to connect with the
divine, to make the transition from the physical world to the
mystery of the soul. Yet we now use these images for personal gain,
without taking any responsibility for our actions, for the rape of the
sacred. There will be a price to pay if we are to redeem the
symbolic world of the creative imagination, just as we have to pay a
price for our own faults and failings. Redemption requires real
sacrifice. Only then can we regain the dignity that belongs to us,
and help to heal the wrongs we have done. Growing up requires
responsibility and is a painful process.
To reclaim our dignity and role as guardians of the planet will not be
easy. But we can pray for the intercession of His mercy, knowing,
according to an ancient promise, that “His mercy is greater than His
justice.” There is a real reason that the ancients understood that He
is a wrathful God, and made penance and sacrifice to placate Him.
We may think that our science and civilization can protect us from
this primal power, but the symbol of the dragon as the power of the
earth is not without meaning. We have little understanding of the
archetypal forces that underlie our surface lives, and of how they
are all interconnected and can manifest the will of God. We can no
longer afford to be ignorant or think that we can abuse the world as
long as we want.
The world has been through many crises over the millennia, but this
is the first global crisis that has been created by humanity. Whether
we take responsibility for our predicament will determine our future
and the future of the world. There is an ancient teaching that in
times of imminent catastrophe we are given the opportunity of
divine intercession; we can look towards God and pray for divine
help. We are at such a moment and the soul of the world is crying
out. Are we prepared to welcome back the divine and work together
with the forces of creation? Are we able to claim this real
empowerment? Or are we going to remain on the sidelines and
watch as the politicians argue while the world continues on its
present course?
We do not know what it might mean to once again work with the
divine forces within creation. In the West we have long since lost
touch with this heritage, even though it is buried deep in our
psyche. Yet it is a simple shift of awareness to reclaim this
consciousness, and in doing so we will step into the future that is
being born at this moment of crisis. We will become alive in a new
way as we help the world wake up from the dream that is
destroying it. We will be active participants in the real ecological
work that is needed.
Footnotes
25
(show footnotes)
Comments (8)
In peace,
for the Earth,
Arjuna
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• Your wisdom speaks to every part of my being. And if I were to
read your words aloud the faery beings around me would be
dancing with the angels. Deep gratitude from someone who
practices the eco/pagan mysticism of her Celtic ancestors, and
the mysticism of the divine human being that I am learning on
the Sufi path.
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• Until we see the global as personal we will continue to race
headlong to destruction. Until we stop blaming ‘them’ and
realise it is each of our thoughts and actions that creates our
world there can be no return to sanity. When we listen to the
prompting of our heart we remember what we once knew…
we are one.
I have two small children and I take great delight in watching them
grow and change. In children one can see the simplest impulses of
the human personality before it has been socially conditioned. For
example, when two children are playing together with an
assortment of toys, a toy will often lie utterly neglected until one
child happens to takes it up, at which point the other child will
develop a sudden interest in it, and demand it as his own. As long
as it lay on the floor there was no special attraction, but when
another grasps it, it acquires urgent importance.
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Yet it must be said that it is one thing for an individual to follow the
path of excess to the palace of wisdom, and another for the whole
of society to do so. The enrichment of one nation or species very
often spells the impoverishment of another, and with a human
population of over six and a half billion, the Earth’s resources are
already stretched precariously thin. Mahatma Gandhi was once
asked if India could be expected to attain the standard of living of
Britain. He answered that it took Britain half the world to feed itself
—“if India became like Britain, how many worlds would it need?”
When one realizes this one moves to the next stage—from dunya to
akhira (otherwordliness). Instead of seeking possession of objects,
one seeks satisfaction in beautiful and joyful states of being. One
sets out on the spiritual path, and perhaps one attends seminars
and workshops and retreats and reads a lot of books. In this way
one discovers a marketplace of beautiful spiritual ideas. Eventually
one might begin to notice that the same impulses that impelled one
in the marketplace of things drive one through the marketplace of
spiritual ideas: the same acquisitive desire, the same attempt to
obtain satisfaction through possession of something that is
expected to be stable and pleasurable. Moreover—in the spiritual
world as in the physical world—one is often tempted to seize that
which belongs to another because it has more attraction than what
one possesses oneself.
As one pursues one’s spiritual path, one sees that there are other
people who are apparently endowed with a quality of realization
that is extremely attractive. One wishes that one had what the
other person has, and feels the need to test out every new
methodology or discipline in order to latch onto something that will
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maximize one’s satisfaction. One craves to possess that which
belongs to another, the apparently perfect spiritual state of those
who surround one, and one feels oneself to be trapped in a lesser
state. So one becomes, on the one hand, idolatrous of the others,
and on the other, most unkind to oneself, feeling profoundly one’s
unworthiness and incapacity. Ironically it is likely that the one upon
whom we project our ideal of perfect spiritual accomplishment
likewise feels his or her limitation and wishes for the state of a more
perfectly realized being, and so on ad infinitum, everyone turning
and looking at another—that is, until we return to the principle of
this Iron Rule: Do not claim that which belongs to another.
The rule tells us, only claim that which belongs to you, that which
arises from your own experience. That is what you can claim,
accept and be content with—your own state of being. Understand
its changeableness. Understand that your state is not the essence,
but it is a quality of essence that is shifting. In the acceptance of
one’s state one is better able to sense how it is poised on the
ground of pure essence.
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Who Form the Embodiment of the Master,
Years ago, when I first began saying the Toward the One prayer of
the Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan, I found that I was often unable
to get beyond the opening words. For even as I was speaking, I
would be lifted “Toward the One” to regions of “Love, Harmony, and
Beauty” where my feet no longer touched the ground of materiality,
but instead were grounded in “The Only Being.” I was overwhelmed
by the energetic qurb—‘proximity’ to the One—in the words
themselves. There was such holy precision in them and manifest
spiritual energy that my heart could not fail to respond to them.
And, as with other things that touched me powerfully from outside
of the Jewish tradition, I immediately wanted to translate it into
Hebrew, the language of my spiritual upbringing.1
In the years since I originally made this little translation for myself
in the 1970’s, other Hebrew translations of Toward the One have
appeared in various places. This is in no way meant to imply
criticism of other Hebrew translations, but only to offer another
version. The beauty of a translation is the access it gives to a
‘message’ originally given in another language, but we must always
understand that it is an interpretation of that ‘message.’ For each
language has a beauty and sophistication of its own which resists
translation. There is no one-to-one equivalence for the cultural
understandings of words translated from one language into another.
Thus, there is a practical truth to what Muslims say when they
speak of the miraculous ijaz (‘inimitability’) of the Arabic Qur’an.
And when they say that a Qur’an in English is not the Qur’an, they
are also right. It is an interpretation.
This is not to say that the spirit of the ‘message’ is not conveyed in
the translation, only that there is variation between one and the
other. And just as a translation is an interpretation of the original,
different translations sometimes yield quite different
interpretations. Thus, it is possible that there will be some who will
find value in my particular Hebrew interpretation of Toward the
One.
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renderings into modern Spanish, German, French, and Arabic. But
with this translation I intended to render Toward the One into a
Hebrew that has a resonance with the liturgical Hebrew of the beit
midrash, where Jews traditionally prayed and studied. For today,
there is both a traditional Hebrew of Judaism and a secular Hebrew
of social discourse.
Liqrat ha’ehad,
Hannimtza ha’yahid,
Ha’ruah haqqodesh.
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hakham (‘sage’), Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747), the
author of the Mesillat Yesharim (‘Path of the Upright’), who gives us
Ehad, yahid, u’meyuhad, ‘One Uniquely Simple Unity.’2 But since
this phrase cannot follow Liqrat ha’ehad in a natural way, I created
a kind of echo of it with Ha’yahid ha’ehad v’ha’m’yuhad.
Finally, in the last line, I chose not to translate the words, “The
Spirit of Guidance,” but to replace them with the parallel concept
from the Jewish tradition, Ha’ruah haqqodesh, ‘the Spirit of
Holiness,’ or Holy Spirit. This is the phrase most often used in the
Talmudic and Midrashic literature to denote prophetic inspiration.
And while there are statements in the tradition that say that ruah
haqqodesh departed after the passing of the prophets Haggai,
Zachariah and Malachi, Hasidim clearly believe that it is still
available, even today.
If one were to translate this Hebrew Toward the One back into
English, it would probably come out something like this:
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Toward the One,
As you can see, there is clear variation in the sense of the words,
but I believe that the Message is still available in them. The English
prayer of Hazrat Inayat Khan is so precise and beautiful that all
attempts at translation will fail in one way or another. It has its own
miraculous ijaz and will stand forever among the great prayer-
creations of the English language. Nevertheless, I offer this
rendering into Hebrew as a way for those who wish to pray in
Hebrew, but who are also committed to the Message, to add this to
their other prayers in a way that will feel natural in the prayer-space
of Judaism.
Footnotes
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Comments (1)
• Shalom and Light upon a Light to you, dear Reb, and thank you
for your beautiful inspiration. I had an inspiration for All
Prophets Day to be observed July 5, 2010 in honor of all
prophets and the spirit of guidance today, and co-incidentally
on the birthday of Hazrat Inayat Khan. May I add your
translation to those I am hoping to gather from as many
languages as feasible?
Each rule begins with the words, “My conscientious self.” This
means that the rule is a soliloquy, a conversation with oneself. It is
not imposed by an external authority. The rule is the articulation of
an ethical orientation. If that orientation resonates with one’s
conscience, then the rule is a reminder to fully commit oneself, in
all situations, to one’s ideal. If the orientation does not resonate,
then the contemplation of the rule presents an opportunity to clarify
one’s own ethical position. In neither case is the rule a dogma that
demands adherence on the basis of an external authority. The only
true authority is the illuminated human conscience.
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An X-Ray of Homer Simpson's Brain
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Murshid is speaking here of the tendency to argue, to cajole, to
wheedle, to badger—in short, to do all within one’s power to change
someone’s mind in the interest of personally benefiting. We all, at
times, try to leverage our rhetorical skills to the best
advantage. When one feels the stakes are high, one argues one’s
case tenaciously, with lawyerly intensity.
We all have this tendency, more or less. It is just part of the rhetoric
of speech, almost unavoidable. We always want to give the best
reason for our decisions, our thoughts, and so on. But when this
tendency takes an extreme form it becomes abusive. When one
knowingly withholds critical information in a discussion, one is no
longer contributing positively toward a mutually favorable
resolution.
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Secrets of the heart are not to be blurted out carelessly. The
luminous darkness of silence nourishes and protects spiritual
knowledge until its moment of expression has come. This secrecy is
beautiful and empowering. It empowers not only oneself, but also
the other. The Prophet, Saint, or Master who keeps the divine secret
does so in a spirit of compassionate solidarity with all life,
supporting the natural unfoldment of each being. This is just the
opposite of the secrecy of the tyrant, who uses knowledge to
dominate others. Both use power, but the tyrant uses power
against others, whereas the Prophet, Saint, or Master uses power
for and with others. The result is very different.
The second rule is: Speak not against others in their absence. This
is a saying that, like all wise words, has several levels of meaning.
On the most literal level it means: do not speak unkindly about
people who are not present in the conversation. At a deeper level,
one could say that to speak against someone in his or her absence
means to speak judgmentally of someone to whom you are not
present. In this case, being present means being conscious of the
soul of the person. To lightly discuss the characteristics of a person
without truly being present to that person—without experiencing
the person’s soul—is an error.
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But again, the literal meaning is: do not to speak about people
when they are not around, except in praise. The situation that the
rule addresses is a common one, I think, in the experience of all of
us. In the social world we inhabit, people are more likely to speak
about other people in their absence than in their presence. Gossip
has a kind of infectious quality. One might not naturally incline
toward it, but one finds oneself in conversations in which the
intoxicating atmosphere of casual criticism gets the better of one.
In that moment, a feeling of license prevails. But as one steps away
from the conversation, the thought suddenly dawns: what have I
said?
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When we have stopped speaking against others, we will have more
energy to direct to a nobler and ultimately more satisfying
occupation: speaking in favor of others.
Iron Rule 1
The first of the Iron Rules is: My conscientious self, make no false
claims. Well, that sounds very easy. None of us would like to think
that we make false claims, and probably consciously we don’t. But if
one were to apply this rule to everything that one says, I think that
one’s awareness of one’s speech would deepen dramatically, and
one would see that there are shades of truthfulness in speech.
There are things that we say that our full will is behind—we are
transparent at that moment, and that gives the speech great
power. And there are other things that we say where there is no
transparency; there is just the opposite, opacity. We are projecting
a smokescreen with the view of obtaining a desired end. And yet
the result that is obtained cannot possibly compare to the purity of
the state that is lost in so doing, and the joy and peace that is the
natural consequence of that purity.
In connection with this, one could refer to the chapter from The Art
of Personality by Murshid (Hazrat Inayat Khan) on “Word of Honor.”
Here are some highlights: “What is the word? Word is one’s
expression, the expression of one’s soul. The one upon whose
words one can rely, that one is dependable. No wealth of this world
can be compared with one’s word of honor. The person who says
what he or she means, proves, by this virtue, spirituality. To a real
person, to go back on one’s word is worse than death, for it is going
backward instead of going forward.” Murshid refers to the story of
Haris Chandra who suffered great sacrifices to uphold his word of
honor. Afterward, Murshid was asked a question: What happens if
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you find yourself in a situation where you have carelessly given
your word of honor and now, to uphold your word, you must do
something that, in the light of present circumstances, seems more
harmful than beneficial? In such a case, is it not too extreme to
stand on this principle? Murshid answered, very tactfully I think,
that no principle should be taken to extreme and made absolute.
There is danger of excess in everything. However, if one develops
the tendency of compromising one’s word of honor because the
situation has changed, the effect is that one becomes all the more
likely to continue to make casual promises knowing that one will
later allow oneself to deviate from one’s word. Insofar as we remain
firm in our dedication to our word of honor, to such a degree will we
be judicious in exercising our promise.
If one studies one’s life, one may find that there are relatively few
occasions when one signs on a dotted line or makes a vow or
pledge or declaration. But very frequently, in casual conversation,
one commits to something; one accepts responsibility for
something; one projects into the future: I will do this; I will be there.
Very often we do so with the unexpressed subtext that, after all,
circumstances are changeable and I reserve the right to change my
mind. But to such a degree as we do so, our word loses the sacred
power that is possible in the pledge of the knight.
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