Spiritual Analysis 02
“Losing Oneself Into Nothingness”
Go To “The List” of “Spiritual Insights/Analysis”
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Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)
on February 28, 2000,
and updated on October 26, 2001.
Wisdom Point: We Must Travel Through And Understand Everything,
By Becoming Nothing, By Becoming "The No-thing".
----------------------------------------
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Al-salam 'alaykum wa-rahmat Allah wa-barakatuhu kulluh. May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon all of us.
My love you (anbu), my dearest brothers and sisters - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen
(Louie Beutler).
“The Outline”
of “Spiritual Analysis 02”
01. Introduction - to “Spiritual Analysis 02”, that is, To The “Spiritual
Analysis” of “Spiritual Insight 02”, Called “The Gift of Understanding”.
02. Make Our Mind Sit Down By Calling Our Wisdom - “The mind will
only sit down when Wisdom stands up”.
03. Say Our Daily Prayer To God, Our Father's Prayer - “The Prayer To Make
us Pure”.
04. Set Our Intention To Live At The Feet of His Holiness - "If two of you
come together in My name, I will be there".
05. Beginning of “Spiritual Analysis 02” - We have come to the world of
things, to the world of “Everything”, to understand Nothing, to
understand “The No-thing”, to understand Nothingness
06. Quotation From His Holiness - "Pretend to believe in the world but
do not believe in it”, that truth will save you, And "Believe in God, but
do not pretend to believe in Him”, that deception will destroy you
07. Rest of "Spiritual Analysis 02" - “Stop fighting with your Shaikh for
your soul, stop wanting to live here, and join with Bawa to leave here,
while both you and He still can”.
08. Closing Thoughts - “Let God Have His Way With You”
09. So, What Have We Learned? - Wisdom Quiz (fill in the blanks)
10. So, What Have We Learned? - Answers To Wisdom Quiz
“The End”
“The Outline”
of “Spiritual Analysis 02”
01. Introduction - to “Spiritual Analysis 02”, that is, To The “Spiritual Analysis” of “Spiritual Insight 02”, Called “The Gift of Understanding”.
In the second Spiritual Insight, "Spiritual Insight 02", "The Gift of Understanding", we learned that "Nothing Will Every Leave You Until It Is Understood, Because Its Purpose For Being There In The First Place Is Understanding". Let us use this learning as the starting point for this Spiritual Analysis.
If you have not yet read the second Spiritual Insight, "Spiritual Insight 02", "The Gift of Understanding", upon which this Spiritual Analysis is based, or if you world like to read it again before reading this Spiritual Analysis of it, please click HERE. When you are done reading it, click on Go To “An Analysis” of “Spiritual Insight 02” at the end of “Spiritual Insight 02” to come back here, or click on the "Back" button of your Web Browser.
02. Make Our Mind Sit Down By Calling Our Wisdom - “The mind will only sit down when Wisdom stands up”.
My dearest loving brothers and sister, to do this work properly we must first join with Wisdom, so our mind will sit down.
For as Bawa teaches us that,
“The mind will only sit down when Wisdom stands up”.
And we get Wisdom to stand up by simply “calling it”, and tasking it with something that is worthy of Wisdom, something that Wisdom was created by God to do, like destroying the self and revealing God, not to put it to work for our selfish purposes of "you and yours", as they say.
So let us start by calling Bawa from “The Secret Place” within us, which Bawa calls our innermost heart or Qalb, by saying the word "Bawa", allowing Him to join us in our life of mind and desire, allowing our mind to sit down, and task Him with the following prayer, which Bawa told us to say everyday.
03. Say Our Daily Prayer To God, Our Father's Prayer - “The Prayer To Make us Pure”
So let us start with a prayer that Bawa told us to say everyday, which Bawa calls,
“The Prayer To Make Us Pure”
"Oh our Father, our Shaikh, our Guru, we need your love, please, please,
please destroy us, and reveal You."
"Destroy us as separate from You and You as separate from us, and reveal us
as one with You and You as one with us."
"Destroy the life of separation and differences that You have given us, and reveal
a life of oneness and unity, of justice and truth, of compassion and unity, that
You have also given us.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen.
Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar."
04. Set Our Intention To Live At The Feet of His Holiness - "If two of you come together in My name, I will be there".
Also, let us set our intention to sit at the feet of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), as He explains about the justice of God and “The Three Choices” in life that reflect this “Justice of God”, as we reviewed first in “Spiritual Insight 01”, and then in “The Analysis of Spiritual Insight 01”, that Is, then in “Spiritual Analysis 01”. Amen. May God complete this intention within us.
And Now Also, let us set our intention to sit at the feet of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), as He explains about “The Gift of Understanding” and the opportunity to Lose Oneself Into Nothingness as the highest potential within that gift, as we reviewed first in “Spiritual Insight 02”, and Now in “This Analysis of Spiritual Insight 02”, that is, and Now in this document, in “Spiritual Analysis 02”. Amen. May God complete this intention within us.
For as His Holiness teaches us that Jesus (may the blessings of God be upon Him) said,
"If two of you come together in my name, I will be there".
Therefore, let us come together in the name of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), and intend that Bawa be there in our hearts teaching us what we need to learn and understand for this moment. Amen. May God complete this intention within us.
05. Beginning of “Spiritual Analysis 02” - We have come to the world of things, to the world of “Everything”, to understand Nothing, to understand “The No-thing”, to understand Nothingness
We have come to this world because we do not understand who we already are, because we do not understand that we are of God, that we are of the Nothingness of God, because God is Nothingness, and as such only Nothingness defines us.
We have come to the world of things, to the world of “Everything”, to understand Nothing, to understand “The No-thing”, to understand Nothingness. For In Truth Only as Nothing can we travel through everything, extracting the point of understanding about the Nothing, about God, that is contained within everything.
And the understanding of Him, of the Nothing, is there within everything because God has placed it there, so that God can be revealed by True Man, which is who we are in a state of maturity, which is who we are when we join with our Shaikh, as who we are in a state of maturity, and become One with Him, when we become One with our Father,
Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him).
For as Bawa teaches us about,
“The True Explanation of Sufi”
"One who loses himself into nothingness, where the state of self does not exist; one who knows the station where only God remains as the Solitary Oneness that is God: this is the explanation of Sufi."
This quotation from Bawa is from the cover of a Fellowship sponsored publication, "Inner Directions, Exploring Pathways To Awakening", a Special Reprint of Selections for the Parliament of the World's Religions, featuring the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), and articles about His Holiness by His devoted child Ahmad Muhaiyaddeen
(Jonathan Granoff)].
Like this, as soon as we think we are something, as soon as we define ourselves in terms of something, that is where our journey ends, that is where “The journey of the Nothing” prematurely ends. Only as Nothing can we journey through everything and having understood the Nothingness of the Nothing by journeying through everything, and extracting from each thing the point it carries about the Nothing, can we join as One with the Nothing.
That is why Bawa told us one day, when the children asked Bawa to take them to God,
“We could do that but you would see nothing”.
And when the children asked Bawa what that meant, Bawa said,
“God is the Nothing, the “No-thing”, and to see God you must first become “That”,
you must first become Nothing, then and only then can you see God”.
In this way, We will only be successful on this journey if we remain as Nothing, never defining ourselves through what we are experiencing, or through what we currently know and understand, always seeing what we are experiencing, what we know, and what we currently understand, as but a finger pointing to the Nothingness of God, always focusing on where the finger is pointing and never on the finger itself, and always taking the Nothingness of God, the point from within everything, and leaving the finger behind.
Remember, as Bawa teaches us,
“The Cure of you is God, not you better, or wiser, or holier”
In this way, the cure of us is God, and God is Nothingness, the no-thing, not thingness. If we stop at something, thinking it defines us, no matter how exalted it might appear to be, then we can go no further on the path of God.
For as Bawa teaches us,
"God is the Power within the Essence of Everything".
Now we are experiencing the state of being everything, of being form, but we must put this experience of form down, put it down as who we are, and open ourselves up to the experience of being the Essence of everything, as being One with everything, and of finally ending within the Power of God, as the Power within the Power.
06. Quotation From His Holiness - "Pretend to believe in the world but do not believe in it”, that truth will save you, And "Believe in God, but do not pretend to believe in Him”, that deception will destroy you.
Bawa explains this beautifully in Chapter 3, "The World Within and Without”, in the book", "The Wisdom of Man - Selected Discourses", page 56 to 60, as follows.
---- beginning of quotation from His Holiness -----
Precious children of this funny family, this tiny ant man has an explanation as small as he is:
"Pretend to believe in the world but do not believe in it."
The meaning: not everyone born with the form of man is a man, and not everything that lives in the world has wisdom.
Of all the things that appear in the world, there is not one that does not kill, and there is not one that does not eat. Nothing that lives in the world lives without hunger, illness, old age, or death. Everything that has a form made of the five elements has hunger, illness, old age, and death.
It is said that when hunger comes, the ten good qualities and the divine analytic wisdom which distinguishes and sees, fly away. The pangs of hunger can destroy wisdom. The selfishness of the body exists as desire, blood-ties, attachments, religions, races, castes, separations, philosophies, scriptures, differences, praise, and blame.
There are 17 puranas, or ancient epics, which make up the world - arrogance, karma, and maya, or illusion; the three sons of maya: tarahan, singhan, and; lust, hatred, miserliness, greed, fanaticism, envy, intoxicants, desire, theft, murder, and falsehood.
Creation is the world in which you now exist and in which you are now studying. The qualities of all the 17 puranas exist in the creations of this world.
The creations catch and eat each other, kill each other, conquer each other, hypnotize each other, drink each other's blood, praise each other, and blame each other.
They perform four hundred trillion, ten thousand kinds of spiritual miracles, energies, mesmerism, magics, mantric magic, illusory magic, sexual games, arts, sciences, and sexual teachings.
The beauty of form, the visions seen by the eyes, the music heard by the ears, the smells smelled by the nose, the tastes tasted by the tongue, all the energies of the five elements, the qualities of the 17 puranas, and the millions and millions of shadows within the puranas are all contained in the huge world that exists within the heart of man.
That world contains the 18,000 universes. It lies within man, and man lies within it.
Sometimes man praises the world and sometimes he blames it. Sometimes it makes him happy and sometimes it makes him sad. Man thinks that he can reach liberation in this world, and he studies its histories.
Because he exists in this state, he might try to catch, kill, and eat, praise or blame any of these creations. But actually, man contains the world within himself.
Children, the intellect of man can perceive that there are two worlds. One is within his heart, and the other is the world outside which is seen by his eyes and perceived by his senses.
In this world of physical visions, he sees each creation and gives it a name, such as animal, dog, fox, tree, bush, vulture, eagle, or monkey. These animals are visible to the eyes. When he looks at these works of art, he might write stories about them, sing songs about them, or praise them.
But in both worlds, animals will come to try to kill a man of truth, a man of mystery. They will come to eat him and to destroy him. We must pretend to believe them. We must act in such a way as to deceive them, and then we must escape.
Man must escape from these animals in order to leave this world. Man must understand this with mysterious wisdom. He must deceive those things, pretend to believe them, and then escape.
If he believes in them, they will destroy and eat his unique birth. If he believes in them, they will kill his connection to that unique mystery.
We must pretend to believe in them, deceive them, and escape. Otherwise, they will try to kill our connection to the Mystery, and they will try to kill us. This is one thing that the ant man says.
The second thought is:
"Believe in God, do not pretend to believe in Him."
Believe in God. Believe in the one point. Believe in the One God, the mysterious God. He will embrace and protect you. That one point is the mystery.
Believe in the treasure which exists as man within God and God within man. Believe in that treasure. That will protect you. You can exist within it.
Do not pretend to believe in God. That will destroy you. If you pretend to believe in Him, that deception will destroy you. Believe in God with determination.
Children, precious jeweled lights within my eyes, this is what all who are with us and all who have taken the unique birth of man must know. We must try to know this state and act accordingly.
---- end of quotation from His Holiness -----
Please click HERE, or on the following Link, to go to the “Table of Contents” for the book by His Holiness, "The Wisdom of Man". Once there, click on Chapter 3, to read the complete text of this quotation, or click on the following Link, “The World Within And Without”.
(Also, Please click HERE, or on the following Link, to go to "A Wisdom Review" of Chapter 3, "The World Within and Without", if you like, that is, "If You Are A Wise Child", Now For Your Age, And Not Just A Foolish Child, Now For Your Age", As Bawa tells us)
07. Rest of "Spiritual Analysis 02" - “Stop fighting with your Shaikh for your soul, stop wanting to live here, and join with Bawa to leave here, while both you and He still can”
Another way that Bawa said the same thing was in response to a question that someone asked Him,
“What is the relationship between us, the Prophet of God (Sal.), and God?”.
And Bawa said,
"Think of yourself as an orange, the Prophet is the juice of that orange, and God is
the taste."
This is the journey of life that we are on, my dearest loving brothers and sisters, don't settle for anything less. Join with Bawa as your Juice Squeezer, and let Him transform your Orange-ness, your thingness, your form, into Juice-ness, into Essence, and then into Oneness, and then the Taste of You will be God.
What a glorious way to go. Please don't die as an orange, only to come back as something else, perhaps a fig, or a prune.
Bawa teaches us that.
"In the world of souls God tried to teach us an understanding of ourselves, but we couldn't get it, we couldn't understand it because it was Purity trying to understand Purity, and understanding only comes through contrast. So God created the school of contrast where we can experience who we aren't so through contrast we can understand who we already are."
My dearest loving brothers and sisters, that is where we have come, to “God’s School of Contrast”, to learn about who we are, who God is, and our relationship with God. We have not come to live here, to live at the school, to make the school our home, but to understand who we are, and through that understanding to leave here, and return to our Father who sent us here, and rule His kingdom, nothing less than that.
We have not come here to become pure. We already are pure. We have not come here to become one with God. We already are one with God. We were and are all these things in Awwal, in the world of souls, but we did not and still do not understand them.
And we still are in Awwal, in the world of souls, our soul is still in Awwal, in the world of souls, Awwal hasn't gone anywhere. Just like God hasn't gone anywhere.
But now between us and God, between our soul and God in Awwal has moved the
dunya, the world of earth, the school of contrast, the world of form, that hides the soul from God, like the clouds can hide the sun or moon from the earth. And to remove the separation between our soul and God we need to understand who we are as a soul, and having understanding that through wisdom, re-open Awwal within us.
Then as the soul life, the light life, which is eternal, as the life of wisdom joined with the soul and with the Nur, with the Nur which is the light of wisdom, which is the body of the soul, which is the light of Muhammad, we must open up the 18,000 universes within the dunya within us, and having understood everything about God that can be revealed through His creation, then with this understanding open Akhirah within us, open the kingdom of God within us, and then understand who we are as the truth of God, and through that truth become One with God.
This is what we must do in partnership with our Shaikh, in partnership with our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), not just live here.
But to do this we have to first end the dream of self existence that we are currently experiencing, the dream of separation and differences, the dream of 'mine' and
'yours', the life of arrogance, karma, and illusion, that now defines us, that has unnaturally grown within the darkness within us, that unnaturally occurred within us when the clouds of the dunya came between God and our soul in Awwal.
And to do this we have to join with the Iman of Abraham (A.S.) and find peace and contentment in our pit of fire, knowing that God is the one who put us in that pit of fire, for His purpose not ours, knowing that God knows what is happening, and what needs to be done, and He will do it, in His time and in His way, to complete His intention within us.
And what is our part in all this? Like Abraham (A.S.) said to the Angel Gabriel (A.S.) in the pit of fire, when the Angel Gabriel (A.S.) got upset with Abraham (A.S.) for not accepting his help to get out of the pit of fire, and in response to the suggestion from the Angel Gabriel (A.S.) that, if Abraham (A.S.) would accept the help of the Angel Gabriel (A.S.), then at least Abraham (A.S.) should ask God for help in his hour of need, to get him out of the pit of fire.
And Abraham (A.S.) told the Angel Gabriel (A.S.) in response to his suggestion that he ask God for help, he said,
"I could do that, but my knowing that He knows is enough!"
This is Iman, the Iman of Abraham (A.S.), and that is our part, that is what we have to do, while His Holiness within each of us does what He has to do, and God within His Holiness within each of us does what He has to do. Then it will all work properly.
Only by our making "Our knowing that God knows enough", and not looking for or accepting the help of anyone or anything else, can we find peace and contentment in our pit of fire, in the pit of fire that is our life in this world, that God has placed us in, as He placed Abraham (A.S.) in the pit of fire. Only this is Iman.
And we have to join with the Subtle Wisdom of Ishmael (A.S.) and call for our own destruction, realizing the truth of that call, knowing that in truth God is the one who is calling us, and not to destruction, but to True Life with Him.
And we have to join with the Divine Analytic Wisdom of Moses (A.S.), to liberate our Soul, to liberate Jesus (A.S.) from the cross of our elemental body, by pulling out the five nails of desire for the world with Wisdom, and through this understanding,
“Stop fighting with your Shaikh for your soul, stop wanting to live here, and join with Bawa to leave here, while both you and He still can”,
As Bawa has repeatedly told us to do, and that is for sure. Ok?
And to do any of this, we have to first join with the Divine Luminous Wisdom of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be please with Him), to close down the world of hell, fairies, and jinns within us, turning our 8 span body into a 6 span body, back into the original house of the soul, the House Of Wisdom, the Palace of the Soul, the house of the Qutb Muhaiyaddeen 'Abdul-Qadir al-Jalani (may God be pleased with Him).
This is why Bawa teaches us that,
“We must close down the world of hell,
re-open the world of souls,
and then open the kingdom of God”.
08. Closing Thoughts - “Let God Have His Way With You”
Please think about this my dearest loving brothers and sisters. Please join with our Bawa to understand who you are, and in that understanding put down all that is separating you from God. Please join with our Bawa to do this work. Please join with Him now. Amen. May God complete this intention within us.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh Ruler of The Universes.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh The Mercy of the Universes.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh The Compassion of the Universes.
Al-hamdu lillah - all praise and praising belong to God alone.
Allahu Akbar - only God is great.
Al-salam 'alaykum wa-rahmat Allah wa-barakatuhu kulluh -
May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon all of us.
My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)
09. So, What Have We Learned? - Wisdom Quiz (fill in the blanks)
On getting ready - to do anything:
His Holiness teaches us:
1. That the first thing we must do is ___________________?
2. And the second thing we must do is ________________?
3. And the third thing we must do is __________________?
On the quotation - from Chapter 3 in the book, "Wisdom of Man"
His Holiness teaches us:
1. "Pretend to believe in the world, but do not _________."
2. "Believe in God, but do not ______________________."
On "Spiritual Analysis 02" - on moving to nothingness:
His Holiness teaches us that:
1. "One who loses himself into ____________, where the state of ___ does
not exist; one who knows the station where only God remains as the
_________ that is God: this is the explanation of Sufi."
2. "God is the ______ within the ________ of everything.
3. "Think of yourself as an orange, the Prophet is the ____ of that orange,
and God is the ____."
4. "Understanding only occurs through _______."
5. Abraham (A.S.) demonstrated his Iman by telling the Angel Gabriel
(A.S.), in response to his suggestion that Abraham (A.S.) ask God to
help him in the pit of fire, "I could do that, but my _____ that He ______
is enough."
10. So, What Have We Learned? - Answers To Wisdom Quiz
On getting ready - to do anything:
His Holiness teaches us in the book, "The Golden Words of a Sufi Shaikh", on
page 73, Number 225, "Understand The Treasure of Peace", that before we do
anything we must do the following three things:
1. "In every duty, give up the thought that you are doing it."
2. "Instead, act with the thought that God must do it, and give Him the
responsibility."
3. "Then perform the duty."
On the quotation - from Chapter 3 in the book, "Wisdom of Man"
His Holiness teaches us:
1. "Pretend to believe in the world, but do not believe in it."
2. "Believe in God, but do not pretend to believe in Him."
On "Spiritual Analysis 02" - on moving to nothingness:
His Holiness teaches us:
1. "One who loses himself into nothingness, where the state of self does
not exist; one who knows the station where only God remains as the
Solitary Oneness that is God: this is the explanation of Sufi."
2. "God is the Power within the Essence of everything."
3. "Think of yourself as an orange, the Prophet is the juice of that orange,
and God is the taste."
4. "Understanding only occurs through contrast."
5. Abraham (A.S.) demonstrated his Iman by telling the Angel Gabriel
(A.S.), in response to his suggestion that Abraham (A.S.) ask God to
help him in the pit of fire, "I could do that, but my knowing that He
knows is enough."
“The End”
of “Page 12” - Spiritual Analysis 02,
of “The Spiritual Analysis of
Spiritual Insight 02”,
of “The Three Choices In Our Life”.
Go To “Spiritual Insights/Analysis”:
“The List” of “Spiritual Insights/Analysis” - Page 01
“About Spiritual Insights” - Page 02
“About Spiritual Analysis” - Page 03
“Spiritual Insight 01” - Page 04
“Spiritual Insight 02” - Page 05
“Spiritual Insight 03” - Page 06
“Spiritual Insight 04” - Page 07
“Spiritual Insight 05” - Page 08
“Spiritual Insight 06” - Page 09
“Spiritual Insight 07” - Page 10 (In Process)
“Spiritual Analysis 01” of “Spiritual Insight 01” - Page 11
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