Tawhid (Oneness), in the light of Heartfulness, Part 2

Transcription of the visioconference, Tawhid (Oneness) in the light of Heartfulness, Sunday 17 may 2020, second part.

The five points od the heart.

These five points correspond to veils that are related to the elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether. These veils prevent us from accessing our reality.

To evoke the advancement in God, Babuji describes the twenty-three circles we have to cross before reaching God, the Ultimate, the Essence: “You see, when you begin, there are five circles of illusion and then you pass into the region of the Kingdom of God, and there are the eleven circles of the ego. ” This means that something very subtle is going to prevent us from moving forward.
What is it?
It is our self, our ego. Although we are, thanks to the Grace of God and the help of our Masters, placed in this cosmic region of the Kingdom of God, we still have within us this little demon who is there, to tell us: “But no, I am here and now I am spiritual, I am One, I know. “, and all these things that everyone knows.

That’s why the Prophet was worried. He said: “Having freed myself from subtle idolatry after having freed myself from gross idolatry, I fear for my community, because subtle idolatry is hidden; it will be more difficult to detect than an ant on a rock in a dark night. ” Subtle idolatry is when we use spirituality or religion to avoid making room for God.

Finally, what are we supposed to look for?
Erasing our selves, withdrawing in order to make room for God, the place He should always have had.

But when we make room for Him, what happens?
The whole Creation is in us, and since we also form part of the Creation, we have our place in Him. He never imposes Himself on us: it is we who must decide, we must want to take back the place that is right, the place that our ancestor Adam left by saying: “I have everything, I know everything, I know the names of God, I know the attributes of God, I know the Essence of God. I am like Him.” Starting from the universal man, he believed himself to be independent and separated from God. This is an illusion. We can’t be separate, we can only believe that we are. We can see what is happening in our societies, even in our religions. As soon as a religion becomes separate, it is no longer in God. As soon as we separate, we are no longer in God. We always have a tendency to separate, to disunite. “This one’s not like me, it’s not my culture…” We tend to be afraid, to isolate ourselves, all the problems of today.
That is why we need to find the divine Oneness.

We have this duty to move forward, but instead of looking outside, we must look inside, deep inside. It becomes real, God is Haqq, the Reality, the Real. By plunging into this depth, we come into contact with the Essence. It spreads within us, takes up all the space, and that is when it reveals to us that all of God’s Creation is also within us. Through this inner vision we contemplate it, we are amazed: everything is there.

I would like to read you a text, written by Farouzi Skali, about the 7 degrees of transparency, as it might help you find your way around.

As we saw, the Koran says that there is the chest, then the heart, then the bottom heart, and finally, the Essence:
At chest level, a man is overcome by his desires.
He is a servant of his ego. He is ignorant.”

In the second degree:
“Man begins to perceive the language of the Creation.
His heart is shaken. He opens up to religion.
He is conscious of his desires, even if he succumbs to them. »

And already you can feel that the observer is born.

In the third degree:
“Man is attracted to God. He goes towards God.
His consciousness is awakened. It is spirituality.
His condition is related to love.
He puts human and spiritual virtues into practice. »
So he’s going to God. This is the first step of meditation, the first level of the heart.

The fourth degree:
“Man does not go to God. He is with God. His submission is total. He is at peace. Secrets are revealed. »

At this point, he’s in contact with Reality.

In the fifth degree:
“Man shares in the Divine Eternity. His condition is one of non-existence. His human attributes are gone. His acts are divine.”

This is what the Heartfulness way calls the sahaj-samadhi, i.e., the natural samadhi. His being is both totally absorbed in the depth of his heart and fully present to life, to whatever is happening. One of his eyes, the left one, is oriented towards the heart, whereas the right one (this is a metaphor) is oriented towards the world. It is through this inner reality that he looks at the world.

In the sixth degree:
“In the sixth degree, man accepts God. Here it is God who accepts man.  His attributes are divine. He embodies the Truth, the Real. »

This is the state of nothingness. It is the state of turia. In that state, the person has totally withdrawn and it is God who acts directly through him.

The seventh degree:
“The state of man is Eternity, Essence, God. It manifests Unity in diversity. »

It is the state of turiati. Things get done, whether the person is aware of it or not. This is the state of the Great Masters. They are God’s instruments, which is extraordinary. And humanity benefits greatly from them.

Babuji had a phrase I liked. He said:
“Where religion ends, spirituality begins.
Where spirituality ends, Reality begins.
Where Reality stops, there is Felicity, the Absolute. »
It goes to God’s Infinity.

Here again, we must understand it correctly: it is always inclusive, since we are in tawhid, the Oneness. Everything has its own place. Religions are needed, and as Ma Ananda Moyî, a great saint of India, used to say,
“At the heart of all religions, people come together and find each other. »

That is where we need to go, towards subtlety, our inner reality.

Already, at the second level of depth of the heart, which gives access to the universal mind, to the cosmic mind, to the Kingdom of God, our inner vision, our inner listening is developing. In other terms, we can already receive instructions, directions, and even intuitions in a different way.
That’s why we talk about the inner master. We are guided in our lives to make the right decisions, the ones we agree with. That’s very important for us, human beings. We still have our free will, the power to decide about our own lives. God gave us a ‘free will’ so that we can use it, He never compels us, never forces us. He gives us the direction and the more room we give Him, the more He will be with us, and the more He will guide us.
That is the fanâ’ condition, which is a state of extinction and, for Christians, the annihilation of the self. But here, ‘self’ does not mean the ‘person’. We get rid of the illusion that we guide our lives.

When we enter the deepest depth, we reach fouad, the bottom of the heart, then el lubb, the Essence, which is directly connected with Reality. It is the place where there is Allah’s vibration, his presence. It is called fanâ’ al fanâ’, the extinction of our extinction. Only God remains, God alone. And that is difficult to express. The only thing we can wish you all is to live it. And that’s why the Master and the Sheikhs are here to guide us. Masters and Sheikhs are of different levels, and they all perfectly know where they each stand. Some of them have erased themselves to such an extent that God used them to teach and guide. They are Gnostics, knowers, who receive their knowledge directly from God.
In raja-yoga, that is called Brahma-vidya – Brahma is God, and vidya the knowledge of God.

An ikam, by Ibn ‘Ata Allah, says:
“Rid yourself of the government of yourself, what another takes care of for you, don’t take care of it. »

Ibn Ata Allah has written about paradoxes, ikams, and I like those very much.

What makes these paradoxes interesting is that they are the union of opposites: then, the mind can’t hold on to it, because we have both the thing and its opposite – e.g. in Christian mysticism: “The dark light”. There, the mind is helpless. It has to choose another direction, and even to abdicate, in order to be able to access the deep meaning of these paradoxes, or oxymora.

Al Shadhiji said (speaking of the man who made his extinction in Allah, in God):
“God delivered their souls from the state of separation.
He enlightened their minds with His light,
Enabling them to contemplate the wonders of His power.
He preserved their hearts from seeing anything other than Him.
He erased all traces of the manifested world.
They became captive to His presence.
They were able to contemplate the Supreme Unity.
He uprooted them from themselves.
He has extinguished their selves.
They are immersed in the ocean of the Divine Self.
He placed the stars, the spiritual sciences in the firmament of perception
So that those who walked towards His presence could find their way.
He has illuminated the night with the realization of Oneness.
In the wilderness, …”

These beings are quite extraordinary! But again, all the Masters, all of them, have to be awakened. Abu Madyan, for instance, is a very great Master of the 12th century, recognized by all the Sufi branches. He began his studies in Fez. There, he studied the external sciences of religion, and when he had completed this survey, he decided to become interested in the inner sciences and the divine sciences. He also enjoyed the barakah of great masters such as Maghrebi, and it is Qadir Al Jilani who initiated him.

Abu Madyan, who wrote these ikams, was a marvelous inspirer. It is said that he trained more than three hundred sheikhs, i.e. three hundred Masters.
The same thing occurred with Al Shadhijii or Al Murci. Their connection with God is such that God allows them to see what Reality is, and then teach it.

Here again, there is no room for mistakes: in Islam, the Essence, the Names of God and the attributes are provided, and often people tend to go through the 99 names given for God, because they give much importance to knowledge and to the attributes, as it gives power. The danger remains that if the ego takes hold of it, we shall be cut off from God.
What matters is to access the Essence. That is why, in Islam, one’s approach is never completed: at first, there is submission, islam, then faith, iman, and, after that, ishan, the way to excellence.

Here is what Al Ghazali says about Ishan:
“You must know that Allah has removed all the veils of ignorance, and has brought people into the state of vision by their continuous dikrs.The first stage of dikr is the dikr of language. And the dikr of the heart is the appearance of the Divine Presence in the dikr reciter, thus making dikr unnecessary.”

So, here again we see that it is interesting to use the dikr, but it is only an approach we are given. We can use it, but then we have to interiorize, to reach the silent dikr, which is found in silent naqshbandiya.
At some point, it seems that God is doing it all, practically, and there is nothing left in us, except for that connection, which has to be really there. Similarly, when we say the five prayers, are we really in the Presence of God?  We do aspire to be in the Presence of God.
That is why it is extremely important for us to enter the depths of our hearts before doing any practice, in order to be able to access the greatest reality there is, this contact with the inner Essence, and then we shall really be praying.

And there again, Ata Allah says:
“Until the moment when, finally, since it has become a permanent prayerful state, there is no need to pray anymore, there is no need to use the dikr.”

At the same time, he warns us to beware:
“Do not be deceived because, as for knowing God, only Him can know what leads to Him.”

So, basically, we have to get God to see Himself, to find Himself in us, in Himself.  We have to make room for Him, to give Him all the room, and He needs it all. And that’s where we need help, from Sheikhs, from Masters who are realized, who have realized all that. They know, they know all about that bag of tricks the ego has, because they are human beings too – and there is no difference between us. So, they will be able to guide us. And as Daaji was saying not long ago:
“We must offer ourselves to God in an acceptable way, so that we can really be in front of Him.”

Theophile The Elder
Excerpt from Theophile’s Journal
Essays

Some recommended reading

– “The Sufi way”, by Faouzi Skali. This is where I found the four levels of the heart.

– “Sufism, the heart of the Islam” by Sheikh Khaled-Bentounès, for those who do not know Islam. It’s very interesting, very exact, written by someone who really is in it. His grandfather was Sheikh al-Alawi, a very great man. He also recently wrote “The Therapy of the Soul.”

– “The Celestial Wisdom of Ahmad al-Alawi”, translated by Eric Geoffroy who wrote about Sufism. It is very interesting, and it is also about Abu Madyan’s ikams.

– “The Wisdom of the Sufi Masters”, by Ibn Ata Allah, of whom we have already spoken. This book mentions Al Shadhili, Al Murci and many others. There is a scent that goes in that direction.

– Some works concerning Naqshbandis.
I have read a lot of this literature. In northern India there was a great mixture of Christians, Sikhs, Sufis, and Muslims, who all lived on good terms together, and formed a great brotherhood. I also liked very much the teachings of Ahmad Khan who is a Sufi who was connected. He was also a friend of Lalaji’s and Babuji’s. So, you see, in God there is no separation.

– Heartfulness, the method, by Kamlesh Patel and Joshua Pollock, for those who want to learn more about Heartfulness. It’s very interesting, very simple and very right. Kamlesh Patel – affectionately called Daaji – is the current Master of Heartfulness. He is the spiritual guide, because the word “Master” is not always well accepted. It is a dialogue with one person, Joshua Pollock, who asks a lot of questions about the whole practice, about everything Heartfulness does. Pretty much everything is clearly explained in the book. It exists also in English.