Theo. – Jeanne told me about the Christian Way and she said you were going to introduce me to the Sufi Way. Can you say a few words about it? It is my understanding that we are very close to it.
The Elder – We feel at one with all the Ways leading to God. Sufism is one of them. It is also called the doctrine of pure love. The Sufi Way is, like ours, a direct Way, the ‘Vertical Way’ Babuji mentioned, but it is also the path leading to the Truth, as you have the path leading to the stars. As for humankind, it apparently chose the vast wide spiral evolution is. It is taking its time and may even go astray, but sooner or later, everything will go back to God. The Divine is at once within and without time and each and every one of our deeds is within Him.
Theo. – Including evil?
The Elder – Everything! Good and evil. For the Divine, there is no such thing as duality. Duality starts with the beginning of the cosmic world, the world of the creation. At the human level it becomes a Dantean tragedy.
Theo. – Are you thinking of Dante’s Hell?
The Elder – I’m thinking of the paradise and of the hell humans have created. They frighten themselves and chase illusory hopes.
If God exists,
being omnipresent,
He is also in Hell.
Can you show me a place where the Divine is not? Creation is God’s mirror; He sees Himself in it and gives life to any creature. Each creature bears Beauty, is unique, and bears His signature. That is why we must respect and love any living being, that is why we must love Life.
God is the Matrix.
Any life comes from Him.
Man can look outside and inside. Light is what makes any object visible, and Revelation is the light that will let a man’s inner eye perceive spiritual realities. The problem is our limiting the Divine with our assumptions. The limit we put concerns either the limited or the unlimited, whereas in fact, the Divine is complete: “He is Nothingness and Wholeness”. He is vibration. He is light. He communicates with us through the gross and the subtle.
Theo. – How to grasp God’s completeness? We experience duality. We are dual. So, how could we apprehend Unity?
The Elder – Let us try, will you?
Theo makes himself totally open and available. His consciousness is at the second level of the heart, the level of universal consciousness. He pays a serene attention to the Elder’s words.
The Elder – Choose a pair of original opposites such as masculine and feminine, ying and yang,
or Purusha and Prakriti.
Have them merge. Silence …
The essence of their fusion is the Creator. Silence …
He who has created the dark and the light… Silence …
Erase that essence from within you. Silence …
Then you access the Essence of the essence. Silence …
Lose yourself within it and merge. Silence …
Here is God, the uncreated.Theo. – Divine wholeness is between the created and the uncreated.
The Elder – Merge them and access Reality.
Theo. – So I can do it with any of the pairs of opposites and thus answer many of the questions I ask myself, can’t I?
The Elder – What is in your mind?
Theo. – There is everything: paradoxes, such as good and evil, the light and the dark.
Then he adds, looking malicious:
– Man and woman, and the real mystery they are!
– You and the other, the Elder suggests.
Theo. – All right. I’m going to make my self and the other merge ….
The Elder – And what do you find ?
Theo. – God.
The Elder – Give me some of the examples you would like to explore
Theo. – Alpha and Omega,
Limited and unlimited,
Finite and infinite,
Mobile and non-mobile,
Square and circle,
Time and space,
Center and periphery,
Manifested and non-manifested,
Time and timeless,
Mental and non-mental,
Words and silence,
Silence and silence,
Creature and Creator,
Self and God,
I and God.
The Elder bursts out laughing:
– So many metaphysical issues! Remember our exercise is non-mental and based on vibratory fusion so as to allow a quantum leap into Reality, and then into the Absolute.
Feeling very happy, Theo replies:
– If I try ‘You and I’, I will probably get an oxymoron as an answer!
I have been told that man is a metaphor for God.
Seriously, why should I do that exercise?
The Elder – It is in order to decondition you, spiritually speaking, and to make room for the Divine within you. Every time you do that exercise with a pair of opposites, you will discover a divine quality and a divine attribute.
God aspires for God in each and every one.
Man is God’s mirror.
He beholds His creation in it.
Each creature of His is unique
and bears His signature.Each person is His masterpiece,
but many are still being moulded.Each person is perfect in his or her own imperfection.
Admitting it is being truly humble.
It is Reality.We are made of clay and spirit.
Man is an isthmus between the light and the dark.
He is in the forefront of Creation.
Theo. – What is the nature of our relationship with God?
The Elder – Love. Our relationship with the Divine is based on love, and therefore the relations we have with life and with other people will also be based on love.
Theo. – That is a very nice program!
The Elder – Once a field of love has been created, anything becomes possible. There are no more restrictions or limits. We have left the domain of faith to enter the one of certainty. So, naturally, peace, silence and balance settle within us.
Theo. – No efforts being required, I guess. That is the Advanced Practice.
The Elder – Non-effort comes from effort, which comes from a work of purification and simplification of the being. Non-effort is what allows us to be in the Presence giving access to divine consciousness.
Theo. – Jeanne has mentioned ‘fana’, extinguishing, in the Sufi Way. Can you elaborate?
The Elder – It is very simple: whenever God is present, it means that I am not there.
But I’ll have you meet a dear friend of mine and he will tell you about his Way, just as Jeanne has done previously.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation