Bowing Zikr

Title

En Bowing Zikr

Date

En Unknown

Decade

En Unknown

City, State

En Unknown

Location

En Unknown

Description

En "You can't transform yourself by trying to become better. You know it doesn't work. But by accepting your divinity instead of wallowing in guilt and self-denigration, now that's the moment of glory. And the consequence is, that's what one does when one says, 'La, after saying Illa, when one's prostrating, 'La, that's a moment of glorification, of glory. And it is followed by the third step which is, as soon as one has accepted one's divinity, one ensures the divine presence, one is the Divine Presence."

Topic(s)

En Personality

Religions

Service

Spiritual Journey

Zikr

Subtopic(s)

En Overcoming Obstacles|Transmuting Defects|Christianity|Judaism|Pledge|Knight

Type of event

En Retreat

Type of publication

En Recording

Media

En Audio

Transcript

Extent

En 0:55:26

Identifier

En 1087

File Format

En mp3

PDF

Language

En English

Digitizing Team

En Abad

TajAli Keith

Telema Hess

Author(s)

En Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Full Text

En I would like us today to go very deeply into a practice that has meant a lot to me--at one retreat, just doing this practice for 40 days. It is the second zikr, where one is kneeling and prostrating and then being lifted up or, well, lifting oneself up but really the feeling of being lifted up again. I wish I could describe the feeling of being closed in a cave or in a cell, away from people and away from noise and away from any kind of distraction, and be able to find this inner space I'm talking about. I'm sure that some of you have had some feeling about this inner space, but ... maybe one could say that there are different depths to this space. One can be more deeply implicated.

And I think the key to this, of course, is that word "surrender" which I know that we rebel against--I rebel against it too--never surrender, never again. But if one probes this more deeply, one will see that it is a further advance on what we have done in seeking for freedom. It is really, of course, seeking for freedom, the ultimate freedom from what one calls the self--well, one might even say the lower self. Now, I see it this way: there are moments that one is faced with the inexorable--I might even say merciless--hand of destiny. Somebody has died and one's girlfriend or boyfriend has left one; one is faced with an illness that is terminal. All that one has built up breaks down. There are those moments of crises in one's life where one ... well, it would be counterproductive to fight and yet there still is something to do. One might say, accept the unacceptable. Well, that is doing something, that is, finding acceptance, overcoming something in oneself that refuses to surrender.

But I see a further application of this: for example, one may entertain an opinion and then find oneself faced with an opinion that tends to unmask the limitation in one's own opinion. So that's where the mind surrenders its opinion for a greater opinion that is more convincing than one's own opinion. The ultimate, of course, is a struggle with ourselves when there are aspects of our being that we do not like, and we don't know how to change that situation. We are judgmental of other people, we're judgmental of ourselves. And there is a point when one would desperately like to get rid of those aspects of oneself that one does not like. And yet those are part of one's being. And, of course, psychologists are talking about accepting oneself. And that means, of course, accepting even those aspects of oneself that one would call one's shadow. But I think there's something more positive still. And that is placing literally, one's defects--that sounds judgmental--placing one's defects at the service of one's ideal.

It's like, harnessing is the word that Murshid was using--to harness. And that is, of course, what one is experiencing when one is doing the zikr, when one goes into that state of surrender. But surrender is only the negative aspect of a total thing, which includes surrender plus transformation. Well, to come to the point, I think the key to this is to be found in that pioneer song that has become popular these days, "I lay me down, like a bridge over troubled waters," so that the silver queen ... so that my silver queen may reach her destination. That silver queen is THE silver. And the rather similar stories to be found in the Mahabharata, in India, where Sita, who's the Queen, of course, of Rama, and represents his soul, his better half, is taken away by Ravana, the king of the monkeys. And Rama is in search of his queen and the only way he can find her is to cross water, which represents the abyss of the unconscious, and he has to build a bridge. And he builds that bridge out of the monkeys; he gets the monkeys to build the bridge. Now the monkeys represent, of course, his lower nature, which now serves as a bridge for him to attain his higher nature. So what I'm saying is that those defects that we dislike may be turned towards a positive end.

Now, one might even say that when the monkeys are being marshaled into forming a bridge, one is really calling upon their highest potentials, which is sacrifice. Sacrificing themselves for a cause, dedication, serviceability.

When we do this practice we, of course, do not have much time to reflect upon our personal problems. And as I've already said, our minds ... our ability to figure things out in our minds will not be able to cope with meaningfulness and, therefore, it's just as well that we bypass our minds by this practice. One isn't using one's mind. It will only go on into circles, into vicious circles that one says is introspection. Now, it's here one is bypassing the mind, and really experiencing being a bridge. And when you bow, prostrate, your body forms a bridge, with your head on the ground and your knees on the ground and your behind on your feet. So, one is really like a bridge. As you know, that is the attitude of the Muslim during prayers.

And the curious thing is that it is a source of great strength. When one learns how to surrender, one becomes invested with divine power, which one does not do when one has alienated oneself from, let's say, the foundation of one's being, in one's own personal vantage point.

The Buddhists do that. But then they bow and they're right, absolutely flat on the ground, spread-eagled, as one says, with their arms, although their arms are forward. I've seen them do it in Bodhgaya, thousands and thousands of times throughout the night. The nuns and monks do this practice of total surrender in the early morning, in some orders, and it is also the ritual for initiation, ordination. Of course, in the mind of the Sufis the zikr is a reiteration of the promise that one made in pre-eternity, that is--I'm quoting the Quran--"when the bodies of men were still in the loins of Adam." What it means is, when we were still a potentiality and not yet individuated. So that represents a kind of initial state where one established a bond, a pledge by a bond of what one calls suzerainty, kind of like the feudal knights. It's a pledge of service. Well, the pledge of service is also linked with a promise to affirm the sovereignty of one's overlord. That's the only thing that ... divine sovereignty--the orderliness let's say, of the universe--can be ensured if every being participating in this sovereignty assumes some degree of freedom but limits that freedom in the interest of the whole; and therefore those that are pledged to affirm the overall sovereignty, one finds one's area of freedom within this overall orderliness, let's say. So it's like an alignment, like one aligns the wheels of one's car. So that practice is ... I can't say what an extraordinary effect it has upon one to reestablish one's connection, let's say, with the sovereignty of God in the universe. One is like a knight. And that is the real meaning of the zikr. One is reiterating a promise that one made in pre-eternity by reaffirming, re-establishing the connection. At least it documents that.

And the consequence is what one calls nowadays a rebirth or rebirthing. Because as I often say, of course, being caught up in one's personal self-image will hold back one's unfoldment. But now, in this case, one has placed it at the service of something greater than one's own purpose. And you know that it is, rather ... let us say, not fulfilling just to pursue one's own interest in life. One is never so great as when one is serving a greater purpose than one's own. We all have a need, as a matter of fact, as soon as one is a little bit sensitive, one has a need to serve a purpose beyond one's own purpose or one does not feel fulfilled. One has to find one's place in the universe. And therefore, as I say, you find some kind of alignment or connection, connect up with the whole purpose of the universe. And so after bowing, as I said, one thinks one is lifting oneself up, but in fact ... there’s a custom in the East where, when one pays homage to a Murshid, one bows to the feet of the -- I'm talking about the grave of the Murshid -- one bows to the feet of the grave. And then the Khadim, who is a sort of watchman of the grave, lifts one's body back up again. One isn't supposed to lift oneself, you see. That's the whole idea that, having surrendered, a greater power than one's own power takes over. And at that moment, there's a whole shift in one's being; there's a sudden breakthrough. One is reborn. And all that one does oneself is to glorify. But what the result is that one is reborn. One doesn't try to rebirth oneself or even to re-experience one's rebirth. One concentrates on the act of celebrating the cosmic celebration or participating in the cosmic celebration. Now, when you do that, each time, thousands of times a day, alternating between surrender and glorification, you're totally transformed, beyond recognition. It becomes part of your being, it becomes your second nature.

Now, when I was doing the practice, I did not give myself any break, except right at the end, the last few days, I was beginning to reflect on the significance of what I had been going through. But that is a very drastic retreat that I did. My retreats were all really very drastic. I wouldn't like to put you through that. I would say that after doing this several times, like 101 times, for example, then I would just sit there and think of its implications in your nature and like, think about those aspects of yourself that you don't like. And you know that you don't like them, well, the reason is, your dislike of them is corroborated by the fact that you'll notice people's aversion to it. People are the mirror by which you can see yourself: how people react to you, when you emphasize this particular quality; it is particularly interesting to see that intuitively you can feel how people have an aversion to it.

That's why we're not all as popular as we would like to be, because there are aspects of ourselves that alienate people from us, and we don't like it ourselves, but it's very difficult to see oneself as other people see one. But, as I said, even if one sees it, I mean, how does one get rid of it? Well, as I say, the only way is to place this idiosyncrasy at the service of something greater. For example, if one has a tendency to get angry, ... well, anger can be an outburst of righteous indignation, it can be right when one is faced with hypocrisy. And so it can strengthen one in one's honesty and truthfulness and it might even make people, you know, have to stop trying to manipulate one. That has its advantages.

And dishonesty in oneself may be due to the fact that one is not very self assured and one does not have the strength to overcome other people's wills so one is trying to manipulate them instead of facing them, or in some cases when one doesn't want to hurt people, it would be a strength to be able to, say, perform an operation which will be painful but which would be for the best of the person.

So, let's say, one could change dishonesty and to transform it into consideration or, let's say, tact. And so on. All those defects that one thinks one has, one must be careful because one tends to justify one's not having become what one would have liked to become on the grounds of one's defects. Well, first of all on the grounds of the circumstances and secondly on the grounds that one has these defects, instead of trying to either change these defects or, as I say, turn the tables on them--utilize them in a useful way.

But one must be very careful about being judgmental about oneself and being, let's say, mis-assessing by simply wallowing in guilt and blaming one for things that one need not blame oneself for. It's a kind of masochistic tendency that we have.

So, at the moment when we lift our heads in an act of glorification, there is no room for self-pity or self-denigration. Actually, in the act of glorification, one shifts into the consciousness of one's divine inheritance. Remember that dichotomy that Murshid talks about, between the divine perfection and human limitation? And we are both. As he says, we are human limitation and divine perfection at the same time. There's everything in us. And so, while we bow, maybe there is an awareness of the limitation that we impose upon the divine perfection in us. And then, as I say, we place that limitation at the service of that perfection and then, as we rise and glorify, the splendid potentials in our being break through.

Let's say, we are lifting Christ from His cross; we're relieving Christ of the weight of his cross--talking metaphorically. It's a great moment, a moment of glory.

They say of the Sufis, if one criticizes a work of art, one is causing pain to the artist. And so, if you criticize yourself, you are insulting the creator.

And we must remember the need for limitation within the divine perfection. The whole of nature is built on that principle. For example, a language would not be anything if every word meant everything. There has to be some constraint. There are constraints in the laws of physics, like certain energy levels that are forbidden for an electron. It has to pass from one allowable level to another. If they were not constrained, there would be no way in which multiplicity could come through. And the advantage is that each being is absolutely unique in his or her way, by this extraordinary combination of perfection and limitation.

If it weren't for the forbidden sequences of notes in a raga, the raga would not have its particular mood, its particular style. If you would just play any note, well, you wouldn't have any particular kind of feeling. The raga is a combination of certain permissible notes and certain notes that are not permissible.

If it weren't for the imperfections in an oboe, for example, the sound of an oboe or the sound of a cello then would not be as beautiful. So, this is part of that acceptance which we've been calling surrender. And so, you see, after bypassing the mind by doing the practice, one can stop and look at oneself in the light of what I've just been saying, and then one will see how the energy that one gains in the process of bowing or prostrating and of glorifying, and see how that actually takes over from one's mind, because you know that the one bugbear, the one thing that holds you back in your retreat is sitting back and figuring things out with the mind. Those are the moments when you do get lost in your retreat. And that's one of the reasons why during my first retreat, I did not give myself any chance of sitting back and reflecting. I would just go on with practice all the time. Now, I'm saying it's okay if you do it, providing that you are wary of slipping back into your personal thinking, figuring things out with the mind. As long as you do that, it's all right. But of course, there's a tendency to ... you see, because the energy that is accrued is going to change your way of thinking and keep you high. But of course, there's a natural sort of gravity pull, so that eventually one slips down into one's ordinary, let's say, rational thinking or logical thinking or whatever: reasonable thinking. Reason. And that is the moment when you start the practice again, to avoid the slipping back to where you were before. And the more you do the practice, the more you get carried beyond yourself. See, the whole idea is to be ... you see, we can't reach beyond ourselves. That's the whole idea, you see. And so the practice will carry you beyond yourself. You're unleashing forces, by doing the practice, that will carry you beyond yourself, which you couldn't do by trying to do it yourself. And how can I say, the Sufi point of view behind that is you cannot know God; it is God who knows Himself through you. Now, remember that because that is really the leit motif of our retreat: you cannot know God you cannot reach beyond yourself. The will --that is, the will that is trying to do it is itself limited. So how can it do it? You see now, the story of Pegasus is very helpful. Pegasus was able to hoist his rider, Bellerophon, up to a certain point. He was trying to reach the Olympus, but at a certain point, he wasn't able to lead him any further and Bellerophon had to continue the quest on his own steam. But it's true that Pegasus had given him a certain momentum. So it's just like the rocket that imprints a momentum to the spacecraft. That's what the will will do. It can help you up to a point, then it has outreached its capacity. And then, it is a switch in your self-image or notion of yourself that is going to flip things over and make it possible ... well, just make it possible. I don't want to say to reach our objective because then I'm contradicting myself.

And a consolation of this is, again, in the words of ... I think it's Abdullah Ansari, who said, "I searched for God, and all that I found was myself." And then he said, "I searched for myself, and I found God."

It's all this reversing of one's point of view. It's the complementarity of points of view. Like, what WE think is our knowledge of God, is the knowledge that God has of himself through us. That's always the other side. The permutation of terms, as one says, and that's the secret of the zikr. You cannot reach very far in the zikr as long as you are conscious of being the one who's doing the zikr. Now, one thinks, yes, well, then, I've got to go through fana, which means annihilation, but then, you can't annihilate yourself.

One has to allow the divine action to annihilate one. And annihilation is not the objective: annihilation is always compensated by rebirthing or being overwhelmed. So, it is the awe of the encounter with the [tape change] reach of the Divine Presence in one, as one, that shatters one's limitation. [?] It's, as I say, kind of an awe that was described by Al-Hallaj, when he says, “If you have just one whiff of the Divine understanding, your understanding is shattered.” So you can't shatter your understanding by your will. We did that a little bit tonight, in the beginning, if you remember. In the beginning of the retreat, I said, you realize that your thinking is limited by the self-image and personal vantage point. And so it is maya, and so one is trying to sort of free oneself from the limitation of one's thinking and one's sense of identity. That's where the will is--it starts working, like I said, it can reach a certain point, you can reach something with it. But the zikr goes much further, because, as I said, there's a point at which the will can't do anything more. And so, it is the discovery--it's not an experience--the discovery of the Divinity, not outside one's being, not other than one's being, the divinity of one's being that shatters one's sense of limitation.

So, it is not only accepting one's lower nature, but it accepting one's higher nature. By being judgmental about one's lower nature, one cannot believe in the beauty of one's being and fails to believe in the splendor that is one's real being. One gets caught in a bind and that can only happen if, instead of thinking of God is up there other than oneself, if one accepts that everything is the being of God and therefore one IS the being of God. And that's the meaning of the zikr. And that means accepting the divinity of one's being.

That's what Murshid calls "the greatest pride together with the greatest humility"; "the aristocracy of the soul together with democracy of the ego."

For those of you who have a very strong Christian background, of course, this practice is absolutely similar to the Kyrie Eleison of the Hesychast hermits. You know the Hesychasts were, originally, hermits who left the official church to live in caves. I think it started in St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai. There's a lovely place that has caves in the middle of this lovely stream of water. And some then went into the desert and they found that a lot of people were coming to visit them; then they left and .... [End side one.]

[Begin side two.] ... to the desert and even then, people found them in the desert sitting on ruins of pillars of temples in the hot sun in the daytime and in the freezing cold at night. They had been really burnt out by all the hair splitting theology of the church, whether Christ was divine or human or both. You know, the mind can't understand how, can't reconcile the irreconcilables: How could Christ be both divine and human. And people were even coming to grips and fighting because of the beliefs about it. And they simply had a need, as we have in our time, to experience instead of figuring things out with the mind. And so they would sit there and simply repeat, Kyrie Eleison, or then, Christe Eleison rather than Kyrie Eleison. Like a mantram and they would bow as they said Kyrie or Christe and, as they said Eleison, they would again rise.

The Jews also have something similar, practices bowing the head and lifting it up, and when one says Eleison, one is absolved--that's a word used, of course, in Christianity, absolved--from one's guilt, so that at that moment, there's a sense of the perfection of one's being, freed from limitation. And when one says kyrie, of course, one is conscious, one is aware of one's guilt. And of course, that means of one's limitations. Or there, again, you have this beautiful alternate between those two, and eventually, of course, integration between those two. And that comes in that word "theosis." Which is a word the Hesychasts used to mean the divinization: the being is divinized, is made holy by ... one thinks it is by attrition, but it is not only by attrition but also by accepting to be divinized, by accepting one's divinity. You remember the words of Murshid, when he said, "We all carry the divine inheritance." But if one is not aware of it, one cannot claim to be the Son of God, or the Daughter of God. If you don't know who your father is, you can't claim to be that person's son or daughter. But if one is aware of one's inheritance, one can see that one has the same idiosyncrasies as that man. And so one knows that one is the son of that man, or the daughter of that man, because one can recognize it, one can see those idiosyncrasies in oneself. And so that is accepting one's divinity and that's the moment one is really transformed. In fact, that is the secret of transformation. You can't transform yourself by trying to become better. You know it doesn't work. But by accepting your divinity instead of wallowing in guilt and self-denigration, now that's the moment of glory. And the consequence is, that's what one does when one says, 'La, after saying Illa, when one's prostrating, 'La, that's a moment of glorification, of glory. And it is followed by the third step which is, as soon as one has accepted one's divinity, one ensures the divine presence, one is the Divine Presence. You see there's a difference between manifesting, which takes place in qualities--one manifests the divine qualities--the difference between manifesting and BEING. Beyond qualities. One uses the word the "presence." One says, "that person has a great presence," and one doesn't mean that that person is powerful and compassionate and truthful. One is just talking about the PRESENCE, beyond all these qualities, and that's the meaning of Hu.

One has made God present.

And so then one has fulfilled the purpose of the whole creation, the divine nostalgia to be present in His manifestation.

And that's the moment when one says Hu and it's a moment of suspense, beyond time, because, you know, qualities unfold in time, but the presence is beyond all time. So, those of you who feel particularly attached to the Christian tradition, you can do exactly the same as all that I've been describing now by saying Kyrie Eleison, except that in the zikr we have three moments: Illa, 'llah, and then Hu. So, after saying Kyrie Eleison one should just observe a moment when one is experiencing the Divine Presence, irrespective of the Divinity. When one says "divinity," one means the divine qualities that one has inherited. What one inherits is qualities, of course, but that Divine Presence, one doesn't inherit the Divine Presence. One IS the Divine Presence.

And I think that the words for that are "I Am that I Am."

That doesn't speak about qualities. That speaks about the presence-- I Am that I Am.

Now, of course in the Jewish tradition it is Adonai Echod. First of all, Adonai Eloheinu, and then Adonai Echod. Adonai Eloheinu is speaking about the qualities and Adonai Echod speaks about the presence.

And before that, as you know, there's Shema Israel, well, Shema, listen. I would say that, that is the moment when one could prostrate.

One is surrendering when one is listening. One is not affirming one's will. One is passive.

God bless you.