The Anguish and the Ecstasy are One!

The Sufi approach—similarly to the Kashmir Shaivite sages, and even the classic Advaitans, like Shankara—fascinatingly taught a double path, and that path is the path of simultaneous bhakti and gyana—the devotion to God and the realization of God as the Self—but a realization that comes through, first, the feeling of one’s love for God, a love that allows one to let go of everything human and phenomenal as worthless, and leave it behind easily because the glory of God’s Presence is so great, you wouldn’t want to divert your attention anywhere else, but also feeling God’s love for the individual. And it’s this stereophonic love that we offer to God, and we receive from God, that creates a unified current of energy that becomes so powerful it cannot be broken, just as Sri Ramana often says gyana and bhakti are one, but Ramana emphasizes Atma Vichara, whereas the Sufi path is a path of surrender. And then, through the annihilation of the one who is surrendering, that realization of Paramatman, Allah, becomes complete and full, and all that remains.

But the love, the love must be authentic and genuine, and must be so powerful that it overrides all other concerns, all other values, all other desires, and enables the attention to focus on the Presence of God within, at such a deep level that one is touched by the ecstatic power of that Presence that is undeniable. And it’s no longer a matter of faith, it’s no longer a matter of belief, it’s no longer a matter of hope and of separation that seems endless—but a union that has always been there, and that has only been forgotten temporarily, and once remembered again can never be forgotten.

This is the state we must be in now. And so Abu Saeed is, I think, a perfect teacher for this moment. The name of the book which comes from one of his poems is Nobody, Son of Nobody, which I think expresses in a nutshell the whole message, because that’s everyone’s name, and everyone is without body, and we are children of the bodyless infinite Self.

These were translated by the same man, Vraje Abramian, who translated The Soul and a Loaf of Bread and many other Sufi mystics. So I’ll read a few tonight, and probably during the month I will read a few more while you’re reading it, and try to help you go as deeply as possible into each one, which I recommend you read a number of times, and read the whole book two or three times, because you will get much deeper significance from these apparently very simple poems each time that you contemplate them. And some of them, you may think when you read it the first time, “Well, this isn’t right”, or “It’s not quite an accurate description of this inner state”, but if you really stay with an open heart and mind, with that as a koan, you will recognize that there’s a deeper paradox that is being pointed to that will enable you to unlock some aspect of your consciousness that has not recognized that underneath the conscious level of your state, there’s an unconscious controller, if you will, that is trying to suppress the awareness of this internal contradiction so that you cannot penetrate below it. And when you do, you find infinite depths of wisdom that were hidden but always present.

So the poem that the title was taken from:

“Under this cloak,” meaning the body, “under this cloak is nothing but God. Introduce me as nobody, son of nobody. Remember to seek the Beloved without the aid of reasoning. One’s own intellect cannot be used to comprehend that of one’s Creator.”

This is why the mind must be silenced, because our human level thoughts are the veil that separate us from the Godself.

The introduction has some stories, including a story of a devotee who is treated in a way you’ll be very glad you’re not being treated, but turns out to be effective. I don’t think that was his general approach to teaching, but it’s one that reveals the depth of sincerity and determination that we must have on this path. So I’ll read a few, and interestingly, they do tend to become more advanced and more subtle as the book proceeds; even though once you get to those, you’ll go back and see the same depth in all of them.

So it begins at the level of prayer to someone who is in that mode of still approaching Allah as an other, and is still resisting with the ego-mind.

“If you are in prayers in Mecca but your heart is elsewhere, you might as well be in an idol worshiper’s temple. If your heart is with the Beloved you can spend your life in his wine shop and be merry.”

So there’s no need of austere practices and all of that once the love has been ignited and the flame is fully lit, then everything happens effortlessly, and you become drunken with divine love.

“Though burning has become an old habit for this heart I dare not think of your company. What would a moth mean to the fire that burns worlds?”

We are about to meet the fire that burns worlds very directly, when this world burns so that a new world can flourish. But realize the humility of recognizing that each of us is a tiny, fractal fragment of the infinite Self. And with total humility and reverence we must approach God, and not be too quick to think God is the Self, because then the ego will aggrandize itself, appropriate that signifier, and never reach the Real Self.

“Beloved, show me the way out of this prison. Make me needless of both worlds. Pray erase from this mind all that is not you. Have mercy, Beloved, though I am nothing but forgetfulness. You are the essence of forgiveness. Make me needless of all but you.”

So some of these are advice and dharma, some are prayers, and some are very personal revelations of points in the journey in which subtle errors are revealed as such, when before that they might have been perceived as virtues.

Here’s one where I think he shows his humorous side:

“Nothing but burning sobs and tears tonight. No way out and no patience left. Last night our hearts had a moment together, I suppose this is how I have to pay for it.”

And I’m sure we’ve all been through that, because the ego will backlash as soon as you have a moment of joy of the feeling of God’s Presence, then the ego will try to break it. And therefore he says in the next one:

“Do not seek stability here. Seek no rewards. You’ll be here a day or five. Seek to break no heart.”

That’s the dharma. We’re here to heal hearts, not to break them, but it may require breaking egos.

People finding the value in these? I hope so.

“Detached you are, even from being. And this being is nothing but you, unmanifest. Yet the manifest is nought but your shadow. Moons, galaxies and worlds have drunk from this cup. But the cup bearer is nowhere to be seen.”

“The deeper your involvement here, the harsher your pain and suffering.”

Very important teaching.

“Donkeys with colorful ornaments and loud bells are being groomed for the heaviest loads!”

You don’t want the heaviest loads of karma to have to remove. I think the point is clear enough. I’ll just read a few more.

Audio File: The Anguish and the Ecstasy are One! – Audio File.mp3