With age, it leads to either wisdom or rigid dependence on habit, depending on how one handles the “neglected” aspects of life. The basic questions that the Buddha confronted—old age, illness, poverty, death—are multiplied by modern ones in our mixed, multi-cultural societies, such as violence, betrayal, relationship, divorce, gender relations, social justice and community.
On another level, Murshid S.A.M. had clearly acted as what Sufis call amalik, a master who can sometimes be kind, sometimes harsh, always acting in thenow.
Murshid Samuel Lewis writes in his paperMalikiyyat: “Those on the path of the Malik are not necessarily called upon to be outwardly polite in conventional ways…. This is confusing to others. The inner light operates according to the needs of the moment and not according to any philosophical principle.” This immediacy and presence, connected to love and guidance, caught the hearts of Murshid’s students. Yet when Moineddin acted in similar contradictory and unconventional ways, his fellow students sometimes found this difficult to accept.
I. Prologue: Meeting the Teacher– Murshid Samuel L. Lewis
Understand, friends, that all these beings are God-realized. The Trickster’s tricks are played by God, the Madzub’s mystic trance is God’s alone, the Master’s balance shows God awake on all planes. Indeed, the Master may use many means to bring us to balanced realization, but the Trickster and Madzub will transmit a certain drunkenness according to their predispositions. Tricksters and Madzubs are not primarily plugged into the human world; the Master is ever human.
Even Hazrat Inayat Khan shifted his shape occasionally. Look at the many portraits taken in states of attunement to the different messengers of God. The very contours of his face changed from picture to picture, to accommodate the potent rays emanating from the inner planes. This is shape-shifting of the highest order, for it demonstrates how The Only Being can display itself through the spectrum of human ideals. It suggests that all shape-shifting has its origin in the strength of one’s attunement to extraordinary reality levels.
Notice how Krishna’s play calls to mind the Christian scripture: “Naked you come into the world, and naked you go.”
What the stories mean is that we have feelings on the feminine side of emotional sensitivity, love and nurturance, and feelings on the masculine side of earnest will to achieve meaningful goals. We are to honor both sides, feminine and masculine, as the two halves of the psyche which, when united in sacred inner marriage, form the wholeness of wise love.
Hazrat Inayat Khan once asked a Madzub, “Are you a thief?” to test the truth of hismadzubiat. The Madzub replied, “Yes”— though he never pinched a penny in his life. Inayat’s question could as easily have been, “Are you a woman? a goldfinch? a terrorist?” The God-realized see themselves reflected in each and all. Sri Ramakrishna used to visit the quarter of the prostitutes in his city, and would entersamadhias he gazed at them: living embodiments of the Divine Mother Whom he worshipped. The prostitutes in turn would become transfigured for the duration of the saint’s rapture.
All these things and more are true, but rather than show a personality overwhelmed by the world of essence, they reveal a character committed, body and soul, to the improvement of human beings on the earth-plane.
Murshid described theAbdalas “one who is prepared to surrender his or her ego- state and preferred lifestyle in order to manifest the Will of God—not once, but from moment to moment.” This may explain why many, even his close disciples, became frustrated at his seeming inconsistency. The woman he called “Mother Divine,” lifelong friend Vocha Fiske, told us, “Outwardly your Murshid is like a great whirlwind, but inside he is pure peace.”
The Early Days of the Dances (Article 1975)
After the second ringing command, the circle is rapidly formed. The leader of the meeting is Murshid Samuel L. Lewis, a spiritual teacher in the Sufi tradition, who is introducing his audience of young seekers to the Dances of Universal Peace. In a few moments, Murshid formally opens the meeting, asking everyone to recite the Sufi Invocation: “Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty, the Only Being, United with all the Illuminated Souls who form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.” There is a short silence. “Now let’s repeat the Bismillah… Bismillah, er-Rahman, er-Rahim. We begin in the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate.” The Dancing begins. Throughout the evening the Names of God penetrate and fill the space, building an atmosphere of joy. The Dance arena becomes peaceful, bringing everyone out of the “realism” of surface life and into the reality of heart, through chanting God’s Names.
Starting in the spring of 1969, Murshid began getting less and less sleep at night due to the increasing activity of his visionary consciousness. As Murshid put it: “Allah (God) keeps me up at night so I can receive these visions of new Dances.” Often it would take two or three days before a Dance which Murshid had witnessed in vision would filter down to the mental realm, to be later translated into written instruction.
Murshid’s own words he gives the secret: “No dance is a Spiritual Dance because it is called that; it does not mean a certain form or technique, nor a ritual. What must remain is the sacred phrase; this, the sacred phrase, and not the form, is the foundation of development along this line.”
When Murshid returned to this country he visited “Miss Ruth” and said: “Srimati (Mother Divine), I have the answer to all the world’s problems.” “What is it?” she asked. “I’m going to teach little children how to Walk,” he replied. “You’ve got it, you’ve got it, you’ve got it!” exclaimed Miss Ruth. Murshid felt that basic rhythms should be introduced to children early in life, and that training in Walk could be part of every child’s upbringing, without any somber overtones. With this happily-applied training in Walk, it would be a matter of but another step and the Dance could unfold with full consciousness.
“The next step will be to establish Jewish and Christian Dances. We already have Mantric Dances, Dervish Dances and Mystery Dances. After that we will have Dances for all religions. And then we will begin to work on having Angelic Dances, Dances which will take you very high.”
So really every Dance can be an Angelic Dance, yet there are certain sacred phrases, certain movements of grace, which promote the utterly translucent Angelic moods hidden within us. But there may be even deeper experiences open to the Spiritual Dancer. Murshid has written in his poem “Suras of the New Age”: “When the Dervish whirls, the Angels tremble.” This shows that the Angels can become entrapped by a devotion which sees God as if through a window-glass, while the Dervish, or Sufi has, like Shiva or Krishna, become identical with God through dancingthe dance that illuminates and integrates all planes of our being, all aspects of our personality from the seen to the Unseen.
“THE WATCHER IS THE PRAYERFUL DEVOTEE, BUT THE DANCER BECOMES DIVINE.”
All these purposes of Spiritual Dancing are answered when we begin to feel the Divine Presence more and more as we dance.
Even then I didn’t have a clue as to the seriousness of our first error in upsetting Murshid’s schedule and robbing him of his invaluable time. And again I experienced the whole atmosphere suddenly change, only this time it was a change much like the ominous moment of stillness that precedes a tornado. Then, in front of everyone, Murshid singled me out and scolded me with such force and fire that it took six full months to rid myself of the impression of that reprimand—although Murshid dropped the subject in a split second. For the first time in my life I was struck by the direct wrath of a Master, a Master who until that moment had shown nothing but tenderness and loving-kindness. After the scolding, all Murshid said was, “I don’t like to be this way.” And he said it with all feeling and compassion. Then he went back into the kitchen and resumed cooking supper for those of us who were there. After supper he prepared himself spiritually for the Dharma Night meeting that was to follow.
Three Zen Anecdotes (Article 1987)
After explaining that certain actors in the Japanese Noh Drama are able to express sounds of eternity by concentrating deep in the throat center, Murshid S.A.M. added, “There are three types of statement a Zen master can make. One, true for the moment. Two, true for an entire cycle of time. And three, true for eternity. “None of these is more nor less true than any other.”
One-Quarter Leprechaun (Article 1987)
One particular night I kept noticing a tendency for Murshid to appear smaller than he was, and he was only five feet two inches in human guise. He struck me as being a leprechaun, one of the “little people” spoken of in the myths and fairy tales of cultures worldwide. I decided to ask him about it after the meeting. “Murshid, when you were talking tonight, I kept seeing you as a leprechaun. Are you part leprechaun?” I was totally serious. Murshid’s answer was so fast that I almost didn’t catch the words, flying more from the mischievous gleam in his eyes than from his lips. “One-quarter!” he winked, happy to share a glimpse of his treasure from the repository of faerie.
When Murshid S.A.M. was in the large ward at San Francisco General Hospital following his fall down the Mentorgarten stairs, a handful of mureeds went to see how he was doing. While there, Murshid’s long- time friend Joe Miller walked in and, displaying an assurance lacking in the mureeds, went directly to the bedside. “Hey, S.A.M., it’s your old pal Joe,” he whispered. “Huh, what!” Murshid reacted, opening his eyes indeterminately. “It’s your old pal Joe,” he repeated. All of a sudden Murshid reached out and grabbed Joe’s arm, yelling, “Take it!” Joe looked perplexed. “TAKE IT!” Murshid yelled again, raising his voice and tightening his grip on the arm. Joe acted more dumbfounded. “TAKE IT!!!” roared Murshid with finality, shaking Joe’s arm clear to the socket. “I’M TAKING IT, I’M TAKING IT!!!”Joe shouted back with equal vigor. The ultimatum had been answered. Murshid lay back and was silent.
Sometime in 1970 I was taking Murshid’s dictation in the Garden of Inayat office. The mailman came and delivered a junk-mail ad about a new best-seller calledYour Erogenous Zones. Murshid opened the envelope and skimmed over the ad, then he turned to me and said, “I can’t explain it, but my whole body is like one big erogenous zone.”
“But I want you all to know that at a certain point in your spiritual evolution you come to a place where you’re never lonely again. What do you think of that? Photo: Fatima Lassar
The Flavor of Murshid S.A.M.’s Transmission (Interview 1992)
The Sound:You have been the spiritual director of SIRS for over twenty years now. Based upon that experience, what essential qualities distinguish this order, and what directions do you see SIRS taking in the future?
Moineddin:
Does that sound extravagant? It isn’t really. The Sufi Invocation is our basic and primary teaching. We encourage a strong, vital and open approach to personal and spiritual wholeness. We are not afraid to be ourselves. We are daring in our quest to reach beyond ourselves. Presently we are learning the difficult lessons of love in the schoolhouse of Earth, but truly we are citizens of the starry Cosmos… What can I say? Our Sufi initiation and practice unite us as sisters and brothers on the spiritual path. We’re a family. We love. We fight. We’re eclectic. We’re open. We’re innovative. We’re a lot of things the more orthodox Sufi schools say we shouldn’t be. God bless them, but we are who we are. As to the future, we will continue to eat, dance and pray with the peoples of the world—and with each other—as the simplest and best means to unify hearts and create peace.
He explained, “I have the knowledge of more than one path, actually several. I’ve been waiting to see which path I should use with the young people beginning to come to me. They seem to be interested in love, real love, so I think the Sufi approach would be best. The Sufis I have met are very big on love, generally bigger than the Zen people—who are very fine in their way—but the love-realization of the Sufis has touched me deepest.”
said, “I believe in the United Nations of the stomach.” He delighted in poking fun at long-faced (and usually long-winded) religionists. “Give us Allah in Heaven, and Baskin-Robbins on Earth,” he quipped. “We celebrate the feasts of all religions, and the fasts of none!” Murshid also loved to cook for his disciples. He knew he had thebarakathat comes with spiritual mastery, and he put it in everything he cooked.
We have been truly blessed to have so many friends, all of whom have shared their love and enlightened perspectives with us over the years. Many of us owe our very sanity to the humor and guidance of these friends during our times of personal
failure and group conflict.
But the “flavor” I liked most about Murshid was his ability to integrate—with lightning immediacy and total love—the spiritual and the commonplace in his own personality.
The Sound:Do you sense the presence of thesilsilaas an active source of guidance in your work? Moineddin: Since some of the readers may not be familiar with the term silsila, let’s begin with Murshid S.A.M.’s definition. He writes, “The Hierarchical Chain, known as theSilsila Sufian, is a linkage of realized personalities whose teachings reflect the age in which they have lived and functioned. There are many such Chains, each associated with a particular Sufi order.” In other words, asilsilais a formal lineage of spiritual successors to the Prophet Muhammad. Sufis invoke their silsilas to honor the hard-won illumination of their direct spiritual ancestors, and to open themselves to the transforming baraka that flows as an inner current of God-realization through the Chain.
Moineddin: Joe Miller, who was an honorary Murshid in SIRS, put it this way: “Sometimes there’s not much difference between a Sheikh and a jerk!” It sounds like a joke. But it is also a challenge to each one of us to keep working on thekoanof personal integrity.
Every initiator in the Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society is supposed to have some kind of experience in God-realization. But what is God-realization if it doesn’t reach right down into our lower chakras and show us, after the ecstasy of union has gone, ever-new layers of painful unfinished business waiting to be compassionately embraced and worked with?
We see the spiritual aspect of Sufi practice in the filmSunseedwhen Amertat Cohn (off camera) asks Murshid: “What do you want to do before you die?” Murshid: “Before I die? (laughter) It’s awkward when one has contact with immortality direct…. I want to see two or three of my disciples reach a stage of spiritual realization. Then I can die in peace.” Amertat: “What would it be that would show you that some of your disciples had attained—“ Murshid: “I would see the light shining out through them. Actually shining. Not verbal, but manifestable. ‘Let thy light so shine before men (and women and children) that they would know thy good works, and glorify the Father (Mother) which is in Heaven.’”
I would like to finish this question by saying that we are indeed entering a new era of humanity, a time of massive inner and outer change and growth. Earth
herself is giving birth to what she must become. Upheaval—personal, societal, and geologic—are the labor and birth pangs which will create greater consciousness of spiritual reality for all. As each one of us is moved into Soul-consciousness, and we are being so moved, we will select our own modes of spiritual realization. What we now know as “Sufism” will become vastly expanded and transformed. It will be like the reported meeting of Inayat Khan and Nyogen Senzaki. They enteredsamadhitogether, “and Sufism and Zen became like yesterday’s dream.”
The Sound:The Quran uses the termdhikrperhaps several hundred times, and to the Sufi, it is the central practice—in fact, all practice can be seen as dhikr. What does this term, which translates as “remembrance,” imply to you? Moineddin: There are many varied interpretations and unique applications of the sacred phrase known variously asdhikr,zikr,zikar, etc. For instance, Inayat Khan callsLa Ellah Ha, El Allah Hoo“the first Zikar” (his spellings). By “the first Zikar” he means the entire phrase, plus the seed phrasesEl Allah Hoo; Allah Hoo;andHoo. These four phrases are given to mureeds one at a time over months and sometimes years, until only the soundHoo, the Essence, remains. The purpose of “the first Zikar’’ is to bring mureeds by stages to the realization of Allah as pure and formless Spiritual Essence, which the Hindus callSat-Chit-Ananda. This is the movement that Pir Vilayat calls “the dismantling of consciousness into the Absolute.” Until one has lost oneself in the absolute Being of Allah, one is not truly prepared to go on to “the second Zikar,” “the third Zikar” and so on, which involve incarnating the Divine Qualities. The first Zikar ends with spiritual realization. The Zikars that follow begin with it. In this way, Muhammad’s practice of self-realization has become the ideal for Sufis everywhere.
Did I mention that zikr is the cry of the Lover to the Beloved?
A Bodhisattva, in my opinion, is united with the Beloved even while on Earth. The departure from the physical plane is simply the removal of an outer cloak worn to protect one from the elements. Murshid S.A.M. said, “I’m too busy to go intosamadhianymore.” I don’t fancy he is any less busy working in the inner planes, probably quite the opposite. And yet the day Murshid died in Chinese Hospital on Jackson Street, it was special. On the grossest level, Saul (upon instructions from Joe Miller) literally threatened to kick me in the butt with his heavy engineer’s boot if I didn’t snap out of my state of shock. This proved to be a great blessing, as it moved me immediately into the practice of fikr [zikr on the breath] from which I was able to coordinate the movement of people in and out of the room where Murshid lay in state. On a more subtle level, the living radiance emanating from Murshid’s “lifeless body” (ha ha!) created an atmosphere of silence and peace that deeply affected all who entered the room.
II. Continuing a Sufi Transmission
Unshaken faith? Unbroken hope? What man or woman can say these things? These are divine words uttered by the God within. With our heads raised to heaven, and our feet firmly on the earth, we shall learn to walk the heavens and to perceive the inner condition of earth. Complainers are crushed beneath the weight of life’s crosses. But with all trust placed in the Father who hath known us even before we became known, we shall walk gently from cross and thorn to crown and bloom, from divine limitation to divine perfection.
Suleiman Dede responded by placing his hand over his heart and saying a few of the Ninety-Nine Names of Allah. He then led us into the chapel and we all sat down and sang songs for about an hour, interspersed by short addresses from Reshad. It proceeded to get very high, flash bulbs were popping off all over the place, and Shabda led us on into ecstasy through more singing. Then Suleiman asked specially that the women sing a song by themselves.
The faces of so many present began to bloom like flowers in the light of the Sheikh’s devotion to Allah.
Remembering Our Origins (Article 1976)
Too often we tend to regard our pasts as unworthy, and this leads to guilt-complexes. On the one hand we come to terms with our state of relative unworthiness, or coarseness, or limitation, and this propels us to seek a higher way. On the other hand, it is easy to go overboard in hating the past, or worse, condemning the image of ourselves in the past. It would be much better to find a bit of humor in the situation, for the light of humor can clear away many dark clouds. Or, as our friend Joe Miller puts it, “Without a sense of humor, there is no end to the abyss of idiocy into which we can sink!”
And many was the time I witnessed Murshid telling one young lady disciple or another, “If you keep on bemoaning your past, I’m going to fix you. I’ll take you to meet a girl who really has a hard past, and make you listen to her story! Now, what do you think of that?” So, dear friends, let us remember how fortunate we are to have discovered the path to the living God. For the Spirit of Guidance—even if it manifests humorously or without social grace—has chosen us for its testing-ground. It is all to get us to see the put-on of our “lesser nakedness” for what it is, and to help us attain the “greater nakedness” spoken of by Job.
The man who tried to harmonize with all Sufi Orders, never calling himself Pir-o-Murshid, often did refer to his work as anAbdal, a helper in the spiritual hierarchy of illuminated souls, which is several grades higher than that of Pir. He said, “AnAbdalhas to manifest continually whatever lesson must be learned in the immediate moment, and thus seems to be possessed of a constantly changing personality.” Many of the lessons we must learn are hard lessons, and many we make hard. Some others may be easier to master, and our own ease makes them so. But all of our lessons, and we are here only to learn them, are given out from the Book of Love authored by the Hand of God.
Shards of a Broken Vessel (1977) (Editor’s note: The following aphorisms were published in the October 1977 issue ofThe Message,the magazine of the Sufi Order in the West, shortly before the formal separation of the Ruhaniat from it. Taken together, we might consider them Moineddin’s articulation of what he felt to be his spiritual work during his first ten years as director of the Ruhaniat.)
God will test those who desire His nearness, with the fires of distance. The 99 Names are the food and drink of the lovers of Allah. The real crucifixion is separation from the Beloved. Lover of truth is he who truly loves. What appears to be sadness, may be the extremest joy. Respect is more difficult to learn than love. If Murshid does not like to think about my shortcomings, then I will not dwell on them. The breath is enough, the heart is enough, the eye is enough, the atmosphere is enough. The spiritual seeker must break free of the gravity-pull of mass culture. Stability attracts. To expect a movie star to play Jesus Christ, is like asking a five-year-old to play a romantic lead; it is not part of the experience of either to do so. A fish slaps upon the dry ground; my heart yearns for His Ocean. A grain of irritation is lodged in the heart of man; if he will give thanks, a pearl will form. Description is a window; example is an open door.
The spiritual practices (ryazat) that a murshid gives to a mureed shortly after the initialbayatare beyond earthly valuation. They are a sacred trust given by Allah through the Spirit of Guidance. The positive or negative attitude of mureeds toward their practices can turn them either to gold, or to clay. The treasure is ours if we will seek, and dig deep. And when we discover the treasure, verily webecomethe treasure.
Silsila Sufian (1977)
According to Hazrat Inayat Khan’s “The Unity of Religious Ideals,” the Spiritual Hierarchy is as real or more real than creation itself. The hierarchical chain, known as thesilsila sufian, is a linkage of realized personalities whose teachings reflect the age in which they have lived and functioned. There are many such chains, each associated with a particular Sufi order.
Initiation (Article 1977)
Having lived with Murshid Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti in his khankah, the Garden of Inayat, for three years until his death on January 15, 1971, one can affirm that he endeavored every moment of his life to fulfill the responsibilities placed on his shoulders by his first Sufi teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan.
As this denial left us no choice—except the choice of either dying out or becoming a class of subordinates—we chose to stand upon the spiritual principles taught to us, through the grace of Allah, by our beloved Murshid. We deeply feel that hisbarakaand living spirit are with us in our endeavors.
It takes the ability to carry burdens and pains within the universe of one’s heart— not sentimentality—but strength and willingness and knowledge of how to fulfill the Biblical injunction: “In Allah’s presence there is no darkness at all.” Even partial awakening on the part of a counselor may prove to be worse than no awakening at all. Because one with partial awakening may become so excited about the little flash they have received that they make a mountain out of a molehill, as it were. It is most important to consider these matters to their fullest extent before assuming the right and qualification to proceed where even the Messengers of God have permitted life to provide the needed lessons for people, rather than to assume that they could do it of and by themselves. “Faith (Iman) and self-confidence are one.” (Hazrat Inayat Khan)
So, yes, external, internal. In a way they come to a unity. As the Mahayana Buddhists say, “Nirvanaandsamsaraare one.” This would be what the Hindus call sahaja samadhi, the natural state. Or as the Sufi poet said: “Only God I saw.”
So, there is the effort side, which is called sadhana, spiritual struggle, and perhaps there is a season for it. I would say there is. Yet I think perfected souls such as Muhammad have given the example that there is always the need to purify one’s being more, and even in the midst of spiritual realization, there is always more to be realized. This to me has been an example for Sufis throughout the ages, in the sense that they feel like fulfilling theGate Gatemantra: “Going, going, going beyond, going beyond gone, constantly becoming Buddha.” In other words, keep the balance of your life on earth as much as possible, but at the same time sacrifice as much as you can in order that you may become less concerned with the affairs of the limited self and more concerned with the affairs of the unlimited reality. The more you are able to master the affairs of limitation, the more the affairs of the unlimited can permeate the limited affairs. And this makes one more capable of appreciating the natural state.
La Ilaha—means nothing exists Illallah—but Allah.
Hazrat Inayat Khan correlated and systematized the teachings
These are real disciples whose hearts are tender, whose inner faculties are already well advanced at an early age. They would unite with the whole humanity through wisdom and love, yet who also need tremendous care while they grow and mature to completion and even perfection,inshallah.
It takes specific mystical practices, with wholehearted application on the part of the disciple and wholehearted empathy on the part of the teacher, to rise above the ceiling of the mind-mesh, to overcome once and for all the hold of what the Buddhists call samskaras.
The Indian sari, for instance, has been worn for untold centuries and even today represents a kind of beauty rarely seen in the West.
TASAWWUF: These two types of mentation are calledjemalandjelalby Sufis. Thejemaltemperament is imaginative, and thejelaltemperament is directive, powerful.
The dream-world is much more volatile and often less “logical.” All states of mind belong more or less tosamsara, except for that state which has become quiescent in nafs alima. This state is calledamalby Sufis, andsamadhiby Yogis.
TASAWWUF: There are many ways by which a Sufi perceives the condition of another’s mind. The prerequisite is always that one’s own being be clarified of any blemish, that one be clear like a polished mirror. Then one may operate through a first impression, through intuition, through a knowledge of the elements and their colors and notes. In the case of very advanced souls, one may operate through what is calledshahud—or direct and deep sight. The generic term for all these methods is calledkashf, or insight. Development of the refined breath and constant vigilance to keep the heart clear of self-thought help more than anything else to develop these faculties of perception.
TASAWWUF: The key here is in the phrase “something one loves or likes.” For Sufis are certain of their ultimate return to the bosom of Allah, and they realize that this return is their greatest yearning, their noblest love.