Source Text
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.
AI Summary
Illuminating the Shadow by Moineddin Jablonski and Neil Douglas-Klotz presents key insights from the Sufism tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.