Quick-Start Guide NINETY-NINE PATHWAYS OF THE HEART FOR THE MODERN DERVISH
Don’t worry about “getting the point.” The Sufi teaching stories scattered throughout the book work on many different levels. The obvious meaning or moral shows only the surface level. The rest of the story works “below ground,” so to speak, in your subconscious. If you get a chuckle or even a “humph!” from a story, it’s probably having its effect.
Browse consciously. Read the preface, “Setting Out on the Journey.” Then take some time each day, perhaps before bed, to familiarize yourself with some of the pathways.
Forage. When confronted by a situation in life in which you would like some guidance, take a breath or two with your hand placed lightly over your heart to calm yourself, then open the book at random, as you would an oracle. This may be the best way for the new user to experience the pathways.
Hunt. Perhaps you are consciously working on an issue in your life or psyche, or supporting other inner work such as counseling or psychotherapy. Check the table of contents or index for a topic that seems relevant and, still breathing in the heart, find what you need.
Read this book. After you have done all of the above for a while, begin to read the book from the beginning to the end. Take a break and put the book aside occasionally, so you don’t get indigestion from meeting too many different facets of yourself. Just as wine tasters need to frequently clear their palates, you may need space from tasting the wines of your soul. To help you create this space, you will find several unnumbered chapters titled “Bathing in Unity” interspersed throughout the book. Use these to dive into the pure ocean of the Beloved before looking down another pathway.
Your heart is the browser. The pathways are the search engine. The universe is the real Internet. And there are many addresses to the Beloved, whose server is always online.
The word dervish means one who sits in the doorway, or on the threshold of something, ready to move on and transform him- or herself.
We Sufis are itinerant and like our freedom, which is probably also why we usually agree to disagree.
Sufism is, first of all, a series of “not’s”—not a religion, not a philosophy, not even a mysticism, as that word is usually conceived. It’s best to call Sufism a way of experiencing reality as love itself.
Given such a slippery definition, is it possible to talk about any kind of “pure Sufism” today? A person with common sense would say no, but this has not stopped scholars and Sufis themselves from attempting to answer this question.
In a deeper sense, it illustrates a way of approaching life in order to discover fully who we are, as completely human beings.
You need only one pathway, if you relentlessly follow it to its source.
In the Sufi tradition, as we move toward becoming fully human, we revive an inner ecology and diversity of spirit. We feel and understand more in life because we can recognize it as a part of our own soul. Both freedom and joy come with being at home in the heart, a heart that we gradually discover to be much wider than we thought. The various pathways may seem to contradict each other (just like life). They are not neatly organized and proportional (just like life). They do work, at least in my experience.
On its surface, this book appears to fit into the “how-to,” self-improvement genre, a format that mirrors Western culture’s desire to receive things quickly and easily. We might bemoan this tendency as counterproductive to a spiritual life: What is easy is not necessarily better, and responding quickly often does not leave much time for reflection or feeling. Most self-help books want only to reconfirm what we already know. They aim for an “uh-huh,” not an “aha!” I would call this self-hypnosis rather than self-help. This book attempts to subvert the simplistic side of the self-help genre by building in various Sufi features, including randomness, paradox, and spiritual practice.
The Sufi guide is more a cross between a companion, therapist, and trickster than an almighty guru, and Rumi once said that ultimately the real pir (senior spiritual director) is Love itself.
The classical Sufi tradition contains a very strong emphasis on the divine unity of all life (called tawhid). In this view, shared by Rumi, Ibn Arabi, and many others (and justified by a reading of the Qur’an itself), the whole creation came into existence to express the unlimited, sacred qualities through all beings. In particular, God created the human being as a mirror capable of holding and expressing the totality of the divine reflection, including the whole consciousness of nature and the universe.
Similarly, modern 12-step programs propose that we do not really feel the impetus to change until life becomes unmanageable, and we decide to let go and try another way.
We can best see the nafs (a term consistent with the old Hebrew nephesh and Jesus’ Aramaic naphsha) as a fluid soul-self. This includes what modern psychology calls the “subconscious.”
These “basic selves” are here to be transformed, to realize their unity of “one to the One.” In my experience, the practices of the pathways of the heart, when approached with devotion, can radically transform one’s subconscious reality.
The main difference between these translations and previous ones is that they presume that the names describe living spiritual experiences rather than simply metaphysical categories of a thought-form called “God.”
Kabbalists and Sufis throughout the ages have used various pronunciations (and, some would say, mispronunciations) of sacred sounds in order to receive the richness of feeling-meaning in each letter. One sees this even in the construction in the Qur’an of “twin qualities,” like Ma’jid and Ma‘jid, or Wa’li and Wa‘li, which vary in meaning according to their pronunciation. If you first center in the heart with a feeling of devotion, the correct rhythm and pronunciation will reveal themselves to you.
Calling a Circle of Your Inner Self Some of the meditations recommend using a “round table” model of work with one’s inner self. When working in this way, one seeks to figuratively invite and gather all aspects of one’s inner being together and integrate them in the heart. Presiding over such sessions is your “highest guidance” (or high self), which is called in Sufi terminology the ruh. You can see this as the voice of your intuition, which is linked to your unique purpose in life.
Holy Wisdom builds an “I,” an awareness of self each moment. This gathering is also the way in which the various inner selves (the nafs) are born. All these feelings and impressions are really part of the only “I Am,” Sacred Unity, but we can, and do, forget this connection. Learning the “wild and scenic” territory of one’s own nafs is part of the Sufi path.
In Sufi work, the divine Beloved is the Reality in which all events take place. Nothing is outside or excluded.
Unlike some other traditions, Sufism cannot be made scientific, rational, or secular to fit modern tastes. In order to discover deep love, the kind that Sufis have expressed in poetry, one must be willing to love.
Setting Out on the Journey
Each decision to love, to pursue something passionately, means a step into the unknown.
The Sufis often begin something new by breathing the Arabic word bismillah, which can be translated poetically:
We begin by remembering the sound and feeling of the One Being, the wellspring of love. We affirm that the next thing we experience shimmers with the light of the whole universe.
If we look at the world this way, then the reason we exist—and the reason to begin any journey—is to bring out our full humanity, the unique flavor that we alone can offer to the universe’s still-cooking stew. According to the twelfth-century Sufi poet Saadi: Every being is born for a certain purpose, and the light of that purpose is kindled in its soul.
To the Sufi, each of these pathways is really like an e-mail address of the Beloved, which all go to the same in-box. Of course, the feelings, names, and qualities of the Sacred are really limitless. But finding ourselves capable of a hundred or so different feelings and responses to life is a good start toward self-knowledge and, ultimately, greater joy and fulfillment.
0. The Yes and No of Existence
When you are guided to this pathway of the heart, take a moment to reflect on the quality in you that unites all qualities, that joins the yes and no of your being.
Knowing our own true yes and no is part of being fully human.
These names use the root word AL (or EL), meaning the sacred Something, the ultimate Yes, coupled with the root LA (or LO), meaning the sacred Nothing, the ultimate No.
Yes and no, existence and nonexistence, are built into the cells of our bodies. So if we can dive deeply enough into the heart, we will find the place where the two need not split us in two.
Yet the Qur’an says that the divine created all these qualities, capabilities, and feelings within us before we were born, at the very beginning of the cosmos, when it held us in its heart as part of the divine image reflected in the first human being. We can explore the divine wealth within us for our whole lives and still not exhaust the treasure hidden there.
As one Sufi writer commented, “Allah” is really not “God”; that is, Allah points to a being that is beyond humanly constructed images, ideals, and names. It (not the name) is the ground of Reality, the Only Being.
1. The Sun of Love
“THE SUN SHINES ON the just and on the unjust,” according to a saying of Jesus. The Sufi alchemists cultivated an ability to radiate love wholeheartedly, unconditionally, from the deepest part of themselves.
This creative love and energy shine naturally from the deepest place inside us. We don’t need to try. Each time we feel it, it’s like giving birth to a new sense of ourselves.
Just as we are held within our mother’s womb until the time is right for us to be born, we can think of our own limitations as a new self waiting to be born.
Eastern Semitic root RHM, which points to a raying forth (Ra) from a deep, dense interiority (HM).
2. The Moon of Love
No matter how much is coming our way, if our cup is too small, it will overflow before the deepest part of our being feels anything. The Sufis have practices for developing a spacious container inside for thoughts, feelings, and sensations. What we can truly hold, we can also release. As the fourteenth-century Sufi Hafiz says: The sun is the wine, the moon is the cup. Pour the sun into the moon if you want to be filled. Drinking such wine could be good or bad— why not drink anyway!
When the sun is poured into the moon, deep joy happens. No one outside of ourselves can give us this joy. They can only remind us that we are already the wine, the cup, and the ecstasy.
We are so busy looking at how much we’re getting right now that we don’t notice how we’ve used what we’ve already received. In such a frame of mind, more is never enough—whether it’s love, knowledge, or wealth—because our bucket has no bottom.
This pathway reminds us that all new birth, including the birth of deep love, includes giving and receiving, pushing and letting go, radiating and reflecting.
According to the Prophet Muhammad, Rahman expresses the divine love we see in the constant creation and re-creation of the universe.
3. The “I Can” Power of the Cosmos
Al-Malik When you are guided to this pathway of the heart, take the opportunity to focus on the “I Can!”—the vision-power— of the cosmos coming through you.
NO COMPROMISE. NO NONSENSE. Sometimes in life you must decide to go for your own full realization as a human being, no matter what it takes. Usually it takes some great crisis to bring us to this point. Pain is often the greatest motivator when it comes to envisioning an entirely new life. Boredom and a habitual sense of “playing safe” keep this vision-power bottled up within
One of Jesus’ famous sayings from the Gospel of Thomas could easily express the theme of this pathway: If you give birth to what is within you the voices you redeem will redeem you. If you fail to find and give birth to them, they become part of what is destroying you. Perhaps right now life is calling you to reconnect to your own sense of sacred vision-power, or to help others rediscover their own. This vision is not a fixed image or form. It is a dynamic, radiant quality that helps redefine and clarify what is important in life right now. According to the Sufi tradition, this pathway is the part of our being that bolsters our courage and power to be. A clear vision can empower us to go forward. Seeing, feeling power, and taking responsibility are not separate.
The roots of Malik (MLK) point to empowerment, reign, counsel, and vision. Jesus frequently used the Aramaic form of this word (malkuta, which is gendered feminine) in sayings in which it is usually translated “kingdom.”
4. Sacred Space
The next pathway of the heart tells us that we need to undertake one of the most difficult spiritual practices of modern life: creating space for ourselves simply to be.
Creating sacred space demands that we bring some energy to the process. This means developing our feeling of staying within ourselves and being “at home.”
So it’s another one of those good news/bad news situations. The good news is that, for the Sufi, there is much more to life than the surface of things—more love to give and to receive, more vision and energy. The bad news is that there is no easy way to get there.
In addition, modern life draws our attention much more to the surface of things and to making fast decisions than did the life our ancestors faced. To engage our interest, we have unconsciously conspired with each other to create the subtle seductions of advertising, mass media, and shopping.
The roots of Quddus show both focus (QD) and emptiness (US).
“Let holy space be created for the name and vibration of Unity.”
So, paradoxically, when you let go into divine Unity, what remains is divine Focus. The Qur’an often pairs this word with the previous pathway, Malik (3). Vision-power and the space to receive it go together.
Allow your sense of your highest guidance (the “high self,” which the Sufis call ruh) to send out an invitation to all the exiled parts of your being to come to a dinner party, where there is enough for all. All the relative selves are welcome to join the circle of unity.
5. Peace at the Beginning
Most Westerners know that these words mean “peace.” But it is not the “peace” that is the opposite of “war.” Instead, “peace” here refers to the peace and creative potential that were present at the beginning of all, and which are still present within the whole caravan of ancestors ahead of us. In this context, saying “salaam” or “shalom” to another person should mean more than saying “hello.” To a Sufi, it’s a way of saying, “Remember, there was a time when none of us was here. In the greater scheme of things, what do our problems, conflicts, and offenses given and received really matter? Peace!”
shalom points to the seventh day (or illuminated period) of creation, during which the Holy One remembers and restores to itself the awareness of all that went before. During the day of rest, the Divine says, “Peace be with you!” every moment to what has been created.
6. Support
Al-Mu’min
Life is not only space and waves, it is also particle. Divine support surrounds and holds us, like a mother holding her children.
Mumin directs us to feel not only that the Divine Beloved carries us, but also that the whole universe is expressing the trust and confidence of Sacred Unity.
7. Protection
Al-Muhaimin
IF, AS THE SUFIS believe, Sacred Unity includes everything, do we actually need protection? Doesn’t everything come from the divine? On one level, this is true. On another, there is still a part of our being that feels separate and in need of protection. On yet another level, even if everything comes from the divine, we still have the responsibility to act, because our actions affect and change the fabric of divine reality.
We will make no distinction between any of them, and we resign ourselves to the same Source of All’ ” (Sura 3:84).
8. The Strength of Form
In the old Semitic creation stories, earth means our unique, material form; heaven means our communal relationship to the rest of the universe. Just as scientists view the nature of light as particle or wave, our “earthiness” shows us our individual nature as particle; our “heavenliness” reveals our connection to everything else as wave.
If we primarily look to spiritual practice for techniques to escape from the here and now, we are missing part of the opportunity of human life. Rumi says: Listen to this story: When the soul left the body it was stopped by God at heaven’s gate: “Alas! You have returned just as you left. Life is a blessing of opportunity. Where are the bumps and scratches left by the journey?”
We can redeem the bumps and scratches of the past by feeling the blessing and strength of having physical form to work through.
9. Repair and Restoration
Al-Jabbar
one tells us that sometimes we need to act with strength to repair what has been damaged in order to heal ill health or misfortune. No doubt, life contains many moments when the wise thing to do is surrender to circumstances. Now is not that time, this pathway tells us.
According to the twelfth-century Sufi Abdul Qadir Jilani: Faced with trial, I first exhausted my own efforts, then those of my family, community, connections, and acquaintances. Only then did I try God. But the One Being did not answer until I had exhausted all other means, and only when I had given up everything else. I was in the hands of the One, like a baby in the arms of its mother, like a polo ball before the mallet. At that point, deliverance arrived. Then I saw that Allah always acted through all circumstances of life—the actions of me, my family, friends, everything. I just didn’t recognize it before, and so thought “I” was doing it “myself.” Now this person sees nothing but the work of the One. I have vanished from my self.
Instead of being afraid that you can’t do it, allow yourself to feel the One Being acting through you. This pathway of the heart asks for concentrated, creative energy.
Traditional translations of this quality include “the compeller” and “the irresistible.” The root JB indicates the creative power of the One, enclosed and working within the organic limits of nature and of creation itself.
10. Concentration
THE FAMOUS SUFI OF Baghdad, Abdul Qadir Jilani, represents the way of concentration in classical Sufism. His writings emphasize being in right relationship with the divine, and present powerful practices of the heart that lead to mastery through accomplishment. His message essentially is: What the heart can hold, the being can accomplish. And it is not worth the heart holding anything unless it comes from the One.
Ya Mutakabbir opens a door to the part of our being that is waiting to express itself. The prefix MU-AGAIN reveals the full embodiment of the quality. This pathway branches to two others: Mutakabbir fully embodies the outward creative power of Kabir (37) and fully externalizes the inward creative power of Khabir (31). That is, there is in this quality of our being no outer or inner. There is only focus: All aspects of us are involved and unified in the heart. Such a great outpouring of love is both stunning and majestic. As Jesus says in one of the Beatitudes from the Aramaic language, “Ripe are those who wholeheartedly follow their passion, by being unified, they see Unity everywhere.”
11. Carving and Forming
Al-Khaliq When you are guided to this pathway, take the opportunity to feel the hands of the Holy One as your hands, carving out a new life and shaping it creatively.
THE PREVIOUS PATHWAY—divine focus—leads us to the next: taking a hands-on approach. The time to visualize is over; the time to act is now.
The word roots Kh and Q show the energy of definition and shape, carving out reality. In the middle of the word is AL, the sign of Allah, which is the creator.
This is one of the miracles of creation: An extravagant diversity of unique forms and beings each carries within it its own sense of interiority and each expresses a facet of divine Unity.
Just as when we taste too many different wines in a row, we may need to clear our palate. The Sufi clears his or her palate by returning to Allah, the feeling of Unity. Now might be a good time to do this.
12. Radiating Creativity
we were created in the divine image. But the word for image (in either Hebrew or Arabic) does not mean a fixed picture. Rather, it’s like a moving shadow of a living, breathing Being, one that encompasses all beings.
Traditional translations of this quality include “maker” and “evolver.” This pathway shows the action of the One as it brings something from unmanifest to manifest with power (BA-), emanating like a ray of light (-RI’ ). Whereas Khaliq (11) is “particle” creation, Bari is “wave” creation.
13. Designing and Training
Al-Musawwir When you are guided to this pathway, it is an opportunity to feel the One’s power to design a new existence for you, and to gradually guide and train you to experience it in the most loving, blessed way possible.
14. Burning Away Tension and Hurt
Al-Ghaffar When you are guided to this pathway, take the opportunity to release any restriction or constriction you feel, with regard to your self or another, into the heat and fire of Unity.
What, then, is the solution to the pain we feel from our relationships with others? The twentieth-century Sufi Inayat Khan had two answers: First, there is no solution. Second, develop your heart, which means to the Sufi not merely the emotions, but a combination of feeling and intelligence that can illuminate life more clearly. A few of his sayings follow: The heart sleeps until it is awakened to life by a blow. It is as a rock, and the hidden fire flashes out when struck by another rock. You can have all good things—wealth, friends, kindness, love to give, and love to receive—once you have learned not to be blinded by them; learned to escape from disappointment and from repugnance at the idea that things are not as you want them to be. The quality of forgiveness that burns up all things except beauty is the quality of love.
We may spend our whole lives distinguishing real love from passion, romanticism, lust, sentimentality, and all of the other ways that our culture tries to sell us counterfeit forms of love.
According to this pathway of the heart, we should use the heat of the anger to burn away the impressions of tension and hurt that have lodged on the mirror of our hearts. Another practice the pathway suggests we use is to imagine our heart like a pressure cooker that is softening and cooking something in order to assimilate and release it. Sometimes this process can take a while, and can be painful.
The Qur’an says that the One Being forgives again and again, and that even a whole life of error can be forgiven in an instant. This is the inspiration behind Rumi’s famous saying, “Come, come whoever you are, even though you’ve broken your vow a hundred times, come again.”
Center in the heart and imagine a mirror there. If you’re conscious of a particular hurt or offense, hold it in the mirror. Or, hold the aspect of your inner self that has given or received offense. Imagine burning away any impression so that the other person—or the part of your self that feels separate—can be seen in the clear light of Unity.
15. Natural Power
This pathway is not the power to do something, but the power that has and will accomplish anything.
16. Flowing Blessings
Al-Wahhab When you are guided to this pathway, you have the opportunity to enter the flow of Allah’s love-filled grace.
In this pathway, life is good. As Saadi says: It’s the first breath of spring But do I smell a garden or the aroma of two friends meeting?
Why on earth would we ever want to leave this pathway? Because the river does lead to the ocean, and along the way there are many twists and turns. Identify with the water, the riverbed, the stones, or the flow itself. There are this many possibilities of being, and more.
17. Sustenance
18. Opening to Unity’s Breath
Al-Fattah
in which Allah says that if seekers take one step on the path, Sacred Unity will take ten steps toward them: If they remember me in their heart, I remember them within my heart. If they come toward me walking, I come toward them running. 11
We may, however, find it unsettling to be more open than we normally are. How complete an image of our real self can we bear right now? With regard to our inner community of voices, which Sufis call the nafs, it is important to recognize that some parts of our self will not experience forceful opening in a harmonious way. So when you begin to follow a pathway with strong energy like this one, invite the different known aspects of your being to a “common area” first (for instance, the image of the round table of Holy Wisdom), and inquire who is willing to participate.
When we find ourselves confronted with a totally new view of ourselves and our purpose in life, we may have to take a leap of faith into the unknown, which can feel like annihilation. As Rumi says, what is there to be afraid of?
Don’t be afraid of nonbeing. If you want to be afraid, fear the existence you have now. Your hopes for the future, your memories of the past, what you call your self, are nothing. So nothing is being taken from nothing, and a nothing is being absorbed by a Nothing.
19. Understanding Names and Forms
Al-‘Alim
Perhaps right now, life is calling you to feel refreshed, redeemed, exalted, and high. As with the previous pathway, Khafid, this could change tomorrow. Enjoy the experience, but don’t hold on. The full-grown plant sheds its leaves and returns to the earth in its season.