Dave does an Interview, talks about Sufism or tries to at least

Hello Friends,

I was asked if I could be interviewed and answer some questions about sufism. Of course I accepted. Looking back on my responces I learned a lot about how I see things and many of the limitations of my thoughts on Sufism and the way I see things. It was a greate exercise.  It was like asking idries Shah a questions and being shown the insincere reality from which the question came from thats not to say that my thoughts were insincere but rather that it was a snapshot of my understand at a particular time, and its interesting to look back on it with the understanding of today and the current moment. But I will add my thoughts on the interview in another post. Please all comments are welcome. Enjoy!

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Dave.FromtheBlog: What is your project about? or rather what is your goal/aim/thesis?

Interviewer: well we are supposed to interview someone of a different faith than out own and then using what we learned on how to study religion we are supposed to look at the answers the person gives and tell what it says about the religion and what can people learn from it

 Dave.FromtheBlog: ok that sounds interesting this could be a cool interview

Interviewer: well I hope so haha

Dave.FromtheBlog: okie dokie – ok how should we start. ‘m ready

Interviewer: well I guess we could start by you telling me a little about yourself and your religious background
Dave.FromtheBlog: Well I was born and raised in NYC and Roman Catholic. I did all my sacrament when I was younger but never really was serious in my practice

Interviewer: So how did you come to or find Sufism

 Dave.FromtheBlog: Religion with its antediluvian practices and dogmatic approaches didn’t really answer my questions so from a young age I set out to find the truth myself. You can say Sufism found me rather than “I” finding it.

Interviewer: what do you see in Sufism that you did not see when you practiced the Roman Catholic faith?

Dave.FromtheBlog: What really is Sufism is an experience that can’t be put into words. It’s like going to someone’s you love’s house for dinner, it’s a personal thing that is by invitation only. You can describe the meal or what you wore but the essence of what is happening goes beyond words. In Catholicism the priest intercedes for us I would rather cut out the middle man there are many other differences: but I am sure they are easier to point out as one is considered a mystical path and the other and organized hierarchical religion.

 Interviewer: I do remember reading that Sufis believe that one can be close to God while living and do not have to wait until death, is this what defines Sufism as mystical in your opinion, that you have a direct bond to God?

 Dave.FromtheBlog: I can give u a quote from Maghribi and maybe some comments from my own experience to answer that question:

 “For so long did the Beloved face my open heart
That accept for His attributes and nature
Nothing remained of that heart”.

DaveFromtheBlog: On the Sufi path we aim towards complete subsistence in God while we go about and doing our responsibilities in the world. Rumi talks about at all time being in the Presence in many of his works to be worthy of being in God’s presence we have to ‘love’ him and only him we don’t love him for want of heaven or fear of hell just because there is a yearning and connection that has manifested itself in all we do that draws us to him if that makes sense and I just use the word Him I am not anthropomorphizing God.

Interviewer: Yes it does make sense…..this religion seems to be very peace and love oriented, do you see God as a loving god or as in some religious texts say a fearful or jugdemental god?

 Dave.FromtheBlog: Well Sufism isn’t a religion it’s a solitary path ,that once u enter love becomes your own teacher  its like falling in love with someone really  I know the analogy has been use ad nausea  but that how it is when u fall for someone there is no textbook or guide  u live in the present – which is one of the reasons why Rum says lover are in each other all along you exist for each other through each other at the present God is beyond all labels labeling god as just or loving is the minds attempt to rationalize something it cannot Sufis in the oath have been soldiers writers scientist philosophers there is also no sense of hierarchy as we find in religion well in true Sufi orders there are as many imitations as there is real ” fools gold exists because there is the real thing” is the Sufi saying

Interviewer: wow that sounds very enlightening (if that is the right word)…..what are some major practices of Sufism?

Dave.FromtheBlog: Sufism comes with a set of ethics and certain individual practices that comprise it in a way again I like to think the heart of a spiritual aspirant like that of a seed planted in soul the ethics we practice and the spiritual practices that go with it  only serve to enrich the soil the seed coming to life is nothing we have control over it’s like being born all couple trying to have a kid will know u have to set up a schedule take the right vitamins but whatever will manifest as life happens on its own accord  beyond the wants and frame of time and mind that we operate in.

Interviewer: a Sufi speaker that came to our class stated that there was not just on sacred text but the Torah, Quran, and Bible are followed. Do you study and particular text?

Dave.fromTheBlog: no hmmm That’s an interesting issue I say and this is my opinion  that truth is absolute however and whatever way it manifests it’s still truth, an experience of truth manifests at a particular place and time, with a particular culture and Rudolph Otto described this phenomenon really well he says you have an initial experience by one person or a specific group of people that experience is religion in its purest form  its earliest form in time it becomes a cult  and then from a cult to a hierarchical religion Sufism is the experience of God or truth itself beyond any cultural socio political or personal biases  it has been said it’s the essence of all religions I have seen dervishes of all religions Some Sufi orders work within the context of Islam some don’t it’s all about the time place and specific needs of a person

Interviewer: So I guess you do not work within Islam?

Dave.FromtheBlog: No not at all. I see Islam as a revelation of truth but there is a quote I am trying to remember by the late Ikbal Shah. I found it. It says

 “No understanding of the holy book is possible until it is actually revealed to the believer just as it was revealed to the Prophet” – Ikbal Ali Shah, in Islamic Sufism (1933).

I think that phrase applies to all religions and all holy books the experience itself of Mohammad or Christ or Buddha is free to all of us when that experience is projected outwardly its religion when that experience opens a highway between you and god and is a total inward experience I would say it approaches Sufism I hope I am not being verbose or overly chatty lol

Interviewer: oh no this is a very good interview and I think your answers tell a lot about Sufism

Dave.FromtheBlog: I hope so , At most I see myself a donkey loll as a close and dear friend says but the cool things about Donkeys I suppose is one day you can find yourself walk with Christ sitting on your back

Interviewer: I’ve never heard that before, I like it ha-ha

Dave.FromtheBlog: yeah I don’t know if I heard it somewhere or it just came to me lol inspiration blurs all lines I suppose

Interviewer: yea lol

Dave.FromtheBlog: this is a nice interview thus far. I am ready for more questions if you have.

Interviewer: ok, so my school is an all women’s college so a big issue while studying Islam is the view and separation of women in Mosque, what is the view of women in Sufism?

Dave.FromtheBlog: Historically Sufi practice has always treated men and woman as equal. Many times in some Islamic countries to avoid problems with authorities they conform to separating men and women etc but as darvishes we are suppose to dress regular and not dress in any way to draw attention to ourselves. On all sincere pathways I feel there has to be equality between man and woman. God is an experience beyond gender beyond race and those are still two major issues that we are grappling with as a planet I would like to share an observation of mine if you don’t mind?

Interviewer: sure

Dave.FromtheBlog: When I was younger and I first got into seriously searching for the truth. There existed in my head this distinction between daily life and spiritual life but there is no such thing there is only life there is no Sufi practice and regular life it’s all life. The chaos and prejudice that exists in our daily lives is the root of what manifests in the world. A stadium full of cheering fan has a real energy that can be felt a community full of negative unhappy people has a real energy that will manifest itself sooner or later. The way the mind works is that its divisive. It says:

• This is good for me. / This isn’t.
• These are my people. / They are not.
• This is my land. / This is there.

That is fine and useful up to a point. The goal of any spiritual path is to foster unity not only between men and women but between all manifestations of life. That’s just my wordy 2 cents lol I could be bat-shit crazy as my sister claims but that just my personal experience

Interviewer: lol….I think it is a good view

Dave.FromtheBlog: Always have a salt shaker in your pocket to adjust what you hear with grains of salt. I don’t want it to seem like Sufism is like some factory to produce super godly men and women like something out of Nietzsche. I have a job I have bill to pay which are late lol, I hope the cavaliers win the championship and stomp all over the Lakers everything has its purpose and roll in our lives in Sufism or rather as darvishes we strive for this union with god in everything we do
Interviewer: I just have 2 more questions left, one being how does your family and friends react or reacted to your faith or Sufi path and the last one is there anything else you think should be said about Sufism

Dave.FromtheBlog: we are asked to be brutally honest with ourselves – actually I remember one Sufi master saying a lot of today’s problems stem from insincerity. It’s always a challenge because sometimes living in a dream can compensate from the rigors of life but as a darvish we have to accept that whatever comes to us is a gift from God. So with my friends I am the same Dave I have always been, i like drinking beer, I eat whatever, I love basketball and UFC etc. but my relationship with god is a personal thing it’s like telling the details of your marriage Rumi stated “when I come to love, I am ashamed of all that I have ever said about love.” I guess sometimes I feel the need to be quiet or to rest or to meditate but other than that I am still the crazy Dave from college as to my family my wife and sister are both darvishes we are a Sufi family So it takes our relationship to another level.

Interviewer: That’s really cool that you can share with your family.

 Dave.FromtheBlog: It adds levels of depth that go far beyond other relationships I have been a part of yeah it eases my heart there is a lot more to be said sometimes after meditation there is an intense feeling of grief or sorrow sometimes that of amazing elation and joy Its impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced.

Looking back on things: The Path I walked to becoming a Darvish in 2008 Part 3

So how did I get to the doors of the Nimatullahi Order? Aside from an easy train ride from my house to really explain I feel I have to give some idea of how my mind and the things my smaller journeys on the path.

I have always felt that everything is knowable; meaning that the search for truth never ends in an impasse or a cul de sac. If it does it is because we are in some unknown way blocking our understanding or limiting the vastness of the potentialities of our being. “I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known,” says one Islamic hadith. To add to that point, there is another sura from the Qu’ran which says we have made the signs clear for those who have knowledge.  The same message exists very clearly in Christianity:  [the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth the field] as well as Hinduism and every single religious tradition I have come across.

We are a mystery to ourselves. Human beings have the capabilities to operate on many different levels. The outside world is just one plane of the many that we operate on. Rumi in his Mathnavi says “The One who knows all secrets is here now, nearer than your jugular vein.” To Rumi we are in constant conversation with the source. We have forgotten the language of the heart and have to learn again through immersing ourselves in nature, in our responsibilities and in our passions. Nothing like tempestuous moments of grief and loss to me make Rumi’s words come alive.

Grief is better than Happiness, because in grief a person draws close to God. Your wings open. A tent is set up in the desert where God can visit you. Wealth that arrives in grief is what we spend in joy. The soul is greater than anything you ever lost

Well, I did not start out with such a balanced approach.  My approach was to read as much as I can and talk to whoever was willing to talk to me and listen. I didn’t have a teacher, visibly anyways, and upon realization of the major ramifications of this I decided to let Life be my teacher. Meaning I left things completely in the air as to who I would talk to what I would read. I would take it as it came, for someone who is broke this is the easiest way.  Interesting books came into my hands at the right time and the right place, as well as interesting people and opportunities.  It was impossible to not notice an invisible hand guiding my search. I can’t answer how or why I read such and such a book at such and such a time after reading another set of books.

So you can see how the stage was beginning to be set unknown to me at the time. While I was reading and studying and looking and delving into the major questions of life, I was trying to go to school, with money enough for transportation but no food too many times.  For most of college I couldn’t afford a computer or textbooks, or many essential things. I was for a period of time taking my sister to school which was far away. I had to wake up at 4:40 leave by 5:40 to make it to her prep school by 7:20 AM. Home became worse and worse, we moved every year and change because of money problems; moving late at night in the blistering cold and in the sweltering heat arguing parents, constant threat of divorce, stricter and stricter rules, especially as the eldest.

Finally we moved to a far out place in Queens and I was able to have my first real room, at 22-23. It makes me laugh to think about it. For those of you who don’t know me I laugh really loudly and often. There I was able to really further my personal studies. I read and studied intensely for a period of two maybe three years. Then for some reason I couldn’t continue.  I hit a wall.  I knew I had to leave home to really continue to pursue my studies, but financially I couldn’t. So whenever I had time I was there in my room trying to be consistent in my meditation and other practices. Home life became way too hard. I managed to finish grad school, and of course took a really long time to find a job, I did a year long internship to further my. Sallie Mae payments are due, no money. 

To save money I started making bread every day for me and my wife. Yes man can live by bread alone. My father and I were getting into really heated arguments.  One day if it wasn’t for my mom sister and wife I would have knocked him out Chuck Liddell style. I found a job, and hated it from day one but had to take it having college loans and bills to pay for, a wife and younger sister to look after. It was a humbling experience. Yet even in all of this, there was peace. There were smiles given to me by strangers that carried me through. Coincidences that were too strange to attribute to random chance.

Everyone now and then I would get solace in a most joyous and beautiful form. It’s like life would become so joyous I would feel it in my heart and it would spread outwards like waves of energy. When your spirits are broken due to lacking the necessities or sickness you lose the need for labels, you don’t care if you are an American or Russian, Muslim or Catholic. You can feel yourself as a living entity you can feel how fragile life really is. If at that point a desire comes forth from your soul, in a time of need and desperation, then I feel at the timeyou ar engaging in true prayer. Prayer isn’t rattling off some preformatted words, or going to church or the synagogue or temple because our parents and grandparents will complain, or starting off with a list of demands because you have taken your inner self hostage. It is a living experience. When you are broken, you realize that even in your moments of great strength and health you are living by the grace of God. That realization alone made it all worthwhile.

It’s clear to see now that I couldn’t have persevered through a lot of things by myself.  Not mentioning a string of jobs I hated, having to quit, multiple evictions, my wife getting sick due to our difficulties have a child. There was always someone or something, I prefer the term The Presence there. There was always a feeling of love that would settle on me at key moments when I felt I was going to quit. It’s folly to think that I came all this way by myself, on my own volition and power.

From Nov 2007 to Dec 2009, I went through the most difficult period of my life. I also never studied and worked more intensely personally as well as with the many jobs I had.

One day I was looking online at the MysticSaint blog and saw a blog post about  a book Jesus in The Eyes of the Sufis written by Dr Javad Nurbakhsh the then Master of the Order. I bought the book, but did not read right away. That’s not surprising, I bought another book and read it 7 years later and it just happened to be the right time. Something clicked in my head I don’t know what.  Sirens went off in my head. A few days later I was on the phone with the Pir a Dalil, the spiritual counselor of the place Sufi meeting place. Once I heard his voice, I knew I was home, and this part of my journey was at an end. I felt a peace settle down on me. I went to talk with him July 25^th 2008, started blogging Aug 17^th and I became a Darvish and was initiated October 25^th, 2008.

At this point up until July 25^th, I was tired; tired of struggling, tired of fighting, tired of talking. I was done. I was done with my personal searches despite some interesting experiences I had had. I felt like a donkey that sat down from tiredness. Due to my responsibilities and promises I had to keep on pressing on even though my body was beyond tired. This culminated in my three weeks of sickness and sickle cell crisis. Two years of living on my own, intense work working as a laboratory technician, online course instructor, tutor to the spoiled and rich, and trying to kick start the small business I and some friends created to help and teach young children my body just gave out. When I was sick I had remember how before I said, I am going for broke, I am not going to leave any stone unturned, I am going to figure out what I had to do in this life, push myself to the limits to never have to come back to this place again. I remembered my blindness to the greater will that has a place and purpose for us all. That sickness really gave a hard blow to the little “I” in me.

As I recovered life took on a lot of more depth. I leave everything up to the Friend, I just play my part. I don’t worry, sleep fine and deep. I have made a lot of friends, and after a long period of time I have started smiling again. I am happy inside for days not matter if life crushes my plans. I remember that Rumi’s greatest celebration of the presence came on the heels of his greatest lost and grief (the disappearance of Shams of Tabriz).

There is much more to be said. I feel during this tough time I was sent many old friends, from who knows how many lifetimes past to help and assist me and I them. I feel that the comments you the readers send me are awesome.  There are still intense pain and grief moments of great despondency.  Some days where it’s hard to talk, let alone walk the path I pick myself up and a major difference between now and then is I walk it in a sense with all of you, whether you are in Latvia, France, Israel, or Australia, Muslim, Jew or Hindu we are all linked together in one big experience. Your struggles are my struggles. At any second if we [you and I] are completely committed to the present, to the Presence manifesting we transcend, this life and its follies instantaneously

 It is through my friends, you the readers and the family of dervishes them that I learned the meaning of The Friend, a phrase so important to Sufism. I am reminded of a poem by Saadi and I think I will end this part with his words.

Human beings come

From the same source.

We are all one family.

 

If a part of the body hurts.

all parts contract with pain.

 

If you are not concerned

with another’s suffering

we shall not call you Human

Looking back on things: The Path I walked to becoming a Darvish in 2008 Part 2

Hey Friends,

I just wanted to take a brief second to explain why I am writing these autobiographical posts. Lately a lot of people have been asking how I came to walk the path.  There is no other answer than I don’t know. I feel many times the human mind is incapable of grasping the scale on which thing really work. I am sharing these experiences with you in the hope that’s maybe you will find the answer in your own way.

You know looking back on the things, I have no regrets only smiles. It’s very easy to imagine that because we have an experience of something we know all about it. It’s also easy to imagine that our degrees and academic, intellectual achievements and maybe even religious achievements are a panacea for all life’s problems, but they are not unfortunately. At least that is what I have come to see. When your down and out your science degree, or masters doesn’t mean a damn. Same as when you are bedridden and sick these things past a certain point where they serve their purpose are useless.

I feel that the events of my life in many ways helped to break down the smaller will so that The Greater Will could be felt. We are all hit on the head in this life, no one escapes it free of scars, and some of us need to be hit more in the head before we can wake up.  Supposedly the earth is like, for the sake of example the third grade, we come to learn and perform specific tasks and then we continue upwards with our evolution. In keeping with that thought, it has been said that at this plane of existence we learn more through suffering and strife than we do from good things. Human beings are indeed forgetful. We can be given a gift every day for years and we will be more apt to focus and reflect on the day we didn’t get a gift, ignoring everything else.

But to continue as some of you who know I had sickle cell anemia, I was sick and weak for a bit early on in life. That in the combination of both parents working and my own mental propensities; I lived in my mind a lot and was very cerebral. I remember reading in a cool article on John Updike how “Updike recounted how a sickly childhood on a farm in Pennsylvania prepared him for a cerebral life”. Anyways I spent most of my free time reading, and reading and reading. As with a decent percentage of interesting stuff I read the book sort of fell into my lap. Looking back on those times I can see a pattern: intense reading soul searching trying to understand, a period of observation and a period of despondency towards reading and a sort of angst that settled over me. During the intense readings I just so happened to read the right book at the right time, or talk to the right person at the right time and had an epiphany of some sorts.

I think especially in terms of any mystical spiritual practice or seeking that, everything we come across is nutrition. Sometimes because we aren’t guided or we don’t listen to our guide we over eat or we eat the wrong things and we have to wait a while before we can digest again. Those periods of despondency are sometimes a lengthy digestion of what we have read. Many works written by people on the path exist on many levels; they aren’t just nice collections of words. Rumi’s Mathnavi, Ghazzali’s Alchemy of happiness, The Emerald Tableaux, the works of Geber, the poems of St Francis Assisi I can go on and one, but these works are the best example that comes to mind. All these words work to expand the heart.

I remember a discourse by I think it was Bawa Muhaiyadeen who said that though man cannot drink the entire ocean he can drink his fill, and that the goblet or the cup to do that with was the heart. These works and these writing expand the heart to make it a larger container. However one can only read books there has to be action, right living, service to fellow humans etc. here is a cool quote from Bahauddin – the father of Rumi. It was said that a caravan of 90 camels was needed to carry his books alone.

I was thinking about the piece of bread I have just eaten and the drink of water I have taken. This revelation came: each bit of bread and taste of fruit has a tongue and a language of praise that gets released when it enters a human body.

The same analogy of transformation extends to influences that came from the stars and transmuted matter into the elements: earth, air, fire and water. Those in turn became plants which became animals and then human beings with their flexible way of speaking that can become praise for the compassion as well as the anger of God

I saw bread and water dissolving and moving through my organs, carrying the qualities of the mystery. They were flower with the ability to speak, saying, There is nothing that does not celebrate and praise.

Because my intellection and my memory are flowers in the hand of the mystery that supports and inspires existence and give the scripture, I pray to be given wisdom in the form of books to transmit the taste of love nad the pleasures of expansion. Do not ignore these writings. The fallen angel Satan saw the appearance of Adam only. He did not see the essence. Inside these rough words are secrets. Dont miss them.

I have a few things to take care of Ill be back

See you then

Dave

Looking back on things: The Path I walked to becoming a Darvish in 2008 Part 1

Hey Friends,

                  Many of you have been listening or rather reading my blogs for a bit, and I was looking back and thinking on things in my life and figured I would share some events of my life with you……

I had come to an interesting point in my life last year.  For some reason since an early age I began a search for truth that took me many places and both physically and in my mind. I met many interesting people along the way and came to many interesting discoveries and conclusions along the way. I have a small library scattered between my parent’s house and my little NYC apartment in the Bronx.

Some of the consequences of a search for truth are what seems like an endless sea of trial and tribulation.  Luckily I was able to benefit from my father’s own search for truth as he did in some ways from his father. My father was always big about science and mysticism and finding a harmonious balance between the two especially given his experiences as a Medical Doctor in the third world. So this was my start, I was taught biology and chemistry and many things from an early age and given a passion to learn.

Before I became a Nimatullahi Darvish, I was a practitioner of Kriya Yoga, and of a form Rosicrucianism, each path left an indelible mark, as did my trip to India when I was very young. One of the things my father instilled in me was this idea that one must always study for school and for one’s own personal edification. He also told me an old occult law that’s the surest way to not succeed is to talk about what we dream and want.

To make a long story short, I have always felt that everything was an uphill battle for me. At a certain age I started having really intense periods of despondency and depression. Add this to your typical immigrant story, i.e. being always broke, language barriers between family members, isolation in a big city and a volatile home situation I often wonder whether or not I could go through what I went through again a second time.

I came across the works of T Lobsang Rampa early on in life, as he was the favorite writer of my father. [Though the author is the source of much controversy there is a wealth of knowledge in his work]. One day, after a long difficult day, I was working 4 jobs at the time, I asked myself why? Why was everything so hard? Why did I have so many trials and tribulations? When will all the fun start? Where are the flying cars and all the cool future stuff? I came across in a funny way this passage in the book The Chapters of Life by T. Lobsang Rampa.

A person living his last life upon the Earth is often regarded (on the Earth) as one of the unluckiest people ever, instead of the luckiest in that they are living their last life here.  All their hardships are because they are clearing up, getting ready to move out, paying debts, etc.  They cannot learn through the flesh in the next life, so they have a good dose in this life.  So they die, and most times, if they ever think about it, they are jolly glad. 

 Then back in the spirit world they get a good rest, for certainly they have earned it, they get a rest where they may be asleep for quite a few years, quite a few years by Earth time, that is.  Then they get rehabilitated, built up, and all that, reconditioned one might say.  After this they start all over again on the upward path, upward, ever upward.  So the Great Prophet in one life who has learned all there is to know, or thinks he has, goes on to another stage of evolution where there are all sorts of different abilities, all sorts of varying talents which he has to master.

Those two paragraphs carried me through a lot more hardship to come. Then there was a point where I hit a wall.  For the first time in my life I didn’t know what I wanted to do where I wanted to go. I was completely perplexed, I was at a job I hated , my world possessions had gotten stolen, I was 2 days away from being evicted and no place to go of course, but the streets. In two years living on my own I had no furniture no chair to sit on just a mattress at that point the relationship with my wife was more than strained as you can imagine.  Then she got sick.  In all honesty I felt like Job: a Job for the modern day.

And then ragged and beaten with nothing left I found myself on afternoon at a Nimatullahi Khanaqah ……  to be continued in the next post …..

Thoughts on my Second day back

Someone had asked me, “How has everything that has happened in the last few months changed you?” Yesterday’s post [http://caravanofdreams.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/happy-new-year-everyone-trying-to-get-back-into-the-groove-of-blogging-1] was an initial answer. Today I came across something from the Sufi Order International that got me thinking. Let me paste it for you below before I go on.

 

There is a stage of evolution in one’s life when every question is answered by the life around him. For every thought of a sage, everything becomes an accommodation to help it to resound, and in this resonance there is an answer. In point of fact the answer is in the question itself. The answer wells up from the depth of all existence, like the sound of a bell being struck, or the splash of water, or the crackle of the firecracker: each reveals its condition when struck, like the knock on the door. The first sign one notices after the awakening of the soul is that one begins to see from two points of view. One begins to see the right of the wrong and the wrong of the right. In failure one will not feel such disappointment, and in success not such a great joy. In adverse conditions one will not be so dejected, in favorable conditions not so conceited. One begins to see that everything is reflected in its opposite. In this way one rises above logic, which then begins to appear as an elementary knowledge. It is a kind of double view of things. And when one has reached this, then reason has made way for higher reasoning. No doubt one’s language will become gibberish to others; people will not understand it. To some it will be too simple, to others too subtle.

 

I can’t tell what that stage is or if I am there, but I can tell you this. There came a point for me where I felt like I didnt know anything. Not like my degrees my useless, rather I felt that  I really didnt know what I was seeing or where to go from here.

 

 

Normally  I have a set routine, I have a comfort zones. I have activities that I have been doing by habit to save me time supposedly. Then one day I asked my self why am I doing this (I forget what it was) What is the real reason behind some of my actions?  I couldnt find any substantial reason. Then I had to ask myself what is the next step in my life? I was completely clueless for the first time in my life.

 

 

I think that at this point maybe one can really attempt to submit to God/the higher power.  I cannot see submission without perplexity. What I mean by perplexity is the imability for the mind to order and classify information according to its usual schemata. Which as I have seen is when life starts to be lived from The Heart.

 

I maybe be abolutely wrong but I have noticed that there are a lot of questions I dont need to ask as soon as I verbalize something in thought I am shown an answer. No angels singing or rose petals raining down just there in the course of the day itself, is the answer.

 

 

I feel that the more in the present I am in the more I can notice in real time the answers life has given to my questions. Its impossible to explain this language, it seems so personal and yet real.

 

 

What do you think? Any thoughts on this plase share

 

Dave

Why I am taking a two week hiatus – Becoming a Dervish

Hey Friends,

            How are you? I hope all is going well. It finally the weekend and its halloween. We can all sit back and relax for a bit , and thankfully we get an extra hour from daylight saving time, which maybe might make the difference in making our morning commutes a bit more manageable.

           I recently closed on chapter in my life and opened another. I became a darvish. it has been a wonderful awakening for me.  I feel like a new person, I see my clothes my stuff and my apartment but it doesnt feel like me. I feel like I have been given a blank slate again and looking back on the last 27 years there are many mistakes I dont want to make anymore.

            I need some time to think and get into a new rhythm. So I will be taking some time away from the blog. Also I am writing some things for publication, I want to take some time to get my work a little further. Writing a novel is a beautiful and painful process, as some of you already know or can imagine.

           Before I go though there will be a few posts I will be writing on. Since I got nominated for best blog in sufism which I am still shocked, I  searched through my blog for posts directly on sufism and I found less that 10%  of my blogs are directly specifically strictly on sufism. I thought it would be nice to put together what  I feel and know about sufism, and I thought I would write a serious about my spiritual journey that culminated in becoming a darvish, and then take my haitus.

My poll is still up for a week. It is under the title a question for you the readers, i think thats the name or at least it is the one sequentially before this post. Check it out

Dave