The Stray Black Cat that follows me, and conversations with life.

Hello Friends,

Every day 5 days a week, unless I am incapable of moving I pick up my wife who gets off of work at around 11 PM. We eat something and then get home anywhere between 12-1 AM. As tough a schedule as it is, especially since when we get home we have to walk the dogs, it’s very rewarding.

There is a stray cat, completely black, that likes to follow us. He or she, [I feel it’s a ‘him’]. He will stare at us which looks surreal, only two yellowish green eyes hanging in the dark, suspended by some invisible force in the ether of the night.

We call to him and he doesn’t come so close yet, but he is very friendly nevertheless. He doesn’t trust us completely yet. Dave has always been a friend and a fan to stray dogs and cats, for some reason more cats than dogs. Maybe they come to me because as my sister and wife say sometimes, I am an animal myself. Whatever the reason he spent a long time looking at us and came much closer than before.

When he came close to us I remembered the following quote from the little prince:

 “’Men have forgotten this truth,’ said the fox.’But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

In everyone we meet whether 2 legged or 4 legged, there is something that happens that makes us extend to them our heart and also allows ourselves to concern ourselves even less with our own affairs. A heart is not just a door it is a seat of the soul, the gatekeeper of our own destiny. We are our own veil as Hafez says.

I would like to quote some word from Coleman barks “Sufis assert that there are three ways of being with the mystery: prayer, then a step up from that, meditation, and a step up from that conversation, the mystical exchange they call sohbet. For Rumi beauty comes as a natural response to being spoken to. The rose opens because it has heard something, the cypress grows strong and straight because a love-secret is being whispered to it.

The world projects completely new each second and every second we supply the mortar and steel psychologically so that constantly extend the bridge of past experiences, memories hidden resentment, into the present. All the people who come into our lives are exactly there for a reason, and when they come and a feeling of love develops platonic, mystical, spiritual, or whatever, there is a mystery unfolding there.

The Black cat was and is a constant reminder, that we are all Masks of the Friend whether we know it or not. Don’t turn down a wave or smile, or an intent stare from a 4 legged friend.

                         This is enough

Sugar merchants, I have news: Joseph
has arrived from Egypt with the essence

of sweetness: fruit cobbler that
can save your soul! Spirit wine.  And if

there is something else you want, that
came too.  Khidr through an open window.

Aphrodite singing ghazals.  A sky with
Gold streaks across.  A stick that finds

water in a stone.  Jesus sitting quietly
near the animals. Night so peaceful.

This is enough was always true. We
just haven’t seen it: the hoopoe already

wears a tufted crown.  Each ant is given
its elegant belt at birth.  This love

we feel pours through us like giveaway
song.  The source of now is here!

More words about the beginning of the path and a reason why we sometimes may suffer from my notebook.

Hello Friends,

                 I will get right into it. I must tell you that I have been wanting to take a hiatus from the blog. Every time I say this is my last post  I get inspired to do a few more. Eventually a time will come and I will take my break but while i am compelleed to write I will do the best to present this information I am inspired to present.

….. [ The old rhythm must give place to new; and the more rapid the attunement and the released force and knowledge of latent growth into the conscious field, the greater will be the need for alertness and flexibility in adjusting to personal life...] …..

Many neophytes are acutely tried just here. They ask for advancement and compel it, and straightway the law of attraction brings them into the midst of the battlefield with a host opposing influences confronting rhem. Some immediately recognize the situation and welcome it.  Other display weakness and cry for deliverance from that which their own effort have invoked. But  there is the test for the volunteer. The right man will stand his ground however circumstances turn round him. He knows that this revolution in the personal life is precisely the point at issue and will risk everything to master it. He knows he cannot pass up to the higher levels of consciousness without meeting the exigencies of the ascent.

I can say for my own  case, when i said inside that I was tired of searching and would give anything to find I was sorely tested. I stood where i was admist all the stuff that was happening, not because I was courageous but because life put me in a head lock so tight I ha no where to go.  Now I can see a more profound reason of what happened and why this process occurred.

What it reminds me of is like burning down a forest. The ashes and destruction make the soil richer for need seeds to grow. The more the ego/ the commanding self/the nafs are burned away the more opportunities are availble to connect to living through the heart. Thats just my observations guys, take everything with a  grain of salt and some perrier water.

Check out the quotes before you

Dave

Even the senior classroom has a new master and a tough curriculum and punishment of a sterner quality.But they mould youth into capable manhood. Its the same all through life. We cannot gaingreater things on thesame things as the lesser

 

Another perspective [maybe] on the Spiritual path -examples from Sufism (Part 4 of 4)

Hey my Friends,

           When last I was babbling I was talking about the singularity of the path despite the multiplicity of masters and ways. I think i should really outline before I talk about the oneness of the path.  The stages we all in our own way come upon the path itself. Why , well because

“There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner”

in the words of Dr Nurbakhsh,:

” After the seed of the blessing of devotion has fallen into the fertile soil of the heart by the Grace of God, one must not let it wither/ Rather, one must place it in the care of a perfect master whose dominion is the entire universe. in this way, it will be protected from the many ways in which it can be destroyed. This enables the seed to mature and bear fruit in accordance with its innate ability.”

and one more quote from Imam Jafar Sadiq before we continue:

“One who journeys far from the city seeks a guide. You who are more ignorant of the celestial than the terrestial realm must seek a guide for yourself”

Basically as I understand is the seeker engages in seeking the right way and doesn’t become obsessed by it to the point where it  becomes a holy grail and thus a barrier for further development and finding, he or she during the course of that seeking will be making fertile the soil of the heart.

As each individual like a plant  is quite unique and need specific tailor made  condition for it to grow [You dont grow cacti the same as orchids] you have to under go a period of time where you are made balanced. We tend to develop  sometimes exclusively some of the talents we are naturally born with at the neglect of other ones which are equally necessary.

For me I can say that the 2 years, especially 3 months before I became a Darvish was a similar time for me life took away everything I had, lost everything if only to learn to still myself inwardly inspite of walking through a storm. I learned other things too, but thats another story.

Then what happens? A master/spiritual guide/guru takes you unde rhis wing and over seas you developement through his own methods his own way. During this time there are a few thing the student must do:

1. “The aspirant must make himself inwardly clean. This mean he must be able to operate without the distorting effects of anger greed envy
2. “Have worldy interests but only to the extent that they are needed by the social environment”
3. “Complete and total submission to his master”

There are of course more things and depending what school you follow it will be expressed differently, with different symbols etc. Now if you will let us first compare the three sectiosn of the one novitiate and then say a few words on the unity of the path.

The novitiate:

First cycle of basical preparation is of importance, if only to teach him pateince and humility. Through obedience the neophyte develops and accumulated froce for original work.  Through a critical examination of the master minds, he will unconsciously express some what of their skill and virture in his own life. He becomes aware of his weakness and yet feels what are his strengths and his ability to serve. He holds fast to the central aim of applying the rules of dsicipline and experimnetation continuously and exactingly to the unfoldment of his personal powers and the alert and and energetic projection of these into some field of labour to jsutify his presences on the path.

Second Cycle: Through the constant application nof the neophytes present knowledgge and personal influence in his vocation and in seervice, he will start to get a right perspective of of himself in relation to the many masters of the path. Those perfections which he observes in each will gradually take shape in one dominating idea of the Master life, and narrow and one -sided conception will be displaced by full and rounded of the character he emulates.

Third Cycle: Here the neophyte should be well along the path with well defined mental qualities indicating that teh groundwork of a technique has been laid and is operative in his life. During this cycle the  neophyte has presumably prosecuted a discrimating study of many exponents of the technique. her will habve observed their individual percularities and their diverse applications of the technique in original departmental work; and from these examples he will have gathered himself and combined into one composite conception a compelling  individual technique which allows his constitution full expression in personal initiative.

What is next you may ask?

He will put himself to the trial by a powerful endeavor to act fromt eh altitutde of visions and acheivement fof those master minds who have for so long been the object of his study and emulation, until through a symapthetic attunement thier dignity and strenght become his by participation and enable him to command increasing recognition from Cosmic sources through fulfilling the law which is pledged to gratify the deepend aspirations of the dedicated soul.

Please take a look at this picture  again from my earlier post

 When the above quaotes talk about harmonizations with the masters take a look at the initials steps .

I have soemthing to take care of so I will come back and put the last section on the oneness of the path.

Dave

Another perspective [maybe] on the Spiritual path (interlude 2) The Unity in the multiplicity of the Path

Hey Friends,

           I just wanted to add something that I feel is very important. There is one path no one is better than the other. Like attracts like, some people gravitate more towards the opccult more towards mysticism, some people are built better for some ways then they are for others. What everyone needs to know is what they truly want and who they are- what are their propensities, what calls to them what does your heart gravitate towards.

The goal is the same, the perfected human being, the true paragon of nature, but maybe not even nature as we understand it but nature in the cosmic sense . The sufis offer a path, the rosicrucians, teh free masons, the yoga practicioners, the zen buddhist etc. The ends create the means for peach person in a specific place and time.

Though we have advanced much externally with nuclear bombs and jet plans and reruns of the view, and american idol, but internally the situation is still the same. Each master has mastered a technique  a unique way that works for fim or her. This represents an aspect of the path. When the aspirant reaches a certain level of understanding the master, unique for the aspirant at that time will materialize in hatever form is needed.

There are many paths that lead to the end goal. The idea is after a novitiate period, to have the aspirant aware of the laws and rules and working of the particular path he is on. Then work to a point where he not only trusts himself but he trusts his master and thus through the trust creates a tangible experience with him and then. I am outlinine thig notivitate period from a perspective and showing it practical application in sufism another perspective.

I hope you enjoy it

_Dave

Another perspective [maybe] on the Spiritual path (interlude) The hardest things for a seeker

Hey Guys,

I just want to add a brief comment before I continued onwards with this post. Though I became a darvish recently I have for what seems a life time been s,tudying many many different things for reasons I cant quite conceptualize. All this things I have been called to investigate have recently in my mind all became the same thing. Human expressions and experience is one, whether in terms of the occult of the mythic/magical , philosophical or mystical. The spiritual path is one as well. I have spent a long time reconciling these things not in my head but in a magnus opus, a life work.

To this end I have been part of some mystical organizations, and studied a lot quite intensely and like Proust whose vast structure of recollection emerged from a hibiscus tea and madeleines, a huge pattern has emerged  or rather a vision has emerged.  There is an amazing unity between the many forms of occult and mystical expression.

I am a scientist by trade and I have made the most systematic inquiry into many things and I have gotten some interesting answers what I am doing with this series of post, is  taking information from various sources,  and hopefully giving you a living element which are my thoughts ideas and feelings as I am experiencing new things and also presenting you with my thoughts before and after.

The hardest thing for a seeker is not only to find but to learn. The seeker must learn how they learn psychologically and come to an under understanding how knowing how they have come to know things, a stage which follows correct or incorrect learning. During this process, we are left with a motley assortment of materials.

Old manuscripts, the remnant of many different sspiritual movements, inner desires and yearning and there is no system that a  seeker has or can subscribe to put everything into perspective ? I have many ideas on this and to that end I have had a funny education in this life.

Aside from studying for school and a professions I studied for myself.  What was most important was going out into the world and talking with everyone from all walks of life. When You do that it frees you from judging. Talk to enough homeless people, talk to enough ‘junkies’  and they become a mirror showing u your inadequacies.  Its really that you should thank them for giving you an opportunity to realize something about yourself or to break an idol in your temple of self worship as the Sufis may say.

Ok i think that is enough i think i have made my point enjoy

Another perspective [maybe] on the Spiritual path (Part 3 of 4)

Hey Friends,

I thought I would post this third part . It is a short part, afterwards I  will go take care of somethings and go from there. I said I would talk about the path. whne I think of teh path I think of that sayingthat all roads lead to rome., why lets get first into the quote:

The path is one, truth is one, the Masters are one in perception and illumination yet eachone with a peerfected technique particularly adapted to the

1. The Mental
2. The Psychic
3. The spiritual

constitutions of the several authentic schools of discipline and initiate those who need their aid for the purpose of accomplishing there work.

—————–

His objective [the aspirant] is to become a representative of the brotherhood of the Masters! He will find that the members of it are exponents of a technique which is as diverse in its tenor and its application as the individual minds and personalities of the Masters themselves

Those are some deep quotes, there is much to talk of, tomorrow inshallah

Dave

Another perspective [maybe] on the Spiritual path (Part 2 of 4)

Hey My friends,

I decided to continu sharing soem of my thoughts and notes from my personal book of thoughts. Of course please take a look at part 1, and here goes. I have used examples from sufism to give some of these words here a greater depth by showing you a practical application.

 The first cycle [ the humble and patient application to the rudiments of the path] of basic preparation is of importance if only to teach the aspirant patience and humility

Concerning Humility

Whatever path [spiritual, occult or metaphysical] we choose to follow  we all have to go through stages irregardless of whatever station we have come to in our life, inspite of whatever we have acheived. In anof itself this is a great exercise, because it is a direct challenge to to what our ego imagines us to be. Also I have found with my experiences and those of many other who have deemed me worthy enough to be a friend, usually  great genius in one area always comes with a serious underdevelopment of certain qualities.  All aspirant much reach a point of holistic balance.

I am at that point now. All my academic, logical and intellectual abilities have been put on  hold and I have been living by the heart it seems, or rather right brain function has supplanted the normal left brain which normally dominates how I approach things but enough of that.  Well maybe not enough, be patient with me for a little more let me get you a nice quote:

“The Sufis, runs the saying “understand with their heart what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds.”

Concerning patience

In my opinion, what I feel patience means here is not just passively or actively waiting for a predestined time to come where whatever change will take affect  or what every knowledge will be gained. It means totally sincerity, to me lettign go of our own standards of what spirituality or god or and our own progress on the path should be.

One essential prerequisite for a student of sufism to know is that the student should not attempt to impose his own condition of study or criteria of progress. On understanding, a student should not think that he can understand just because he wants to.

See my other post on sincerity.

Once the seeker has reaach the level of sincecrity with self, he is ready for true sincerity with his spiritual guide, his shaikh  the on who will guide him or her to the God.

—————-

Take a look at this image here on my left taking from the Book Oriental Magic by Idries Shah.

Looking at Stage One and stage 2. Specifically stage two we can see this words  again but in a different form:

“Those who have lead have most faithfully followed, nothing is lost by the bending the will to take the preliminary stages of discipleship with crucial attention. The beginning of real initiative  of the spiritual aspirant  can be defined as such: demonstrating the painfully assimilated lesser knowledge or any knowledge gathered) step by step and compelled recognition by a well directed application”

Through obedience the neophyte develops and ccumulated force for original work.  perhaps the most important thing the aspirant learns is to trust himself, a master will never trust a man who has no confidence in himself.”

It seems like my posting on mysticism and science and this one are starting to come together on some  points. Next i want to talk about the path it self and different flowerings of the same technique, of course with examples.

- till next time

Dave

Another random assortment of thoughts – Seeking as a barrier to finding

Hello Friends,

                  Have you every  wondered what a difference a single day can make ?  Some of us may say as I have said, every day is the same, I wake up and try to fit everything I have to do in the span of a few hours: make time for my wife, make sure my sister is going well, check in with the parents form time to time, look after 6 pets, you all know correct, pay the bills work as many jobs as you can without fatiguing yourself to the point of medical attention.

Some of us might say, well my wedding day and subsequent night changed my life, the birth of my children, when I met my significant other, when I endured some great pain or trial [ cancer, sickness, poverty, homelessness] and came out better.

And yet at the same time all of us have been, I cant think of the word in english, boulversé in French, if anyone knows french. All of us have been shaken up inside from sometimes the most ordinary of things, the cry of a child, the wimpering of a dog, a beautiful sunset, an anonymous act of kindness. How do we reconcile the two feelings?, having everyday being the same, while at the same time having every act, notion, or thing, <insert some vague noun here> exist as a gateway for the deepest emotion a human being can feel, emotions that go beyond definitions?

Is there an answer? There is no one answer, everyone has to find it themselves, if they want to find it. As I have learned a lot over the last year, finding and seeking are two different things. Many a times it has happened that some remaining seeking and never find. I remember that quote I think I posted somewhere  on my blog 

In order to catch a gazelle everyone must run and give chase, but it is not everyone who give chase that succeeds in catching the gazelle.

For me I have realized that many many times searching is in a way a barrier to finding, its another veil. Why you say, because its a very subtle process. We say I want to be happy, and we look at what we are missing in our lives and try to become something to attain that happiness.  I want to be respected and treated like I am royalty (who doesnt), so I need to get money havea porshe for every day of the week etc. In seeking we are many a times becoming what we imagine what we are seeking for to be.

Some people want to find God, or want to be revered teachers, so they outwardly act according to their definition of a great teacher, maybe a special style of dress, a way of talking, etc. However what makes a teacher isnt dress or way or talking but somehting deeper.

What do you think?