| Commitment
Winter 1998/1999 In this discourse, Sheikh Din addresses the topic of commitment. One may say they are totally committed to something, whether it be a belief or a cause or a relationship. Yet when push comes to shove, are they willing to do absolutely anything to fulfill the requirements of their commitment? We've been on the theme of commitment for about three weeks now. In the first stage we compared our personal thoughts by asking ourselves, "What does commitment mean to us?" We spent a whole session discussing our ideas about commitment. We found that it was a little easier for us to state what it means for us to act on a commitment than it is to talk about what commitment actually is itself. We could more easily describe the behaviors of commitment than we could actually define it. We came up with a pretty good list of all the things we think are important that contribute to commitment. We came up with such a good list that we all agreed if we were to take everything on the list, throw it into a pot and boil it down, the list would then contain the formula for consuming one into a single flow in their life. That flow would be the momentum and motion, the dynamism, intention and heartfelt sincerity required to stay with the commitment. What we understood about commitment with each other was compelling. We then spent the next session exploring the obstacles to commitment. We realized that if we were to live fully into the definitions of commitment that we had created, we would "lose" ourselves to our commitment. A 100% commitment means we literally become the object of our commitment. So in discussing what stands in the way of our commitments, we went through a whole session talking about fear. If we examine all of our reasons for not committing to spiritual life, all of the obstacles and all of the barriers to spiritual growth, the obstacle that comes up as the common denominator or the fundamental block is fear. Fear of what? Fear of what happens to "me" of course. Fear of the loss of "myself." Fear of the loss of my opinions, my preferences and my likes and dislikes. Maybe even fear of the loss of my position, my gender, my rank, my nationality, my favorite food, because if I were 100% committed to my spiritual ideal, I would be my ideal. I would no longer be what I thought I was in those other limited things. If a raindrop is 100% committed to returning to the ocean, as the raindrop enters the ocean, the raindrop no longer has a voice to say, "I am a drop." The raindrop's voice is now within the whole of the ocean. What happens to "me"? So we talked about fear. Then we went through a session to re-focus, and we looked at commitment from the standpoint of one's spiritual purpose. We defined "commitment" in spiritual terms, no longer in worldly terms. We said that commitment starts with the "trust" that God/Allah has given us upon our birth. We hold no belief nor do we hold any guilt or shame such as "original sin." We believe that a birth here, into this form, is a magnificent experience, full of purpose. We come from our Divine Creator, we are maintained through our life's lessons by our Divine Sustainer and we return to our origin, by the Grace of our Divine Destroyer. If you break down the word "God" it could mean "G" for generator, "O" for operator, and "D" for destroyer. That is the word "God." The belief in Sufism that creation is an outcome of Divine Intention and is endowed with Divine Purpose is revealed by Allah through the sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) in the poetic verse "I was a hidden treasure and wished to be known; therefore, I created you." From that poetic verse we draw the realization that we have a certain purpose in life upon our birth. If our parents were to leave us a trust fund, they would want two things from us for the use of the trust. The first would be the moral and balanced guidelines for its use, and the second would be the benefits that we should receive from its use. Likewise, upon receiving the grace of our physical creation, we said spiritual commitment goes all the way back to the "original trust," the endowment that we have received from our Creator. The "trust" is to use this life to fulfill our purpose. The "Executor" of the trust desires for us to realize our life's purpose. In so doing, we would also realize that the purpose of life is designed for no other reason than to realize our true purpose. Coming to this realization, that pursuing purpose is the only thing that is really happening in life, allows us to see through the many forms and masquerades of life's other activities like relationships, jobs, families, friends, as well as ups and downs. Nonetheless, the "real" thing, the motive behind the scene of every one of your thoughts and actions is that the heart is looking, longing to regain its unity, to fulfill its purpose. Then we spent a session talking about how fear stands in the way of the trust, and how we can overcome fear. We spent some time in that session learning that fear primarily comes from the past in the form of guilt, and lives in the future in the form of worry and anxiety. For one who brings oneself present, into this present moment, one would find that there is actually very little to be afraid of. Fear is just the "feeling" of fear. We learned how to take an inventory of ourselves, helping us to discover through spiritual and psychic (mental/emotional) understanding exactly what is it that we're afraid of. We found that fear exists in our minds as the impressions of the past and our fear of the repetition of those impressions in the future. We talked about letting go of the doership of our actions and what it means to place ourselves into trust. We need to develop the strength of mind so that we aren't carried away by mental agitation and, therefore, repeat the patterns of the past and remain unduly anxious about the future. One who has no control over one's mind and desires has a hard time staying "here," being present, because that one's mind runs off with them. Then we spent a session on how we can build our commitment, how we strengthen the commitment to the Self. In that session, we came back to the fundamentals. We recognized that we are not just physical beings, not just emotional or mental beings, we're not just spiritual beings. We are a combination of all three. We live a trifarious (three-sided) existence - that means on three levels: physical, mental and spiritual, all at the same time. We act out our being-ness on these three levels through thought, word and action. Thought, word and action are affected by our experience and our environment. We saw that in order to build the strength of commitment, it requires bringing eight things into balance: a) physical, mental and spiritual attributes; b) thought, word and action; and c) experience and environment. These are the elements that build the structure of our physical, mental and spiritual integrity. In our lives, the bigger the gap between the realities of our thoughts, words and actions and our experience and environment, the more stress is placed on our physical, mental and spiritual structure - or we could say the bigger the "holes are in our bucket." A bucket full of holes cannot hold much water. The more aligned our thoughts, words and actions are with our environment and our experience, the greater our body, mind and heart's ability is to hold a higher understanding, a higher message. Integrating all expressions into a common direction fortifies the vessel, strengthens the integrity of the vessel and "plugs the holes," so the bucket can hold more water. In our case, the person can hold more light. We said that one's commitment is strengthened by performing self reflection. This helps us to see what one truly stands for, what one truly believes, that one speaks in accordance with one's beliefs and one's actions, and that one acts in accordance with one's words. For support, we create the spiritual company and the spiritual environment necessary to go in the direction of our chosen goal. We wrapped up these sessions by saying that today's subject would be, "Whatever one is committed to is one's God." There is the legendary story of the Prophet Moses (upon him be peace) going up to the mountain top and receiving the revelation of God/Allah. He stood before the burning bush, the bush that was consumed in fire yet was not consumed by it. The burning bush, a symbol for the Spirit, spoke to Moses (a.s.) and from that speaking revealed the Law. We affectionately refer to that Law which is contained in the Old Testament as "The Ten Commandments." Fundamentally the Ten Commandments are laws and guidelines of spirituality. In Sufism we call this shariat. Their instructions are for the "lining-up" of all the physical, mental, spiritual, thought, word and action, experience and environmental attributes. The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." The very first commandment! As men study the Law superficially through the use of the physical eyes and the mind, trying to sort through all the names of Allah and all the deities that we have called God, they may misinterpret the reference to "God's jealousy" which appears later in the verse. They think it's as if Allah gets "pissed off" if you like another God, and Allah simply doesn't want you to have one! Personally, I wonder if God would be even more angry to find out that many people in the world see God as a woman?! The materialistic preoccupations that we carry within ourselves must be challenged. What does it really mean to have nothing else, " . . . no other gods before Me?" Judaism doesn't mark itself to be "Judaism" until the appearance of the Law. It is said that the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) (upon him be peace) was the first "Jew," and Muslims reverently regard him as one of the most important Prophets of all time. The Qur`an explicitly refers to Ibrahim as a Muslim, one bowed in submission to Allah. Historians say that he was the Patriarch of religion, also referring to him as the first Jew. But there were no "Jews" as such until the Law came into being. This is because it is the Law which codified the religious experience, gave a dimension to the religious practice and defined what it meant to be a "Jew." Let go of the labels for a moment of "who is what" and "what is who," and go into the deeper understanding of our belief in one God. The belief in one God, monotheism, is the origin of our various traditions. So, if there's only one God/ Allah, and we receive a commandment that says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," that really means on a more subtle level: Don't put anything before Me, in front of Me, make a higher priority than Me, distract yourself with or become consumed with something or someone that is other than or that is not Me (Allah). When Allah is put into the "pole position," the primary position, everything becomes oriented to and around the viewpoint of that Beloved, by whatever name we call the Beloved - Heart, Spirit, Consciousness, Divinity, Nature, Guru, etc. It doesn't really matter what Name we call Allah, the Divine Mystery that is beyond our comprehension and ability to conceive. We only aspire to "name" Allah in our small attempts to love and understand. When the Beloved is in the forefront as the highest priority, everything is seen from the eyes of that Beloved. If we permit something to be placed between us and the Beloved, and our hearts allow that thing to be made more important than the Beloved, even inadvertently, that thing now has become the most important. Whatever that is. It doesn't matter what it is. Another, other than God, is in the pole position. We're basically saying to ourselves at that point, "This is more important than God." We don't ever dare say it out loud, especially those of us who are "spiritual." We always say proudly, "My spirituality is most important to me! But on the side, I've got some things I've got to take care of first." Or, "I'll get to It as soon as I can. I've still got time. I just need to get some other things in order first." Whatever! Can you see how we have made something else more important than Allah - the "Trust," the commitment? Now we've become committed to something else, and we've changed our priorities. This is the meaning of, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Whatever we place into that primary position, that is the outlook through which we "see" the world -whether it's money, relationships, gender identification, our friends, our nationality, where we live, our terms and preferences, our likes and dislikes, our kids, our parents, growing old, acquiring knowledge and information or position and fame. We've made "that" our God because we have put it into the primary pole position. Our experiences become aberrant according to the intensity of our desires, attachments and our relationships to these things. Allah gets placed further into the background. Pretty soon, if Allah goes far enough into the background, then God will no longer be the common denominator, the orientation for all of our experiences. God and we become separate, separated subjects. When Allah, the Supreme Divinity, becomes a separate subject from ourselves, we end up in the same dialectic of dualistic relationship to God that we have to everything else in the world. This is the cause of our suffering. When God becomes a separate subject in our lives, then we perceive ourselves as apart from God. Just like any of our relationships, if you and I feel apart from each other, we struggle with differences of opinion. We have to negotiate things to work them out. Only by the degree to which we're in harmony will we feel happy with each other. And by the degree to which we're in disharmony, we won't like each other very much. People go through spiritual struggles when they're at odds with God. They argue with "what is." Arguing with "what is" is a very hard position to be in, because whatever "it is" never stops. How are you going to argue with Allah? But we feel separated from Allah because we have allowed Allah to become a separate as well as a separated subject from us. Me vs. God. God vs. Me. We've talked many times about spiritual physics, the spiritual properties of this Divine Creation. It is understood even by Western practitioners of yoga, meditation and in the spiritual and mystical paths like Sufism, that the unit mind, the individual mind, has these same properties. "As above, so below." Perhaps the mind's greatest attribute which brings the greatest benefit, but also risks the greatest liability is, "Whatever the mind thinks about, that's what it becomes." That's the spiritual physics of the mind. "As we think, so we are and so we become." What we think is what we are. It is not as the 70's health food slogan advertised, "You are what you eat." Eating good food can bring us into physical balance, but I have met people who defied every dietary law there could possibly be, and they were radiant examples of happiness, balance and health. They were literally able to consume and digest the energy of whatever they put inside them, and it made no difference whether it was "Holy Ganges River water" or Coca-Cola. They didn't care. It made no difference to them. Because of their ideation they saw and experienced everything as the creation of God. The real principle is, "As you think, so you are and so you become." This also means that whatever is "important" to us at any given time is going to be whatever we make important to us. That is the only way that anything has a hold on us. "But it's really important!" We hear ourselves saying that a lot about our attachments and relationships, no matter what they are. "But this ... this is really important!" Well, why is it so important? Who made it important? Who says it's important? To what degree is it important? "It's important to me." Oh, to you it's important! Do you know that everything is most important to Allah? Any thing is just as important as any other thing, and everything is the most important to God, always all at the same time. If you are the supreme Generator, Operator and Destroyer (GOD), and you are responsible for never going to sleep on the job, maintaining the universe, always being present, being eternal, having been the source of everything that comes into being on every level, for being the maintainer of all that ever is and all that will ever be, and being the final consumer of everything that there is to come - is someone's individual opinion more important than somebody else's? Is a blade of grass in one person's yard less important than the beans in another's garden? See, there's a big problem that we set up for ourselves when we become attached to our own self-importance. We suffer over what we make important, not because it's important, but because of the expectations that get created from how important we made it. It's not just good enough for us to make something important. We also want the fruit of the outcome of how important we say it is. In other words, we want things to turn out the way that we want them to turn out, because we've decided what important means. The mind moves toward the things that we make important, because our conditioning made them important for us. Then we see our world through the outlook of those self-importances. Where's God in all this? What's happened to Allah? What happened to the Divine perspective? By being consumed in self-importance and the rumination of selfish mental activity, I am now becoming increasingly more engrossed in myself, the small self, and decreasingly absorbed in the large Self, Allah, because the physics of my mind and heart are occupied. The universal system, Allah, doesn't suffer over self-importance because it is Allah that is important. God is the true and eternal subject. When the Sheikh comes and offers you the prize roses, how will you have the room to accept and hold them if your arms are full, preoccupied, holding the pain, suffering and dilemmas of your personal life? Forgive me. I liken all of these preoccupations, spiritually, speaking, to garbage. If you're unwilling to let go of all these things, then you're left holding the garbage. That's what holding false self-importance is about. It occupies the space of the heart. So we said in the past that the spiritual path, the spiritual practices and the role of the spiritual guide are at times to confront and interrupt this holding. What are you holding? What is it that you're holding onto that is so important, that you have made so important and that you can't let go of it? Do you really want the thing that you say you want, i.e., God, Unconditional Love, the Beloved? Last week we compared the journey of spirituality to a climb up the highest mountain, although it isn't always fair to do so because it's a hierarchical example. Spiritual enfoldment is very interdimensional. I often object to the "ascending" variety of symbols like climbing the ladder, climbing the staircase, climbing the mountain, because these metaphors make it seem like a person can "accomplish" God realization by simple application of personal will power or force. That's a very male oriented look at Enlightenment. Nonetheless, like any particular symbol, there's some value here provided we understand the essential meaning as it's used appropriately according to time and place. We were saying that if the goal of the "spiritual mountaineer" is to reach the summit peak of the highest mountain of all understanding and every dimension, to jump on the first beautiful elk that comes along and ride it off into a beautiful meadow is a distraction from the journey upward. If we had maintained the single pointedness of going to the summit and the summit alone, once reaching the peak, we would have made available to us all of the meadows, lakes, streams, brooks, trees, animals, caves, and rocks below us. At that point, we would have the whole journey in proper perspective to the summit, and from that dimension everything beneath us would now be for our choosing, rather than having been distracted by only a few experiences along the way. Being distracted along the way is often a great form of enticement to our impatience while going toward the One, because we forget -well maybe we don't forget - but we just kind of want to "enjoy" ourselves along the way. Or we don't like to get hurt along the way, so we avoid. But if we reached the highest summit peak of the highest mountain range, everything and all experiences along the way would be in perspective. Likewise, when we put the Divine Beloved in the "pole position," in the peak position, this action is the keeping of "only God before us" and letting the other "gods" go. This is the same thing as saying, "I accept only the summit peak of the highest mountain, and I know that through the realization of that summit peak, I will be as my Lord, the Enjoyer of all dimensions." It has been said in every tradition, "Know thyself and you will know thy Lord." In the spiritual chemistry of our minds, we discover through experience that whatever we think about and are absorbed in deeply affects us. Why is it that we sit in our dhikr circle and chant "Allah Hu, Allah Hu, Allah Hu" forever? Whatever the chant or mantra, what we're doing is cleaning and distilling away the impurities, the illusions of the self which occupy the space of our minds and hearts. By the repetition of the Names of God, we replace our limitations with the highest ideal, Allah. Many people have reported that after leaving here, they'll go through a period where they hear "La ilaha illa Llah" or "Baba Nam Kevalam" even in their sleep. In other words, the mind continues to ruminate on God. If we likened the mind to a bucket of water, took a whole tray of pebbles and one by one put the pebbles into the bucket, pretty soon the water would spill over the edge, because the pebbles and the water couldn't occupy the same space at the same time. Eventually there would be no more water left in the bucket at all, only pebbles. Compare these pebbles to the repetition of "Baba Nam Kevalam," the Beloved's Name is All or "La illaha illa Llah." The Sufi's version of "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" is "La ilaha illa Llahu Wahdahu la Sharikalahu." "La ilaha" means there is no God, or, shall we say, there exists nothing but the Divine Reality. "Illa Llah" means there is only Allah. There only is the Divine Reality. So this spiritual phrase, this mantric phrase if you will, fills both directions of our mind. You know that mind has two directions. It has left and right or inward and outward. For anything that we say positive, we can come up with something negative. For every direction we go, there's another direction to go. For every opinion that we have, there's an equally opposite and valid opinion. Right? This is the form we live in. Relative reality in this world is duality. Up/down, in/out, left/right, male/female, right/wrong, black/white, dark/light, day/night. "La ilaha illa Llah." "La illaha" together with "illa Llah." "Hu" means He, the One. Who? The One. "Wahdahu la Sharikalahu" means He is one with no likeness nor partner. The design of this spiritual incantation is a brilliant revelation from Allah imparted upon the Prophet Muhammad (May peace be upon him). |