On the Nature of Spirit

Spirit is what moves us, and attention is what moves spirit. Wherever we focus our attention, there moves our spirit also. Spirit is the fire that removes the blocks that lets the energy flow. Moving/kindling the Spirit is the essence of all healing arts - Kiatsu, Shiatsu, Acupuncture, spirit healing, energy healing and Sufi healing with “tawajjuh” (concentrated Divine attention), to mention only a few. To really feel and kindle our spirit we must concentrate it. A small example. Feel the concentration of your spirit when you contemplate a pleasure of which you are fond. Skiing? Biking? A movie? Relaxing with a good book? Not very deep but you get the point. 

Focusing our attention on the Divinity (Allah) is not an easy thing, since He is NOT what you think He is and therefore how can YOU focus your attention on Him. Quite conceptual, to say the least and not very experiential. Fortunately a very subtle technique has been handed down from the Divine (Allah) through his prophet Muhammad and from him throughout his line of descendants who have always been open-hearted and compassionate to all the people who came to them. This knowledge was then disseminated through generations of kind-hearted and sincere believers and seekers and eventually came to be known as the “Sufi” way.

The technique, if you will, is known as Hadhrah, which means, among other things, Presence (of the Divine). A few principles:
 

It’s an easy thing to know God, since He is never not present, we need only to turn our thoughts to him, and boom, there He is. That’s why one of His Attributed Qualities is that of At-Tawwab, the Oft-returning, Accepter of our rethinking.

But after this “connection”, or “re-charge”, how quickly do we turn away? In a sense, we “use” God to regenerate our spirit and then turn our spirit away from God to use it for the fulfillment of our desires, as though He is not capable of fulfilling them better than we. This is, in a sense, disrespectful and, in a sense, hurts God’s feelings, because He wants to prove a point. He wants not only to fulfill our desires for us, and indeed He does, but He wants us to know Him, and know that He IS the fulfillment of our desires. 

Feel the comparison between the lover and the beloved. See this in YOUR relationship. In your deep heart, do you not want to BE the fulfillment of your beloved’s desires?  Is that not the ultimate satisfaction? Do you not want his/her desires to be so oriented that you CAN be his fulfillment? The formula is simple. BE your Beloved! For only the Beloved (ALLAH) IS, or can be, the fulfillment of all desire. That is His promise, and that is exactly what He wants to be and do. In order to do this, we need to KNOW that His Presence is with us at all times.

But what does this require of us? The focus of our spirit on Him and Him alone. Before we focus on “how” we can do that, let’s answer a few questions first.

“But that will take me away from my life and my responsibilities and/or the accomplishment of my dreams and desires”, you say? 
 

On the Foolishness of Chasing Dreams

What an intense amount of energy and frustration is spent on the chasing of dreams. Literally we waste our lives away in pursuit of and illusory “happiness” that is always just on the other side of an “if only”. Yet we will all readily admit that a moment of deep contemplation upon the Divine Existence of God brings into our lives that very joy and happiness that we are “seeking/trying” to “establish” on a “permanent” basis in our lives. This is stated so nicely in Qur`an "Verily it is in the remembrance of God that the hearts find fulfillment". 

How simple it is. Why are we "seeking"? Because we have not “found”! Why are we “trying”? Because we have not yet “succeeded”. Why do we want it “established”? Because we have not yet discovered that it already is. And why do we want it “permanent”? Because nothing less will satisfy.  

Don’t you see that the “life of this (your, private, individual) world” is an exact mirror image of the Real World, into which God (Allah) wants you to step with full faith, trust and confidence?

So how do we get this faith, trust and confidence? Simple. Just pick it up from them that got it. “And who are they”, you ask? I put it to you, the masters of the Sufi way. “And how can they be so sure”, you ask? Well, ask them. Meet them. Read them. They’ve all tried it and to a person wish to be living testimonials that it is the truth. That is why “bearing witness”, or testimonial to truth, is such a strong part of their lives. 

“And where did they get this from?” They got it from the truth itself, from themselves, their observations, their own willingness to believe in, search and explore possibilities. They got it from others who had done the same and found it to be a safe and well-trodden path. They got it from seeing Love in desperation. And when they heard that this was, in truth, the very message with which all the prophets were sent, they knew it was the truth already in their hearts, and believed the message of the prophets. So they joined them and their communities to live in, enjoy and spread the word of this Way and understanding. 

Kindling your spirit is the beginning. Ongoing life and living, in and with the Presence of the Divine, is the goal. So come to the Sufi Way. Taste the true joy of life, Drink the wine from the cup of love, and feel the peace of certain knowledge. Feel the existence of endless Divinity, living your life in peace, security, love, and friendship, with understanding and healing for yourself and others. And Love. Above all, feel the Divine Love.