Many years ago now I struggled to find words – my own words – to express a ‘reality’ that I was seeing. I found instead that I had acquired the language of others. First it was TM and the Maharishi, later it was Muktananda. Afterwards – very briefly – Rajneesh. Finally, I found Jiddu Krishnamurti, … Continue reading ‘Enough Words?’
Tag: Sufism
‘Proximity, the Body of Light and the Word’
(22) …Jesus said to them, “when you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male may not be male nor the … Continue reading ‘Proximity, the Body of Light and the Word’
‘Beyond the Beyond: Mistaking the Pot for Its Contents’
Lord Carnarvon, impatient of Howard Carter’s silence as the latter looked, awe struck, though the crack into the newly excavated tomb of the boy King Tutankhamun, called out to him, “Can you see anything?” Carter responded, “Yes! Wonderful things!” It was 1922, almost 100 yrs ago. What Howard Carter saw, on that first glimpse back … Continue reading ‘Beyond the Beyond: Mistaking the Pot for Its Contents’
'Opening the Word from the Inside – II'
Laleh Bakhtiar, in her book ‘Sufi: Expressions of the mystical quest,’ (Thames and Hudson, Great Britain, 1997) says that: ‘The journey to God begins with an awakening to the concept that the phenomenal world is a veil which conceals the Divine. We begin the Quest [she says] by removing the veil, only to become aware … Continue reading 'Opening the Word from the Inside – II'
‘A Brief Reflection on the Fragility of Life’
‘When?’ Second Coming When the earth lies crushed and broken, And the creeks are all dry When the air no longer rings with song Of birds which no longer fly When clouds no longer break apart As they flee before the wind And the sun like a red hot iron Sears souls with the brands … Continue reading ‘A Brief Reflection on the Fragility of Life’
‘Guile,Motivation, Action without Guile’
Is it possible, desirable even, to be without intrinsic motivation, and therefore to live without guile? Is not the whole of life, from cradle to grave, driven to be, to become, something, even if that something is simply physical; materially present to and in this world, driven by the demands of self, of family, of … Continue reading ‘Guile,Motivation, Action without Guile’
‘Shadow and Lightsource Both’
‘Shadow and Light Source Both’ Speaking up – Speaking out What am I, a candle? If that! Some small light in an immensity of darkness then? Even to say this much reeks of hubris. Why then do I write as if I know something? Why, indeed, do I write at all?The former speaks of ego, … Continue reading ‘Shadow and Lightsource Both’
‘Between Being & Non-Being’
‘Between being and non-being, between Light and Darkness,’ that is our situation; Responsible for the Darkness in so far as one intercepts the Light; Responsible for the Light in so far as one prevents the Darkness from invading and governing it (after Ibn ‘Arabi; in ‘Man of Light in Iranian Sufism’, by Henri Corbin). Responsibility … Continue reading ‘Between Being & Non-Being’
‘Guile & Guilelessness’
‘Guile & Guilelessness’ Somewhere, back there, if not lost in the mists of time then certainly enwrapped in memory I ‘knew’ the nature of ‘guilelessness.’ Blessed by the most wonderful intervention by two angels, I found myself - in a dream/experience in the ‘Imaginal realm’ spoken of by Ibn ‘Arabi (trans. Henri Corbin, ‘Alone with … Continue reading ‘Guile & Guilelessness’
‘Dogs, Bones, and the Enneagram: Chapter 2’
“Dogs, Bones & The Enneagram” “…It often happens that exact knowledge concerning details, communicated to a [person] before he has acquired an understanding of the essential nature of a thing, makes it difficult for him to understand this essential nature. This does not mean that exact definitions do not exist on the way of true … Continue reading ‘Dogs, Bones, and the Enneagram: Chapter 2’
Tracks in a Pathless Land 