‘Pages from the Life of a Sufi’ Journal Sunday 7th April Last night dreaming/awake – thinking quite clearly about “Dispositional Equivalence” (from some months ago in a dream/experience of the “shrimp” broach with the pink diamond eye – which gave rise to the piece called “Facets of Unity”/seeing through the eyes of another). This element … Continue reading “Dispositional Equivalence”
Tag: Sufism
“Love For The One And Love For The Many”
‘Pages from the Life of a Sufi’ Journal Saturday, 8th June In the cauldron of fire that is life, is love for the One the same as love for the many? Jesus urged us to ‘love our neighbour…’ but who is our neighbour? And is love for the (sometimes) abstract (the One) the same love-in-kind … Continue reading “Love For The One And Love For The Many”
“To Be (A Follower) Or Not To Be (A Follower): That is The Question”
What does it mean, “To be a follower” and what happens when “following” dies? * When I was a young man I spent a number of years in the military. Never ‘front line’ of course, but – never the less – I know what it means to be a “follower” (in this case “of orders”). … Continue reading “To Be (A Follower) Or Not To Be (A Follower): That is The Question”
“Encountering the Word”
“Encountering the Word” There are no special languages: not Greek, nor Latin; not Hebrew, nor Arabic; nor yet Sanskrit. Certainly not English. Why then do we persist in the myth making of the power of particular languages to capture in their net “the Word of God,” of Truth, more perfectly in one form of words … Continue reading “Encountering the Word”
“A Love Affair Revisited”
“A Love Affair Revisited” ‘… Between the idea/And the reality Between the motion/And the act Falls the shadow For Thine is the Kingdom Between the conception/And the creation Between the emotion/And the response Falls the shadow Life is very long Between the desire/And the spasm … Continue reading “A Love Affair Revisited”
“Paths, Truth, and Travelling”
“Paths, Truth and Travelling” One week ago already we stood as one to witness my beloved youngest son marry his lovely partner in the Botanic Gardens under the spreading canopy of a huge Moreton Bay Fig. How appropriate, more than 120 mainly family members joined in those moments, in that situation. Time passes and events … Continue reading “Paths, Truth, and Travelling”
“Opening the Word”
Opening the “Word” of God “Each sensible thing has a created Spirit by which its Form is constituted. As Spirit of that form, it is related to the form as a meaning is related to a word…” (‘Abd al-Karim Jili, quoted in Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi, … Continue reading “Opening the Word”
“Autobiography: Lotus Heart”
Autobiographical Fragments One door closes, another opens It has been many long years since I met Mr. Mehta and his gang of rogues at his little hotel, high in the Palani Hills, in south-western India. I had left Krishnamurti and the crowds that surrounded those last talks in Madras and fled further south stopping only … Continue reading “Autobiography: Lotus Heart”
“What Is Compassion?”
“What Is Compassion?” The frost indicates that winter’s grip tightens. My bones tell me the same message. I woke in the night with the heart playing tricks on me, breathing difficult and tight. Medication eases some of the symptoms such that sleep is again possible (years past would have spelled an opportunity to get up; … Continue reading “What Is Compassion?”
“Only Love: Opening the Way”
“Only Love” (Opening the ‘Path of Love’) What price love? Can anyone put a price on it? It has no monetary value for it can’t be bought; anything that can is not love. Half a lifetime spent in its pursuit – is that too much or too little? Should it not be cradle to grave? … Continue reading “Only Love: Opening the Way”
Tracks in a Pathless Land 