Introduction to
Spiritual Brotherhood
by
Murshid Samuel L. Lewis
(Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti)
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for their help in preparing this publication: Masheikh Wali Ali Meyer, Sheikh Hassan Herz, Saadi Klotz, Khalida Boll, Dr. Timothy Axelrod, Johannah Barry, Zarifah Demcho, Jan Huston, Ishmael Ford, Amrita McConville and Miriam Matthews.
Introduction to Spiritual Brotherhood. Copyright © 1981 by the Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society.
Printed in the United States of America at Barlow Printing, Inc., Petaluma, California.
All rights reserved. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
For information address Sufi Islamia/Prophecy Publications, Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society, The Mentorgarten, 410 Precita Avenue, San Francisco; California 94110.
Bismillah Books Number 3
Published as Volume 5, Number 2 of Bismillah, A Journal of the Heart
First Printing, 1972
Second Revised Edition, 1981
Photo on page 12 by Mansur Johnson.
Photo on page 64 by Saul Barodofsky
Cover illustrations by Miriam Matthews
Design by Hassan Herz, Saadi Klotz and Jan Huston
ISBN 0-915424-07-X
Table of Contents
Introduction by Dr. Timothy Axelrod
Part I. Nature, Humanity and the Mysteries
1. The Relation of Spiritual Leadership to World Affairs
2. The Basis for Operative Spirituality
3. Heart Mystery in the Mineral Kingdom
4. Breath Mystery in the Mineral Kingdom
5. The Mysteries in the Organic World
7. Spiritual Significance of the Group-Unit
8. Inner Action of the Group-Unit
9. Outer Action of the Group-Unit
11. Formation of a Group-Unit in the Presence of a Teacher
12. Formation of a Group-Unit in the Absence of a Teacher
Part II. Looking Toward the New Age
1. 1969: Toward Spiritual Brotherhood
3. The Use of Psychedelics in the New Age
5. The Individual in the Commune
6. Meta-psychics in the New Age
Afterward: The Early Life of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis by Masheikh Wali Ali Meyer
The text of Introduction to Spiritual Brotherhood has been corrected, completely re-edited and reset from Murshid Samuel Lewis’s original manuscript of the same name, which he began in 1944 and returned to finish in 1969. In addition, a full index has been added and the glossary expanded since the first edition.
The passage of ten years since the first edition has witnessed more discoveries that relate modern science to the principles of mysticism as well as increased interest in this field, as evidenced in the publication of works like The Tao of Physics, The Dancing Wu-Li Masters and Space-Time and Beyond. The introduction by Astrophysicist Timothy Axelrod brings us up to date on the relation of Murshid’s early prophetic work to the latest findings about the nature of the physical universe.
Part One of this work was written during a period of Murshid Samuel Lewis’s life when he had to proceed with only his inner awakening and confirmation to support him (as noted in Masheikh Wali Ali’s sketch of Murshid’s early life in the afterward to this edition). Part Two finds Murshid 25 years later, having been confirmed by Sufis, Zen masters and yogis throughout the East during his visits there in 1956 and 1961, his work flourishing as a Sufi teacher, with the young, with the Dances of Universal Peace, with music and poetry—in every aspect. The difference in style is noticeable.
It is even more noticeable in his recorded classes and lectures from this period, some of which have been published in a companion release to this book called Talks of an American Sufi. The first volume in this series includes Murshid in “plain speaking” style talking about love, sex and relationships, the path of initiation and the Christian scriptures.
Other volumes planned in the Bismillah Book series include Murshid’s writings on his travels to the East and meetings with teachers there. A sampling of Murshid’s poetry, diaries and practices, as well as remembrances of his disciples is available in In the Garden, a book first published in 1975 by Lama Foundation and Harmony Books and which is scheduled for reprinting in a revised edition by Sufi Islamia/Prophecy Publications in 1982.
One of the main themes of Introduction to Spiritual Brotherhood is that the Mysteries known to the mystic are evident on all planes of existence, including the physical world known to the scientist. This work has much to offer a scientist, for it both presents a transcendent perspective of the physical world and gives detailed insight into physical phenomena. It is a great delight that the seeming contradiction between science and religion, which has so often plagued them both, is here entirely absent. Concerning this, Samuel Lewis writes:
The spiritual outlook is one which can include both these outlooks without destroying anything in them—rather it transcends them. Spirituality is not lost by the study of nature; on the contrary, the study of nature is one of the most beautiful and profound ways of reaching the Ultimate Goal.
When the first part of this work was written in 1944, the great revolution in scientific understanding that began with quantum mechanics and relativity was still in its infancy. Murshid clearly recognized the significance of these developments. For example, he writes that “the physics of inertia has come to a dead end with the rapid discoveries of radioactivity, relativity and quantum mechanics.”
Subsequent developments in fields such as molecular biology, particle physics and astrophysics—which barely existed at the time—offer new insights into Murshid’s work. More important than the development of any one field has been the attainment of a more integrated scientific perspective which makes increasingly clear the subtle relationships which connect the microscopic world of elementary particles with the cosmos considered as a whole (and all the worlds between). This perspective brings the view of the scientist into closer harmony with the view of the mystic.
As an example of this harmony, one may consider the current scientific view of the origin and evolution of the physical universe. The initial state of the universe is infinitely-concentrated pure energy, undifferentiated and boundless. The essential quality of this state is to expand with great rapidity. As this expansion proceeds, the energy becomes more dilute or cooler, and a great multitude of forms appear. Initially these forms consist of “elementary” particles such as those observed in today’s high energy accelerators. These are followed by more complex forms such as atoms and pregalactic vortices, and eventually by galaxies, stars and organic life.
The forms we currently observe appear to be held together by four very different forces, known to the physicist as the strong (or nuclear), weak, electromagnetic and gravitational. The different nature of these forces is reflected in the vastly different forms associated with them. It is a very recent accomplishment of modern physics—both theoretical and experimental—that these forces are known to be subtly and intimately connected and indeed to be different aspects of a unified force. This work is not complete, since the role of the gravitational force is not yet known, but it now seems clear that in the early universe the unity of the four forces was manifest and that the separation occurred only as the universe expanded.
The laws of physics thus mirror increasingly clearly the process by which, in Sufi cosmology, Zat (the unmanifest) manifests as Sifat (qualities). Of these Murshid writes:
Zat is the universal, all-pervading essence which is beyond all qualities, characteristics and descriptions: there is only One. As the One reproduces itself as the many, each aspect of the many is collected around a center, becoming at least momentarily a soul, self, cell, atom, chain molecule and so on. These manifest “manys” form units based upon the non-eternal ego or nufs. Every nufs is subject to change, decay and death.
This last statement is one that most physicists would have disagreed with only a few years ago. For example, it was believed that the proton was not subject to decay and had an unlimited life. Ii is a recent result of theoretical physics that the proton does decay as a result of the underlying connection of the four forces. Experiments are now underway to measure the lifetime of the proton (a difficult task, since the predicted life is immensely greater than the current age of the universe).
One could give many further examples of this convergence of the mystical and scientific views, but it is not necessary to do so. Samuel Lewis foresaw this process very clearly and discusses it in this work. It is important to realize, as he says, that “our failure to explain much in the world before us and everything in the world unseen” is still very much with us. Introduction to Spiritual Brotherhood illuminates the way by which this failure may be overcome.
Dr. Timothy Axelrod
Physics Department
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory August 1981
Part I. Nature, Humanity and the Mysteries
I. The Relation of Spiritual Leadership to World Affairs
Students of metaphysics are taught that the affairs of earth are, in a sense, reflections of the conditions of the mind-world. Whatever is thought by the individual or by the collectivity is sooner or later manifested to our senses. Thus an explanation is found for everything from the Oriental karma to the Occidental suggestion. The occultist is especially trained to control his own mind so that he might not only control his own affairs and his own lot in life but also comprehend the affairs of others. But the mind of itself is not a perfect instrument; it has its self-starter, so to speak, its accelerator and its gear-shift, but it is not equipped with a good set of brakes and its motion in reverse (that is, memory) is often insufficient and inefficient.
The mind, with all its thoughts and activities, may in its turn be controlled by the feelings—that is to say, the heart. Hindus have for long ages used the terms manas and buddhi to describe this relationship. Too often we employ these words or their translations without having any clear concept of their meaning. That is to say, we want a mirror-picture of the words even though this picture cannot give us an intelligible understanding of their meaning any more than a mirror or momentary photograph offers a clear picture of ourselves.
Much has been made of the similarities and differences between manas and buddhi. But it is not enough to identify manas with thought and buddhi with feeling. When Gautama Sakya Muni took the title of “Buddha,” it was because he not only had complete knowledge of buddhi, he had identified himself with it. Buddhism, strictly speaking, is the philosophy or religion which comes through identification with or assimilation into buddhi, which is not only intuition and intelligence, but the light of these principles—an actual transcendent light. Out of this Buddhism comes the complete selfless outlook (connoted by the Sanskrit anatma, the Pali anatta).
This body of ours contains brain and nervous systems which represent the mind-world in the physical realm. It also contains heart and bloodstream which represent or present the spiritual realm in the manifestation. A study of them reveals to the seer the internal state and grade of evolution of everybody. It is all there.
The mind-world is also reflected in the thoughts, ideas and inspirations of the collective humanity. Thus we may find many people getting identical or similar inspirations at the same time, because these inspirations are there in the space itself (akasha). They are attuned to it by their very breath and state of being, though they know it not.
One may say that the whole humanity reflects the mental sphere, that man is mind. But when the question is asked, “Who and what represents the heart-plane on earth?” the answer is not so simple. True, there is a moral order more or less evident. But this moral order is very much attached to the sphere of action and reaction, cause and effect—that is to say, karma. And in order to reach the heart-sphere, we must transcend this whole universe of cause and effect with its personality-atomistic-self outlook.
There seems to be one universal teaching offered by the Founders of every religion and that is Love! The people of the world have become so attached to what they call the Golden Rule that they have lost all perspective of it. It has never successfully been applied to human affairs and it cannot be, for it naively assumes that there are innumerable selves and that the relationship between these selves can become ideal. But an ideal relationship cannot exist between discretely distinct selves. The study of music and the study of love shows that harmony exists when there is a sort of attunement or merging between apparently different entities.
The teaching and practice of Love is the essence of spirituality. But this Love is beyond intellectual definition and often beyond intellectual understanding; though at the same time a child or child-mind may completely comprehend it. The reason for this is that Love is of a different order. Things are of one order; thoughts are of a different order, transcendent to the universe of things; love (or loves) and feelings, in their turn, belong to a still different order, transcendent to both thoughts and things without being entirely separate from them.
So we have in this world leaders in practicality, leaders in thought, leaders in purely physical movements, leaders in feeling and finally those who have the heart/selfless outlook. It is these who constitute spiritual leadership and who serve as channels for spirituality in the affairs of the world.
2. The Basis of Operative Spirituality
The basis for operative spirituality may be found in many scriptures, and outside the scriptures it is found especially in the writings of the Sufis and in the records of the Ikhwan-i-Safa or brethren-of-purity. Saint Paul declared, “Let there be one mind among you.” But elsewhere he said, “Put ye on the mind of Jesus Christ.” To be a full Christian or Buddhist or disciple one must begin with the first and attain to the second; that is to say, start with love and harmony and end with the wholly holy outlook.
When Sufi Inayat Khan brought his teachings to the West, he not only provided for the elevation of individuals but also, as a perfect initiate, knowing the non-selfhood of the person, he provided for spiritual activity. This spiritual activity cannot be reached by addition or multiplication. It comes from an unfoldment like that of a flower, of which the lotus has long been accepted as the symbol.
Noticing that his disciples could not be freed psychologically from their long-held Western-Aristotelian-individualistic outlook, he not only gave much attention toward freeing humanity from this outlook, but he also provided, in his Healing Service, a method by which spiritual brotherhood could be approached. For spiritual brotherhood is only attained in and through action. The theory of it becomes high-sounding poetry or philosophy which, in the end, may be entirely worthless. But by institution and ceremony a group sometimes serves and acts as if it were an individual. This Group-Unity, of which much may be said, is the basis of growth: physical, mental, spiritual, biological, chemical, and so forth.
A characteristic of the true spiritual teacher or guru is that he sacrifices his ego, so to speak, so that he can more readily communicate his spiritual magnetism to his disciples. Of course the true sheikh or guru is one who has already attained a degree of absorption in the Divine Consciousness: this absorption is the nexus or connectedness that typifies the true state. Without it all claims are invalid; with it they are unnecessary—it is so living, real. So it is no merit when such a teacher has inspirations, yet it is all merit and especially his merit when the pupils are inspired. For he acts as the sun of the planets and asteroids together: the teacher by his magnetism unites and unifies the brethren. This is the nexus of spiritual brotherhood.
The khankah or ashram is based upon such leadership and such brotherhood. The leadership may not be expressed, but it should be felt. And the brotherhood, on the contrary, must be expressed. When the Buddha withdrew from this world, he left his disciples the Lamp of Dharma. This is really the Universal Light which illumines every man who has come into the world—in other words, the Logos. And those who held fast to the Dharma constituted the Sangha or Brotherhood or Ikhwan. This is what is meant by “Peace on earth to men of good-will”; which is to say, those who have been illumined by the Logos or Light-of-Dharma (Buddhi) radiate peace upon earth. They become centers of Baraka or universal-life, embracing blessing for the whole humanity.
A group of human beings, working together as a unit, forms an integrated individual or “I-I.” The single, separated, individualistic ego or “I” disappears in such a group or institution, but the person who seems to lose his separate existence thereby loses nothing more. He begins to partake of the universal life. Jesus Christ has said, “I am the vine and ye are the branches thereof.” Abdu’l-Baha declared, “People of the world, you are like the branches of a tree and leaves of a branch.”
According to the teachings of tasawwuf—that is to say, the spiritual doctrines and metaphysics known as Sufism along with the practice thereof—all things in creation and manifestation, even all things in existence, are held together by Ishk. Ishk has been called Divine Love. It is difficult to express it by such a limited phrase. We know that sunlight contains electricity, magnetism and numerous other forces or aspects of cosmic force. Gravitation, light, attraction, adhesion and cohesion are all aspects of this Ishk in the physical world. But even these aspects extend far into the unseen, and it cannot be said that Ishk is limited or qualified by its mental aspects and characteristics.
Scientific chemists, bound by materialism, do not explain the simplest things. Why is water a solvent? Why is it that distilled water seems to lack life while rain water is so living and vital? Scientific biologists, bound by materialism, do not explain the processes of evolution. Metaphytes and metazoa obtain qualities and functions which cannot be calculated beforehand by any knowledge of the constituents. Organic chemists, standing between the two, have turned their science into a technique and an art; they find out things, the explanation of which may not be understood until long after the phenomena are recognized.
The New Testament teaches that there are three mysteries on earth—the mysteries of water and breath and blood. Behind these three mysteries, behind all mysteries, behind all activity and behind all life is this Ishk or Love or Agape or Karuna, which holds all things and persons together, which creates the beauty and harmony of this cosmos.
3. Heart Mystery in the Mineral Kingdom
Ishk—the divine, all-pervading love—operates as gravitation, adhesion, cohesion and chemical affinity on the material plane and manifests in and through other chemical and physical forces as well. Whatever, whenever and wherever attraction, attunement and affinity appear, they are due to the all-pervading and omnipresent activity of Ishk. The rock masses, the formation and behavior of crystals, the settlement of ore veins and many of the phenomena studied by geologists become clear to the mystic who is aware of this presence of Ishk.
When we pass from physical to chemical activity we also find Ishk. The great problem before the disciple on the path is to break or control his ego or nufs. This nufs operates as a blind force which holds the seeming self together and appears as inertia in the physical world. Love absorbs nufs on the path of spiritual unfolding, while the qualities of Love remove the outer qualities of nufs.
If we refer to our fundamental principle that God alone exists, we can trace through all things this same principle. According to tasawwuf, Allah or God exists as if in two aspects: one called Zat, the other Sifat. This Zat is the universal, all-pervading essence which is beyond all qualities, characteristics, and descriptions—there is only One. As the One reproduces itself as the many, each aspect of the many is collected around a center, becoming at least momentarily a soul, self, cell, atom, chain-molecule, and so on. These manifest “manys” form units based upon the non-eternal ego or nufs. Every nufs is subject to change, decay, and death.
The Zat-of-God appears as if possessed of many qualities which are collectively known as Sifat, although actually Zat has no existence apart from Sifat and Sifat none apart from Zat. In the physical world the mind-of-man has divided and analyzed the sunlight and other forms of light, perceiving many aspects or forms of phenomena therein. But just as physically light-rays and X-rays are strained through gratings, so mentally light-rays, qualities and universals are strained, so to speak, by the mind-of-man. This straining seems to produce many out of one—the one being fundamental, the many being psychological as well as material.
Let us take, for example, the classic experiment of Newton who derived the colors from sunlight. Physically it seems very simple: the white light ray becomes divided into the several colors—violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red—which themselves are indivisible (that is, when derived from the sunlight). As a rule, physicists do not forget this in their study of light (reflection, refraction, interference, and so forth). But it has taken man much longer to realize—if indeed he realizes it today—that that same sunlight has a tremendous range of Sifat extending into what we call the infra-red and ultra-violet regions, and that cosmic light extends still further.
The physics of this light-energy is being properly studied. The philosophy of it has been noted and some progress made. The psychology of it has practically been untouched. How far are these phenomena physical, how far intellectual, how far something else? The mystic does not stop here. Beginning and ending with the recognition—if not the realization—of God, he maintains a psychological consciousness of the Sifat and discovers the Sifat of Ishk (not of God, for those are limitless) in gravitation, cohesion, adhesion, photostatics and caloric behavior during changes of state.
If we examine a single phenomenon—the production of water—we find metaphysically factors which chemists, restricting themselves as materialistic philosophers and refusing to become psychologists, do not explain. A social mixture of oxygen and hydrogen has no chemical results. If we add the fire element through the flame or electric spark, water is formed. Water is, therefore, not merely oxygen and hydrogen (they might produce hydrogen peroxide) but oxygen, hydrogen and an aspect of universal energy through fire. And in reverse, the application of another aspect of this energy through the electrical current separates the water into this same oxygen and hydrogen.
Now the water contains qualities and characteristics quite unlike those of either parent. This stands out in strong contrast to the inter-metallic compounds and alloys, on one hand, and to such chemical unions as those between oxygen and chlorine on the other hand. A further difficulty appears in the intellectual separation between “living” and “dead,” assuming some compounds to be “organic” and others “inorganic.” This started out on the strong ground of evidence when the first studies were made of actual organic bodies and compounds, but today it has become a convenient convention because of the discrete behavior (psychological as well as chemical) of complex organic compounds.
But the mystic does not regard any form as “dead.” If it persists, there is life. The chemist would say that the water-oxygen-hydrogen relationship involves heat. But to the mystic heat is but one aspect of a greater force, differentiated by the mind-of-man, undifferentiated by the universal mind. So he would say that water comes from hydrogen plus oxygen plus derivatives of Ishk. Of these derivatives of Ishk, heat is only one. The others include a heart-beat (or universal vibrational-activity).
This heart-beat establishes the nufs of water and through it attracts to water qualities and characteristics unseen in the parents. We might begin by saying that the vibrational number of oxygen is 8 and of hydrogen 1. Their union might establish a 9, or as appears with water, a 10. But the heart-beat of 10 is not that of 8 nor even that of 8 plus one. Already a new thing has been brought forth into manifestation. What is more, the chemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen as water manifests as a liquid, whereas the chemical compounds of even some solids with oxygen produce gases. This shows that there is and must be a meta-chemistry or meta-physics or scientific alchemy still to be explored which will treat the elements as living things and the universe as alive in order to explain its variegated phenomena.
But the further we go into chemistry—and especially into its organic aspects—the more we discover end-products whose qualities (Sifat) utterly transcend those of the physical constituents. Wherein did they derive these qualities and characteristics? From what source did they originate?
Photochemistry has made at least a beginning in the spiritual direction by showing the influence of light (an aspect of Ishk). Thermo-chemistry is even more valuable, dealing as it does with heat. But the behavior called entropy, one of the fundamentals of thermodynamics, is even more revealing and as such has already been recognized by spiritually-minded scientists. This principle of entropy is simply that heat can pass from a warmer body to a colder body naturally, but the reverse is not a simple attainment.
Beyond the appearance of entropy in furnaces, kilns, boilers, hearths and so forth, is the constant phenomenon of the sun radiating light and heat to the planets, or more particularly to the earth. For we must bear in mind that the knowledge that the sun gives light and heat to the earth is objective and measurable; the sun gives light and heat to the planets and stars also, though this is only apparently measurable and materialistic. Such a failure to distinguish between subjective and objective divides those scientists who do not see beyond the physical world from those who either see or believe beyond this world. There is, of course, no agreement between the two upon the philosophic and ultimate import of solar entropy.
For instance, there comes a question: since the sun is so small as regards space, since its heat is radiant (and therefore not dependent upon material atoms for conductivity) and since space is so vast and so cold, why does the sun continue to give forth energy? As soon as astrophysicists attack this problem they get into trouble. The first trouble, as has just been stated, is that although up to this point they may have been in complete agreement they thereupon become hopelessly divided; their logic, their mathematics, their imagination does not suffice to deal with this problem.
The mystic—and some of our astronomers and astrophysicists, being of a religious nature, more or less agree—behold God as the center of the Universe, endlessly pouring forth Ishk, which behaves like heat, so that the Universal-Light-Love-Life is possessed of an Eternal Entropy. This energy goes out in two directions, which have given rise to the terms known in Sanskrit philosophy as purusha and prakriti (and called by Moses Shemayim and Aretz). These are usually translated as heavens (plural) and earth: we might say through infinite personalities and through one fundamental groundwork.
With regard to the heavens, the Ishk pours forth from plane to plane and from person to person, from higher degree to lower—that going from plane to plane being known as Light and that from person to person as Life or Love. The same energy passing through the atomic (or material-forming) structure behaves as heat and gives rise to entropy. In esoteric symbology the former is ascribed to the Sun and the latter to Mars. The former includes all degrees of Love; the latter includes many radiations of electricity, radioactivity, etc. In all these things there is a behavior like entropy.
The spiritual teaching is this: that God radiates to all, as in Portia’s beautiful words from The Merchant of Venice: “The quality of Mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” The spiritual teachers radiate love because that is their nature. They are giant dynamos of love and by an inductive attunement they awaken Ishk in others who, being awakened, in their turn awaken others so that souls may become, so to speak, endless strings of interconnected lights. The groundwork for this is in the heart and biologically may be traced through the evolution of the circulatory systems. The counter-movement to this is seen in the radiations of the earth and can be studied in radioactivity, phosphorescence, the electrical sciences in general and electrochemistry in particular. Through all these things there is a sort of “Toward Democracy” movement—a tendency to equate and correlate—and underneath, a growth.
At the present time the geologists find themselves stumped, because the astronomers, physicists and chemists cannot always help them out. But the difficulty is not so much because of science and the scientific methods, as that there is as yet no clear-cut path as to how to derive a philosophy from these sciences. The scientists are compelled by the very nature of their art to endlessly employ analysis, observation and division. This often makes them unfit psychologically for a synthetic, transcendent approach. Subjectivists, on the other hand, become lost in their own private worlds.
The spiritual outlook is one which can include both these outlooks without destroying anything in them; rather it transcends them. Spirituality is not lost by the study of nature; on the contrary, the study of nature is one of the most beautiful and profound ways of reaching the Ultimate Goal.
4. Breath Mystery in the Mineral Kingdom
If the Heart Mystery were all, although there would be a ready evolution, forms could not persist as such. The tendency of heat, for instance, is to increase size, and the tendency of light is often to produce chemical activity. These things, therefore, stand opposed to inertia. Neither is inertia life; it is associated with nufs, that tendency of things to remain things. The philosophy of inertia is materialism, and the physics of inertia has come to a dead end with the rapid discoveries of radioactivity, relativity and the quantum-unit.
The question then arises: is there anything in bodies which maintains them despite heat and its companions and which is real, living and not of the nature of inertia—that is to say, not inert? There is such a thing which in its highest sense we can call breath. This breath must be distinguished from the oxy-organic processes which are an aspect or result of breathing and not breathing in itself.
The late Sir Jagadis Bose, inheriting the tremendous knowledge of his ancestors, applied it in the scientific field and made numerous discoveries, finding analogues to human and animal processes in the vegetable and mineral worlds. Not only do plants experience fatigue, but there are stresses and strains and even psychological moods in metals.
Now the mystic would explain it so: not only do beings breathe, but things also breathe. The movement of the tides, ascribed to the moon, are also an effect of the earth’s breathing—the earth as awhole does breathe and its breath affects the whole of the mineral kingdom. What is it that keeps the rock masses as units, the mountains as mountains and the continents in their place? These are as living things, though in calling them “living” one may have to dissociate his mind from his past views or the traditional view of what constitutes living forms.
The ancients had two views of these things, the philosophical results of which are not dissimilar. One group, which may be found wherever there was polytheism, ascribed the rhythms of the world to planetary influences or to the same forces which are centered in particular planets (Chaldaic traditions, Sabeanism, etc.). The other schools—and their influences upon our civilization have been much greater—held to account what were known as the elements, usually rendered as earth, water, air, fire and ether.
The Greeks do not seem to have complete teachings about these elements, but the Hindus do, and a traditional elemental outlook has been preserved in certain Asiatic regions to this day. It might be well to examine it. According to this view, not four but five elements appear on each plane: earth, air, fire, water and ether. Ether, however, is the quintessence, the source of the others and the connecting nexus with the next higher plane of the universe or between the earth and the heavens.
Spirit enters into matter in accordance with the degree of evolution of the material forms, and the elements arrange themselves in the order earth, water, fire, air and ether. So in the lowest stage of the mineral kingdom we find the greatest proportion of the earth element, and the ether appears only in man. But when we make an analysis of those atomic substances which form the body of earth and which form the body of man, they seem to fall into natural groups aligned with earth or water or fire or air or combinations thereof. This is especially true of those elements which appear in organic bodies. There is also a material aspect of the etheric element which manifests in the inert chemical elements and is least apparent in the very active ones, for instance, fluorine and oxygen.
When the Greeks held that the universe was created from fire, we cannot say they were entirely in error. We have already pointed out the tremendous part the sun plays in all matters connected with earth. But if there is any physical atom which is the prime constituent of all the atoms, it is hydrogen. The breath of hydrogen is that of the tejas tattva (Sanskrit) or fire-motive, the color of which is red. This appears in the study of the flame-spectra of this element, its psychological behavior and other characteristics.
Without going into further details at this point, oxygen has the color blue and its breath is that of the air element. Carbon has the colors yellow and black and its breath is that of the earth element. Nitrogen has the color green and has the water element but also, because of its inertness, is a vehicle for ether. The reason is this: the inert elements and the ether as such are not fit vehicles for living substances which must evolve to a state of proper attunement, yet there must be a check for unabated activity such as appears in oxygen. A detailed study shows that people who absorb too much oxygen become very egotistical—nufs is aggrandized and spirituality reduced to a minimum.
At the same time it is also true that gases breathe the air element (vayu tattva), liquids the water element (apas tattva), solids the earth element (prithivi tattva) and conductors of electricity and radioactive elements the fire or tejas tattva (also called agni tattva). All things in the universe vibrate, and it is this vibrating which is the essence of their breathing.
To continue the study of water: the personality of oxygen and the personality of hydrogen disappear in the molecule of water, which does not externally reveal its ancestry. But this water has some very unusual characteristics. As a liquid derived from two gases, its vibratory number is the mathematical result of that of its ancestors, but its behavior is connected with that new number and not with theirs. The apas tattva is more than the chemical H20, it is the very sea. The ocean dissolves some gaseous elements, and this is in accordance with its breath. It breathes, the breath is its livingness and it passes this breath and this life to whatsoever is within its bosom.
Each drop of rain has breathed in some air, some gases. That makes it a living water. Even the springs that have dissolved gases have more life in them than those which are salty. Rain and aerated waters are most healthful and contain the best materials for blood-salts.
What physical-chemical processes may be related to breathing? They are these: solution (and corresponding dissolving processes of all kinds), absorption, adsorption, occlusion, precipitation and phenomena connected with changes in pressure, assuming that the same temperature is maintained.
Therefore, those who look for God and spirituality in Nature need not look in vain. There are three witnesses on earth: water and breath and blood. The study and commentaries thereon are endless, but the very search giveth life.
5. The Mysteries in the Organic World
It has been said that the number four is characteristic of nature, and in the earth music of many peoples the rhythm of four is predominant. The study of nature reveals that brakriti, the essential-stuff out of which our material world has been created, has utilized two chemical elements containing the basis-of-four: silicon for the inorganic world and carbon for the organic world. The essential difference seems to be that silicon is required for body-stuff and carbon for mind-body-stuff.
The most interesting aspect of silicon is that it possesses male and female potentialities, positive and negative forces, one of which manifests in crystals, the other in glasses. Carbon has more significant allotropic forms and is so pliable that one finds almost every material form and body duplicated in its compounds. Carbon also shows the extremes: the perfect nufs of the diamond is a physical form which persists in maintaining its state and yet gives full scope to light. At the other end, in the organic-combinations, carbon not only readily releases its nufs but it exhibits varied and extreme examples of the alchemical transformations which permit all Sifat (Divine Qualities) to manifest through form. It would not be wrong to say that God formed man out of the carbon-complexes of the earth and man became a manifested soul. Carbon thus is the vehicle first for prakriti through the prithivi tattva and thence a vehicle for all forms and all forces in the physical realm.
Occultists speak of “God,” “man” and the “Universe” to which are applied the name-principles of Providence, Will and Destiny (or karma). Following this pattern we can say that astronomy, inorganic chemistry and petrology belong to the sphere of destiny. Organic chemistry largely lies within the sphere of the will-of-man as do engineering and technology. But creative evolution shows the more direct handiwork of Providence in the physical world. No doubt the difference is partly relative, yet phenomena and science can be grouped accordingly.
The atom was the unit in inorganic chemistry; the group-molecule is the unit in organic chemistry (here zero must be regarded as a number); the cell of plasm or protoplasm is the unit in the biological field. But the cell transcends the group-molecule, just as the latter transcends the atom. The group-molecule adds to the atom those essences which arise from Ishk as light and heat; the cell adds to the group-molecule those essences which arise from the breath. So we find the Heart Mystery making its appearance in synthetic chemistry, where man partly assumes the role of a god, and the Breath Mystery making its appearance in the living forms.
The inorganic world seems to be a body without a mind. Although there are some processes which we find in this field resembling breathing (as has been explained), it is the breath of the earth as a whole which sustains them. This world would be called “tamasic” by the Hindus, as it was originally created and sustained by dark-heat or tamas. The organic kingdoms present the picture of creative evolution, which is the persistent work of a Living Cosmos (God-in-action). That of synthetic chemistry lies between. All that is performed in nature can be duplicated by man, and all that is performed by man can be duplicated by God, but the reverse is untrue.
The cell is the unit for the organic world—plant, animal and man. We have been studying the cell physically and to a slight extent chemically, but this only gives us an external-frame picture of it. For instance, this does not tell why some forms of cell reproduction approach perpetual motion and in this respect seem contrary to the laws of nature. This behavior is only contrary to the karma processes of the body-of-earth (inorganic). The apparent persistence, as if there were an eternity, is the external manifestation of the underlying eternal God-creator.
Perhaps the essential difference between plant and animal is that the plants absorb the fire element and their growth results therefrom; the animals require the air element for their growth. We begin with the inorganic world which results from the prithivi-tattva (earth element) being absorbed in the prakriti (nature-forming-material-stuff). An accommodation is, however, made therein for the water element, apas-tattva.
The cell is largely composed of water, and the bodies of the earliest forms of plants and animals consist of an apparent derivative of water (or a hydrolized gel) which we call protoplasm. Of course, this overlooks vibratory activity, motion and breathing. Plants tend to grow much more rapidly and are usually larger in the torrid zone. The giants of the temperate zone require years for their maturity but persist because they do not have to face disintegrative forces as those in the torrid zone do. But generally speaking, the growth of plants depends upon heat.
This is hardly true of animals. The so-called Nordic man, who comes from a cold region, is one of the tallest of the species. The whale, which is the largest of beasts, is usually found in the sub-arctic waters.
The most interesting processes in the organic world—at least to the mystic—are those found in the earlier stages of evolution. Algae, the lowest of the many-celled plants (or metaphyta), appear in four forms, related to the color thereof; these colors, in their turn, correspond to the mystical elements or tattvas.
The evolution of metaphyta and metazoa (many-celled animals) began in the same general way. A group of single-celled organisms formed a community. They had mutual problems and a mutual concentration, so to speak. They breathed synchronously and harmoniously. The same divinity—the same spark of Ishk—was in each, imparting to the cell-souls (even the materialist Ernst Haeckel uses this term) faculties and functions which do not appear in the inorganic or synthetic-chemical worlds. So a community appeared, and the cell-nufs was lost in the greater horizon. The little individuals gave up their apparent liberty to become absorbed in the greater whole.
This process can be observed in two directions. The one is seen in the study of embryology: by growth a blastula or globe state is formed, and this globe acts transcendentally to the cell-life. It is a unit, but a unit of a different order. And in its turn it grows until the little stomach (or gastrula) stage is absorbed in the basic prakrit—determined in theory by heredity but actually by a complex vibratory activity. So the body grows and fulfills the functions of its species. Therefore the body of the descendent of a sponge is a sponge, of a crab is a crab, of a horse is a horse. The cell absorbs from and through the pervading Ishk according to its basic nature, determined by breath and heart absorption.
The corresponding processes are also seen externally. The sponges (porifera) began as group-units (I-I’s) of many protozoa, single-celled animalicules. They would have persisted eternally in their original state or indefinitely in their transient state unless there were some underlying Essence. The study of inorganic nature offers nothing to explain the organic evolution. The realization or even the assumption of a Creator-God explain all. But we must bear in mind that this God is not—and never must be confused with—any thought-activities of our own minds. We all live and move and have our being in Him. This is the basis of all religion, all mysticism, all science.
Looking at it from that point of view we can see that this God was trying to absorb a greater degree of His Essence (Zat) in the world which He had created. The inorganic world had capacity only for His gross body, for prithivi-tattva (earth element) which accommodated the water element. The plants began with water and took in fire as well as a very small degree of the air element, vayu tattva. The animals continued by increasing their accommodation for the air. And so the Heart Mystery appeared in the water and fire and the Breath Mystery through the air element. The increased absorption of these elements permitted an infinite variety of forms for the Sifat (Qualities) and a gradual increase of material accommodation for the Zat.
The Sifat, entering into the organic moulds, finding material sheaths, found scope in the digestive, protective, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, sensual, nervous, glandular and other systems. And the Zat, like a hidden Sun, found greater and greater scope as each of these increased in sensitivity, variety and efficiency.
The characteristics called tropisms appear in plants and reveal their sensitivity to light, heat and other forces. But Bose has shown that plants have feeling and fatigue. These are signs of Ishk, physically and psychologically. They reveal the Heart Mystery. But the animals develop Instinct—the unconscious response to the external world (and to the unseen too) which is the result of Breath.
This shows that communism alone, derived from nature and the will-of-man, does not supply the spiritual element. The subjugation of the ego is not enough. If this were so, every religion should follow its soldiers and we would have no need for other teachers. But the subjugation of the Will is not the subjugation of the All. For the Divine Spirit alone exists and persists, and our failure to recognize it accounts for our failure to explain much in the world before us and everything in the worlds unseen.
Yet even elements from the unseen world (that is, Sifat) seem to find their way to the world of manifestation. For we can find the music and the characteristics of all the hidden worlds in the creatures of this world and especially among the birds. Their voices and songs reveal much to the seer. Seasonal flights, the love for their mates, the art of nest building, romance, dancing and much of their behavior shows the connection between the world within and the world without because of their existence in the One and Only Being.
The same mysteries and the same processes which appear in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms persist in man. Only it is in man that God, so to speak, begins to realize Himself. And the body of man is of such a nature that it can accommodate the akasha tattva or etheric element. According to man’s evolution can he accommodate this element. And it is this akasha tattva which makes possible all creative thinking on man’s part, which enables him to transcend mere instinct and to have regard for the welfare of others, even for those not of kindred blood.
We can again allude to the Christian Scriptures, “There are three witnesses on earth: water and breath and blood.” Each of these covers certain aspects of man. We can begin by saying that this passage may be interpreted: “There are three visible (or manifest) elements which transcend the earth element: water (apas), breath (wind or vayu) and blood (fire and the Holy Ghost, covering the tejas-agni and akasha).”
The plasmic cell is composed of the earth element in a sense, but it is largely organic water. Most of the flesh is water. The water is so organized that it absorbs food elements for the body. In the plant the rising sap performs this function, and the process known as osmosis makes possible organic growth in spite of all the natural tendencies toward erosion, decay and death. Actually there is a kind of osmosis on all planes, not only the osmosis of prakriti by which the bodygrows and is sustained but also a transcendent osmosis which steps up the vibrational receptivity of the organism. This ultimately accounts for the finer-body characteristics of the earth-vehicle of adepts.
When vegetarianism is practiced for spiritual purposes and in accordance with esoteric law (as opposed to custom, sentimentality or self-will), the cells become more and more refined. They assimilate not only from the heavy food-stuffs taken in through the digestive tract but also filter through living light. This is one of the sources and secrets of health and longevity. But to gain the maximum benefit it has to be continued under suitable direction, under the guidance of those who have themselves reached a state of purity and fineness.
The breath is, of course, a channel for plants and animals. But the breath of the human beings is more refined and carries vibrations which are undertones from the hidden spheres of the unseen world. Not only does the breath of man indicate his evolution, it also tells of his immediate condition. The breath is the connecting link between the above and the below, between the below and the above. However, under initiate or Yoga training, properly taught and properly practiced, one finds it easier to dominate those vegetable and animal aspects of life and so to transmute qualities, forces and even atoms. When the water and breath and blood become harmonized, the breath also becomes the channel for the Holy Spirit; a greater and greater degree of akasha is assimilated into the organism (prakriti) and into the faculties or siddhis (associated with the heavens or purusha).
The blood contains the fire element, which is more obvious after it is purified at the lungs. This blood becomes at least momentarily an ocean of life. The lower animals live in the ocean and assimilate water into their bodies but use the ocean itself more or less as the blood stream. The study of evolution shows the gradual growth of the circulatory system—a growth in power, assimilation, function and character. The study of a man’s blood is the study of himself as he is, was and may become.
The blood receives the vibrations from the highest spheres, indicating man’s evolution. Evidence of this evolution is in his love-life—taken in its every sense. In the smaller man, this love—the reflection of Ishk—operates through prakriti and reaches its expression instinctively. In the greater man, this love becomes more and more the direct channel of Ishk operating through the purusha until through the awakening of consciousness the soul comes to its full realization.
At first man, as a symbol of self, looks upon woman as a symbol of not-self. Each seeks a fuller expression or response in the other. The man or woman who seeks in many is of a lower degree than the man or woman who becomes satisfied with one mate alone. This shows the concentration of forces and powers. But even these are stages on the journey. For as man grows he no longer needs the instinctive outlet, and his love extends to his family, to his friends, to his community, to his nation and to all the world.
But this growth is not a matter of will or a matter of thought. So many claim to love others but do not themselves give power, energy, vitality and inspiration to others. These are the signs of love. Ishk, operating even through the instincts and passions and giving an intoxicating impetus to another person, is of more value than a multitude of philosophical claims or subjective wishes which do not extend life and blessings. For the end of love is in blessing and culminates in that state which enables a person, through his love for others, to inspire them in their turn to increase the sway of love and blessing. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
7. Spiritual Significance of the Group-Unit
The drawing of a group of individuals into a unit is a practice common to all those Great Masters who have come to the world from time to time, bringing the Message of God, stirring up humanity and revealing those teachings which enable mankind, as individuals and as a whole, to be freed and relieved from overwhelming burdens. We see it alike in the chosen followers of Moses, in the select (miscalled “church”) of Jesus, in the companions of Mohammed and Sangha or brotherhood of Buddha. Everywhere the purpose is the same. The Messenger, realizing himself as the “sun” of God, vitalizes the hearts of those closest to him so that they may act as suns individually and as a great sun collectively—or act as crescent moons individually and as a sun collectively.
During the course of ages the teachings become corrupted by priestcraft, self-will and intellectualism. The mind and the emotions cannot grasp them and, drawing a certain power or satisfaction from them, insist that this power or satisfaction is the Teaching itself—which it is not and never was. It is like calling a small planet the sun.
When the great Solomon had his temple built, it was done without words. Instead of a blueprint, there was a super-concentration held by the King-Messenger himself. Those who could commune with him and understand it became the Perfect Masters in charge of the construction. Under these Perfect Masters (in theory numbering fifty-six) were their disciples, the Grand Masters—those unable to get the plan as a whole but who could attune themselves to the Perfect Masters.
These Grand Masters in their turn had Masters under them, and the Masters supervised the work of lesser disciples known as journeymen and apprentices. But even the least of apprentices had to work through the silence, through self-effacement.
The Sufis, who of all esotericists have kept best these traditions and the attendant knowledge, speak of them in these terms:
Makam (Station) of Solomon: fana-i-baqa, or self-effacement in eternality.
Makam of Perfect Masters: fana-fi-lillah, or effacement in God, which enables them to unite in consciousness with the Divine Representative.
Makam of Grand Masters: fana-fi-Rassoul, which unites them to the Perfect Masters.
Makam of Masters: fana-fi-Pir, which attunes them to the Perfect Masters through their particular Order.
Makam of Journeymen: fana-fi-Sheikh, which enables them to become assimilated in the spirit of the Masters.
Makam of Apprentices: silence—until they still their senses.
When Sufi Inayat Khan brought these teachings to the Western world, he observed the inability of people—even those who became his disciples—to absorb the transcendent wisdom. So he established a Healing Service (so-called), which was really a Hierarchical undertaking to enable the lesser to form a transcendent group so that the spirit of their hearts and the Divine Spirit through their hearts could establish a sun which would operate at least physically and psychically.
The eagerness on the part of the unlearned people of the West has been to teach, to teach even when they have not learned the smallest lesson. The Wise Teacher does not reveal their weakness and smallness to them. Instead he organizes and utilizes their enthusiasm and deception so that it can be of some use to the Hierarchy, whether it be called a “Healing Group” (which it is in its smallest sense) or a church, brotherhood or Sangha (which it might become in its largest sense).
This principle of an organization of apparently independent individuals forming a transcendent self has been traced through Nature, where there is no apparent control. That is to say, it operates in the realm of the “Universe,” as mentioned previously. But it can be utilized by man, by superman and by God Himself, so to speak. This is true whether we study the connection of cells and dynamos in electricity, observe symphonic orchestration or delve into the choirs of angels.
The point has been recognized by philosophers like Hegel. He posited the Thesis or self, set up the opposition (the Antithesis or not-self), then harmonized and synthesized them in the Synthesis or Overself. The Overself, which is the nexus of the I-I or Group-Unit, is therefore synthetic, harmonizing and transcendent. But Hegel himself, after establishing the basis of a real philosophy, adhered strictly to the thesis thereof and only formulated a mock antithesis; his synthesis is nothing but a repeated emphatic thesis. The Hegelians, even including the Marxists, have largely followed the same pattern.
Out of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis comes the symbology of the triangle. To them may be added a fourth principle, that of Perfection symbolized by the Square. This comes from the Synthesis-in-action—from the living, growing Synthesis.
In the spiritual development the ego or nufs is the Thesis. Assimilation into the not-self or fana is the Antithesis. Baqa or subsistence is the Synthesis. Fana-i-baqa, the characteristic makam or station of the Supreme Perfect Masters, is the perfection.
8. Inner Action of the Group-Unit
The inner action of the group-unit depends upon breath response and heart attunement. Among the Western religions, which have ignored the potentialities of breath, some attention has been paid to love and the unfoldment of the heart. From an early beginning prayer-meetings, love-feasts and communions characterized the Christian church, culminating in the Mass. All of these were church activities.
What was meant by “church” (ecclesia)? It means an assemblage of the called or selected ones. They were instructed to pray in a certain manner, to efface the self in a certain way and were also taught that they would experience a resurrection or transcendence if they adhered to the vital teachings. Unfortunately institutionalism and later priestcraft usurped the pure teachings and ruined the free passage of light from Above to Below.
The Christian Mass began as the successor of the Ancient Mysteries and was so recognized by the early Fathers. But as time went on and decay and desecration continued, devotees no longer had even indirect contact with their Lord. So when Mohammed appeared he vigorously opposed useless ceremonies and institutions. Their effects were psychic, not spiritual. He gave a new start to the brethren in his part of the world, and the inner core of his teachings has been preserved by the Ikhwan or Brotherhood of the Sufis. The word Ikhwan means both brotherhood and group-unity and has seldom been so misused as the words church and sangha.
In order to preserve this spirit of unity and yet enable the disciples to experience the transcendent consciousness, the Sufi teachers made a complete study of the makam (spiritual station) and hal (spiritual state). Generally one has to pass through hal to attain makam, but it is easy to maintain makam, hard to maintain hal.
Of especial interest to us are those schools of the Sufis who made use of music and dancing. These arts attuned the brethren one to another and to the teacher. Under the spell of sound and rhythm, the intoxication was catching. So if one disciple entered hal, it became much easier for the others. In this manner the young had a living process wherein and whereby they could control passion and transmute their lower natures. The secrets of the Ancient Mysteries were thus preserved by the Sufis though often clothed under Arabic terms and Islamic theology.
The teacher plays a foremost part in these rites, which differ radically from exoteric ceremonies. For a priest is, in a sense, a glorified actor who has devoted himself to religion. But a teacher is one who in the true sense is devoted to God and who can recognize Truth even beyond his particular religion—or all religion. Where the teacher has remained faithful to his vows and to his truth, the Din, dharma or faith has remained pure, even though a multitude of priests, mullahs and Brahmans turn aside.
This esotericism is largely connected with hearing—the internal recognition of God in and through sound. Yogins and Vedantists have emphasized this more than the Western religions, even leaning over toward the phenomena to the degree of being hearers rather than doers. Christ emphasized this difference, and in the Gospel it appears as an exoteric difference. But to those who make progress in the Mysticism of Sound there is another meaning: one who has the blessed experience of recognition of Internal-Sound (which is Beth-Kol [Hebrew] or the Voice of God) is enabled to carry the Divine Spirit with himself outwardly into everyday life. This is most important.
The practice of group meditation, concentration and sama (spiritual music) are not only examples, they are the very means by which an individual obtains that group-consciousness as if he and the group were one.
9. Outer Action of the Group-Unit
The outer action of the group-unit is not necessarily separate from the inner action. One of the greatest distinctions between mystics and esotericists on the one hand and exotericists on the other hand is that the former do not see thought and action as distinct. They are largely classed as philosophical monists, while the latter are either dualists or materialists.
The orthodox devotee prays to God, selfishly or unselfishly, and then leaves it to God. The spiritual lover prays that he might serve God in bringing his prayer, his meditation, his devotion into manifestation. Both leave all to God, but the lover sees nothing but God; there is no existence to him but God.
Saints, masters and Bodhisattvas act as if they have a communal or mass consciousness. The Hierarchy is composed of those who feel the pulse of all creatures in a certain district or in the whole world. Their consciousness is transcendent. They are one-in-many. But their work is in no wise different from that of the spiritual Ikhwan or group-unit which, from the standpoint of souls and bodies, appears to be many-in-one. This difference is due to the psychological approach: the mystic works from the inner state outwardly; the group must turn within and then return outwardly. The group does not stop after praying, meditating and maintaining silence; those are the beginnings, not the accomplishment of the tasks before them.
Sufi Inayat Khan wrote a book called Cosmic Language through which he tried to awaken humanity—both his own disciples and the world in general—to a realization that, “In God we live and move and have our being.” Many have a belief to that effect; few make that belief a motive or an element in their practical daily existence.
Now we are living in an age where more attention is being paid to super-mundane phenomena. At a time when the influence of the orthodox churches is becoming less and less, when on the whole they are retreating, scientists here and there and the public here and there are evidencing interest in the phenomena left unexplained by material science and philosophy. This interest or curiosity is not that of the previous century, which was concerned with psychic phenomena, mediums, trance-states and communication with the departed. It is more concerned with thoughts and feelings as well as with the study of communication at a distance, whether this is through telepathy or because of active intuition.
Mental phenomena are much higher than psychic phenomena and there is little danger in their investigation. The awakening of consciousness as to the intuitive possibilities in man is still higher, the vistas are greater and the benefits far outweigh the dangers. This in its turn will lead to the investigation of a heart-world which interpenetrates the spheres of mind and matter and which is fundamental to both.
By these means and others, not only will the outlooks of individuals thoughout the world be broadened, but they will all the more easily harmonize one with the other. So long as people are kept apart, they are apt to be drawn into wars and rivalries. When the factors harmonizing them are preponderate over the forces dividing them, the outlook for lasting peace and prosperity will be greater. Up to now man has been depending largely upon externalities such as the press and radio. When his own inner consciousness awakens further, he will not have to depend upon these instrumentalities. He will, both through common interest and common outlook, cooperate with his neighbors.
All the Scriptures emphasize the need for believers to be of one heart and one mind. Often they stop there. Or there is an emphasis upon being of one heart and one mind expressed by some cult or school which leads to the philosophical recognition of this kind of unity. The great problem is how to manifest this in everyday life. And it happens sometimes that an institution like universal military training does more to link man to man than religion and education and moral instruction. Why? Because only too often the religion and education and moral instruction end in philosophy and do not partake of the detailed, practical existence.
Music has always been a great force for unification. Today it has been found that the “jive” dance produces fellowship between the many soldiers stationed in all parts of the world and the natives of those parts. While the jive is not a particularly lofty form of art, it shows that it is possible to bring people together by means other than the usual over-intellectual types of propaganda. These do not touch the hearts and minds of people with different orientations. Art is much more powerful than science or religion in unifying people, but only too often that art which is supposed to have a propaganda value is ineffective, while the simple forms of music, dancing, painting and ritual bring people together. That is why the Roman Catholic Church persists, in a certain way, in maintaining at least a modicum of universal brotherhood.
Meditation, concentration and common forms of breathing can do still more in producing outer harmony. The Hindus still have traditions of adoration to the sun and the Hebrews of recognition to the moon. The occult reasons have been lost, so that the rites based thereupon have come to be regarded as superstitions. But whatever name be given to them, each in its way produces harmony with life, bringing inspiration and blessing.
We are passing from an age in which individual efforts and free enterprise were paramount. We are already in an age when and where cooperation is needed—not only in the army and navy, not only in the shipyards and arsenals and airplane factories but in multitudinous institutions, between nations, between industrial groups, between individuals.
This ought to lead us to see that the group-unit is replacing the individual. The same principles that we have observed operating—and perhaps eternally operating—in nature, in the rocks, in the cells, in the atoms, also persist in the social organization. And we can see the truth of the Buddha’s teaching that the separated individual is an illusion and can only keep us in illusion and lead us nowhere.
An explanation has already been made of the method by which King Solomon directed the building of the first great temple at Jerusalem. The Hebrew Kabbalah and the students thereof hold that in previous ages mankind had faculties which have been lost. Rosicrucians and others maintain that they wish to restore that which has been lost. Their efforts have been in vain, because they strive to attach occultism and esotericism to the persistence of the individual ego.
The construction of the Great Temple was much more than the erection of a building, no matter how marvelous the undertaking and how perfect the parts. It required forms of instruction and discipline which could be applied to all of the affairs of life. Thus King Solomon in his day established a school for the prophets, a school of occult instruction for the priests and temple attendants and still other schools for the various guilds through which people were instructed in the arts and trades. Some elements of these instructions have been found in the literature of Iran (as well as in Israel) showing that the Magi, like the priests of Egypt, strove to preserve the ancient wisdom. But the term “ancient wisdom” actually means the wisdom from the highest plane.
In the new age the same inner methods will be restored to the world, that through harmony and wisdom men might do great things. “He that believeth in me, the things that I do and greater things will he do,” said Jesus Christ. Yes, outwardly we have done some things that can be called great, but the fruits thereof have like as not been destructive, poisonous, horrible. One spirit of brotherhood has only too often been set against another spirit of brotherhood. Yet it is true that wisdom only finds its fruition in action, so far as the multitude is concerned. So whether it is through temple building (such as was emphasized in the mysteries of Egypt and by King Solomon) through agriculture (which was the basis of the mysteries of the Greeks, Nabateans and Sabeans) or through the crafts (which we find in ancient Iran and Aryavarta), the combination of faith, instruction and action is a universal, practical truth.
Many attempts have been made toward establishing societies based upon cooperation. The success or failure of them often depends upon the aims, motives and characters of the people involved. At the extreme we have the communistic society—so-called—although whether actual communism is being practiced on any large scale today may be challenged.
The Palestinian experiment is noteworthy. Past, present and future, Orient and Occident, the religious and secular views have been introduced, leading to numerous factions and parties. There is no clear-cut picture of cooperation there, although within the country there have been some very successful cooperative ventures, some very successful non-cooperative ventures and many failures—both of cooperatives and those engaged in “free enterprise.” The picture as a whole is that of a flux and any criticism is more or less out of place because of the constantly changing social panorama.
The Jewish people seem to have forgotten that their original cooperative undertakings were based upon the supposition of a spiritual unity. The center of this unity was originally that of the Ark of Covenant in the form of the religion offered by Moses and of the Temple in the form of the religion given by Solomon. Today religion does not play the part in the lives of men as in ancient times, nor need we attempt to rush counter to these general currents. For then, instead of establishing unity and healing the wounds of the world, we would only be adding to its difficulties. But at the same time we might as well realize that any efforts toward establishing the brotherhood of man without resting this upon the more fundamental Fatherhood of God is doomed to failure, as it has always been doomed. Brotherhood based upon sentiment is noble but in the long run impractical. Brotherhood based upon recognition of God is fixed in Eternal Truth.
It has been said that the Eight-fold Path of Buddha was an adaptation into religion of an actual form of village planning then extant. In the center of the village was the temple, and the streets or roads led to it in such a way that there were eight approaches. Today we do not have to reestablish the actual form of village or temple as it existed in ancient times, but the principles of the Enlightened One would hold today. So there may be a new form of village and temple planning and building, but the basic concentration and the spiritual norms have not, do not change.
The spiritual life is not impractical or visionary. It is not imposed upon those with a greater outlook that they spend hours in theoretical concentration upon a building for common worship. The New Testament affirms that God does not dwell in the temples built by human hands. The first mosque was made merely by chalk marks and a low wall to set off a sacred area for worship within which trafficking and disputations were not to be allowed.
Sri Meher Baba has already outlined the basic geometric form for the sacred village and temple thereof. But the temple is to be one for lovers rather than worshippers. What do we mean by lovers? What do we mean by worshippers?
In the past ages religions have been established for the select or for the multitude, and some outer form of worship fixed as a norm so that there could be concordance between the different followers. As time passed and the original spirit of the religion faded away, the followers, according to their evolution, would be motivated by emotional or intellectual consideration to interpret variously the original teachings and to divide from one another accordingly. This has led to the establishment of numerous sects, all of whom have tended to forget in some way or other that the whole of humanity forms a single family and that the determinations of man in no wise influence God. Thus man has become positive before God, instead of being childlike and receptive.
In place of codes or creeds or forms of worship, the need for love, for the realization of love, for the expression of love, can become the nexus not only of the esoteric cult but of the whole of society. It is in the awakening of and to this love that the core of the new society—call it “religion,” call it what you will—will be fixed. To love one another in practice, to really love God with all the heart and soul and mind—these are the foundation stones. Upon them will not be superimposed beliefs and ideas and philosophies. When that hasbeen done, from love we have descended downward. When that is not done, from love we can ascend upward.
The symbology of the pyramid with love as its foundation is that from love we come to knowledge, from knowledge we grow into unity. This knowledge is not the partial intellectual accumulation of individuals; it is the opening of consciousness toward the truth in things and in essence. This brings about union with God, union with man, union with creation. Man then has the oversoul consciousness. The love is the beginning, not the goal, yet the love must be ever present. No one will be judged by his emotions, ideas, beliefs, partisan outlooks. He may retain them if he will, but he cannot impose them upon others within the arena of love.
The love-temple is one in which an atmosphere is established by a Perfect Teacher with the oversoul consciousness and is permeated by his personality. Or it may come about by the continuous harmonious action of an awakened group, fully alive to the need of the world for love and impelled by their own limitless love. Usually no person awakens to such love without first having been touched by the Teacher or guru. It is doubtful whether we can have a successful, progressive cooperative society without recognition of guru and hierarchy.
11. Formation of a Group-Unit in the Presence of a Teacher
The presence of the Teacher, guru or sheikh facilitates the formation of a group-unit. There are several positions which he can assume. One is to be in the circle of the group—as if at its heart-center—to breathe with his whole love-cosmic-consciousness in and out. In that manner the atmosphere of the room, building or arena is permeated by his holy vibrations and becomes replete with blessings and powers (siddhis). In such cases lectures are not necessary and speech may be out of place.
But the Teacher may also sit before his disciples and before the multitude and carry on the same attunement-concentration. If there are only disciples and he wishes to speak, the best magnetic results come when they sit before him in the form of a semicircle. In that case they not only receive the beneficent, holy rays of their Teacher but also, being related one to another, help to establish mutual concord and harmony.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the living presence of the Teacher has a determinative effect in establishing centers of Baraka or blessing, so that for centuries thereafter people may benefit by coming to such a sacred abode. On the part of the Teacher, it may be relatively unimportant whether he maintains silent meditations and concentrations, speaks to the select few or to the larger generality, restricts himself to instruction or performs healing and miracles. He is the one with the vision and foresight, and his action is determined by an outlook usually not common to even the chosen disciples.
The state of the Teacher is known as baqa, and the makam or grade of it may be determined by himself. If it is too high or noble it is like spreading many blessings over a large area, so that few are accumulated at a single point. If it is not so high, it is like focusing a light so that all within range can obtain the maximum benefit. Then the state of the pupil is fana—effacement or surrender—and the makam of his fana determines his grade of evolution and sometimes his spiritual status.
For untold centuries gurus have given open instructions as well as silent communications to disciples. These communications are usually in the form of breaths or love-powers, but sometimes they take on other forms. When they lead to much phenomena there is usually less blessing in them. Blessings may be accumulated, but when phenomena are manifested the vibrations have completed their usefulness and are transmuted or transposed.
Love itself is the great phenomenon, and it is needed more than ever today because of the huge, catastrophic, destructive forces unleashed upon earth. However, love without self-sacrifice is very limited in its scope; it may even be useless. Therefore, the God-man comes to fix the centers for the transmissions of love and blessings, and these sacred centers may be called temples, whether there are buildings there or not.
Al] the great saints and holy ones are the embodiments of love. Their personalities have been perfected because of their heart’s progress. When the heart touches a certain plane it bursts into flame, so to speak, and that flame touches the many planes of the universe. This flame is really unquenchable. It is that “water” which Christ spoke of, the partaking of which ended all thirst. By it and through it one can see into and touch the personalities of all attuned easily and of all attuned less easily.
When two or three are gathered together in the Name of the Perfect Teacher, they form a single embodiment of consciousness. This is an incomplete translation. The Shem of the Hebrews is hardly described by our limited word “name.” It means that renown which has come to one because of his absorption of living-light. It is the living-light determining personality which was called Shem in Hebrew. It is the coming into consciousness of this living-light which makes for spiritual and holy brotherhood. The Perfect Masters bring this light in complete form; other Masters preserve it in complete form or bring it in less complete form.
The Teacher carries this light and its vibrations with him. The emanations of it exude through his eyes, breath, mouth, hands and feet. Therefore the very footsteps which the Master takes become holy, and the ground upon which he has walked becomes sanctified. This is not a mere belief or superstition. There is an actual emanation deposited by his feet where they walk, and the vibrations thereof are caught by the ground. If he walks upon building floors the vibrations and blessings remain only for a while, but where his blessed feet touch the solid earth, the blessings remain indefinitely. Many healings can be ascribed to places where holy personages have dwelt.
Today the Teacher brings his living presence into the midst of his disciples. He animates them with spiritual fervor. They are drawn to him and to one another by sacred love. They become a compact unit which can and should act as a unit in all things. This is the ideal pattern after which other lesser patterns have been made. And it is thus that Hierarchy operates upon the planes above and below, with the seen and unseen beings.
The organization thus formed may be formal or not. If too informal it will present no ideal to the generality. But if too formal it will lead to the institution of ceremonies and to the establishment of another priesthood, which in its turn will decoy and disrupt humanity as is the wont of priestcraft. So the ideal will be to establish an equilibrium, suited to the needs of the times, so that advantages may be taken of all the progress of science and technology, so that the steps forward inwardly can be taken without losing ground outwardly. Thus humanity may be led toward the light on all planes.
12. Formation of a Group-Unit in the Absence of a Teacher
After the Prophet Mohammed was withdrawn from outer functions, his close friend and disciple Abu Bakr Siddiq said, “Those who worshipped the Prophet, let them know that Mohammed is dead, but those that worshipped the Creator of all, know that He is ever-living, eternal.” Thus it may be said that while the Master may be the harbinger of the light and united with the light while he is on earth, we must learn that actually the light is God Himself, that it is in all men and that all men are in it.
To preserve this light and to bring about a maximum of benefits therefrom, various Teachers have used the methods most suited to their times. These methods have very much in common. All are based upon the establishment and continued function of some sort of group-unit, of many working as one—in other words, of a brotherhood.
In more recent years Sufi Inayat Khan had his disciples and coworkers sit in a circle, especially in the ritual of the service known as the Healing Service. This was formed of a group having a leader who was himself or herself not a Teacher or Master. But by sitting in the circle and carrying on certain meditations and concentrations, they made an accommodation for the light and thus preserved a modicum of the light which their Master had brought.
Please observe that the ritual here was not to be considered as a Mass. It was not completely esoteric. It did not establish light until the Teacher had prepared an accommodation therefor. But it did preserve the light and blessings in the absence of any developed personalities. By sitting at a round table or in a circle, the power of the space could be drawn together and, after being so drawn, directed and dispersed. It is not so difficult to center and disperse light, but it is harder to do so under direction, to control the healing and blessing vibrations and emanations.
Quakers and Quietists have held silences, thinking thereby that inspiration comes more easily. And perhaps it does. But does this bring wisdom? No act of man can assure the presence of God unless the Grace of God has already been given. So the work of the Master is established by the Master; the work of God is instituted by His representatives. After that, whether he is physically or otherwise absent, the disciples through attunement can carry on his work. It is thus that Dharma is preserved. It is thus that the Teachers can work in many places, through their several disciples and followers.
Although the Spirit of God is everywhere, although in the silence one may feel the profundity of it and even draw from the Divine Wisdom, the inspiration is too often sporadic or uncertain. Methods have been used in the Orient whereby a link may be maintained with the Teacher and—what is most important—with God Himself even when no Teacher is present. In the ancient mysteries they used to sit in a certain manner such as a semicircle (lunar rite) or full circle (solar rite). This brought forth a full psychic concentration and thereby established a path whereby the finer vibrations could pass down to the outer manifestation. This psychic path was a veritable ladder from profundity to the here-and-now and from the earth plane back to the heavens, reaching that inner plane most attuned to the persons so sitting.
While the ancient mysteries may be said to be lost, the eternal verities are never lost; it is quite possible for people sitting in the proper manner—as prescribed by a Saint or Teacher sufficiently evolved—to continue the work of that Saint or Teacher and maintain the psychic ladder, so to speak.
But no group of people establish a holy pathway by self-will, even with the use of prayers and invocations. If this were true, we should be seeing the answers to those prayers in the world today, and it is most obvious that we do not.
Yet prayers may be answered, prayers which from their very inception are in harmony with the Divine Will. And if people are really innocent and childlike and their hearts are awakened and sensitive, they themselves are open to spirituality. If two or three are gathered together in the Divine Shem—that is to say, in the cycle or station of receptivity to Divinity—God will be in their very midst. This is true, always was true, always shall be true. And the true sacred brotherhood is established by people who so sit and so act.
Besides this there are certain aids, aids which have been found most useful through the ages. One of the most important of these is music: not that music which appeals to the senses or to the intellect or even to the emotions, but that music which, touching the very depths of the heart, sensitizes and awakens the heart and produces a feeling of expansiveness, livingness, compassion and love. This very atmosphere is a sign of the Divine Shem and these very qualities are derivatives of attunement with God.
Part II. Looking Toward the New Age
1. 1969: Toward Spiritual Brotherhood
The passage of over twenty years witnesses an increased accumulation of scientific knowledge. The rise of the respective integrative philosophies of Sri Aurobindo and Oliver Reiser as well as the manifestation of a potential “new race” as predicted by Bulwer-Lytton, H.G. Wells, Aurobindo and others only further reinforce the principles already set forth. We see these principles in every form of real mystical knowledge, in the new discoveries in sciences and the related growth of scientific philosophy, and in the ever-growing world-outlook of human beings. The obstacles are not so much sheer ignorance but the appropriation of vocabularies by persons of totally different outlooks.
Thus the term “integration” is now used by all sorts of propagandists, analysts, dialecticians and others of limited outlook. It is not our intention to waste time overpowering these roadblocks but rather to examine further the huge possibilities of a true integrative outlook as exemplified in Professor Reiser’s Project Krishna and Project Prometheus. We refer the reader to these and other books—they are part of the real new age.
The simultaneous manifestation of the Beatles and their school; of the breakout into enlarged psychic states of consciousness by those using psychedelics (we shun the very enigmatic and anti-semantic term “drug” here—it may mean anything at all or nothing whatever); the rise of new social units not only in revolutionary Russia and China but in Sweden, Israel, India, Burma and elsewhere reveals that a real New Age is here. This New Age is almost always accompanied by a group concept and a group function rather than by an individualistic outlook and function. Individualism has been supplanted by corporate activity, to mention just one area of life. One is not so concerned with moral or even social philosophies per se as with evidence that principles and processes found in biological evolution are manifesting ever more and more in the social area.
That is to say, we see growth in the social, economic and moral orders, but these have become of small import psychologically compared to the introduction of whole new dimensions into human consciousness. Dialecticians and materialists are unable to distinguish the very nature of these new dimensions and confuse every experience labeled or mislabeled “expansion of consciousness.” No doubt there is expansion of consciousness, but there may be many forms of expansion of consciousness. Just as geometry has grown into multi-dimensional geometry and meta-geometry, so an effective psychology must grow into an examination and acceptance of all phenomena of additional dimensions.
There is a vast difference between the validity of an LSD or other psychedelic experience and the actual expanded consciousness of mystics and mystical experience. The psychedelic experience is not always accompanied by moral or intellectual growth, the mystical experience is. In addition, the psychedelic after his experiences remains the individual, often the same individual as before. All people having mystical experience undergo profound changes.
Plotinus refers to the All-in-One, the One-in-All and the All-in-All. These terms are naturally confused by those who have not had the experiences involved with these outlooks.
Increased awareness may be part of universal evolution, but of itself is not necessarily mystical. A large number is mathematically no nearer to Infinity than a small one. According to Buddhist cosmology—and indeed perhaps in all cosmological psychology—so long as one is attached to the Wheel-of-Life one is subject to karma, to rise and fall, ebb and flow. All the kingdoms from the lowest naraka (hell) to the highest (gods) may be subject to the law of Cause-and-Effect. The new rise in awareness has caused many to confuse this evolutionary growth with spiritual enfranchisement or liberation.
According to the Upanishads, there are many grades of beings beyond mankind—of peri or pitri, then the gandharvas beyond pitri, then of devas beyond gandharvas. Much of this is referred to in The Soul, Whence and Whither by Sufi Inayat Khan.
From the earliest times, a variation of this has been found in Indian cosmic psychology. The human and superhuman are divided into the realms of nama (name), rupa (form) and arupa (formless). All of these are subject to karma. In certain places in Christian teachings it is said that being high in the Kingdom of Heaven without full godliness does not free one from hell-fire. Buddha’s teachings on this point are no different.
This phrase may be a misnomer. According to definition, is consciousness subject to nama, rupa, arupa? Is consciousness a thing or thing-ness?
Nineteenth century physics made man aware of more and more varieties and variations of light and energy. These of themselves did not produce a new dimension or necessarily take one beyond the physical world. Yet no one can doubt there has been a certain form of expansion in awareness, not necessarily psychological.
We have not yet classified psychic and psychological types as we have classified many things in the physical world, however considered. We are not sure of the exact ranges of hearing and seeing. Indeed we are not sure of the exact ranges of the other senses either. An extension of sight or hearing or smell is not called an “expansion.” A physicist passing from the use of physical light through ultra-violet and on to X-rays and beyond is not necessarily a transformed being, though he may be a changed one. Perhaps similarly a person with new forms of awareness may be a changed—but not necessarily a transformed—being. Or if we use Lord Buddha’s standard: do people with increased awareness of any type diminish in their being subject to lust, greed, anger, and so forth?
According to the Upanishads, every expansion of consciousness is accompanied or marked by increased capacity in wisdom-bliss-joy, called Ananda and perhaps also in the ability to withstand pain without whimpering: samskaras (impressions, karmic formations) do not necessarily arise. This is the lesson that people with increased psychic, psychological and cosmic awareness do not easily recognize.
The real mystical transformation is evidenced when one can say “tat twam asi” (“Thou art that”). This means that self and God are becoming identical, that “love thy neighbor as thyself” is becoming a conscious reality. There is no real expansion of consciousness without an expansion of love. There is no expansion of love when one has to depend on others. There is expansion of love when others depend on one: he can, so to speak, carry others.
There is a symbol from ancient Egyptian times of a god holding an ark above his head, the ark holding many kinds of beings of many types. A variant of this can be seen in the god Atlas holding the world. This is no doubt an extreme case. But other-dependence is a sign of limitation.
Modern scientists, especially psychologists, are realizing the value of growing empathy. In this they are definitely superior to psychics and crutch-leaners. A crutch-leaner is one who depends upon products of the mineral and vegetable worlds to alter his state of consciousness. This does not mean that we are to condemn such people. Our work is not in condemnation. Our work comes in increasing the conscious awareness of growing empathy, love, joy and the ability to carry the burdens of other beings, things and places.
3. The Use of Psychedelics in the New Age
This is a very difficult subject to discuss dispassionately. We are thrown willy-nilly into a New World, into a New Age. It is not always easy to distinguish between the artificial and the natural. We need not do so. In this age of physical therapy the devices of man have displaced or complemented the forces of nature. This is not necessarily good or evil, but the potentialities of the Good are much greater than the potentialities of Evil.
There was a time when large sectors of humankind could enter into awareness of other worlds, let us say Faerie (as expressed by the ancient Celts). The most common agency seems to have been music. But no doubt there were other agencies. These are certainly referred to in the mysteries, in the novels of Marie Corelli and in the Celtic and other Traditions. This entering into Faerie was not dependent upon trance or lowering the stage of consciousness. It was awareness into areas of higher vibrations. We can become aware of “underworlds,” or lower stages of vibrations, and equally aware of “overworlds,” finer stages of vibrations. What has been lost can be easily restored. It belongs to humanity, and sensitivity is one of the main factors.
A cell is composed of poles and accommodations. In these accommodations there is a differentiation of energies and vibrations involved. In all considerations we have the element and the field. The element may be regarded as the “plus” or masculine force, the field as the “minus” or feminine aspect. Both are needed. This appeared in the Einsteinian Field Theory. Its importance has not yet penetrated the general consciousness.
A ritual of whatever kind alters the field. Nearly all dances originally were connected with mysteries and nearly all dances affect the field or atmosphere. A ritual gives a positive force and also produces a conscious change in the field or atmosphere.
We may divide the psychedelics into artificial and natural. Artificial psychedelics devitalize the physical body and the mind. With natural psychedelics there must be a very careful study. Wholesale adulation and even more wholesale condemnation reveal a very unscientific outlook. Each must be studied by itself, both objectively and subjectively.
The search for Soma was a search for vital psychedelics in the botanical world. But there must be a classification of natural psychedelics just as there is a classification of metals with regard to their properties—chemical, magnetic, electrical and so forth. This may take a long time but will certainly open up new sciences, both physical and psychical.
The introduction of the element into the field produces a living cell. This is true in both the physical and biological sciences. Timothy Leary has undoubtedly pioneered in promoting the idea of introducing psychedelics into rituals. This makes them magical, and he seems to know that intuitively. But we must go further in introducing the devotional spirit which can prevent degradation. Thus, the new Mysteries: the use of psychedelics in a ritual. All rituals follow psychic law. This is in the Sufi Teachings. It is also in Tantric and other teachings. It is found consciously or unconsciously at all times and in all ages. Therefore, ritualistic psychedelics are to be encouraged if we understand they are like elevators. This does not mean that they take one to higher levels, but they do bring us into enlarged areas of awareness.
This is a very complex subject. From the mystical point of view it is not the change of consciousness which is important, but the change accompanied by ever-increasing Love, Empathy, Joy and all other spiritual values. Psychic and psychedelic experiences which lower the moral threshold are dangerous; psychic and psychedelic experiences which elevate and expand the moral threshold are beneficent: This is for the masses as the Lesser Mysteries were for the masses.
The restoration of the Lesser Mysteries in these and other ways will no doubt open the door to the Greater Mysteries.
There are more and more Jinn-type souls coming into manifestation. Their sexual aspects are not the same as those of manushic origin (from manas, lower mind); indeed, many of their characteristics are different. They come ever closer to the hu-man type (“Hu” is the sound Sufis use to refer to the Absolute). They have more sensitivity, more awareness, more heart. Some of them are balanced, some of them are unbalanced, but certain characteristics are held in common. Also their values are different.
A number of prophetic persons such as Bulwer-Lytton, H.G. Wells and Sri Aurobindo have foreseen their manifestation. The adulation of seers and pseudo-seers has no doubt complicated this change in human evolution—not in the evolution itself but in the understanding of the processes and persons involved. The deification of leaders and pseudo-leaders blocks the advance of mankind. Jesus has said, “Seek me in children unto the age of seven.” Mohammed has said, “Every child has been born a Believer.” The difference between the New Age people and the Old Age people is that the New Age people carry the Jinn-consciousness much longer. Therefore they cannot be easily converted from psychedelics.
Sex is no longer so animal-like, even though the sex act may be treated more openly. This openness of itself is not nearly so harmful as the presumption—and it is presumption—of men acting like women and women acting like men. The growth of the man is toward the superman stage; the growth of the woman is toward the superwoman stage. Womankind aborted has sought compensation in becoming executives in business and politics. When a woman becomes an executive in military matters, she becomes de-sexed almost, like Queen Christiana of Sweden. This is not the way toward liberation.
The way toward liberation comes in a Columbus-type of pioneering—moving into new areas and arenas of the planes Unseen, toward awakening latent powers in mankind. This is true for men and women alike. The male has governed the physical world for ages, which means that there are more new opportunities for women pioneers in both restoring ancient prerogatives and functions and in presenting hitherto unknown aspects of human evolution.
Among the ancient prerogatives to be restored are that of the oracular function and other psychic expressions. These have not been entirely lost in the world, but because they have been preserved mostly by non-literate and non-technological types, they have been down-graded. Perhaps it should be the other way, and many cults have realized this.
This brings up the solar and lunar aspects of psychic evolution. The male is expressive, the female responsive. Expressive women and responsive men need not always disturb physical and social institutions, but they do not operate in accord with psychic law. What we have to do is to encourage and promote the ways of womankind in accord with psychic law.
It is direct evidence of the lunar activities in women that too many of them are anxious to adopt masculine clothing, masculine prerogatives and masculine functions without looking at their vast now-untouched potentialities. When this vast reservoir is tapped, when the latent powers in humankind are given suitable expression, there will be a normal and natural diminution of this behavior pattern.
We can look with eyes open, we can look with eyes closed, we can revolve the eyeballs and the direction of seeing. And in another sense we can hear within, either naturally or by pressing the fingers over the ear lobes. The more sensitive we become the greater the possibilities for innate potentialities to manifest.
Women are by nature more sensitive than men. Both spiritual and biological evolution point in the direction of the development of innate sensitivity. As these innate faculties are given opportunities to manifest, this will automatically diminish the invasion of masculine prerogatives by women and, presumably, the counter-invasion of feminine prerogatives by men.
Turning on the inner eye may have several meanings. It could involve the concentration on an increased response to impressions. What is needed is more attention to centering. There are many practices in this regard in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. By implication or by parallel development, mankind may increase sensitivity to each of the centers in the body. There have been from ancient times responsive developments to and in the activities—physical and mental—of the female organs. These seem to function best in a lowered state of consciousness, trance or otherwise. Even from the Sufi point of view, there are teachings on what has been called spiritualism (which need not concern us now). What concerns us now is the development and transference of impressionability to the higher centers—higher in both their position in the physical organism and their functions into and on the planes unseen.
The new type of oracle will not diminish feminine impressionability but will utilize it, and utilize it practically in and with both head and heart centers. The impressionable woman will then be seeing much for which she has capacity (albeit a capacity whose innate possibilities have not been fully developed). In Sufism especially there are directives to the heart and head centers which help to both awaken and develop them. Thus “seeing” and even “hearing” will take on new meanings when applied to the worlds unseen. Along with that development will come a refinement which will reawaken mankind to the subtle worlds. Thus there is a vast universe now almost untapped—a universe which can be reopened and will give womankind especially a path of fulfillment.
There has been an emotional interest in ancient mysteries and especially those of the Egyptian Isis. We cannot restore or reawaken them excepting by working with the norms involved.
There have been many misunderstandings about women’s place both in the spiritual and in the social aspects of life. Books are written about women’s innate functions, but the books are not functions: the books are intellectual, sometimes emotional, and do not lead to the awakening of untapped feminine resources. These can only be tapped by practices of meditation, yoga and so forth which lead to the arousing of the deep dormancy in her nature.
While a great many impressions come from nothing more than the psychic side of feminine sexuality, the transference of the center of impressions—first to the solar plexus and then to the higher centers—means a real awakening. For our purposes the two centers most involved might be the heart and the head (which is to say, the arsh and ajna). The heart center is most important.
The heart center is normally and naturally used in motherhood and in all expressions of motherly and matriarchal aspects of life. As these have infinite possibilities, stress can only be made on practice. Practice brings awakening. Centering in the heart means the arousal of the heart functions: so comes love, tenderness, insight and the Sophia which is the deification of feminine wisdom.
The other center, that in the head, should lead when awakened to increased vision—vision on all planes. In one sense the heart and Sophia will be concerned with the Universal, the third eye to the particular. The lifting of the “Veil of Isis” means the restoration of the oracular function. Perhaps any woman can develop it, but it needs discipline and training. The establishment of “Vestal Virgin” should be that many young women undergo this training, but not at the expense of marriage and motherhood. Thus women will have their own mysteries apart from the general mysteries open to all mankind and the hierarchal functions in which men are usually more proficient.
Thus there should be one or more Hierophants to help here. There is nothing to prevent a woman from ultimately becoming a Hierophant, but generally this has been a male function. The Hierophant is one who must understand rather than function.
The awakening of heart and head means new vistas, new outlooks and a wider scope for humanity itself. We must follow actual attainments and not be misled by emotional expressions. The less the emotions, the greater the possibility of attainment. In this way there will be a return and an increase of wisdom (Sophia), and womankind may fulfill itself in higher social, psychic, occult and mystical aspects of life. Her guidance may then be sought by the whole of humanity.
This is really a restoration. Added to the accumulated culture of thousands of years and the general spiritual evolution of the race (as mentioned by Sri Aurobindo) it will both be the heralding of and the production of the New Age.
5. The Individual in the Commune
The essential difference between the mystical outlook and that of various rather successful communal efforts is due to the belief of mystics that every individual was created in God’s image. While a group may function as an individual, it should be in such a way as to give the individual greater—not lesser—scope for the fuller expression of his personality. State-ism may be valuable and acceptable from a political or economic standpoint, but it cannot lead to the greater freedom of the soul. Besides that, there is always the danger of dictatorships (expressed, assumed or implicated) which do not lead to the awakening and expansion of the finer forces in man. No doubt rules and laws are needed, but the inner worlds have their activities independently of and paramount to such rules and laws. This subject is discussed in The Inner Life by Hazrat Inayat Khan and its commentaries.
Universal evolution is based neither on restrictions of the expansion of consciousness nor on limitations to the prowess of man. It is the other way around: it is the greater prowess, it is the fuller expression of innate potentialities which will both produce and direct the New Age.
What Edward Carpenter called the Uranian man is a variation of what Hazrat Inayat Khan called the jinn man. Personalities of this evolution cannot fit in with societies legally bound, since laws and restrictions belong to the manushic side of existence. We cannot get beyond manusha while living under such restrictions. Increased vision and beyond that increased functional insight means that mankind has a living awareness—rather than a standard—of what 00. should be done.
At the same time, there will be a permeating sense of togetherness which the advanced individual will regard as important. Already we see the artistic types tending in this direction. They are unconsciously or even consciously heralding the New Age. They share more, both of possessions and burdens. They cooperate more. They feel the hearts of each other more, thus they harmonize more.
As presented in the earlier portion of this manuscript, the basic types of spiritual communities will be those with a directing teacher and those without a directing teacher. There will be scope for each. And while we need not favor any political society such as those in Israel, they do give objective examples of what can be done and what should and should not be done. As most of the Israeli social pioneering is not based on spirituality but on practicality, they do not lead to the development of mankind’s finer opportunities and functions.
The Bible says, “The people without vision perish.” Sri Aurobindo and others have been predicting the rise of a human type with supermental and even superconscious faculties. The danger has been, is now and may continue to be that undeveloped and pious devotees—themselves without higher faculties—may tend to police those newly arrived and block rather than encourage full expression of innate faculties. Movements such as the Theosophical Society and some Sufi orders, dedicated originally to the further and fuller expansion and use of hidden faculties, have also fallen into the hands of those without developed faculties.
The result has been that efforts to liberate mankind—especially when legally organized—have fallen into the hands of the underdeveloped and undeveloped. While the communal movements are verbally dedicated to efforts to enfranchise those hampered by establishments, they have only too often merely established new power structures—often dictatorships. These dictatorships do give ample opportunities for the leaders to have full scope for their own inner innate faculties but do not give ample scope to others. Therefore many of the so-called new order and New Age efforts are only so verbally, not actually.
The New Age should be communal without being communistic. By “communistic” we mean that an excellent thought-form is used to direct, organize and presumably harmonize the human beings involved. This gives too little scope for any rapid psychic or spiritual development. Presumably revolutionary, it continues the personality limitations of the former period.
The spiritual directions point to a humanity with the same faculties of the past but much better developed, to the revival and resurrection of faculties, perceptions and powers once expressed in the race (for instance in Ireland), and also to the awakening and development of new but latent potentialities.
For example, the philosopher Alfred Korzybski pointed to the increasing use of the cortex of the brain. He concluded that there was a super-biological evolution (call it what you will) which would bring in a grander humanity. Our difficulty has been that people without this cortical development wish to direct it. They can only mislead it.
Beyond this development, one perceives the awakening or reawakening and the furthering of layers of consciousness associated biologically with the pineal gland and the pituitary body. It is important to give proper scope as well as education to those people who exhibit efficiency in these functions. The young will no longer be able to submit to any dictatorial, political, religious, psychological or other restrictions to the full expressions of their abilities—innate or overt.
Let us assume here that the next stage—even as described by Sri Aurobindo and others—follows a definite pattern. It can also be felt (if not shown) that this should be part of a jinn-gandharva penetration into the evolved human incarnation. This would be in harmony with the developed pituitary. This pituitary—even so far as it has been studied scientifically—shows that it is an organ of jinn-gandharva expressibility. It has two lobes which can be called the jemal and jelal lobes (Arabic, corresponding closely to “beauty” and “power”).
When the jelal lobe (which is in front) is developed, one sees high foreheads, deep intellect, great thinking ability and prowess in mathematics, engineering, organizing, directing and so forth. When the posterior or jemal lobe is developed, one sees advanced ability in creativity, in all the artistic functions and—perhaps still more latent and undeveloped—a greater appreciation of the beautiful things in manifestation.
The new communes will encourage such development and will be both personal and impersonal. They will be personal insofar as every effort will be made to educate, stimulate and inspire the actual persons, not merely the theoretical types. They will also be impersonal insofar as they will not be anarchistic. The more advanced young will not, because of their advance potentialities, be permitted to direct until they have given vent to the full scope of their own innate faculties. It is like having an orchestra which still needs a leader or leaders. These leaders may not be able to play particular instruments so well as many of the musicians, but nonetheless are able to synthesize, harmonize and direct.
They will differ from Plato’s Guardians in that these Guardians were supposed to be the more evolved. In one sense, leaders will be much more like nurses (nothing to do with sex) with great geniuses under their protection. Their work will be to see these geniuses are given both scope and freedom without fomenting destruction.
We must consider here that Edward Carpenter, himself a great seer with an almost cosmic social attitude, calls the future people Uranians. Uranians are almost lawless in their zest for liberty, but if liberty is not bounded there can be no true artistic expression. New forms yes, formlessness no.
6. Meta-psychics in the New Age
The New Age will not tolerate the sneer, the snide remark, the a priori rejection, the egocentric appeal to common sense and all those subjectivities which have always barred progress. There will of course be two aspects to meta-psychic development: the moral and the direct. The moral is simply the extension of objectivity—the same as we find in the purer sciences—and will substantiate this opening remark.
The direction will be simply that more and more people with previously-regarded unusual faculties will take their place in culture and society. Thus while magnetism was originally associated with the metal iron, it has been found that all the chemical elements have some positive and negative magnetic qualities (though often very little). Thus although radioactivity was originally associated with a few elements, a universal law was discovered demonstrating a cosmic harmony as to the radioactive faculties of every form of matter. Indeed these cosmic harmonies can be extended to all properties of all forms of matter.
In perhaps a parallel situation it will be discovered that all human beings without exception have certain types of psychic faculties. Some may be dormant, some may be nullified by other factors, some may be useless. On the other hand, many may be well developed though unrecognized. Honesty and objectivity will compel recognition. That is the first stage.
Then it will be found which of these faculties operates in the daily life, which in dreams, which in trance, which in meditation and which in experiences of higher states of consciousness. There is far more dishonesty in refusing to examine facts than in the chicanery of pretenders. There is no positive value in negations. What must be made clear is that it will be the activities and later the philosophies of the sensitives which will add to human knowledge. We no longer permit, and in some countries we absolutely forbid, non-scientists from evaluating the operations of those skilled in laboratory and research techniques. They are mere lookers-on at best. The same attitude—indeed, the same policy—will be applied to these and all critics. Indeed, the sensitives will not wish them around.
All signs point to the awakening of powers latent within man. All signs point to more and more souls finding more and more avenues of expression for latent faculties. Many scientists already recognize that they have not studied the operations of mind and consciousness as they have studied the behavior of external matter and of the various instruments and modalities they use. No doubt the mind itself is much more important than all instruments and all modalities. No doubt the mind may have other channels than the traditional senses. And no doubt the sensoriums of people are unequal just as their I.Q.’s, their various sense-faculties, their physical prowess, their appetites and all other aspects of outer being are unequal.
There is already one university doing direct, honest, objective research into reincarnation and former life memories. There are several such universities and institutions on the Asian continent. These people are in a sense much “further out” than the Psychic Research Society of Great Britain. They have opened more doors. But humanity itself will open still more doors, because fortified by numbers the unusual and sensitive people will become much bolder, speak much more freely and thus bring into the objective world their faculties and knowledge.
One must be careful here not to lay down restrictions or norms. We have seen how disciples of seers and highly advanced people have tried to establish norms for those who follow when they themselves have not aroused their gifts. No doubt there are rules. No doubt there are laws governing every aspect of existence. But to have the less advanced police the more advanced has always led to turmoil and misunderstanding. The same cannot be avoided by advice. The only possible way is for the less advanced to become really humble and show a willingness to accept the larger vistas and more advanced faculties of forthcoming generations.
Besides this, it will be felt (if not found) that response to these enlarged faculties will bring more harmony, more satisfaction, even more peace than what has been the norm of society.
Religion in the New Age will be based more on human experience. In the end it will be based entirely on human experience and on such ritual and methods that stimulate the advancement of human experience. This will not negate any of the teachings of the founders of religions but will gradually eliminate all the deductions, ceremonies, theologies, credos, formulae and so forth which obviously arose from the consciousness of the less developed. No doubt these were needed in times of intellectual darkness, but during the centuries they have become the ceilings for much of the culture of humankind. Thus while raising humanity up, let us say, one step, they have hindered all progress to higher developments.
Indeed, all religions—and we find this particularly in Hinduism—have consciously or unconsciously foisted a status at much lower levels than mankind is capable of. In India smitri (tradition) has usurped the place of the sruti (revelation) despite the fact that all traditions say srutis are much higher than smitris. In the religions of revelation—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—many of the original scriptures are not used at all and those that are generally are used only in a restricted sense.
The founders of every religion without exception have taught that they are not unique, that all mankind could reach their level. The heredity guardians, the prelates, the privileged have in effect abrogated this. They have made mankind feel small whereas the founders tried to show him he was great. The New Age people will not be so small. Even more they will not be barred from associating with each other. They will not accept artificial lines of demarcation; after a while they will not accept any demarcations at all.
Brotherhood will arise of itself. It will not come through groups calling themselves “brotherhoods” and separating themselves from the generality. Such actions make them sects in the original and only effective meaning of this word. A sect is a cut or section. If you make a cut or a section you belong to a sect. If you by-pass cuts and sections you belong to a brotherhood. This will become more and more the norm of the future of humanity.
Of course, as more and more people have the divine experience or any form of supermental experience, they will be raised above the distinctions and differences that divide men. The universal man need not abolish religion, but he will choose his form of worship on a higher level—as man chooses his food, his clothing, his amusements, all his functions in life. It is only silent meditation to which all can join, in which all can join. Thus the unity will not mean uniformity. The unity need not abolish diversity. There may be a universal religion or there may be a condition wherein when man joins a religion he joins all religions automatically. Or there may develop new modes, new rituals and so forth based on a much greater knowledge of occult laws (as some Theosophists once proposed). Or it may be something quite new and different in its operations.
To formulate the New Age is to restrict the New Age. That is why many now hailed will later be disregarded. Visions which crystallize are incomplete. The New Age will be fluidic, but the spirit of devotion need not change: forms yes, spirit no. Therefore, to be too exact in this regard becomes a self-contradiction. You cannot hold a cloud in its place or shape, nor can mankind of a certain period restrict, formulate or make demands of future cultures, future mankind.
We can say with assurance that the religion of the future will be a religion of free men and free women, of people with enlarged horizons and extended inner vision, with faculties now latent in much fuller operation.
This will not change the relation of man to God and of God to man, but it will make them more common occurrences in human experience.
Afterward:
The Early Life of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis
Samuel Leonard Lewis was born on October 18, 1896 to Jacob Lewis, a vice-president of the Levi Strauss Company, and the former Harriet Rothschild. He once said, “My parents never forgave me for being conceived out of wedlock.” He was an unusual child, a child prodigy; his mother often claimed to have had a dream of the Prophet Samuel before the child’s birth and therefore gave him that name. But these unusual qualities did not endear him to his family. His father never could accept the other-worldly tendencies of his oldest son. He was angered time and again that Samuel was not interested in business, competition and material success. In all matters his younger brother Elliot was preferred; even when he lied and stole this was at least showing interest in money.
This introverted and deeply studious young man, with his memories of previous lives and his mystical inclinations, graduated eventually from San Francisco’s top high school, Lowell, with the highest grades in its history to that point. But his well-to-do family refused to send him to college. This family rejection and conflict was one of the crosses he had to bear until the end of his life. He achieved reconciliation with his parents and with his brother shortly before their respective deaths, and the small trust fund which his father then left him allowed him to take up college at a late date in his life (the 1940s). He continued taking courses until his death; his passion for knowledge was inexhaustible.
He told his students on several occasions that it was his own family rejection which made him naturally sympathetic to the young people who came to him with similar problems at the end of his life. It was one of the ways God prepared him to be of help to others, he later came to believe. Through rejection after rejection in life he developed great patience and perseverance, until at the end of his life the flow of time and evolution began to catch up with him—initially in the persons of the youth of the late sixties. He repeated again and again the phrase of Christ: “The stone which is rejected is become the cornerstone.” He said that this was the koan for his life.
While he had “intimations of immortality” from early childhood and reports reading about psychic research at age 13, his mystical training was set into motion a few years later:
In 1915, at the age of 18, he goes to the Palace of Education at the World’s fair which was held in San Francisco. There he meets with Theosophy, which taught him “All religions are right. They differ on the outside when taken exoterically, they agree on the inside if taken esoterically. All religions are from God. There are seven planes of existence, the lower one experienced in life after life, the higher ones only by sages and the illumined.” He knows in his depth of being that this is true. He believes he has found the Way. He continues to read all the world’s scriptures voraciously. He is still living at home, something of a recluse. But the teachings of the Theosophists have proven to be only intellectual and he renews his search.
In November 1919 he is walking on Sutter Street; he sees a display of books. He is unaware of how but soon he is upstairs facing a little dark-haired lady. She is Jewish. “You can explain the Kabbalah?” he asks. “Yes, and all religions.” “What is Sufism?” “Sufism is the essence of all religions. It has been brought to the West by Hazrat Inayat Khan.” The woman is Murshida Rabia A. Martin, Inayat Khan’s senior disciple, and his first appointed Murshida.
Shortly after this he formally begins his study of Zen, meeting the Zen teacher Rev. M. T. Kirby, a disciple of the Rinzai Abbot Shaku Soyen. His study of religion has now taken a much deeper turn.
In June of 1923 he has a vision of the arrival of Hazrat Inayat Khan and his mergence with him. The next day, noon, the summer solstice, he is summoned to meet the Pir-o-Murshid. Samuel walks into the room only to see a tremendous light. “Come, don’t be afraid,” says the Murshid. He takes initiation. He is loyal to his teacher through thick and thin for the rest of his life: “He was the first person to ever touch my heart.” Thereafter, he introduces Rinzai Zen master Nyogen Senzaki and Hazrat Inayat Khan, who “entered samadhi together.”
Samuel begins to write poetry and numerous essays on religious themes. His being is beginning to ferment. His behavior patterns become stranger and even more difficult for his family to understand; his health begins to deteriorate. In 1925 he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. By his own report he goes into the wilderness to die. This is on land in Fairfax, California, owned by Murshida Martin, dedicated to the Sufi work and called Kaaba Allah. He is to make a khilvat or spiritual retreat. In the midst of it, the legendary Khwaja Khizr appears and offers him the gift of music or poetry. He chooses poetry. Khizr appears again the next night. And then all the Prophets of God appear; Elijah presents him a robe in vision, and Mohammed appears to him as the Seal of the Prophets. For the next 45 years until his death he never questions the validity of these experiences.
He remains silent about them until Hazrat Inayat Khan’s return to America in 1926. Then he seeks an interview and tells the Sufi master of his experiences. Inayat Khan summons him back for five more interviews and gives him tremendous responsibilities for the work. He makes him “Protector of the Message.” During the course of these interviews Inayat Khan yells at him that he has not as many trustworthy disciples as he has fingers on one hand. This yell literally knocks him over, and he later says that it was at this moment that he received the full transmission of Baraka (blessing-magnetism) from his teacher. It was to be, he later says, the strength for his whole life.
Hazrat Inayat Khan reads his early efforts at spiritual commentary and tells Samuel that he is to be a leader in the Brotherhood work—the efforts to build a bridge of communication between the mystics and the intellectuals. Inayat Khan has Samuel and Paul Reps take a special pledge to protect and be loyal to Rabia Martin, not to let her defend herself in public or take up money matters. On these latter points he fails. Hazrat Inayat Khan dies the next year and the Sufi Movement which he establishes becomes divided by politics. Murshida Martin uses Samuel as her foil for making her claim for succession, having him write numerous letters to headquarters. Even on her deathbed many years later, though he pleads with her, she refuses to release him from his pledge.
In 1930, three years after his passing, Hazrat Inayat Khan appears to Samuel in vision and exerts pressure upon his crown center. From then on Samuel receives communications from Inayat. He writes lesson paper after paper for the Sufi mureeds. He writes numerous commentaries on the esoteric teachings of the Pir-o-Murshid. These commentaries he continues to write until his death, often rewriting his commentaries three or four times. The 1930’s is a fertile period for his writing, particularly the prophetic types of materials which is all that survived the Kaaba Allah fire of 1949.
He begins to live at Kaaba Allah, and stays there throughout most of the depression years. He has no salary; his work is as a gardener and groundskeeper. He lives off the land. Murshida Martin appoints him as her Khalif (representative) and he bears much of the responsibility for the running of the Sufi Khankah. But as the years go on they have increasingly more differences. He is being taken through inner initiations all the time and his outer behavior patterns reflect this inner intoxication. There is no one around who can be his teacher. He takes the spiritual name Murad, meaning one who receives by Grace.
During the 1930’s Samuel also spends time in Los Angeles with Luther Whiteman collaborating on the book Glory Roads, a classic study of Utopian movements in the state of California, and conducting what they called “propaganda analysis.” He is becoming more involved with social issues. He lives for a time at the bohemian community called the Dunes in southern California. He is still a celibate, not by choice but by fate; he rarely even touches a woman and never men.
The outbreak of World War II finds him working as a historical consultant and secretary for Army Intelligence (G2). His immediate superior Capt. Edward Landsdale tells him to burn all his diaries of this period. “This was easy because nobody believed me anyway,” he says later. He was fighting the war in the inner planes, and his diaries were a chronicle of this.
After the war years, Murshida Martin appoints Ivy Duce her successor—someone nobody in the Sufi Order knew—bypassing Samuel who had been her chief representative for years. Ivy Duce decides to turn everything over to Meher Baba. Samuel tries to accept this out of loyalty; he goes to South Carolina where he lives as a beachcomber. Finally after two years he is given a vision of the grand mosque of the heavens where Jesus sweeps the floors, Mohammed takes up the shoes, and this lady goes around demanding and demanding from others. He is allowed to leave. He collects one box of his multitudinous writings and leaves Kaaba Allah. It burns down the next day. He is wrongfully accused of burning it down and finds himself disgraced, penniless, broken. The sacred writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan are withheld from him.
Around this time he gets a vision from Jesus Christ of how to bring peace in Palestine. He goes to school. Takes odd jobs. Has some very small allowance from his family. Does many spiritual practices. Writes copiously. Works with orphaned children. Takes up horseback riding, folk dancing, ornamental horticulture. Works with road crews planting shrubs and flowers.
In 1956 Samuel makes his first trip to Asia and is accepted everywhere. He is recognized by spiritual teachers of all schools. He takes up many world projects. In 1961 he makes his second trip. He studies and teaches Sufism in the East. Among many other recognitions is made a Murshid in the Chisti Order of Sufis, the parent school of Hazrat Inayat Khan. He works actively distributing different kinds of seeds around the world and working on solutions to world food problems. In 1963 he returns to the United States.
In 1966 he begins to attract a few young disciples. He lands flat on his back in the hospital and God comes to him and appoints him “Spiritual Leader of the Hippies.” It’s something he never expected, but shortly after this time the young people begin to flock to his door. He finds the family he never had. At the end of his life he is hugging and kissing men and women all the time. He originates the Dances of Universal Peace, often called Sufi Dances, and dedicates them to the Temple of Understanding which is committed—as was Inayat Khan—to providing a house of prayer for all peoples. These dances, which take sacred phrases from all the world’s religions, have since spread worldwide. He originates the work of the Sufi Choir and institutes spiritual instruction through music. He credits his “fairy godmother” Ruth St. Denis with his ability to draw Dance forms out of the cosmos and for his inspiration to teach through the Walk.
In 1968 he joins forces with Pir Vilayat Khan, the eldest son of his first teacher, and there follows a great flowering of the Sufi work in the United States. Murshid Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti—as Samuel is now known—appoints his own spiritual successor, Moineddin Jablonski, from among his disciples, as well as several Sheikhs and Khalifs. In December of 1970 a fall down stairs gives him a brain concussion and he dies on January 15, 1971. His work is continued by his energetic and devoted disciples.
“For years,” Samuel said about himself, “I followed a Gandhian attitude, always yielding, and got nothing for it. When once I was able to be firm and take the path of the master everything came my way.”
The events of the last years of Samuel’s life were so full they deserve a chronicle all their own. This brief biographical sketch focuses on less-known periods of his early life. At the end, all the seeds of his earlier efforts and experiences came to fruition. Finally he got the Divine instruction: “Harvest what you can, and leave the rest to Me.”
Masheikh Wali Ali Meyer
September 1981
(Skr) = Sanskrit (Ar) = Arabic (Grk) = Greek (Heb) = Hebrew
—A
Agape: Divine Love. (Grk).
Agni tattva: Fire element. (Skr).
Ajna: Head Center. (Skr).
Akasha: Space or ether, the first of the five elements (ether, air, fire, water and earth) said to constitute the universe. Akasha is that pure capacity of space which is the source and goal of the other elements. (Skr).
Akasha tattva: Etheric element.
Allotropic: Existing as distinct modifications of the same element: coal and diamond are allotropes of carbon.
Ananda: Wisdom-bliss-joy. (Skr).
An-atma: Without self, complete selflessness. (Skr).
Anatta: An-atma (Pali).
Apas tattva: Water element. (Skr).
Aretz: Earth. (Hbr).
Ark of the Covenant: Shelter for the Torah (five books of Moses).
Arsh: Heart Center. (Skr).
Arupa: Formless. (Skr).
Ashram: Teacher’s residence and community.
Atlas: Symbol of the fulfillment of the Bodhisattvic oath; bearing the weight of the world until deliverance.
Aurobindo, Sri: Indian mystic who predicted a new age.
—B
Baqa: Subsistence, state of divine fullness; the resurrection. (cf. fana). (Ar).
Baraka: Blessing, or the content of blessing; divine-life. (Ar).
Beth-Kol: Voice of God. (Heb).
Bodhisattva: enlightened, selfless servant of humanity. (Skr).
Bose, Sir Jagadis: Indian scientist who worked on the psychology of plants and minerals. The American Clive Backster has now progressed further along the same lines.
Brahmins: Hindu priest, priest-caste.
Buddhi: The pure light of absolute consciousness; illumination. (Skr).
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward: Rosicrucian author at the turn of the century. wrote The Coming Race.
—C
Carpenter, Edward: English poet, a disciple of Walt Whitman; author of Towards Democracy.
Cortex: Outermost layer of the brain.
Corelli, Marie: Writer of occult fiction, as in A Romance of Two Worlds.
—D
Dharma: The way; righteous duty or Universal Light which illumines every man. (Skr).
Din: The Faith. (Ar).
—E
Eight-fold Path of Buddha: Practical Buddhist scheme of salvation: right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.
Entropy: Simply stated, the law that heat can pass naturally only from a warmer body to a colder body; a measure indicating the amount of energy which (although it still exists) is not available for use because it has become more evenly distributed instead of being concentrated.
—F
Faerie: A subtle or psychic state as understood by the ancient Celts.
Fana: Effacement, surrender, annihilation; assimilation into the not-self. (cf., baqa). (Ar).
—G
Gandharvas: Celestial musicians; spirits on the fragrant mountains, so-called because they do not drink wine or eat meat, but feed on incense and give off fragrant odors (see Jinn). (Skr).
Gautama Sakya Muni: The historical Buddha, passed from manifestation about 477 B.C.
Guru: Spiritual teacher. (Skr).
—H
Hal: The mystic state, ecstasy, absorption. (Ar).
Hierarchal functions: Holy Qur’an says: “Allah has his representatives on earth at all times.”
Hierophant: High priest of the Egyptian mysteries.
Hu-man: “Hu” is the sound Sufis use to refer to the Absolute. “Hu-man” indicates man created in God’s image. The human state occurs when the nufs is assimilated into the Divine Spirit; then one acts as a representative of God, or the universe.
—I
Ikhwan: Brotherhood, group-unity. (Ar).
Ikhwan-i-Safa: Brethren-of-Purity (the true Sufi Order).
Ishk: Divine Love. (Ar).
Isis: There are at least three levels through which Isis can be explained. The first is clear and simple: Isis was an aspect of the mother goddess; she personified Woman and the universal feminine gender. She was nature, the root matter of all things. In the second level (symbolic, figurative) her role becomes helper to the deceased, wife of Osiris, sacred expression of divine sorrow and protector of the soul on its journey to the nether world. She personifies the fullness of terrestrial nature with all its regenerative and reproductive powers. In the third level, the sacred and hieroglyphic, she represents celestial and invisible nature and the very spirit itself: part of and the same as the Supreme Being. She is the element of souls; spiritual light, intelligible of itself.
—J
Jelal: Power. (Ar).
Jemal: Beauty. (Ar).
Jinn: Soul from the next level of existence above the human; beings of knowledge. (Ar).
—K
Kabbalah: Literally, “that which is received.” It is the mystical exegesis of the Old Testament, based on four levels (pardees) of interpretation: literal, poetic or figurative, symbolic and esoteric.
Karma: Action and reaction, cause and effect. (Skr).
Khan, Hazrat Inayat: First of the great masters to bring Sufism to the West; he arrived in the Western World in 1910.
Karuna: Divine Love, Compassion (Skr).
Khankah: Teacher’s residence or community of disciples.
Korzybski, Alfred: Founder of General Semantics, author of Science and Sanity (1879-1950).
—M
Makam: Spiritual station or grade. (Ar).
Manas: Mind, the reflective principle (the deliberative principle); the word man comes from manas. (Skr).
Manushic: From manas.
Metaphytes: Many-celled animals.
Mullah: Leader of the Muslim community, learned in traditional law. (Ar).
—N
Nama: Name. (Skr).
Naraka: personification of a subhuman state in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology; hell. (Skr).
Nufs: The ego, the structure which holds things as distinct entities. (Ar).
—O
Osmosis: Passage of substance through a membrane in the direction which produces a balance of solution concentrations.
—P
Peri: Fairy (see listing, Taittiriya Upanishad). (Skr).
Pitri: Mane (see Taittiriya Upanishad). (Skr).
Plotinus: Neo-Platonic philospher (c. 205-270 A.D.).
Prakriti: Earth, nature; the essential stuff out of which our material universe has been created (see Aretz). (Skr).
Prithivi tattva: Earth element. (Skr).
Protozoa: Single-celled animalicules.
Purusha: Heavens, the unseen, the unmanifest, the soul (see shemayim). (Skr).
—R
Reiser, Oliver: Writer of real integrative philosophy.
Rupa: Form. (Skr).
—S
Sama: Musical assembly of the Sufis. (Ar).
Samskaras: Impressions, karmic formations. (Skr).
Sangha: Brotherhood, group-unity (see Ikhwan). (Skr).
Sheikh: Spiritual teacher. (Ar).
Shem: Literally, “name.” The living light, determining personality. (Heb).
Shemayim: Heavens, the whole realm of vibrations (plural of shem). (Heb).
Siddhis: Accomplishments, powers, faculties. (Skr).
Sifat: The many apparent qualities of God. (Ar).
Smitri: Memory, traditional law. (Skr).
Soma: A liquid extract drunk in Vedic rituals. Sophia: Wisdom personified. (Grk).
Sruti: Hearing, revelation. (Skr).
—T
Taittiriya Upanishad: This Hindu scripture states the order of increasing bliss: man, human ghandarva, celestial ghandarva, mane (peri, pitri), deva, etc.
Tamas: Dark heat; the guna (rhythm) of inertia, decay, laziness. (Skr).
Tasawwuf: The spiritual doctrines and metaphysics known as Sufism, with the practices thereof. (Ar).
Tat Twam Asi: “Thou art that.” Self and God are seen without separation. (Skr).
Tattvas: Mystical elements. The Great Breath gives to Prakriti five sorts of elementary extension—each has a distinct form or vibration. Outwardly, they manifest as ether, air, fire, water and earth. (Skr).
Tejas tattva: Same as agni tattva, the fire element.
Tropism: Movement under the influence of an environmental factor.
—U
Uranian Man: Opposed to the dominant modes of society; independent; has a quick mind.
—V
Vedantist: Student of Vedanta, the “goal of the Veda (Hindu scripture).”
Veil of Isis: The “veil” limiting man’s vision to the world of forms (see also Isis).
Vestal Virgins: Six virgins who tended the temple of Vesta in Rome. They acted as liaisons between the people and the gods.
Wheel-of-Life: Samsara, the cycle of birth and death, heaven and hell, and so forth.
Wells, H.G.: A prophetic writer of science fiction, author of Men Like Gods (1866-1946).
—Y
Yogin: Practitioner of yoga, divine union.
—Z
Zat: The universal, all-pervading essence which is beyond all qualities, characteristics and descriptions; there is only One. (Ar).
A
Abu Bekr Siddiq, 60
Abdu’l-Baha, 18
action, 16, 52
affinity, 20
air, 27, 28, 32, 34
air breath, 28
akasha, 37
see also ether alchemical, 30
Ananda, see bliss animal (life), 32, 34
antithesis, 42, 43
apprentices, 41 art, 49
artificial, 70
atom, 31
attainment, 77
see also liberation, spiritual attunement, 20, 61
Aurobindo, Sri, 65, 73, 77, 79, 81
awareness, 67, 68, 70
see also consciousness
B
baka, 41, 43, 57
baptism of the Holy Spirit, 39
baraka, 56
Beatles, the, 65birds, 35
blessing, 38, 56, 57
bliss, 68
blood, 19, 29, 36, 37, 38
body, 14
Bose, Sir Jagandis, 26, 35
brain (lobes), 81
breath, 19, 26, 27, 29, 31, 34, 36, 37, 44, 49, 57
brotherhood, 17, 44, 52, 62, 87, see also lkhwan
Buddha, 14, 17, 50, 53, 67 buddhi, 13, 14
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, 65, 73
C
carbon, 28, 30
Carpenter, Edward, 78, 82
cell, 32, 33, 34, 70, 71
centering, 75 centers, higher, 75
ceremony, 44, 59
see also ritual change, 72, 88
chemistry, 23 child, 73
Christiana, Queen, 74
church, 44
circle, 60, 61
commune, 78, 80, 81
communistic groups, 80
community, 33, 79
condemnation, 69
consciousness, 47, 48, 66, 67, 68, 72, 84
see also awareness, group consciousness, oversoul consciousness
cooperation, 48, 50, 52
see also togetherness cooperative society, 55
Corelli, Marie, 70
creed, 54
D
dancing, 45, 49, 71
dead, 22
dependence, 69
Destiny, 31
devotee, 47
Dharma, 17
diamond, 30
dictatorship, 80
disciples, 57, 58
drug, 65
E
earth, 27, 34, 36
earth breath, 26, 27
education, 49, 80 ego, 17, 20
Eight-fold path, 53
element, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 36, 70,
see also earth, air, fire, water,
ether
embryology, 53
emotions, 77
entropy, 23, 24
esoteric schools, 51
essence, 20
ether, 27, 28, 36
see also akasha
everyday life, 49
evolution, 67, 78, 80 e
xperience, 86
expressive nature, 74
F
faculties, higher, 79, 83
Faerie, 70, 71
faith, 52
tam’, 41, 43, 57
field theory, 71
fire, 27, 28, 32, 34, 37
flame (of love), 57
four, 30
freedom, 78
G
geology, 20
God, 20, 21, 24, 34, 36, 40, 45, 46, 47, 48, 53, 54, 60, 61, 62, 88
God-man, 57
group, 46, 47, 55, 66, 78
group-consciousness, 46
see also consciousness group-unit, 16, 40, 44, 47, 50, 60
Guardians, 82
guru, 17, 55, 56, 57
see also teacher, sheikh
H
Haeckel, Ernst, 33 hal, 45
harmony, 48, 50, 83
head center, 76, 77
Healing Service, 16, 41, 60
hearing, 76
heart, 13, 20, 25, 26, 31, 34, 44, 48 heart center, 76, 77
heart-beat, 22
heat, 22, 23
Hegel, 42
Hierarchy, 41, 42, 47, 59, 77
Hierophant, 77
Holy Spirit, 36, 37, 39 hydrogen, 28
I
Ikhwan, 16, 44
see also brotherhood impersonal community, 81
individual, 50, 66, 78
inertia, 26
infinity, 67
instinct, 35
instruction,
see also teachings
Ishk, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 35, 38
see also love
Isis, veil of, 77
Israel, 79
J
jelal lobe (of brain), 81
jemal (lobe of brain), 81
Jesus Christ, 16, 18, 40, 52, 57
jinn souls, 73, 78, 81
K
karma, 67
Khan, Hazrat Inayat, 16, 41, 47, 60
Khankah, 17
knowledge, 55
Korzybski, Alfred, 80
L
laws, 78, 85 leaders, 15
Leary, Timothy, 71
liberation, spiritual, 67
see also attainment
liberation, women’s, 74
liberty, 82 life, 22, 24
light, 17, 21, 24, 37, 58
living things, 27 Logos, 17
love, 15, 20, 24, 38-39, 44, 54, 55, 57, 69,
see also Ishk love-temple, 55
lover, 47
M
magnetism, 83 makam, 41, 45
man, 36,
see also universal man manushic, 73, 78
many-in-one, 47
Mass, Christian, 44
Master, 40, 41, 43, 58, 60
materialism, 18, 26
meditation, 46, 49, 87
Meher Bab, 53
Messenger, 40
military, 49
mind, 13, 14, 84
Mohammed, 40, 44, 60, 73
molecule, 31
Moses, 24, 40, 53
motherhood, 77
music, 45, 46, 49, 62
mysteries, ancient, 44, 52, 62, 72
mysteries, women’s, 77
mystic, 47, 66, 78
mystical experience, 66
N
natural, 70, 71
New Age, 51, 66, 73, 78, 80, 87
nitrogen, 28
nuts, 20, 21, 26, 28, 30, 43
nufs-of-water, 22
O
occultist, 13
Old Age, 73
one-in-many, 47
oracle, 74, 75, 77
organization, 42, 59
osmosis, 36, 37
oversoul consciousness, 55
oxygen, 28
P
pain, 68
Paul, St., 16
personal community, 81
phenomena, 48, 57
planetary influences, 27
pineal gland, 80
pituitary (gland), 80, 81
Plato, 82
Plotinus, 67
prakriti, 24, 30, 36, 37, 38
priest, 45
priestcraft, 40, 44
Providence, 31
psychedelics, 65, 66, 71, 72, see also drug
psychic faculties, see faculties, higher psychic law, 72
psychic path, 62
pupil, see disciple purusha, 24, 37
Q
Quakers, 61
qualities of God, see Sifat
R
Reiser, Oliver, 65
religion, 49, 53, 54, 86
responsive nature, 74
ritual, 49, 71, 86,
see also ceremony
Roman Catholic Church, 49
rules, see laws
S
samsharas, 69
scientific methods, 25
sects, 54, 87 seeing, 76
self-sacrifice, 57
senses, 68 sensitivity, 70, 75
sheikh, 17, 41, 56,
see also guru, teacher
Shem, 58, 62
siddhis, 56
Sifat, 20, 21, 30, 35
silicon, 30 Sophia, 77
Solomon, 40, 51, 52, 53
Soma, 71 s
ound, 46
spiritual life, 53
spirituality, 16
square, 43
Sufi, 41, 45, 72, 75, 80
Sufism, 18 sun, 23, 40
synthesis, 43
T
tamas, 31-32
Tassawuf, 18
teacher, 17, 25, 42, 45, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62,
see also guru, sheikh teaching, 40
temple, 40
temple, 40, 51, 53, 55, 57
Theosophical Society, 80
thesis, 42, 43
togetherness, 79
transcendent self, 42
triangle, 43
tropisms, 35
U
unity, 49, 55, 87
universal man, 87
uranian man, see jinn souls
V
vegetarianism, 37
vibration, 28
W
water, 19, 20, 21 ,22, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36
water breath, 28
Wells, H.G., 73
will, 31, 62
woman, 38, 75, 76, 77
work, 69,
Y
yoga, 37
Z
Zat, 20, 21, 34, 35