Index
Sufi Meditation and Contemplation: Timeless Wisdom from Mughal India
Love for God is expressed and demonstrated through love for other people and for all of creation. You must burn with love like a candle. Its nature is to burn down, slowly dwindling away towards death but giving off so much light. Wherever it is, in whatever environment or surroundings, the candle gives off light. Whether in a mosque or temple, the candle burns and gives others light. That is the way you must be. When you are no longer a slave to your five senses, you perceive God in every thing, behind every phenomenon.
In Sufi meditation, techniques should never be separated from their philosophical framework and devotional basis. Without love, these meditation techniques are merely rote behaviors.
these meditation practices and why the texts insist that they be practiced with and through the body.
If you want to find God, then look within. And one looks within by meditating on the presence of God, thereby clearing from one’s vision everything other than God. This is the way of meditation that Sufi mystics taught.
Kalimi order, who by belonging to the Kalimi order share initiation into the Chishti, Qadiri, Suhrawardi and Naqshbandi orders together.
Qalandars believed in a simple life of owning little and desiring less in order to be free of social constraints and religious formalism. They abandoned the practice of meditation or contemplation, and sought to realize God through opposing the self-righteous and enjoying simplicity, poverty and hallucinogenic substances.
seekers should resolve to stay engaged in meditation (zikr) and contemplation (fikr) and intimacy (uns).
“There are many types of meditation. One type is meditation of the tongue (lisan), and it needs no further explanation, as one repeats vocally a name of God or a phrase. Another type is meditation of the heart (qalb), which means purifying the heart of selfish desires and fiendish temptations in order that it remember God in truth. A third type is meditation of the inner heart (sirr), which fills the inner heart such that momentary stray thoughts which give rise to desires have no way to fix themselves in the heart. Meditation of the inner heart is the outcome of meditation of the heart.
everything said, everything done and everything felt can be meditation, on condition that it leads them to remember God and stay awake and aware. Anything which does not promote remembering is forgetfulness and should be shunned,
If I am with you, my daily work is prayer And without you, my prayer is merely work
keep doing silent meditation. In this way, the seeker can rid the mind of the imprint of anything other than God, to assert the absolute oneness of God and turn towards God seeking presence (huzur) and intimacy (uns). The seeker should seek effacement (fana’) and obliteration in the holy divine presence. Realizing the truth of God means embracing the experience of being annihilated (tams) and erased (tals). This path is the quickest way to gain closeness to God and the surest way to achieve union.
concentrate on the only really existing thing (God).
After meditation is completed, there are three rules to follow. One should maintain silence for some time after meditation. One should practice suspending the breath (as discussed in detail in Morsel 12). One should avoid the use of cold things like water or exposure to cool air, for these might dissipate the heat in the heart that is built up by meditation.
Anyone who does extensive amounts of meditation but does not feel an expanded intimacy with God is doing it in vain;
bewilderment is a compound of two things, namely knowledge of the thing’s existence and ignorance of its nature. In contrast, doubt is a state of hesitation between knowledge and ignorance.
“The present moment is as swift as a sword and brilliant as lightning.”
“The only real knowledge is knowing you can never really know.”
Yet not knowing about a thing does not necessitate not being able to experience its existence.
devotional exercise (shughl), meditative remembrance (zikr) and contemplative reflection (fikr)
successful depends upon the aspiration of the disciple who uses them, and having a high aspiration entails no learning or exertion.
“Oh my Lord, lead me to one of your intimate servants that he may guide me to you and teach me the way to reach you.”
“Drawing out” (madd) refers to prolonging the pronunciation of the first “a” in la ilaha or “no god.” “Intensifying” (shadd) refers to accentuating the first syllable “i” when saying illa ‘llah or “but God.” “Below” (taht) refers to pronouncing la ilaha beginning by facing down towards the left knee and then raising the head up towards the right shoulder. Finally, “above” (fauq) means pausing for a while holding the breath before pronouncing illa ’llah or “but God” from above down onto the heart with great force.
At the outset one should be instructed to say la ilaha illa ’llah in the sense of there is “no god but God.” Then the meditation should be performed with the understanding that there is “no object of worship but God” (la ma‵bud illa ’llah). Then it should be performed with the understanding that there is “no goal but God” (la maqsud illa ’llah). Then it should be performed with the understanding that there is “no desire but God” (la matlub illa ’llah). Finally, it should be performed with the understanding that there is “no being but God” (la mawjud illa ’llah).
The secret of the zikr lies in the fact that the sphere of hearing is less than that of seeing, and the sphere of seeing is less than that of knowing. The seeker begins in a state of reasoning about what is sensed (‵aql o shahadat), the narrowest of all spiritual states. As the seeker moves beyond the attribute sami‵ or “hears,” he progresses spiritually to a more comprehensive state of understanding what is beyond sensation (ghayb). As the seeker moves beyond the attribute basir or “sees,” he progresses spiritually to a more comprehensive state of understanding beyond the beyond (ghayb al-ghayb). As the seeker moves through the attribute ‵alim or “knows,” he comprehends this most expansive spiritual state. Then the seeker comes back through these attributes in the inverse order.
big toe of the right foot and its neighboring toe, compress the sciatic nerve behind the left knee. Then draw in the abdomen around the navel towards the back, from below until above. Then close the eyes and call to the imagination the image of one’s spiritual guide (barzakh).
“All is with you, all is from you, all is to you, oh all of all!”
“Oh God, you are all, and from you is all, and with you is all, and for you is all, and to you is all, oh all of all”
One should focus one’s full concentration upon the heart, such that all one’s sensory awareness becomes unified in one direction and upon one object. There can be no doubt that when this state is achieved, self-absence and un-self-consciousness will manifest.
Do not always deny what is not true for sometimes God appears there too Obey God in whatever way you can So you affirm God’s reality as is due
Divinity can appear in human form, too so don’t deny your essence as the foolish do
One should concentrate on this with belief in oneness (tawhid) and firm determination (‵azimat) and force of will (jam‵iyat) and pure sincerity (ikhlas) in a constant and continuous way.
The seeker may contemplate the self as being the origin of divine disclosures rather than being the consequence of divine disclosures (tajalliyat). The seeker should keep this view constantly in sight. In this way, one should see all things as both absolute being (wujudi mutlaq) and limited being (wujudi muqayyad), with reality being that both types are indeed one. For naming something as absolute or naming something as limited are relative to the perspective and judgment of the observer.
Another method is to close the eyes and fix the gaze on the heart, then stay aware that God is present and watching and that God is with you.
The harder one practices the further one gets. The Sufi master Abu Hafs al-Haddad states, “Sufism is merely cooking what one imagines until it is done.”
one must continually try, because to stop trying is the cause of losing spiritual concentration
Do not let the name distract from the presence.
The sound serves as a connection between the seeker and the One sought,
Nobody attains the goal by their own searching Yet without searching nobody ever attains the goal
one who stays in a state of divine attraction and senselessness (majzub) is limited by this and does not progress beyond this stage, for without coming to one’s senses one cannot be worthy of giving spiritual training (tarbiyat).
The ways of doing meditation, reflection and contemplation are all based on love
The greater is one’s love the greater is the effect of all these practices. But if love is lax then their effect is lesser. These different types of spiritual practices might aid one to restore the strength and intensity of love that sometimes lags and weakens. One should never do these practices of meditation, reflection and contemplation merely to get some reward. A true lover’s aspiration is surely loftier than that.
The more subtle in nature the thing chosen as a medium, and the more profound its meaning for the intellect, the more intense is its effect.
“Your guide is one who shows you the way to your tranquility not one who leads you to your difficulty.”
My friend, in the opinion of this humble seeker, the heart can be said to exist in three places. The first place is within the chest towards the left side, and it is the physical organ of the heart, of flesh shaped like a pine-cone shaped
The second place wherein the heart is said to reside is the source of the mind (umm al-dimagh). It is called the spherical heart (dil-i mudawwar) and is sometimes called the heart that is pure of all qualities (be-rang). It has the special quality that when the seeker concentrates upon this spherical heart, no stray thought or temptation affects him, because no negative thought (khatra) can reach that place. The third place is in the very center of the seat of the body (nishast-gah), and this is called the lotus heart (dil-i nilofari).
Now when one meditates as mentioned above, one concentrates at the place of the physical heart.
Another method of removing tempting thoughts is to consider them as not separate from yourself and not something other than you.
This sound is called “infinite” (be-hadd) and “absolute” (mutlaq). There is no practice better than that of hearing this sound. This is because every other practice depends upon the will of the practitioner; if he for a moment stops it, the practice ceases. But not so this practice! It does not depend upon the will of the practitioner. It is present and available without ceasing and without interruption at all times.
direct your attention to your ears. Concentrate as hard and as long as you can until a very subtle sound manifests. Hearing this sound, it will gradually grow more powerful and overwhelming, so much so that will seem to come from all sides of you and there will be no place or no time when this sound will not manifest.
Congratulations and blessings, my friend, if you become capable of this practice called “The Prime Recitation” (sultan al-azkar). For then the subtle world becomes apparent to you, and also an absolute being that is constant and eternal. If you perform this subtle practice, it will cause you to become more subtle in your very being, and plunge you into the ocean of subtlety and absolute being, free of conditions and qualities (itlaq be-rang).
Do you know what is the meaning of being without grief? It means finding without searching and seeing without looking, because seeing through the eyes is imperfect and weak.”
any distracting thought comes to you, just consider it also to be one with the divine essence.
Then just as the divine essence is perfect, its perfection will come to dominate that distracting thought and it will no long be a distraction.
Purity and impurity, transcendence and immanence, all are manifest and take their existence from this divine essence. If you imagine that a single mote of dust is separate from the divine essence then you have lost the blessing of witnessing divine unity (tawhid) and mystical comprehension (‵irfan).
The absolute is always in the limited, and the limited is always with the absolute. It is truth that the limited form is not a veil obscuring absolute being. Existing beings do not exist independently from the absolute being.
There is nothing in this universe that is other than you Whatever comes before you is just you confronting you
the last and greatest method of meditation, my friend, in this noble Sufi way. That is to sit grasping one’s own true nature, such that, in spite of all your limitations, consider yourself as the very absolute being and only existence. In this state, whatever comes to your sight as other than yourself you should recognize as identical to your self. In this way one extirpates the very root of duality and discards the veils of alienation and separation. One sees everything as partaking of one essence, and realizes the bliss of self merging with self,
A drop is just a drop as long as it believes it is separate from the sea
As long as a veil remains between you and your love You long for the beauty and perfection of his face Yet your frame of vision is the veil you long to remove Abandon the frame, so no dust of dualism leaves a trace
In separation from you I suffered anxiety From union with you I lost my life and piety What bliss it is that enraptures my being Now my body and soul enjoy tranquility
If you long to discover the proof of this, know that you can witness the sun of truth in every speck of dust that is visible.
“Pray in the late stretches of the night an additional voluntary prayer, that your Lord might send you to a praised station. Say, ‘Oh my Lord, make my entering by the entryway of sincerity and make my leaving by the exit of sincerity and let me receive from you an aiding authority!’”
First, the head is Aries, Taurus is the shoulders, Gemini the hands, Cancer the arm, Leo the breast, Virgo the belly, Libra the navel, Scorpio the genitals, Sagittarius the thigh, Capricorn the leg, Aquarius the shank, and Pisces the sole of the foot.
the Sun is the heart, Jupiter the liver, the moon the lungs (shush), Mercury the kidney (gurda), Saturn the spleen (supurz), Mars the brain, and Venus the gall bladder (zahra).
Know that the ear drinks water from the bladder, and because of that its water is bitter (talkh). The eye drinks water from the liver, and because of that, its water is salty (shor). The nose drinks water from the lungs, and therefore its water is (sour?). The tongue drinks water from the heart, and its water is sweet (shirin). Reason (‵aql) is in the head (dimagh), modesty in the eye (chashm), understanding is in the ear (gosh), knowledge in the breast (sina), and thought is in the heart (dil or qalb).
“Knowledge is a single point.”