Index
Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
the real Work is to serve, to pay attention to how other human beings can be helped toward freedom and love by being an example of those qualities without expectation of any recognition or reward.
Furthermore, what attracts us in the outer world is only putting us in touch with the hidden treasure within us. Through finding it in ourselves we are returned to the Being that we reflect. We are not the originators of qualities, but the reflectors of the infinite qualities of Being.
that point where the horizontal force of active choice meets the vertical force of Being, a certain “something,” larger than life, will be activated. This “something” can be felt in anything produced by the hands and heart of a conscious human being—in works of art, in a well-tended garden, in food prepared with love.
In sacred art, performance is not a means of ego gratification but an offering to the Divine. What is offered is everyone’s attention, and yet everyone is elevated in this sacred alchemy and feels a change of consciousness through this quality of performance and the attention offered.
As much as we are the servants of Spirit, Spirit is our servant when we make our connection to it. This connection is made through presence, which is a receptivity to the energies of possibility.
a human being is whatever his or her attention is focused on.
Attention develops as the gatekeeper of all our impressions. We learn not to let the mind wander too far from the essential Self, even while we are open to outer things. More and more we work to keep our attention on Being itself. We can learn to call upon a very refined attention, to keep an awareness of the deepest truths in the most ordinary circumstances. This can be done only if our attention is not easily coerced and distracted.
child to experience an environment of love, support, and trust.
desire (eros), friendship (philia), or unconditional love (agape).
we can become nothing by limiting our habitual self-centered thoughts. This will cut at the root of our egotism, because ego exists in our thinking.
If we could just be, we would be able to escape the anxiety of becoming something that we are not, getting something we don’t have, and trying to shape reality according to our own desires.
what we most need is what we already are: our essential Self. There is no escape; there is only coming home.
Submission is to live for one’s Self—the eternal I—not for one’s ego.
(Divani Shamsi Tabriz 120):
The tamer of the ego is love. We must learn to love even the ego; then the ego can submit to that love. Perhaps we need to consider what the ego is and how to live with it.
We need to establish a subtle balance—the ego in harmonious cocreatorship with the Spirit.
It is essential to learn to relax within the tensions of life. We cannot escape conflict in this world, but we can learn to relax within it. This has nothing to do with running from conflict and certainly nothing to do with repressing it. This relaxation has aspects of trust, surrender, and submission. Balance is necessary.
obstacles are the neurotic manifestations of ego that are produced by various kinds of physical, mental, and emotional tensions, whether aggressiveness, timidity, self-righteousness, self-doubt, arrogance, shame, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, suspicion, or greed. In such states the ego will work overtime to maintain itself and its illusions. And we may not be aware how these tensions distort our features, and our souls.
We can be thankful for our faults, for they can keep us humble and aware of our dependence on a higher Reality, without which we would never be transformed.
“Let go of your worries and be completely clear-hearted, like the face of a mirror that contains no images. When it is empty of forms, all forms are contained within it. No face would be ashamed to be so clear.”
The Work is to bring the outer and the inner into harmony.
This requires attention to our intention. If our intention is clear and sound, and if it is periodically remembered and reaffirmed, there will be a mental, emotional, and practical integration in realizing the intention.
“There is a polish for everything,” said Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, “and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of God”
Since in order to speak, one must first listen, learn to speak by listening.
Attention can be called the first act of the will.
not really enjoying their company or giving them my real attention.
When we live with a real question and a sense of purpose, the whole mind is more likely to function harmoniously and creatively. More and more we will also begin to have experiences of pure presence free of thought. Opening to life without preconception, without the veil of habitual thought, we will perceive Being.
“Humility is the foremost act of worship”
If attention is not connected to will, a human is not fully a human being.
What can you do with will that you can’t do without it? A day later the answer came simple and clear: Be free.
We learn that awareness of our breath and physical presence can greatly assist this gathering. And we learn that to be identified with any single function, such as thinking or feeling, is to lose that comprehensive self-awareness we call “presence.”
The secret to developing an integrated self is to intentionally extend awareness to more than one function at a time. Each function that comes into awareness adds another coordinate to our conscious existence. If, for instance, we are fully occupied with an emotion and become aware of our breathing or our physical sensations, we have generated more presence. If those of us who live mostly in our heads, in repetitive and limited thinking, both add an awareness of something physical such as our breathing and come into touch with our feelings, we have extended our presence greatly. We have more coordinates. Instead of a one-dimensional person we have suddenly become a three- or four-dimensional person.
all outer things are reminders of Being itself: Wherever you look is the face of the Friend. Eventually this process can become circular—presence welling up inside us and moving outward, the outer world being consciously recognized and returned to its source through our awareness.
we can use the body to develop greater presence
Salaah is a form that integrates mindfulness, mental precision, affirmation, devotion, and stretching.
unconscious theta state can be facilitated by increasing the length of time of exhalation, as in many forms of chanting or singing.
have faith means to have a center, an axis, a single point of reference. And yet this point of reference is not necessarily apparent from the start;
“We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but the grace to transform them.”
Every problem calls forth qualities from the hidden treasure within us. Accepting more responsibility and challenges brings a greater activation.
humility, gratitude, and love.
Our essential will and presence stand outside time and space, relatively free and pure. This presence is more ourselves than the impulses with which we might identify. Some people may argue that to go with every impulse is natural and spontaneous; on the contrary, this response represents the depths of conditioning and mechanicality. It is not free will, but slavery. Freedom lies in the altogether different direction of conscious will that frees us from habit, conditioning, and reactive behaviors.
The secret of transformation is the moment-by-moment alchemy of impulse. This may manifest itself as restraint in action and speech, as courtesy, self-discipline, generosity, subtlety, or patience.
Weakness leads to weakness, just as strength leads to strength.
An aim should be specific and attainable, and it should be consistent with the general aim of the Work, which is awakening.
To work on awakening is to extract attention or awareness from the stream of events, to cultivate an awareness that includes events, thoughts, and feelings but is not totally absorbed or identified with them. It involves an intention above all to be actively receptive, to be alive with sensitivity and attention, not to be thoroughly identified with one’s conditioning. Our intention to be awake is helped by deciding to interrupt our unconsciousness by setting intentional alarms for ourselves.
The more our sense of identity and well-being depends upon what we possess or what people think of us, the less we are aware of our own intrinsic worth and, consequently, the more we are enslaved to the fear of loss.
Presence provides space—spatial dimension around our experiences, both inner and outer. In a sense, what we really are is that spaciousness, even more than what fills the space. With this spaciousness we can allow transformation to happen.
intimacy for me is here in service.”
“A seeker would never offer fear as an excuse for anything. Fear is not accepted by one who has a quest.”
is God to be literally feared? In the Qur’an the word taqwa is often translated as “fear,” but it would be better translated as “vigilance,” “awe,” or “God consciousness.”
The lover has only one fear, and that is the fear of offending the Beloved (which includes harming other people). The fear of God frees the lover of all other fears. This is the only kind of fear appropriate for one who is courting the Truth.
Stringency ultimately is in service to Mercy.
“Take refuge in My Mercy from My Wrath. Take refuge in Me from
Presence allows us to open to the suffering of the world; compassion is being able to feel the world’s suffering without being drowned by it. Perhaps it is in accepting our servanthood, in opening to the suffering of the world, that we ourselves are further transformed and acquire the qualities of the Creative Power. Loving-kindness
“the Friend speaks to us in many forms. We are all beloved here, and we are all receptive to the Truth and so the Truth can easily express itself. Know that the ‘you’ who felt special last night and the ‘you’ who felt diminished tonight are neither real. Prostrate them before the inner Friend if you want to find wisdom and be free of judging yourself.”
Whenever we think we are better than others or whenever we think, “I want,” we are thinking of ourselves in the wrong way. When we can think differently—“my family needs this, my body needs this, my work needs this, help me to meet these needs, help me to reflect your abundance”—we can open to the inflow of spiritual energy.
True service is giving of ourselves, of what we naturally are.
Presence is the empty center that attracts and manifests the qualities of Spirit.
“The seeker [dervish or Sufi] stands at the threshold between freedom and slavery.”
“Make all your cares into a single care and God will see to all your cares. Be mindful of Him and He will be at your side”
The Work informs us that freedom is found in surrender, trust, and friendship with the One. This freedom grows as we discover the qualities of the Friend within ourselves: generosity, patience, acceptance, truthfulness, and courage.
your Lord wants you to know that your calling him is his answer to you.”
What we contemplate we become.
It gives back to us what we give to it, only more
What we love we will become
TWO QUALITIES THAT ARE SAID to be necessary to worship and prayer are recollection and humility. We begin by recollecting ourselves and
We gather the whole of ourselves into a single sincere act, calling upon this slumbering spiritual essence within us
If a human being consistently directs his attention, desire, will, thought, and feeling in the direction of Love, the Love thus realized becomes a vital power and capacity. When we do so, we are also preparing ourselves to remember this Love spontaneously at other times.
Worship may include conscious breathing, chanting, singing, and movement.
we must be in a state of worship always and everywhere. In addition to the traditional forms and rituals of our great sacred traditions, worship may yet take forms that are entirely new and creative, for what is of Spirit is creative.
Love brings together what needs to be brought together.
service without presence is sleep, and if we are identified with service, if we expect thanks or some reward, it instead becomes a demand. It is good to do what is right and feel good about it. It is good to serve those whom we love. It is necessary to contribute to the general welfare through generous and public-spirited action. All of this is basic to a decent human life, but it is not yet at the level of spiritual practice. The service that is spiritual practice is beyond attraction and beyond the limited ego. This service depends on a shift of awareness. Through it we are lifted out of our egoism; in it we become motivated by unconditional love of the life around us. It is the Beloved loving through us and the Generous giving through us. Even anger and criticism can be welcomed when it is from the Beloved, while the help and praise of those who “serve” with arrogance or self-righteousness feels like poison to us.
Any action without presence is mechanical, and any step outward requires a corresponding step inward. If we are to truly grow in service, we must simultaneously grow in presence. The more our inner faculties are engaged, the more service will come naturally.
What is worship? To realize Reality. What is the sacred law? To do no evil. What is Reality? Selflessness.
Remembering God is the beginning of remembering ourselves.