Courage
A Sufi master has said that, God willing, there isn't anything
which cannot be accomplished if one has courage and
patience. Since patience will be touched upon in a later
chapter, the present reflections will concern courage.
The mystical tradition is not an easy path. This is so for
many different reasons.
First of all, one must consider the forces which will be
aligned against one if one decides to undertake the mystical
quest. These forces of opposition have a formidable array of
weapons at their disposal.
One's own ego will be applying constant pressure for one to
cease and desist from one's efforts in this direction. The ego
will fight a war of constant harassment which is designed to
wear the individual down through a steady stream of:
confusion, doubts, desires, pressures, ridicule, fears and
anxieties.
The ego also will fight a rear guard action intended to resist
and ambush every attempt by the individual to gain spiritual
strength, commitment, and focus on the path. For example,
one may discover, courtesy of one's ego, many, seemingly
plausible excuses for why one's time and energy should be
devoted to non-spiritual activities.
Alternatively, one just may feel too tired at the moment to
observe the requirements or discipline or duties of the path.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow", whispers the ego. This chant has a
pleasant, mellow, relaxing quality to it.
In addition to the campaign of the ego, there will be
substantial opposition from the world. The world has great
need of, but no use for, sincere mystics or spiritually inclined
individuals.
The world is a bordello of sensual delights. The world is a
playing field in which all sides are vying for power and
control according to a set of rules that would make
Australian no-rules football look excessively authoritarian.
The world is a cesspool of greed, malice and selfishness
which generates an odor that, by comparison, would make
the stench of manure a welcome change. The world is a
gigantic mirror being polished by the mineral oil of
self-adoration. The world is a killing field whose executioners
are equal-opportunity haters of considerable enthusiasm.
One could go on at great length in the foregoing way.
However, enough has been said to give the drift of things
vis-a-vis the condition of the worldly perspective.
The bottom line is this. The world stands for a state of mind
and heart from which qualities such as decency, compassion,
integrity, faith, honesty, love and fairness have been
exorcised. As such, the worldly orientation tends to consider
the ideas of spirituality or mysticism to be either stupid or
obscene or obscenely stupid.
Some people of the worldly persuasion are aggressively
hostile to spirituality and mysticism. Some people in the
worldly camp have impeccable manners and would never
dream of being rude to people whom they believe to be fools.
Some people who are inclined to the worldly way of things
are supremely indifferent to, if not bored by, mystical and
spiritual pursuits. Some proponents of the worldly orientation
are amused, in a slightly contemptuous way, by any talk of
spirituality or mysticism. Some of the worldly people are just
totally mystified why anyone could find mysticism and
spirituality of any interest or value, although they are
prepared to accept everyone's right to spend time as one
chooses.
Unfortunately, we are all contaminated, to varying degrees,
by worldly forces. The aforementioned hostility, indifference,
bemusement, contempt, and perplexity exists within us in a
variety of guises. Because we are citizens of the world, our
egos have a long-standing exchange program with a
spectrum of worldly forces.
To swim against the numerous, raging, ugly currents of the
world and the ego requires a lot of courage. To fight against
the terrorist tactics of the world and the ego cannot be done
except with courage. To experience the dark night of the soul
created by the dance of the ego and the world takes courage.
To face the unknown and not run away demands courage.
To be willing to leave what is familiar and comfortable, while
journeying through the unfamiliar and, often, uncomfortable
terrain of the mystical path, presupposes courage.
To place trust in one's spiritual guide, is an act of courage.
To become committed to the mammoth task of reclamation
involved in the spiritual reconstruction of one's life is a pure
act of courage.
As if the world and the ego were not bad enough antagonists
with which to have to contend, one also must deal with the
demands of the rational mind. This poses an extremely
complicated problem since the rational mind is what we
usually rely on to evaluate experience and make judgements.
Most of us tend to believe rather strongly that if an
evaluation or judgement is not rooted in rational analysis,
then, we are being irrational. To speak of non-rational
modalities of understanding appears somewhat of an
oxymoron - at least, this is the conclusion of the rational mind.
To ask the ears to understand the way of the eyes, sounds
unreasonable. To expect the nose to have insight into the
world of proprioceptors, is disorienting to our rational
sensibilities.
After all, ears and eyes are different structures entailing
different processes and functions. Similarly, olfactory
phenomena are quite different from the phenomena dealt
with by sensors dealing with the orientation of muscles,
tendons and joints.
Nonetheless, the rational mind believes it has the capacity to
understand the ways of the heart and spirit. This is so despite
the fact that Sufi masters have confirmed, and are agreed,
that the latter phenomena are entirely different from, in
structure, function and process, the workings of rationality.
Like many other aspects of human existence, the rational
dimension is presumptuous in the manner in which it seeks to
extend its sphere of influence beyond its limits of
effectiveness and appropriateness.
When one is taking an intelligence test, if one should try to
force large, round pegs into small, square holes, this is taken
as a sign of diminished capacity. How ironic that the
rationality which conceived of such a test should insist on
forcing the large, round pegs of spirituality and mysticism
into the small, square holes of rationality.
The eye cannot see beyond its capabilities. The ear cannot
hear beyond its capabilities. The nose cannot smell beyond its
capabilities. The mind cannot understand beyond its
capabilities.
There is, as the rational mind will be quick to point out, a
major difference between, on the one hand, the nose, eye and
ear, and, on the other hand, the mind. More specifically, in
the former case, we have a fairly good idea of what the
limitations are in each sensory modality. However, in the
case of the mind, we have not yet, for the most part,
discovered what the limitations of the mind are in terms of
discovery, creativity and invention.
Some rational minds believe the sky, so to speak, is the limit.
Effectively, this suggests there is no limit, given sufficient
time and funding, to the rational mind's capacity to penetrate
the secrets of the universe.
Extrapolating from ignorance does not seem a rational thing
to do. Since we have no firm idea of what, in essence,
rationality is or what makes it possible, we really have no
idea of what the parameters of this capacity are.
Nevertheless, against reason, the rational mind is adamant it
should have the final say in all matters of evaluation,
judgement and understanding. The rational mind will take
extreme umbrage with anyone who disagrees with its
pronouncement in this regard.
The rational mind will inundate and intimidate one with
formulae, tables, equations, statistics, mathematical
functions, diagrams, experiments, research, debates,
symposia, forums, journal articles, and so on proving that the
rational mind is right and everything else is wrong. The
rational mind will cajole, badger, ridicule, boast and flutter
its big blues at one to convince the individual of the errors of
his or her ways with respect to issues of non-rational
modalities of understanding.
Sometimes, rational minds, upon reflection, may assert
something of the following sort. We accept the possibility
there may be different modalities of knowing. Nonetheless,
the rational mind will suggest, directly or indirectly, that
priority and preference should be given to rationality in the
analyzing, evaluating, judging and understanding of most
matters.
Sometimes, in order to bolster this claim of priority, the
rational mind will remind us of what has been done for the
world through rationality. Looking at the world and its
history, one might wonder if such 'proof' cannot as easily be
used against rationality as it can be used in its defense.
To confront the rational mind, with all its eloquent oratory, is
an act of courage. To stand firm in one's search for the
reality of the unseen, despite the impressive, dazzling feats of
logic, science, philosophy and mathematics, is to have
courage. To be willing to walk, alone if necessary, against
the bitter winds of outraged reason, is to show courage.
Reason rails against the modes of understanding of the heart
and the spirit. The tirade comes not only from without, it
comes from within. Take courage.
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