The Qu'Ran and Ibn Al Arabi

[obyvatel]

[quote author=Altair]
There is something I don't get. If God is Absolute and perfect in all aspects, how can divine names benefit from the fact that somebody offers a possibility to manifest their properties?
[/quote]

This is a big question. Volumes can be and has been written about this question.

One way of exploring it is to negate the assumption that there is a being God who is absolute and perfect in all respects. Considering this would be heresy in olden days - something serious enough for people to killed. On the positive side, considering God as absolute and perfect was a way of keeping human self-importance in check.

Starting with the assumption that God is not perfect, one can speculate that God needs creation as a means of manifesting his names. Gurdjieff developed this idea in his Beelzebub's Tales. In his allegory he mentioned that the dwelling place of God, the most holy Sun Absolute, was found to be diminishing in volume with the passage of the merciless Heropass (time). This necessitated a change in "laws" - from Autoegocrat (interpreted as I-hold-everything-in-my-control) to Trogoautoegocrat (interpreted as I-hold-together-by-reciprocal-feeding). This implies a feedback loop of mutual sustenance set up between God and creation.

As regards the mechanism of this reciprocal feeding, Gurdjieff introduced more special terms in Beelzebub's Tales. Here is an interpretation from JG Bennett, a student of G.

[quote author=JG Bennett in Talks on Beelzebub's Tales ]

When we undertake something that is to bring order, it requires effort and energy. This has to come from somewhere and something is transmitted to the task. To bring order deliberately, through an act of will, liberates conscious energy. When we undertake this, we give ourselves to the task and put ourselves under its demands. Part of the energy involved goes into the task . We can see that something has been achieved. What we do not see is that something has gone to serve a higher purpose.
......
Whenever we do conscious work, the energy divides into three. One part is the energy that goes into bringing about the visible result and this includes the material energies involved. The second part is liberated for some cosmic purpose. This is not like ordinary energy, it is energy that can be used by higher powers. The third part— connected with helkdonis— is that in which we come closer to our own source or to God. Something is added to our own being.

[/quote]

Bringing order through conscious effort can be called syntropy - the opposite of entropy. The noumenal realm, which is beyond space-time is where archetypes or the names of God exist. The names of God seek to express themselves in phenomenal world of space-time. Certain expressions happen regularly and do not need conscious agency. However, certain expressions need appropriate conscious agents for realization in the phenomenal world of space-time. If such conscious agents are available, then a transaction takes place between a particular name of God in the noumenal realm and the agent and the result of the transaction is an event in the space-time phenomenal world. And somehow this transaction leads to reciprocal feeding between the realms.

The material aspect of such transactions is the observable part - it is what is visible as a task completed, change in state etc.

What G called helkdonis - the part that adds to one's own being as a result of the transactional process - could correspond to what Ibn Al Arabi called "stations", the earnings of conscious labor. This is not strictly measurable but can be qualitatively felt and possibly shared as subjective experience.

We do not know what part goes back to the higher source but if G is correct, then that is the part which makes the divine names benefit from being manifested. Our sciences are still some way from fully understanding the non-material implications of such transactions.

<My speculations (warning: measures high on the out-on-a-limb meter)>

Borrowing some terms from the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics (TIQM), a transaction involves a virtual "offer wave" from an emitter and a virtual "confirmation wave" from a potential absorber. If the process proceeds, then the transaction is realized in space-time as a measurable exchange of energies. An analogy would be an e-bay transaction with a seller (emitter) sending out an offer wave. If there are responses and subsequent resolution from the bidding process, a confirmation wave is generated from a buyer (absorber). These transactions are taking place in the virtual realm since no real material exchange has taken place yet. If the deal is closed, only then a transaction can be actualized in the form of movement of material goods and money.

We can consider the names of God as emitters sending out virtual offer waves and us as potential absorbers capable of sending out confirmation waves, and there is a possibility of a transaction. The energetic implications of such transactions are far from being known - but we do know from mathematical treatment of quantum mechanics that to explain experimental observations, virtual particles which break known laws of physics are often inferred. It could be speculated that such inferred virtual particles which reside outside of our known space-time universe can perhaps be the agents transferring something into the noumenal realm in the process of transaction and thus playing a role in the "reciprocal feeding" principle between higher and lower realms as postulated by G.

fwiw

 

[Anthony]

[quote author=Altair]
There is something I don't get. If God is Absolute and perfect in all aspects, how can divine names benefit from the fact that somebody offers a possibility to manifest their properties?
[/quote]

If the realm of divine names represents 6D, then maybe we can get an answer if we look closely at some of the statements the C's have made, i.e. they serve self through others, or in other words it's just the nature of their being. If I understood Ibn Arabi correctly the names are not God/Absolute/Essence, I'm guessing that would be 7D? So by serving others or putting others on the step behind them, they would benefit by getting closer to 7D.

 

[Altair]

[quote author=Altair]
There is something I don't get. If God is Absolute and perfect in all aspects, how can divine names benefit from the fact that somebody offers a possibility to manifest their properties?

This is a big question. Volumes can be and has been written about this question.

One way of exploring it is to negate the assumption that there is a being God who is absolute and perfect in all respects. Considering this would be heresy in olden days - something serious enough for people to killed. On the positive side, considering God as absolute and perfect was a way of keeping human self-importance in check.

Starting with the assumption that God is not perfect, one can speculate that God needs creation as a means of manifesting his names. Gurdjieff developed this idea in his Beelzebub's Tales. In his allegory he mentioned that the dwelling place of God, the most holy Sun Absolute, was found to be diminishing in volume with the passage of the merciless Heropass (time). This necessitated a change in "laws" - from Autoegocrat (interpreted as I-hold-everything-in-my-control) to Trogoautoegocrat (interpreted as I-hold-together-by-reciprocal-feeding). This implies a feedback loop of mutual sustenance set up between God and creation.

As regards the mechanism of this reciprocal feeding, Gurdjieff introduced more special terms in Beelzebub's Tales. Here is an interpretation from JG Bennett, a student of G.

[quote author=JG Bennett in Talks on Beelzebub's Tales ]

When we undertake something that is to bring order, it requires effort and energy. This has to come from somewhere and something is transmitted to the task. To bring order deliberately, through an act of will, liberates conscious energy. When we undertake this, we give ourselves to the task and put ourselves under its demands. Part of the energy involved goes into the task . We can see that something has been achieved. What we do not see is that something has gone to serve a higher purpose.
......
Whenever we do conscious work, the energy divides into three. One part is the energy that goes into bringing about the visible result and this includes the material energies involved. The second part is liberated for some cosmic purpose. This is not like ordinary energy, it is energy that can be used by higher powers. The third part— connected with helkdonis— is that in which we come closer to our own source or to God. Something is added to our own being.

[/quote]

Bringing order through conscious effort can be called syntropy - the opposite of entropy. The noumenal realm, which is beyond space-time is where archetypes or the names of God exist. The names of God seek to express themselves in phenomenal world of space-time. Certain expressions happen regularly and do not need conscious agency. However, certain expressions need appropriate conscious agents for realization in the phenomenal world of space-time. If such conscious agents are available, then a transaction takes place between a particular name of God in the noumenal realm and the agent and the result of the transaction is an event in the space-time phenomenal world. And somehow this transaction leads to reciprocal feeding between the realms.

The material aspect of such transactions is the observable part - it is what is visible as a task completed, change in state etc.

What G called helkdonis - the part that adds to one's own being as a result of the transactional process - could correspond to what Ibn Al Arabi called "stations", the earnings of conscious labor. This is not strictly measurable but can be qualitatively felt and possibly shared as subjective experience.

We do not know what part goes back to the higher source but if G is correct, then that is the part which makes the divine names benefit from being manifested. Our sciences are still some way from fully understanding the non-material implications of such transactions.

<My speculations (warning: measures high on the out-on-a-limb meter)>

Borrowing some terms from the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics (TIQM), a transaction involves a virtual "offer wave" from an emitter and a virtual "confirmation wave" from a potential absorber. If the process proceeds, then the transaction is realized in space-time as a measurable exchange of energies. An analogy would be an e-bay transaction with a seller (emitter) sending out an offer wave. If there are responses and subsequent resolution from the bidding process, a confirmation wave is generated from a buyer (absorber). These transactions are taking place in the virtual realm since no real material exchange has taken place yet. If the deal is closed, only then a transaction can be actualized in the form of movement of material goods and money.

We can consider the names of God as emitters sending out virtual offer waves and us as potential absorbers capable of sending out confirmation waves, and there is a possibility of a transaction. The energetic implications of such transactions are far from being known - but we do know from mathematical treatment of quantum mechanics that to explain experimental observations, virtual particles which break known laws of physics are often inferred. It could be speculated that such inferred virtual particles which reside outside of our known space-time universe can perhaps be the agents transferring something into the noumenal realm in the process of transaction and thus playing a role in the "reciprocal feeding" principle between higher and lower realms as postulated by G.

fwiw

[/quote]

Thank you, obyvatel. Much food for thought.

 

[Altair]

[quote author=Altair]
There is something I don't get. If God is Absolute and perfect in all aspects, how can divine names benefit from the fact that somebody offers a possibility to manifest their properties?

If the realm of divine names represents 6D, then maybe we can get an answer if we look closely at some of the statements the C's have made, i.e. they serve self through others, or in other words it's just the nature of their being.
[/quote]

I thought of that too. My assumption is that perhaps these Creator and STO aspects are intrinsic property of God's Essence in order to sustain a constant creative (mutually enriching) feedback loop between God and his creation as mentioned by obyvatel.

If I understood Ibn Arabi correctly the names are not God/Absolute/Essence

As far as I understood, divine names are just expression of the properties of God's Essence in cosmos, since his creation never can get to know God's Essence directly but only through secondary causes as divine acts and divine names.

 

[Altair]

About Good and Evil

... we will see why evil is real on its own level, a fact which necessitates the setting up of the Scale of Law. Man faces a predicament as real as himself, and he is forced by his own nature to choose between the straight path which leads to balance, harmony and felicity and the crooked path which lead to imbalance, disequilibrium, and wretchedness.

"Ignorance" consists of the lack of knowledge, nothing else. Hence it is not an ontological quality. Nonexistence is evil.. Were it an ontologival quality, its coming into existence would go back to God, since there is no agent but God... The Real possesses Nondelimited Being without any delimitation. He is sheer good without any evil. He stands opposite nondelimited nothingness, which is sheer evil without any good.

All creatures have to earn their right to exist or go back to nonexistence:

At root the creatures are immutable entities dwelling in nonexistence, which is evil. God in respect of His all-embracing mercy gives them existence in order to bring them from evil into good. Man hangs between good and evil...

"Evil" is failure to reach one's individual desire and what is agreeable to one's nature. It stems from the fact that the thing's possibility does not prevent it from becoming connected to to nonexistence. To this extent evil becomes manifest within the cosmos. Hence it only becomes manifest from the direction of the possible thing, not from the direction of God.

 

[Altair]

The divine commands

Though there is no evil in Being, the existent things suffer evil to the extent they fail to share in Being. Hence the way to avoid evil is to seek refuge from it in Being...

From the point of view of Sheer Being, there is nothing but good. But as soon as existence is taken into account, good is by definition mixed with evil. In actual fact, human beings are faced with choices between good and evil. They do not dwell with Sheer Being, so they cannot say that nothing exists but good. Since they have been placed within the cosmos in a context of other existing things, they are forced to choose among alternatives and these...will offer choices among the good, the better, the bad, and the worse. Though goods and evils all manifest God as Sheer Good, in relationship to the criteria set up by the natures of things and willed by God they cannot be considered equivalent in respect to human beings. Hence we cannot escape the reality of good and evil in our actual situation...

... In respect of the first command, God says "Be!" and the whole cosmos comes into existence. In respect of the second, He says to human beings, "Do this and avoid that, or you will fall into wretchedness". The first command is known as "engendering command", while the second is known as the "prescriptive command". All created things obey the engendering command, so in this respect there is no evil in existence. But when the prescriptive command - the revealed Law - is taken into account, then some obey and some disobey. People bring both good and evil down upon themselves in respect of the prescriptive command...

The engendering command is God's "desire" for creation... Nothing can disobey God's desire, but man and jinn are free to disobey the command whereby He prescribes the Law for them.

Since man follows the engendering command in any case, it is the prescriptive command which brings into existence the possibility of opposing God.

 

[Altair]

The Perfection of Imperfection

If the engendering command alone is considered, there is no imperfection in the cosmos, since all creatures follow what God desires from them. In this respect, what is normally called "imperfection" is in fact perfection, since it allows for the actualiziation of the various levels of existence and knowledge. In other words, were there no imperfections - in the sense of diminishment, decrease and lack - there would be no creation. Were there no creation, the Hidden Treasure would remain hidden. Hence Being would be unseen in every respect. There would be no self-disclosure of the Divine Reality, Light would not shine, God would be the Nonmanifest but not the Manifest. But all this is absurd, since it demands the imperfection of Being Itself which by definition is nondelimited perfection. Being's perfection requires the manifestation of Its properties. The effects of the names and attributes must be displayed for God to be God.

In short, the nondelimited perfection of the Divine Reality is made possible only by the existence of imperfection, which is to say that this "imperfection" is demanded by existence itself. To be "other than God" is to be imperfect. it is to lack divine names, beginning with Being. But it is precisely the "otherness" which allows the cosmos and all the creatures within it to exists. If the things were perfect in every respect, they would be identical with God Himself, and there would be nothing "other than God". But then we could not even speak about the cosmos, since there would be no cosmos and no speakers. Hence it is imperfection which separates the creatures from theit Creator and makes possible the existence of the cosmos. Imperfection is itself a kind of perfection.

Without imperfection, existence's perfection could not be actualized. All things are "imperfect" and thereby perfectly adapted to the roles they play in creation. In their roles as human beings, those who have not attained to the station of human perfection are no less perfect than other creatures. However, because of the peculiar human situation, people are born with the possibility of actualizing a second kind of perfection. Unlike other creatures, they are not fixed in a specific ontological situation, but can change their situation through the gifts they have been given - such as knowledge, desire and speech - by following the prescriptive command, the Scale of the Law.

.. No imperfection has become manifest within the cosmos except in man. That is because he brings together all the realities of the cosmos....

"God gives to each thing its creation," and thereby it is complete, "then He guides" to the acquisition of perfection. He who is guided reaches perfection, but he who stops with his completion has been deprived.

Well, that's pretty revealing and perfectly answers my question from the one of the previous posts (http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,13425.msg571705.html#msg571705):

There is something I don't get. If God is Absolute and perfect in all aspects, how can divine names benefit from the fact that somebody offers a possibility to manifest their properties? Or generally speaking, if the whole Universe is a school where we learn to know the God disguised as divine names, what is the point of all this? Can the God know Himself through us, even if He is an Absolute? Or is this the aspect which belongs to His Essence and we'll never get it?

 

[PERLOU]

Merci pour cette page que je découvre, si intéressante...

Thank you for this page that I discover, so interesting ...

 

[Renaissance]

Reviving this thread as I'm returning to The Sufi Path of knowledge and have grown a bit curious about this issue of 'godfearingness'.

Here's one quote:

Opening is not a goal that every disciple will reach. The least of the necessary qualifications is the "godfearingness" referred to earlier, an attribute which Muslims have always perceived as the epitome of human perfection. As the Koran says, "The most noble among you in God's eyes is the most godfearing"

As I'm sure many are familiar, to be 'godfearing' is an element in Christianity as well, particularly among Evangelicals. I have long assumed that this is a means of control and a dark side of religion. It may be that (and probably is), but I am wondering if it may also be more and if there is something objectively useful in it. I also wonder if to be 'godfearing' is something different than what I initially thought it to be. That is, perhaps 'fear' when directed toward 'God', may not actually be fear as we commonly think?

Some of my curiousity in exploring this is that fear and excitement (which both contain the same physiological response) are fundamental elements of the criminal or predator's mind. If that energy is directed toward what is greater rather than what is lower, would that then be a proper and purposeful utility? Some Christians define the fear of God as not being scared of God, but a reverence, respect, or a surrender to the Divine. Here, I think it is also important to consider Paul's letter on love, because if "I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love (knowledge), I gain nothing." Interestingly, al-Arabi also states that one needs to have 'godfearingness' to gain wisdom. On the surface level this may relate to putting the false personality in its place, which assumes rightiousness, vanity, and variations of selfishness that block our ability to gain knowledge and see truth and reality.

I'm curious what others think of this.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

As I'm sure many are familiar, to be 'godfearing' is an element in Christianity as well, particularly among Evangelicals. I have long assumed that this is a means of control and a dark side of religion. It may be that (and probably is), but I am wondering if it may also be more and if there is something objectively useful in it. I also wonder if to be 'godfearing' is something different than what I initially thought it to be. That is, perhaps 'fear' when directed toward 'God', may not actually be fear as we commonly think?

Some of my curiousity in exploring this is that fear and excitement (which both contain the same physiological response) are fundamental elements of the criminal or predator's mind. If that energy is directed toward what is greater rather than what is lower, would that then be a proper and purposeful utility? Some Christians define the fear of God as not being scared of God, but a reverence, respect, or a surrender to the Divine. Here, I think it is also important to consider Paul's letter on love, because if "I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love (knowledge), I gain nothing." Interestingly, al-Arabi also states that one needs to have 'godfearingness' to gain wisdom. On the surface level this may relate to putting the false personality in its place, which assumes rightiousness, vanity, and variations of selfishness that block our ability to gain knowledge and see truth and reality.

I'm curious what others think of this.

A couple things come to mind from Dabrowski:

Abély says: “I met in my life, especially in artistic milieus, neurotic individuals of great talent, who, fortunately remained neurotic throughout their lives. A few months ago I heard an inaugural presidential address during a congress in Strasbourg in which Prof. Neyrac gave a talk on the anxiety of St. Exupéry. He said something along these lines: “This fear was of a special kind. It means the elevation of personality in its development. Such anxieties are instrumental in raising one to a higher level and a physician should approach them with prudence and respect.’”

FEAR, DREAD AND ANXIETY Level V At this level there are anxieties over one’s own imperfections, anxieties of not knowing the absolute, anxieties arising in states of strong psychic tension connected with the search for philosophical and mystical yet empirical solutions. Anxieties arise as a result of difficulties in reaching these solutions.

So I think fear of God, in a positive sense, can be something like fear of not understanding ultimate reality, and not living up to one's potential "in God's eyes." Or a fear of falling out of alignment with a higher purpose (i.e. God's).

 

[Beau]

I'm curious what others think of this.

To me, god-fearing is meant to indicate someone that lives according to the morals of their religion. Similar to what you wrote about a surrender to the divine.

 

[msasa79]

Going through W. Chittick's The Sufi Path of Knowledge, in the section The Divine Conflict in Chapter 3 The Divine Roots of Hierarchy & Conflict, there are couple of translated passages from Ibn al' Arabi's great work Futuhad which speak very nicely and thought-provokingly about the theme of predetermination (destiny) vs. free will, i.e. how much 'room for actual movement' the souled humans with their personalities have in this world of ours, and about the ignorance being a choice and endangering force in our lives, which reminded me of the passages from Laura's Amazing Grace, quoted at the end of the post below Ibn al' Arabi's ones.

If we consider the Soul as being sort of a 'spark' of/from the DCM and religion as life, that is how we interact with the Creation or God or the DCM, I think the Ibn al' Arabi's passages fit very nicely with the Fellowship's worldview as described in its Statements of Principles.

The Divine Conflict

The multiplicity of relationships that can be discerned in God results in a multiplicity of relationships in the cosmos. All things in the universe manifest the effects and properties of the divine names. Even the conflict, quarrel, strife, and war that are found in created things have their roots in God. The cosmos is a great collection of things, and things go their own ways, not necessarily in harmony with other things on the level where they are being considered. The names relate to each other in many different modes, some harmonious, and some sufficiently disharmonious that Ibn al' Arabi can even talk about "conflict" among the names.

The properties of the divine names, in respect of being names, are diverse. What do Avenger, Terrible in Punishment, and Overpowering have in common with Compassionate, Forgiving, and Gentle? For Avenger demands the occurrence of vengeance in its object, while Compassionate demands the removal of vengeance from the same object. ... So he who looks at the divine names will maintain that there is a Divine Conflict. That is why God said to His Prophet, "Dispute with them in the most beautiful way" (Koran 16:125). God commanded him to dispute in the manner demanded by the divine names, that is, in the way that is "most beautiful." (II 93.19)

The "Divine Conflict" has never ending repercussions in this world and the next, since all change and transformation can be traced back to it. In one passage the Shaykh discusses the divine root of "calling" (nida), as, for example, when God calls out in the Koran, "O you who have faith ... !" He explains that diversity and conflict in the cosmos stem from the fact that different names call the creatures in different directions.

You should know that the divine call includes believer and unbeliever, obedient and disobedient. ... This call derives only from the divine names. One divine name calls to someone who is governed by the property of a second divine name when it knows that the term of the second name's property within the person has come to an end. Then this name which calls to him takes over. So it continues in this world and the next. Hence everything other than God is called by a divine name to come to an engendered state to which that name seeks to attach it. If the object of the call responds, he is named "obedient" and becomes "felicitous". If he does not respond, he is named "disobedient" and becomes "wretched".

You may object and say: "How can a divine name call and the engendered thing refuse to respond, given that it is weak and must accept the divine power?" We will answer: It does not refuse to respond in respect of itself and its own reality, since it is constantly overpowered. But since it is under the overpowering sway of a divine name, that name does not let it respond to the name which calls to it. Hence there is conflict among the divine names. However, the names are equals, so the ruling property belongs to the actual possessor, which is the name in whose hand the thing is when the second name calls to it. The possessor is stronger through the situation.

You may object: "Then why is a person taken to task for his refusal?" We answer: Because he claims the refusal for himself and does not ascribe it to the divine name which controls him.

You may object: "The situation stays the same, since he refuses only because of the overpowering sway of a divine name. The person who is called refused because of the name." We answer: That is true, but he is ignorant of that, so he is taken to task for his ignorance, for the ignorance belongs to himself.

You may object: "But his ignorance derives from a divine name whose property governs him." We answer: Ignorance is a quality pertaining to nonexistence; it is not ontological. But the divine names bestow only existence; they do not bestow nonexistence. So the ignorance belongs to the very self of him who is called. (II 592. 32)

In another context Ibn al' Arabi explains that the "wages" mentioned in the Koran are paid to those who perform supererogatory works. Since human beings are God's slaves, they are not paid wages for the acts which the religion makes obligatory for them, though of course the Master rewards His slaves in other ways. The root of this matter has to do with two kinds of servanthood, one toward the Essence and the other toward the divine names. The first is compulsory while the second is voluntary.

The prophets are God's sincere servants, not being owned by their own caprice or that of any of God's creatures. But they say, "My wage falls only on Allah" (Koran 10:72, 11:29, 34:47). This goes back to their entrance under the properties of the divine names, from whence wages are paid. Through compulsion and in reality they are the servants and the possession of the Essence. But the divine names seek them to make their effects manifest through them. So they have free choice in entering under whichever name they desire. The divine names know this, so the divine names designate wages for them. Each divine name wants this slave of the Essence to choose to serve it rather than the other divine names. It says to him, "Enter under my command, for I will give you such and such." Then he remains in the service of that name until he is called by the Lord in respect of his servanthood to the Essence. At that point he abandons every divine name and undertakes the call of his Lord. Once he has done what He commands him to do, he returns to whichever name he pleases. That is why every person performs supererogatory works and worships as he desires until he hears the call to begin the obligatory prayer. At that point every supererogatory work is forbidden to him and he must endeavor to perform the obligatory act for his Lord and Master. Then when he finishes, he enters into any supererogatory work that he desires.

In this situation man is similar to the slave of a master with many sons. He is a compulsory servant of his master. When his master commands him, he does not occupy himself with anything but his command. But when he finishes with that, the sons of the master seek to make him their subject. Hence they have to designate for him something that will make him want to serve them. Each son would love to take him into his own service in the time that he is free from the business of his master. Hence they compete in giving him wages in order to have him devote himself exclusively to them. But he is free to choose which son to serve at that time. So man is the slave, the master is Allah, and the sons are the other divine names.

When He sees the servant troubled and helps him, then it is known that the servant is subjected to the name "Helper." Hence he will receive from Helper the wage that it has designated for him. When He sees him weak in himself and He acts with gentleness toward him, then he is subjected to the name "Gentle." And so it goes with all the names. So verify, my friend, how you serve your Lord and
Master! Possess correct knowledge concerning yourself and your Master! Then you will be one of the men of knowledge who are "deeply rooted in knowledge" [Koran 3:7), the divine sages, and you will attain to the furthest degree and the highest place along with the messengers and the prophets! (III 64. 7)

Chapter Twenty-five: The Boat Ride to Damascus

By now the reader knows that I cannot write all of this in strictly chronological format since there are always several threads weaving through a person’s life and for the sake of clarity, I&…

cassiopaea.org

If living by faith was not working as it was claimed to work, what, exactly, was I doing wrong?

Well, the beginning of the verse in the book of Romans says: “So too the Spirit come to our aid and bears us up in our weakness…”

What happened next was a sensation of growing heat in my solar plexus, accompanied by a buzzing sound in my ears that soon became a sort of inaudible roaring which terminated in a resounding inner explosion: BOOM! Like being stone deaf and standing between two huge Chinese gongs while they were being struck simultaneously. It was soul-deep and resonated to a long, slow and rhythmic internal oscillation that drew me in and enveloped me like a warm, comforting cloud.

Then there was the voice.

It was not audible, and not really in my head exactly, but it was a voice nevertheless. It emanated from some interior organ of spiritual hearing, rich and rapturously tender. This voice had the odd characteristic that it conveyed information more in the sense of concept than distinct words, though there seemed to be a process of translation going on in my mind simultaneous to receiving the “soul voice”.

“You KNOW that I LOVE you, my child,” the voice both said and conveyed in waves of ecstatic inner sound. “But until you remove the darkness from between us, I can do nothing.”

The words vibrated and penetrated every cell in my body from a depth of being that is impossible to describe. The transference of the impression, of the idea of “love” as expressed from this source, rocked me to my very core. I understood there was no way that I, in this human body, could plumb that Love. I was aware that to attempt to experience it in my flesh would result in instant death, because the human organism simply was not capable of carrying such energy. “Tasting” was all that humans could experience, and even that tasting carried risks of overwhelming the circuitry, like plugging a 110 volt appliance into a 220 volt outlet. In the same way, the term “darkness” was also unfathomable in its breadth and meaning.

My mind raced through all the aspects of my life. Like the proverbial moment before death when all of a person’s deeds pass before their eyes, I reviewed my existence, enumerating all the ways I yearned to seek only to do the will of God. I couldn’t find a single breach in this contract where one could think that evil would enter the picture. I enumerated all the ways in which I was living a Christian life as explicated in the terms of Fundamental belief. I pointed out that we didn’t just go to church and tithe, we made dedicated efforts to live the life fully and completely every moment of every day. And, I added, we did it in the face of often tremendous opposition! What more was there than living the life, building the faith, and teaching it to our children? “Just what,” I demanded to know, “are we doing wrong?”

At this point, a response came, though not in words. It was like a holographic or experiential movie being run in my mind, soul, and awareness. I was shown my children in a series of vignettes that brought up the deep love and devotion I had for them. I was to understand that my love for my children, as great as it was, was merely a human love and could, in no way, equal the love of the Creator for his creation. I was being infused with this love in small, incremental amounts. It was consoling and warmly caressing to a level that is impossible to express with words. I was so lost in this feeling that I could have drifted in the waves of love washing over me forever. But the Voice had other plans.

The scene changed and I “experienced” myself admonishing my children to not play in ant beds. Fire ants were a big problem in our yard, and it was a common event that I pointed these places out to the children, warning them not to be tempted by the quiet and attractive exterior of the anthill. Inside, it was a boiling mass of stinging insects that could, under certain circumstances, kill a small child.

In the little “experiential movie” I was being shown, I saw that my children, as children will, did not listen to what I was saying. Their curiosity about the anthill led them to it, to observe and examine its perfect symmetry of structure, and peaceful aspect of industry. Their lack of direct knowledge of ants coupled with their foolhardy, naive bravery caused them try to “play with the ants,” to force open the hill and see what was inside, how it was constructed, and what went on beneath that fascinating exterior.

The result was that they suddenly were covered with ants, biting and stinging them, and they were running to me, screaming for relief from the ants. And there I was, soothing them and brushing away the ants, and explaining that I could get rid of the ants, and I could put salve on the bites to soothe the pain, but it would do no good if they hadn’t learned something from the experience about ants.

Sounds like a pretty simple little example, yes? I certainly didn’t see how my life related to children playing in an ant bed! “What are the ants?” I asked. “What is the evil in my life?” And the voice came again, this time with overtones of regret and sorrow:

“Learn!”

The word “Learn!” reverberated away into inner silence as the sound of crashing waves and the diesel engine began to penetrate my awareness. I was floating on the sensation of the great infusion of love that had come with the first part of the “interaction”. I call it that, because it was hardly a vision in strict terms, though something happened of an internal visionary nature.

Even though the intensity of the experience could not be denied, I was uncertain as to its nature. Was this how God spoke to people? Is this what I had been hearing about all my life? If so, if God spoke to people in this way as regularly as they claimed, then they must be very powerful and lofty individuals to sustain such experiences on so regular a basis as their claims suggested.

Chapter Twenty-eight: The Ark in Montana

When I think about the “Boat Ride to Damascus,” it is exactly a metaphor for my life as a born again Christian. The moment of truth, of course, was symbolized by the trap of the anchor…

cassiopaea.org

For the Jews, living under the domination of the Romans after years of domination by the Babylonians, this idea had been projected onto a hope for a Messiah who would come as a conqueror to establish the Davidic Kingdom of God by force of arms. This materialistic view of the matter was later taken up by Christianity. The “Kingdom of God” became some literal place, even the kingdom on Earth at the End of Time.

However, in striking contradiction to his assurances of the imminence of the Kingdom, Jesus stated quite categorically on other occasions that the Kingdom was already here.

“If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out the devils, then be sure the Kingdom of God has already come upon you.” Scholars point out that this statement is so alien to contemporary Jewish thought that it must be attributed to Jesus himself (or whoever the person was around whom this legend accreted) rather than to the Gospel writers or their sources.

However you look at it, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, present and future, was the essential, overriding feature of Jesus’ preaching and instruction. His teaching was evidently brilliant (whoever the myth was formed around), but it was not primarily as a teacher of morals that he saw himself. The teaching of Jesus was entirely directed towards preparing people for that Kingdom and for its first fruits. And he proclaimed that he was creating that Kingdom.

This is the premise of every one of his moral injunctions: “Set your mind upon his Kingdom and all the rest will come to you as well.”

As the scholars I admired pointed out, so predominant was the concept of the Kingdom of God in Jesus’ thoughts that even his teachings on the abandonment of worldly hostilities was not motivated by gentleness, or compassion, or pacifism, but by his concentration on the Kingdom and the all-important task of securing admission to it. Additionally, and this may be surprising to many, Jesus’ miracles were primarily and preeminently connected with and directed towards the fulfillment of the Kingdom.

And here we reach the crux of the matter: Jesus’ prime intention was not to cure the sick, but to demonstrate how the “securing of the kingdom” was to be accomplished! Every healing he performed moved us closer to the consummation of the kingdom. Every exorcism he performed moved us further into the kingdom. In other words, it was in directly dealing with those things we often call Evil that the process of gaining entry to the Kingdom of God was effected!

The Gospels tend on occasion to distinguish between Jesus’ two main activities of exorcism and healing, regarding them as related but separate. But these cures are directly linked and subordinated to the accompanying message of the divine Kingdom. His instructions to his apostles were: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out devils as you go. Proclaim the message: The Kingdom of Heaven is upon you.”

Such signs were not only symbols of what was happening, but were effectual signs which caused what they signified! Jesus’ cures were not only symbolic seals of his mission but actual victories in the battle that had already been joined against the forces of Evil.

“Believe my works if not my words.”

“If it is by the finger of God that I drive out the devils, then be sure the Kingdom of God has already come upon you.”

These principles had become apparent to me as a result of the “Boat Ride to Damascus”. The statement to me, by whatever the source of this vision, was that God cannot act in our lives as long as Evil is in the way. I was most definitely putting my whole mind and soul into striving to live a holy life, and yet I was being told that Evil existed in my life.

When I asked “what Evil?” I was enjoined to “Learn”. That suggested to me that ignorance, itself, was evil.

Chapter Thirty: A Knight in Armor

I called Eva. I wanted to tell her about my dream of the former life and my conviction that I’d committed suicide. After I finished, Eva became was very quiet for a long moment. “Yes,…

cassiopaea.org

The only thing I can say is that I was doing this “zoning out” regularly and, as Gurdjieff described, brought nothing back with me. As a matter of practicality I generally meditated lying on the bed. Some people cannot do this because they tend to fall asleep, but that was never a problem for me. I could “zone out” in meditation, “come to” some time later, and then go to sleep easily at night. I was generally so uncomfortable in any position, that getting to sleep was problematical if I didn’t meditate first.

So, I went to bed and waited for Larry to go to sleep. If he thought I wanted quiet for meditation, he would manage to just “have” to make some sort of noise or disruption, apologize, and then do it again.

After he was asleep, I began my breathing exercises. This part of the process I had borrowed from my hypnotherapy training and was extremely useful. Of course, I later learned that it had been “borrowed” for hypnotherapy from certain meditation systems. {The practices I used at this time are now being made available and taught in the Éiriú Eolas program. You will be able to read here about the amazing experiences I had with this practice!}

At this point, I don’t know what happened. All I remember is starting the breathing phase, which came before the contemplative phase of the exercise. But then I made some kind of big “skip”.

The next thing I knew, I was jerked back into consciousness by a sensation that can only be described as a “boiling turbulence” in my abdomen. It was so powerful that, at first, it felt actually physical – like there was a boiling agitation in my organs that was going to erupt upward in some way.

I was frantically holding my throat, because I could feel a tightening of the muscles in the throat area, as wave after wave of energy blew upward like the precursors of steam blasts from a volcano before it erupts. I struggled out of the bed, holding the wall with one hand and my throat with the other, clenching my teeth so whatever it was would not come gushing out of me and disturb Larry or the children. For all I knew, I was just going to be violently sick!

I rushed outside to the porch Larry had recently built onto our little house, where there was a lawn sofa, and collapsed onto it just as the outpouring began.

I wish I could describe this in better words, but there are simply none that apply other than to use ordinary descriptions that don’t come close to the essence and intensity of the event. What erupted from me was a shattering series of sobs and cries that were utterly primeval and coming from some soul-deep place that defies explanation. Accompanying these cries, or actually, embedded in them, were images – visions – complete scenes with all attendant emotional content and implied context conveyed in an instant. Again, it was like the idea of “your life passing before your eyes”.

But, in this case, it was not scenes from this life. It was lifetime after lifetime. I knew that I was there in every scene, in these vignettes of other lives. I was experiencing myself as all these people.

And the tears! My god! The tears that flowed. I had no idea that the human physiology was capable of producing such copious amounts of liquid so rapidly!

Now, if this had been just an hour-long crying jag or something like that, it would have to pass into history as “just one of those things,” maybe like PMS. But, this activity had a life of its own! It went on, without slowing or stopping, for more than five hours! If I attempted to slow it down, stop it, or “switch” my mind in another direction, the inner sensation of explosive eruption rapidly took over, all the muscles in my body would begin to clench up and I was no longer in control. I could only sit there as a sort of “instrument of grief and lamentation,” and literally sob my heart out for every horror of history in which I had seemingly participated or to which I had possibly been a witness. I think that there were even some that I was simply aware of without my direct participation. And some were truly horrible scenes.

Plague and pestilence and death and destruction. Scene after scene. Loved ones standing one moment, crushed or lying in bloody heaps the next. Rapaciousness, pillaging, plundering; rivers of blood and gore; slaughter, carnage and butchery in all its many manifestations passed before my eyes; holocaust and hell. Rage and hot anger, bloodlust and fury, murder and mayhem, all around me, everywhere I looked. Evil heaped on evil like twisted, dismembered bodies. And the grief of centuries, the unshed tears of millennia, the guilt, remorse and penitence, flooded through me; melting, thawing and dissolving the burdensome shell of stone that encased my petrified heart; washing away the pain with my tears. An ocean of tears.

As this release of the worlds of accumulated guilt and grief of many lifetimes went on, the “voice-that-was-not-a-voice” in the background, ever soothing, ever calming, repeated:

“It’s not your fault. There is no blame. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

And I came to understand something very deep: I understood that there is no “original sin”. I understood that the terrors and suffering mankind experiences here in life on earth is not caused by some sort of “flaw” or “error” or aberration from “within”. It is not punishment. It is not something that one can be “saved” from.

I understood that every scene of terrible suffering and heart-rending cruelty was the result of IGNORANCE. And each experience was the gaining of knowledge.

It is easier to see this idea when you consider the Crusades or the Inquisition. You can trace the path of twisted reason, leading from the idea of the Love of God to imposing that view on others “for their own good, ” ending in torture and mass murder. Forget for a moment about those who just viciously used such philosophies for their own gain and political maneuvers. Think for a moment about the sincerity of the philosophies behind such events. But it is based on IGNORANCE.

Those who were seemingly out for gain and self-aggrandizement were operating out of ignorance – fear and hunger of the soul that cannot be satisfied. It is only a matter of degrees, but in the end, it is only ignorance.

When the flow of energy, images and tears finally began to subside, I felt a sensation of warm, balmy liquid, almost airy in its lightness, and so sweet that to this day, I can still remember the piercing quickening of the fire of love for all of creation. It was ecstatic, rapturous and exultant all at the same time. I was lost in wonder, amazed and at the same time bewildered at this vision of the world.

Well, the result of this event was a state of prolonged “elevation,” or “loving peace” that persisted for a very long time. You could even say that the effects reverberate to the present. Never again was I able to condemn (act against with intent to destroy what they choose to believe) another, no matter how wicked their deeds. I could see that all so-called “evil” and “wickedness” was a manifestation of ignorance. No person, no matter how holy and elevated they may think they are in this life, has not reveled in the shedding of another’s blood in some other time and place. And no person who chooses ignorance and wickedness and destruction in this life is “wrong”. Yes, I had the right to avoid them, to defend myself against them, to understand what they were doing. But it was not my place to go on a campaign to “change their mind”.

The significant point is: Ignorance is a choice, and one made for a reason: to learn and to grow.

And that realization led to another: to learn how to truly choose. To be able to learn, at this level of reality, what is and isn’t of ignorance, what is of truth and beauty and love and cleanliness. I understood the saying of Jesus that some things are bright and shining on the outside, but inside they are filthy and full of decay. And I don’t mean that I was seeing this negativity as something to be judged. I clearly understood its reason and place as modes of learning, but I was deeply inspired to seek out all I could learn about this world to best manifest what was of light.

I was so excited by this “revelation” that I wanted to tell everybody.

At that point, members of the church we had attended were still coming by occasionally to find out why we had sort of dropped out. These visits gave me the opportunity to talk about my spiritual experiences. In every single case, I was literally rebuked as having been duped by Satan.

I thought about that a lot. I wondered if it could be so, if the whole drama of the visions, the actions of the minister who had been a wolf in sheep’s clothing, could have been set up and dramatized just to deceive me. Perhaps my soul was in peril. But, if they were wrong, what did that make of the whole basis of Christianity? How could anything they had built on this basic error be right?

This distressed me. I was most definitely “adjusting” my Christian position, but I was not quite prepared to toss the whole thing out the window. I mean, after all, through all the years of study and investigation, Christianity had been my background. When, as a child, I began questioning the existence of a god at all, that was altogether different. But, now, making the decision to believe that Christianity was foundationally wrong – if there was no original sin from which to be saved, there was no necessity for a savior – this amounted to making a choice.

It was a matter that took a number of years to resolve. What is important is that, from this experience forward, I was never again able to see sin in quite the same light. When I read about murderers and deeds of mayhem, I knew these were things that I had done also in times past, in my ignorance. When anyone did something that hurt me, I knew that I had done such things as well. I could no longer feel any judgment or criticism because I knew, at some place and time, it was myself I was judging. All my lifetimes had been for learning. I grew from each experience. I learned what not to do by doing it. And, in a very real sense, this is the reason for pain and suffering. It is like an automatic guidance system that keeps a person on the path of learning. But the trick is to be able to discern the difference between choosing a path that gives immediate physical comfort, and then leads to great psychic or soul pain, and a path that may be physically uncomfortable temporarily, that leads to peace of the heart.

Of course, this principle was not automatically perfectly enacted in my life. I had the idea, now it was just a matter of learning how to apply it. And I made mistakes, and still make mistakes. And most of these mistakes relate to the fact that this world is run by an “evil magician” who seeks to control everything and everybody with truly devious manipulations. And it seems that anyone who seeks to escape this control becomes a target of even greater and more subtly devious manipulations through “agents” of the Control System.

What is more, if a person seeks to share this information by merely putting it “out there” for others to consider, the levels of attack and attempts to destroy increase exponentially. And always, they come in the guise of “love and light,” and claims that “I’m only doing this for your own good; I really want only to help you”.

Chapter Forty: Aliens, Demons and Vampires

In January of 1994, the Frank & Dane Debacle (already described) unfolded and I understood why Frank had been so desperately interested in using the board to predict lottery numbers. After his…

cassiopaea.org

I detected the “signature” of an intelligence working in my life and my experiences and it was difficult to tell if it was to awaken me, or an effort to either destroy or divert me from something. If they were evil beings and had the power to interfere in my life with malicious intent, even when I was deeply involved in a life that included regular prayer and meditation – which one would suppose should act as a defense – what protection did anyone have? Were we, the human race, defenseless against these creatures?

The words of Gurdjieff came back to haunt me. Were the belief systems of metaphysics and religion useless drivel promulgated by an Evil Magician to convince people they were Lions, Men, Eagles or Magicians instead of sleeping sheep?

What kind of madhouse had I opened my eyes to see? Was the fact that I had seen it the very source of its existence? Was I, by noticing evil, more vulnerable to attack? Surely not: The evidence of the presence of evil threaded its way through the lives of others who denied all the clues. I saw clearly the mechanical or accidental nature of the Universe that Gurdjieff talked about. But now I realized that our own programmed refusal to see reality, our ignorance, was the chief door in our lives through which Evil and suffering entered.

Was it possible, as Gurdjieff suggested, to become free of this? To awaken? To see the projector behind the slide show of our lives? And, more important, to see who was running the projector and why?

I struggled with my thoughts and emotions for days. I was truly passing through the valley of the shadow of death. I had thoroughly convinced myself that UFOs and aliens could not possibly exist. In fact, even after the flap surrounding the hypnosis session with Pam, I had contemptuously declared that the “Millennial Disease” was spreading. Upon seeing the thing itself with my own eyes, I had pronounced it to be a flock of geese, in the same way I had rationalized the wet nightgown and grass seeds on the night I woke up reversed in my bed.

All those times, and the night I saw the strange light in the snow at boarding school, the events had been followed by protracted illnesses. If there were other incidents preceding any of my other physical disturbances, I certainly didn’t remember them. But by now, from studying the literature, I was aware that many people might remember nothing at all.

To consider the idea of malevolent beings in control of our world that could prey on us at will, behind our ordinary reality, was utterly soul shattering.

I began to see the possibility of an interpenetrating reality of more or less physical solidity that interacted with humans as we may interact with wildlife in a forest: the hunters and the hunted.
What was clear to me was the paranormal nature of the UFO phenomenon.
Down through the ages people have been visited by all sorts of strange beings. Some of these creatures have been utterly fantastic in description as well as activity. By far the most common type, however, have been humanoid – having some semblance to the human physical configuration – although their powers have been distinctly super-human.

I had read stories going back hundreds of years that told of these humanoid beings.

A creature with strange, glowing or compelling eyes comes in the night and somehow drains the energy, blood, or life force from a victim unable to call out for help and paralyzed in body and mind. Their presence often is heralded by unusual lights or freezing temperatures. The strange beings have powers that include the ability to disappear, to fly, to control weather, to direct the behavior of animals, to change into the form of animals, to pass through solid objects. The beings can produce hybrid offspring by having sex with their victims.

This belief in supernatural beings is to be found in every society around the world, a common theme in all religions as well as folklore. The reports are as frequent in our own day as they have ever been. And the numbers and types of visitors are legion. I realized that this historical assessment was quite consistent with the UFO and alien abduction situation.

“An Encyclopedia of Faeries,” (Briggs, 1976) gives many examples of fairy abductions. They show a startling similarity between fairy abductions and UFO abductions. People who reported interactions with fairies generally had marks on their bodies consistent with marks that were claimed to be “physical proof” of alien abductions. Fairy abductions and UFO abductions also exhibit striking similarities to the activities of incubi and succubi. Almost always a thick drink is given to the abductee, who is then paralyzed and levitated away. The fairies traveled in circular globes of light also commonly reported in UFO abductions.

In the end, many so-called fairies and aliens look and act a lot like historic descriptions of demons.

I was seeing, finally, a tradition stretching back probably thousands of years, of otherworldly beings abducting humans and their children.

Along with most rationalists, I had always considered these stories to be “psycho-dramas,” or “artifacts of consciousness”. The study of anomalous experiences, the paranormal, and related psycho-spiritual fields has occupied many of the brightest minds of our race for millennia. Endless theories and their variations have been proposed to explain them and, for the most part, such ideas are even behind most of the world’s religions. Jacques Vallee’s control system hypothesis is interesting in this regard. He writes:

“I believe there is a system around us that transcends time as it transcends space. The system may well be able to locate itself in outer space, but its manifestations are not spacecraft in the ordinary ‘nuts and bolts’ sense. The UFOs are physical manifestations that cannot be understood apart from their psychic and symbolic reality. What we see in effect here is not an alien invasion. It is a control system which acts on humans and uses humans.”

The very idea that this might be a reality that dominated or controlled our own was staggering. What made the problem so terrifying was the fact that my studies and experiences in “spirit attachment” and demonic possession were reflected in the so-called UFO and alien phenomena. They had the same taste, the same dynamic.

 

[msasa79]

Reviving this thread as I'm returning to The Sufi Path of knowledge and have grown a bit curious about this issue of 'godfearingness'.

...

As I'm sure many are familiar, to be 'godfearing' is an element in Christianity as well, particularly among Evangelicals. I have long assumed that this is a means of control and a dark side of religion. It may be that (and probably is), but I am wondering if it may also be more and if there is something objectively useful in it. I also wonder if to be 'godfearing' is something different than what I initially thought it to be. That is, perhaps 'fear' when directed toward 'God', may not actually be fear as we commonly think?

Some of my curiousity in exploring this is that fear and excitement (which both contain the same physiological response) are fundamental elements of the criminal or predator's mind. If that energy is directed toward what is greater rather than what is lower, would that then be a proper and purposeful utility? Some Christians define the fear of God as not being scared of God, but a reverence, respect, or a surrender to the Divine. Here, I think it is also important to consider Paul's letter on love, because if "I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love (knowledge), I gain nothing." Interestingly, al-Arabi also states that one needs to have 'godfearingness' to gain wisdom. On the surface level this may relate to putting the false personality in its place, which assumes rightiousness, vanity, and variations of selfishness that block our ability to gain knowledge and see truth and reality.

I'm curious what others think of this.

Been wondering about the same thing.

Apart from what AI and Beau wrote, it seems to me that "godfearingness" could also be related to humbleness and humility, in contrast to hubris and vanity, in a sense that we humans, as we are with all our 'mortal' limitations, accept that some things about the reality at large are simply out of our grasps and that only by the Divine Grace we might be awarded to have a 'peek' at them. And an attitude to adopt in these endeavors and strivings would be that of a "godfearing", otherwise we might get 'squashed' and burned to the ground when,
"And in our own despair, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."
(from Laura's Signature),
if we think too highly of ourselves and of our capability to penetrate on our own the realms of Reality that do not 'normally' pertain to our levels of existence.

In respect of His names, God has a certain similarity with creatures, but in respect of His Essence, He cannot be compared with them. That is why it was said earlier that God has two basic kinds of names: those which declare Him incomparable and those which declare Him similar, or names of incomparability and names of acts. The first type of names negate from His Essence any similarity with the things of the cosmos. The second affirm that every reality in the cosmos has its roots in the Divine Level.

The theme of incomparability and similarity runs throughout Ibn al' Arabi's works. God is the coincidence of all contrary attributes. In knowing God, we must be able to put opposites together. As the Shaykh sees it, most schools of thought had failed to make this combination. More specifically, the rational thinkers, ... , overemphasized incomparability. By ignoring imagination, ... , they fell into a lopsided view of reality.

The rational faculty or reason, ... , wants to negate anything from God which does not appear appropriate to its own definition of Divinity, e.g., hands, feet, and eyes. Hence, the rational thinkers "interpret" or "explain away" these terms wherever they find them in the revealed texts. But by explaining away such terms, these thinkers usually miss the point. In the Shaykh's view, reason places so much emphasis upon incomparability that it excludes similarity ... . It is impossible to understand the full message of the scriptures by accepting only one-half of it. The rational faculty can grasp God's Unity and transcendence, while imagination is needed to perceive the multiplicity of His self-disclosures and His immanence.

To accept the full message of scripture does not imply that one believes simplemindedly that God has hands and feet in exactly the same way that human beings have hands and feet. So difficult in fact is it to combine the points of view of reason and imagination that this task can only be achieved through God's own inspiration. "Be godfearing," the Shaykh continually reminds us, "and God will teach you" (Koran 2:282). Through "godfearingness", an important technical term in the Shaykh's vocabulary, the servant can attain to the station of direct "tasting" or the "unveiling" of the realities of things. This is the true knowledge that will allow him to combine similarity and incomparability, or imagination and reason, without falling into the dangerous pitfalls of overemphasizing either side.