Texas school shooting. I’m going to have to start a column entitled “ things you’ll never hear from journalists” lol This is one of them! Maybe the real problem is “schools” The entire world including the place I am now visiting, Trinidad, is obsessed with formal, institutionalize schooling. But is this really such a good thing?! For one thing, many students don’t fit in. Either they don’t have the academic learning style required or they don’t have the social skills. So then they are humiliated, defeated and alienated. I suspect that many of young, mass killers fit into one of those categories .
But even in terms of education, these institutes are lacking. Most people tell me that they have to learn their jobs anyway when they get out of school. So is there any point? If you argue that schools produce open- minded, flexible intellects , I don’t see it, myself. They are in fact propaganda machines. I think we need to go back to the age-old master-apprentice formula if we want real education. But perhaps, that’s not what the powers find really wan! They want cogs in the machine. If that is it, they are succeeding well!
Sufi Retreat Poster
Buddhism Re-examined
The fatal flaw of Buddhism ,as opposed to the Western traditions,is its emphasis on Willfulness as opposed to Surrender. If you need a concrete representation of this difference , look at the most fundamental position in practice-sitting erect vs. the most important position in Islamic practice-sajda(prostration) or in Christianity-kneeling.
Now within the domain of willfulness, Buddhism has a lot to teach us about attaining higher states. However, within the domain of surrender, its concepts are woefully inadequate -especially in terms of where all phenomena originate from. What this may imply in terms of our position in the hereafter I will leave to God to decide. That being said, many of the Buddhist nde experiences including the iconic one of the Burmese monk who converted to Christianity, are negative in nature!
The Sufi Retreat- Process and Cost Structure
I have recently received the inspiration to do two 5-day Sufi retreats annually , one in Canada during the late summer/ early autumn and one in Tobago during the winter.To my way of thinking , this represents the natural complement to the weekly Wisal(dhikr) meetings and the elaboration of a daily spiritual practice routine( see articles on this blog re this subject). With all three in place one should have the spiritual infrastructure to make serious progress on our path to Allah.
So “What is a Sufi Retreat/ Happening”, you may ask. It is a period of time we hang-out together in a peaceful and preferably beautiful natural environment, doing our daily spiritual practices together and trying as best we can to connect with our Creator. It should be neither stressful with over-exertion nor slacking-off like a day at the beach( more on this later). Hopefully with the Generosity of God, something happens which shifts our consciousness and moves us to the next level spiritually. Let us all make dua( prayer) that this adventure brings us to satisfaction regardless of the nature of our experience.(In this light,even so-called negative experience or non-experience can lead us to progress to the next level).
Many questions come up as we try to organize these retreats ,which is no simple matter, but one of the first is the issue of money. Unfortunately , we live in a society which is more than ever before obsessed with financial issues. We are inundated everyday with slogans like ” the lowest price is the law”(Wrong!) and “financial planning is the key to happiness and peace of mind” and endless ads telling us that they can save us money. Our society has developed pseudo-sciences like Business Administration, Marketing and Human Resources( what a disgusting term,-used to be called ‘Personnel ‘ but now they have taken the person out of the equation and left us with humans only as resources! Obviously resources to generate more money. So the MBAs have encouraged cost- cutting, “rationnalizing” serviices and productivity quotients all to maximize the”bottom line” . Yup, it lines up well with the rest of the junk in the bottom.All of this ends up generating more stress and misery for human beings.
Given this obsesion with money, the first thing people want to know about an activity is the price.Sad, really. The real question should be”What is the price of missing this opportunity?” lol in fact, this could have important consequences for peoples after- life so it is priceless, Now I could have designed this seminar for a lower price.(Please note that I am making no money on this initiative. In fact if it is anything like any of my other spiritual initiatives, I will lose money once again.)
Now,most authentic spiritual teachers don’t like talking about money as they find it base and vulgar. Outside of teaching people not to be tight- fisted(‘bughul’ in Arabic) but rather to give in charity.As well we are taught not to be extravagant . However ,money issues are considerably more complicated than that in the modern world.
Ok.Back to the issue at hand. This spiritual retreat is designed to provide the most favorable conditions possible to arrive at mystical experience(‘hal’) and to have openings( ‘futuhat’). Admittedly,any results one obtains come from the Rahmat( Mercy) and Generosity of Allah.However, it is incumbent on us to make every effort possible to make these experiences possible.One of the ingredients of these ideal conditions is to be in a beautiful,natural environment with as few distractions as possible. I believe the Gaia Wellness Retreat Center fulfills those criteria more than amply. The other condition is to eliminate stress as much as possible. This will be adressed shortly.
So we come back to the money issue. If I had wished we could have perhaps held the seminar for half the cost! But then the participants would have been obliged to do all the work of organizing the space,making the food,collecting the fees, etc.,etc.Instead,the way it is now organized we will have a partner in the Gaia Wellness Retreat Center who will be helping us with the work. That is their mission,by the way.The seminars I have attended where the students themselves did all the work, I have found to be very stressful!And stress kills the serenity needed for spiritual experience as “fire burns wood” to quote a well- known hadith about envy.
Another concern in this retreat format is the best length of time. I, myself, have done 3-day retreats( one memorable one with Sheikh Nuh) , 7-day retreats, 21 – day and even fourty days a long time ago. Sheikh Nazim did 6- month retreats with his Sheikh and the Mindfulness movement favours a 10-day formula. At this point I pam going on intuition but the length of time may have to be altered in the light of experience.
The other issue is intensity . Now we hear of retreats like that of Grandsheikh Abdullah Daghestani where the formula of ‘laillaha ilala’ was recited 99,000 times er day with fasting being broken by a glass of tea and seven olives and restarted again. We could call that hard-core lol.The opposite format could be the five prayers and lying on the beach the rest of the time lol.Somewhere in between we need to find the right intensity. Personally I have found that exaggerating the intensity does not work well.During the fourty – day retreat I pushed myself to the verge of psychosis and have no desire to revisit that place. Nor is slacking- off an option. So the true middle way is our goal.
By now the concrete amongst you is probably asking:”So what is the price”?It will be $300 plus tax for the seminar and between $225-$425 plus tax for the accomodations.I hope you can see your way to putting aside that amount for your spiritual upliftment. I don’t think you will regret it but if you do ,you will have to refer it back to your Lord as their will be no refunds for unsatisfied customers lol.
- Salaams and Looking forward to seeing you there,IbrahimKreps
Conscious Choice
As I travel around the world, and I have done a significant amount of that in my lifetime,I realize that no matter where I am there is one constant. People, in general, do not make conscious choices in their lives. They are rather buffeted around by the surrounding social consensus, by financial needs and intercurring problems of whatever sort. In the Yogic schema we can say they are living in the first two chakras: chakra one of ‘survival’and chakra two of ‘pleasure’. Rarely do they ascend higher unless external forces propel them otherwise. This is very frustrating for people like myself who need others to make precisely those choices in order to make our interactions fruitful. Since I am not a Prophet and have no obvious miracles to shock people out of their complacency, my patience gets constantly tested. 🙁I guess that is my destiny lol
The ‘wali’(saint) and the ‘arif’(knower of the Absolute)
Let me restate this in terms you may be able to relate to, Jafer. It took me a long time to figure this one out but I was determined to make sense of everything I was seeing and hearing,! You can be a ‘wali’ of Allah( a saint) without being an ‘arif’( knower of Allah experientially). The contrary is also true shocking as it may seem to the ordinary Muslim. You can be an arif without being a saint! It’s part of the mystery of existence!?In Hindu/ Buddhist terms, you can be bothnEnlightened(arif) and corrupt. The History of gurus on America is full of such cases.As real Sufi aspirants , we are aiming to be both. In Vedantists terms, we want to be complete on both the dual and the non-dual planes. In Islamic terms, we walk on two legs- the leg of haqiqat( Ansolute Truth) and the leg of Shariah( the Divine rules ) . That was one of the very first teachings I received on the Shadhuli way and it will be my goal to the very end, inshallah,Salaams, Ibrahim
The Marriage Contract
As I reflect on this question, I realize that I was raised on the Hollywood version of marriage. “ Love and Marriage , go together like a horse and carriage” isn’t that the way the song goes?But what if the hitch between the horse and carriage is broken or the horse is ailing or the carriage was made with inferior steel from China lol? The bond might easily break.
The second pillar of my view of marriage was the humanism I learnt while studying psychology. So from there one adds in ‘tolerance of differences’ and ‘communication’. Now the package is complete . That was the paradigm I was working with.
Now, after three unsuccessful marriages including a recent debacle and one mostly successful one that lasted 24 years, I have to seriously question whether my model is adequate. Not too many schools would accept a 25% success rate, n’est-ce pas!?
When I first came into Islam, I was introduced to another model of marriage. Instead of a romantic arrangement , it was defined as a contractual one. And over time I have come to see the wisdom of this approach. I understand ,as well, the pitfalls of this approach especially in modern times where families may ask for two many conditions especially monetary ones which become burdensome and unrealistic. For example, in Jordan where I did s sabbatical year, the fathers were often requiring $25, 000 US as dowry plus an owned appartment and a good job. Most young Jordanian men did not have such resources so many young women remained unmarried!
These excesses aside, the idea of setting out the terms of a marital arrangement before it is officialized appears to me to make more and more sense. Obviously one cannot foresee all the possible developments long-term in a marriage but some issues are foreseeable right from the onset. A few examples: If the man is Muslim and the wife is Christian, how are the children to be educated? Does the wife agree that all meat that enters the house will be halal?If the wife comes from a wealthy family and the husband has a simple middle-class job, she needs to agree from the outset that she will not have the same life-style that she had previously. If the wife is a Sufi practitioner and the husband is more of a standard Sunni or much worse a Wahhabi( in that case I wouldn’t recommend marriage at all lol) then he has to agree to accept her practice and not harass her about her beliefs or practices. Another issue that will frequently come up is the care of children. If the wife is insistent on continuing her career as soon as possible and the husband feels strongly that the mother should stay home for the first years of a child’s life, this should be dealt with quickly as the possibility of future conflict on this very issue remains and can lead to serious conflict and disruption in the family
As you can see the possibilities for such conflicts is very specific to each couple. I am sure that the reader can think of many other possibilities. Whatever is foreseeable should be addressed and included in the written contract whenever possible.
Now, does this solve all potential difficulties? By no means. However, it appears to me , at least, that this gives the players involved the best chance of success. I sincerely wish I would have understood this earlier!
Education!
All over the world , including here in Trinidad,I witness this tremendous investment and belief in “education”. Universities, private schools, standard testing etc., etc.But this is investment in cerebral development mostly. I can’t help wondering whether a similar investment in education of the heart and soul( emotional and spiritual education )could not make a greater impact. After all ,this emphasis on cerebral development is not working. If you don’t believe me, look around and check out the news lol!
The Logistics of Daily Sufi Practice-Touching base with Allah
Our Prophet saws has instructed us to “seek knowledge even if you have to go to China” Intriguing statement as he, himself, had never travelled there nor do I know of any residents or visitors in Madinavthat were of Chinese origins. We are left wondering what he truly meant. Let us assume for the moment that he was Divinely inspired to underline the wisdom of the Chinese. That might be hard to believe in the current atmosphere in China which seems to be totally obsessed with the material world and productivity within it.
We do know ,historically,about the traditions of Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism each of which contained their own wisdom. In the contemporary world probably the two best-known traditions of Chinese wisdom manifest in Tai Chi and Chiqong which I have studied to a certain extent and now integrate into my daily practice and encourage others to do so. There is now scientific evidence that it contributes to both mental and physical well- being. For the skeptics, they can experience this in an immediate way if they undertake the practice. So I encourage them and you to do so.
Another thing that the Chinese are fond of is numerology. And their favourite number seems to be nine although they appear to like all the odd numbers.This fits well with the Sufi daily practice which I have been developing which includes touching base (remembrance of God) nine times every day.So what are these nine times?
1) Each of the salat times involved in basic Islam. People might object that these are Shariah practices and not Sufi ones. But actually the distinction is more semantic than real. You can generate ‘hal’ and ‘nur’ through these prayers just like with Dhikr providing your intention is getting close to Allah. Just look at your inner state after you have accomplished your prayers with awareness. You may be surprised to find that they are not simply obligations but also stepping-stones to the Divine!
2) The Tahhajud prayer (also called Qiyam)before the dawn prayer in the last third of the night. The Naqhshbandis have a very nice protocol for this which I can share with those who are interested . This is a particularly holy time and all the spiritual traditions including the Hindus, Buddhists and Christians benefit from it.
3)The wird al Aam in the mid-afternoon with the Dhikr of the name after it.
4)The sequence of the Loch Kelly spacious awareness meditation followed by the Dhikr of the Name and Mindfulness of the breath in the evening and lastly
5) The nine phases of Roger Jhanke Chiqong in the morning after breakfast
So there it is- the full program. Nine points of touching base with Allah.Time to get cracking and apply the program. Allah be with you .
A Warning!
(From”Sufism in Souh Asia” )by Professor Riazul Islam:” It is remarkable that at the main Suhrawardi centre at Multan, the successors of the venerable Sheikh Rukn ud-din Multani turned out to be men of doubtful reputation in morals as well as in monetary matters”.That was the 14th century! Plus que ça change, plus c’est pareil.(The same themes continuously emerge) Ever noticed anything like that in the spiritual circles you have frequented?!