that each of our journeys has had a particular contour, a particular music, a particular texture and flavor. We have all had certain archetypal experiences, but they have been personalized and particularized in our individual journey. And that creates what the Sufis call the alchemy of the heart. Now as your heart remembers its journey and reflects upon its journey, what have been the qualities that have been the very foundation of the journey?

[01:26]

There's an incredible array of divine qualities, but in our own individual journeys, some have been the kind of signature tune of our being, our journey. There is an incredible variety of different qualities, and yet certain qualities are typical in our journey, like a signature of our being. And from that one has a sense of what has been the path of one's heart.

[03:22]

You may even find what we could call a root quality that somehow it holds within it all the other qualities but it is the root one through which one has journeyed. Through the alchemy of the interaction of your life and of your heart, what has been drawn out in you, what has been unfolded, what has been expressed,

[05:35]

What has appeared in you? What has unfolded and expressed itself in you? And if one, if we were at this moment in the process of dying and we were to look back at our life,

[07:02]

What is it that has been expressed through us, each individually, that can't be found anyplace else in the whole history of life? So from the Sufi viewpoint we would say what aspect, what dimension of God has been uniquely expressed through our life and our being? How have the divine qualities configured in our heart and in our journey to find a unique expression of God?

[08:51]

Amen. Just relax. Just sigh if you like to sigh. Just before we take a break, to say a little bit more about how the Lord or the archetypal divine at the source of our being reveals itself. And here to amplify Ibn Arabi's teaching, I'll also draw upon other people.

[11:22]

Carl Jung defines soul as that which mediates the unconscious and the conscious. So that the unconscious makes itself conscious to consciousness through the capacity of the soul to create image and symbol. And consciousness is able to comprehend or have access to the unconscious through the symbols and the images that the soul creates. And the reality that a symbol or a sacred image represents is always much greater than the image.

[12:39]

And why you don't find images in a mosque is Islam became very much concerned that when the image is no longer a symbol, when it becomes an idol, Why can't you find any pictures or symbols in a mosque? That's because Islam is very afraid that the symbol or the picture, if it's no longer a symbol, will become an idol. And when the symbol no longer is a doorway to a greater reality but is perceived as the reality itself, then it becomes an idol. Now, in the wholeness of a tradition, Ibn Arbi lived in an Islamic culture Whereas I said there is a sense in the religious life of Islam of no images.

[13:51]

Yet part of his great work is what is called his work in creative imagination. And he spoke of the creative imagination as a level of reality. An intermediate level between the state of samadhi, shall we say, and the state of physical reality. but reality, a reality. So imagination in this sense is a reality. And the way the Lord of one's being can reveal itself to one is through creative imagination.

[15:15]

So there is definitely a level of meditation in which one transcends images. There's also a level of meditation in which sacred image and symbol is profoundly important. In that it makes accessible, using Ibn Arbi's model, it makes accessible the Lord of one's being. that is greater than the images, but becomes accessible through the images. And that's why the realm of dreams, certain dreams, and also the inner images that appear in the depth of meditation are the work of the soul.

[16:21]

And their value is that they become a place of orientation. So, for example, it may be that let's say the Lord of one's being or the archetypal configuration of one's being and journey has been the unfoldment of compassion. That if one really reflects upon one's life from the place of the heart, It has all been about compassion. And then the depth of that compassion may be revealed through the sacred images and symbols.

[17:35]

which become a reminder, first of all, a way of remembering and having access to this source of one's being. And a doorway through which, or a gate, as Richard has used so beautifully, a gateway through which that greater reality can continually reveal itself. So the symbol or the sacred image is never static. It is a source of revelation. And the third facet I would like to speak about from even Arby's teaching is what he calls theophanic, excuse me, Well, I'll come back to it. Theophanic vision.

[18:58]

Thank you. And this is the function of creative imagination. And it's when the world of what he calls the state of consciousness of Alam al-Mafal, when the world of creative imagination reveals when the divine is longing to be known by one, Wenn das Göttliche sich danach sehnt, entdeckt zu werden durch uns, one of the ways it can reveal itself is by envisioning itself upon another. Dann ist eine Möglichkeit, dass es sich in einem anderen verbildhaftet, also zum Bild wird.

[20:06]

So an example we have of this in the West is Dante's experience with Beatrice. Perhaps one of the greatest renderings we have of the spiritual psychological journey in Western culture is the Divine Comedy. And that unfolds out of Dante's, using Ibn Arabi's terminology, theophanic experience or vision in Beatrice. The actual person Beatrice Dante only met twice very briefly in his life. But the greater spiritual reality that revealed itself through the person of Beatrice becomes the guide for his whole journey.

[21:09]

The same kind of theophanic vision occurs in the relationship between Shams and Rumi. And it happens to Ibn Arabi in his experience of the Sophia. That for him, the divine feminine, the Sophia, became known encountered related to that inner reality through how it was evoked in a relationship with a woman. So sometimes the divine that's longing to be known gets our attention, is interrelated to by its capacity to reveal itself through another.

[22:39]

So wird manchmal unsere Sehnsucht, in einem anderen das zu erfahren, zu entdecken, etwas zu entdecken, plötzlich Wirklichkeit. This is often the role the spiritual teacher plays for a certain period in one's life. Now, one thing I think that Buddhism is so appreciative of, the kind of clarity... And also I'm deeply appreciative of Jungian work in the tremendous focus on the need of not mixing states of consciousness, of the capacity to sort out what's appropriate. So when this kind of relationship occurs, Similar to the Parsifal's capacity to ask the right question, one has to be able to hold it in the appropriate way.

[24:00]

And not mix it in levels. So it means in a sense in those kinds of relationships knowing who you are relating to in the various interchanges in the relationship. But those relationships have to do with awakening a reality that is inside of one. diese Beziehungen haben damit zu tun, dass hier eine Realität erweckt wird, die in uns liegt. Or let us say, awakening one's consciousness to a reality. Oder wir können sagen, unser Bewusstsein zu einer Realität zu erwecken. And it's one of the ways, as Ibn Arabi would say, the Lord of one's being reveals him or herself to us.

[25:06]

Und das ist etwas, wie Ibn Arabi sagte, Herr unseres Wesens offenbart sich uns. And the relationship then becomes a means to integrate that. Okay. Thank you. So we'll take a half an hour break and when we come back we'll look at teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan and the God ideal which I think will sound much more accessible. So we'll return about ten of. Especially to kind of rendering a teaching like Ibn Arabi's teaching in itself takes some assimilation.

[26:25]

To be able to translate it spontaneously as you hear it, to me seems miraculous. So I truly thank you. And also to say we have worked together many times and the great gift, one of the great gifts for me is there's such a oneness. I actually have no recollection of being translated. It just, that's how immediate the flow is. So it's a great gift. Thank you. I thought we would start our session with some singing.

[27:53]

So, Alif, can you sing for us again? Here, you can have this. It's a poem by Yunus Emre. Ein Gedicht von Yunus Emre. Gönlüm düştü bu sevdaya Gel gör beni aşk neyler Come see what love is to me I walk side by side This is love, it makes me bleed

[29:15]

Gel gör beni aşk neyledi Gah eserim yeller gibi Gah tozarim toprak gibi Giyah akarım sular gibi Gel gör beni aşk meyledi Giyah tozarım toprak gibi Giyah eserim Ya hakarim sular gibi Gel gör beni aşk neyledi

[30:53]

Ya baslığına verdir beni Çok ağlattın güldür beni Gel gör beni aşk neyler Miskin Yunus vichaurayim, bashtana yahu avarayim. Dosti lindan avarayim, gel gör ben Miskin Yunus bitawrayim Dastan al yal yalrayim Dostilinden avalrayim

[32:27]

Gelgár bání ásknáímán People get too cold, you're welcome to put... If it gets [...] too cold, you're welcome

[33:38]

I'd like to now offer a teaching that comes out of Sufism. And it's been particularly meaningful for me as it has been developed in the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. And what it really is, is the articulation of a spiritual practice. And it's the practice of developing a God ideal. And it starts by your reflecting in your heart and in your being To find out where your greatest need is. So the God ideal becomes an answer to the deepest need.

[34:45]

So it may be in one's life that in a certain period in your life you feel deeply lonely. And life itself may indeed be filled with much beauty in one's life and even relationships, but there may be an aching inner loneliness. There might hazard an icon at is that you develop the God ideal as a response to that need. So, for example, if the longing came from loneliness,

[35:49]

then one may choose to develop the God ideal through the archetype of the divine friend. And the divine friend, at least in my own working with that archetype, as the inner friend, Und der göttliche Freund, jedenfalls hat es sich für mich in meiner Arbeit mit dem Archetyp herausgestellt, ist ein innerer Freund. Ein Freund, der schon immer da war. Einer, der all das, was man erlebt und erfahren hat, beobachtet hat und Zeugenschaft übernimmt. The one who knows all of who one is. And the one who embraces all of who we are with complete acceptance and love.

[37:12]

But also the one when we meet that inner friend, there's a sense of a kind of authenticity and accountability. It's the one we can't hide anything from. And so it also teaches us trust that there's one with whom all facets of our being can be revealed and known. So in this case, God becomes an answer to one's need. Now, another way I would explain this practice would be to use, let's say, Jungian language. That one, once again, begins where one is.

[38:28]

So often we're, as children, taught that we have to match God's expectations to be acceptable. Als Kinder wurde uns häufig gelehrt, dass wir den Erwartungen des entsprechen müssen, um von Gott angenommen zu werden. And our relationship with God is based upon our conforming to a certain expected behavior. Und unsere Beziehung mit Gott hängt ab von einer Übereinstimmung mit einer erwarteten Verhaltensnorm. But this relationship with God starts in a very different way. It begins with accepting where we are and acknowledging our deepest needs. So it may be, for example... This is an area where I find this kind of work very helpful in psychotherapy.

[39:50]

Maybe someone felt very damaged in their relationship with their physical mother. And a response, a way to help heal that pain and a way to receive what the physical mother was unable to give in terms of the archetype of the mother is to turn to the face of the divine mother. And a way to turn to the face of the divine mother. And I experienced this in listening to a lot of people who have visited Mother Mira in Germany. It's the experience of the Divine Mother that is so profoundly healing for some people.

[40:57]

And then, the way I would translate it in Jungian language is one finds the archetype that is the answer to the need. The archetypal expression of the divine. And then what Hazrat Inayat Khan speaks about is you then develop a relationship with that archetype or that God ideal. And the relationship brings the archetype to life. In Jungian language we would say one personalizes the archetype. In the Jungian language, one would say, one personalizes the archetype. And that becomes very tangible.

[42:18]

One starts to live in relationship with the archetype, just as you would live in relationship with your wife or your children. And it can have various stages of development. Often for people in the initial stages, this expression of the divine or this archetypal face of God is seen as related to as other than oneself. And this archetypal expression of the divine or expression of God may become more accessible through an image or through an archetypal image such as the image of Christ, or the image of Mary, or through a being who holds something of that energy, like Mother Mira.

[43:32]

And this archetypical aspect can be comprehensible and accessible when he finds his expression in a symbol, or in a person, or in a being, like, for example, the Holy Mary or Mother Mira. So it's through the relating to the archetype that the archetype is called to life. And then the divine reveals itself through that archetypal dimension. Now the later, at least in the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, as the practice develops deeper, the archetypal face of God becomes less externalized and more internalized.

[44:36]

And so one begins to find that the archetype is there inside of oneself all the time. Now, I'm using language, shall we say, from different perspectives. When I use the word archetype, it may not engender much feeling. But the relationship, at least in Sufism, is based upon a very deep feeling heart connection to this face of the Divine. So one is aware of living with this... ...at certain moments, realize that... the being expresses itself through you.

[45:57]

So it becomes even more internalized, and at certain moments one hears in one's own voice the divine speaking. Sufism always, in a sense, looks at it from two perspectives. This archetypal face of the divine answers our need And we eventually bring that archetypal face of the divine as a living reality into this world.

[46:58]

And so often you see in people or you experience in exchange with them If you meet someone for whom Christ is a very alive inner figure, there are certain moments where you experience the Christ in the interaction with them. And so you discover and see, for example, when you meet someone for whom Christ has become a very living figure, then you discover and experience Christ in and through this person. And I don't mean necessarily Christ, the historical figure, I mean the archetypal reality of Christ. So that's the kind of process of why in Sufism one works with the development of the God ideal. So what I'd like to do is now take the practice that's the kind of framework for it and guide us through it at this moment in our own lives.

[48:20]

So if you can find a comfortable way to sit. And we'll do this in various phases. And I realize for many of you this kind of practice may be something that you've done a great deal of. So maybe it will simply be a reminder of the depth of that reality. So as we enter into the heart, to sense where is the longing in my heart.

[50:04]

What is it that my heart longs for? In the depth of its being. Not the kind of... Often our surface desires are a way of attempting to escape the deeper longing So it takes kind of courage to be present with one's deepest longings. for a few moments to be with the longing itself.

[52:34]

Just as Joan shared with such depth what it is like to just be with someone in the dying process, For a few moments to just be with our longing, not to try to do anything with it or to try to change it. but to give it space to be and to speak to us. Amin, from the Sufi perspective, also engages us in the depth of the life of our heart.

[54:08]

And remember, from the Sufi viewpoint, longing becomes incredibly important because the longing is actually call from that which is seeking to be found. So the longing is also a call from that which we long for. Das Verlangen ist auch ein Ruf von dem, das wir erlangen werden. And there's much in Sufi poetry of longing for the longing.

[55:53]

Because the longing in Sufism is a form of awakening. It awakens us to the depth. And it is what enables us to hear the call. And the deeper aspect of the longing is that one finds in the depth of the longing is the presence of what is longed for.

[57:17]

So the longing itself reveals. And then one can Either ask or find in the longing that which is being sought, the answer to belonging. Und dann kann man im Verlangen das entdecken, was man gesucht hat. Die Antwort auf das Verlangen. Now the next phase of the practice is, through the practice of creative imagination, to imagine an answer to your longing.

[59:26]

And by that I mean, not an external answer, but to imagine God as an answer to that longing. The next phase of the exercise is to present an answer to this longing through or in the process of creative imagination. Not an answer in the outer reality, but an inner answer. that God would be the deep experience in the heart of that which fulfills the longing. So the answer is found in an external situation, but Die Antwort kann nicht in einer äußerlichen Situation gefunden werden.

[60:37]

Sie kann auftauchen in unserem eigenen Herzen. And that response may be felt in the heart as it may have an image or a form through which it reveals itself. Some may experience it as an energy or as a light. Or as a vast space.

[61:54]

Or it may be the face of Kuan Yin or the eyes of Christ. For it may be a profound sense of inner intimacy. Or it may be in whatever manner the experience of God is unconditional love could render itself.

[63:19]

From the Sufi perspective, my longing calls forth God to reveal God Self. And from the other perspective, my longing is in answer to the longing of God to be found and called forth and revealed. If you'd like to sigh.

[65:06]

So thank you for this morning. Amen. We'll begin this morning with a period of silence. Begin the day with practice that's done in the Sufi order to start each day called the purification breaths.

[67:12]

The first breath is called the earth breath. And it is simply to breathe in and out through the nose. And combined with the breath, one may hold the theme of being supported by the earth. and supported by our body,

[68:49]

supported by the rhythms of the earth, seasons and the rhythms of the day. That these forms of support hold us and give us a sense of Structure in which to hold our life and be. So the earth breath can be like the sighing into and relaxing into the support of the earth. And the sighing into and relaxing and allowing the body to support us.

[70:37]

And the same is true with the very rhythm of life itself. And as Richard so beautifully spoke of yesterday, to trust the body, to trust the world. Then also continuing theme of the earth breath to find inside of our being where is the earth that supports us.

[72:30]

Inwardly where is our source or place of rootedness. And to sigh into that place. And to sigh into that place. And for the water breath we breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.

[74:22]

The lips are slightly parted so the stream of breath can pass through. The lips are slightly open so that the flow of the breath can pass through. And with the water breath, we open ourself so that life can flow through us.

[76:08]

So we're like the riverbed through which the waters of life flow through. We are like the riverbed through which the water of life can flow. And so the water breath helps us to begin the day by becoming an open passage through which life may flow. And in that open passage that sense that nothing blocks or catches so that life can flow freely through us.

[77:42]

that there is both an opening to receive that flow and a willingness to allow it to pass through and move on. And finally the water breath is like an inward sigh that trusts in the flow of life as it passes through us.

[79:31]

And remembering the image from the song that Joan sang with us, the sense of the river of our life flows into the ocean of being. In the fire breath we breathe in through the mouth and out through the nose.

[81:46]

Once again the lips are slightly potted and we draw the breath through. And again, the lips are very gently opened and draw in the breath. And this breath can be like the dawn.

[83:27]

As we breathe in, it can be like the earth receiving the light of the dawn, the sun as it emerges. And as we breathe out, the earth awakening in response to that light. And as we breathe out, the earth awakening in response to that light. And then there is a corresponding inner dimension of the practice where one contemplates on the inner sun of one's being.

[85:45]

So in the inhalation it's as if one is drawn into the inner source of light, the inner sun of one's being. And as you exhale the sense of that sun radiating and dawning, as the Sufis say, upon the horizon of one's being. And when we exhale, we radiate light and we give this morning dimming of our being to the world, as the Sufis say. So this practice brings forth a sense of radiance, as in the Vine of Christ.

[87:34]

He said, do not hide your light. So this practice brings forth a sense of radiance, as in the Vine of Christ. But it brings the emotions of joy and tremendous sense of open, expansive heart like the sunrise. Only the air breath which is in through the mouth and out through the mouth.

[89:50]

Allowing the current of breath to pass in and out through the opening between the lips. And we allow the flow of the air to enter through our lips and out again. Air breath is associated with a sense of freedom and expansiveness.

[91:10]

And in the Sufi symbol there are two wings that come, that proceed from the heart. And the two wings represent the sense of indifference and independence as two forms of detachment. and these two wings stand for independence and solitude and indifference

[92:13]

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