And how the very sounds in that name open the heart. And the second name we'll be working with in this practice is who. And who means the presence of God. So we open our heart to the presence. So as we say, the presence is always there. It's a question of opening our heart to it. And if we remember the words of Christ, wherever two or more gather at In my name, I am present. There is also the sense in our coming together and in our opening our hearts, we both share and create the presence.

[01:06]

That in Sufism, the sharing of that presence is its form of communion. Allah will be a little deeper in its feeling and in its sound.

[02:39]

Rumi has a very beautiful line about hollow me out. You have hollowed me out so you could dance in me. Rumi has a very beautiful line. You have taught me or chased me out so that you can dance in me. So when we do the exercise now, emphasize the Hu. Place the main accent on the Hu. that presence within one. Allah. Allah. Allah. Allah [...]

[04:17]

Slower. Allah [...] Allah. Allah. Allah. Just sit quietly for a moment. So now when we do the Allah, it's the heart as an empty bowl, as an empty chalice.

[06:03]

So the Allah is the emptying out, the emptiness within the bowl or the chalice. When we do the Allah now, the heart is the empty shell. The Allah is the emptying out of our heart, that it becomes an empty shell. And then the hu is the presence that fills the chalice. Allah [...] Each person in their own rhythm. All in their own rhythm. Allah.

[07:27]

Allah. Allah. And now just the who. It's nur das Who. And let the Who just be your breath itself. The intimacy of the presence as close as your own breath. And let the presence be your breath. The presence is your breath. Yesterday after our afternoon session, someone was speaking to me about their experience.

[09:38]

He said to me, the experience was very helpful for me personally. He said, because seeing the three of you up there and seeing that it didn't have to turn out that one of you won and two of you lost, gave me an image that reminds me that in myself, when there are different parts of me, I don't have to just choose one and have the other two lose out. So erinnert mich daran, dass wenn in mir selbst mehrere Teile sind, dann muss ich nicht den einen auswählen und die anderen ablehnen. But there is perhaps a way that those different parts of me can meet and dialogue with each other the way it happened yesterday afternoon.

[10:44]

Es gibt vielleicht einen Weg, wie diese verschiedenen Teile von mir sich treffen können und miteinander in einen Dialog treten können, so wie das gestern Nachmittag geschehen ist. So I think there's the outer theme, but then there's the inner experience of what it means to us. This morning I have a feeling to... At least start with something different than what I had planned, which is to look at two ways in which Sufism works with God as a practice. So I'm speaking now about God as a practice.

[11:46]

Not the question of whether God exists or doesn't exist. I'm trying to put it in the frame of a practice. And I'm offering these because I have really seen the effect of what happens to people who do this kind of practice. And the first is a teaching that I know most deeply from Hazrat Inayat Khan. And it's a teaching called the God Ideal. And it's important to note that there are two words here, the God Ideal. And that it is a practice that fosters in Sufism a kind of realization of one's being and the unfoldment of one's being.

[12:55]

So in terms of the question of God as a spiritual practice, one of the ways in which A student in the order may be worked with is in the following manner. So wenn wir mit dem Gott als Übung arbeiten, kann es auf die folgende Art und Weise sein. Sounds like you said that much clearer than the way I did. I don't know. The first part would be what we call unlearning. Der erste Teil ist das Entlernen, Verlernen. What are the God images or conceptions that a person is carrying around with them? And to look and see what is the effect of that upon your being, upon your life. So in a way, this would be like what Richard mentioned in terms of looking

[13:55]

at those very early rooted conceptions or views that may shape you and your experience. Now, I have found as a guide and as a psychotherapist that many people are deeply damaged because of the conception of God that was given to them or that existed in their family atmosphere or in their culture. Particularly harmful, I find, in the Judaic Christian background is the people who were given a judgmental Vengeful God. Once, remember, a man came to see me who was so filled with fear. And initially his questions had to do with the coming apart of his marriage.

[15:31]

But when I asked him about the fear, where this incredibly rooted sense of anxiety came from, we began to uncover layer by layer The deepest layer was rooted in this God image that he was given as a child. That God is always watching. God sees everything. And if you don't do what God expects of you, ultimately God will get you. Now the laughter that I hear shows me there's a sign of recognition of that. Well, that is a terrible way to live one's life. Always to feel that you're watched in the sense of someone waiting to get you. Immer das Gefühl haben, dass wir beobachtet werden und jemand versucht uns dann zu erwischen.

[16:49]

Und es gibt also auch keinen Ort, um sich zu verstecken, weil dieser Gott alles sieht und alles weiß. Er war also ein Mann, der darauf wartete, getötet zu werden, bestraft zu werden. Now that's an unhealthy God. And it puts one in an unhealthy relationship with an unhealthy God. And another example is people whose identity has been primarily built around being a sinner. Now there's a difference between one's identity primarily as a sinner and the capacity that Richard and David were speaking about yesterday in order to feel a sense of shame or guilt when one has violated one's sense of inner conscience.

[18:05]

So the difficulty of the identity of the sinner is that one, the whole focus, the whole identity is built around one's essential failure. Now, I know there are different ways of defining sinner. I'm speaking about how I've encountered that identity in most people. So the first part of working with this theme would really be to unearth what are the unconscious ways God images that you carry around. And how do they affect you? How have they shaped your journey? Or your capacity to relate to yourself or to another?

[19:07]

And I find with some people who have done years of spiritual and psychological work, that issue hasn't been addressed and it still has a very deep effect. Now, what the Sufi tradition then offers as a way of a kind of next step in that process is the God ideal. And that begins by looking in yourself. And this may sound paradoxical to the way we may have usually been taught to think about God. So you start with what is your greatest need.

[20:36]

So let's just stop for a moment and reflect. If you were to look into your heart at this moment, what is your greatest need? What do I need most at the moment? What do I need most? And we may have all kinds of needs, but to look at, to go deeper into the heart and to see what is the deepest need, the need that engages the very depths of my being. This God is the answer or the God ideal is the answer to the need.

[22:57]

So maybe if you looked inside, underneath the circumstances, circumstantial needs of your life, you found the deepest need was for a sense of peace. Und vielleicht, wenn du in dein Herz geschaut hast und unter den alltäglichen Bedürfnissen für dein Leben war ein tiefes Bedürfnis nach Frieden. So a way a person would work with that is to create a God ideal who is the perfection of peace. Und wie ein Mensch jetzt damit arbeitet, ist ein Gottesideal zu kreieren, zu erschaffen, welches vollkommener Frieden ist. Or let us say that perhaps the deepest longing in you is for love, the experience of love or to be loved. And so it would be then suggested that a person work with developing a God ideal that is the ideal of love.

[23:59]

Und dann würde man diesem Menschen vorschlagen, ein Gottesideal zu entwickeln, welches das ideal der Liebe ist. So in a sense, you create your God. Auf eine gewisse Weise erschaffst du deinen Gott. In answer to your deepest need. Und du erschaffst deinen Gott als Antwort zu deinen tiefsten Bedürfnissen. Now that brings up the question, how can it be a God if I create it? Und dann kommt natürlich die Frage, wie kann es ein Gott sein, wenn ich Gott kreiere? And here we're working in a sense in a certain level, a certain aspect of how God may be defined. And it's why I'm using the word God ideal. Now, a way of explaining it is when you've identified your need and the answer to your need, you identify the archetypal face of God that is the answer to your need.

[25:14]

So here we're speaking about the archetypal level of God. Hier sprechen wir über die archetypische Ebene von Gott. So for example, in Sufism, the archetypal level, the Alam al-Mathal, is represented by the divine qualities. So im Sufismus ist die Ebene der Archetypen, die Ebene von Mittal, ist die Ebene der Qualitäten. And so there is the compassionate one. Da ist zum Beispiel der Mitleidvolle. the all-powerful one, the truthful one. And they represent the archetypal aspects of God, the names in Sufism it's called. And so one then enters into a relationship with that archetypal face of God.

[26:16]

And then Hazrat Inayat Khan speaks of, if you enter into a relationship with it, there is a point where your God comes alive. Now, from the usual point of view, that's kind of shocking. What do you mean, my God comes alive? God was supposed to make me, and here I am making God. And a way of explaining it would be that you then engage the archetype. You bring the archetypal dimension of that aspect of God alive. So you begin to feel the compassionate one. You begin to feel the peaceful one. And it's the thing that I want to make clear about. is that these archetypal dimensions of God are in us.

[27:54]

I'm not speaking about a God someplace outside. You awaken something in you. And then out of the development of that relationship, that inner relationship, between one's self and one's God ideal, the part of us that is in need begins to be healed. And we begin to incorporate more and more of that living God, that living God ideal in us. And I say living because the archetype is alive, is engaged, is living in us. And as I mentioned yesterday, there are stages in that process. First one is in relationship with that God ideal. A kind of inner relationship, an inner dialogue that's always going on.

[29:18]

And then the next stage, one begins to feel that God, that archetypal dimension of the divine, acting through you. So there are moments where the peace that you have so deeply needed then at certain moments passes through you. Or the love that you have so longed for abides in you to the point where it begins to express itself through you. And the third stage is it becomes you, shall we say. There's not that sense of the other even as an instrument coming through you. One is embodies that archetypal dimension of God.

[30:34]

One becomes its livingness here and now. Now, there can be stages in helping a person to make that God-ideal more living, to awaken it. There's different ways to do that. One, of course, is remembrance, to remember that aspect, to remember that quality. And then for some people it's deeply helpful to have images that help to hold that ideal. So we see in a number of great traditions there are sacred images. And the image is a doorway for the deeper reality that it represents to come through. And also a doorway through which one can enter into that deeper reality.

[31:57]

So for some people, it's deeply helpful to have sacred images. It is a reference point, it's a doorway, it's a way of remembering, a way of entering into. So there are a number of different ways to bring that God ideal alive, to engage, to be in relationship with that archetypal face. And often in a person's journey, the God ideal will change. And that is one of the ways in Sufism where you identify the stage of the journey or what we say the makam, the station a person is in.

[33:06]

What is their God ideal at that moment? Because the God ideal is also a mirror. It tells you something about the person. What is the inner stage, the inner quality that they're constellated in in the journey? So in this sense, the God ideal becomes a means to carry you forward on the journey. Does that make some sense? Okay. Okay. Before I go into the other Ibn Arabi's teaching, I'd like to ask, are there any questions about that part? It's not a danger that if I have a picture of God, that I make this picture and I'm fixed on this picture and it's not really what is inside of me.

[34:34]

So in Buddhism I learned I am the Buddha, but I have only to free myself from all the layers that are on it. Is it the same? Well, I think first of all it's the question of... It's a question of the stage where a person is and how the practice is worked with. And I would also say something of the religious temperament of the person. I want to be clear when you use the phrase, I make the picture. It's not the ego that makes the picture. The picture comes to one. From the depths. And there's a huge difference in that.

[35:46]

Now, for some people, images are very helpful in the spiritual journey. For some people, they're a distraction. And also what happens in the process is one goes from stage to stage. If you do build up an image, the image will carry you so far. And that's its value. It carries you to a certain point. And then the image itself, as Hazrat Inayat Khan beautifully expresses, will shatter itself against the rock of a larger truth. But it carried you to that point. At least in the perspective of Sufism. And I would also say that the image, the difficulty or the danger is to distinguish between image as icon and image as idol.

[37:05]

If image is idol, then I believe it is the reality. If it's icon, it is a doorway through which the reality I can enter into. So there's a story that we have in Sufism. And I think the story also appears in the Jewish tradition. That Moses and Kidder are walking together. And in Sufism, Kedar is Moses' teacher. And the counterpart in the Jewish tradition to Kedar is Elijah.

[38:06]

And Kedar represents in Sufism the archetype of the inner guide. So, That's why Kiddah is a universal archetype. It's the name in Sufism for our inner guide. So Moses comes across a shepherd. And he hears the shepherd saying, holding one of his sheep. And saying, oh God, If I could just hold you like one of my sheep, I would feed you like the sheep. I would care for you like I care for the sheep. I would find the sweetest pastures for you. I would make sure that you would drink from the coolest, freshest mountain water. I would brush you, I would care for you.

[39:23]

So Moses is listening to this and becomes pretty incensed and outraged. And breaks in on the shepherd and says, how dare you speak of God that way? How can God ever be reduced to being a sheep? The God who is the nameless one, the imageless one, beyond all the absolute. And Moses leaves feeling quite good about himself. But he meets Kidder. And he can see by the expression on Kidder's face, something's wrong. And Kidder says to him, how could you?

[40:26]

How could you rob somebody from that which is so deeply meaningful to them at that stage of their life? For you, there may be an imageless, formless God. But for that man, the relationship of God was deeply living. It arose out of the naturalness of his heart. And I have always found it to be a deeply beautiful teaching because it has to do with honoring where a person is and what is alive for them. So that's why I said it is a practice. It is a practice that carries one through certain stages of development. If it's a practice that stands in the way, don't do it.

[41:43]

If it's a practice that facilitates healing and growth and the incorporation in oneself of certain archetypes and it's valuable to you, then it's a practice that may be helpful in your journey. Okay. Thank you. Okay, it sounds as if this practice would be mainly beautiful and caring and consoling. But I have the experience that it can be very painful.

[42:52]

Can you see? And I would... Yeah. And I would ask Tung to say something about this pain and how we could deal with this pain, because then I start thinking about it. Thinking about the pain or thinking about... If you would be willing, if you could give me a little sense of the nature of the pain that you're speaking about, just so I have a sense of... That's very helpful. One of the words that we don't use very much anymore, but I think it's a deeply valuable word, appeared in the poem of Rumi yesterday, which is awe.

[44:06]

And awe has a certain element of fear in it. And one of the ways that it arises is when our personal self or the ego encounters some far greater reality. And of course the fear in the ego is it will be annihilated or it will be wiped out by this totally awesome presence. And Carl Jung, I think, speaks quite deeply to this issue in terms of the encounter with the numinous.

[45:10]

Or in the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Or in the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. So I think that that arises as a natural response when the ego center, our personal center of awareness, encounters something much greater. And then how a relationship can develop that allows And when I look at the theme of alchemy, it looks at a number of ways in which we make the passage into that greater reality. And we re-emerge from it. So, for example, one means in alchemy is called solutio, it is the dissolving. So sometimes we have the experience of dissolving into that greater consciousness.

[46:28]

And that can be, from the personal viewpoint, it could be quite scary to feel that you're dissolving. But there is also the re-emerging.

[46:43]

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