(Octagon Press, 1983):
Twenty sentences of comment or instruction
to his pupils by Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-73):
1. Do not imagine that similar appearances must have similar
causes.
2. People learn indirectly as effectively (sometimes more so)
than directly.
3. If you want to study something, you must undergo the
whole course of study. If you are prejudiced about it, you
may not be able to study any part at all.
4. You are shocked not by right and wrong, but by the
conventional conception of right and wrong.
5. People are affected by things in accordance with their
mental and emotional set.
6. People expect things to turn out in a manner laid down by
them. Sometimes at least it is just as well for them that they
do not have the say in the end.
7. People try to teach, for instance, when what they have to do
is to learn.
8. Adopt the superficialities, the parrot-cries (even if you
think that they are serious) and you will lose.
9. Try to judge with inadequate tools and you will get
nowhere, and even harm others.
10. People are unaware of the real hidden relationship which
Sufis have.
11. Things which appear harmless, even desirable, even one's
own property, can be extremely dangerous.
12. Neither blind imitation is right, nor blind obedience.
13. Things are repeated again and again in the Teaching
because people hear but do not listen.
14. The way in which you may approach what you want
may be too long a way to suffice you before you are too
late.
15. Things which have to be tackled have to be done at the
right time. That time is generally soon.
16. You may think that you understand something, but the
slightest experience of it may cause you to lose all your
understanding.
17. The teacher helps you when you think he is hindering you.
18. What you think helps you may more than hinder you.
19. Divisive weakness will destroy any unity.
20. The "high-minded" attitude towards something can go too
far.
Interview with a Sufi Teacher in England:
Q.: We know Sufism mainly by its ancient and classical
literature. What is the value of this material?
A.: This literature is of intellectual and cultural value only,
just like any other literature, unless interpreted by a Sufi in a
Sufi circle, for the particular membership which he is teaching.
Q.: What is the Sufi teaching entity or unit?
A.: The Halka — "Ring" — a group chosen by a teacher. He
may teach it direct, or may appoint a Khalifa- "Deputy". The
chief teacher's Halka is the head one. A number of Halkas make
up the Tarika - "Path" - which is the word for the current
School.
Q.: Why are there so many ways of putting the Sufi study
methods: the three circles, the arc of ascent and descent, the
meditation, concentration, contemplation, and so on?
A.: These are not different ways. They are fragments of the
total number of elements in a Sufi School: like you might say in
an ordinary school there is the class for French, English,
Geometry and so on. Each one is a part of the education being
offered. The confusion has arisen through people trying to
simplify and choosing an attractive series of words for their
studies.
Q.: Can Sufism be studied academically? Can one be an
"intellectual" Sufi?
A.: Many outward manifestations of Sufism can be studied
outwardly. People study and try to practise Sufi exercises,
music, literature and so on. This is not, however, the study of
Sufism, which is a matter of participation.
Q.: Do you have to use the term "Sufism", which is
associated in many minds with Moslem enthusiasts or Western
imitators?
A.: Most of our activities do not use the word at all. But when
there is a reason for using the word, there is no word whose
employment will not be challenged by somebody or other.
Q.: Are Sufis more "scientific" than religionists in their
attitudes and activities?
A.: They are, because they are practical as well as being
experientialists. They know which parts of human experience
are useful tools, which are methods and ways, and which are
truly higher, spiritual, and so on.
Q.: Do Sufis proselytize? If so, how?
A.: Sufis select people with certain capacities. This they
cannot do by propaganda, because propaganda conditions
people to certain extremes in belief which they would only have
to abandon in due course.
Q.: Why do Sufis reject so many people who go to them? Surely
Sufism should be for all?
A.: They do not reject anyone who is worthy. But the condition
of the man who wants to become a Sufi, and what he thinks his
condition really is, may be two different things. People may be
capable of becoming Sufis at one point; then lose the capability.
Time may have to pass before they can apply again. Enthusiasm
for Sufism or for "secrets" is no basis for approaching the study.
Q.: Despite the efforts of students, clerics and orientalists, it
has not yet been decided exactly what Sufism is. Can you say
whether it is a religion, or whether it is mainly derived from
Christianity, say, or whether it is a psychology?
A.: Sufism cannot be described because it is unique, of its own
kind. When a religionist studies it, he may regard it as a religion.
He then labels it according to his own scale of religions. "A
donkey can judge thistles, but he cannot judge melons."
Q.: How can one judge whether a certain Sufi school or
teacher is genuinely representative of Sufism?
A.: You cannot, unless you are a Sufi. But if the school or
individual resembles a recognizable form of "esoteric training"
or "religious organization", and so on, it is less likely to be
sufficiently Sufic to develop the individual correctly.
Q.: By what signs in oneself can one tell whether a teaching is
the right one "for me"?
A.: By sensations and reactions which differ completely from
customary ones. Indications which one does not experience
through the contact with anything else. In contacting Sufism
you are coming into a relationship with a completely new
experience. Its sensation is correspondingly different from
established "religious" or other experiences.
Q.: Do your answers hold good for all enquirers, and would
you answer in the same way if you were approached by an
Oriental?
A.: Answers are, broadly speaking, for a certain time and a
certain society. All would depend upon the time and the cultural
situation of the enquirer. This is the best way of presenting
something of Sufism to a Westerner who has been interested in
what he calls "higher knowledge", in these days.
Tape-recorded Conversation with a Sufi Sheikh in Afghanistan:
Q.: In your field work, in distant countries such as the Western
ones, do you encounter difficulties which you do not anticipate?
A.: None.
Q.: Do you have to work through difficulties just as if you had
not anticipated them? If so, why?
A.: Yes. And because it is in the working-through the
difficulties that the development of man takes place.
Q.: Is there a value in adopting a psychological system, as we
use them in the West, to explain the past, to work with the
present, to solve one's problems, to make possible living on a
higher level?
A.: By itself, no. You must have certain special exercises and
practices, held by one of our delegates.
Q.: Such of your representatives as we have met have not
always encouraged us. This is why we have come to you.
A.: You have come to us because we have permitted it. You
cannot go over the heads of representatives, like meeting the
managing director when the manager does not give satisfaction.
Our delegates know what to do, when to "blow hot" and when to
"blow cold".
Q.: Do the meanings of studies which we make from time to
time become known to us later?
A.: Yes.
Q.: Do you use objects and concepts for teaching that are
unknown to us?
A.: Objects and concepts which you do not link with "higher
teaching" as you know it, yes.
Q.: Is there an extra-sensory link between you and your
delegates, between them and us, and between people past and
future?
A.: There is.
Q.: Are you concerned with arts and practices which are used
by non-religious groups?
A.: Yes. Because the use of a thing is not known to you, do not
suppose that it has no use. Because a thing has fallen into the
wrong hands, do not suppose that there are not hands which
know how to work with it, without its adverse associations.
Q.: How can so many sincere people all be following different
faiths, all find something of value in them, and yet have beliefs
and opinions which are sometimes diametrically opposed to
one another?
A.: This cannot happen if we discover real sincerity. The kind
of sincerity which these people are using is not connected with
faith, but with a personal indulgence: they like it, so it is true.
They find something which they want, they call it something of
value. It is of no spiritual value or importance. It is of social
value. When they discover that they would be as well satisfied
with any "faith", as they call it, just like the other "sincere"
people, they will start to look for real faith and real religion,
beyond the childish game.
Q.: Why do people follow teachers and teachings with great
intensity and still fail to find truth?
A.: Such people are not looking for truth. They are looking for
teachers and teachings. If they knew what truth was, so that
they could pursue it, we would find them, as we do indeed find
people. It is the people in between: the people with capacity for
sincerity who are not taught it, because organized groups and
religions make use of the people's insincerity. The chief way in
which they do that is to offer emotional rewards and status
rewards, which the people accept.
Q.: Why do you use so many different terms for the Sufi Path?
A.: Sometimes, where "Sufi" has an honorific value, we shun
it, partly to avoid self-indulgence, partly to leave the field clear
for imitators, who present unsufic organizations under this
name. Where the word Sufi is unpopular and represents in the
minds of, for example, Hindus and some Westerners,
"Mohammedan fanatic", we may use it to demonstrate that we
are not what we are labelled. Sometimes again, we use a wide
variety of other names, because of the convenience or
otherwise of working. Many of our organizations have no
"spiritual" aspect as far as the outward man can see, and
these work the best, unhampered. But I cannot talk about
those to a person who already deals in the "spiritual" cloak of
things.
Q.: Do you believe in merit from deeds, in punishment, in
secret knowledge?
A.: There is merit in deeds only if you can disconnect
yourself from anticipation of merit. There is punishment if you
fear punishment, because if you act in fear you should be
punished, even if you have done what you think is "good".
There is secret knowledge, which will never be perceived by
anyone who is thinking about Secret Knowledge, because its
form and communication are invisible to such people.
Q.: What is the major difference between your treatment of
students and that of other schools?
A.: There are many. To single out the one which fewest
people can understand: we work to contact people at a level
deeper than working on their emotions. All other systems
concentrate upon conversion, giving people attention, giving
them things to do, tests to perform and so on. Our major test
is to leave people alone, until they find out whether or not they
can feel anything true about us. We have discovered, you see,
that the system which is supposedly testing people by means
of trials is in fact maintaining their attention in contact with
itself. The result is that people are trained (conditioned, you
call it today) to concentrate upon the school or system: they
have become brainwashed, though they call it faith. If they
reject, not becoming trained, all the better for the system in
question, for it is spared the problem of a recalcitrant in its
ranks thereafter. With us, it is different: we cannot survive
with "conditioned" people in our ranks. We reach something
deeper in them.
Q.: Do the Sufis concede that there are other valid systems
transmitted from the past?
A.: A few years ago a Russian mission examined many
practitioners of Yoga, attempting to deduce from their practices
the original system upon which it was built.
They learned, of course, certain things: such as the fact that
many Yogic postures and breathings have an auto-hypnotic
effect.
But, since these people did not know the possible effects of
posture, breathing and so on, they were not in a position to
deduce the effects.
When we study one of the "traditional" systems, like
Christian prayer recitals, or Yogic postures, we are able to
know what they were originally intended for: just as you as a
Westerner would know what the accoutrements of a soldier
were originally for if you saw one, after you had served in the
Army of the period when such apparatus was used.
Unless you grasp this point there is little use for further
discussion.
(The People of the Secret p. 219-230)
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