Thursday, November 18, 2004
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
is a Sufi who founded "The Sufi Order in the West" which is now called the Sufi Order International. According to his biography, he was an Indian Muslim who established a Sufi school in Paris in the early part of the 20th century. A believer in Sufi universalism, he "strongly emphasized the fundamental oneness of all religions" according to the bio. Kahn developed the Universal Worship service that is associated with his Order. His initiations involved an experience of hell which he claimed to have visited while "his consciousness was far removed from the body." He also taught that man must pass through purgatory on his way to the beatific vision in heaven.
According to his bio, one of his disciples was the founder of Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.
A member of the Sufi Order named Samuel Lewis developed the Dances of Universal Peace. One dance event is scheduled to be held at Grailville in Cincinnati on December 4th. Grailville, according to the Cincinnati Visitor's Guide, is "the largest [center] in the United States based on The Grail, an international movement with roots in the Roman Catholic Church."
The Dances of Universal Peace as described here as "timeless mystic traditions" are a form of liturgical dance.
Khan wrote a book called _The Inner Life_, Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, MA. A few quotes from the book should be sufficient to see what direction Khan wants religion in general and Sufism to take:
The Sufi message needed a body, as the human soul needs a body to live on this earthly plane. Therefore the Sufi Movement was established and incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland... (p. x)
This vision then leads to understanding the fundamental unity of all the great religions. For these religions have all been brought to humanity by successive messengers in different ages to awaken the feeling and realization of the divine. ...the divine Reality is beyond our limited intelligence and can only be experienced in the depths of our being, our soul, which itself is a spark of the divine light. Then we can see all religions as converging ways to the same goal. To express this idea, Hazrat Inayat Khan created the Universal worship, in which all religions are brought together in a ritual that shows how they are all kindled from the same divine light. (p. xii-xiii)
...he was very progressive...giving women a completely equal position in all activities of his Sufi Movement. During his lifetime his highest initiates were women, who have been among his most important leaders and workers. And in his prayer for peace he addressed himself to the Lord, our Father and Mother. god is one, manifesting himself in duality. (p. xiv-xv)
Some of his statements are Christian:
By "inner life" is meant a life directed towards perfection, which may be called the perfection of love, harmony, and beauty; in the words of the orthodox, directed toward God. (p. 6)
And...
The first and principal thing in the inner life is to establish a relationship with God, making God the object which we relate to, such as the Creator, Sustainer, Forgiver, Judge, Friend, Father... (p. 8)
However some are contrary to Catholicism, such as...
When a person...lives in the presence of God; then to him the different forms and beliefs, faiths and communities do not count. To him God is all-in-all; to him God is everywhere. If he goes to the Christian church or to the synagogue, to the Buddhist temple, to the Hindu shrine, or to the mosque of the Muslim, there is God. In the wilderness, in the forest, in the crowd, everywhere he sees God. (p. 10-11)
It departs even further with this...
I have seen...souls who have attained saintliness and who have reached great perfection; and yet such a soul would stand before the idol of stone with a fellow-man and worship, not letting him know that he was in any way more advanced than other men, keeping himself in a humble guise, not making any pretence that he had gone further in his spiritual evolution. (p. 14)
The humility is good. Worshipping a stone idol, however?
Then there is a form of pantheism...
It does not matter if he is looking at heaven or at the earth, he is looking at the object that he worships. East or west or north or south, upon all sides is his God. (p. 17)
He speaks of Christ and reincarnation. He gives a rather odd interpretation of the meaning of Christ nailed to the cross on p. 23. He speaks of clairvoyance and clairaudience, and man becoming an angel.
[For those treading the spiritual path]their first moral is constantly to avoid hurting the feeling of another. (p. 36)
In other words, above all be nice? What if the truth hurts?
Since mysticism is the heart and soul of this new type of interreligious dialogue, Khan's comments about it are important.
No one can be a mystic and call himself a Christian mystic, a Jewish mystic or a Mohammadan mystic. For what is mysticism? Mysticism is something which erases from one's mind all idea of separateness, and if a person claims to be this mystic or that mystic he is not a mystic; he is only playing with a name. (p. 61)
That pretty much eliminates the Catholics from the dialogue table. But if it didn't, this surely would:
There is one God and one truth, one religion and one mysticism; call it Sufism or Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism, whatever you wish. As God cannot be divided, so mysticism cannot be divided. It is an error when a person says, "My religion is different from yours." He does not know what religion means. ...It is an error of mankind to say: this is Eastern and that is Western; this only shows lack of wisdom. (p. 65)
To distinguish between occultism and mysticism is also an error...mysticism is the stem which unites all branches...Jesus Christ said, "I am the truth and I am the way." He did not say, "I am the truth and I am the ways"; for there is only one way. ...which is called mysticism. No religion can call it its own, but it is the way of all religions. No church can say that it owns it, for it belongs to all churches. No one can say that his is the only way. It is the same way as all others have to go. (p. 66)
So much for good and evil forces, I guess. Sufi detachment is profound:
He sees from the point of view of each person and that is why he is harmonious with all. A man comes to a mystic and says, "I cannot believe in a personal God, it means nothing to me." Then the mystic answers, "You are quite right." Another man says, "The only way of making God intelligible is in the form of man." The mystic says, "You are right." And another person says, "How foolish of these people to make of this man a God; God is above comprehension." And the mystic will agree with him too. For a mystic understands the reason behind all the opposing arguments. (p. 74)
To believe in everything is to believe in nothing. There are shades of Guenon in the following passage:
...death means a separation from the body which is nothing but a garb covering the sirit...The body which is left on the earth by the spirit is no longer living in the sense we understand life; yet it is living. It is as if there had been a fire in the stove, and even after the fire was extinguished the warmth remained there. There is only the smallest degree of spirit, but there is life in it. (p. 79)
Sufism is only a light thrown upon one's own religion like a light brought into a room where everything one wants is to be found, and where the only thing that was needed was light. (p. 92)
But what is right and what is wrong? No one can stamp any deed as right or wrong. But thereis a natural sense in man which distinguishes between right and wrong, just or unjust, a sense which is to be found even in a child. ...There is a natural tendency in the heart of man, the natural instrument which masons use for building a house. ...The best way of action is to consider harmony as the first principle to be observed; that in all circumstances and situations and conditions one should try to harmonize with one's fellow-creatures. ...There are many true people, but their truth is not always comforting. They may utter a truth which is like a slap in the face to someone. They are just like the palm tree, straight and righteous, yet at the same time not in harmony. A harmonious person can bend, is pliable; he can meet others. There is no doubt that in order to harmonize one has to make sacrifices, one has to bend to people one does not want to bend to; one has to be more pliable than one is by nature, one has to be more clever than one really is; and all these attempts will not succeed unless one makes a great effort, unless one realizes that harmony is the most essential thing in life. (p. 94-96)
Great. Let's all harmonize by repeating after me..."Jesus Christ is Lord!"
There's more, but your eyes are already glazing over. This material is much closer to Masonic philosophy than it is to anything Christian.
