Monday, December 27, 2004
SUFISM
Regular readers of this blog know that I have been researching Rene Guenon's Sufi Traditionalism, which has followers who promote Catholic Traditionalism in addition to Sufis, most notably Charles Upton, editor of Sophia Perennis Press. The Orthodox scholar Bishop Kallistos Ware also looks kindly upon Sufism as the book _Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East_ makes clear. Hanging in the background is the enthusiasm with which Grand Orient Freemasonry has embraced Guenonian Traditionalism.
I have still to read the last 100 pages of Upton's book on Antichrist. Material from the book led me to the web to discover if there was a relationship between Sufism and the Catholic heresy Montanism. The short answer is yes, there is.
More to the point, however, is the relationship between Sufism and Catharism which emerged in this morning's research.
To begin -
- The website "History for Kids" entry on Sufism indicates, "Sufis wanted to experience the greatness of God within themselves, through meditation or through ecstatic dancing or in other ways." It suggests that "whirling dervishes" use dance to induce a "frenzy that helped them have a personal experience of God", and that poetry is another path in the Sufi teaching. It also suggests that this same desire is "present in other faiths as well" and suggests a comparison of Sufism "with Buddhism, or Taoism, or the early Christian heresy of Montanism."
- The bbc.co.uk website h2g2 entry for "Manicheism, Catharism and the Heresy of the Free Spirit" indicates:
Early in the development of Christianity and Islam, Gnosticism and Sufism became marginalised and persecuted as heretical beliefs. Gnosticism and Sufism themselves inspired two of the more interesting 'heresies' of the Middle Ages.
Under Manicheism, this quote can be found: "In southern France, the Cathar sect formed around the town Albi."
Catharism, then, indicates that "sexual promiscuity was encouraged. The Cathars believed only the heart and mind contributed to one's soul (the only bit of Good in a person) and thus it was impossible to sin below the waist. The enemies of the Cathars in northern France termed them the Bulgars or Buggers."
Moving on to the section "Heresy of the Free Spirit" the article indicates "The roots of this heresy lies in Sufi Islam - the mystical populist off-shoot of Islam. ...Sufism entered Europe through Spain." It further says that in the heresy of the Free Spirit, "any behaviour we are capable of, is a reflection of the divinity of God. Sufism emphasises the oneness of all Creation - that is, the Universe and Everything are parts of God and vice versa", and that "Sufism entered Europe through Spain" where "The Sufis of Seville began the Heresy of the Free Spirit movement - with followers undergoing an initiation of blind obedience to their master for several years before enuoying total freedom of action."
According to the article, this Free Spirit Heresy includes three major tenets:
*All is Divine *There is no afterlife *To know of God renders one incapable of sin.
It says further that "United with God, the individual was above all laws, churches and rites." This accurately reflects material on Sufism from Idries Shah who says the Sufi "knows that 'Paradise, hell, all the dogmas of religion are allegories - the spirit whereof he alone knows'." (_The Sufis_ p. 297) Hazrat Inayat Khan also speaks of this concept when he says that a Sufi, "...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 synangogue, 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." (_The Inner Life_, p.10-11)
Curiously the article on "Manicheism, Catharism and the Heresy of the Free Spirit" linked above also indicates the Heresy of the Free Spirit influenced the Anabaptists, the Quakers, and libertarian politics; and also that there are "strong parallels to the thoughts of Nietzsche and the Counter Culture of the 1960s."
This will be continued...
