Before communications technology reduced our vast globe to a global village, the feeling of compassion for our neighbour was often limited to ‘line of sight.’ The suffering of those who are unseen is too abstract to make a deep impression on most people. Now, though, it is possible to see and hear as if physically present the heartbreak and misery in the fire-swept school on another continent, or the dusty, starving refugee camp, or the bomb-shattered street, or the broken, overwhelmed hospital in which doctors struggle to save people by candlelight. Followers of a spiritual path might expect it to provide some answers to the grief we see, and to the distress we feel for the lives that are being broken. If we cannot find the answers we seek, there is a real risk to our faith; we might conclude that spiritual teaching is no more than a fairy story, with nothing to offer us in the way of guidance and relief.
Without doubt there is a wish for peace and harmony in every person, but all around the world seekers for peace are locked together in mortal struggle, striving to kill each other. This is because very few have understood how to find peace in themselves. When our thoughts and actions are turbulent, merely speaking about peace will have no useful result, just as to recite the beautiful words of a prayer without feeling will not bring beauty into manifestation. For this reason, Hazrat Inayat Khan advises us to find peace in ourselves, while remaining alert to the practical needs of the world – including, sometimes, the need to fight.
But Sufism teaches that we are all part of the One Being, and that the sorrow of one is the sorrow of all. Doesn’t our conscience trouble us if we attend to our own development when so many are suffering so much? Isn’t it selfish to do so?
In this connection, think for a moment of the two lines of the cross, the horizontal and the vertical. The world of manifestation stretches from horizon to horizon, and on that wide expanse lies the infinite variety of physical form and sensory experience, from most pleasant to most painful. The vertical line represents the spiritual axis, the line of aspiration and of reality beyond name and form, the journey toward the One. Living only on the horizontal line we may do our best to bring happiness and comfort to each other, but the nature of limitation means that suffering and disappointment can never be eliminated. Centering awareness on the vertical line, however, answering the call to reach upward, reveals our true being, which is happiness. We may wish to ease the pain of others but If we have no happiness to share, then our pious efforts to help the world will have only limited effect. And far from being selfish, the lesson of spirituality is that we can only rise on the vertical axis by forgetting our small self entirely.
The ideal of the Sufi is balance: we must attend to the horizontal plane in whatever way we can, but we must also care for our sacred ideal, for it is only in Unity that all the contradictions of life are resolved. In these troubled times, we must all do what we can to care for each other, but we must also remember this saying from Gayan Alapas : God is the answer to every question.
Gracias querido Nawab ❤️
“The world of manifestation stretches from horizon to horizon, and on that wide expanse lies the infinite variety of physical form and sensory experience, from most pleasant to most painful.”
How could we understand the shift of the horizon when we have a most pleasant experience and a most painful experience? Does the horizon shift forward in the first instance and retracts/contracts in the second?
Suppose our desires do not stop and the horizon keeps shifting forward. How do we balance an ever-shifting horizon?
“The vertical line represents the spiritual axis, the line of aspiration and of reality beyond name and form, the journey toward the One.”
How does the vertical line shift with a never-ending aspiration to reach Perfection–the One? or, Is there an upper limit while we answer the call to reach upward?
Maybe the balance is found when we desire no more and the call to reach upward is anchored in the heart, and the cross is unconstrained by time and space and its center fixes on a stationary point?
Dear Sharifa, perhaps I have given the wrong impression. The horizontal plane, the plane of manifestation, is not conveniently separated, with the good on one side and the unpleasant on the other. Any form may be both good and bad. For example new may enjoy a delicious meal, and then discover that we have a serious allergy to the food. And so on. And the horizon is as wide as we are. The further we advance the further it retreats.
Thank you so much Nawab for this horizon-wide panoramic image of how we a focus on where the energy and connectiveness come through.This message meant a lot to me and I am so very, very grateful you have offered it so lovingly to the world.
As you so beautifully put it: ” Living only on the horizontal line we may do our best to bring happiness and comfort to each other, but the nature of limitation means that suffering and disappointment can never be eliminated. “the nature of limitation means that suffering and disappointment can never be eliminated.”
Dear Howard, thank you for your deeply appreciated response. The suffering of the earth plane is always there, even for the illuminated souls; think of the fate of Jesus. But the vertical is infinite, and therefore has no disappointments for us.
Dear Howard, forgive me, I just saw that I replied too quickly and mis-named you! You would think by now, after our years of interchange, it should be engraved in the mind. Kindest greetings, Nawab
Dear Nawab, it is surreal to me that I learn so much from you, and feel ‘seen’ by you. An abundant universe is the only explanation. No worries on the name glitch!
Thank you also for the additonal nuance you underscored above, that the vertical is infinite and therefore has no disappointment for us. Your enjoinder to center our attention on the vertical speaks powerfully to some tender part of my heart.
SO much gratitude for the generosity you so steadily embody. Huuuu….