Hello
I find your comments extremely interesting. Can I ask you what exactly it was that prompted you to make contact with potential teachers? I don’t mean to be obtuse - I’m taking it for granted that you wanted to learn. What I mean is, had you experienced an awakening or a call?
Regards
Sian
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Posted by on 05/17 at 06:41 PM
Hi Sian
well, it was different in all cases - these attempts at contact spanned quite a lot of years.
As I say, there wasn’t much thought behind the ones I reference other than a vague “I’ve read about this teaching so I must make contact” sort of thing. Not very promising I know but that’s how it was.
Later, as I was attempting to ‘study more seriously’ it was because I viewed Shah’s projection as the current form of legitimate Sufism and because I wished to apply to ‘join’ as it were - though obviously I framed this as ‘take the next step’. Not sure whether these approaches were any different.
After that I reached a point where I took on board, to a certain extent, Shah’s comments on this letter-writing activity - but I didn’t let that stop me. I simply wrote (when I did write) outlining my current perception of my inner state and asking what my next steps might be.
This was once or twice I think over 5 or 6 years or so.
Since Shah’s death I have on a few occasions contacted several other groups and ‘teachers’ - all more or less of the Sufic breed - but these were all in order to attempt to assess whether they were genuine manifestations which it might be worth paying attention to. Needless to say, I have had a rude (literally) awakening many times through this last focus and is one of the prime reasons for my abandoning the issue.
In fact, I am most likely in reality merely abandoning something in myself. Either way it continues to be liberating and the removal of a rather large albatross from around my neck area.
Posted by segovius on 05/17 at 06:54 PM
Segovius,
I understand what you mean. I think the realisation that there probably won’t be an evangelistic revelation of the way provided by somebody else is the first step of the real journey. The realisation could take the form of disillusion such as you seem to be describing.
You say “I am most likely in reality merely abandoning something in myself.”
Yes, and like a snake shedding a skin, it’s probably something you don’t need anymore. Trust yourself.
Regards,
Sian
Posted by on 05/17 at 07:32 PM
You are not missing out on by not finding the right teacher. Consult with a tree for a while.
We are all at heart esoteric, there is no great secret that we don’t already know.
Posted by on 05/18 at 10:21 AM
"What , more do you want, 0 soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom -your Beloved whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you.”
quote(s) / poem(s) n° 3848: Saint John of the Cross (Fontiveros, prov. d’Ávila, 1542 — Ubeda, 1591), founder (with St. Teresa) of the Discalced Carmelites, doctor of mystic theology, Christianity, Catholicism
Spiritual Canticle, I.8; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 419
Posted by on 05/18 at 10:29 AM
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Why I Am Abandoning Esotericism (pt2)
If you read Classical Sufi stories - which I still hold to be repositories of ‘wisdom’ - then you often find a situation like this: Seeker X goes to Teacher Y and says something like this ‘can I sign up/have instant enlightenment/be accepted as a disciple/etc etc’.
Teacher Y generally does not accept the seeker in this manner as this is probably not a fruitful approach but he does something else: he gives the seeker what he actually needs at that point in time for his development.
This, being a prescribed thing suitable for the individual, is not a formulaic response and hence is different for different seekers but generally Teacher Y might say “sorry, you are not suitable because XXX” or perhaps “there is something else you need to do first and this is what it is.....” or even “do xxxxxx” or maybe just a resounding “no”.
What he doesn’t do is just ignore the questioner completely. Yet this is exactly what many of the current crop of ‘groups’ actually do. The amount of people I know who say “I wrote to Shah and received no reply - it is a test”. “no answer is an answrer”, “They are preparing the materials” or something is unfeasibly large, It has happened to me also to receive no reply to letters written to several ‘teachers’, Shah included.
But in terms of Shah, I do not in any way hold this as a criticism or include him with the people I am implicitly criticizing. Why? Quite simply because he addresses this very issue many times in his books and offers the reasons for why he does not respond in many cases. Regardless of whether one agrees with these reasons, the fact is he is explaining what he is doing and why and acting in accordance with his statements. Absolutely no problem with that. I and other ‘letter writers’ should have paid those passages more attention and tried to apply what we’d learnt.