Al-Huda
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 4/101
Newsletter for January 2010
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Buddhist Mindfulness and Sufi Mysticism:
Enlightenment versus Divine
Closeness
by Mohammad Nad-e-Ali Shamsi, Massachusetts (An undergraduate student at Bentley College)
Buddhism and Sufism are two religions that are unique from other
practices since they are not structured like other major
religions such as Christianity and Islam. Instead, these two
faiths differ in that Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a
religion and concentrates on living life based on moral code and
ethics.
In Buddhism,
there is no almighty God and worship of a supernatural being. Also,
in Buddhism there is no belief of a Judgment Day but rather, emphasis is
placed on this doctrine of rebirth,
called Samsara,
regarded simply as “the perpetual cycles of existence or endless
rounds of rebirth among the six realms of existence” (buddhanet.net) that
Buddhists believe in.
Sufism is distinctive,
as well,
since it is considered more of a mystical practice which places
importance on one’s connection with God and seeking the Divine
through spiritual practices. In both
religions, spirituality
and meditation play a major role but the purpose or ultimate
goals of each religion are dissimilar. For,
in Buddhism spirituality and meditation are used as a tool to
assist one in seeking enlightenment or “liberation” from Samsara
which is achieved when one attains the level of Nirvana,
which is “virtual exhaustion of karma,
habitual traces,
defilements,
and delusions” (buddhanet.net). Rather, Sufism utilizes
the practice of meditation and spirituality in their ultimate
goal to become one and unite with God,
in which the heart and the power of love plays a significant
part of the Spiritual Journey by acting as a medium to connect
one with the Divine.
Buddhism has its origins about 2500 years ago when Siddhartha
Gautama, commonly known
as the Buddha, became
“awakened” or enlightened and began teaching the principles of
Buddhism,
called the Dhamma or “Truth”,
to his disciples or students.
In his teachings,
he mentioned “to lead a moral life,
be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions,
and to develop understanding and wisdom” (buddhanet.net) which could
be accomplished by acknowledging what is known as the Four Noble
Truths and embarking upon the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Buddha was able to follow what is called the “
The idea of suffering plays a critical role in Buddhist
tradition, and Buddhist
dharma teaches one how to cope with suffering and how to still
be able to live a noble life. What the Four
Noble Truths refer to are “1) that life consists entirely of
suffering 2) that suffering has causes 3) that the causes of
suffering can be extinguished 4) that there exists a way to
extinguish the causes” (Takakusu 26).
These are the basis or foundations of Buddhist teaching and
Buddhist believe that “all those who are seeking Enlightenment
must understand the Fourfold Noble Truth” and that those who do
not understand this “will wander about interminably in the
bewildering maze of life’s illusions” (Kyokai 39). Buddhists
preach to keep these truths in mind for the world is full of
suffering,
and that anyone wishing to escape this suffering must “sever the
ties of worldly passion which is the sole cause of suffering” (Kyokai
39). In order to
live such a life free of worldly desires and suffering can only
come through enlightenment and this enlightenment can be
achieved through the discipline of the Noble Eightfold Path.
What this path calls for Buddhists to practice are eight things, which when all
achieved, will lead to
enlightenment or Nirvana.
These eight aspects consists of “Right View (by which to see the
real state of all things),
Right Thought,
Right Speech,
Right Action,
Right Mindfulness,
Right Endeavor,
Right Livelihood,
and Right Concentration” (Takakusu 26).
So,
in essence, the spiritual
journey of a Buddhist begins when one learns to recognize the
real state of things, Right View. The following
three practices of Right Thought,
Right Speech,
and Right Action can be seen as a method for a Buddhist to
transform his or her human character by what he or she thinks,
says,
and behaves according to.
After a Buddhist has changed their character,
next,
the teachings of Right Mindfulness,
Right Endeavor,
and Right Livelihood can be interpreted as the acts necessary to
be taken to transform or change the elements of a Buddhist’s
life. Living with
mindfulness, with right
effort, and a
simplistic lifestyle will then prepare the Buddhist even further
along the path to Enlightenment until Right Concentration,
which is “the motive power to carry one through all the
worlds—this world of desire,
the heaven of bodily beings,
the higher heaven of formless beings and holy beings” (Takakusu
26) will finally bring you to the state of Nirvana or the
highest enlightenment, also known as
the Buddhahood. So,
to summarize “the Eightfold Way may be regarded as the practical
ethics of Buddhism for the purpose of building up the human
character and improving it, but at the same
time it is the way for attaining the highest enlightenment” (Takakusu
27).
Meditation plays a crucial role in the pursuit of the
Eightfold Path in that it assists Buddhists in attaining each of
these eight “rights”.
Thich Nhat Hanh,
in his book The Miracle of Mindfulness,
discusses various meditative practices in the Buddhist tradition
and shows the significance of these meditations and how they
relate to the Buddhist beliefs of mindfulness,
living in the moment,
being awakened,
unity,
and peace. For instance, when Hanh
explains about the typical routine of washing the dishes,
he points towards three of the eightfold truths pertaining to
Right View, Right
Mindfulness, and Right
Concentration. He writes that, “While washing
the dishes one should only be washing the dishes,
which means that while washing the dishes one should be
completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes” (Hanh
3).
This can be compared to what Right View and Right Mindfulness
explains. Then,
he states,
“the fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a
wondrous reality…completely myself,
following my breath,
conscious of my presence,
and conscious of my thoughts and actions.
There is no way I can be tossed around mindlessly” (Hanh 4). This refers to
Right Concentration, or the point
when nothing comes between you and what you are doing,
when one’s mind is pure and clean,
unaffected by the ego’s or worldly desires,
and at which point thus,
true understanding
is reached. Hanh explains
that “we practice mindfulness in order to build up
concentration…mindfulness itself is the life of awareness: the
presence of mindfulness means the presence of life…Mindfulness
enables us to live” (Hanh 15).
To have a pure,
clean,
open mind plays a pivotal role in the journey towards
Enlightenment for “an unenlightened life rises from a mind that
is bewildered by its own world of delusion” (Kyokai 51).
The mind is “the master of every situation…therefore, all things are
primarily controlled and ruled by the mind,
and are created up by the mind” (Kyokai 51).
So,
a man must speak and act with a good,
clear mind in order to bring an end to one’s suffering and in
order to get proper enlightenment.
Meditation,
thus,
is used by Buddhists to practice harnessing one’s control over
the mind and allowing it to become clear,
open,
and void of any delusions for it allows one to concentrate and
focus the mind’s thoughts. Hanh writes of
meditation saying that,
“sitting in meditation is nourishment for your spirit and
nourishment for your body…our bodies obtain harmony,
feel lighter,
and are more at peace…once you are able to quiet your mind, once your
feelings and thoughts no longer disturb you… your mind will take
hold of mind in a direct and wondrous way which no longer
differentiates between subject and object” (Hanh 42). Thus,
meditation is used by Buddhists along the spiritual journey to
cleanse and purify one’s mind in order for the person to be
ready for enlightenment.
So, in summary, Buddhism is
based on a certain way of living and by following a code of
ethics and morals, through which
enlightenment is achieved.
Moving now to the topic of Sufism,
it is unlike Buddhism in that whereas Buddhists do not believe
in a divine being,
God is at the center of Sufi faith and in which the heart rather
than the mind, plays a
critical role in a Sufi’s spiritual journey.
The practice of Sufism can be defined as being the “inner, esoteric, mystical, or purely
spiritual dimension of the religion of Islam” (www.uga.edu). It is often
referred to as “Islamic mysticism” and the essence or root of
Sufi practice is complete surrendering towards God.
Sufis,
or practitioners of the Sufism,
see themselves to be on a spiritual journey towards God, and this path
is known as Tariqah in
Arabic. While all
Muslims believe to be on a pathway to God and that one will
become close to God in Paradise after death, Sufis recognize
that it is possible to attain this closeness and connection with
God while one is alive. They assert
that the attainment of knowledge of the Divine through
experience and intimacy with God is the sole purpose of creation.
In a particular Hadith
Qudsi, or sayings of
Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H),
Sufis reference that God states “I
was a hidden treasure and I loved that I be known,
so I created the creation in order to be known.”
Hence, for Sufis, there is a
continuous attraction on their hearts exerted by God,
attracting them and pulling them closer towards God. They experience
a joyous ecstasy of being drawn to the Divine “Beloved” and
emphasize “the continual remembrance of God,
intention,
integrity,
generosity,
and respect for all life” (www.sufism.org).
The “inner relationship of lover and Beloved is the core
of the Sufi path…and God reveals Himself within the hearts of
those who love him” (Vaughan-Lee 1).
So,
Sufis believe that through love,
“the seeker is taken to God” and embarks upon the spiritual
journey in which separation from God turns into union and a
state of oneness with God.
Jalal al-Din Rumi,
founder of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis,
was one of the most influential Sufis of his time and his
mystical poetry is widely recognized throughout the world.
Contained in his poetic prose are tales of love,
intoxication,
life and death,
realization,
and passion.
This leads to several questions which arise such as “Why does
Love dominate much of Rumi’s poetry?”and “What does Love as
described by Rumi really mean?”. In the end
though, the main
question to ponder is “What is the significance of love?”
It seems as though Rumi is talking about “Love” in a higher
regard than just the emotional aspect of love that one senses
and feels. Rumi is
addressing love in terms of a spiritual sense.
His poetry,
though it addresses things such as love for ordinary things
found in Nature, in the end, seems to all
lead to something bigger which is the ecstatic love of the soul
seeking to be one with the Divine God.
Rumi utilizes the experience that we as humans possess in terms
of emotions when in love as a way to point toward the spiritual
union and relationship of the soul with God. Thus,
he shows that the power of love that we feel in our human
relations reflects the intensity of our soul’s love for God as
well.
But on a deeper note,
Rumi is expressing the belief that love is the key to spiritual
experience, much moreso
than the mind or ego which acts as a barrier between the real
and false self and hinders true understanding.
In Islamic doctrine, God is the
source of all life, and whose
essence cannot be described or compared to anything,
but “who can be known through the spiritual qualities that are
manifest in the world and in the human heart.”
To Rumi and other Sufis,
a person who is unenlightened is “faithless” and an individual
who lives in slavery to the false self,
or ego,
and to the desires of the material world.
The spiritual practices which Sufis such as Rumi performed were
aimed at “transforming the compulsiveness of the false self and
attaining Islam or ‘Submission’ to a higher order of reality.”
Without submission,
the real self would be concealed and enslaved to the false self, regarded as the
ego. Thus,
“the enslaved ego is cut off from the heart,
the chief organ for perceiving reality,
and cannot receive the spiritual guidance and nourishment which
the heart provides.”
This displays the power and purpose of the heart in terms of
spiritual guidance. It shows that
if the heart is trapped or dominated by the ego,
then experience and understanding cannot be truly attained for
it is being tainted by the thoughts of the ego.
It is only when this enslavement is overcome that the
realization is made that “the self is a reflection of the Divine,
[and that] God is the Beloved or Friend,
the transpersonal identity” (www.sufism.org)
for love of God leads to the lover forgetting him or herself and
immersing themselves in the love and favors of the Beloved.
For Sufis, you only begin to discover who you really are when you go beyond yourself. The real self is something much larger and different in quality than the ego, which is primarily concerned with success, popularity, or perceiving to look like something which one is not. So, the reason that love can be such a force is because, in love, the ego is no longer in control, or at the center. For instance, when a person feels such an affection or admiration towards someone or something else, then that thing or person becomes far more important than you yourself. So love transforms a person and forces one to go beyond oneself. When one starts to experience the depth in one’s lives, no longer identifying with the ego, that is the opening or point at which one discovers who and what we really are and true understanding and experience is reached.
It is the longing of the heart which opens up a person and
awakens them to the pain of separation.
This can be seen through the relationship between Rumi and his
teacher Shams Tabrizi. It was
predicted by the teacher of Tabrizi,
Kamal Jundi,
that Shams was to meet a person who would become his ‘tongue’ or
alter-ego, referring to
Rumi. It was in his
counterpart, Rumi,
that Shams was able to manifest his gift of divine wisdom as he
was able to transfer his knowledge and wisdom into Rumi in a
rather mysterious and startling manner (shamsitabriz.net).
Rumi has mentioned in his book
Divan-e-Shams that it
was not him but Shams talking through him in his poetry
(shamsitabriz.net). Later, Rumi would come
to the realization that he and Shams were one and that Shams
lived within Rumi himself. This phenomenon
of the transfer of souls has never been witnessed before and
what makes the tale of these two personalities so unique.
This unique relationship is best expressed through the words of
Gulpinarli that, "Rumi was like a purely clean lamp,
where the oil was poured in the holder and a wick placed therein, ready to be
lit; and Shams was the spark to set it afire" (shamsitabriz.net). When Tabrizi
suddenly disappeared one night,
it was this feeling of longing in Rumi’s heart which transformed
Rumi and it was at this point when Rumi began chanting lines of
poetry and falling into ecstatic and intoxicated forms of love
towards Shams and the Beloved. Llewellyn
Vaughan-Lee, in her book
entitled Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart,
writes that “the glance of the Beloved awakens the memory of the
soul… the memory of this union makes us aware that we are now
separate from the One we love,
and so ignites the fire of longing.
The exile remembers his real Home and begins the long and lonely
journey back to the Beloved” (31).
So,
once again, the power and
significance of the heart and love can be seen,
which shows that it is not only what leads to realization and
experience once the ego is destroyed and replaced by love,
but also that this feeling of yearning or longing awakens one to
the pain of separation and brings a person back on the path to
seek their Beloved.
Now, let us see what
Rumi, in his poetry
wrote about the topic of love and intoxication.
From the collection of Rumi’s poetry,
translated by Nevit Ergin,
in his book entitled The Forbidden Rumi,
there is a poem by Rumi called “Love
is its Own Proof” in which is contained the following
stanza:
If you fall in love,
Your love is your proof and that’s enough.
If you’re not in love,
what good is proof?
This poem explains how Rumi views love as it being the only
thing one needs, and that proof
is not needed. Earlier in the
poem, Rumi mentions a
person crying and looking for a remedy or cure,
and that one should seek out what he or she is longing for or
desires. The next stanza
describes a lost soul and a person riddled in sorrow and he
advises that person to go try to find his lost soul,
which the power of love can do.
In the third stanza,
Rumi explains that by just smelling a loaf of bread reveals
everything you need to know about the bread.
He is making the contrast that in a similar way,
just as all is revealed about the bread by smelling it, similarly, love of the
Divine will reveal to you true understanding about the Divine as
it will cause you to immerse yourself in this love and allows
for such a bond and connection to be formed. This again
reiterates the power of Love as being the only thing a person
needs when lost or saddened or looking to find someone whether
it be someone searching for his or her soul, or trying to
seek out the Divine. This portrays
the message that by just following your heart,
you will reach your destination and find what you have been
seeking for.
Even in forms of meditation,
the heart acts as a symbol and type of connection between Sufis
and the Divine. In the Mevlevi
tradition, the ceremony of
the whirling dance, or the Sema, performed by
dervishes (followers of Rumi) is very unique and mesmerizing to
witness. From the view
of an onlooker or outsider who does not know the significance
and meaning behind this ceremony, it would seem
rather strange and absurd to them.
However,
what these dervishes perform in these rituals holds great
importance, for Rumi, who was the
founder of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis,
was the first to perform this whirling dance out of a sign of
devotion and remembrance (Zikr) for Allah.
This dance can be regarded as a state of meditation since the
dervishes, as they perform
the turn, start chanting
the name of God, and fall into a
trancelike state, completely
ignoring everything around them,
and being in the moment,
caught up in their quest to find deeper meaning and
understanding through this dance.
Everything that the dervishes perform during the Sema has a
meaning: the turn, the costume
they wear, the rose, even the music. The tall hat
they wear represents “the tombstone of the ego”,
the black cloth they take off is the “burial shroud”, and the white
cloth represents “the shroud of the ego” which dies as they
perform the turn. The word
‘dervish’ means “doorway”, so the Sema is
performed by these dervishes as they look to reach that
‘doorway’ to God or to enlightenment. The music
played during the ceremony of the flute is another symbolic
instrument, as the sounds
of the flute being played emits a wonderful melody,
which in itself,
helps the dervishes during their spiritual and meditative
practice, as it creates
certain emotions and feelings.
When the dervish takes off the black
cloth,
it signifies the Sufi’s desire to remove and abandon one’s ego
and need for material possessions, and keep one’s focus on God alone.
Each
movement made during the turn represents something.
As the dervishes whirl,
always from right to left, the Dervishes hold their hands in a unique position.
The right hand is lifted palm-out towards the sky whereas the
left hand is palm down towards the ground. The right hand is palm up towards God while the left hand (palm
down) represents the Earth. So, this dance can be analyzed as the dervishes trying to find the
center or connection between the two realms: one being the
spiritual realm and the other is the physical realm and in the
center or what connects the two realms is the heart or simply
devout love for the Beloved/Divine.
In conclusion,
the heart and its power of Love is the key or essence both in
meditative practices and in the stages of a Sufi’s spiritual
journey because it allows one to reveal their true self (which
is trapped by one’s ego), and is the key
for spiritual guidance and experience for when one is in love,
they completely forget themselves and rather,
become immersed in the love of their Beloved.
Having now examined both the Buddhist faith and Sufi tradition, it is apparent
that spirituality and meditation play pivotal roles in each
religion but for different purposes. Buddhists
follow a moral and ethical code of conduct in their life and use
meditation in order to prepare themselves for true understanding
and enlightenment by purifying the mind and perfecting the
Eightfold Path.
Whereas,
on the contrary,
Sufism delves into connecting oneself with God,
in which meditation is used for the purpose of harnessing the
power of the heart and using it as a medium to connect the
physical, material realm
with the supernatural realm of the Divine.
Ergin, Nevit. The Forbidden Rumi: The
Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intoxication.
Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2006.
Hanh, Thich
Nhat. The Miracle of Mindfulness. Boston: Beacon Press,
1975.
Helminski, Kabir. Love Is a Stranger:
Selected Lyric Poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi. Boston, MA:
Shambhala Publications Inc., 2000.
Kyokai,
Bukkyo . The Teaching of Buddha. Tokyo, Japan: Kosaido
Printing, 1966.
Lings, Martin. What is Sufism?.
Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1975.
Novak,
Philip. The Inner Journey: Views from the Buddhist Tradition.
Sandpoint, ID: Morning Light Press, 2005.
"Rumi." Encyclopedia Britannica.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica,
2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9043269>.
Takakusu, Junjiro. The Essentials of
Buddhist Philosophy. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii,
1947.
Tajadod, Nahal. Rumi: The Fire of Love.
Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 2004
Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn. Sufism: The
Transformation of the Heart. Inverness, CA: The Golden Sufi
Center, 1995.
http://www.sufism.org/society/index.html#sufism
http://www.rumi.org.uk/sufism/index.htm
http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html
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