You may have wondered about what we were doing on Thursday.
The world is in a difficult place right now. Can we work together at the heart level to accept the world’s suffering and transform it?
Tension, fear, agitation and hatred are contagious. As sensations they pass through groups and individuals as a kind of infection. We may find different ‘reasons’ to explain them as they pass through us but they have an independent free-floating existence in the psychic atmosphere. Can we suffer these sensations, transform them in the heart and send back compassion and harmony in response?
Each of us may need to learn how to do this work in our own way. As you learn you will receive help inwardly from the angels who support this work. The best way to enhance our work on self is to work for the sake of the work and the benefit of others. Help is then made available to us. If you take on the job of a janitor, you will be given a broom
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October 23, 2021
Tags: heart, practical work on self, sensations, transform, zikr
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November 1, 2019
What is the point of zikr?
Zikr is for the Absolute. It is our service to our origin.
Why would the Absolute need something from us?
What I am about to say is my understanding, from my own experience. This may mean nothing to you. But perhaps hearing this will be like what the Buddhists claim when you hear the dharma, that it reaches in and changes your orientation.
Creation serves the purpose of the Creator. Imagining otherwise is like the sheep assuming that the shepherd and the paddock are for their benefit.
What did the Creator wish to accomplish with creation? The Creator’s purpose was to know and love all the possibilities within Himself. The universe is an exercise in His Self-discovery.
What does that have to do with us?
We are a part of His Self-discovery. From Himself was everything made, because in the beginning there was nothing else. In creating us from Himself, He entered into Creation and became subject to the same laws He had established for His creatures. From the limitless, He became limited.
If we sleep, He sleeps within us. If we wake up, so does He, or at least that portion of Him that sleeps in us. In other words, the Absolute fell in love with His Creation, He became identified and ceased to be awake.
Of course, the Absolute also remains in His original state outside creation.
The people who believe in God think He is all-knowing and all-powerful.
He could be, if He wished. The evidence is otherwise. The evidence is that He has agreed to limit Himself in order to experience His Creation. This is disturbing to those who look for some ultimate, reliable perfection to rely upon.
We have an urgent task to perform which is of great value and we do not know if there is anyone else to do it. The question is, can the Absolute awaken in His creation and thereby realize His aim of discovering Himself? Can His Splendour enter the mundane world? In Zikr, it is possible. We can invoke aspects of His Being and reflect them to Himself.
Within His Creation, He experiences the suffering of His creatures. We can offer relief through mutual adoration. The relationship is reciprocal, based on mutual dependency.
We humans are the active but limited side of infinity. By remembering our origin, we can restore His unity and redeem the unforeseen consequences of creation. We remembering who we are, we can remind Him of Who He is. That is the point of zikr.
Is this what you mean by the Work?
Yes. This is my understanding. In zikr, I remember this. In ordinary life, I do not. Is my life really mine to do with as I please? Or is there something more?
Tags: Absolute, creation, Creator, God, relationship, the Work, zikr
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September 12, 2019
The way was prepared by thousands of such nights. But tonight’s zikr marked a transition. The aim was to feel the exquisite intimacy of remembering and being remembered, to find again my relationship to Him, to experience the mushahida, the mutual regarding that unfolds in His presence. But not this night.
Something more was asked. As we took our places in the circle, it was clear that we were being held by strong hands, supported by our lineage but also great beings who form the spiritual hierarchy…Muhayamin, the ones who protect us here on earth. We were not there to meet Him. We were there to do His work.
The world is increasingly out of alignment. The connection between earth and the higher realms has been broken. We invoked Him as Restorer, that all might find their correct place and that the links might be restored. The zikr was for Him and for us.
Tags: zikr
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August 19, 2019
It was there from the moment we entered the zikr chamber, there waiting for us. A gentle, all pervading kindness, felt in the heart and sensed in the eyes, a lightness of being and generosity to all.
In ancient times, when the nature of kingship was still understood, it would have been the duty of a real king to invoke this higher emotion for his subjects. The feeling of beneficence is that of a blessing, of being blessed, without reason or favor, simply because it is a mark of the divine nature. It gives rise to a quality of contentment unknown to us in ordinary life.
Many and varied are His ways. At every moment, He assumes a posture by which He can be known to us, a quality of His Being, but only if we set aside what we think we know and find Him in our sensing and feeling. Tonight it was beneficence.
Tags: beneficence, zikr
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August 15, 2019
When entering the hall of a great king, it is only necessary to remember one thing. That one thing may be humility, sincerity, loyalty or simply the need for the king’s presence, but whatever it is, it must be remembered fully, for it is your gift to him.
Do not think it is necessary to be more than you are. What is asked is that you be who you are. In a world so fully dedicated to pretense, illusion and deception, there is nothing more powerful than this.
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August 6, 2019
There are very few sacred spaces left on this earth, it seems to me. What is a sacred space? It’s a place where the veils of ordinary existence are thinner and it is more possible to engage and penetrate the subtle worlds of feeling and meaning which are so easily hidden by worldly engagement. The ancients built temples for this purpose, to create or shelter such valuable places where real prayer and invocation could occur.
Perhaps you are aware of such a place. The question then is can you enter it? Can I pass through the doorway? Special efforts are required.
This is why our zikr often begins with questions. Can I be here? Can I sense my body? Can I sense my breath? Can I relinquish my connection to the past, to the future, to any other place or time, or any relationship, other than to the zikr chamber and the circle of friends within it? If my attention remains intentionally or unintentionally on other times, places and people, I will not be able to pass through the narrow entrance.
The way itself is very broad but the entranceway cannot accommodate any baggage. He who is within demands our full attention and presence.
My entry is by way of humility, submission and apology for having forgotten. These are the secret keys that open the heart and show me where to step, even though I have broken my vows a thousand times.
Tags: attention, entering, entrance, presence, sense, space, zikr
