Chapter Six
The Power of Being[1]
God has made nonexistence appear solid and respectable;
and He has made Existence appear in the guise of nonexistence.
He has hidden the Sea and made the foam visible,
He has concealed the Wind and shown you the dust.
Rumi, Mathnawi V: 1026-27
There is something nonexistent, something that cannot be touched, seen, or even thought, and yet this nothing is the more important than anything else, the fathomless source of all qualities and all possibilities.
We look for happiness, beauty, or pleasure in existing things, convinced that things will satisfy us or bring us desirable states. We hope to find well-being in a new car, a new place to live, or a new relationship. But the happiness produced by these things cannot be counted on to last, and we will need to find yet other things to stimulate further states.
What we have within ourselves we project outward onto things, thinking that the things themselves are responsible for the states we experience. Yet every state is nevertheless within us. If we truly come to know ourselves and what we carry within, if we can make contact with ourselves directly, we will be less dependent on things. The well-being, the beauty, and the love we seek outside of ourselves are truly within. The paradox is that as we discover what is within, the outer things will increasingly awaken these inner qualities. We will respond more readily; we will appreciate more, love more, and know a greater sense of independent well-being.
Everything that seems to exist, both in the material and psychological worlds, derives its qualities from a single source of Being. Everything we desire, everything that motivates us is in reality without any existence of its own and depends on a single source of Being. All things receive their qualities and their existence from this single source of Life and are only reflectors of that one Essence.
Furthermore, what attracts us in the outer world is only putting us in touch with the hidden treasure within ourselves. Through finding it in ourselves we are returned to the Being that we reflect. We are not the originators of qualities, but the reflectors of the infinite qualities of Being.
A fundamental unity underlies all of existence. Existence is a gift from Divine Mercy, from Being itself, which allows all things to exist in their exquisite interplay. Yet all these existing things absorb and monopolize our attention and concern. They delude and seduce us. Because they appear to be many, they tear the heart to pieces and fragment the will. If we do not find a way to carry the unity with us, we will know only chaos and confusion.
Paradoxically, what is needed is an ability to reserve some attention for Being itself, for what is not existent in the world of things. We can give attention to that dimension that allows all things to exist. In the midst of all the things that are calling for our attention, we must simultaneously remember a center that is nowhere and everywhere, that is the source and substance of everything that seems to exist and be, and that has a point of contact accessible to us. Within the heart of each human being is a point of contact with the immeasurable dimension outside of all existing things. God, the Absolute, is not another existing thing among other existing things, but the dimension that makes all existences possible and from which they derive their Being. It is for this reason that God is said to be nearer to us than our jugular vein.
The straight and narrow path is a path of fastidious remembrance of Being. Any way is insufficient that does not recognize and emphasize the need for the awareness of Being in each moment--for a presence that is independent of bias, limiting concepts, comparisons, reactivity, and sentimentality. For in any moment we may find that our attention and presence is absorbed in some secondary event or thing. If we forget this source of Being, we may eventually forget ourselves. What is lost, one might ask, if we allow ourselves to be absorbed in things, in feelings, in thoughts--in all this excitement?
Without Being our activity becomes chaotic, delinquent, purposeless, and wasteful. Any act without the fragrance of Being is lost. Being is the integrity of every thing. Being is like a finer energy that has the power to organize coarser energies; Being is more energized than any activity or function, and is larger than life. It is a creative energy behind our actions. No effort, activity, attraction, or satisfaction in itself is Being. Being calls from another direction, from the world of possibility beyond our awareness.
Being is the domain of quality. Whatever we do with Being embodies qualities and attributes more purely and intensely. We can bring quality into the details of life if we remember to be and act with precision. If we can be at that point where the horizontal force of active choice meets the vertical force of Being, a certain "something," larger than life, will be activated. This "something" can be felt in anything produced by the hands and heart of a human being--in works of art, in a well-tended garden, in food prepared with love.
"Though you possess two hundred existences, become nonexistent in His Being--it is right to become nonexistent for that Being," writes Rumi in his Divan. The awakening to Being requires emptying oneself. But this emptying allows for a new quality of relationship and an alchemical transformation of energies.
A master of Balinese dance once expressed the idea that a performer must consciously see himself as a channel between the world within and the world outside. If the ego gets in the way, this channeling is reduced. He described a ball of energy that is created between performers and their audiences. The performers consciously manipulate and expand this energy force using the attention that is given to them by the audience and which they control. By being a pure channel and through their skill of relating to the audience, the energy is moved back and forth. In sacred art, performance is not a means of ego gratification but an offering to the Divine. What is offered is everyone's attention, and yet everyone is elevated in this sacred alchemy and feels a change of consciousness through this quality of performance and the attention offered. The offering to the Divine is returned.
Every relationship can have this quality if we offer ourselves willingly, if we accept that we are channels, and if we accept being empty and aware. This is charisma, or the ability of putting into action the Divine attributes of the subconscious mind.
The One in its unlimited Generosity and Compassion initiates remembering in us and begins the process of completion. Its offering its Being to us is its Mercy. This Isness, this Mercy--whatever name we give to It--came before us. We arose out of it, not it out of us. Or as it is said: God's love for us preceded our love for Him. As much as we are the servants of Spirit, Spirit is our servant when we make our connection to it. This connection is made through presence, which is a receptivity to the energies of possibility.
When our teacher from
Once, as Dede brought us to "meet" Mevlana at the Konya Tekkye, now a museum, people--mostly Turkish peasants--began to gather around him until a rather large crowd was moving from Mevlana's tomb, to the turning hall, to the rose garden. Such is the power and attraction of Being.
Workbook on "The Power of Being"
This beautiful chapter puts us in touch with the highest understanding of Divine Reality. It also gives us the special fragrance of Islamic spirituality. It begins with a powerful set of poetic images from Rumi and ends with other powerful images expressed through Kabir's teacher visiting Rumi's tomb in
Kabir tells us that the deep center of ourselves is nothing less than the Center of all Being. There is therefore a correspondence between what is closest to us (our own center), and the most transcendent of all realities, the
As the Holy Qur'an says, Allah, the transcendent and incomparable, is, paradoxically, "nearer to us than our jugular vein." An understanding of this connection between the nearness and the transcendence of God inside of us is critical if we are to become full or complete human beings. The very qualities that make us human do not originate in us as such. They flow from the Divine Source, the Being of God. To know that Source at our center, then, is to become a person of highest, spiritual quality.
Our world has become so focused upon the quantitative and outward that we tend to lose this sense of inner quality. We amass outer treasures, but forget the "one thing necessary," the treasures of the heart, which are the Divine qualities flowing through us. These highest qualities are what make us theomorphic beings, made in the image and likeness of God. Divine Life, (what we might call "primary Being"), expressed through us, is full of compassion or love because God is this quality. We become loving and compassionate, therefore, when we are united to God. To express the rich mercy and generosity of God as a human, then, is to know the greatest fulfillment possible. This love completes us.
Questions for Reflection
1. Ask yourself, "What is my basic definition of happiness? What makes me happy?" List the ingredients or contents of happiness. How does your definition conform or conflict with the definition Kabir gives? How does he describe the normal problem we have when we apply our own human definitions of happiness?
2. Kabir asserts that "every state is...within us" (29). This means that all the states of happiness or unhappiness we experience are not caused by anything on the outside of ourselves, but by what is on the inside. Can this be true? How in your experience is this true? What does this have to do with the problem of projection?
3. What is the relationship between the "inner journey" (our movement toward our own deep interiority) and our experience in the outer world (the "outer journey")? Kabir indicates a very interesting correlation between these two journeys. Describe it in your own words.
4. Much of the content of this chapter could be summed up in the discussion between quantity verses quality. We find it fairly easy to measure quantities. Quality, however, is much more difficult either to measure or to define. Kabir relates quality to integrity and also to finer energy. How would you describe what he means by these terms, and our own deep human need to find them and live with them?
Daily Practice
1. In this chapter , Kabir speaks about the need to give attention to Being itself. He states that we become so absorbed by all the things that call for and monopolize our attention that Being is neglected. Yet it is Being that gives everything its "fragrance," its essence. Be a "watcher," an observer of your own state of attention. See if, in the course of a day, you can detect when you are absorbed by all the secondary, "horizontal" events that cause you to forget Being, and when you are in touch with Being as a deep, "vertical" center within you. In your journal describe what you find.
2. When we allow ourselves to be absorbed in things, thoughts, feelings, or "all this excitement" the result, our text says, is that "without Being our activity becomes chaotic, delinquent, purposeless and wasteful" (31). See if in your experience this is true. Watch for those moments when you feel any or all of these last four traits. Write down what you find.
3. On the other hand, notice that, as Kabir describes, when we "act with precision" (31), some other quality also exists that becomes very practical and has immediate impact upon the outside world. He states that you can see this precision and feel this "certain something" which is "larger than life" activated in such things as works of art, a well-tended garden, and in food lovingly prepared. Where, in your life, do you see this precision at work?
Contemplative Prayer
1. Our text states that "Within the heart of each human being is a point of contact with the immeasurable dimension outside of all existing things" (30-31). This statement means that on the inside of you, in a place called the heart, is an immense and infinite ocean. In a state of quietness go to this place within yourself. Go to it and spend time there in reverence, and call out to the Divine Presence that always fills that "place." This is a practice that we will return to again.
2. If daily life itself is to become prayer and if we are to become channels and "servants of Spirit" (32), then Kabir states we must "accept being empty and aware" (32). These two inward states, emptiness and awareness, are contemplative prayer in action within daily life. They describe a state of inner prayer that is "without ceasing." Emptiness is a state of openness to the Spirit, and awareness is attention to the Divine Presence that fills all things. Like any other prayer it involves practice in daily life, and practice means working until we can accomplish it, Remember that in all our spiritual "work," however, we are offered mercy. Practice these two states together, calling upon God for mercy and grace.
3. Kabir uses the term "hidden treasure" to describe that which lies buried deeply within the heart (30). As a form of Praying with Scripture, in a quiet place and time read the following verses from the Qur'an and meditate on their meaning for you. Write in your journal what you see, hear and understand from them.
Call to your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts.
Truly, He does not love those who go beyond the bounds of what is right.
And so, do not spread corruption on earth after it has been so well ordered.
And call to Him with awe and longing:
truly, God's grace is very near those who do good. [7:55]
Definitions
1. EMPTINESS: This term is used in spiritual tradition as a synonym for detachment or for "spiritual poverty" (Jesus' "poor in spirit"). Used in this way emptiness is not a negative but a positive state of open unclutteredness which we offer to God in order to become a channel for the flow of Spirit into the world.
2. QUALITY: Inner essence, as opposed to exterior form and measurement, is quality. Quality can also be defined as the inner excellence, integrity, and beauty of something which is its true and Divinely created character. When humans make something of high quality they are passing along the inner qualities which have been created in them by God and placing them within those objects.
3. ALCHEMY: An ancient tradition of recognizing the qualities and essences of things and substances, but especially as they relate symbolically to the soul. In its purest form Alchemy was a system of sacred and spiritual symbols about the transformation of the human soul. For example, the steps necessary in spiritual transformation were likened to the transmutation of heavy lead into brilliant gold.
4. MERCY: God's Mercy is seen as that which brings every being and quality into existence, and that enfolds all creation. Divine Mercy is the tender compassion of God that comes alongside and supports us in ways that will empower us. Mercy initiates strength. It is the grace of God luring us out of our traps and into freedom. Finally, it is God's Mercy in any situation that allows us to remember Him and return to Him.
[1] Being (Al-Wujuud): The timeless, spaceless attribute of the Divine which when experienced is satisfying in and of itself without reference to any thing.
If God could be described as "Absolute," then Being is the first differentiation of God which generates or allows the creation of the world. Being, therefore contains all the possibilities of existence in their perfect, unmanifest condition.
As far as the experience of the human being is concerned, Being is the timeless, spaceless attribute of The Divine, satisfying in and of itself, that can be experienced by the conscious soul. In the language of mystical poetry is the "Ocean" as opposed to the "foam" (existence).