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Philosophical and Spiritual Framework of Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Philosophical and Spiritual Framework of Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

Philosophical and Spiritual Framework

 

Compiled by Paul Ketelaar 2016 – 2017

 

 

A Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty, 1914 (Volume V)

 

God is regarded from three points of view:

1.     Personality; God is the most high; man is dependent upon Him and is His most obedient servant

2.     Morality; According to the second view, God is the all-merciful and all-good Master of the Day of Judgment, while all evil is from Satan.

3.     Reality; The third is the philosophic view that God is the beginning and end of all, having Himself no beginning nor end.

Two aspects of the Supreme Being

According to Sufi tenets the two aspects of the Supreme Being are termed:

1.     Zat the Knower (in URI: the Self of God, Purusha, Spirit)

2.     Sifat, the Known (in URI: the qualities of God, Prakriti, Matter)

See also: URI Part V, chapter XI The God of Islam.

Five terms for The Ideal Perfection,

1.     ‘Baqa’ called by Sufis,

2.     ‘Najat’ in Islam,

3.     ‘Nirvana’ in Buddhism

4.     ‘Salvation’ in Christianity

5.     ‘Mukhti’ in Hinduism.

This is the highest condition attainable, and all ancient prophets and sages experienced it, and taught it to the world.

There are three ways in man’s journey towards God.

  1. The first is the way of ignorance, through which each must travel. (…) Such is the condition of the average person, who spends his life blindly under the influence of his senses (…)
  2. The next way is that of devotion, which is for true lovers.
  3. The third is the way of wisdom, accomplished only by the few. The disciple disregards life’s momentary comforts, unties himself from all earthly bondages and turns his eyes toward God (…)

The only Being has manifested Himself through seven different planes of existence, to accomplish His desire of being recognized:

Tanzih:

  1. Zat – the unmanifested
  2.  Ahadiat – plane of Eternal Consciousness
  3.  Wahdat – plane of consciousness
  4.  Wahdaniat – plane of abstract ideas

Tashbih:

  1. Arwah – the spiritual plane
  2. Ajsam – the astral plane
  3. Insan – the physical plane

There are, again, seven aspects of manifestation:

  1. Sitara – planetary
  2. Mahtab – lunar
  3. Aftab – solar
  4. Madeniat – mineral kingdom
  5. Nabitat – vegetable kingdom
  6. Haywanat – animal kingdom
  7. Insan – human kingdom

Insan, being the ideal manifestation, recognizes God by the knowledge of his own self. Man reaches this perfection by development through five grades of evolution:

  1. Nasut – material plane
  2. Malakut – mental plane
  3. Jabarut – astral plane
  4. Lahut – spiritual plane
  5. Hahut – plane of consciousness

Each grade of development prepares a person for a higher one, and perfects him in five different grades of humanity:

  1. Adam – the ordinary man
  2. Insan – the wise man
  3. Wali – the holy man
  4. Qutb – the saint
  5. Nabi – the prophet

The five natures corresponding to these five grades are:

  1. Ammara – one who acts under the influence of his senses;
  2. Lawwama – one who repents of his follies;
  3. Mutmainna – one who considers before taking action;
  4. Alima – one who thinks, speaks and acts aright;
  5. Salima – one who sacrifices himself for the benefit of others.

The following is a diagram illustrating the planes of Nuzul and Uruj (evolution and involution):
All planes of existence consist of vibrations, from the finest to the grossest kind; the vibrations of each plane have come from a higher one, and have become grosser. Whoever knows the mystery of vibrations, he indeed knows all things.

 

 

 

Vibrations are of five different aspects, appearing as the five elements:

  1. Nur – ether
  2. Bad – air
  3. Atish – fire
  4. Ab – water
  5. Khak – earth

In relation to these elements, mankind has five senses:

  1. Basarat – sense of sight the eyes
  2. Samat – sense of hearing the ears
  3. Naghat – sense of smell the nose
  4. Lazzat – sense of taste the tongue
  5. Muss – sense of touch the skin

Through these senses and different organs of the mental and physical existence the Ruh, the soul, experiences life; and when the Ruh receives the highest experience of all phases of existence by the favor of the murshid, then it will have that peace and bliss, the attainment of which is the only object of manifestation.

There are four aspects of the heart:

  1. ‘Arsh – the exaltation of the will
  2. Kursi – the seat of justice and distinction
  3. Lauh – the fount of inspiration
  4. Qalam – the source of intuition

There are five kinds of dreams:

  1. Khayali – in which the actions and thoughts of the day are reproduced in sleep.
  2. Qalbi – in which the dream is opposite to the real happening.
  3. Naqshi – in which the real meaning is disguised by as symbolic representation which only the wise can understand.
  4. Ruhi – in which the real happening is literally shown.
  5. Ilhami – in which divine messages are given in letters or by an angelic voice.

 

There are five kinds of inspiration:

  1. Ilhami Ilm – inspiration of an artist and scientist
  2. Ilhami Husn – inspiration of a musician and poet
  3. Ilhami Ishq – inspiration of a devotee
  4. Ilhami Ruh – inspiration of a mystic
  5. Ilhami Ghaib – inspiration of a prophet

Inspirations are reflected upon mankind in five ways:

  1. Kushad dar Khayal – in the wave of thought
  2. Kushad dar Hal – in emotions and feelings
  3. Kushad dar Jamal – in the sufferings of the heart
  4. Kushad dar Jalal – in the flow of wisdom
  5. Kushad dar Kamal – in the divine voice and vision

Music

Music is called Ghiza-i-ruh, the food of the soul, by Sufis. Music being the most divine art elevates the soul to the higher spirit; music itself being unseen soon reaches the unseen; just as only the diamond can break the diamond, so musical vibrations are used to make the physical and mental vibrations inactive, in order that the Sufi may be elevated to the spiritual spheres.

Music consists of vibrations which have involved from the top to the bottom, and if they would only be systematically used, they could be evolved from the bottom to the top. Real music is known only to the most gifted ones.

Music has five aspects:

  1. Tarab – music which induces motion of the body (artistic)
  2. Raga – music which appeals to the intellect (scientific)
  3. Qul – music which creates feelings (emotional)
  4. Nida – music heard in vision (inspirational)
  5. Saut – music in the abstract (celestial)

There are five aspects of Wajd (also Wajad, meaning ecstasy):

  1. Wajd of dervishes, which produces a rhythmic motion of the body;
  2. Wajd of idealists, expressed by a thrilling sensation of the body, tears and sighs;
  3. Wajd of devotees, which creates an exalted state in the physical and mental body;
  4. Wajd of saints, which creates perfect calm and peace;
  5. Wajd of prophets, the realization of the highest consciousness called Sidrat ul-Muntaha.

There are seven kinds of concentration in Sufism (left out in Volume V!)

  1. Nimaz, for control over the body
  2. Wazifa, for control over the mind
  3. Zikar, for physical purification
  4. Fikar,for mental purification
  5. Kasab, to enter the Spirit
  6. Shagal, to enter the Abstract
  7. Amal, for complete annihilation

Perfection is reached by the regular practice of concentration, passing through three grades of development:

  1. Fana-fi-Shaikh, annihilation in the astral plane,
  2. Fana-fi-Rasul, annihilation in the spiritual plane
  3. Fana-fi-Allah, annihilation in the abstract.

After passing through these three grades, the highest state is attained of Baqi-bi-Allah, annihilation in the eternal consciousness, which is the destination of all who travel by this path.

Male and female

The only Being is manifested throughout all planes of existence in two aspects, male and female, representing nature’s positive and negative forces.

In the plane of consciousness there are two aspects:

  1. Wahdat, consciousness,
  2. Ahadiat, eternal consciousness,

and thus also spirit and matter, night and day, signify the dual aspect on lower planes. In the mineral and vegetable kingdoms sex is in a state of evolution, but the highest manifestation of male and female is man and woman.

There are three kinds of virgins.

  1. One, commonly considered a virgin, who has never had association with a man;
  2. Another is the virgin in heart, whose love is centered in one beloved only;
  3. The third is the virgin in soul, who considers man as God. She alone can give birth to a divine child.

 

 

The Unity of Religious Ideals (1927) (Volume IX)

Part I Religion

Religion can be seen from five different points of view

  1. Certain dogmas, laws or teachings
  2. The church and the form of the service
  3. The religious ideal, the Lord and Master of religion, for example Christ
  4. The idea of God
  5. Something living in the soul, the mind and the heart of man

Un. Rel. Id. Part I Religion, Chapter IV

Five deep desires of the soul of man:

  1. Seeking for the ideal
  2. The desire to live
  3. The desire for exaltation
  4. The desire to probe the depth of life (insight)
  5. Happiness and comfort (balance, union, security)

Un. Rel. Id. Part I Religion, Chapter V

Five aspects of prayer

  1. Giving thanks to God for the numberless blessings
  2. Admitting ones shortcomings and asking for forgiveness (showing humility)
  3. To ask for help in the difficulties and troubles in life
  4. The call over the lover to the beloved
  5. To know God and to draw Him nearer

It is these five aspects which constitute the form of religious worship.

Un. Rel. Id. Part I Religion, Chapter V

We can see the law (of religion) in five aspects

  1. The institution of marriage and of divorce (safeguarding the position of women)
  2. The division of (safeguarding) property
  3. The laws on birth and death
  4. The laws of social life
  5. Laws concerning the community and the country

Un. Rel. Id. Part I Religion, Chapter V

Three kinds of people who perform praying

  1. One who fulfils a certain duty
  2. One who does what he is taught
  3. One with an imagination that he is in the presence of God

Un. Rel. Id. Part I Religion, Chapter VI

Two ways of prayer.

First way has three kinds of prayer:

  1. Thanking God for his gifts
  2. Asking God for his mercy and forgiveness
  3. Asking God to grant the desires and wishes that we have

The second way has two kinds of prayer:

  1. Prayer as an adoration of the immanence of God (for instance in the beauty of nature)
  2. Prayer of an invocation of the Nature of God, of the Truth of His Being.

Un. Rel. Id. Part I Religion, Chapter VII

 

Part II The God-Ideal

Two aspects of God

  1. God
  2. The God-Ideal (made by men)

Two points of view of the God-Ideal

  1. The point of view of the imaginative person (minor)
  2. The point of view of the God-conscious person (major)

Three steps to spiritual democracy:

  1. Bowing for a worldly king
  2. Bowing for a priest or a prophet
  3. Bowing for God alone

Step 3 eventually should result in finding the divine spark within oneself which is called self-realisation.

Part III The Spiritual Hierarchy

According to the Sufi conception there are seven degrees in the spiritual hierarchy, which can be distinguished as different stages of responsiveness, in other words of higher initiation.

They are:

  1. Pir
  2. Buzurg
  3. Wali
  4. Ghaus
  5. Qutb
  6. Nabi
  7. Rasul

These are the degrees belonging to the inner initiation to which a disciple becomes entitled after receiving the necessary outer initiations. It is beyond words to express what inner initiation means and in what form it is given. Those to whom the inner initiation is unknown may explain it as a dream or as a vision, but in reality it is something higher and greater than that. I can only explain it by saying that the definite changes which take place during one’s journey on the spiritual path are initiations, and it is these initiations which include man in the spiritual hierarchy.

  • An older issue of the Unity of religious Ideals has a different version of this passage. It goes:
    According to the Sufi conception there are several degrees distinguished as different stages of responsiveness, in other words of higher initiation. Among them are five principal ones: Wali, Ghaus, Qutb, Nabi, Rasul.
  • This spiritual hierarchy is mentioned in more lectures and subsequently in different papers.

There are three roads to spiritual attainment, which meet in the end at one junction:

  1. The road of the Master (the path of self-discipline and will-power, more jelal)
  2. The road of the Saint (the path of love, harmony and beauty, more jemal)
  3. The road of the Prophet (the balance between will-power and and resignation to the will of God, more Kemal)

Part IV The Spirit of Guidance

Names of the Prophets

(…) four such distinctions are known:

  1. Abraham was called Habib Allah, the friend of God.
  2. Moses was distinguished as Kalam Allah, the one who communicates with God.
  3. Jesus was called RuhAllah, the spirit of God.
  4. Muhammad was called Rasul Allah, the messenger of God.

 

Part V Prophets and Religion

There are four duties of the faithful as taught in Islam:

  1. Salaat, prayer five times a day
  2. Zakat, charity
  3. Roza, fasting during the month of Ramadan
  4. Hajj, pilgrimage to Mekka

The four grades of knowledge in Islam

  1. Sheriat (Sharia) The law. How to live in the outer world
  2. Tarikat, (Tariqat) understanding the law
  3. Hakikat , (Haqiqat) to know the truth of our being and the inner law of Nature
  4. Marefat, the actual realization of God, the One Being, when there is no doubt anywhere.

Part VI, The Message

The Messenger has five aspects to his Being:

  1. The Divine
  2. The Ideal
  3. The Prophet
  4. The Message-bearer
  5. The Teacher

(Chapter II The Messenger)

Three stages of action for the followers of the Message

There are three stages of action which the sincere followers of the Message have to pass through:

  1. Receiving the Message (collecting knowledge of the Truth)
  2. Assimilating the Message (pondering, contemplating and practicing)
  3. Representing the Message (sharing)

 

Part VII, The Sufi Movement.

The Ten Sufi Thoughts

  1. There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save God.
  2. There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the light.
  3. There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens all readers.
  4. There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life’s purpose of every soul.
  5. There is one Law, the law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
  6. There is one human Brotherhood, the Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God.
  7. There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
  8. There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
  9. There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
  10. There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.

The Three Objectives

The International Sufi Movement was founded by Hazrat Inayat Khan with the following objectives:

1. To realize and spread the knowledge of Unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and all hatred caused by distinctions and differences may be rooted out.

2. To discover the light and power latent in man, the secret of all religion, the power of mysticism, and the essence of philosophy, without interfering with customs or belief.

3. To help to bring the world’s two opposite poles, East and West, closer together by the interchange of thought and ideals, that the Universal Brotherhood may form of itself, and man may meet with man beyond the narrow national and racial boundaries.

Three directions of world service

  1. The philosophical understanding of life
  2. Bringing about brotherhood among races, nations and creeds
  3. To bring to the world that nature’s religion, which has always been the religion of humanity

 

 

 

Moral Culture

(published in 1937, but containing lectures from the London Period 1915 – 1920)

The structure of this book is built on three laws of behavior:

  1. The law of reciprocity
  2. The law of beneficence
  3. The law of renunciation

We find two tendencies working through different individuals (chapter I, IV):

  1. Recognition of grades (showing gentleness)
  2. Non-recognition of the same (showing spirit)

A Sufi does not believe in one-sided tendencies. He says spirit is wanted and gentleness is needed; both are required on suitable occasions.

 

In an Eastern Rose Garden, 1922 (lectures from 1918 – 1920) (Volume VII )

Two aspects of existence

When we look at the universe we find there are two aspects of existence: firstly, life; secondly, the condition which compared with what we call life seems to be lifeless. The one aspect of existence we call life, the other aspect we overlook. We divide it into periods and call it time, or we compare it with objects and call it space.

We say than an object is alive, when it shows some activity and consciousness, meaning that it can move and see and think. An object that cannot see and is not active, we call dead. Whatever seems to be devoid of activity and consciousness is called a thing. When it has consciousness and activity, it is called living.

SILENT LIFE

The artist needs three faculties:

1) Observation: Observation in itself is a concentration when it is keen and well-focused.

2) Concentration; Concentration is divided into three aspects:

  1. a) designing;
    b) filling;
    c) finishing:
  2. a) Designing: Whatever one is concentrating upon one must first be able to form the outline of. This faculty can be developed by observing and taking in the outline of the object.b) Filling: Filling has its two aspects:
  3. i) filling with the parts and items that compose the object, however minute;
    ii) grasping the right sense of the colour.

The former comes from the analytical observation and exactness in taking up the object into one’s mind. The latter comes by the development of the sense of colour, which is a natural faculty in man.

  1. c) Finishing:Finishing is again going over the object one has in mind with an examining attitude, and noticing every little detail separately and collectively, and comparing it with the object that the eyes have seen. This requires not only an analytical tendency, but also exactness and development of memory.

3) Expression

 

The Supplementary Papers ART AND MUSIC III

There are five different aspects of the art of music:

1.     popular, hat which induces motion of the body;

2.     technical, that which satisfies the intellect;

3.     artistic, that which has beauty and grace;

4.     appealing, that which pierces the heart;

5.     uplifting, that in which the soul hears the music of the spheres.

Volume II – The Mysticism of Music, Sound and Word, Part I: The Mysticism of Sound, Chapter VII
MUSIC (1923)

Note: Compare this to: in A Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty (1914):

  1. Tarab – music which induces motion of the body (artistic)
  2. Raga – music which appeals to the intellect (scientific)
  3. Qul – music which creates feelings (emotional)
  4. Nida – music heard in vision (inspirational)
  5. Saut – music in the abstract (celestial)

Three aspects of the soul

In the Vedanta the soul is called by three names which denote its three aspects:

1.     Atma is the soul conscious of the life on the surface,

2.     Mahatma is the soul conscious as well of the life within,

3.     Paratma is the consciousness that is the soul of souls, conscious of the Absolute within and without, the God of the knower, the Lord of the seer.

Volume V – Spiritual Liberty, Part III: THE PHENOMENON OF THE SOUL, MANIFESTATION (1)

 

The Way of Illumination 1922 (Volume I)

The ten Sufi thoughts (where this version differs from The Unity of Religious Ideas the words are underlined. The original word(s) is placed between brackets.

  1. There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save He (God).
  2. There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads His (All) followers towards the light.
  3. There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens the reader (all readers).
  4. There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life’s purpose of every soul.
  5. There is one Law, the law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
  6. There is one (human) Brotherhood, the human Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God.
  7. There is one Moral (Principle), the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
  8. There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers (worshipper) through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
  9. There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom.
  10. There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, (and) in which resides all perfection.

 

There are two aspects of intelligence:

  1. Intellect, knowledge of names and forms
  2. Wisdom, knowledge which is illuminated by the light within

Some terms concerning consciousness; the wakeful state

  1. Knowledge is that of which the consciousness is conscious
  2. Conscience is the relation between your actions and your ideal
  3. Intelligence is the grasping faculty of consciousness
  4. Ignorance is the state when the mind is in darkness
  5. Imagination are mental vibrations that flow into the astral plane without conscious direction
  6. Thoughts are mental vibrations that flow into the astral plane with conscious direction
  7. Dream is imagination while being asleep
  8. Impression is a feeling which rises as a reaction on receiving a reflection coming from the external world (physical, mental or astral
  9. Intuition is an inner message independent of an external source
  10. Inspiration is a rising stream from the depth of the heart of the Jinns
  11. Vision is a spiritual dream when awake or asleep
  12. Revelation is the disclosing of the inner self

 

Part III The Sufi

chapter ii

Three inclinations of the pupil before initation (Bayat)

  1. The desire to learn something different from what is taught in the world
  2. The feeling that one is already a sufi
  3. The feeling that the Message is genuine

There are three ways in which people trust:

  1. Not to trust a person until he proves in time to be trustworthy
  2. To trust and continue to do so until the person is proved to be unworthy of trust
  3. To have absolute trust, the trust of a devotee (it is these mureeds who make the Murshid)

Invalid reasons to want initiation:

  1. For the sake of curiosity to see what is going on in a ‘secret’ order
  2. To gain some material advantage in one’s occupation
  3. For the sake of attaining happiness
  4. If one has set before oneself certain principles one does not wish to abandon

 

Chapter iii

Sufis are inclined to recognize four stages of belief:

  1. Iman-e Mumil. To believe what others believe
  2. Iman-e Kamil. To believe in the scriptures and the lessons of the savior
  3. Haq al-Iman.To believe because his reason allows him to believe
  4. ‘Ain al-Iman. To believe from conviction

The breaking of one belief to progress to the next stage is called Tark (abandonment):

  1. Abandonment of the worldly ideal
  2. Abandonment of the heavenly ideal
  3. Abandonment of the divine ideal
  4. Abandonment of the abandonment

 

 

 

 

The Inner Life (1922)

Chapter I The preparation for the journey

The inner life consists of two things:

  1. Action with knowledge
  2. Repose with passivity of mind

By keeping balanced in these two directions one comes to the fullness of life.

Chapter II The object of the journey

The God ideal can be imagined in different ways:

  1. God as a Father or Mother
  2. God as a Creator
  3. God as a Judge
  4. God as a Forgiver
  5. God as a Friend
  6. God as the Beloved

The inner journey has also a tendency to go backwards:

  1. Aspects of youth: health, vigour, strength, enthusiasm, energy and a living spirit
  2. Aspects of a child: eager to play, ready to laugh, no worry or anxiety
  3. Aspects of an infant: innocence, no regard for honour or insult
  4. Aspects of basic humanity: self-sacrifice, respect, gratitude faithfulness, patience and endurance
  5. Signs of the animal kingdom; the strength and power of an elephant, the inclination of a horse to serve, the cow that lives harmoniously in the world
  6. Signs of the vegetable kingdom: bringing forth fruit and flowers, patiently waiting for the rain
  7. Aspects of the mineral kingdom, to become a rock for people to lean on.
  8. The Jinn quality, all-knowing and all-understanding
  9. The nature of an Angel, to be worshipful
  10. The stage of perfection

 

Chapter VIII. The attainment of the inner life

In the attainment of the inner life there are five things necessary:

  1. The mastery of the mind by the process of unlearning
  2. To seek a spiritual guide
  3. Receiving knowledge of the inner world in three steps:
    1. Receiving the inner knowledge
    2. Assimilating the inner knowledge
    3. Reasoning out the inner knowledge
  4. Meditation (Ryazat)
    1. First doing it mechanically at a certain time during the day
    2. Then continue to think of the object of meditation at some moments during the day
    3. Finally being in a meditative state throughout the day and the night.
  5. The loving of the everyday life. This exercise has five principles:
    1. Avoid hurting the feelings of another
    2. Avoid allowing themselves to be affected by the constantly jarring influences which every soul has to meet in life
    3. Keep ones balance under all different situations and conditions which upset this tranquil state of mind
    4. Love unceasingly all those who deserve love, and to give to the undeserving their forgiveness
    5. Detachment amidst the crowd (Khilwad dar Anjuman)

 

Chapter X The five different kinds of spiritual souls

How does one live an inner live in the world, amidst people of all kind?

  1. The religious character, living the religious life
  2. The philosophical mind, he understands all things of the world inwardly
  3. The server, the one who does good to others
  4. The mystic, an example of God´s mystery in the form of man
  5. The Madzub, who puts on the mask of innocence

There is no end to the variety of the outward appearance of spiritual souls in life; but at the same time there is no better way of living in this world and yet living the inner life than being oneself, outwardly and inwardly.

 

 

 

 

 

The Soul, Whence and Wither (1924).

The manifestations of Zat are discussed in the introduction in a way that was done before in ‘The Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty’ (1914). The explanation has somewhat evolved as is shown below

 

Term Sufi Message of Spritual Liberty The Soul Whence and Wither
Zat the unmanifested The Truly Existing
Ahadiat plane of Eternal Consciousness The Absolute
Wahdat plane of consciousness The Consciousness of Existence
Wahdaniat plane of abstract ideas Logos, the first Ego. I am.
Arwah the spiritual plane The Divine Spirit of the Nur (light)(Light and darkness form a mould, an Akasha or Asmán)
Ajsam the astral plane The Divine Spirit as form and motion
Insan the physical plane The Divine Spirit spreads it’s rays as various souls (mineral, vegetable, animal and human

 

Vibrations are of five different aspects, appearing as the five elements:

(Between brackets is the spelling of ‘The Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty’ (1914).

  1. Nur (Nur) – ether
  2. Baad (Bad)    – air
  3. Aetsh (Atish)   – fire
  4. Aab   (Ab)      – water
  5. Khaak (Khak) – earth

These five elements are present in all Akasha’s.

 

Creation seen as the breath of God:

  1. Inhalation, contraction, concentration of intelligence
  2. Exhalation, expansion, manifestation, spreading of the Divine Spirit, creation (Hindu term: Chaitanya)
  3. Inhalation, contraction, withdrawal, destruction (Hindu term: Pralaya)

 

 

 

 

 

Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism 1946 (lectures from the Summerschools of 1925 and 1926 (Volume XI )

Light has three principal aspects:

  1. the source of all light, intelligence
    1. intelligence in it’s original state, the knowing Being, the Only Being, unawakened intelligence
    2. intelligence in it’s process of development, the knowledge of Being. Awakened intelligence
    3. the knowing faculty of men, limited intelligence
  2. the perpetual light, the sun
  3. light in the ordinary sense of the word. In our everyday life, the light of a candle

Part I: Philosophy Chapter VI LIGHT

Four aspects of nature

To a mystic the word nature has a wider meaning; according to the mystical point of view nature has four different aspects.

  1. The forest, the desert, hills and dales, mountains and rivers, sunrise and sunset, the moonlit night and the shining stars are one aspect of nature. (…)
  2. And then we come to the next aspect of nature, an aspect which manifests through the lower creation. The silent little creatures crawling on the earth, the birds singing in the trees, the lion with its wrath, the elephant with its grandeur, the horse with its grace, and the deer with its beauty, all these tell him something. (…)
  3. There is an aspect of nature which is still more interesting, and to see it the mystic need not go away, for he sees it in the midst of the world. What is it? It is to read human nature and to watch its continual change, (…)
  4. And the fourth aspect of nature is seeing the divine nature, realizing the meaning of the saying that man proposes and God disposes. When one is able to see the works of God in life, another world is opened before one; (…)

Part III: Mysticism, Chapter VII, NATURE