December 31, 2015
The Prophet said, “O seeker of the mysteries,
wouldst thou see a dead human living,
Walking on the earth, like living humans;
yet that one’s spirit dwells in the Heavens,
Because it has transcended before death
and will not transcend when that one dies --
A mystery beyond understanding,
understood only by dying --
If any one wish to see a dead human walking
thus visibly on the earth
Behold Abu Bakr, the devout,
who in virtue of being a true witness to Allaah
became the Prince of the Resurrected.”
...
Become the Resurrection and so behold it:
becoming is the necessary condition for beholding the reality of
anything.
Whether it be light or darkness, until thou become it
thou wilt never know [come to knowing] it completely.
(adapted from Selected Poems of Rumi,
translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, p. 58 - 59)
* * *
A dead human living? No, this is not a post about zombies. Instead it points to the realm of the mysteries, a realm that extends beyond the limitations of mind-based comprehension. (And I’m intentionally not addressing what the mysteries refer to in this post, but may the readers have their own sense of what these are to them.) Whereas portions of the mysteries can be taught, the fullness of such cannot: and more often the Beloved, the Only Teacher, does not teach the mysteries but instead reveals them. Prophets, masters, and saints who serve the role of teaching about the mysteries may utilize points of the mysteries within the mental realm to point (open) students to their fullness -- which extends beyond the mind. Yet many who acknowledge the limitations of the mind still seek to “understand” and live the fullness of the mysteries through the mind. Most do so not being aware of this limiting dynamic: a means by which we place and keep ourselves in bondage to the limits of the mind, and the ignorance and delusion that often accompany such.
So in the context of the opening words, there is a calling to the seeker of the mysteries: to be cognizant of this dynamic that may be working within us in ways we are not aware of (ignorance) or misperceive and confuse (elements of delusion). As we open to something that is beyond the mind’s ability to understand, such as seeing a dead human living, are we open to not understanding yet receiving and becoming (“experiencing”) a knowing that is not limited to the mind -- in particular, the limited “I” we construct, in part, from the stuff of my mind? This knowing expands beyond mind-based knowledge into the deepening awareness of the heart; and leads even further into the indescribable Awareness that is the Beloved Itself.
When opening to the mysteries, it is often helpful in the beginning to acknowledge and accept the mind’s resistance to these. In this case, to accept the mind questioning how something can be dead and yet alive when alive is the opposite of being dead, and vice versa. In accepting such and then contemplating why the mind is resisting, we come to realize what stuff (attachments) the mind is holding on to. It is these attachments the mind is trying to fit the endless possibilities of manifestation into -- like trying to fit a whole room into a box within that room. Our conditioned tendencies to try to fit the boundless universe into the small boxes our minds conceive are major barriers to receiving and becoming a knowing that expands beyond the mind. It is exceedingly difficult to stop doing something we don’t realize we are doing: one of invitations of the mysteries is to be made aware of our limiting tendencies. Then we may restrain these tendencies as a means to having these eventually diminish and dissolve themselves. In restraint, we acknowledge these tendencies, particularly their pulls, yet refrain from engaging and acting them out. Such engagement and action are like fuel to a fire, which if stopped the fire diminishes until it burns itself out (dissolution). Thus, we come to truly realize that we have a mind but we are not the mind nor the “self” we conceive based on the stuff of the mind.
For so many people, walking on the earth is a fitting metaphor for our mind-based identifications, which then inform our definitions of life. The perception of activity (in the earthly realm) as directed by our individual (“I”-based) will often becomes the boxes we seek to fit the boundlessness of life into. This is usually accompanied by fear of the cessation of such activity, including overt actions as well as more subtle acts and engagement (i.e. thinking). But mystics of many spiritual traditions challenge us to move beyond these conceptions of life -- the metaphor that one’s spirit dwells in the Heavens (as opposed to walking on earth) points to this. In fact, many mystics declare that what is truly life is the cessation of individually-driven activity, even if such cessation appears to be activity to those who hold to mind-based definitions of life. Note the below words of Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi which addresses this dynamic in terms of service of the Beloved. He speaks to the distinction between those who serve through mind-based definitions of life and those who transcend such:
This is what ordinary people don’t understand.