Zakariyya's Discussions
The Path of Integral Spirituality
5 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Steven Nickeson Feb 8.
The Worlds Folly
Started Feb 1
True Integral Spirituality
4 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Zakariyya Nov. 16, 2008.
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- About
- I am a lover of knowlege. I am a seeker of universal peace, unity and justice for all humanity, and the complete eradication of all suffering on the planet, as soon as possible.
- What will you be doing in 5 years?
- I have no knowledge of that. Only hope that in five years humanity will be closer to universal peace.
Comment Wall (10 comments)
- At 6:47pm on August 26, 2008,
ned said… - Zak, thanks very much -- your concern is much appreciated.
:-)
In Mother's Grace,
Ned.
- At 6:04pm on August 26, 2008,
ned said…
- Dear Zak,
Just saw my inbox -- I didn't see all your messages before (just saw the last one in my e-mail right now), that's why I hadn't replied to you! Oh dear -- bit of a misunderstanding here. ;-)
Also, btw, I tend to check my gmail address more regularly than the other one -- that's why I hadn't gotten these messages.
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I've stopped blogging for now because some inner changes are going on and I need to let them stabilize.
Do take care of yourself and may the Grace be with you. :-)
In Mother's Love and Light,
Ned.
- At 5:45pm on August 26, 2008,
ned said…
- Dear Zak,
I'm going through some serious inner changes which is why I can't be in close personal contact with anyone for a while. I've also stopped blogging -- just posted a link to Ulrich's jounral today, perhaps I shouldn't even have done that.
It's really nothing personal -- I hope you are well and wish you the best with your book.
Take care of yourself, Zak.
Best,
Ned.
- At 1:36pm on May 9, 2008,
ned said…
- Good to hear from you, Zak!
Fantastic, I'm so glad you're almost ready to publish. I'll also be more than happy to proofread if you want to share the manuscript.
I'll just drop you an e-mail at your address. Take care!
Best,
Ned.
- At 12:19pm on May 9, 2008,
ned said…
- Hey Zak -- just wanting to check in ask how you are.
How is the book coming along? I'm actually dying to read it, because I want to learn about Sufi metaphysics also, and especially see what parallels there are in Sufi metaphysics with Sri Aurobindo's work. I've been especially intrigued by the concept of insaan-e-kamil that you mentioned.
This semester is going to end for me soon, and I'll be off and on vacation for a month or so, so hopefully we'll get a chance to talk in more detail! If you need someone to proofread your manuscript or anything like that, I would love to help out.
Be well!
- At 6:11pm on February 5, 2008,
ned said…
- Hi Zak,
Thanks for your wonderful and engaging reply! I assumed you were the right person to ask these questions. You've pretty much summed up my own suspicions. I really liked the quote about how there are two kinds of sages -- made by the world and made by God! So true! And the trick is that only the awakened inner eye can tell the difference!
Here in New York I'm in touch with the Inayati Sufis, but a friend has also invited me to the Nimatullahi khaniqah, and I've been to the Nur Ashki Jerrahi site as well. I've heard most of Shaykha Fariha's talks -- she is truly wonderful. The Jerrahis in particular have such beautiful interpretation of the Quran, Salat, etc., on their website, that I feel very compelled to visit them and perhaps pray at Masjid al-Farah with them.
Well, my association with Islam is a long story, and I might write about it on my personal blog at some point. I had to go through one of those awful compulsory religious lessons when I was a kid, which basically just brainwashed us into believing all sorts of puritanical nonsense. I don't even think the lecturer had any real knowledge of even exoteric Islam. It took some time for me to deconstruct that mental framework and break free of it -- this happened while I was studying at a university in Lahore.
Anyhow, what's done is done. But believe me, when I revisit Islam through the eyes of Rumi, Ibn al-Arabi and all the rest, I can see tremendous beauty that nobody ever showed me when I was younger. They have some truly profound insights! And I'm a big Mulla Nasruddin fan! I guess this is my problem with Nasr, and all the other more exoteric type of thinkers. What Rumi and Ibn al-Arabi could *see* directly, these scholars only know from second-hand texts. So there is a difference between spiritual "seeing" and mental believing, which they haven't yet learned. And I have seen a lot of these Shaykhs dumbing down Rumi or Ibn al-Arabi, making their ideas seem much narrower than what they are. Lord save us from second-hand saints! ;-)
I think Nasr's anti-evolutionism comes from his perennialism and Traditionalism, this romantic need to keep looking to the past rather than looking ahead or for that matter, realizing that God is beyond history.
There is another half to this story. On the other side, I see people unfairly attacking the Prophet Muhammad or Islam, and especially because I'm now moving among the integral yoga community, there are many misunderstandings about Islam. Moreover, you might know that in India there's recently been a Hindu upsurge, which is partially spiritual but mostly motivated by egoic nationalism. This Hindutva movement is partially a reaction to the creation of Pakistan (which is a whole other topic that I might discuss another time!), and I have seen people within this movement distorting Sri Aurobindo or other Indian spiritual teachers to make it seem like they are denigrating Islam or some such thing. So I see myself as a person who can potentially help build some bridges here, both between Islam and Hinduism, and between India and Pakistan, and I want to make sure I represent Islam properly and not let my impressions get tainted by my own ego-wounds and history.
So it's a very challenging situation that I'm in! My entire family is Muslim in a very exoteric sense, though I have recently been talking to them more openly about spirituality and Sufism. Obviously I cannot mention Sri Aurobindo to them at this point (if at all) as it would be too difficult for them to understand. I once wrote on my blog:
"Sometimes I just feel caught between so many different worlds, cultures, ideologies, and perspectives — East and West, Pakistan and India, Muslim and non-Muslim, Hindutva and Islamism, straight and queer, individualistic and communalistic, materialistic and ascetic, religious and atheistic, scientistic and esoteric, skeptical and spiritual — all the while knowing that if I truly want to understand anything at all, I somehow must learn to swallow and contain an entire universe.
Overwhelmed by the contradictions and paradoxes in my life sometimes, day in and day out, I can only repeat . . . Ma, Sri Aurobindo, Ma, Sri Aurobindo . . . love me, liberate me from this mind that hides from me the multi-faceted, many-sided movements and dynamic evolution of the One."
That about sums up my personal situation.
I am very glad to have found someone like you to speak to. I want you to know that your reply to me has really eased some of the burdens on my heart. Where are you based btw? Are you in North America right now?
Thanks so much for writing! I hope to continue this conversation and learn more about the Sufi tradition.
In love and light,
Ned.
- At 10:38pm on February 4, 2008,
ned said…
- Hi Zak,
I've been busy with work at school, but have been wanting to start up a brief discussion with you on Sufism. Here are a couple of questions that I really wanted your feedback on.
For starters, what exactly is the relationship between the Islamic Sufis and the universalist Sufis? Do they talk to each other at all, or do Islamic Sufis just see the latter as heretics and deviants?
Secondly, why is there such a resistance among the most sophisticated Islamic thinkers to evolutionary thought? Seyyed Hossein Nasr for instance really dislikes Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin, etc., and is vehemently anti-evolutionary (both in the biological and the spiritual sense). But this makes no sense to me, as by all accounts it seems like evolution plays an important role in Rumi's metaphysics.
Lastly, what do you think of the emerging traditionalist Muslim leadership in North America? I'm speaking here of course of the founders of the Zaytuna Institute and similar individuals, e.g. Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad, Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, and so on. From the little I have read of these writers, they strike me -- despite the outward Sufi label -- as being just as fundamentalist as anyone else, only it's fundamentalism couched in more sophisticated intellectual language and taught in an almost world-negating way at times (i.e. this "dunya" is temporary and so it doesn't matter).
I really look forward to hearing from you on this. As I told you I grew up Muslim, but after a period of atheism arrived at Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. However, I do not want to abandon my Muslim background, and I am seeking initiation into a Sufi Order here in New York. I also have some ego-wounds related to Islam in its outer manifestation -- both as a woman and as a person who has struggled with homosexual attraction -- and I want to work on healing those ego-wounds and make my peace with my past.
For Sri Aurobindo's part, he always spoke highly of Prophet Muhammad and of Sufism, and Hazrat Inayat Khan was actually friends with the Mother during her days as a saloniere in Paris. In fact Sri Aurobindo wrote to one of his Muslim devotees to tell him that he had no problems with him using Islamic symbolism or practicing Sufi yogas -- the only reason he himself used Hindu symbolism was because he knew Sanskrit and did not know Persian or Arabic. So I experience no contradiction here between the integral yoga and my seeking initiation into a Sufi Order. In any event Sri Aurobindo's yoga starts where all the others end, and I'm happy to receive Light and wisdom from wherever I can.
All the best,
Ned.
- At 1:56am on January 27, 2008,
ned said…
- Dear Zakariyya,
I've been meaning to get in touch with you! Between reading your comments on my friend Alan's blog, and reading your recent article and critique of AQAL on Integral World, I've enjoyed your work, and find it especially refreshing that you come from a Sufi perspective.
I'm from Pakistan, and grew up Muslim but at present am a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I would love to get into a discussion with you about points of dialogue between Sri Aurobindo's work and Sufism some day. Let me know if you're up for it! I may actually be joining Pir Zia's Sufi Order International in New York (which is where I'm doing my Master's in psychology at present).
Take care, and looking forward to hearing from you!
All the best,
Ned.
- At 1:48pm on January 24, 2008,
BrightAbyss~ said… - Welcome Zakariyya! I hope you find our fledgling community enriching~
- At 7:40am on January 24, 2008,
Zakariyya said…
- Greetings philosophers of the time. I know some of you as among the foremost leading edge thinkers on the internet. I am honered to be here!
Peace
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