Sit Still and Conquer
In the rapidly shrinking globe that the revolution in mass communications has brought about the bulwarks of
traditional cultures, that enabled the currents of thought to be filtered and given local character, have become
ever more porous. This is a two edged sword - imagine the rapid and dynamic effect on the thought patterns of
man of Lord Jesus, of the holy Prophet Mohammed, of a Buddha, introduced suddenly into the world of mass
communications - but also imagine the terrible negative effects of the thought patterns of a Nero or a Pharaoh.
Thus it has become ever more urgent in the 'battle for hearts and minds', indeed for the soul of man, that we
examine the thought trends that flow through our individual and collective minds. It becomes imperative we test
these thought patterns against the touchstone of Truth. Not 'my truth' or 'your truth', not a mere assemblage of
facts, not a specific philosophical or religious interpretation, but against the Truth which a deep moment of
introspection reveals to underlie our deepest sense of individual and collective being. Somebody studying
psychology said 'there is no such thing as truth' - I asked 'Is that statement true?'
Let us look at the increasing emphasis on dynamic external action to secure ends. Man seen as able to
secure his own destiny by his own activity, his happiness by his own effort. Man as the master of his
environment securing ever greater command over the physical universe.
At its most positive this challenges superstition replacing hocus pocus with reliable medicine, pious inactivity
with water wells, ignorance with education, and superstition with reason. Its challenges more traditional cultural
systems whose own 'perfection' often results in societies unable to easily adapt to change. It favours results
over means, and measures purely by the yardstick of material outcomes. Its undoubted benefits are more than
merely seductive - who would not wish the poor to have cleaner water, the illiterate better schools, the starving
more food etc. It appears to have enabled its most effective exponents to achieve material, economic and
even military dominance.
But for all this increasing power over the material universe something appears to have been missed.
Labour with what zeal we will,
Something yet remains undone,
Something uncompleted still,
Waits the rising of the sun.
(Longfellow)
Like the fabled 'Ozymandius', king of kings' we find ourselves deceived into thinking:
'Look on my works you might and despair!'
but the poet reminds us that this was was found inscribed on a plinth near a statue in the desert, and that:-
Nothing beside remains, round the decay
Of that collosal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sand stretched far away.'
(Percy Byshe Shelley)
The fact is that our 'mastery' of the material universe is essentially illusory and it masks our lack of mastery
over ourselves. 'What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul' is as sound an
expression of truth now as it ever was.
Indeed the advanced mystics know that it is the case that our apparent mastery of the physical universe is in
fact an abject form of slavery. Whilst apparently empowering us to carry out our will it in fact hides from us the
fact that we constantly cede our power over ourselves to the means that we increasingly depend on.
Nevertheless the wholesale abandonment or repudiation of mastery over the physical universe is neither a
realistic social option nor necessarily a desireable spiritual goal.
To retreat to an ivory tower, to hide away in a cave may once have been an option for some - but modern
mystics tend to take a different view. The goal of the mystics is to be 'in the world but not of it'. However much
more finely wrought the chains of cause and effect are, the essential problem is to be free of them altogether
not to make the chains less sophisticated.
People like stories - here is one:
A fisherman on the bank of the river hooked a fine silvery fish and was considering whether to take it for his
supper. 'I wonder' he said out loud, 'if this fish would make a fine supper?' The fish on the end of the line spoke
(as they do in stories): 'How would it be, to be your supper?' it asked. 'Why' he said - 'I will beat you to death
with my club, and then I will cook you over my fire - and then when you are burnt to crisp I will eat you.'
'That does not seem to me to be an attractive fate' said the fish (understandably). 'And what is it that you think
would be a desireable fate?' said the fisherman. 'Why I would like to be free so that I can choose to go
whatever way I like - turning to the right or the left as I wish - to be master of my destiny'. replied the fish with
some enthusiasm.
Ah!' said the fisherman - 'but if I threw you back how would you be the master of your fate? When the current of
the river drags you one way you will have to go with it or spend all your time fighting against it. When you are
hungry you will have to follow your appetite and find things to feed on. When large fish come you will have hide
or maybe you will be caught and eaten. When the desire to mate overwhelms you will not be able to resist it.
How then are you master over your fate?'
'That is true' said the fish, 'but when you eat me how will that be better or make me more a master of my fate?'
'Why, when I eat you' replied the fisherman, 'you will become part of me, for what is eaten in some sense also
eats. Your awareness would become one with mine. Now when the current of the river pulls one way it will no
longer effect you as it does not affect me, for I can wade freely across or use a boat - you will have no fear of
fish large or small, you will live on in me much longer, and participate in my freedom to walk and talk and see
so many things in the wide world which are not even known to you and of which you cannot even imagine.
Though my freedom indeed has its limits they are far beyond yours.'
The point here is that whilst we remain slaves to our lower nature our freedom is in reality extremely limited.
We may like to think that we decide to take this or that course of action but in fact the undercurrent of our
desires, our lusts, our appetites in fact pull us in various directions.
To be free first recognise you are slave. Try this little exercise if you don't believe me. Suppose that in front of
you is an unopened box. You have to decide whether to open it or not. On either side of you sit two people -
one urges you to open the box the other urges you to leave it unopened. You wish to exert your own will but
there are only two options either you do not open it or you do open it (no other options are available so don't let
your mind try to wriggle out of it by half opening it etc). In either case you may feel you have been influenced by
one or the other - your will influenced by theirs.
The subconscious forces urging us to one course of action or another are ever present throughout every
minute of our day. The complexities of a computer are built on the premise of a massive number of 'yes' or 'no'
decisions - just so the complexity of our lives are built around a multitude of such small decisions. Yet we
perceive ourselves as free to choose?
To go back to the box - when those two 'men' are in fact our slaves, neither influencing nor commanding us, but
begging us and gratefully accepting our decision then the relationship is entirely turned around. The decision
then truly becomes our own.
To be free is to master those subconscious urges of our lower nature. The ideal of mastery of our selves is
beautifully presented in an image by Shah Walli Ullah of Delhi. The image is of a man on a horse with a hunting
dog. Our intellectual soul is the man in the saddle, commanding and deciding, the horse is the heart-soul
carrying with its energy the intellectual soul, the hunting dog is our bodily soul - obeying the commands and
trotting faithfully alongside.
Mevlana Rumi says 'O my son, burst the chains of (love for) silver and gold - and be free!'
Mastery of our self is not obtained without help and guidance - in Sufism it is the spiritual guide that provides
that help. He is a free man and his earnest desire - indeed his prayer is to make his disciple free. Khawaja
Muinuddin Hassan Chishti said that 'to free the slaves' is one of the greatest forms of prayer.
To be free is to conquer ourselves. When we have conquered ourselves the devices and means on which our
contemporary societies so depend are no longer our chains but our decorative ornaments to be worn or not
according to our choice.
But now the question arises as to how to conquer ourselves - naturally our mental conditioning presupposes a
'how' - what action must we take? - but that is indeed one part of our chains. Indeed the saying of Nawob Gudri
Shah Baba has greater significance than appears. 'Love is gift'. In truth the acquisitions of the Sufi rarely
derive from effort alone but the effort may be a prelude receiving a gift or the gift may arrive without conscious
effort.
Dr Sharib once said that the first lesson of Sufism is simply to learn how to sit. In some respects it is the first
and the last lesson.
Khawaja Muinuddin Hassan Chishti has said that to sit cross legged and to close the door of comfort and to
think of nothing but love - this is to be a sufi indeed.
To sit still is to bring the impulses and desires of the lower soul under control. The mind is restless ever
seeking to pursue vain thoughts - but like wild animals when we pursue them they run ever faster away - when
once we sit still in our mind the animals (our thoughts) no longer flee - they turn towards us - they approach,
they become tamed.
When we have calmed and brought under control our impulses and our desires and our thoughts and we have
mastery of our self then we are able to act with real freedom in this world and the next. Then the mirror of our
heart becomes cleaned. Then we can also travel with a speed faster than a rocket, talk to people over long
distances (with colour vision), see the events of the future and past - indeed have all the qualities that we have
learned to associate with technical means such as television, radio, telephones etc. Then we are no longer a
stranger to the unseen world wherein occur the events that prefigure the events of the physical universe.
Then too those things which were so elusively missing from the world of dependence on means and outward
actions - I mean inward peace, true happiness and joy, real love, contentment, and security become ours. And
what is more we are truly free in our outward actions - our inner stillness remains even when we return to the
sphere of physical actions. Even in our actions and movements we are ever 'sitting still'. We return to the world
of actions no longer as slaves but as freed men, masters of our own destiny within and by the grace of
Almighty God.
Jamiluddin Morris Zahuri (Southampton,September 15th 2003)