Spiritual Topic 02
Doing Duty "Here" From "There",
Not "Here" From "Here"
"The Original Version - Page 1"
Home Page - Spiritual Topics
Written by:
Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)
on May, 2002
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"The Outline and Summary Version" - Page 3
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Go To Table of Contents - Spiritual Topic 02
Go To - "The Two Mistakes That We Have Made" - Quotation From Bawa
Go To - "How To Merge With The Guru" - Discourse By Bawa
Go To - "The One Good Day In A 100 Years" - Comment By Bawa
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Al-salam 'alaykum. May all the peace, the beneficence, and blessings of God be upon us all.
My love you my dearest loving brothers and sisters, we are all very, very, good children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). We must never forget that.
And we must realize without the slightest doubt that the life and teaching of our Father,
Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) is the truth of our life for this age, and though it might be difficult to implement fully in our own lives, still it is a happy thing, not something to be sad about, or to grieve about, or even to be concerned about, but rather to become peaceful about. Bawa has stressed this point over and over again.
However, there is still much we need to understand about the life and teaching of His Holiness.
And we must realize that this learning about the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
(may God be pleased with Him) is not like anything else you or I, or any of us, have ever done before, because more than anything else it involves a new way of life, a new way of being, a new way of knowing and doing things.
For example, more than anything it involves a new way of knowing, of knowing by emptying the cup of all that we know, rather than trying to fill the cup even more, as is our current way of knowing, and a new way of doing things, of doing things "here" from "There", not from "here", of doing things "here" from someplace else other than "here", not doing things "here" from "here", as is our current way of doing things.
"The Two Mistakes That We Have Made"
That Must Now Be Fixed,
While Both You And God Still Can
For His Holiness told us one day,
"You have made two mistakes in your life.
First, you have learned to feed yourself,
and second, you have learned to take care of yourself,
and as a result, you have learned to live here.
"And because of these two mistakes,
(you may never reach your Father, that is),
if these two mistakes are not corrected,
you will never leave here,
and if you don't leave here before you die,
you will never reach your Father,
you will never become again "one with" God,
never again become "one with" each other,
and never again become "one with" the Creation of God,
that God has personally placed within each of you,
and as a result,
you will never learn what you have come here to learn,
which is learning who you already are,
but don't understand."
"So, before you die you must learn how to leave here, you must learn how to again rely on God completely
to take care of you and feed you, as you originally did,
and you must learn how to again awaken your determination to die,
to die if you cannot see your Father,
the type of determination you had when you first came here."
"Only then will you be successful in your life, only then will your wisdom be able to reason over your fate."
This is what we are all now facing, this is the opportunity before all of us, my dearest loving brothers and sisters, to learn to live a new way, to learn to live as "one with" God, rather than as "separate from" God, and the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) is really about this, rather than learning about something new that "we" can use "here", as "separate from" God, as "separate from" each other, and as "separate from" the Creation of God within us.
For example, our learning about things that "we" can do "here" in the state of "separation from" God, from each other, and from the Creation of God, can include many things, including learning how "we" can become Islam, or how "we" can perform the 5 times prayer, or how "we" can correctly perform the 5 obligatory duties of Islam, or correctly say the
Kalimah, the affirmation of the unity of Allah.
It can also include how "we" can learn more about the things that Bawa left behind for "us" in the world when He died, like the books, discourses, songs, and paintings by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him).
All of these things can be learned as something "we" do in "separation from" God, in "separation from" each other, and in "separation from" the Creation of God within us, or we can join with our Shaikh to learn to do them, as "one with" God, as "one with" each other, and as "one with" the Creation of God within us. The choice is ours.
Other examples include, learning how "we" can participate in or join with the things established by Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) while He lived with us in the world, like the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, and the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Mosque, or the things established by the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with each of Us), out of there love, respect, and devotion to Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
(may God be pleased with Him).
This includes things like the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Mazar or Shrine, known affectionately as the "Farm", built by the Children over the grave of His Holiness, or the Bawa
Muhaiyaddeen on-line Library, that is now being established by the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with each of Us).
In one way, all of these things, when seen through the eyes of separation and differences, are irrelevant to the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) and only came about, and will continue to come about, because of our failure to grasp the other, to grasp the real point, the only true liberating point of our life, which is the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) that God has personally placed within each of us, which is to join our life and our learning with the life and learning of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen within us (may God be pleased with Him). Again the choice is ours.
And if we do this, if we make our life and our learning but an aspect of the life and learning of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen within us (may God be pleased with Him), if we make "who we are" but "what Bawa is doing" within us, then all of this stuff of the world becomes very useful, when we use it in partnership with God within us, by joining in partnership with the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen within us (may God be pleased with Him), to complete God's intention within us.
My dearest loving brothers and sisters, this is what we must do to complete God's intention within us, which is to reveal God within God within True Man within us, by revealing True Man within the Creation of God within us, allowing True Man to reveal God within the Creation of True Man within us, and in this way, revealing the Oneness of God and True Man within us, which in truth is God within God within True Man within us.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar.
His Holiness makes a clear distinction between these two things, between the "outside" and the "inside" of the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) using the analogy of a pond and a well.
In this analogy, the pond is the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen on the "outside" of us (may God be pleased with him), and the well is the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen on the "inside" of us (may God be pleased with Him).
The pond is built by His Holiness and by the Children of His Holiness while His Holiness lives in the world, and by the Children of His Holiness after His Holiness physically leaves the world. And the well is built by each of the Children of His Holiness within each of His Children when they join in partnership with His Holiness to do this divine work within themselves.
In truth the pond on the "outside" is a temporary place for each Child of His Holiness to learn how to join with His Holiness first "outside" and then within himself, to dig the well within himself, and in this way, the pond on the "outside" should naturally become within each of His Children the well on the "inside".
In this way, the pond on the "outside" of us is provided by God so we can join with our Father, our Shaikh, on the "outside" of us, and with our brothers and sisters on the "outside" of us, to take the water we need for our spiritual life, and progress to the point where we can join with our Shaikh on the "inside" of us to dig the well of God's grace within us, for the benefit of all of the Creation of God in the 18,000 universes within us.
A well, which if dug, opened, and maintained properly, provides an unending supply of the original water of God's grace, which has come from God for our age, a well which will never dry up, and can be of great benefit to all on the "inside" of us, as well as for all those living in the world who have not yet crossed over, who are still living on the "outside" of us.
In this way, all of the things established by His Holiness in the world, including the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, all of the books, tapes, pictures, and "stuff" of His Holiness, the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Mosque, the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Mazar or Shrine, and the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen on-line Library, that this child has been working on, as well as, all of our brothers and sisters that we experience as living "outside" of us, make up the pond of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him).
But this pond of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), which exists "outside" of us in the world, like all ponds, has a finite life span, and in time will dry up, leaving us with nothing to drink of the original, and we will Spiritually die if that is all we have of the original.
This is the fate of all who rely only on the pond of God for their age, rather than digging the well of God for their age, within their own hearts, and in this way, becoming the Light of God for their age, providing the original water of God for all in their age, for all to drink in their age, both during the life of the pond, and after the pond dries up.
However, this infinite well of God's grace will never dry up, but is only available to those in this age who have either dug the well themselves or who have accepted the wells of God's grace dug by their brothers or sisters, and they do this by accepting the ones who have dug these well of God's grace within themselves, in partnership with God within themselves, by joining with His Holiness within them, as the representatives of God for their age, as the light of God's grace for their age.
This is the key to the well of God's grace, either within His Holiness or within the Children of His Holiness, acceptance, and surrender, acceptance of the well diggers, the diggers of God's well for this age, and surrender to the grace of God that flows from those wells.
In this way, for anyone to properly drink from these wells of God's grace dug by the Children of His Holiness, as they properly drank from the well of God's grace dug by His Holiness, they must accept these Children of His Holiness and surrender to the nourishment of their wells, in the same way that they accepted His Holiness and surrendered to the nourishment of His well.
Or said another way, they must learn to drink from the well of God's grace for this age in the same way that they drank from the pond of God's grace for this age, allowing these new wells to become the new ponds of God's grace for this age.
In this way, His Holiness teaches us that all of His Children can do this divine work, all of the Children of God for this age, for this age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), for this age of the Rahim of God, when God pulls everything back into Him, from which everything has come, can dig the well of God's grace for this age within themselves.
But His Holiness teaches us that only a few will, most will hang out at the pond, forming groups of separation and differences, such as "my race" and "your race", or "my religion" and "your religion", and not even knowing when the pond has dried up.
His Holiness teaches us that this is the natural fate for all ponds of God, for all ages, that it is the natural fate for the pond of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) that has come in our age, as it was for the ponds of God that came in all previous ages, that came before the coming of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) in our age.
We must all realize, and accept with faith and trust in God, my dearest loving brother and sisters, that this is the natural fate of the pond of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) for our age, as it was for all previous ponds, in all previous ages, as it was for all the "Fellowships", Mosques or Temples or Churches, and all the Libraries that formed around the Messengers of God that came into the world in other ages.
As it was the natural fate of the pond of Qutb Muhaiyaddeen Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (may God be pleased with Him) 1000 years ago, for the pond of Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of God be upon Him) 1400 years ago, for the pond of Prophet
Jesus (may the blessings of God be upon Him) 2000 years age, for the pond of Prophet
David (may the blessings of God be upon Him) 3000 years age, for the pond of Prophet
Moses (may the blessings of God be upon Him) 3400 years ago, and for the ponds of the Prophets Abraham and Ishmael (may the blessings of God be upon all of His prophets) 4000 years ago.
And it is the fate of any ponds of God's grace that grow from the wells of God's grace that are successfully dug within the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with each of Us). May we all think about this a little, my dearest loving brothers and sisters. It is very important.
And knowing this, we must all make the effort to make available to all in this age, the well of God's grace that has grown, and is growing, within each of our hearts, through our partnership with God within us, which for this age is the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) within us.
Or to find and join with the ones among us who have done this well digging work, with our brothers and sisters who have successfully dug and opened the well of God's grace within themselves.
And accept, and support them in every way that we can, and surrender to the grace that flows from these wells, and in this way, to finish opening up the wells within ourselves, for the benefit of all of God's Children in this age, in this age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), in this age of the
Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with each of Us).
Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar.
His Holiness teaches us about this process of moving from the pond to the well in the beautiful discourse given on April, 26, 1972, and given the title,
"How To Merge With The Guru",
"The Beginning"
of The Discourse, "How To Merge With The Guru",
by His Holiness, M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)
"Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
I am telling (this to) my children who are members of the Fellowship. There are about one hundred members, who are members of the Fellowship, and who have accepted the Guru, who have accepted me as your Guru.
"It is only when you hold onto a Guru, and rest on the Guru, that you can develop your own wisdom and grace. You must take your heart and merge that heart with the heart of the Guru, and you must take all of your responsibilities and hand it over to the Guru as His responsibilities.
And then you must hand over your soul, your body, and everything that you have to the Guru, and you must take on (the form of the Guru) - your body must become the form of the Guru, the body of the Guru, and your soul must be the Guru Himself.
Only when you have surrendered your entire responsibility to the Guru, will it be possible for you to merge with the Guru, and become One with the Guru.
During the last eight months there were more than 80,000 people who have come at various times, but there were only about 100 of the people who have come here who have accepted the Guru.
The others who have come here have other gurus, and when they come here they pick things from this market, and then take it away with them. So the others who come take these things from the Guru and go.
But it has no effect, because it is like the echo. It is like the echoing sound. It is only when one has handed over the entire responsibility to the Guru, then all of these things that He says is going to have an effect on His disciples.
Otherwise it is like an echo. You just get the echoing of that same sound coming back.
There are many people who have come here, and like this echo, taken things with them when they go back. But what they have taken returns, returns like the echo.
But this doesn't have that penetrating power to go into their own hearts. It is like driving an automobile without a driver. There are so many children who do this, take these things and go.
What they do is take the various things that are given here, and then they try to analyze it in the light of their own knowledge, and in the light of the knowledge of their gurus.
They try to analyze it through their own elements and their own senses, and they don't get anything out of this, because only the Guru who gives it, can analyze what He gives, or what He says.
So tricks without a Guru exist neither below or above (skills learned without a Guru are neither here or there, are of value neither in this world or in the next world).
But if you want to reach God, then you want a true Guru, a perfect Guru, a Qutb. And that Guru will have the characteristics of God. All of the qualities and attributes of God will be found in that Guru.
If you find such a Guru, a perfect Guru, and merge in that Guru, then since the Guru is already lost in God, when you lose yourself in the Guru, you also merge in God.
This is the Triple Flames of God; the disciple, the Guru, and God. And these three flames become One, when the Disciple merges into the Guru, into the Guru who is already merged into God.
You have a Guru. You are very lucky to have a Guru, and you are very lucky to have a very perfect Guru.
He may be in this world for some more time. (And), I request that you, even later, ever after that, (that you help) other children who may come and see you. Then it is your duty to take them, and hand them over to the Guru. So that they will also find their own salvation.
The Guru that you have in this world could be the only Guru. And even if you do not know who this Guru is now, once you have handed over your entire responsibility to the Guru, then perhaps you may come to know who the Guru is in fact.
But to see that Guru, you have to have that firm determination and certitude. He will not search for your help. He will not search for the help of the disciples. All that He will search for or perform are God's duties, and God's commandments.
He doesn't want your food. He doesn't want your things. He doesn't want what you have.
Whatever He says, since He is not there, since He is not learned, will come from somewhere else. Whatever He says comes from somewhere else. He will speak only when that vibration of the sound comes, and He will not speak at any time without the permission, without the voice of God, asking Him to speak.
And for every word that He says there will be four or five other witnesses to the words that He speaks. It is like that. That is a secret.
The way that He speaks is a secret. The Guru is a secret. My children are a secret. The world is a secret. And God is a secret.
If you want to realize these five secrets then you must have this faith, determination, and your certitude (iman).
My children must not feel that they are the only people who must escape and reach salvation. Any children or any one who comes to you requesting the same thing, requesting the truth from you, then you must teach them the same thing that has been taught to you by the Guru, with love, with compassion, with patience, with tolerance, with peacefulness, and with the 3000 good thoughts and good characteristics of God.
When they come to the Fellowship, and they say that they want to become members and accept the Fellowship, then you should show them.
You should show them and embrace them with love and with compassion. Then it becomes your duty to show them the right path, to show them the truth, and also to accept them in your fold.
Because the world is itself a mystery, and it is a magic, (it can sometimes make you tired). And this world, being a magic, will sometimes give you the feeling of tiredness and exhaustion.
When you are acting or you are dancing, you might feel very happy about that, at that time, but as soon as you finish your act or finish your dance, then you are going to be tired. It is only when you become tired after the act, that you begin to understand the state of the body.
At the stage when they have been acting, and they have gotten very tired and exhausted, and when they are aging, and their life seems to be coming almost extinct, or death is approaching, these are the times when they may come and ask you to show them the right path, to show God to them.
All of my children, everyone of them, must be ready to accept such people, show them the truth, teach them what your Guru has taught you, and try to show them God.
You must accept the responsibility (to do this). I ask this of the 100 members of this Fellowship. To accept this responsibility. And also I request that the members of this Fellowship, if others what to join this Fellowship, and if they also want to find the true path, that you take upon the responsibility to show them that path.
The true wisdom, the true words of the Guru, and His true blessings, are the real powerful forces of this mystery, the secret behind this truth, this path of truth.
And it is only then, it is only when He is accepted, when the disciple or member is accepted by the Guru, then only God accepts the same disciple.
But if you don't learn it that way, but learn it like looking at a book, or looking at a picture of a fruit, how can you enjoy the taste of that fruit?
It will be like that, like looking at a picture of a fruit, but you are not going to taste it and enjoy it. It is like that. Unless you have the grace of the Guru, with what He says, it will be like this picture of a fruit, which you can neither eat nor taste.
They have no use to those who just pick them up and go, or like the rain that falls in the oceans, you can't drink them because they are salty.
The water becomes useful for drinking purposes if it falls on the places where water is used for drinking. That is the good water. The water that serves people and quenches people's thirst.
Therefore, it is important to remember that, whatever the Guru preaches, it is going to be effective only to those who have surrendered themselves to the Guru. Otherwise it is of no use, it does not quench anybody's thirst.
About meditation. There is only one kind of meditation, that there is to see God. The one who worships God, must be God. The one who performs the duty of God, must be God, to perform His duty. And the one who worships God, must be God Himself, because it is only God Himself, who can worship Himself. And it is only God, who can see God.
And if he remains separate and God remains separate, then you cannot see God.
It is only when the disciple, through his firm conviction, his certitude and his determination (iman), falls and loses himself in the heart of the Guru, that he becomes Light.
When he falls into the Guru, then he becomes a seedling in the Guru. Then he is nourished and grows within the Guru. And when he emerges out of the Guru. then he emerges in the form of light.
His body gets transformed. He doesn't come in this form. He comes in the Light form or the formless state. And that formless state is God. And that formless state is the One who will know God.
And if one doesn't transform oneself into this form (of Light), then he will never see God.
If you think you can reach this state after the Guru dies, you will never be able to do that. You can do this only when the Guru is alive, and when you plant your seedling at this stage.
If you take alcohol, beer, whiskey, opium, and ganja. This is not how you transform into a Guru. You have to become like the Guru. You have to take on His characteristics and become like the Guru.
If you want to know the characteristics of a Guru, and if you want to know His age, and if you want to know His mysteries, (you should first realize the size of this undertaking).
(For example), if you dig a hole which has a diameter of about one and a half feet, and you dig it about one and a half feet deep, and you fill this hole with the finest sand that you can find from the river bed, and then count each grain of sand, perhaps then, you might be able to estimate his characteristics, and also his age, and various other things about the Guru.
There are so many things (to know about the Guru). That (hole filled with sand) would be a rough estimate of His age. And there will also be divine secrets, and things like that which are mysterious in various ways.
But if you try to measure what the Guru has with your external vision, with your mind, and with your desires, it will be like trying to measure the ocean with a one foot ruler. Or it will be like trying to measure the quantity of water in the ocean with a very small vessel.
It will be like that when you try to estimate a Guru with your mind, with the illusion of your eyes, and with your desires. What the monkey mind can estimate, and what the external visions can estimate, and what the desires can estimate, will be like that little vessel.
When you bring these little vessels to measure Him, He will look at the vessel and smile, and will look at you and says, "Oh, is that so!" And then He sends you back.
If we want to clean our dirt, we must first fall into the pond. If you fall into the pond, then only will you know the freshness of the water, its coolness, its depth, its width, and its refreshing aspects.
It is like that, you will only know the Guru when you fall into Him, when you completely surrender yourself and fall into the Guru. Then you don't exist any more. And when you don't exist any more, then you, being the seedling of the Guru, can traverse in His various worlds, and know what He is.
And then you will be able to see the 18.000 universes, you will be able to see who you are, who the Guru is, who God is. And many other things like this.
But if you don't do that, but (instead) bring your own cameras and try to picture Him, you will never be able to photograph Him. You will never be able to photograph His real dimensions, His real Self.
You might be able to photograph the tree that may be in front of the secret, but you will never be able to picture the secret itself. You can only show what can be photographed, but you cannot show what the secret is within.
My children must reflect on this. Why I said this was to try and teach my children the way that one should worship, and one should meditate on God."
"The End"
of The Discourse, "How To Merge With The Guru",
by His Holiness, M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)
My dearest loving brothers and sisters, this is what it is like to be with the Guru, to join with the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen within us (may God be pleased with Him), and to move from going to the pond, to the Fellowship of the "outside", that accommodates but a few, to becoming the well of God's grace for the benefit of all of the world, becoming the Fellowship of the "inside", that can accommodate all of God 's Creation in the 18,000 universes within us. May we all reflect on this beautiful discourse by His Holiness.
The day this discourse was given, April 26, 1972, was a very special day. On this day His Holiness also gave us a companion discourse called, "How To Reach and Merge With God", and a beautiful song given the title, "The Kalimah Song".
"The One Good Day In A 100 Years"
About this day, April 26, 1972. His Holiness told us at that time that in every 100 years there is 1 good day, and that April 26th, 1972, was that "1 good day in a 100 years". We are so incredibly blessed by God.
My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)
"The End"
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