Spiritual Letter 9 - Original Version About Spiritual Letter 9 Title: "The Theme Is Freedom" Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) Written to: Mr. M. Stanton Evans, a writer of books Month originally written: During the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan (12, 2001) Note: "Spiritual Letter 9" not sent to Mr. Evans. See Spiritual Letter 20 for letter sent. Home Page-Spiriutal Letters Go To Spiritual Letter 10 Letter 9: Expanded Version Page 2 of 4 Related Material Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Al-salam 'alaykum. May all the peace and blessings of God be upon us all. 25. The Path of Life, The Path of Christianity Next comes man's liberation from his life of death, from his focus on surviving, when man begins to question the validity of it all, as you have my dearest loving brother, while rejecting the false prophets that come to answer mainly the questions that were never asked, ignoring the questions that were asked, and repeatedly asked by everyone coming into the world, because they have no real answers to these real question, but answer anyway simply to show us that they can speak. Now the journey begins, when man takes stock of his life, as you and this child have done, my dearest loving brother, and man goes in search of the answers to the questions of his life, when he don't even really known the questions. That is why it is called faith, when we step out toward God really in ignorance of Him, but trusting that He will see us through, and He will. This can be seen as reflective of the religion of air worship, or Christianity, the qualities of the air or desire, the path of the chest, of all of the lives of air that live in the chest, the path of desire, where we set out in search of God because we want God, in the same way that we want a wife, or a house, or a chicken. Still separate from God, but no longer wanting to live without Him, we go in search of a God of separation, a God that will accept us because ..; because we pray to Him, because we follow His rules, because we think we have given our life up for Him, because we think we love Him, or as His Holiness teaches us, because "We have worked for wages to get into heaven". But God is not separation, God is oneness, so we fail in our search for God as long as we stay separate from Him, or separate from anything that God is one with, which is everything and everyone. And in this way, we have left our concern for our stomach and have moved into our chest, where we pine away like a lover crying for its beloved, not realizing that all along we have had the answer to our dilemma, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, where she was always wearing the glass slippers that could transport her back to Kansas, but she had to find the Wizard to tell her about what she already had, and how to use, in order to get home. Such is our state. 26. The Trap On The Path of Life Is Illusion, Is Ignorant Love Like this, the flaw in the path of life known as Christianity is ignorant love, we love God but we are in complete ignorance of the true nature of God, of His Creation, and of the most exalted Creation of God known as man. And we are in ignorance of the nature of what God is doing, or the nature of how God does what He does, and as a result, we can never jump on His train, His train that is traveling to the place known as the Oneness of God and True Man. Instead, we stand at the illusory station we call Christianity waiting for God's train of separation that will never come, because it can never come, because God has no separation, God only has oneness, and we can only return to Him as Him, as Him happening, not as someone who loves Him, but is separate from Him, and separate from all that He is one with, not as someone who has spent their whole life trying to please Him, in order to win a place near Him. What a selfish, self centered, thought. 27. The Apple Seed That Fails To Germinate Such is the limit of the path of Christianity, man stays in his chest breathing sighs of love not realizing that he is wasting his time, becoming like an apple seed that fails to germinate, that fails to realize, understand, accept, and join with the truth that emerges from within it, the truth that it is an apple seed, that it is buried in the earth, and that the earth contains everything necessary for the apple tree within it to grow, and as a result the apple seed dies in the earth, rots in the earth, and is eventually absorbed into the earth, forever breaking its connection to the story of the apple tree that it was placed in the earth, to join with the earth, to tell. Like this, man stuck in the path of Christianity also fails to germinate, fails to realize, understand, accept, and join with the truth that emerges from within him, as it is now emerging within us with this sharing, my dearest loving brother, the truth that man is the Seed of God, that man is buried within God not in the life of separation and differences that he sees as existing "outside" of him, that he is currently experiencing as "who he is", as "where he is", and as "what's happening". And the truth that God contains everything necessary for the Tree of God hidden within man as the Seed of God to germinate and grow, revealing the Tree of God which is True Man within the Creation of God. And as a result of this failure, of man's failure to realize, understand, accept, and join with the truth of himself, man dies in his mind and desire, rots in his thoughts of separation and differences, and is eventually absorbed into the hell of separation from God, which is the only true hell, forever breaking his connection to the story of True Man within God, within the Creation of God within God, and the story of God within True Man, that it was placed within God, to join with God, to tell. Such is the fate of man, if wisdom or God consciousness, the consciousness of his oneness with God, fails to dawn within him, if he fails to move from living in his chest to living in his head, which in truth is the Seat and Throne of God. Such is man's fate if his wisdom fails to reason over his fate, if man's inner life of oneness fails to be victorious over man's outer life of separation and differences. Such is man's fate, if the qualities of man's 6 inner lives, man's six kinds or levels of wisdom - reason, justice, the meaning of virtue, grace, joy, and bliss, which in truth are the six faxes of clarity, or wisdom, of a True Man or Muhammad within man (may the peace and blessings of God be upon Him). Such is man's fate, if his 6 levels of wisdom - feeling, awareness, intellect, judgement, subtle wisdom, divine analytic wisdom - fail to emerge and be victorious over the qualities of man's 6 outer lives - lust, anger, miserliness, delusion, bigotry, and malice, which in truth are the six faces of the six people who live separately in our closed heart, one in each of the six corners of our closed heart, forever doing battle with each other, two by two, until we die and go to hell, or until wisdom dawns within us, and the Primal Mind within us destroys them (see the book by His Holiness, "The Pearl of Wisdom or Guru Mani", Chapter 21, "The Six Faces", page 72, and the song in the same book, "Invocation To Allah", page 8, or go to the "Branch of The Good Disciple" of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Library (www.GoodDisciple.homestead.com) for a copy of this material). 28. The Four Stages of Spiritual Development Within Man's Heart My dearest loving brother, may we both always keep something very important in mind, that this discussion of the 4 religions has nothing to do with the world that we see as existing "outside" of us, it has nothing to do with a person's religion on the outside, with the type of religion in which a person practices his faith in God in the world, because as His Holiness teaches us, all of the 4 religions exist both outside of us, and within us. On the outside we see them as separate religions, one separate from the other, and even one doing battle with the other, but in truth, what we see outside is just pointing to what we all have inside of us, in each of our hearts, the four steps in our journey back into the oneness of God, from which we all came. The 4 separate religions that we see outside of us - Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam (and Judaism) - are simply pointing to the 4 step path of spiritual development that we are all on, whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, because that is what we are truly about, not anything else, because that is the nature of man, the journey of his soul through faith, wisdom, and the divine knowledge of God back into the oneness of God and True Man. This is what man in truth is all about. He is about God. He is about what God is doing. He is not about anything else. He is not about what he may have been caught by, fascinated by, seduced by, eaten by, overwhelmed by, or stuck in, due to his ignorance, due to his ignorance of "who he is", of "where he is", and of "what's happening". In this way, by definition man is a spiritual being, he is of God, he is only here because God is here, and he is about what God is doing, as the 4 religions are about how God does what God does, which is to reveal God within God, by revealing True Man within His Creation, so True Man can reveal God within True Man. This in truth is "who we are", and "where we are", and "what's happening. Nothing else is really happening in our life, or in any life. Anything other than this truth of God is a temporary dream, even if we believe it to be true, even if we live our whole life reflecting the lie of our life, the lie that we are separate from God, separate from each other, and separate from the Creations of God. That doesn't change the truth of our life, and if we die in the state of believing and living the lie of our life, then instead of experiencing the truth of our life for eternity, we get the lie of it. That is God's justice. The house we build is the house we get. And in this way, all of the 4 religions that we see people practicing outside of us also contain all of the same 4 religions within them, through us, through the very same people who are practicing each religion on the outside, all the while having all four religions within them. Therefore, a person who is practicing his faith in God through the Hindu religion, since that is what he was born into to, since that was the outside religion of his parents, could at the very same time be at any one of the four stages of spiritual development - Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, or Islam (and Judaism) - he could be spiritually in the state of Islam, in the state of Oneness with God, while another person who was born into the outside religion of Islam could be spiritually at the stage of Hinduism, of the worship of the forms found in the 5 elements, the worship of creation, of the section below the stomach, the worship of family, wife, children, the worship of land. My dearest loving brothers, it is very important to always keep this wisdom point in mind, when dealing with anyone on the "outside", because we never know the state of anyone, since we do not know our own state. For His Holiness teaches us that we will never know the state of another person until we can see their heart. Then we will know, and then we will have become one with God. Until then we must be very cautious, realizing, especially when it comes to "outside" religion, that the qualities and actions of a person tell us more about their current state of spiritual development than their words or their worldly affiliations, because in truth the 4 religions represent the 4 stages of spiritual development within each of us, that each of us must go through, if our wisdom is to reason over our fate, if we are to become truly victorious in our life. The 4 religions are not really about anything "outside" of us, as many in the world today think about them, and currently practiced them in the world, and certainly, they are not about our being separate from anyone else, or one of them being better than the others, one of them being the true religion. This is like saying that one of the 4 steps in making a cake is superior to the others. They are all necessary if we want to end up with a nice cake. Leave any step out of the process and you have a disaster. We must all understand and gradually move through the 4 religions, the 4 stages of spiritual development within us, no matter what religion we were born into, converted into through marriage, or just practice "outside" of us, Then we will be successful in our life, not by turning one of them into an "outside" thing that makes us separate from any of our brothers and sisters, or that we believe makes us more pleasing to God, or guarantees us a place in heaven nearer to God. This way of thinking is very dangerous, both to ourselves and to the world, but especially dangerous to the life of our soul, that needs unity, love, and all of the qualities and actions of God to live, grow, and complete its journey back into the oneness of God. This way of thinking, only thinking in terms of the "outside" of us, and not considering the "inside" of us, not considering the things of God that God has personally placed within us, like our soul, wisdom, and God's grace and divine Knowledge ('ilm), this way of thinking, in terms of separations and differences, will only lead us to hell, to eternal separation from God. This concept is a part of all religions, and is the touch stone of moving from living in the world to living in the heart. For example, these four stages of spiritual development are known in Islam as Shariat, Tariqat, Haqiqat, and Marifat, and are known in the Hindu religions as Sariyai, Kiriyai, Yogam, and Gnaanam, and by other names in the other religions. So in this way, to be successful in ones life, for ones wisdom to reason over ones fate, one can and must successfully move through the 4 religions or paths on the inside, within ones own heart, which is what the word religion really means - the path, the path of the soul within the heart to the oneness of God. And while this "hearts work" is going on "inside" of us, we can also be practicing our faith in God on the "outside" of us, in the context of any of the 4 religions, whether as a Hindi, a Zoroastrian, a Christian, or a Muslim or Jew, or as a businessman, a housewife, or as a student. It really doesn't matter, as long as the "inside" work is going on properly. In this way, the outside context in which a man lives doesn't really matter, as long as he pursues oneness with God on the inside, within his own heart,. In this case, any of the four religions will do, will help him, because God sent each of them to help us. But if we aren't doing this inside work of becoming one with God, then any of the 4 religions becomes something very dangerous, they become but another reflection of the stage upon which we act out the drama of living in the world of separation and differences, that we in ignorance of ourselves have grown within ourselves, a religion that we then see as only existing "outside" of us, a religion that is in competition with the other religions for the prize of "best", or "correct", all the while failing to live on the inside at the feet of God, learning in deeper and deeper way, "who we are", "where we are", and "what's happening". In this way, it is where a man's heart is that matters, not his feet, and his heart must be with God. This is a very important point, my dearest loving brother, because some people believe that one religion is superior to another, or one language is superior to another, or one race is superior to another, while in truth they are all the same, for all these apparent differences on the "outside" are not differences at all, they are only a reflection of the evil within man's heart and his arrogance. 29. The Question of Life: What Have We Done With What God Has Given Us? The question of our life is not what religion we belong to, or even if we claim membership in a religion, the question is what have we done with what God has given us, and God has given us all of His wealth; hell and heaven, good and evil, and all of His qualities. The question is, have we wasted out time working for wages on the outside to get into some imaginary heaven after we die, giving this imaginary heaven the name of one of the 4 religions, or calling it by the name of "my family", "my children", "my grandchildren", or "my accomplishment", or have we joined in partnership with God to allow God to finish what He started within us, within each of us. Have we joined in partnership with God to reveal True Man within the Creations of God within us, allowing True Man within us to reveal God within True Man within us, allowing the Oneness of God and True Man to be revealed within us. Have we done this work, this divine work of God and True Man, because only this will be of value to any of us, no matter what race, religion, creed, color, age, we may be, or no matter what kind of family, wife, children, friends or accomplishments we may have, or no matter what understanding about anything we may have. In the end, none of this matters. The only question is, did we realize, understand, accept, and join with the truth that emerged from within us, as it is now with this sharing, my dearest loving brother, and join with God to reveal God within us. And if we did this divine work with God, then we get God, we get the Oneness of God and True Man, which in truth is God. And if we didn't, then we get "us", we get "us" as separate from God, and "us" as separate from all that God is one with, we get "us" as the world of separation and differences that we are currently experiencing "outside" of us through the 9 openings of our illusory body - two eyes, two ears, two openings of our nose, one mouth, and the two openings below - and "us" as the life of separation and differences that we currently experiencing as "who we are", as "where we are", and as "what's happening". It is just that simple. This is the only question for our life, for any life, not anything about the different religions that we see practiced in the world around us, or the different races or languages that we see reflected in the people living in the world. My dearest loving brother, we must both always keep these wisdom points in mind. It will save both you and I from a great deal of hardships and difficulties in our life. 30. The Path of Oneness With God, The Path of Islam Finally in the last religion or spiritual stage within us, in this circle of God, man comes to victory, man comes to his liberation from separation, as he puts down the idea of himself, of himself as separate from God, of himself as separate from anyone or anything else, and picks up the reality of himself, of the oneness of God within himself, he picks up the oneness of God, man, and the Creations of God. And in this way, he starts to do the work of God, he starts to pick up what God is doing as what he is doing, and he starts to pick up how God does things as how he does things, and gradually he and God become indistinguishable, he and God become One, the One in service of the One, the One in service of the one Creation of God, bringing all of the Creation of God back into the Oneness of God, if that be their intention, and in this way, completing, as the oneness of God, what God started. For as His Holiness teaches us, "At the end, all that is left is God and what has separated from God, and what separates from God is that which has declared, through its life, its belief, its qualities, and its actions, 'I am separate from God'". So in this way, my dearest loving brothers, it is we ourselves who separate us from God, not God. For as His Holiness teaches us, "The justice of God is that whatever we intend is what we get". All of this can be seen as reflective of the religion of Islam, a term which can be literally translated as, "To go beyond desire into the oneness of God, to move from the chest of man into man's head, to become the face of God that reflects the heart of God, to become the 'muham' that reflects the 'aham', to become Muhammad, to become the Messenger of God, the harbinger of God, to the whole world, to all of the Creations of God", For in Arabic the first part of the term Islam is "Isk" or desire, and the last part of the term Islam is "Lam", which is the Light or Oneness of God. 31. The True Meaning of Islam So in truth Islam is to reject desire, to reject the life of desire, to reject the lives of air within the chest, that are ruling over our life in the heart, that keep our heart closed to the oneness of God, to the true nature of man. To reject the life of ignorant love, that loves without understanding, to reject the life of the third stage of spiritual develop known as Haqiqat or Christianity, to reject the spiritual stage of Haqiqat and embrace and become the fourth stage of spiritual development, within our heart, known as Marifat, known as Islam. To move from our heart to our head, by allowing our heart to open to the oneness of God and True Man, to the true nature of man, and in this way, to become the Light of God, to allow the Light of God to emerge from within our heart, becoming the heart of God as reflected in the face of God, in the face of True Man, to become Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of God be upon Him), to embrace the Lam or Light of God, to embrace and disappear into the Oneness of God and True Man, which in truth is God. Also the term Muslim is traditionally translated as, "One who has surrendered to the will of Allah". 32. The Target Is True Islam - is within our own heart, not something called islam that is practiced outside, in the world that we see "outside" of us This is the target, my dearest loving brothers, this is Islam, to become one with God, and one with all that God is one with, which is everything, to take on all life as our life, all suffering as our suffering, all struggles as our struggle, all happiness and sadness as our happiness and sadness, to give up our own life of selfishness, to give up our private life, and take on the one life of selflessness, to take on the public life of God, to take on the life of everyone and everything else as our life, as God does. This is Islam, not what we see practiced in the world today, not what the world today calls Islam. For as His Holiness teaches us in the Epilogue of the book, Islam and World Peace: Explanations of a Sufi, beginning at the top of page 142, ............................Beginning of Quotation From His Holiness.............................. Islam does not mean trying to dominate the world, shouting, "I am in command!" In this world and the next, in birth and in death, the One alone who rules Islam is Allah. No man has the power to govern that kingdom. To understand this with absolute clarity is to become His slave (abd) and be filled with divine wisdom and perfect faith. That is prayer. To accept Allah and His pure kingdom is true Islam, the way of absolute faith, certitude, and determination (Iman), the way of the Kalimah (the affirmation of the truth of God - La ilaha Ill Allahu, - There is nothing other than God, You are God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God). This is the birthright of all the children of Adam (may the blessings of God be upon Him). To accept Allah's words and His commands is wisdom, and to accept what He has given us is our plenitude. God is Most Great (Allahu Akbar)! All praise belongs only to Him (Al-hamdu lillah). He is the One who gives us the wealth of our lives. He gives us everything. The kingdom of Islam is His most benevolent, pure gift. Should any man proclaim himself ruler of that pure kingdom, he will only bring about his own destruction. Allah is the sole ruler, there is no one else who can do His work. We the children of Adam (may the blessings of God be upon Him), who pray to God with faith and certitude, must know this with absolute clarity. All praise be to God! God is the Great One! This is the true meaning of Islam. May the peace of God be upon us. May God help us all. Amen. ..............................End of Quotation From His Holiness................................... End of Page 2 of 4 - original version - ......................... 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