What is the Point of Sufism?

See transcript

Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners,

We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will  help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing services. We believe the message should be free, but it costs equipment, rental, services, software and hardware to get this to you.

 Thank you for choosing our podcast amongst all the millions available. If

Transcript

What is the Point of Sufism?

shaykh ibrahim ansari

To be able to hear your heart.

We are thrust into this life and force fed from our cultures, family and schooling, allegedly to help us get along in this world. However, every culture incorporates several strong streams of beliefs to keep the people smoothly functioning.

Religion very often has the same kind of intention, as does schooling and family. However, because of ‘people’, every and any kind of belief or virtue can become twisted, abused, and misunderstood.

In many western cultures, consumerism is the dominant religion. People believe that with enough things and purchases we will become whole and complete. To even consider questioning this system is to be avoided or considered taboo – because there is no money in that.

Over the centuries, the idea of Sufism has continued to help individuals learn to become a whole human being by providing useful tools for reshaping the concept of how to think, perceive and live. Or, in another way, how to get out of the way enough to be able to hear your heart.

The heart contains a knowledge inaccessible to the brain. But because the squishy stuff in your skull thinks it is the most important thing in the universe, it tends to snuff out and silence what the heart is saying. So, over the years, we learn to ignore the heart and its quiet voice. We fall into the trap of believing everything the brain tells us. It comforts us with its lies and stories. It makes up fantastic and fascinating reasons why things are for us or against us without the need for evidence, truth or logic. It will imagine the worst possible scenarios, or luscious and captivating fantasies that might happen. If we play our cards right. We are a ball of conflicting feelings being tossed between the past and the future.

Sufism offers an offramp from the endless genuflecting to the demands of the culture and the fluxations of the brain. These desires of whatever is chosen will not satisfy because they are not connected to that which actually does give fulfillment and meaning. And that is the heart.

But to make just that little change, a tiny shift, sometimes requires a profound change of mind. This can come from a critical event, a death, a divorce, or a book. It is the realization that there must be a way to live that has a deeper meaning than needing another retail therapy session.

I am not going to go into the details of the tools Sufism offers, because that is something you talk about privately about with your Shaykh or Shaykha.

But in general terms, I can say that one of the tools you can use right now  is to be sincere and  honest - with yourself and with others. Your heart loves being of service. 

Honesty - this may be a little more difficult because we are always in the process of telling ourself some story about why are doing whatever it is that we are doing. I’d say about half the time, we are lying. We often do things to impress someone, to show off, to be more right, to ‘fix’ someone we know to be in the wrong. The problem with all this is that we think we are in the right, when actually, no one gave us the authority over anyone else. Yes, we have responsibilities as parents, but as parents we also have to be aware of when it is not us speaking, but our parents coming out of our mouth.

It is okay to be wrong. It is good to apologize. It is best to learn from whatever this moment’s lesson is about.

We are prompted to observe, to see things as they really are. But we have so many stories rolling by our eyes and ears and feelings from all kinds of past events and future wishings, that we actually cannot observe clearly anything, because we are deep within our attachments and opinions which are based on nothing solid.

All of this is hard to do just by oneself. That is why Sufism provides an immediate support group of like-hearted people like yourself who are doing the hardest job in the world - trying to return to being a whole person. This is Tariqa.  It really helps to have others around who are working in the same way to achieve honesty, sincerity and respect for each other.

And so we come to the ongoing and difficult road of sincerity. Sincerity comes when you realize you are just like everyone else. You are not better, you are not worse, you have similar problems and yet your path is your own. No one has exactly the same ‘conditions’ as you.

Your heart is nourished with truth, honesty and sincerity. It continually reaches out seeking this beaut 

And maybe that is why we can be teachers for each other, in a gentle, loving way whenever possible. Some people we meet may teach us that we do not want to be like that person. That is an important thing to learn. But most of the time, anything that offends you are disturbs might be a reflection.

There is no perfection in this world as we understand it. That which created all of this is beyond our understanding of perfection. Because it is Love that connects everything to everything. Your heart is connected to the greatest and smallest. We are all connected to that which the brain cannot calculate, exhaust nor complete.

The sum total is Love.