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THE SUFI WAY

How Not To Do Things.

The Sufis have always been associated with whirling Dervishes and haunting music, but in fact this a very minor aspect of a religious ideology that was probably one of the most important channels of conscious development known to man, at the turn of the first millenium AD. Their rules for living were simply called “The Way” and their astonishing impact on history and social development goes well beyond the interest it continues to provoke in the West.

Modern public interest in Mysticism is probably one of the results of the loss of faith in established religions brought about by the injustice that the awesome media now packages and delivers to the household in its full, gory, glory. Perhaps it is a form of fear – a sense of loss of security which drives intelligent and successful people to the shores of the Asiatic way of looking at things. The Beatles definitely popularised it but it had been publicly played with, centuries before, with the advent of curious and improbable mystics like Madam Blavatsky, the warlock Crowley and the reluctant Krishnamurti among many, who sought to use this lucrative form of leadership to feather their own nests.

But if we talk about nests in this peculiar context, we must bring up “Alamut”, the Eagles Nest of the 12th. Century which harboured the most dangerous man in the world. This mountain stronghold now in Northern Syria was an impregnable fortress controlled by a sect which appears to have given its name to the word Asassin, Its leader and a man of great knowledge called Hassan was also described by the chroniclers of the period as the old man of the mountains. Without him, there would have never been what came to be the Knights Templar, for it is to this stronghold that early founders of the Order, like the Count of Champagne came for an experience that was to shape their lives and their ambitions for the Christian world. The nature of the attraction between these aristocrats of what is now Europe, and Muslim mercenaries, cannot be understood without taking on board that they belonged to the Naziri or Nazarene group. Professor Eisemann made famous by his translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and his expulsion from Israel, said that Nazrim, Nassarene Essenoi and Essenes were all the same thing. This was what fascinated the initial Templars who endeavoured to try and understand what it had to do with Christianity and their Lord Jesus. The connection with Sufism became clear during their sojourns in the palatial fortress whose library was reputed to be among the finest of the known world and particulary of any institution of the western countries immersed in an educational poverty imposed by jealous religious authorities. What was also clearly a surprise was that the Hashishim (probably erroneously associated with Hashish) and more likely scions of the ancient Hashemite tribes of Assirian origins,(from Ham and Shem – of African and Asian origins, were Nazarenes and therefore of the religious sect that Jesus or Issa came from. The alliance therefore from an ideological viewpoint, was not incomprehensible and from those quarters came most of the knowledge and whereabout of guarded caches important to Christianity. Both Templars and Hashishim had common enemies and this led to joint attacks on Baghdad and Damascus against the intolerant Sunnies. Another factor which represented a bridge across to Christianity was the shift from Mohammed to Ali his brother in defiance of the acceptance of Fatima his daughter and her husband also Ali. This founding figure of the Ishmaelis is the one referred to as The Seventh Imam although some writers have pointed the finger in the direction of Jesus who figures very strongly in Ishmaeli teachings. The cult, if it can indeed be called that as a derivative of the Shiites,  has enjoyed the protection of western Christain leaders under the Aga Khan. Notwithstanding all this, there is strong evidence that suggests that the Prophet Mohammed himself was a Naziri or Nazzarene and would have taken on the task that Jesus in his pacifistic manner had launched to perpetuity – to gather the scattered tribes. To the Templars and Ishmaelis this meant Israel and not Judea which latter had broken away from the Al Israel federation over a thousand years before,never to come back. The story of this relationship is well documented biblically and not an important aspect of this essay. Many of the asiatic tribes were in fact remnants of the diaspora or scattered tribes and therefore of great importance in the task ahead. Even today, the titles of Banu or Bani Israel remains among the literature of countries (amazingly) like Afghanistan whose Royals of the ancient crown of Amanullah have always declared their alliance with ancient Israel. Jerusalem as the bible explains, had never formed part of Israel at any one time in history since the whereabouts of the Temple of Solomon and not of Saul, the king of Israel, has never been properly identified. The only other people to have inhabited the place, were the Jebussites from which the Judeans had taken the place militarily.

The exclusively Sufi  connotation of the Ishmaelis is not quite correct , since the word clearly implies the wisdom they nurture and some asiatic tribes and cultures like the Etruscan whose symbol was the Rose (or hidden knowledge), carried a similar tradition. Like most ancient titles or apellatives, they are descriptive terms. However it is clear that we can utilize the word with respect to Ishmaeli training or association. There was also a city of knowledge in what is now Northern Turkey and from which, there are signs, the Etruscans took their name – a fact mentioned by Professor Higgins. There are also chronicles of the period that state that Hassan of Alamut took his basic training in the region and that Alexander the Great also travelled to the Caucasian Mountains for a mystical  initiation. The fact that the Sufis were very inclined towards an intense study of nature and life forces, gave them the mystic appelation and both sound and dance was a formidable avenue in that direction. The Ishamelis set up universities or teaching houses in both Cairo and Alexandria to which many western institutions like the Jesuits went for the advanced psycological and formative training for which they were much admired. The mere fact that such stalwarts of the Christian faith should be seen closely allied to what in the first instance is an Islamic cult, provides us with good indicators of the respect that the breakaway Shiite group was held by mayor Western institutions. Without doubt the knowledge was much sort after and may have provoked the fascination that Spirtualism, Mesmerism, Hypnosis, etc. has been held and discarded throughout the centuries. 

Sufi and Ishmaeli concepts therefore, whilst overlapping in obvious ways are independent and the former is an attitude or training like priesthood and the latter a a schismatic movement of possible Christian origins with Muslim affiliation. How this curious amalgam came about, is a world all of its own but suffice it to say that it can easily identify with one, two or a variety of faiths with equal ease and find its feet in many camps all at the same time. In fact this is something that not only the Hashishim could do with impunity and dangerously, but was a basic concept of the Ishmaelis who were different things to different people.  Service with a smile, gave their cloak and dagger methods the sinister meaning it has today. This form of removal of the enemy was entirely based on self survival knowing that only one or the other could survive in the same space.

Sufism or the cult of knowledge was the mainspring of the revolution that took Europe out of the Dark Ages and it was therefore no coincidence that the 12th.century re-instators of the Order of the Temple were among them in those early years of the first century of the second millenium. In fact, it was not just knowledge but a startling combination of artefacts and revelations that were to foster the enormous power that the so called Poor Soldiers of Christ unleashed in Europe. The political committment, to the official Church, despite the contradictory knowledge the knights had obtained in Syria, was due to the enormous influence that St. Bernard had over the founder knights and who, at least one, was a member of his own family. If Kings and warlords had not stood up to the Church’s power over their citizens, this would have never happened, but the Church temporal or rather the guardians of their worldly goods already had enough enemies to guarantee keeping it in perpetual conflict, unless of course they could educate the masses in time. The love courts and the massive educational establishments which followed, worked alongside the new mountains of stone structures which the Church establishment had been promised in return. If one were to talk about bread and circus in the general sense of the phrase, this was one of licenced entertainment for the aristocracy and guarded teaching for an emerging administrative class.  Effectively what was happening was that the old world of religious dogmatism was coming to an end. Conversely, the need to teach humanity and create controls against the feudal barons and emerging royal powers as ground support, through understanding, rather than punishment,was the channel to follow. The channel was no other than the Sufi way – the way that the Church authorities were to use so skilfully and which the Knights Templar established the platform for. “Truth will set you free” was the original Christian message which had been subdued but which was from that point onwards, became the Sufi contribution to the incredible developments that changed the face of the Western way of life. The shock troops that the Church Authorities had imagined would result from such training despite the inbuilt concept of killing, were not to turn out as useful as they thought they would be. The Templars could manouvre diplomatically and commercially but they could only fight against a non Christian enemy and only in self defence. It was this that led to the profileration of minor Orders of Chivalry like the Teutonic, Santiago, Calatrava etc. which did all the local fighting. It is worthy of note that the Templars refused to get involved in these skirmishes or attack the Muslim forces in Al Andalus whom they considered legitimate and of no threat to Christian worship. The Ishmaeli derivation of the Fatimids is now well known.

It is still historically unfathomable, why Western society has not paid tribute to the Ishmaeli forces and Sufi origins of western civilisation instead of subjecting it all to shrouded obscurity. It could be that its hint of Islam and Oriental origins may have discouraged the acknowledgement but on close analysis had it not been for these forces, Christianity would not have been able to inherit its Eastern relics, holy places and above all important knowledge that would drive the Church and Western society through the second millenium with such force and successful emergence from its dark history. It was that fateful call from Syria that set into motion the rudiments of training and Christian militarism that kept the destructive forces of orthodox Islam from destroying every vestige of Christianity in its path. A destruction,  incidentally, that the Prophet himself would have found sacrilegious. The Muslim presence in Al Andalus enjoyed a presence and right to rule obviously tolerated and perhaps greatly respected by the world powers. Islam on the doorstep did not seem to disturb anybody- Even the Christian Kingdoms in the North with which it had struck an uneasy balance, showed  respect and jealousy perhaps at the levels of culture demonstrated.  It was all probably well discussed between the Church, The Templars and the Ishmaeli forces in those early days when the truce was negotiated and the presence in Europe seen as a Buffer zone of moderate and desirable Shiite culture likely to bridge the religious world between them. The demise of the Templar power could quite also be quite reasonably seen as the breaking of the dam and sparked of the unwise and capricious expulsion of the citizens of Al Andalus and a culture that promised to change Christianity for the better within a genuine historical context. It was however something with similar origins and also linked to knowledge as power, that wreaked the final blows against Islamic expansion worldwide and it came from the plains of Mongolia at the foot of the Caspian mountains but not in time to pillage all that had been syphoned off to the West by the early knights. The Ishmaeli, as always, were one step ahead,and The Mongol forces of the Golden Hordes got into Alamut a little too late. There is very little doubt that the knowledge they sought to consolidate or destroy was safely on its way. However, it is interesting to note, in view of the historical events attributed to their horrendously violent campaigns, that what stood in their way was not force, which bent with the wind before them,  but a respect, difficult to understand,  unless the powers that be were expecting and knew them well. The doors of the Vatican remained closed and whatever transpired to prevent them being blown open, could have only been an understanding based on an acceptance of their right and might or a committment with respect to the forces that the new found knowledge could unleash on them – the very knowledge that the Khans had tried to prevent being taken to the West and which they feared. Each and every single one of these historical events have been the subject of unsatisfactory investigations but there is no doubt that all the chessboard figures of the day had one thing in common – to recover and apply lost knowledge and to establish an international state based on Divine and mortal agencies subjecting mankind to a uniformity the likes of which have only been seen in China. The very quest would in time cause the Church to change horses mid stream as the system went askew. The return to the wicked ways of old by degenerating educational means and utilising poverty, fear and supertitition to harness fiscal power for war against the new so called heretics was always round the corner as a means of control. In that context, both Islam and The Christian Church went their own independent ways, agreeing to differ and to uphold each others’ manner of doing things. Why, because in essence one knew too much about the other and both were in many ways fruits of the same loom. It had taken the  Ummayed family of Damascus and Baghdad a whole generation to establish the benefits of applied knowledge to create the foundations of an international religious state in Spain which put Christian social developments to shame. The Templars, despite religious pressures, refused, curiously, to displace their successors, the Ishmaeli Fatimids and it would take the Northern states of Spain under Isabella of Castile and Fernando of Aragon three hundred years later to carry out the removal of both Muslims and Jews from the Iberian Peninsular. The Catholic Monarchs with little money under their belts, had no option but to sell their souls to the Vatican and let in the Horses of the Apocalypse in the form of the most savage and satanical of barbarities that would place every thinking person in constant danger of assasination, the Christian way, on racks and meat hooks. It marked the end of learning and spiritual fulfillment as so called pagans became the fodder that even the Saracens would have never contemplated. But by then, the essence of power was in the destruction of the knowledge released and Templarism like Sufism not only went underground, but suffered persecution in the name of the gentle Jesus who  influenced Ghandi to achieve his pacificistic goal.

Sufism, or the cult of knowledge as it has been referred to, has many facets and few have been able to apply it to modern living as well as the Caucasian Mountains adept, George Gurdjieff, who spent the major part of his life in pursuit of it. His now legendery Priories in France and Britain, displaced the mediocrity of the early spirtualists and pseudo mystiques like Annie Bessant and Blavatsky. These and a great many more had captured the imagination of a public thirsting for answers to the mysteries of life. Like all good religious enthusiasts, the people with money surplus and modern comforts could not but turn to the paternalistic approach to the less equipped. This needed the mystique of saintliness and there were many at hand who could give them that. The need to establish a reason for living in opulence and little knowledge also brought in all the charlatans into their splendid lounges, to fill the gaps. Gurdjieff however was probably one of the very few who genuinely wished to apply his knowledge of the human psyche in pursuit of the happiness and sense of destiny that careful discipline could produce. In this context he was successful in attracting great talent and left his doctrines and disciples to carry on with his work. The film by the director and disciple, Peter Brooks, based on the life of the great man as expressed in one of his very few books, entitled, “Meetings with Remarkable Men” is a classsic example of the finesse and pursuit of perfection, that Sufi training can produce. Not all those who contacted Gurdjieff and met his gaze with reproof, were so lucky as at least one unfortunate suicide and a great writer, Kathleen Mansfield, was attributed to dialogue with him. Isadora Duncan, Lenin, the celebrity surgeon Kenneth Walker whose book Diagnosis of Man revolutionized social thinking on the subject and myriads of others who gravitated to his teaching centres were left in no doubt about his capability through music and dance and assymetrical dialogue. The concept , was a form of anti-habit teaching which put the person in control of those centres of impulsive behaviour. The strengthening of the positive and constructive psychological patterns and the development of the clarity of objective analysis paved the way for an enhanced sense of living. In more ways than one, the much maligned Scientology training, at least that under the founder Hubbard, had very Sufi connotations in style and content. Gurdjieffs favourite expression was -” coating the upper self “- which although encompassing a mountain of potential interpretations was part of the symbolical tease that like the Tibetan contemplative patterns was supposed to set the path to self knowledge and the release of the energy required for ambitious and socially contributive pursuits. There is no shadow of doubt that most of Gurdjieff´s disciples and later of Madame Saltzmann, if not Bennett, reached very high levels of public respect. Unfortunately, the Sufi connotation and its Islamic,  religious attribution relegated it to the ranks of the cranky and unstable and even today, is taught behind closed doors and peculiarly presented at the point of entry.

Sufism in itself is not all meditation and self discipline, but the application of the discoveries by its adepts through the centuries and its ability to make one invisible and effective within the context of fighting for a better society. How not to do things is perhaps more meaningful in this context, than simply doing what one thinks best. Control of impulses, emotional drainage, the drive against habit and what comes easy is all a part of this attempt to harness the forces of undisciplined emotions and passions. The Kabbalah often called the Tree of Life, has more to do with sequences of emotional states and their relative interaction, like say the apparently discordant crying with joy, than with all the fantastic connotations attributed to these teachings. Sufism, however, provoking as it does a degree of sensitivity way beyond much understood in western cultures, is often at odds with those who have little time or inclination to maintain their mental capacity sharp and effective. Many modern Sufis are great scholars, but not that many, are great people with their hearts in the right place. This means that the basic fulcrum of their existance has unnecessarily been displaced by a change of cultural needs. Sufism is not for weak willed but for whoever has the time and capability to fight the senses and passions mercilessly for a better understanding and enjoyment of these when required within a meaningful context. In other world, a world of direct vision of cause and effect is made possible. For the journalist, the investigator and the advisor there is no better training. Objective realisation means seeing things they way they really are and the much quoted concepts of beauty being in the eyes of the beholder for example is meaningless in this concept. The goal posts do not change for Sufis. They change them when they want to, but always remember where they belong.