Map of a Human Being
Remembrance (Soul)
Remembrance of God: We have forgotten so much, (and been misled) so various practices have been revealed as tools to re-establish our closeness. The kalima is one such recitation. Contemplation of the Map’s wisdom precepts is another method. And the silent or vocal recitation of the 99 qualities of God is yet another. Rightly guided divine law can assist in this process by creating a safe haven within a person and society, enabling this to take place.
This may also be called meditation. It seems many people teach meditation as some form of hyper-concentration. But my experience with Bawa is that this is not the whole picture. What are we meditating on? Some say the void. But it seems to me that meditation without the qualities of God, or at least one of them, would be morally devoid, loveless, empty. Truth is not empty, it is full of truth. Can truth be separate from love?
Kalima (Soul)
Known as the Kalima: There is no existence but God. This awareness is realized when we experience the impermanence of everything else – then that knowledge flows with our breath 43,242 times a day. This is the state of Man-God, God-Man. Man merged within God, God merged within Man – no separation. Man refers to living totally as a soul-being and has no gender basis as in men and women, male or female.
Discussion:
This was a main emphasis and one of the first prayers that Bawa Muhaiyaddeen explained to his students. Because he was speaking from the reality, he tried his utmost to instill in us that anything created is therefore temporary, even the mountains. For as he said, “Mountains become oceans and oceans become mountains.” For those in any doubt of this, the highest hills near where I grew up in England are limestone, which is mainly marine organisms. Many folks today don’t believe in the existence of God, but from the mystic’s perspective, only God has existence. With the out-breath we say, there is nothing; and with the in-breath we say, except You. If this awareness exists with every breath, then we are in constant contact with That which is. This is a very exalted prayer, but it is everyone’s birthright. This practice is also known as dhikr, some say zikr, which is remembrance. Of course to say this prayer perfectly is enough, but to accomplish this our state of being must be free of illusion - hence the other precepts on the Map.
99 Qualities of God
These have been written and explained through the ages. Also called the names of God. Qualities like: mercy, compassion, forgiveness, generosity, patience, subtlety, strength, reconciliation, etc. If there is a description of God, this is it. And all the qualities are performable by human beings. These qualities form the essence of the phrase “I (God) created you in my own image.” The image is not physical, but the actualization of these qualities.
The list of names can be read as a very potent meditation. Or, a single name can be recited 3, 11, 33, 99, or 300 times as meditation, while reflecting on and sinking in the meaning. The recitation tradition would put the word 'Ya' in front of a name, this would be as Ya Lateef, or Oh Subtlety. Although Oh is substituted in English for Ya, Ya carries with it the implicit meaning of praise and devotion. So, Praise Subtlety, would be more appropriate. Also, try to recite with the focus in the heart/soul, not in the head or elsewhere. (99 Qualities list)
Discussion:
But these qualities are not just reserved for the prayer mat, they must precede us in our daily lives. To live in Bawa’s house, the house of a public person dedicated to humanity, was very difficult. There was a constant flow of visitors. The house was virtually active 24 hours a day. There was very little privacy. All spaces were shared in some way.
It is incumbent on the teacher to create a situation where learning can organically take place. This was not obvious to me at first and I was often thinking how to make the situation run smoother. In our living quarters in Sri Lanka we were often overcrowded and lacked amenities. When I first walked into the situation I began a list of all the things that should be changed to improve things. I did not act immediately on the list, so there was time to watch the process within the surroundings. It was a time of great contemplation because we had ceased our daily lives to come and live under the same roof as our teacher. So modern convenience was not a necessity to help us complete a busy work schedule.
I started to see how we had to exert greater patience in our limited surroundings and also assist each other with it. There were frustrations, and due to the lack of stimulus, often our mind’s appeared projected on the wall, making us confront them - always a difficult thing to do. Slowly my list reduced as I saw each thing as non-essential. Then there was one thing left: I did cover the crumbling cement surfaces that we prepared food on with a light colored laminate so that it could be sufficiently cleaned and not camouflage the flies. But I saw how the whole thing was working so that really only the qualities of God would survive the situation. This also worked in the American Fellowship house. One day, just after this conclusion, Bawa looked my way in the middle of a discourse and said, “And engineers try to make hell look like heaven!”
Divine law (Soul)
Right action and behavior for a human being should be understood and, if accepted, established. Many of the ‘rules’ within the traditions have been forced upon people without explanation, and sometimes appear oppressive. Authentic ones were not given to spoil our fun, but to help us discard bad habits, (habits that burry us deep in the mud of creation instead of lifting us towards transcendence), thereby protecting the flower of the heart (our spiritual potential) in public and private, day and night, so that the highest state of perfection can be established. It is a crime against humanity that some of the clergy within all the religions manipulate the laws to control and often deceive people while claiming to guide them.
Faith-Certitude-Determination (Soul)
Faith must have three components: faith, certitude and determination. "Faith without determination is a useless thing." (BM) Sometimes we must go forward with faith alone because trying to understand everything is like untying all the knots in a net, that is what science does, but we don't always have time for this. Ultimately, there is too much to untie and not enough time.
After a quantum enough time working the precepts of the Map, trust in them becomes established and one can cut through other layers with faith. Ultimately only faith can complete the journey.
124,000 Prophets
These representatives have come to explain the divine knowledge sufficient for the Know Thyself Curriculum, which leads to knowing God’s story and fulfilling the purpose of human existence.
Discussion:
How much I wanted to believe in the existence of an authentic Jesus when I was young. But the so-called Christian society I was supposed to be growing up in did not reflect what they said about him. I see now that Jesus was also trivialized by lack of understanding. The behavior and explanations of the religious authorities were pretty weak also. So with all that going on and science parading its stuff, the existence of Jesus seemed just another fairy tale.
When many of us realized what we had in the personage of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, we took out all those questions we had bagged up for Jesus since we were kids. And with grace, wisdom and finesse, he answered them all. He often spoke of the prophets and how each one gave chapters of the story of God so that human society could progress. He explained how each one brought examples and lessons that we needed to understand. He showed how they were one long line of brotherhood and sisterhood revealing the truths that we needed in order to merge with God and know It like they did. Personally, he gave me back Jesus, and all the other prophets too. And now it all makes sense. Unfortunately the scriptures we have are often incomplete or very difficult to understand; and over the years some have even been adulterated. But if we are lucky enough to meet a truly wise person, he or she is able to open up all the meanings of all the scriptures to us.
