Doing "Nothing" Correctly Is Doing Everything Right Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) on January, 18, 2001 to Mike Katz Wisdom Point: Join With Bawa Muhaiyaddeen To Liberate Your Soul From "You" Selection: Spiritual Letter 13 Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Outline For This Letter 2. The Sufi Path - settling into stillness through the realization that everything is perfect 3. Reflect On Karma - karma is thought, the veil of thought which obscures our wisdom, our direct connection with God. 4. Understand The Treasure of Peace - peace is a partnership with God, is becoming one with the one who has already become one with you 5. Only God Can Pray To God - we must become God's prayer mat and invite Him to pray, then we will experience His prayer as our prayer. Only this is true prayer 6. Learning About The Un-Cola of Life - Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is the Un-Cola of our life, He is us without "us", but we can only experience Him after we have experienced "us" without Him, because only He must be left when "we" are done 7. The Great Problem of Our Life Is Over Control - we have to learn to let go 8. In Truth We Are All One - this oneness of all life is our birthright, not trying to figure life out in a state of separation from life 9. Take No Prisoners - every aspect of the ego, of the "selfish self" must die 10. Story of The Girl In The Mosque - the hidden enemy within 11. Doing "Nothing" Correctly Is Doing Everything Right - the most difficult part of life is to find a True Human Being 12. Stop Opening God's Packages - instead learn to deliver them to God 13. Back To The Story of The Girl In The Mosque - we delivered God's package to God only God is good, only God can do this Divine Work 15. The Life and Teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - is the gift of God for this age, to the Children of God for this age 16. Re-establishing Our Direct Connection With God - that is wisdom, the wisdom of the True Man, and only such a True Man can re-establish it within you, because that is how it work, that is how God set it up, whether you like it or not 17. This Is The Age of The Rahim, The Age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - when God pulls everything back into Himself, from which it all came, when we again become One with God, and all that God is one with, if that be our true intention Opening Prayer Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. Al-hamdu lillah. In sha 'allah, ma sha 'allah. Tawakkal-Allah. Allahumma labbaik. In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. All praise and praising belong to God and to God alone. If God so wills, whatever God wills. I place my trust in God, and in God alone, and am obedient to His will, and to His will alone. May all responsibility be given to Allah, the One who is limitless grace, and incomparable love, the One who gives us His blessings. My love you my dearest brother Mike. All that you say is true, and yet it is all false. As we are all false, and yet completely true. Yes? The problem of life is to realize that there is no problem. For as His Holiness teaches us, "A sufi is one who settles into stillness through the realization that everything is perfect". Yes? One day His Holiness told us, "Never have the thought that there is something for you to do." Yes? May we both reflect on this truth. Reflect On Karma - karma is thought, the veil of thought which obscures our wisdom, our direct connection with God. In the book, "Golden Words of a Sufi Shaikh", Number 222, page 72, His Holiness teaches us about karma, as follows: ------------------------------------------------- Beginning of Quotation ---------------------------------------- The Shaikh says: My Son, the world finds it easy to go around saying, "Karma, karma", but you must reflect on this with your wisdom. God has given all His wealth to man - hell and heaven, good and evil, and all His qualities. If man realizes this through his seven levels of wisdom, accepting and doing what is good while rejecting evil, there will be no karma for him. Only the resplendence of grace will dwell within him. How is this? When clouds obscure the moon, not allowing its light to emerge, that is the moon's karma. But the moment the clouds disperse, we see only radiant light. Like the clouds, your karma is the thing that obscures the light of your wisdom. If wisdom can make its resplendent light emerge, scattering the clouds and darkness, there will be no karma (for you), because darkness and shadows are karma. When wisdom resplends without shadow as a complete light, karma will automatically recede. Then there is no longer any karma, there is only completeness. You must realize what karma is. Karma is thought, the veil of thought which obscures wisdom just as it covered your embryonic form. If the light of wisdom attains completeness, karma is driven away. Understand this and act accordingly, and you will shine as a true believer, a mu'mim, as the brilliant light of the sun to the world. Then neither karma nor darkness will affect you. ----------------------------------------------------- End of Quotation ------------------------------------------ Understand The Treasure of Peace - peace is a partnership with God, is becoming one with the one who has already become one with you And in the book, Number 225, page 73, His Holiness teaches us about the treasure of peace in our life, as follows: ------------------------------------------------- Beginning of Quotation --------------------------------------- The Shaikh says: O son, with wisdom you must understand the treasure of peace in your life. Listen. Do not ever give room to the thought of hurting anyone. The idea of killing or hurting any life must dispelled from within you. No matter what duty you perform, do not seek the help of others in return. Do not expect to receive a reward. Do selfless duty in an unattached way. In every duty, give up the thought that you are doing it. Instead, act with the thought that God must do it, give Him the responsibility, and then perform the duty. Even your intentions must be surrendered to God. In your vision, action, and wisdom, look at God first. Place Him before you in your life, and follow Him. Act with God's qualities. These will give peace and tranquility to life. If you make these points firm and certain in your wisdom, if you realize them and act accordingly, all lives will trust you and love you, and all lives will pay obeisance to your qualities. ----------------------------------------------------- End of Quotation ------------------------------------------ Only God Can Pray To God - we must become God's prayer mat and invite Him to pray, then we will experience His prayer as our prayer. Only this is true prayer Like this, my dearest loving brother Mike, you are missing the point. You don't exist as separate from God, so stop acting as if you do. All that you have written about ego, was written by ego, not by God. Everything above was written by God. That is the difference. You mention saying the dhikr or kalimah. Sounds like a good idea. But have you not just fallen into the same trap that you wrote about? Who can say the dhikr but God. We cannot do this work. For this work to be done God must be there, not us. For as His Holiness so beautifully summarizes, "If you are there, God is not there. If God is there, you are not there." Learning About The Un-Cola of Life - Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is the Un-Cola of our life, He is us without "us", but we can only experience Him after we have experienced "us" without Him, because only He must be left when "we" are done Many people came to His Holiness like you, including me, and the journey for them is like learning about Un-Cola. Yes? Now what is Un-Cola? Anyone who watches television knows about Un-Cola. First we learn about Cola, like Coke-a-Cola, or Pepsi-Cola, and only then are we introduced to Un-Cola, because Un-Cola can only be understood once we have experiences Cola, because Un-Cola is what we drink without Cola. Like this, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is the Un-Cola of our life, He is us without "us", but we can only experience Him after we have experienced "us" without Him. And that is the rub of it. Because once we have experience "us" without Him, it is very difficult to experience Him without "us", and because of this "we" can't experience Him, "we" can't experience us, the us of oneness and unity, of justice and truth, of compassion and unity, the true us, which is the Triple Flame of God - God, the Shaikh, and the Disciple - the us known as Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the us without "us", so all we ever get is the "us" of us, the "us" of separation and differences, and call that us, and call that Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, we never get to the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen of us, to the true us that is Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, and therefore, we never get to God, who is within the true us, as the power within the essence of everything. Yes? The Great Problem of Our Life Is Over Control - we have to learn to let go This is the problem of our life, over control of our life. For example, when you learn to fly an airplane the biggest problem that the instructor has is teaching the student to let go, because the airplane was designed to fly all by itself correctly, and a new student will even kill himself by over controlling the airplane. He has to learn that in times of danger, like when he is subjected to severe weather and the plane takes a nose dive, to let go, to let go of the controls and let the plane handle it, let the plane fly itself. This is the only real danger to the student pilot, trying to take charge of the plane in times of danger, trying to rule over it, rather than working with the plane to accomplish a mission, gently nudging it in the direction it needs to go, but letting what the manufactures of the airplane built into the airplane to work properly, to allow the plane to fly safely, and react properly, automatically, in times of danger. In Truth We Are All One - this oneness of all life is our birthright, not trying to figure life out in a state of separation from life My dearest loving brother Mike. Please be patient with the ramblings of your little brother Louie. We are the same, we have been cut from the same cloth, and we have the same Father, who put us here to liberate the world from death, by first liberating ourselves from death, by learning to die before death, by letting what has no value within us end, so what has value within us can come to completion within us, as the One within everything that is within us, and as such, we are One, all life in truth is One life. This oneness of life is our birthright, not trying to figure life out in a state of separation from life. The One life within us doesn't need that, it just needs us to let go and trust in God, trusting in what God has already placed within us, within each of us, as our birthright, that will automatically fly us home successfully, with a few gentle course corrections by wisdom. Like that, there is no figuring it out, because it is Unknowable, and yet it can all be Known. We must realize that there is no paradox in life except when we look at yourselves, or at anything, through the idea of yourselves as separate from God, as separate from your brothers and sisters, or as separate from the Creation of God. Give it up. Let go. Stop trying so hard. Let the plane fly itself. It will. Have the faith and trust that God is in charge. Like the Prophet Abraham (may the blessings of God be upon Him), know that God is the one who put you here, in your "pit of fire", not anyone or anything else, know that God knows what is happening, and that He knows what needs to be done, and make your knowing that He knows enough. That is Iman, or absolute faith, certitude, and determination in God. That is where it all begins, not in trying to understand it, or in doing the dhikr, or in doing anything. All that is useless, and even worse than useless, it is wasting your valuable time. Please think about this a little, my dearest loving brother Mike, and please forgive me if there is anything that has been said that offends you, or upsets you, or puts you off in any way. This child is a fool, trying to live at the feet of His Holiness, and as His Holiness teaches us to say, in the Forward of the beautiful new book, "The Pearls of Wisdom or Guru Mani", on page 7 , "Forgive me the wrong, and accept the good. So I request". Take No Prisoners - every aspect of the ego, of the "selfish self" must die Some more points from your beautiful letter. You say at the beginning of your letter, referencing this child and other children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, "Your dedication to Bawa is complete, and you have chosen your path. This is probably true of most, if not all, students and persons on your E-mail list. However, I am not there (yet?)." No. No. No. It is not true, and even more importantly, it is not the way it works. Let me explain a little. His Holiness teaches us that the only value in the life that we are currently experiencing is for it to end, not to get better, not to improve, not to become dedicated, not to become complete, but to end. That is the hidden face of the ego that you spoke about. His Holiness teaches us that the ego or mind will let us go to God, as long as it can take credit for it, as long as we let it live in the process. But as the cowboys of old used to say in the wild, wild west, though it is not in this age politically correct, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian". In this way, the only good ego, is a dead ego. In the statement above, you have made the cardinal mistake, you have allowed us to live, and then, once we are allowed to live, you have evaluated us, as dedicated or not, complete or not, etc. etc. etc. And the end result of your allowing us to live, is that you have allowed yourself to live, to continue to live separate from God, from each other, and from the Creation of God. There is no bigger mistake in our life. And everything else in your letter flows out of this mistake, like the puss from a sour that has been pricked. Yes? My dearest loving brother Mike, only God exists, only God is good, only God is dedicated, only God is complete, not me, not you, and certainly not any of the brothers and sisters on this mailing list, or anyone at the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, or anyone in the religion of Islam, or any of the people living in the world in this age or in any age before or after it. That just about covers it. Yes? So what are we to do? Nothing, nothing, nothing, but it must be done correctly. How can that be, you may say? How can that work, you may say? That doesn't seem right, you may say? Let us share a short story with you. Story of The Girl In The Mosque - the hidden enemy within One day this child was sitting in the Mosque of Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) talking to one of our sisters, and the sister was concerned about the great difficulty of the path to God, as explained to us by our Father, by Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). Upon hearing what she said, this child did the one thing that this child had learned from Bawa to do, the one thing of value to do in such situations, and in all situations for that matter - this child did nothing. Thank God, that at this point in my life, this child knew, through the life and teaching of His Holiness, that what was before this child, which was the sister and this child sitting in the mosque having a conversation, was of great value, was something that God had placed before us, and even more correctly, that God had placed before Himself, before God within us, before God in the process of happening within us, before God in the process of being revealed to God within us. And all of this was for God's purpose, not for our purpose, because God wanted to do something at that point with the life of God that God had placed within us, that God wanted to move forward what He was doing with His Creation, which was to reveal True Man within the Creation of God, and that God was doing all of this everywhere at once within all His Creation, He was doing it within this child and within the sister sitting with this child, and within all of His Creation in the 18,000 universes. What a wonder is this God of ours, and what a wonder is His Creation, and what a wonder is what He is doing with it, within each of us. Such is the true exaltedness of every moment of every one of our lives, my dearest loving brother Mike. We must both think about this a little. Doing "Nothing" Correctly Is Doing Everything Right - the most difficult part of life is to find a True Human Being With such a beautiful clarity, what is one to do, in all situations? There is only one thing to do, at all times in all situations. Don't do anything. Negate the self. Refuse to participate in the useless exercise of self existence separate from God, and separate from what God is doing, and always doing, and only doing, in all situations, which is revealing God, by revealing True Man within the Creation of God. Nothing else of value is ever going on, in me, in you, or in anyone else. So get with the program, God's program that is, the program of oneness and unity, of justice and truth, of compassion and unity, the program of "oneness with". And get out of your own program, the program of separation and differences, the program of "mine" and "yours", the program of "separation from". Then what is the point of our life? Why did God create us? Why are we here? What are we to do while we are here? We need answers to all of these questions. And we need them right now. Yes? Stop Opening God's Packages - instead learn to deliver them correctly to God The answer is simple. Stop opening God's packages. Instead learn to deliver them to them to God. For example, if the post office delivered a package to your house that was intended for the house of a neighbor, but was mistakenly delivered to your house, what would you do? Would you open it? Probably not. Probably you would walk over to the neighbor's house and either leave it on the porch or knock on the door, and give them their package. Like this, everything that comes to us is always a package for God, not for us. It is always something that God is sending to God, to help God finish what He has started within Himself within us, and only if God gets His packages, only if they are delivered correctly, and on time, can God use them the way only God can use them, to finish what He has started within us, and only them, can progress be make in what God is doing within us, within each of us, which is to reveal God within us, by first revealing True Man within the Creation of God within us. But what do we do? Instead of this, instead of helping in the delivery of packages to God, we interpret everything that comes to us as coming to "us", not to God, not to something else or someone else within us, that is in truth the life within our life, the body within our body, the consciousness within our consciousness, the work and duty within our work and duty, the words within our words, and the sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, within our sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. This is what we do. In this way, in our ignorance of "who we are", of "where we are", and of "what is happening" in our life, we prevent God from getting His packages, we steal His packages, we pretend that they are our packages, that is what we do. And because of that, God just sits within us, waiting to complete the work that He has started within us, until we die. Only then do we see the big, big, mistake that we have made, by getting between God and God, by continuously taking God's packages, not even knowing how to open them, just playing with them until they are destroyed, by handing them to our monkey mind and our dog of desire. This is what we do. Instead of this, elevate everything that comes in front of you as "coming from God", and elevate it even further as "coming from God to God", and like the good and dutiful mail man, correctly deliver the packages that come to you, on time, to God, always delivering these packages to the person addressed to on the package, which is always God, not me, not you, and not anyone else, because in truth, we don't exist, only God exists. This is the living dhikr or kalimah, "I am not, You are", the dhikr or kalimah that you become, not say. Back To The Story of The Girl In The Mosque - we delivered God's package to God So this is what this child did with the girl in the mosque, with her brother Louie, and with the conversation they were having about the great difficulty of the path to God, as presented to us by His Holiness, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). We delivered God's package to God. We handed the sister and the brother and what they were saying to God, just like we hand the package to our neighbor that was mistakenly delivered to our house, and then we are completely done with it, not to ever think about it again, unless God brings it up. And when this child did that, with Iman, with the faith, certitude, and determination, that this was the most one can do in any situation, then everything changed, my life changed, her life change, and the life within the heart of everyone in the 18,000 universes changed, since in truth all life is One. And from the tongue of this child came the following in the direction of the sister, "What you say in not true. The path to God is very easy. In fact it is the easiest thing in the world." And the sister said to this child, "That can't be true. Just think of all the things that Bawa has told us to do." And from the tongue of this child came, "That is true, His Holiness has said to do many things, but if you agree to do exactly what I tell you to do, for just a few hours, then you will reach a state of enlightenment." And the sister, who had great love and trust in this child, said, "I don't understand, but I will do it." And from the tongue of this child came, "Good. All you have to do is sit in the corner of the mosque until I come back from work tonight (it was then about 8 A.M in the morning), and a state of enlightenment is guaranteed for you." The sister agreed, found a nice corner in the mosque to sit it, gave me salaams, and this child went off to work for the day. Then this child, upon return to the Fellowship at the end of the day, having totally forgotten the whole incident in the morning, saw the same sister came running up the driveway in front of the mosque to greet me. She was laughing, and said to me very happily, "I only lasted 15 minutes. As soon as you left for work my mind attacked me, and started to find fault with you, with what you said, with the people in the mosque, with the people not in the mosque, and my desire rose up with hunger, and discomfort, and the two of them literally pushed me out of the mosque." "Thank you so very much, my wise loving brother, the enemy is within, that is the only difficulty on the path, and it is very powerful enemy, so powerful that only God can help us. We cannot help ourselves." "For the first time in my life I have seen the face of the enemy, and it will never be as strong as it was before, because its strength lies in its secrecy, in its ability to trick us with thoughs of self existence, of separate from God, of separation from our brothers and sisters, and of separation from the Creation of God." Then this child gave salaams to my loving sister, and praised God for the grace "to do nothing correctly". We Must Use God To Get To God, Not Use What God Has Discarded - because only God is good, only God can do this Divine Work Like this my loving brother Mike, we can not pull ourselves up by our boot straps, because we are currently in our boots. And like one of the teachers of old observed while investigating the power of the lever, "Give me a place to stand outside of the world, with a lever large enough, and I will move the world." In this way, we cannot use ourselves to get to God, we must use God to get to God, we must use something outside of ourselves to get to God, we must use something of God that God has secretly placed within us to get to God, we must use something within us that is different from our "selfish self" to move the "selfish self", and make room for the "selfless self", for the true self within us, which in maturity is known as Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). We cannot use the things discarded by God to get to God, and we must realize, without the slightest doubt, that the life that we have become, the "selfish self", the life of separation and differences that has grown over the original pure life of the soul within each of us, is what God has discarded. And we must realize that everything that we see in the vision world outside of us is what God has discarded. The Life and Teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - is the gift of God for this age, to the Children of God for this age This is the gift of the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in our life, what God has placed within each of us for this age to do this divine work, what we must join with that is of God, that is outside of the "selfish self", that can remove the "selfish self" from us, making room for the "selfless self" within us. My dearest brother Mike, this is our direct connection to God, which is wisdom, and to receive that gift of wisdom, of the qualities and actions of God, that gift of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen from God for this age, for the Children of God for this age, we only have to realize, understand, accept, and join with it. That is our part, nothing else. He will do everything else. You are a very good child, and all that you lack is this wisdom, all that any of us lack is this direct connection to God, a connection to God that we all had in the world of souls, in the womb, and for the first few years in the world. But now it is gone, and in its place we have a direct connection to hell, to the 400 trillion, 10 spiritual energies, that rule our life, which are our thoughts of separation and differences. Please know this well. Re-establishing Our Direct Connection With God - that is wisdom, the wisdom of the True Man, and only such a True Man can re-establish it within you, because that is how it work, that is how God set it up, whether you like it or not And we must all realize that we can never re-establish our direct connection with God, we can never get this wisdom of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, which already lies subtlely within us, within our innermost hearts, through "our" actions in the world, through our life in the world of separation and differences that has so completely overwhelmed and deceived us, and has turned us into snakes and scorpions, dogs and foxes, demons, and crazy men, we cannot get to God using the mind and desire that are the instruments within us of separation and differences, we must use our wisdom, we must use our direct connection to the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. This is the truth. Like this, we must use God within us to get to God, we must use what God has placed within us to re-establish our direct connection to God, and for this age, that is the life and teaching of His Holiness, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). And not only this, we must also use the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who have re-established that direction connection to God within them, that Wisdom of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, through becoming one with the life and teaching of His Holiness. We must seek them out and use them, we must seek them out and join with them in the divine work of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) within the hearts of all of His Children, who are the Children of God for this age. We must do this. This Is The Age of The Rahim, The Age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - when God pulls everything back into Himself, from which it all came, when we again become One with God, and all that God is one with, if that be our true intention My dearest loving brothers Mike, there is no other way to do this, for this age. Because this is not the age of the Prophet, of the Rahman, where God rules over His Creation. That is over. This is the age of the Qutb, the age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the age of the Rahim, the age when God pulls everything that came from Him back into Himself. But to take advantage of the gift of God for this age, we must realize, understand, accept, and join as one with it, we must accept Bawa Muhaiyaddeen as the Messenger of God for this age, we must fall into His life and teaching as our life and body. Only then will the life and body of separation and differences within us end, only then will this home for our mind and desire end, and only in its ending will it have been valuable, valuable on the path of God, as the covering of the apple seed is valuable in its proper ending, but destructive to the apple seed if it fails to leave on time Again, please forgive your little brother Louie if anything that was said in this or any other letter from him was wrong, or offended or upset you in any way, the intent is only "not to be there correctly". May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon us all. May God help us all. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) End of Spiritual Letter ...................................... |
Doing "Nothing" Correctly Is Doing Everything Right Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) on January, 18, 2001 to Mike Katz Wisdom Point: Join With Bawa Muhaiyaddeen To Liberate Your Soul From "You" Selection: Spiritual Letter 13 Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Outline For This Letter 2. The Sufi Path - settling into stillness through the realization that everything is perfect 3. Reflect On Karma - karma is thought, the veil of thought which obscures our wisdom, our direct connection with God. 4. Understand The Treasure of Peace - peace is a partnership with God, is becoming one with the one who has already become one with you 5. Only God Can Pray To God - we must become God's prayer mat and invite Him to pray, then we will experience His prayer as our prayer. Only this is true prayer 6. Learning About The Un-Cola of Life - Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is the Un-Cola of our life, He is us without "us", but we can only experience Him after we have experienced "us" without Him, because only He must be left when "we" are done 7. The Great Problem of Our Life Is Over Control - we have to learn to let go 8. In Truth We Are All One - this oneness of all life is our birthright, not trying to figure life out in a state of separation from life 9. Take No Prisoners - every aspect of the ego, of the "selfish self" must die 10. Story of The Girl In The Mosque - the hidden enemy within 11. Doing "Nothing" Correctly Is Doing Everything Right - the most difficult part of life is to find a True Human Being 12. Stop Opening God's Packages - instead learn to deliver them to God 13. Back To The Story of The Girl In The Mosque - we delivered God's package to God only God is good, only God can do this Divine Work 15. The Life and Teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - is the gift of God for this age, to the Children of God for this age 16. Re-establishing Our Direct Connection With God - that is wisdom, the wisdom of the True Man, and only such a True Man can re-establish it within you, because that is how it work, that is how God set it up, whether you like it or not 17. This Is The Age of The Rahim, The Age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - when God pulls everything back into Himself, from which it all came, when we again become One with God, and all that God is one with, if that be our true intention Opening Prayer Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. Al-hamdu lillah. In sha 'allah, ma sha 'allah. Tawakkal-Allah. Allahumma labbaik. In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. All praise and praising belong to God and to God alone. If God so wills, whatever God wills. I place my trust in God, and in God alone, and am obedient to His will, and to His will alone. May all responsibility be given to Allah, the One who is limitless grace, and incomparable love, the One who gives us His blessings. My love you my dearest brother Mike. All that you say is true, and yet it is all false. As we are all false, and yet completely true. Yes? The problem of life is to realize that there is no problem. For as His Holiness teaches us, "A sufi is one who settles into stillness through the realization that everything is perfect". Yes? One day His Holiness told us, "Never have the thought that there is something for you to do." Yes? May we both reflect on this truth. Reflect On Karma - karma is thought, the veil of thought which obscures our wisdom, our direct connection with God. In the book, "Golden Words of a Sufi Shaikh", Number 222, page 72, His Holiness teaches us about karma, as follows: ------------------------------------------------- Beginning of Quotation ---------------------------------------- The Shaikh says: My Son, the world finds it easy to go around saying, "Karma, karma", but you must reflect on this with your wisdom. God has given all His wealth to man - hell and heaven, good and evil, and all His qualities. If man realizes this through his seven levels of wisdom, accepting and doing what is good while rejecting evil, there will be no karma for him. Only the resplendence of grace will dwell within him. How is this? When clouds obscure the moon, not allowing its light to emerge, that is the moon's karma. But the moment the clouds disperse, we see only radiant light. Like the clouds, your karma is the thing that obscures the light of your wisdom. If wisdom can make its resplendent light emerge, scattering the clouds and darkness, there will be no karma (for you), because darkness and shadows are karma. When wisdom resplends without shadow as a complete light, karma will automatically recede. Then there is no longer any karma, there is only completeness. You must realize what karma is. Karma is thought, the veil of thought which obscures wisdom just as it covered your embryonic form. If the light of wisdom attains completeness, karma is driven away. Understand this and act accordingly, and you will shine as a true believer, a mu'mim, as the brilliant light of the sun to the world. Then neither karma nor darkness will affect you. ----------------------------------------------------- End of Quotation ------------------------------------------ Understand The Treasure of Peace - peace is a partnership with God, is becoming one with the one who has already become one with you And in the book, Number 225, page 73, His Holiness teaches us about the treasure of peace in our life, as follows: ------------------------------------------------- Beginning of Quotation --------------------------------------- The Shaikh says: O son, with wisdom you must understand the treasure of peace in your life. Listen. Do not ever give room to the thought of hurting anyone. The idea of killing or hurting any life must dispelled from within you. No matter what duty you perform, do not seek the help of others in return. Do not expect to receive a reward. Do selfless duty in an unattached way. In every duty, give up the thought that you are doing it. Instead, act with the thought that God must do it, give Him the responsibility, and then perform the duty. Even your intentions must be surrendered to God. In your vision, action, and wisdom, look at God first. Place Him before you in your life, and follow Him. Act with God's qualities. These will give peace and tranquility to life. If you make these points firm and certain in your wisdom, if you realize them and act accordingly, all lives will trust you and love you, and all lives will pay obeisance to your qualities. ----------------------------------------------------- End of Quotation ------------------------------------------ Only God Can Pray To God - we must become God's prayer mat and invite Him to pray, then we will experience His prayer as our prayer. Only this is true prayer Like this, my dearest loving brother Mike, you are missing the point. You don't exist as separate from God, so stop acting as if you do. All that you have written about ego, was written by ego, not by God. Everything above was written by God. That is the difference. You mention saying the dhikr or kalimah. Sounds like a good idea. But have you not just fallen into the same trap that you wrote about? Who can say the dhikr but God. We cannot do this work. For this work to be done God must be there, not us. For as His Holiness so beautifully summarizes, "If you are there, God is not there. If God is there, you are not there." Learning About The Un-Cola of Life - Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is the Un-Cola of our life, He is us without "us", but we can only experience Him after we have experienced "us" without Him, because only He must be left when "we" are done Many people came to His Holiness like you, including me, and the journey for them is like learning about Un-Cola. Yes? Now what is Un-Cola? Anyone who watches television knows about Un-Cola. First we learn about Cola, like Coke-a-Cola, or Pepsi-Cola, and only then are we introduced to Un-Cola, because Un-Cola can only be understood once we have experiences Cola, because Un-Cola is what we drink without Cola. Like this, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen is the Un-Cola of our life, He is us without "us", but we can only experience Him after we have experienced "us" without Him. And that is the rub of it. Because once we have experience "us" without Him, it is very difficult to experience Him without "us", and because of this "we" can't experience Him, "we" can't experience us, the us of oneness and unity, of justice and truth, of compassion and unity, the true us, which is the Triple Flame of God - God, the Shaikh, and the Disciple - the us known as Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the us without "us", so all we ever get is the "us" of us, the "us" of separation and differences, and call that us, and call that Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, we never get to the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen of us, to the true us that is Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, and therefore, we never get to God, who is within the true us, as the power within the essence of everything. Yes? The Great Problem of Our Life Is Over Control - we have to learn to let go This is the problem of our life, over control of our life. For example, when you learn to fly an airplane the biggest problem that the instructor has is teaching the student to let go, because the airplane was designed to fly all by itself correctly, and a new student will even kill himself by over controlling the airplane. He has to learn that in times of danger, like when he is subjected to severe weather and the plane takes a nose dive, to let go, to let go of the controls and let the plane handle it, let the plane fly itself. This is the only real danger to the student pilot, trying to take charge of the plane in times of danger, trying to rule over it, rather than working with the plane to accomplish a mission, gently nudging it in the direction it needs to go, but letting what the manufactures of the airplane built into the airplane to work properly, to allow the plane to fly safely, and react properly, automatically, in times of danger. In Truth We Are All One - this oneness of all life is our birthright, not trying to figure life out in a state of separation from life My dearest loving brother Mike. Please be patient with the ramblings of your little brother Louie. We are the same, we have been cut from the same cloth, and we have the same Father, who put us here to liberate the world from death, by first liberating ourselves from death, by learning to die before death, by letting what has no value within us end, so what has value within us can come to completion within us, as the One within everything that is within us, and as such, we are One, all life in truth is One life. This oneness of life is our birthright, not trying to figure life out in a state of separation from life. The One life within us doesn't need that, it just needs us to let go and trust in God, trusting in what God has already placed within us, within each of us, as our birthright, that will automatically fly us home successfully, with a few gentle course corrections by wisdom. Like that, there is no figuring it out, because it is Unknowable, and yet it can all be Known. We must realize that there is no paradox in life except when we look at yourselves, or at anything, through the idea of yourselves as separate from God, as separate from your brothers and sisters, or as separate from the Creation of God. Give it up. Let go. Stop trying so hard. Let the plane fly itself. It will. Have the faith and trust that God is in charge. Like the Prophet Abraham (may the blessings of God be upon Him), know that God is the one who put you here, in your "pit of fire", not anyone or anything else, know that God knows what is happening, and that He knows what needs to be done, and make your knowing that He knows enough. That is Iman, or absolute faith, certitude, and determination in God. That is where it all begins, not in trying to understand it, or in doing the dhikr, or in doing anything. All that is useless, and even worse than useless, it is wasting your valuable time. Please think about this a little, my dearest loving brother Mike, and please forgive me if there is anything that has been said that offends you, or upsets you, or puts you off in any way. This child is a fool, trying to live at the feet of His Holiness, and as His Holiness teaches us to say, in the Forward of the beautiful new book, "The Pearls of Wisdom or Guru Mani", on page 7 , "Forgive me the wrong, and accept the good. So I request". Take No Prisoners - every aspect of the ego, of the "selfish self" must die Some more points from your beautiful letter. You say at the beginning of your letter, referencing this child and other children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, "Your dedication to Bawa is complete, and you have chosen your path. This is probably true of most, if not all, students and persons on your E-mail list. However, I am not there (yet?)." No. No. No. It is not true, and even more importantly, it is not the way it works. Let me explain a little. His Holiness teaches us that the only value in the life that we are currently experiencing is for it to end, not to get better, not to improve, not to become dedicated, not to become complete, but to end. That is the hidden face of the ego that you spoke about. His Holiness teaches us that the ego or mind will let us go to God, as long as it can take credit for it, as long as we let it live in the process. But as the cowboys of old used to say in the wild, wild west, though it is not in this age politically correct, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian". In this way, the only good ego, is a dead ego. In the statement above, you have made the cardinal mistake, you have allowed us to live, and then, once we are allowed to live, you have evaluated us, as dedicated or not, complete or not, etc. etc. etc. And the end result of your allowing us to live, is that you have allowed yourself to live, to continue to live separate from God, from each other, and from the Creation of God. There is no bigger mistake in our life. And everything else in your letter flows out of this mistake, like the puss from a sour that has been pricked. Yes? My dearest loving brother Mike, only God exists, only God is good, only God is dedicated, only God is complete, not me, not you, and certainly not any of the brothers and sisters on this mailing list, or anyone at the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, or anyone in the religion of Islam, or any of the people living in the world in this age or in any age before or after it. That just about covers it. Yes? So what are we to do? Nothing, nothing, nothing, but it must be done correctly. How can that be, you may say? How can that work, you may say? That doesn't seem right, you may say? Let us share a short story with you. Story of The Girl In The Mosque - the hidden enemy within One day this child was sitting in the Mosque of Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) talking to one of our sisters, and the sister was concerned about the great difficulty of the path to God, as explained to us by our Father, by Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). Upon hearing what she said, this child did the one thing that this child had learned from Bawa to do, the one thing of value to do in such situations, and in all situations for that matter - this child did nothing. Thank God, that at this point in my life, this child knew, through the life and teaching of His Holiness, that what was before this child, which was the sister and this child sitting in the mosque having a conversation, was of great value, was something that God had placed before us, and even more correctly, that God had placed before Himself, before God within us, before God in the process of happening within us, before God in the process of being revealed to God within us. And all of this was for God's purpose, not for our purpose, because God wanted to do something at that point with the life of God that God had placed within us, that God wanted to move forward what He was doing with His Creation, which was to reveal True Man within the Creation of God, and that God was doing all of this everywhere at once within all His Creation, He was doing it within this child and within the sister sitting with this child, and within all of His Creation in the 18,000 universes. What a wonder is this God of ours, and what a wonder is His Creation, and what a wonder is what He is doing with it, within each of us. Such is the true exaltedness of every moment of every one of our lives, my dearest loving brother Mike. We must both think about this a little. Doing "Nothing" Correctly Is Doing Everything Right - the most difficult part of life is to find a True Human Being With such a beautiful clarity, what is one to do, in all situations? There is only one thing to do, at all times in all situations. Don't do anything. Negate the self. Refuse to participate in the useless exercise of self existence separate from God, and separate from what God is doing, and always doing, and only doing, in all situations, which is revealing God, by revealing True Man within the Creation of God. Nothing else of value is ever going on, in me, in you, or in anyone else. So get with the program, God's program that is, the program of oneness and unity, of justice and truth, of compassion and unity, the program of "oneness with". And get out of your own program, the program of separation and differences, the program of "mine" and "yours", the program of "separation from". Then what is the point of our life? Why did God create us? Why are we here? What are we to do while we are here? We need answers to all of these questions. And we need them right now. Yes? Stop Opening God's Packages - instead learn to deliver them correctly to God The answer is simple. Stop opening God's packages. Instead learn to deliver them to them to God. For example, if the post office delivered a package to your house that was intended for the house of a neighbor, but was mistakenly delivered to your house, what would you do? Would you open it? Probably not. Probably you would walk over to the neighbor's house and either leave it on the porch or knock on the door, and give them their package. Like this, everything that comes to us is always a package for God, not for us. It is always something that God is sending to God, to help God finish what He has started within Himself within us, and only if God gets His packages, only if they are delivered correctly, and on time, can God use them the way only God can use them, to finish what He has started within us, and only them, can progress be make in what God is doing within us, within each of us, which is to reveal God within us, by first revealing True Man within the Creation of God within us. But what do we do? Instead of this, instead of helping in the delivery of packages to God, we interpret everything that comes to us as coming to "us", not to God, not to something else or someone else within us, that is in truth the life within our life, the body within our body, the consciousness within our consciousness, the work and duty within our work and duty, the words within our words, and the sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, within our sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. This is what we do. In this way, in our ignorance of "who we are", of "where we are", and of "what is happening" in our life, we prevent God from getting His packages, we steal His packages, we pretend that they are our packages, that is what we do. And because of that, God just sits within us, waiting to complete the work that He has started within us, until we die. Only then do we see the big, big, mistake that we have made, by getting between God and God, by continuously taking God's packages, not even knowing how to open them, just playing with them until they are destroyed, by handing them to our monkey mind and our dog of desire. This is what we do. Instead of this, elevate everything that comes in front of you as "coming from God", and elevate it even further as "coming from God to God", and like the good and dutiful mail man, correctly deliver the packages that come to you, on time, to God, always delivering these packages to the person addressed to on the package, which is always God, not me, not you, and not anyone else, because in truth, we don't exist, only God exists. This is the living dhikr or kalimah, "I am not, You are", the dhikr or kalimah that you become, not say. Back To The Story of The Girl In The Mosque - we delivered God's package to God So this is what this child did with the girl in the mosque, with her brother Louie, and with the conversation they were having about the great difficulty of the path to God, as presented to us by His Holiness, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). We delivered God's package to God. We handed the sister and the brother and what they were saying to God, just like we hand the package to our neighbor that was mistakenly delivered to our house, and then we are completely done with it, not to ever think about it again, unless God brings it up. And when this child did that, with Iman, with the faith, certitude, and determination, that this was the most one can do in any situation, then everything changed, my life changed, her life change, and the life within the heart of everyone in the 18,000 universes changed, since in truth all life is One. And from the tongue of this child came the following in the direction of the sister, "What you say in not true. The path to God is very easy. In fact it is the easiest thing in the world." And the sister said to this child, "That can't be true. Just think of all the things that Bawa has told us to do." And from the tongue of this child came, "That is true, His Holiness has said to do many things, but if you agree to do exactly what I tell you to do, for just a few hours, then you will reach a state of enlightenment." And the sister, who had great love and trust in this child, said, "I don't understand, but I will do it." And from the tongue of this child came, "Good. All you have to do is sit in the corner of the mosque until I come back from work tonight (it was then about 8 A.M in the morning), and a state of enlightenment is guaranteed for you." The sister agreed, found a nice corner in the mosque to sit it, gave me salaams, and this child went off to work for the day. Then this child, upon return to the Fellowship at the end of the day, having totally forgotten the whole incident in the morning, saw the same sister came running up the driveway in front of the mosque to greet me. She was laughing, and said to me very happily, "I only lasted 15 minutes. As soon as you left for work my mind attacked me, and started to find fault with you, with what you said, with the people in the mosque, with the people not in the mosque, and my desire rose up with hunger, and discomfort, and the two of them literally pushed me out of the mosque." "Thank you so very much, my wise loving brother, the enemy is within, that is the only difficulty on the path, and it is very powerful enemy, so powerful that only God can help us. We cannot help ourselves." "For the first time in my life I have seen the face of the enemy, and it will never be as strong as it was before, because its strength lies in its secrecy, in its ability to trick us with thoughs of self existence, of separate from God, of separation from our brothers and sisters, and of separation from the Creation of God." Then this child gave salaams to my loving sister, and praised God for the grace "to do nothing correctly". We Must Use God To Get To God, Not Use What God Has Discarded - because only God is good, only God can do this Divine Work Like this my loving brother Mike, we can not pull ourselves up by our boot straps, because we are currently in our boots. And like one of the teachers of old observed while investigating the power of the lever, "Give me a place to stand outside of the world, with a lever large enough, and I will move the world." In this way, we cannot use ourselves to get to God, we must use God to get to God, we must use something outside of ourselves to get to God, we must use something of God that God has secretly placed within us to get to God, we must use something within us that is different from our "selfish self" to move the "selfish self", and make room for the "selfless self", for the true self within us, which in maturity is known as Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). We cannot use the things discarded by God to get to God, and we must realize, without the slightest doubt, that the life that we have become, the "selfish self", the life of separation and differences that has grown over the original pure life of the soul within each of us, is what God has discarded. And we must realize that everything that we see in the vision world outside of us is what God has discarded. The Life and Teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - is the gift of God for this age, to the Children of God for this age This is the gift of the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in our life, what God has placed within each of us for this age to do this divine work, what we must join with that is of God, that is outside of the "selfish self", that can remove the "selfish self" from us, making room for the "selfless self" within us. My dearest brother Mike, this is our direct connection to God, which is wisdom, and to receive that gift of wisdom, of the qualities and actions of God, that gift of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen from God for this age, for the Children of God for this age, we only have to realize, understand, accept, and join with it. That is our part, nothing else. He will do everything else. You are a very good child, and all that you lack is this wisdom, all that any of us lack is this direct connection to God, a connection to God that we all had in the world of souls, in the womb, and for the first few years in the world. But now it is gone, and in its place we have a direct connection to hell, to the 400 trillion, 10 spiritual energies, that rule our life, which are our thoughts of separation and differences. Please know this well. Re-establishing Our Direct Connection With God - that is wisdom, the wisdom of the True Man, and only such a True Man can re-establish it within you, because that is how it work, that is how God set it up, whether you like it or not And we must all realize that we can never re-establish our direct connection with God, we can never get this wisdom of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, which already lies subtlely within us, within our innermost hearts, through "our" actions in the world, through our life in the world of separation and differences that has so completely overwhelmed and deceived us, and has turned us into snakes and scorpions, dogs and foxes, demons, and crazy men, we cannot get to God using the mind and desire that are the instruments within us of separation and differences, we must use our wisdom, we must use our direct connection to the life and teaching of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. This is the truth. Like this, we must use God within us to get to God, we must use what God has placed within us to re-establish our direct connection to God, and for this age, that is the life and teaching of His Holiness, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). And not only this, we must also use the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who have re-established that direction connection to God within them, that Wisdom of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, through becoming one with the life and teaching of His Holiness. We must seek them out and use them, we must seek them out and join with them in the divine work of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) within the hearts of all of His Children, who are the Children of God for this age. We must do this. This Is The Age of The Rahim, The Age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen - when God pulls everything back into Himself, from which it all came, when we again become One with God, and all that God is one with, if that be our true intention My dearest loving brothers Mike, there is no other way to do this, for this age. Because this is not the age of the Prophet, of the Rahman, where God rules over His Creation. That is over. This is the age of the Qutb, the age of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the age of the Rahim, the age when God pulls everything that came from Him back into Himself. But to take advantage of the gift of God for this age, we must realize, understand, accept, and join as one with it, we must accept Bawa Muhaiyaddeen as the Messenger of God for this age, we must fall into His life and teaching as our life and body. Only then will the life and body of separation and differences within us end, only then will this home for our mind and desire end, and only in its ending will it have been valuable, valuable on the path of God, as the covering of the apple seed is valuable in its proper ending, but destructive to the apple seed if it fails to leave on time Again, please forgive your little brother Louie if anything that was said in this or any other letter from him was wrong, or offended or upset you in any way, the intent is only "not to be there correctly". May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon us all. May God help us all. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) End of Spiritual Letter ...................................... |
This page was last updated on: January 18, 2002
