I am constantly re-reading Henry Corbin’s The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism.

I have until now been unable to find a full text by this brilliant representative of the eastern tradition of Sufism. Until for a while ago, when I just happened upon a book named “Adab al-Suluk: A Treatise on Spiritual Wayfaring“, on www.al-islam.org . The Translator’s preface filled in some details I was unaware of, from reading Corbin’s analysis of many of the themes that Najmoddin Kubra takes up in his treatises, that is – the details about the life and developement of the shaykh who would assist, through his disciples who also became great saints (wali) and teachers (murshid), to found many Sufi orders, many of which exist until this day, among them the Dhahabiyyah and Qurbaniyyah orders.
Also, that he and his disciples tried to fight off the Mongolian hordes attacking their village, where Najmoddin Kobra had founded a hospice with his family. It was here his disciples received tuition, wrote their treatises and commentaries and lived for long periods of their lives.
From the author’s preface to the Treatise:

O slave of Allah! Know that you are a wayfarer (salik)seeking your Lord and ultimately one day you would meet Him, as said in a tradition: Whoever hopes to meet God should know that the time of the meeting will come. And you should know that God, the Exalted, by leis perfect Might and Wisdom has destined two journeys for the Children of Adam. One of them is involuntary (qahri), and the other one is voluntary (ikhtiyari).
As to the involuntary journey, the starting point is the father’s loins (sulb); the second stage is the mother’s womb; the third stage is the physical world; and the fourth stage is that of the grave, which is either a garden out of the gardens of paradise or is a pit out of the pits of hell.The fifth stage is the Day of Resurrection, which is equal to fifty thousand years of this world. After that stage you will reach your eternal home and attain the real abode ‑ that is, the abode of peace (dar al‑salam)and the paradise of security and peace, in case you are among the felicitous and the friends of the Haqq; or your home will be the abode of fire and torture, if, God forbid, you should be among the wretched and the enemies of the Haqq, as Allah has said: “On the Day of Resurrection a group will be in paradise and a group in hell.” Every breath that you take is a step towards the stage of death. Every day of your life is equal to a parsang. Each month is like a stage (marhalah)and each year like a station (manzil). Your journey is like the movement of the sun and the moon ‑ yet you are oblivious of this journey and movement ‑ and in your ignorance and forgetfulness you have failed to make ready and equip yourself properly for the station (manzil)of the grave and the onward journey to the station of the Day of Resurrection and your eternal and real home.
But the voluntary journey is of two kinds: one is the journey of the souls and the hearts toward the Almighty and All‑powerful King of the world. The second is a physical journey (safar jismani)in the earth of God. We will devote a separate chapter to each one of these two journeys, so that you receive the required guidance for attaining their goals and are guided in preparing the means, in opening the gates, and in learning the principles (adab), which will be your companion and assistant in matters relating to every good and piety, and so that it assists the people of love (`ishq)and yearning during their journey, and serve insha’ Allah ta’ala, for the compiler as a provision for the Day of Resurrection vis‑a‑vis his Lord (Mawla).

O Lord, open the gates of Your grace and mercy to us! O Lord, Who art Bounteous and Magnanimous!

The involuntary journey has begun, for every living, breathing human being. It has to begin like this, because it is the way everything in the biological, incarnate condition begins. That Jesus was born of a virgin is made a point in Orthodox christologies in that he did not possess this involuntarity, that he was perfectly like the future humanity, promised in the Gospel about the Kingdom, from birth. That he did not depend on sexuality to come into existence. There is dissension over this – there was dissension going already when the canonical gospels were written. The sequence of birth almost did not make into the Gospel of Luke, who made a concentrated bid for an alternative christology by introducing the Davidic lineage into the corporal Jesus through genetical inheritance. Which would be difficult to reconcile with the fact of the virgin birth, since this lineage descends into Joseph, not Mary.
What do the travellers on an involuntary journey have to hold on to, to hope for? That the Lord is Merciful.
This is in itself interesting, because we see here that this course, this progression through time, through hardships not chosen and which ultimately will prove to result in no reward – the natural order – does not bring Man closer to God, or to ultimate truths, far from it; moreover, this natural order of things negates the ability of Man to choose and take responsibility for his choices and his own actions. Here one can only hope that the executioners blade is sufficiently sharp, so as to kill more than to maim. There is something to wake up from, and it is a terrible, terrible dream.

Given the peculiarly manichaean-sounding practices (colored photisms, the phenomenon of progressive concentration), theories and approach of this medieval sufi shaykh – as I have found them in Henry Corbin’s discussion on the themes in the Man of Light , the journey in the earth of God should provide much to ponder.

Going back to Henry Corbin’s Man of Light in Iranian Sufism.
Central to the book is the theme of orientation. It is also a central theme for myself.
My subjective experience of the universe, given a very peculiar light, is that there are events and worlds which coincide on several levels, and that the chief characteristics of these are illusionary, temporal manifestations and aspects of the foundational and eternal Being. While making a whole lot of itself, sound and fury, the world of the phenomenal manifestations signifies, if we look for meaning, absolutely nothing. Truth does not insist so loudly, for it has really no true and real opponent. Yet such an Agon, such a struggle, that occurs in the minds of men these days.
The first true impression of our own condition is not a pleasing sight. Here there is no golden age. Here is no more paradise. Here is no more the childlike innocense we think of, when someone speaks about the world before the great war began, before evil and good became available for us to use or abuse. Yet, nuances does not serve the very optical task we have taken upon ourselves – while we may receive visionary impulses, all in greys, we do not see object and subject alone, distinguished from all else, before we allow ourselves to become divided completely. Full stop. Let me explain this situation. Our great sorrow is that our cultures have allowed the human soul to become the bearer of culture, tradition, values, languages, religions, philosophies, sciences and all else that occupies societies, civilizations and similar “things” (which do not exist by themselves – without flesh and blood, without incarnate beings, without the human individual, all that would be left is artefacts and artful ruins.) – to the degree that the developement of the soul is evaluated from its ability to comprehend the aforementioned, to remember the “fathers and mothers”, to repeat, imitate and fulfill the past in new and fascinating ways. This is the paraded “wisdom of men”, the common heritage of generations past and generations to come. It also devalues the intelligent self into a mere servant of culture. The living organism is subject to a paracite which only secretes more of itself into its host. So the world is annihilates the soul,so to speak. While the task would be, to paraphrase Valentinus, “to dissolve the world, while not ourselves dissolved in the same action.” That is to say, we become totally distinguished, in our understanding and experience, from our envoirment, from our situation, from our so-called fate – from society, from “the world”. It is important because above all each single one of us is first and foremost our selves, and secondly human, and thirdly intelligent and participant beings in a vibrant and living universe. The worlds constructed by letters, numbers and variables relative to culture, history and ideology – are only so real that they have substance; they have only form and substance in the eye of the beholder, within the mind, in the hearing ear, in the participant body. Are we not well advised, then, to remember that the dependence of the former is upon the latter, and that the latter – the very last thing we discover in the whole multiverse of options, our self – carries all responsibility if the former is allowed to invade and finally devour whatever intelligent spark is left within itself.
The seeker should know which is which, or else meaning leaks out of the jar on the way from the well – Who “would have eternal life?”, and who “would die” – which fulfills the law, which negate and abolishes it, who is the object of love, who is the lover – who observes, who acts – who answers and who ask. The conventional, culturally conditioned answers to many riddles which paradoxically is carried from generation to generation by way of the culture, the tradition itself – predictably serves to make obscure the reason why the riddles were put forward; as challenges to conventional wisdom and the knowledge of “everyone”.
This condition, this confused and overloaded experience of reality, self and whatever authority figure serves as “god” or “prinsciple” in this triad – Valentinus compares, in the Gospel of Truth, to a confused dream wherein the role of the observer and participant is not clearly defined, where at one time one is pursued, and at another one is the pursuer. If all this confusing motion was arrested, and someone pressed a “freeze” button on the curious VCR of life – no one would have been able to explain which was what. The Post-modernists would jump at such an opportunity to speak about this great rush of nothing and inexplicability, an occasion to delve deep and wide into the meaninglessness of meaning and the meaningfulness of the meaninglessness and suggest you flip a coin and draw a diagram on the results.
Henry Corbin’s book describes the way several different personalities in the Iranian tradition of Sufism attempted to make headway out of the situation into which they were born. A chief theme is the new pole of orientation – which is the new person, which develops a new sense apparatus – and finally is enabled to see the new world; ever renewed in Spirit, not dross – in Light.
I will attempt to say more about these things at a later occasion.

I’d like to wish In Search of Knowledge welcome to my blogroll. I have been looking for likeminded blogs for a while, it appears that recently there has been a fortunate upsurge of Gnosis oriented bloggers. A trend I am generally positive of.

Jeremy at Fantastic Planet recently commented on the infrequency of posts on this blog. While some students have the conscience to let the world know about their outer and inner lives, I have personally, with three years curriculum to be concluded in six months, found it damn near impossible to combine. It does not mean that I do not care for this medium, nor does it mean I have nothing to say. I have a lot to say, both opinions, observations and near revelations – but they are confined to this mind, as well as assorted scribbled notes in the margins of my schoolbooks. But to quip the Governor of California; I’ll be back .:-)
Also I am observing a very interesting fast for Lent, I am avoiding sugar products like Soda, candy, Chocolate, condiments.. to my great surprise it takes a lot of concentration to add popping those into your mouth, and it is damn near everywhere. Wish me luck.

With all my school blues these days, Stephan Hoeller’s contribution to the debate over the consequences of the Tsunami in South-East Asia went completely by me.
I thought I should share it with you, now that I have found it. Thanks, Jeremy for letting me know about it on your weblog.

Gnosis at a time of disaster.
A meditation on the Earthquake-Tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004

“On the day after Christmas of last year, a gigantic earthquake accompanied by a tsunami took the lives of thus far over 150,000 human beings in an area extending from Indonesia to Somalia. A natural catastrophe of unique scope visited humanity, and causes us to reflect on its possible meaning and implications. Questions are being raised by people of many faiths and of none. Most of these may be summed up in one word:“Why?””
begins Stephan Hoeller’s meditation.

Since the Roman Catholic Church invented the martyrs Valentine and Valentine (sic!), unrelated, who wrote pious little declarations of charitable intentions – the name Valentine has been a definition of the passionate lover, who anonymously bestows a gift of words, of flowers, of jewelry.. or indeed, chocolate – to his dearest.

The international icon for Christmas has become the Christmas tree, only challenged by a fat cartoon character in a red suit and a long white beard. The international icon for Valentines is a heart.

Since Valentinus, the actual origin for the traditional celebration of St.Valentines – declared boldly that beyond all other characterizations God, the divine, is Love: and all beings owe their existence to the situation that Love needs an object (or rather, a Subject) – and because the Bridal Chamber (also called Nymphon) is the central mystery (sacrament) of the Valentinian school; the heart comes closer to describe this “Holy Day”.

Continue reading →

Jeremy Puma posted this friday, “Tsunami and Theodicy”

at his fantastic Planet weblog.

.

As I wrote earlier today, I wished that I could contribute some words concerning what has occured. Mostly I just wish to keep the tenderness in my heart that came to my attention at the Requiem service for the dead, on December 28th, in our community in Oslo.

But that would mean to actually keep entirely silent, also with regards to the written word.

I am very happy Jeremy took the time to pursue such a grave matter with the qualities he has demonstrated he possesses to the full,

“if God is all good, how could He/She/It allow such a monstrous thing to occur?” he asks.

“This is pretty much the Ultimate Question when it comes to monotheism.”
The claims made about God knows no end. Some flatter God, others drag God down to such a level as most living mortals, whatever their walk in life, would step abruptly one step back just so as not to be confused with whatever common denominator is at work. The flailing pride in the sneer we find in the Book of Job, a biblical scripture curiously neglected by most of the Gnostic scriptures found in the Nag Hammadi find – gave pause to much reflection in Carl Gustav Jung’s work “Answer to Job”, and apparently disturbed William Blake profoundly also in his Bible Studies. Most of these words ascribed to God, is no answer at all, it appears to continue an inglorious monologue with no subject at all, except perhaps the appreciation of own self the orator might be intoxicated with. It is not difficult to imagine a certain fear in those words as well, since Job is quite content that as a mortal he may and can only die, and after such a bloodied and senseless martyrdom, such an effective infamy as was visited upon certain great cities in the old ages, by angelic or human hands – what could its perpetrator accuse its victim of?

It is, without exception, poets – they be prophetic or not, historians and theologians who rushed to the task of recording to posterity whatever might be the words and utterances of this wilfull God.. It appears to me that such a task, so as to truthfully report what goes on between the eternal world and the realms of mortals, and provide the readers with a means of comprehending what it is and how it is, and … why, the most difficult question of them all, in these matters – is damn near impossible to most, also those who have gone before us, and attempted the same.

The Bishop Preses of the State Church here in Norway replied that he thought one of the more popular hymns which glorified the earth and the perfection of God’s creation in very suggestive tones should better be understood as beseeching God to understand what has happened, since all these words now ring untrue, harsh and false.. like the glories spoken by the priests whose hearts are empty of praise, in the accusation made by St.Stephen against those who judged him and put him to death, otherwise.

Jeremy observes:

“The “answers” people give to this perfectly valid question cover pretty much the entire spectrum. Some twisted individuals celebrate the tsunami as a display of God’s wrath against “America-hating” Muslism and the Indonesian sex trade. Other almost-as-twisted individuals see the tsunami as more evidence that the rapture is almost at hand. These answers, though perhaps emotionally satisfying to the inner-hatred set, are pretty blatantly based on the individuals-as-objects premise, from which Evil actions tend to spring. The abstract “They” are being punished for some kind of human transgression and, since it’s all part of “God’s plan,” therefore deserved what “They” got. “We,” on the other hand, are “Good,” and so God’s on our side and blah blah blah.”

I try to listen and see if I can comprehend what I hear, when I hear these things, I mean – can someone just say that, what kind of values does these statements betray? Am I living in the same universe as them, and lastly, If I am not, should I not consider myself very fortunate indeed.

“These arguments are, of course, absurd. A Good God *wouldn’t* kill 150,000 people for any reason whatsoever. A Good God most certainly wouldn’t cause the kind of devestation we’ve seen over the past few weeks.”

Amen to that. But what God are we left with then? That is indeed the question which ired so many in the first centuries.

I recently read Jose Saramago’s book “The Gospel of Jesus” and was left with the impression that he was picking at that particular scab in the collective consciousness of Christian civilization.

“Now, of course, some people will claim that it wasn’t God, but Satan who committed these acts. This brings us back to the original question: why does evil exist in the first place? If God is all knowing and all powerful, why create Satan if God knew that he would eventually destroy so many lives with a tsunami? This also opens the door to the idea that nature itself is evil and under the auspices of the Dark Forces, or at least outside of the realms of God, an argument used in the so-called “Enlightenment” to justify environmental destruction and degredation. Besides, if “Satan” thinks he’s gonna win converts or sympathy by destroying so many people, he’s pretty stupid, and I have it on good authority that that’s not the case (not that I even believe in Satan, mind you . . . ).”

I am not particularly bothered to confess that I believe there’s one huge enemy of mankind… but it is quite easy to miss him, since he has insituated himself with the greatest of authority. The accuser is the opposite of the advocate, and necessarely must be found somewhere along the way wherein such roles and such figures have any say and presence at all. I wont go further into it, since that would mean shifting focus on the question of Theodicy, as well as perhaps causing a lot of problems in terms of terminology.

Jeremy, like myself, finds an answer in Gnosticism…

“Gnostic mythology, whether you choose to accept it as literal or not, holds that the world was created not by the God that’s all-Good, but by an insane demigod and his assistants, the Archons, who rely on control of the created world for their continued existence. Now, keep in mind, this insane demiurge (called Yaldabaoth in many Gnostic texts) isn’t *evil* in the way that we understand evil. Rather, it’s mad, schizophrenic even, with a bona-fide God complex (probably the biggest one). It can be quite good, actually, to those with whom it’s pleased.”

“Yaldabaoth is the supreme puppetmaster. It was created by accident, as an improper iteration within the fractal equation that brought about Being, and it resides, with us, within its creation, an imperfect, incomplete, illusory and often insane reality. Yaldabaoth remains in power because people let him do so. Every time someone commits an act based on a selfish, imagined concept of deity, every time someone treats other individuals as mere objects instead of free individuals deserving the respect one gives one’s self, Yaldabaoth and his pals grow a little fatter. Needless to say, most people who worship Yaldabaoth don’t even know they’re doing so.

Yaldabaoth isn’t YHVH, he’s the god who impersonates YHVH and orders murder. Yaldabaoth isn’t Allah, he’s the false image of Allah who commands people to order suicide bombings. Yaldabaoth isn’t Jesus Christ, he’s the illusory Jesus of the Left Behind series who casts nonbelievers into the pit of fire. ”

Somewhat harsh words, but this is perhaps the safest surface scratching you can make when you come near this Saklas.

Precisely such a Saklas and such a Samael – I mean, a fool and a blind god, would attempt to justify blind and foolish violence after the event, instead of exercising necessary restraint.

“There is, however, a real, true God who exists above the illusory reality of the Black Iron Prison. This is the God of the Christos, who is all Good but whose power within the realms of the false reality is “covered up” by the illusions cast by Yaldabaoth and the Archons. This Power can be uncovered by humans, who can actually rebel against the Rulers of this World and their servants. This is the True, Hidden God of the Gnostics, who descends into the limitations of matter to redeem and purify the unreal and insane world of the demiurge.”

And May We Have Wisdom To Perceive and Understand The Difference.

Amen.

I just discovered that my old friend from all dem gnostic discussion lists, Jordan Stratford, has started a blog called
Ecclesia Gnostica in Nova Albion
A Voice for the Traditional and Apostolic Gnostic Communities in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. I have added it to the Index presently.

The most recent post cites Revd. Steven Marshall, of Ecclesia Gnostica’s homily on the feast of Epiphany.
Here Revd. Marshall cites the Seven Sermons to the Dead by
Carl Gustav Jung – “In the immeasurable distance there glimmers a solitary star on the highest point of heaven. This is the only God of this lonely one. It is his world, his pleroma, his divinity…This star is man’s god and goal. It is his guiding divinity; in it man finds repose. To it goes the long journey of the soul after death; in it shine all things with the brilliance of a great light. To this One man ought to pray. Such a prayer increases the light of the star. Such a prayer builds a bridge over death. It increases the light of the microcosm; when the outer world grows cold, this star still shines.”
This particular sermon is also delivered in the Requiem service for the dead in Ecclesia Gnostica, wherein we are also reminded that the voyage towards transformation neither begins with this earthly life, nor is terminated at the end of the present physical incarnation.

I look forward towards following Jordan Stratford’s weblog, and wish him and his loved ones all protection, wisdom, sustenance, empowerment and strenght in the New year.

I wish to extend my condolances to all those of my brothers and sisters, human beings upon this earth, who have lost their loved ones or are in a state of confusion, sorrow and profound loss of composure, during the tragedy of the Tsunami in the Indian Sea, 26th December 2004.

Also, I would like all those whose faith are troubled by these recent gruesome events, to know that, whatever help is in it – I am with you and know what you are going through.

I was going to deliver a kind of meditation on how the ancient Gnostics would have approached the challenge of such events, but found it somewhat difficult.

Instead I thought I would share these sentiments given by

Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, in his Man, His True Nature & Ministry

Ch.1 Man, not outward nature, the True witness to Divinity

It must surely be to the glory of our species, and show the great wisdom

of Providence, that all the proofs taken in the order of this world are

so defective. For, if this world could have truely shown the Divinity,

God would have been satisfied with that witness, and have

had no need to create Man. In fact, Man was created merely because the

whole universe, notwithstanding all the grandeurs it displays to our

eyes, never could manifest the riches of Divinity.

A far different effect is produced by those great writers who,

in maintaining the existence of God, take Man himself for their

proof and the basis of their demonstrations: Man as he should be,

at least, if not as he is. Their evidences acquire force and fulness

and satisfy all our faculties at once. The evidence drawn from Man

is gentle in its effect, and seems to speak the language of our

own nature.

That which is drawn from the outside world, is cold and arid, and like

a language apart, which requires laborious study: besides, the more

peremptory and decisive this kind of evidence, the more it humbles

our antagonists, and disposes them to hate us.

That which is taken from the nature of Man, on the contrary, even

when it obtains a complete victory over the unbeliever, causes him

no _humiliation_, because it places him in a position to feel

and partake of all the dignity which belongs to his quality as Man.

Another quote, by Athanasius Kircher, a version of the well-known

Smaragdine “Axiom”:

“Heaven above, Heaven below;

Stars above, Stars below; all that is above thus below.”

A quick observation – From a Gnostic perspective, above and below

does not become absolute references with regards to location; it is

feasible to translate these references as “exterior” and “interior”

thus:

“Heaven without, Heaven within;

Stars without, Stars within; all that is without is thus within.”

In the Pistis Sophia, even – there is the Mystery Which Looks Within,

and the Mystery Which Looks Without; in the Gospel of Philip, there

is no allowance to go off speculating about the lower and higher Son

of Man (i.e. the always murmured christological position of somehow

a definite distinction between the two; who both appears in the scriptures,

and this Apocryphal, Gnostic work addresses itself beyond questioning

to those who are acquianted with the former); but rather one inner which

is revealed, made visible and accessible through the outermost and so forth.

If the Universe is “eternal” and “infinite” there is no absolute point of entry,

no definite shortage of “it”, whatever “it” is – and no definite conclusion to it;

as such, where are we standing and what are we doing when we stand and observe our own exteriority and compute its relationshipm with the exteriority of everything else; above a hell, below a heaven?