Mystical Truths & Scientific Findings - Sufism's understanding

What is the reality of our existence and the nature of the universe that engulfs us? For what purpose are we here and what is the future that we are moving toward?

These are vital questions that need to be answered if man is to have any sense of peace or meaningfulness in his existence. If we cast a glance at the overall situation of mankind, we would know that it is not very different from what the Quran describes as its condition on the Day of Qiyamah: As scattered moths flying about in confusion.
Turn your attention to any part of the world today and all you will find is a teeming multitude in the grip of terror and confusion, wreaking havoc upon itself, the environment and humanity. Even though we have moved out of the times of the raiding barbaric hordes, but we are now in an era where the external barbarians have been replaced by the inner barbarity of the soul. Outwardly, Adam's race has been successful in adopting all tools of sophistication, but inwardly it remains under the dictates of the Jungle Law: Might is Right and Survival of the Fittest. The lower instincts fashion man's behaviour and the Heart has turned dead, stone-cold. The illusion of matter clouds human vision to such an extent that it has almost completely lost sight of its ultimate reality: Spirit. And just what could have led to this fatal error: A distorted perception of what really is.

In order to briefly put things in context before embarking upon a full explanation of what is exactly being implied here, I would add that man has forgotten the fundamental truth of his being which is a spirit experiencing a body and not vice versa. We have become too accustomed to living a life of the outer senses and in its course have neglected the true nature of our being. Our consciousness has come to be dominated by the "reality" of the outer world, the 3D plus temporal dimension that the universe is perceived to be. As a result of this the limited world-view has imprisoned man in a prison cage of his own mind. The conscious mind is a product of all that the brain stores in its retrieval system as of memories, emotions, sensory perceptions and learnings governed by conditionings. This is the basic store-house of all our experiences and our life in the world is significantly influenced by it. Now what we call our mind is also not really "our" mind for it is a conglomerate of diverse conditionings and impressions that have accrued to it as a result of it being exposed to peculiar thought processes of a given environment, culture and genetic programming. We therefore are all prisoners of our respective conditionings even though we might consider ourselves free and possessors of original thought. In so far as we live our life under such influences, we are merely living out our personas and not our Self; we continue to live in a world based upon the illusory sense-perception and do not have the taste of the Real. This great illusion of the senses has led to the construction of a life of fleeting experience, cloud-like in nature. Man is at a loss to know the true substance of his existence. Stuck between the reality and non-reality of being, and being increasingly dominated by the Unreal, he has given himself to self-destruction and fatality. This is also the reason why religion has not been able to grow into the spiritually dynamic catalyst that it was meant to be. Religion has been reduced to almost a putrefying carcass of a once alive organism, now more harmful than profitable to the human race. Here we come to the difference between Religion and Spirituality. Religion, we see, has not always made the world a more peaceful place. The reason being that people have generally misused its eternal truths to justify violence and oppression to further political, social or economic ends.

The examples of such exploitation are spread all over history; The mid-east crisis along with the different flavours of Islam found in the diverse cultures of the world. Social culture favouring patriarchy in regions like Indo-Pak, Afghan, Iran, Arabia, has led to adaptation of Islamic values to misogynistic trends.
The main thrust of this argument is to open up a space in one's consciousness which would recognise the cause for all this conflict and confusion.

Now I come to the point that is to be grasped.
The persona is everchanging and fickle. The Self is the unchanging ground of reality. The universe constructed on sense-perception is given to perdition at the removal or shutting down of sense-faculties. The Real ground of Being or Existence is ever-present. Duality or multiplicity is the result of our external perception. Inner perception leads to the existential unity. The seed of a tree manifests its essence alone. The branches, the leaves and the fruits do not precede the seed, yet their essence is held within the seed which manifests them all outwardly. The seed remains absolute and unchanged in itself. Its outer manifestations as branches, leaves, flowers and fruits are given to change and destruction. Likewise the Self is the seed of the fruit of creation.

Although the Self is manifested in different forms, it is only the One Self. Just as the water of the ocean rises and falls in multiple waves, fundamentally it remains the one ocean. Similarly if a change is affected in one part of the ocean, it is likely to influence the whole because at some fundamental level the whole ocean is linked together by virtue of the same water flowing through it. Using the same analogy one understands that creation is also this singular flow of energy and any part of it changing can directly influence the whole of it. Mankind is just one component of this whole. Although we are just one part of it, yet, Nature has placed us at the very top of the created phenomena. In a Divine Saying it has been related that Allah claims to have created the universe for man, but man He created only for Himself. What places man at the centre of all of creation?
This brings us to a bit of scientific delving.

According to developments in the field of Physics, the Quantum Theory proves that the vision of reality held so far to be based on the construction of a picture of objective reality or the external or physical world has disintegrated. Lab experiments have proven that atoms and sub-atomic particles, which are envisioned as miniscule things are not really these tiny specks of separate matter at all. The nature of all matter is actually energy, based on Einstein's theory of Relativity i.e E=MC2. In this formula E stands for energy, M for matter and C into the speed of light squared. Thus we understand that matter is actually coalesced light. Reality is therefore not a measurable property of the external world. It is directly involved with our presence as observers. This is what the physicist David Bohm referred to as the Observer Effect, implying that the universe only achieves a concrete reality based on man's perception. Man is therefore present as the Key player in the Cosmic dream as the Observer.
Bohm further theorized the Implicate Reality, which is what lies beyond the limits of our explicate senses. According to him this consists of all particles, including ourselves and the rest of the universe. While our limited senses see things with separate existences, Bohm asserts a general law in which all objects and all times are folded together. Everything implicates everything in an undivided wholeness.

Therefore institutionalized religion with its nuances of cultural, geographical, economic and political influences must not be confused with the reality of religion. The reality of religion transcends personal, selfish and parochial interests.

The most profound experience of the real begins with knowing God and ends in annihilation in the Self of God. Each revelation is a reverberation of this same realization. But this unquantifiable experience being translated by people's imaginations, became bound differently by the existing social, cultural and religious norms. Thereby the differences in religions.
Therefore direct realization and not mere blind following is what can resolve the differences between individuals regarding religion and belief.

The Quran says in Surah 21, Verse 92: Verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher, therefore worship Me!

Not until the will of the individual is dissolved in the Will of the Absolute that we can be guided to this reality. This is the state of total freedom and love. It is here that man's consciousness comes into full flow; where he sees the other not as the other but the Self. If we see all as the Self then how would it be possible for us to inflict any injustice or perpetrate any crime against another? If one realizes that any injustice committed is an injustice against the Universal Self, then one would enter into a state of natural peace and trust with existence. This realization is the biggest safeguard for our rights; for human rights. We need not look toward man-made charters of human rights for security. It is our Divinely gifted right. We only need to reclaim it from the false self that holds us hostage.
Bohm also stated that the ground of all that is is enfolded in our consciousness. We need only turn within. Therefore to understand the reality of religion is to know the truth of your constant Self - God. It is the brain which gives shape and form to the personal God that we create in our mind. But the real God is the reality of our Self, our existence.
That is why Hazrat Ali r.a said, "I am astounded at people who do not know their own Self and want to know God."




By Naila Amat-un-Nur

June 2007