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Karas
“Last time I was born in the land of
former Assyria. Adolescent, I served in a temple
where they worshipped the Sun as a progenitor of
everything. Every morning we would perform
divine service at the time when the Sun rises above
the horizon.
“During these services, I assisted
the priest who performed them. Yet, I did not accept
sincerely this faith, nor did I try to comprehend
its postulates with mind. For Me this faith with its
rituals was a part of the daily traditions in the
society where I lived.
“… But one day, something new came
to the habitual daily routine of My life — it was a
stranger who came to our land. He sought manuscripts
containing religious — namely esoteric — knowledge.
It was for the purpose of collecting such
manuscripts that he traveled.
“He was received with respect.
During the repast, he had a conversation with the
priests. He asked question about our faith and told
about his views and about the religion practiced in
the land where he came from.
“As a servant, I had a possibility
to be near the table and hear their conversation.
His narration captivated Me. Unlike our priests, He
was not a dogmatic person who blindly accepts the
faith of the ancestors. He did not avoid confronting
different views, doubting postulates, drawing own
conclusions. There was something live in his
faith and in this man himself — in contrast to the
priests.
“This conversation made Me sincerely
interested in the knowledge and practices of the
tradition described by this man. I wanted very much
to follow him — to gain this knowledge. And I
beseeched him to take Me as a servant with himself.
“This way I came to Sufis…
“… The main thing that ‘happened’ to
Me on the first stage of My apprenticeship with
Sufis was opening of the spiritual heart. I
began to live by heart — and the entire world
transformed for Me! My life became full of love,
which I did not know before!
“For opening the spiritual heart,
Sufis used a method similar to the one used by
Christians-Hesychasts at that time. Abandoning all
other thoughts, one had to repeat — with love for
Allah — a prayer-appeal to Him to come to one’s
spiritual heart. And after some time, the feeling of
increasing bliss appeared in the chest, in the
anahata chakra, as a sign that Allah accepted the
prayer.
“After cognizing and mastering this
state, the mureed
could live in it and not just experience it during
the prayer.
“Then the mureed was taught that
since the Allah is great the love for Him
must be great also.
“And if one’s love for Allah grows,
since certain moment it cannot be contained in one’s
chest. And thus, quite naturally it begins to pour
out, to expand beyond the chest.
“Pushing the walls of the anahata
from within with the hands of the consciousness was
one of the helpful methods in this work; it allowed
one to experience oneself, for the first time, as a
heart-love of size larger than the body.
“The mureed was taught to flood with
love as wide as possible: Allah is present
everywhere, thus one should love Him in the
entire space around!
“Flooding thus with love and living
in this state, the mureed gradually lost the
habit of perceiving oneself as a body.
“The mureed lived by the love for
Allah, and the feeling of Allah’s abiding in
everything gradually replaced the feeling of
mureed’s separate ‘I’.
“And when the separate ‘I’
disappeared completely, only Allah remained.
“… But we learned not just
meditation. In Sufism there was a rule: in the
process of learning, mureeds have to develop along
many directions, in particular, to master the craft
of their sheikh. As an apprentice of My Master, I
started to learn the art of carpet weaving.
“The carpets created by My Master
were highly valued by the townspeople. They believed
that a carpet bought in our shop brought to the
house happiness and joy. Indeed, these carpets had
such a magical power, because My Master created them
as yantras.
“At first, I, as other apprentices,
learned the carpet weaving technique itself. After
that, we began to practice in the craft by
reproducing the patterns created by our Master.
“I liked to stay for long in the
shop and observe how He works. For Him, carpet
weaving was not just a craft: He did not weave, He
created carpets! I saw how masterly He
chooses the color of thread out of great variety of
hues of goldish, red, light-blue… Each carpet
created by Him was… a declaration of love to the
Creator! It looked as if He wove love…
“I tried to imitate His work and
stayed for long in the shop.
“… Once I noticed that the Master
stood behind Me and watched how I worked. I got
confused…
‘You are trying to construct love
with your mind… But it lives in the heart! Kindle in
your heart the love for Allah — then your hands will
create tirelessly the beauty for the glory of
Allah!’
“I heeded the Master’s advice, and
love appeared on My carpets. Yet, My works were not
that good as those of the Master. I asked His
advice, and He replied:
‘Your carpets are good. But the
true Beauty lives deeper. In the depth of
the expanded spiritual heart will you find the
endless Source of the Beauty! There live the
vivid colors of joy! Threads originating in the
depth of a developed spiritual heart shimmer
with all hues of love! Pictures, which you can find
there, will bloom as live flowers and sing as spring
birds on your carpet! If you do so, then Allah
Himself will create Beauty by your hands for
the glory of Himself!’
“Since that moment, My learning of
carpet weaving went along with mastering of
meditation. Every time creating a carpet, I had to
connect the hands of the consciousness with the
depth which was achievable for Me — and create
from that depth. And then, this depth’s
Light, with which the consciousness was
connected, refracted into beauty created by hands.
“Of course, not every apprentice
became a Master. Most of them were capable of
mastering only the craft of carpet weaving. The
process of teaching was arranged so that not
everyone could find out where the true mastery lies,
what its secret is. But those who managed to solve
the secret ascended to the next step, where the
craft of carpet weaving turns into the art of carpet
creation...”
“Excuse me, please, Karas: Your
description of the methods of cognition of Allah
does not seem sufficient, in my opinion. If to go
the path outlined by You, mureeds most likely did
not find the Abode of the Creator, but crystallized
the consciousnesses in that eon of the
multidimensional space which was most convenient for
them, most habitual for abiding in it. For cognizing
the Creator, one needs the methods of refinement of
the consciousness and, at least, to have general
ideas about the multidimensional structure of space
and a means of crossing the borders between the
eons. This is necessary because the Creator is the
Most Subtle of all consciousnesses!…”
“Yes, you are right. I wanted to
tell about this a bit later.
“Yes, refinement of the
consciousness cannot and must not be done against
the background of ‘killed’
nutrition.
“You are also absolutely right that
control of own emotional states — with complete
refusal of coarse emotional manifestations! — is an
essential part of any spiritual progress.
“Also — the beauty of the Creation,
of our common home created by Allah! — attunement
with this beauty, which reflects the beauty of the
Creator — all this was practiced as well.
“And the students who could not
encompass this were excluded from intensive
learning; they were switched to another work. If
they wished, they were allowed to stay at the School
and perform various household duties. In Sufism this
is called a station. It can last for years. Then
these students were involved again into the esoteric
practices if they desired it and if it was in
accordance with the Will of Allah…
“But I have not said yet about the
main.
“My Master was a real sheikh knowing
the art of educating… But there was another great
moment in My life: when My Master counted Me ready,
He took Me to Divine Imam…
“You developed in a different way…
There was no incarnate Allah with you… You had to
carve the way yourselves… Our intent in this case
was to make it possible that you accumulated a
comprehensive collection of spiritual knowledge…
“But it can happen in other way… —
when the spiritual path is clearly shown by, as
Messiah Isa
said once, a Vine — an embodied
Representative of Allah, an embodied Part of the
Creator.
“… I want to say about the Great
Teacher — Divine Imam.
“It was a miraculous gift of Allah:
to see Him incarnate in a body!
“Love to Him Who became One with
Allah has neither borders nor limits!
“I witnessed Manifestation of Allah
on the Earth! I saw a Son of the One; He wore flesh,
but was not this flesh!
“I knew then that the Beloved Lord
can be attained, that one can dissolve in the
Almighty! I saw this manifested through the Teacher.
“It was enough for Him to touch a
heart aspiring to Allah, — and it would flame up,
like oil in a lamp, with fire radiating the Light of
Love!
“He taught: a heart filled with Love
is fathomless. And invited to submerge into
His own Fathomlessness…”
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