The Knowing Heart by Kabir Helminski

Author:Kabir Helminski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala

Spiritual Conversation

SPIRITUAL CONVERSATION, OR SOHBET, IS THE HEART OF group practice. It is the connecting point of all the other activities: individual practice, group remembrance, music, study, social life, ethics. It is the primary relationship with the shaikh and the context in which people come to know one another. It is the activity that connects and makes sense of all others.

Sohbet is not sermon or lecture, but discourse, storytelling, encounter, and spiritual courtship. It is how God’s lovers share and intensify their love.

There are Sufi circles in which sohbet is the primary practice. Among the Melameti, the people of “blame,” who have minimized the importance of practices, including ritual prayer and group zikr, conversation with “a mature one” becomes the means of sharing the state of attainment. Much of the Sufi education takes place through communication that results in a profound sharing of minds. In some circles that I have witnessed, the shaikh offers a monologue of storytelling, poetry, quotations from the Holy Books1, moral advice, and spiritual encouragement, while the group members absorb the knowledge and the energy it contains. Rūmī’s Discourses (Fīhi mā fīhi) are a wonderful record of this kind of teaching. This kind of sohbet is most often a rambling monologue that sometimes goes on into the early hours of the morning.

When this kind of conversation is effective, it is because the speaker is tapping into the subconscious complexes of the listeners and untying the psychological and/or spiritual knots that exist there. Often the listener feels as if the shaikh is speaking to them quite personally, and, of course, whether he is conscious of it or not, this is what is happening. Actually, the shaikh need not be conscious of it—that would take more awareness and energy than is necessary to do the job. It is enough that he become relatively empty and centered in the present, and then what is reflected in the mirror of his heart, what enters his consciousness, will be a reflection of what is in the hearts of the listeners.

Because the shaikh, if he is a real shaikh, has reached a state of inner harmony and connection with Spirit, this state will dissolve many problems and bring peace to the hearts of the listeners. Certain problems simply cease to exist at a certain level of consciousness. It is said that a shaikh can untie the knots of the students, but those very same knots may be retied out of unconscious habit. Gradually, however, as people have been steeped in the knowledge and baraka of the tradition, the state transmitted in sohbet endures.

There is another level of sohbet—an encounter in which true dialogue is possible—that can be superior to the typical monologue. We shall assume that all the qualities of the earlier form of sohbet are in place—a mature shaikh and receptive listeners—and add to this a more developed pedagogy whose purpose is to elicit communication and understanding. In this case, instead of being merely passive recipients of the state and wisdom

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.