The O Manuscript by Lars Muhl

Author:Lars Muhl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The O Manuscript
ISBN: 9781780286259
Publisher: Watkins Media Ltd
Published: 2013-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

The true Sufis feel that all the great religions of the world and all the mystical traditions share the same essential truth. They believe in one God and that this one God is behind everything, seen as well as unseen. You do not have to go to Mecca or to Jerusalem in order to find your God, He lives in your heart. Life doesn’t end with death. Life in this world is like a dream, while true life is in the next world. It is important to the Sufis to be present in the world with all that this entails of work, marriage and other worldly obligations. But for them it is about deifying their everyday life, about living a normal life in a very special way. Being in the world, but also understanding that you are not of it.

In the evening, after the moving experience with the dance of the dervishes, I began thinking about the idea that maybe the first Sufis had been the group of itinerant mystics bearing the name of Those Dressed in White. Was it in reality their traditions which had formed the foundation of the well-known Middle Eastern and Persian traditions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam? The Sufis’ preferences among holy books were and still are the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David, The Gospels of Yeshua and the Koran of Mohammed. Their love tradition contains a very strong female aspect. They have kept this fire burning for centuries and inspired mystics everywhere. Imagine if this was the tradition from which Mariam really came – and in which she disappeared again?

We boarded the Syria Express the following day, which turned out to be a slow train taking us through ninety towns in Turkey to Aleppo in Syria, at the speed of thirty kilometres an hour, where we were collected by our driver, Ahmad, and safely brought to our base, a small family-run hotel, Afamia, in Damascus.

Our arrival in Syria was in many ways a homecoming. In spite of the many unfamiliar problems apparent in modern Syria, such as the fact that the country is a police state, it still felt more open. The poverty here does not breed inhospitability and egocentricity as the spiritual poverty of the Western World seems to.

Syria is an Arabian nation. Sunni and Shia Muslims, Ishmaelites, Druses and Alawite Muslims live side by side with Christians from such different Churches as Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic and Maronite, as well as a minority of Jews who live here without the problems that are inevitable in other countries.

Arriving in Damascus was like falling into a boiling pot of strange smells, colours, noise, warmth and religion, all of which were covered by a reeking layer of diesel fuel. Stepping into this age-old city, which may be the oldest inhabited city in the world, is like stepping into a room where some of mankind’s oldest archetypes lie hidden. The unfamiliar mysticism, which is obvious to any newcomer, is both seducing and frightening because it is so intense and deep.

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