Issue 7 Enlightenment Magazine

A Sufi Dhikr with Lex Hixon [Part 2]

Lex Hixon: I would like to ask the brother I call Ali, Andrew Cohen, to say
a few words.

Andrew Cohen: Well, I actually have no idea what to say after everything we
just sang together. I feel that everything's already been said in what
we've been singing. But if any of you have any questions about the
spiritual life, I would be very happy to do my best to try and respond to
them.

Lex: Maybe I'll begin by asking to open the floodgates. Everyone should
really ask because the real joy of Sufism lies in conversation and
sometimes we have little of it. You can't have enough of it. So I'll ask.
If God is the only reality, if Allah alone exists, then what is the value
of friendship on the spiritual path? Why do we seek out friendship?

Andrew: Well, I think part of the value of coming together in friendship,
especially if you have awakened spiritually, is to bring into being, bring
into manifestation the truth of nonduality, the truth of oneness, the truth
of absolute and perfect love. And I think that most of us are aware that in
the kind of world that we're living in, very few people seem actually
interested in doing that.

Student: They are longing for it.

Andrew: Secretly longing, but if we all secretly long without being willing
to respond to that longing, nothing much will happen. I think it's the
degree of willingness that any of us have to respond to that longing that
is going to be the degree to which this absolute principle is going to be
manifest here on earth. That's when heaven becomes earth. Otherwise the
absolute principle is just an idea in someone's mind. Unless the individual
is willing to wholeheartedly respond to that longing, it is very hard to
know whether this absolute principle really exists or not.

Student: What is true humanity? How do we know what true humanity is?

Andrew: That's a very good question. How do we know what true humanity is?
It's something I've been thinking quite a lot about. I think that when a
human being gets to that point in their own evolution when they become a
very clear and unambiguous expression of perfect love, that's when we can
say that they are an expression or manifestation of true humanity. The
great realizers throughout history have made an impression on all of us who
care, and I think that the impression they've made is that it's possible to
become whole, it's possible to become an expression of what I call perfect
goodness. Perfect goodness without any shadows, without any traces, without
anything other than that. In light of the reflection of a human being like
that, many of us begin to see what's possible. We see how far there is to
go and we also begin to get a sense that we need to do that ourselves.
Those individuals who don't cast any shadow, who are no longer expressing
anything that's fundamentally divided, whose actions only express that one
undivided principle-we could say they have realized that condition. But as
long as an individual is still expressing fundamental contradiction we can
say that they have not reached that point yet.

Student: Well, there is no life without shadow. There has to be shadow and
that's why we are human.

Andrew: Well if I were to say, "Yes, you're right," then that might make
many people here far too comfortable with the shadow that they may see
themselves casting.

In my experience of trying to help people, I found out that if you give a
human being the option to compromise or not, most people will always choose
the option to compromise. Why is that?

Student: But I don't think its compromising. It's embracing the wholeness
and embracing your life and your shadow. If you think you have to be what
you call perfect love and you can't achieve it, then it's like the mountain
is too high to try the journey. My sense of trying to be good is to accept
my weakness.

Andrew: But there's a supposition in what you're saying. You're saying that
a natural and inherent part of human nature is this fundamental division,
and I'm saying its not necessarily so. That's the whole point of what we
were even reading here.

Student: I feel the bridge between both of you is forgiveness. One of the
names of the divine being is the forgiver. It is even said that Allah has
created us imperfect, and if we were not, he would create others who were
imperfect. Forgiveness and repentance, or asking for forgiveness, is part
of our total humanity.

Student: I would also like to say that when we make errors, its possible to
repent and then feel compassion. Allah allows us to make mistakes so that
we can feel his compassion.

Lex: There is a bridge between the two positions. The human being is the
crown of creation and has innate perfection. Its not even just a
perfectibility. According to the Koran, all of the souls, everyone in this
room, said yes to Allah before there was even a universe manifested, before
there was even a divine throne, before there were angels and even
archangels. The human souls, which are the most ancient of realities,
existed in mystic communion and even union with the Lord. At that point the
Lord asked the souls, "Will you return to me consciously? If I open up the
mystery of the pilgrimage of space and time to you in order for me to
return to myself consciously in a mysterious manner, if you agree to become
my instruments of divine self-knowledge, will you return to me consciously
and voluntarily-or should I just draw you back automatically?" And all the
souls said, "Yes, you are our Lord, we want to return to you consciously."
So that is our perfection. All souls, everyone you see walking down the
street is already an accomplished mystic from pre-eternity. So that's the
perfect side.

But the other side is this beautiful teaching that came from our two
sisters. They basically said the same thing from different directions. If
Allah does not give us the opportunity to experience his compassion how are
we going to ever experience compassion for others, which is actually
Allah's compassion? Feeling compassion for others is not some sort of
superior attitude like, "I'm sorry for that person." It's a way of mystic
union. So it is not just in knowledge that we achieve mystic union. We
achieve mystic union in compassion as well. So this is the whole picture.
It's very rich and it's very subtle. It doesn't amount to an answer, it
doesn't amount to a doctrine that one can lay out in so many sentences.
It's a feeling.

The beautiful thing about our community here is because of these wonderful
questions, we as a community rediscovered the teaching of Islam directly in
our own minds and hearts-and it's alive and living. It's not something that
we read out of a book or even something that a sheikh told us. It's
something that we're coming to in community. Islam is a communal mysticism.
So we pray in community, and it is said that communal prayers are
twenty-seven times more powerful than prayer that is said alone. The same
is also true for our investigation of truth, which in Islam is called the
tracing of the creation to its source in the beloved creator. That process,
if it's done in community, is twenty-seven times more powerful, let's say,
than when that very same thing is done alone in our meditation chamber.

So we're very, very communal people. But isn't this planet a communal
planet? We have five billion precious human souls on this planet, and it's
one big community. And that's the meaning of Islam. Islam is not a new
religion. Islam is community. It is the peaceful and harmonious communion
of all beings on the planet all bowing to the source of being. This source
is formless and cannot even be represented by concepts, let alone by any
kind of icon or representation. Icons exist in different traditions but
they're fingers pointing in a certain direction. We have calligraphy as our
signs but none of us start worshiping the calligraphy. Similarly, the icons
in the various traditions are signs and in the deepest sense of those
traditions were never meant to be worshiped. It's the immature among those
traditions who actually worship the signs. The mature ones see the signs
and go right beyond into the formless reality.

Student: What is the purpose of us experiencing humanity? What is the
purpose of the human experience?

Andrew: Personally, I never answer questions like that. I know that all the
great religions of the world have come up with some very satisfying
answers, but I don't think anybody can really answer that question. And I
think that anybody who says that they know the answer doesn't really know
what they're talking about. But the fact is we do know that we do seem to
be here. So I think we should start really with that, with what we can be
pretty sure we know. So then based on that we have to ask ourselves, "Well,
what is actually going on here?"

I think the danger is that most people go through life without ever really
asking themselves that question because they become so distracted by the
mundane nature of life. Very few people really look very deeply into this
question and of the people who do, far too many are too easily willing to
accept superficial and simplistic answers that really take away from the
great mystery. Some of these questions are very difficult and ultimately
impossible to understand with our mind. Can we finally get to that point
where we can bear not knowing, but at the same time have that not knowing
not in any way lessen our faith or our conviction? We want to know answers
like that because we want

to have it all figured out so we can feel very safe. And I think one who
truly wants to know the truth has to be willing to feel unsafe, has to have
that kind of courage and integrity of interest. If we can have that kind of
spirit then answers do come to us, but the shape and the form they take
quite often are not what

we expected.

Lex: Allahu akbar means that reality is inconceivable, unimaginable and
beyond all of our conceptions, beyond even all of our religious
understanding in that sense. This is the greatness of reality, the
greatness of Allah. Not as someone might think, "Well, Allahu akbar means
Allah's great because he's very huge in size," or "he's great because he is
so powerful that he can create the entire universe." The real greatness is
the inconceivability. And I'm so happy the way Andrew responded here.
That's why I say we don't give answers here, we don't give doctrine. We're
inquiring and we're coming face to face with that beloved inconceivability,
and it's communicating with us and

communing with us in ways that we can't understand, in ways we don't expect.

Andrew: I just want to make one comment to what is being said. I know that
in Islam and Sufism, and also in Judaism, the inconceivability of the
absolute principle is something that is spoken about very much, and many
people will agree that the absolute principle is inconceivable. It's the
absolute conception. But many individuals allow themselves to rest in a
sense, because they say it is inconceivable. In spite of the fact that they
say it's inconceivable, secretly of course, they do have concepts about it.
One of the fundamental themes is something that is very conceivable, which
is love.

But I think the door really begins to open and the truth really begins to
become available to us if we're willing to stand in a midpoint where we
want to know more than anything else what the absolute truth is, and at the
same time we're unwilling to succumb to the revelation or experience of
anything that actually can be conceivable. Right at that point there's room
for this mystery that's truly beyond conception. The danger and the mistake
that so many people make is, even if they would agree, "Yes I know this is
inconceivable," they, in a sense, allow themselves to rest because they
say, "Yes, I already know this." Then a certain kind of tension that really
brings this mystery very near to us is lost.

Lex: It is a beautiful definition of Islam that Andrew's giving. Allah
warns us in his Holy Koran that if people don't pray with awe, which really
means the direct appreciation of divine inconceivability; and with
gratitude, which is another form of awe; and with love, which is another
form of appreciating inconceivability-then our prayers are

merely conventional. In other words they're only cultural expressions. So
Islam calls us into inconceivability. In a call to prayer that sense of the
inconceivability, and that inconceivability itself, is calling us into
itself. So it's very hard for any sensitive heart to become complacent and
sit there and say, "Well I know it's inconceivable."

Cultural conditioning can do wonders to veil the human being, but I don't
know any sincere Muslim who can hear the call to prayer without a
tremendous sense of being pulled into the divine mystery. I think this is
Islam's commitment to calling every single human being on the planet into
the picture. Now I'm not saying there are only a few people who are capable
or qualified to really be revolutionary, to really raise the deep
questions. That's not the Islamic point of view. It's also not Andrew's
point of view. Every human being is capable of being called into truth
because we already are the truth, we already are that.

Andrew: Just one other small thing that came to me as you were speaking is
that I think one way to look at what the goal is is to find a way to be
completely committed to that which is literally inconceivable. And to
literally do that. Practically speaking it's very challenging for a human
being to be completely committed to something that they

can't conceive of. It's possible for people to be 100% committed to
something that can be conceived. But is it possible to go that extra
millimeter, which ultimately makes all the difference? Because if we can
truly enter into that complete commitment to that which we can't conceive,
then true innocence or what I call true purity, begins to manifest and
express itself and all kinds of things begin to happen that are beyond the
mind's ability to really comprehend.

Lex: There is one footnote that I can't resist sharing. The divine
inconceivability is mysterious in itself. Let's not begin to conceive it.
That inconceivability reveals itself in the Koran. So although it remains
inconceivable we have very, very clear messages from the source of being
about ways to cultivate the highest realization. A Muslim

does not walk around just saying, "Allah's inconceivable, Allah's
inconceivable." We don't try to conceive Allah, but Allah reveals himself
through his holy book and through his holy friends. So we actually have an
abundance of revelation, a superabundance of revelation. If we look at
Islamic history it's like an ocean and we have a little cup. That's all we
can take from it. There's so much, that we could say the inconceivability
itself is infinite generosity. So don't feel that by inconceivability here
we mean just some sort of blank wall. Andrew: But that's the challenge.

Lex: Tell us.

Andrew: The challenge is that even if we speak of compassion, love,
tenderness, sweetness, beauty and joy, can we leave that out of the realm
of our own possession? Do we even need to put that necessarily on the face
of God? Because if we don't need to then suddenly infinite space for us to
find out what is really so is revealed. The reason I keep repeating this is
because so many of us, so many human beings, always put a face on God in
order to make ourselves feel better. And this mystery and this beauty and
this love, if it is to be truly untainted by the personal, needs to remain
untouched by us.

Lex: Islam itself is precisely the refusal to put a face on God, if you
want to put it that way. That is Islam. So congratulations, you have
discovered Islam. But if the divine itself reveals its mystical
countenance-which consists of ninety-nine divine principles, divine names,
divine energies, not just sweetness and beauty but also awesomeness and
majesty and all the powerful qualities-if Allah manifests his mystic
countenance, that's not like us putting a face on that. That's a completely
different thing. That's the divine itself coming forward in it's own
mysterious nature. But what our brother was saying is that our tendency is
to put a face on it, in other words to project something on there.

Andrew: The danger then is that the innocence is lost, that's all I'm saying.

Lex: And by innocence I think that you also mean the purity.

Andrew: Yes. Absolutely.

Lex: So remember that we sing that Allah is a fountain of purity. I didn't
know why we sing that-but now I do know why we sing that. Because purity
really is this state in which we're not putting a face on divinity, we're
not manipulating divinity, we're not doing all that. We're in purity. As
the brother said, we're innocent.