Invitation

to reflect, be inspired, and contribute ideas

to address issues in present-day society

Viewed from the perspective of the soul.

With optional reference to the essay What does the soul tell,  Sunray, Amsterdam July 2016 (forthcoming).             

And please, add your contribution! In order to create common ground.

 

Trends and Perspectives

related to central themes of the universal Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan

Viewed from the perspective of the role of the soul

 

A first start

• Readers are invited to submit Articles, Columns or Comments on any of the Trends and Perspectives as suggested here – in consideration of the Central Themes of the first paragraph below.
• Reference is welcomed to the essay What the soul tells, , Amsterdam July 2016 (forthcoming).

Central themes of the Sufi Message

to be used in contributing to the trends and issues

• divinity of the human soul [1]
• love, harmony, beauty
• spiritual liberty
• unity of religious ideals
• religion of the heart
• balance
• Presence of God

 

Trends

which may be traced as going on in the world to which Sufism may contribute

* In religion

• renewal of spirituality
• rejection of dogmas
• differentiation in beliefs / creeds, in rituals
• recognition of individual’s conscience
• discover multi-layers/-dimensions in parables, rituals, images, prayers, statements, dogmas, scripture

 

* In society

• tolerance in science / scholarship (e.g. poly-paradigm approach)
• diversity as the natural human condition
• differentiation of values, norms, standards

what about hierarchy?

• individual’s conscience
• rising consciousness of inter-connectedness, multi-causality, meta-effects/influences

 

Perspectives

Issues where Sufism may open new perspectives, or contribute to current positive perspectives

* In education

• positive evaluation of qualities in young child; protecting these
  • light, innocence, morals, …
• strengthening the apparent and latent idealism and positive energies in youth
• stimulating given qualities to be developed positively
• turning negative tendencies into positive orientations

In life / life issues / life and death

• giving soul / spirit its due place in
  • organ donation / transplant
  • euthanasia
  • shortening / lengthening life
  • evaluation of quality of life as a criterion for life/death issues
    
• meaning / significance of life after death to this life here; or: connection of being ‘here’ with ‘here-after’/’there’
• dto of life before birth to this present life
• what are the consequences of timelessness and spacelessness of life ‘here-after’ for our conceptions of hic et nunc — the now and the here?
• what are the consequences of the concept of the  unity of Life?: life before, now, after; as a Reality

 

* In sexuality

• is more than bodily function and more than mental and emotional function
• is (not only) metaphor of mystical union
• recognizing light in the other, wakening it
• placing love, harmony and beauty centrally
• spiritual liberty is more than being free to do anything
• ‘marriage’ as a sacred link (unification)
• intercourse tepresented ideally by Cupid (see Rasha Shastra book)

 

 * In justice

• death penalty (divinity of soul, interconnectedness body-mind- heart-soul)
• penalty versus transformation
• penalties to imply openings and stimuli to transformation
• respect for individual’s body, mind and soul
• develop psychologies in spiritual perspective

 

* In arts and music

• inspiration as current between soul and God, through heart
  
• purifying mind and body (as tools of soul / inspiration) from mental and physical obstacles
• radiance as essential quality of lifting / exalting the soul of the receiver (listener, spectator)
• ecstasy as function of the soul working on mind, heart and body; ecstasy, ‘instasy’

 

* In organizations

• respect for individual, individual’s respect for one another
• respect for common and/or higher interests
• openness to views and initiatives beyond he usual / rational / institutionalized
• charisma: differentiate between types of charisma (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) and: charisma mobilized for interests versus for love, harmony, beauty / general welfare,
• respect for individual’s conscience
• openness to natural hierarchy (inner)
• in democracy: respect for minority: caring for its interests, either naturally or by limiting the power of the majority through checks and balances, and other ways

 

* In human relationships (see also above)

• respect for another’s values, acts, opinions, etc.
• do not think, feel, speak or act in ways which you would not want to be thought of, felt of, acted upon, spoken to
• practice love in form of sympathy / empathy
  • see and understand other’s opinion etc next to one’s own as an alternative
• create harmony by unifying or compromising
• create beauty by producing beauty in thought, feeling, word and action

and so many more issues and perspectives…………

[1] “… the central theme of the Sufi Message is one simple thing, and yet most difficult, and that is to bring about in the world the realization of the divinity of the human soul, which hitherto has been overlooked for the reason that the time had not come. The principal thing that the Message has to accomplish in this era is to create the realization of the divine spark in every soul … That is the task before us.” (Gatheka 23) Elsewhere Murshid speaks about the need to awaken mankind to the awereness of the divinity of the soul.

Unpublished paper, 2006