Esoteric schools: Sufism

Throughout human history there have always been select groups of individuals who have sought what we might call a secret path. A path that lies beyond the common learning that a society provides.

That is why on all continents and in all cultures we can find esoteric schools, whose members are in search of a higher knowledge, of a complete and integral wisdom inherent in physical and spiritual life.

This knowledge is fundamentally practical and intuitive. And in order to obtain it, it is necessary to awaken certain innate but dormant capacities of the human being. This is achieved by means of precise techniques that are transmitted and experimented with in these esoteric schools. One such school is Persian Sufism. 

"The most ineffable of Mohammedan mysticism is Persian Sufism. It has the merit of fighting against materialism and fanaticism, as well as against the dead-letter interpretation of the Koran. The Sufis interpret the Koran from the esoteric point of view, just as we Gnostics interpret the New Testament".

What puzzles Westerners most is the strange and mysterious blending of the erotic with the mystical in Eastern religiosity and Sufi mysticism. Christian theology has regarded the flesh as hostile to the Spirit, but in the Muslim religion, flesh and spirit are two substances of one and the same energy. Two substances that must help each other (...) In the East, religion, science, art and philosophy are taught as erotic and exquisitely sexual language. "Mohammed fell in love with God", say the Arab mystics. "Choose for yourself a new wife every spring of the new year, because the calendar of the last year is not good," says a Persian poet and philosopher. 

Those who have carefully studied the "Song of Songs" by the wise Solomon will find that delicate blend of the mystical and the erotic.

(...) Love and death are, in fact, the basis of all true religion. The Sufis, Persian poets, wrote about the Love of God in expressions applicable to beautiful women (...) The idea of Sufism is the loving union of the Soul with God.

(...) The symbolic language of the Sufis has wonderful expressions. Dream, among them, means meditation. Really, meditation without sleep damages the mind. Every true Initiate knows this. One must combine sleep with meditation. The Sufis know this. The word perfume symbolises hope of divine favour; kisses and embraces mean among them, rapture in piety; wine signifies spiritual knowledge, etc., etc.

Sufi poets sang of Love, women, roses and wine, yet many of them lived the life of hermits.

The seven mystical states described by the Sufis are something extraordinary (...) It is urgent to awaken Consciousness and this is only possible during ecstasy (...).

Ecstasy, the mystical experience, has its principles based on Dialectical Logic. This logic can never be violated. Let us reflect, for example, on the Unity of experience. This principle exists among the mystics of the East as well as among those of the West; among the Hierophants of Egypt as well as among the Sufi sages, or among the Aztec magicians.

During ecstasy, mystics speak in the same universal language, use the same words, and feel united with all creation. The sacred scriptures of all religions demonstrate the same principles. This is Dialectical Logic. Higher Logic. This proves that the mystics of all countries of the world drink from the same Fountain of Life.

The conditions of the causes of the world, another of the principles of Dialectic Logic, demonstrates, by complete agreement of data, accuracy and precision, the reality and truth of ecstasy. The mystics of all the religions of the world are in complete agreement in their statements about the conditions of the causes of the world; the agreement is therefore perfect. 

The Unity of Life is another of the principles of Dialectical Logic. Every mystic in ecstasy perceives and feels the Unity of Life. The mathematics of the Infinite and of Dialectic Logic can never fail".

Samael Aun Weor