living islam _ Islamic tradition
The Beauty of Oneness witnessed in the emptiness of the heart [khalwa ]by Cecilia Twinch
Delivered at the MIAS Symposium on Retreat, Berkeley, October 1997
[Quoted from:
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/]
(C. Twinch explores) the varying physical and metaphysical dimensions of retreat (al-khalwa )
...
In Ibn 'Arabi's Kernel of the Kernel (1), Hazreti Ali' is quoted as saying,
"You thought you were a part, small, but in you there is a universe, the greatest."
Similarly, retreat (al-khalwa ) is like going into the self in order
to discover that what is hidden there is displayed outwardly in the universe.
...
Fleeing to God, in the context of Ibn 'Arabi's doctrine on the unity of existence [or: unity of being],
is not a flight away from one thing towards another, since [in reality] there
is nothing in existence but God; fleeing to God is ... a way of expressing
the flight from ignorance to knowledge (2) - a theme which runs through all
of Ibn 'Arabi's writings.
...
Ascetic elements of the retreat ... loosen the grip that the animal self exercises
by curbing the natural appetites and they help in the cutting of worldly ties
in order to bring the realisation of one's dependence on God Alone: that in
silence and solitude conversation may take place with the Real One, for His
is the Company, and through hunger and wakefulness it is known that God is
the Nourisher and God is the One who gives repose.
...
However, Ibn 'Arabi seems to indicate that the means should not be taken as
important in themselves, lest the seekers familiarize themselves with a method
instead of finding closeness to God, and limit Him by trying to approach Him
through something other than Himself.
... purpose of helping others to withdraw from their belief in the existence
of anything besides the One and Unique existence.
...
Ibn 'Arabi says,
- "...do not enter your cell until you are aware of your station
and of the extent to which you are able to oppose the power of the imagination.
If your imagination has power over you, you must go into retreat only under
the guidance of a teacher who is trained in discerning spirits and familiar
with the Way. If, on the other hand, your imagination is under your control,
do not fear to go into retreat." (8)
So long as a person does not see the reality of things, his state is such, Ibn 'Arabi says that "he must withdraw and flee from those affairs which divert him from (the real) situation, so that God may unveil his insight and his sight"(15).
At one level it would seem that this unveiling of the insight and the sight coincides with the spiritual station of retreat which, once possessed, is never effaced (16).
Gazing upon God within oneself is deemed to be a necessary preliminary to recognizing Him in the exterior, within the secondary causes.
Ibn 'Arabi writes,
- "Every seeker of his Lord must be alone with himself
with his Lord in his inmost consciousness, since God gave man an outward dimension
(zāhir ) and an inward dimension (bātin ) only so
that he might be alone with God in his inward dimension, and witness Him in
his outward dimension within the secondary causes [al-asbāb ], after having gazed upon
Him in his inward dimension, so that he may discern Him within the midst of
the secondary causes. Otherwise, he will never recognize Him. He who enters
the spiritual retreat (khalwa ) with God does so only for this reason,
since man's inward dimension is the cell of his retreat."(17)
:~ ⇒ always present with us.
...
Some people find themselves highly distracted by their own thoughts and imaginings whilst alone, hence the prayer, given in Ibn 'Arabi's Wird, O Lord "I take refuge in You from myself" (18).
... Meister Eckhart talks of a similar idea ... (19)
...
The place in which retreat really takes place is in God:
"there is no place of retreat nor safety save in You"
(lā malja' wa lā manja' illa ilayka ) (20)
Ibn 'Arabi [then] asks, "From whom dost thou flee and there is nought in
existence but He?"
He warns that it is necessary to be wary of separating God from the world
and fleeing to a divinity of one's own imagining. The cause of this imaginary
flight ...
-
"is the lack of tasting (dhawq ) of the things"
& "the fact that the one who flees heard in the recitation
(of the Quran) (51:50) "So flee to God!"
...
⇒ the one who withdraws may realise their total dependence on God Alone and see that everything that comes to one, comes from Him alone and that everything that one sees as a secondary cause is nothing but a manifestation of God in a particular form,
⇐ nothing can happen to one that is not within the order, that does not come from God and yet we perceive some things to be 'other' and flee from them:
we seek God in His manifestation as the Merciful and try to avoid Him in His manifestation as the Avenger.
...
Acknowledging that there is nothing in existence but God,
& yet recognising that God's Mercy precedes His Anger and is all-encompassing, then one protects oneself from God by God. ⇐ ... the Prophet [saws] said,
" I take refuge in You from You"(23).
...
[And] there can be no [spiritual] expansion except in the revelation of the Breath of the All-Merciful (rahmān ) in the spirit of the person."(26)
...
The turning is to God as the source of help in responding to the situation, knowing that there is no power nor strength save in Him. This withdrawing and refraining from action of one's own, seems to be a vital aspect of retreat. God's presence cannot be felt in a place that is cluttered with thought, ingrained patterns of action and fanciful imagination.
...
God may appear as He wishes.
• . appear ... in a place that is pure, cleansed and abluted like the place of Mary, free of selfhood, free of desires, free of imposition, a place that is clear, clean and empty.
⇒ the heart, the spiritual centre of the human being, the place where Reality can appear in all its Beauty, must be clean and free.
...
What does it mean to withdraw from the world and worldly things?
(so here is the question what creation and created things really are.)
...
• three journeys ...
~ may be summarized as
1) the process of coming into creation
2) the return or ascent to God
3) the return to the creation
→ 2): the retreat or withdrawal from creation
→ 3): the return to 'society'
in: Ibn 'Arabi's Risalat al-anwar
written in reply to a question about "the modes of the journey to the Almighty
Master..."(27)
...
These journeys ... may [also] be regarded as a constant process of return
to the source and recreation with each breath.
...
This retreat and return to creation may be regarded both as spiritual stations
of the perfect ones and as a practice at every moment for anyone who wishes
to witness the truth, whatever their state, whether far or near, since, Ibn
'Arabi reminds us, it has been affirmed that God is with us wherever we are.
→
withdrawal from creation to God =:
withdrawal from illusion to the Real
&
from the belief that we have acquired existence ( al-wujūd al-mustafād
),
not from acquired existence itself since, as Ibn 'Arabi affirms, 'there is
none' (28).
⇐
the meaning of the command "[Be!] And it is" (Q.36:82)
is not that things acquire existence but that
that which hears the command acquires the property of being a place of manifestation.
Ibn 'Arabi: "Those people of wayfaring (ahl al-sulūk ) without knowledge of this ..."are not able to withdraw from the forms of things ... if they really understood the speech of things they would recognise the gift that God gives in imparting knowledge through it.
⇐
"For him whom God has given understanding, retreat and society (khalwa
and jalwa ) are the same.
⇐
it may be that society is more complete for a person and greater in benefit,
since through it at every instant he increases in sciences about God that
he did not possess."
Notes:
1. See Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, Albany, NY, 1989, p.1582. See Ibn 'Arabi, Futuhat al-Makkiyyah, notably Chapters 78, 79 and 205
8. Ibn 'Arabi, Risalat al-anwar, extract transl. by M. Chodkiewicz in Seal of the Saints, Cambridge, 1993, p.151-2
15. Chittick, The Sufi Path, p.158
16. Futuhat, ch 78. See Michel Valsan's transl. into French in Etudes Traditionelles, no. 412-13, March-June 1969, p. 83
17. Chittick, The Sufi Path,, pp. 158-9
18. Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, publ. Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, London, 1979
19. Dom Sylvester Houedard, Commentaries on Eckhart Sermons, publ. The Beshara Trust, Chisholme, undated, p.42
20. Wird, Tuesday morning prayer.
21. Chittick, The Sufi Path, p.158
23. See Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, trans. R.A.Nicholson, London, 1978, p.53
26. See Ismail Hakki Bursevi's translation of and commentary on Fusus al-hikam, p.683
27. See Seal of the Saints, M. Chodkiewicz, Cambridge, 1993, p.149
28. Les Illuminations de la Mecque / The Meccan Illuminations, ed. M. Chodkiewicz, Paris, 1988, p. 277
Symbols, abbreviations
| • | 8226 | '(it) is', 'i.e.' | • | |
| . | 'to', or 'of' | . | ||
| = | 'is', 'are' | = | ||
| : | 'is' | : | ||
| =: | whole sentence is the following | =: | ||
| → | -> | 8594 | 'in', 'for', 'through', 'towards' | → |
| ⇒ | =>> | 8658 | '(is) hence', '(is) therefore' (implies) | ⇒ |
| => | 'is hence', 'is therefore' (no strong implic.) | => | ||
| ← | <- | 8592 | 'like', 'as', | ← |
| <= | " " | <= | ||
| ⇐ | <<= | 8656 | 'because', (implied by) + ('it is') | ⇐ |
| ~ | which, that | ~ | ||
| ~= | which is, that is | ~= | ||
| :~ | 'which', refers to last noun | :~ | ||
| ♥ | heart | 9829 | topic of (last) paragraph (+'is') | ♥ |
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