Remembrance and Love: Links to Sufism

Remembrance and Love: Links to Sufism

In the heart of a lover of God, remembrance of God is always fresh, without effort, for what a man loves he constantly remembers.— Al-Ghazali, 11th Century Persian Sufi Master

An intimate student of G.I. Gurdjieff described the Fourth Way as a teaching based on Sufism. This thought, together with my Teacher’s affinity to Sufi poetry and literature, prompted me to learn about the Sufi tradition as seen through the prism of the Fourth Way. I began by briefly reading about the history of Islamic asceticism. This early spiritual tradition — P.D. Ouspensky might refer to it as the “Way of the Fakir” — had its beginnings after the death of Mohammed in 632. Sufism is one of the many branches of Islam and has existed as a practice from the earliest days after Mohammad’s death. An external part of their practice is best recognized today in the Whirling Dervishes, who whirl in a meditative dance, bringing its participants into a trance which can have the effect of evoking a higher state.

For those of you more familiar with the Christian tradition, it might help to conceive of Sufism as follows: Sufis are to Mohammed as the Desert Fathers or Gnostics were to Christ. Both traditions emerged soon after the death of their spiritual leaders and, in the Fourth Way, we respect both men as conscious beings. These two traditions trusted in the existence of a divine spark within us, and both had a reaction against worldliness and rejected external religious hierarchy, stressing instead the direct human contact with the infinite. I was surprised to discover that the Sufi mystical movement grew partly from the exchange of ideas with early Christian mystics, who practiced asceticism in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. Sufi practitioners meditate on the words of the Qur’ān – much like the early Christian followers meditated on the Bible – with emphasis on adhering to its code of conduct to cultivate and purify inner development to attain a state of divine love.

I looked in temples, churches, and mosques. But I found the Divine within my heart. — Rūmī

Some readers may be familiar with the poetry of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, more simply known as Rūmī, who was a 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet. But perhaps it would surprise and inspire you – as it did me – to know that it was a woman, Rābiʾah al-Adawiyah, or simply Rabia, an 8th-century Muslim mystic, who introduced the doctrine of selfless love to Sufism, which transformed the early asceticism into the mysticism that we now associate with it today. Her selfless love and similar sentiment were expressed five centuries before Rūmī had found the Divine within his heart.

In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel. — Rabia

Fast forward to the 20th century and we find again the following words expressed by Rodney Collin, who had met P.D. Ouspensky in 1936 and became a student of the Fourth Way. Collin writes, “that our work is not a substitute for religion. It is a key to religion, as it is a key to art, science, and all other sides of human life. Only one must put this key in a lock and use it to open a door. Every man needs a religion, but our work enables him to find esoteric religion.”

Using the idea of keys, I will take a stab at comparing the Fourth Way to one of the main aims of Sufism, which is to serve humanity through self-development of inner truth and divine knowledge. This statement alone already unlocks one of the main tenets of the Fourth Way. In my brief study of Sufism, I came across four of its declared principles: 1) repentance, 2) sincerity, 3) remembrance, and 4) love.

Drawing parallels with these four principles as seen in the light of the Fourth Way, I think the first principle of repentance is an effort to gradually change our level of being. In other words, to turn our thinking, feeling and being, away from our old habits of sleep and return to living in presence. The second principle of sincerity suggests Ouspensky’s assertion that “man is a lying machine” and the most harmful lies are those we tell ourselves. To consciously evolve, it is essential that we learn to be honest with ourselves and develop inner- or self-knowledge. The third principle of remembrance needs little explanation other than equating it with the Fourth Way effort to self-remember; that is, to re—member ourselves or put ourselves back together. As Al-Ghazali explains, “what a man loves he constantly remembers.” The fourth and last principle, “the greatest of these — is love.” Love is how Rabia turned asceticism into mysticism. It is a transcendent and transformative experience of expanding beyond oneself and recognizing the help of C Influence, ready with a grateful heart to serve humanity.

Sufism and the Fourth Way are spiritual transformative journeys of transcending the lower self into living in our unused potential of Higher Centers.

The real work is in the Heart: Wake up your Heart! Because when the heart is completely awake, then it needs no Friend. — Rabia

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Remembering the Divine, Baugnies Jaques