- Spiritual Letter 08 - "Only God Is Good" Page 4 of 7 Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) on the 18th thru the 24th of October, 2001 to Aziza (Bitsy Weiss) Wisdom Point: His Holiness, "There Are No Good People, Only God Is Good" Go To: Outline of This Letter Go To: Text of This Letter Outline of This Letter: 2. Never Have The Thought - that there is something that you have to do 3. Topic 3 4. Topic 4 5. Topic 5 6. Topic 6 7. Topic 7 Text of This Letter: 1. Opening Prayer Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. Al-hamdu lillah. In sha 'allah, ma sha 'allah. Tawakkal-Allah. Allahumma labbaik. In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. All praise and praising belong to God and to God alone. If God so wills, whatever God wills. I place my trust in God, and in God alone, and am obedient to His will, and to His will alone. May all responsibility be given to Allah, the One who is limitless grace, and incomparable love, the One who gives us His blessings. 2. Never Have The Thought That There Is Something That You Have To Do My dearest loving sister Aziza, it is for this reason that His Holiness teaches us, "Never have the thought that there is something that you have to do." In this way, His Holiness teaches us in the book, "Golden Words of a Sufi Shaikh", that we must learn to do selfless duty in an unattached way. However, my dearest loving sister Aziza, we can only do this by joining in partnership with God within us, to complete what God has started within His Holiness within us, which is to reveal God within God, by revealing True Man within God, but we can only do this, by joining in partnership with His Holiness within us, to complete what His Holiness has started within us, which is to reveal True Man within True Man, by revealing God within True Man, because this is the way it all works, this is how what God is doing within His Holiness happens, and this is how what His Holiness is doing within us happens, or more properly, what His Holiness is doing within God within us. Specifically, His Holiness teaches us the following in this book, as Golden Words Number 225, "Understand The Treasure Of Peace". ------ beginning of quotation by His Holiness ------ "The Shaikh says: O Son, with wisdom you must understand the treasure of peace in your life. Listen. Do not every give room to the thought of hurting anyone. The idea of killing or hurting any life must be dispelled from within us. No matter what duty you perform, do not seek the help of others in return. Do not expect to receive a reward. Do selfless duty in an unattached way. In every duty, give up the thought that you are doing it. Instead, act with the thought that God must do it, give Him the responsibility, and then perform the duty. Even your intentions must be surrendered to God. In your vision, action, thought, and wisdom, look at God first. Place Him before you in your life, and follow Him. Act with the qualities of God. These will give peace and tranquility to life. If you make these points firm and certain in your wisdom (which is our direct connection to God, which is our direct connection to His Holiness), if your realize them and act accordingly, all lives will trust you and love you, and all lives will pay obeisance to your qualities." ------ end of quotation by His Holiness ------ My dearest loving sister Aziza, this first step, of putting down "our presence" in the illusory world that we see "outside" of us, and picking up "the presence of God" within us, the "presence of our brothers and sisters" within us, and the "presence of all of the creations of God in the 18,000 universes" within us, is but the first step that we must take in partnership with His Holiness, but like every journey we must take the first step if we ever hope to complete the journey we are on, a journey which involves many other steps. This is why His Holiness teaches us that "The most important thing for a disciple is to know his current station", because only then will what we do on the path of God be of any value to us, or be of value to anyone else. In this way, only when we match up our effort with our current station will what we do be appropriate for our current station, and have the desired effect in moving our life forward, in moving the life of our soul forward on the path of God. Otherwise what we do in our life, in ignorance of our current station, will be of little value, either to us on the path of God, or to others living in the world. For example, if we think that we are a "tree of God" ready to bear the "fruit of God", for the benefit of all of God's creations, but in truth we need to become the "seed of God" buried within the heart of His Holiness, which is our soul joined with the soul of His Holiness, making it ready to germinate, making it ready to join with the "earth of God", which is our heart joined with the heart of His Holiness, making it ready to reveal and nourish a "tree of God", which is our life joined with the life of His Holiness, then any effort on our part related to bearing the "fruit of God" is really inappropriate to our current state of spiritual development, and as such will have no real impact on you current state, our current state of "separate from", and as such, will not change our current state in any way, will not move our state towards the state of His Holiness, and of God within Him, which is the state of "oneness with". In this example, instead of acting like a "tree of God" that is ready to bear the "fruit of God", for the people living in the world, or the "fruit of God" that needs to be harvested and distributed to the people living in the world, instead of this focus, our work must be directed at "germinating" the "seed of the tree of God" within us, not bearing the "fruit of God" within us. And even before this, our work must be directed at coming to a clear understanding of what "germinating" the "seed of the tree of God" within us really means, and the type of relationship needed with a True Shaikh, both "outside" and within us, for this very special type of spiritual germination to occur within us. Then and only then will any of our effort on the path of God, whether it be duty, prayers, charity, fasting, pilgrimage, reading or reciting spiritual scriptures, reading and expounding on books of wisdom, really be appropriate in any way to our current station, and produce the desired effect, moving the life of our soul forward on its journey back to God. His Holiness provided us with a beautiful explanation of "how to germinate" the "seed of God's grace" within us, when, during the month of Ramadan in 1986, His Holiness asked us the following question, "Why does an apple seed germinate?" The children in the room at that time gave His Holiness many different answers to His question, all of which had something to do with the five elements of earth, fire, water, air, and ether. ---- beginning of quotation by His Holiness ---- "His Holiness smiled and told us, "No, that is not why an apple seed germinates, not because of any influence of the five elements. An apple seed germinates because it becomes aware that it is an apple seed, that it is buried in the earth, and that the earth contains everything necessary for the apple seed to grow into an apple tree." "Then the earth becomes aware that the apple seed is now aware that it is an apple seed, that it is buried in the earth, and that the earth contains everything necessary for the apple seed to grow into an apple tree." "Then out of this mutual aware the earth surrenders to the apple seed, and the apple seed surrenders to the earth, causing the apple seed to germinate." "This is why an apple seed germinates, through awareness, not through any effect of the five elements, through an awareness of the truth about the apple seed, the truth about "what it is", about "where it is", and about "what is happening" in the life of the apple seed, through an awareness of the truth about the nature of the earth, the apple seed, and the apple tree, and the relationship between them, the truth about these things that naturally emerges from within the apple seed, allowing the apple seed to move forward on the journey of the apple seed into an apple tree." "Like this, in truth man is the "seed of God's grace", and he is buried within God grace, within the heart of the True Teacher or Shaikh, not within the ocean of illusion that he sees outside of himself, and when man becomes aware of this truth about himself, this truth about "who he is", about "where he is", and about "what is really happening" in his life, then the True Teacher or Shaikh becomes aware that the disciple that God placed within Him is now aware of himself, is now aware that he is in truth the "seed of God's grace", that he is buried within the heart of the True Teacher or Shaikh, and that the heart of the True Teacher or Shaikh contains everything necessary for that "seed of God's grace" within it to grow into the "tree of God's grace". "And out of this mutual awareness, the True Teacher or Shaikh surrenders to the True Disciple within Him, and the True Disciple surrenders to the True Teacher or Shaikh within him, and the "seed of God's grace" germinates, revealing the "Tree of God's grace", and all of the "fruits of God's grace", for the benefit of all of God's creations in the 18,000 universes, within man and with God and within God and within man. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. ---- end of quotation by His Holiness ---- In this way, my dearest loving sister Aziza, we must realize, without the slightest doubt, that our current station is "separation from" rather than "oneness with", separation from God, from each other, and from all of the creations of God within us, rather than oneness with God, oneness with each other, and oneness with all of God's creations within us. We must realize that this is the problem that we must join with God to overcome, by joining in partnership with the life and teaching of His Holiness, that God has placed within us. We must realize that this is the problem that we must join with His Holiness to deal with, not the apparent injustice in the world, that we only see through the lives of separation and differences that live within the 9 openings within us, an apparent injustice "outside" that we only see through our physical eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and two openings below, in ignorance of ourselves, that we only see through our mind and desire, that we only see through our thoughts and intentions of separation and differences, that we only see through the lives of separation and differences that have grown over our soul, that have grown over the life of "oneness with" within us, the life of God within us, that have grown over the life of God within us through our ignorance of "who we are", of "who God is", and of "the true relationship between man and God". Therefore, we must start our journey back to God with this first step, by joining with the life and teaching of His Holiness to put down the "idea of ourselves" as separate from God, and as separate from anyone or anything else, and to pick up the reality of the "presence of God" within us, as well as the "presence of our brothers and sisters" within us, and the "presence of the creations of God" in the 18,000 universes within us, and all of this, as natural within each of us, and as natural within everyone and everything else. In this way, we must pick up this "presence of God" within us, which in truth is the "presence of His Holiness" within us, as the only thing of value in us or in anyone or anything else, and to join with that "presence of His Holiness" within us, and within everyone and everything else, to become One with that "presence of His Holiness" within us, as the "presence of God" within us, allowing it to do what it does, which is to reveal itself, allowing God to reveal God within God, by revealing God within True Man, by revealing True man within man, by revealing man within the creations of God, for the benefit of all of the creations of God in the 18,000 universes, within man and within God and within God and within man. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. In this way, my dearest loving sister Aziza, all that we have learned separate from God is false, all that we see, hear, do, or attempt to do, separate from God is of no value, and all that we think that we understand separate from God is a lie, is in truth the opposite of what is really there or is really happening, within us, or within anyone or anything else. So what do we do? How do we proceed in our life? How do we establish the "presence of God" in our life, by establishing the "presence of His Holiness" in our life? His Holiness teaches us in the book, "Shaikh and Disciple", on page 9, the following. ----- beginning of quotation by His Holiness ------- "My children, my daughters and my sons, you are now traveling on the journey of your life, from the east to the west. You are traveling across a huge ocean of illusion, through jungles, deserts, and forests. This is the journey of life on which you will experience many difficulties, joys, sorrows, losses, heaven, and hell." "My children, there is a reason for undertaking this journey. You are in search of something. On the path to God there is only one point in life, there is only one thing to search for - wisdom. You must proceed on this journey searching for wisdom, and you must attain the liberation of your soul. You must cross over the sea of illusion, the sea of desire, the arid desert where nothing grows, the mind and dreams which are barren, and the jungle filled with animals." "There is nothing to be seen in all this. These places only exist in the mind, and you must go beyond them all. To do this, you need a gnana Shaikh. Only a Shaikh can point the way to God through the use of a special map." ----- end of quotation by His Holiness ------- My dearest loving sister Aziza, this is what we must do. First, we must not get caught up in the drama of the world that we see happening "outside" of us. Second, we must join in partnership with the life of His Holiness, which in truth is our seven levels of wisdom, the seven diacritical marks that give sound to God's teachings within us. And third, we must join in partnership with the teaching of His Holiness, which in truth is the Holy Qur'an in our innermost heart, which is God's teaching within us for all of the Children of God in this age. In this way, we must join with the life and teaching of His Holiness as the life of wisdom within us, as the life within us that liberates the life of God within us, which liberates the life of our soul within us, from the cross of our physical body, transforming the life of wisdom within us, joined with the life of the soul, in a state of propriety mingled with the Nur, which is the light of wisdom, the body of the soul, into the seven levels of wisdom within us, transforming the physical body within us into the inner Qur'an, allowing the sounds of the Holy Qur'an within us, as the Resonance of Allah, to transform the dunya within us, the world of earth within us, into akhirah, into the world of light within us, into the Kingdom of God within us, for the benefit of all of the creations of God in the 18,000 universes, within man and within God and within God and within man. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. And to do this, we must join with the life and teaching of His Holiness, which is what God has personally given to the Children of God for this age, this Age of Destruction, or Kali Yuga. We must do this in order to reveal this special map of God within us, this map of His Holiness, this map which leads our soul back to God within us. And having revealed and become one with this map of God within us, in partnership with His Holiness, we must join with God, having become one with the soul and wisdom within us, mingled with the Nur, having become the palace of the soul, the house of wisdom within us, the house of the Qutb, Muhaiyaddeen Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani (may God be please with Him) within us. In this way, we must join with the Nur Muhammad within us, which is His Holiness, to follow this map of God within us, which is the clarified heart of His Holiness within us, back to God, back to the Primal One within us, back to the Nur Muhammad within us, which is the light of the wisdom of His Holiness within us, and having become one with the Nur Muhammad within us, we must go on Mi'raj, and become one with God within us, become True Man within God within us, and as one with God within us, as True Man within God within us, we must join with God to reveal God within True Man. In this way, allowing the soul within us to return to the oneness of God within us. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. But to do this we must put down the idea of ourselves as separate from God, or of ourselves as separate from His Holiness, we must put down all of our learning and all of our understanding, all that we have learned and understood as separate from God, or as separate from His Holiness. For as His Holiness teaches us, "The beginning of wisdom is the realization that you don't know anything." We must never think that we know anything, that we know what is happening, or that we understand what is happening, even if we have learned if from His Holiness, even if we have learned it by sitting at the feet of His Holiness, even if we have read all of the books of His Holiness, and listened to every discourse by His Holiness. For as His Holiness teaches us, "The understanding of today becomes the enemy of tomorrow." And as His Holiness teaches us, "All that you have learned is flawed, because 'you' have learned it. Now it must all be learned again, but this time without 'you', this time God must learn it." My dearest loving sister Aziza, we must realize without the slightest doubt that we don't get to God through understanding, we get to God through God, by accepting from God and handing back to God whatever comes from God, which is everything, including whatever understanding that may come from God. We get to God by realizing that in truth everything that comes to us is both from God and to God, not from God to us, because "we" as separate from God don't really exist, that "we" as separate from anything don't really exist, that everything we are currently experiencing in our state of "separation from" is but a dream, is but the dream that is experienced within the life of separation and differences that has grown over the life of God within us, over the soul within us, a dream of a life of separation and differences, a dream that is being nourished every moment of our life, by our living as one with it, by our living as one with all of the lives of separation and differences within us, as one with all the lives of darkness that are living in the 9 openings of our illusory body, all the while believing that "we" are living in the illusory world that we see "outside" of us. His Holiness teaches us that "The proper state of the disciple is to be alone, hungry, and awake before God, to be empty and silent before God." This is our work, my dearest loving sister Aziza, to join with God by joining with His Holiness, to learn what our life really means, and what living our life really means, to join with His Holiness in this divine work, in this grand endeavor, in this glorious enterprise of revealing God within God, by revealing God within True Man, by revealing True Man within man, by revealing man within the creations of God, for the benefit of all of the creations of God within the 18,000 universes, within man and within God and within God and within man. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. In this way, we must learn to join with God by joining with His Holiness to empty the cup that we have filled in our ignorance, including the cup that we have fill in the "presence of God" by being in the "presence of His Holiness". We must learn to join with God, by joining with His Holiness to praise God for whatever is currently in the cup, saying Al-hamdu lillah, all praise and praising belong to God and to God alone, and then by handing what is currently in the cup back to God, again saying Al-hamdu lillah, then being done with it, being equally content if the cup is full or empty, equally content whatever the contents of the cup may be, and by trusting in God for whatever may be placed in the cup and for what may be removed from the cup in the future, saying Tawakkul-Allah, saying, we place our trust in You, and only in You, O God, Al-hamdu lillah. My dearest loving sister Aziza, we get to God by intending God, by intending "God's presence", not by intending some manifestation of "our presence", as separate from God, even "our presence" as trying to understanding God, or "our presence" as praying to God, or "our presence" as doing the duty of God, or "our presence" as being good and just or as helpful to others. We get to God by "our presence" becoming "His Presence". We get to God by intending "His presence", while rejecting every aspect of "our presence", which includes our rejecting "our understanding of Him", or "our understanding of anything". We get to God by learning to join with God to make ourselves empty in front of Him, which in truth is to make Him empty in front of Him, so that He can fill His cup again and again and again, and empty it again and again and again, without any interference from "us", as separate from God. And in this way, we become one with Him, we become both Him, and the cup that He fills, that He empties, and that He then re-fills and re-empties, for His purpose, not for our purpose, that He fills and empties with each of His looks, with each of His breaths, with each of His intentions, with each of His actions, duties, with each aspect of His learning, and praying, a cup that He continuously fills and empties with "His presence". And we become what He places in the cut and what He removes from the cup. We become all of everything, which is the Sifat of God, the form of His Creation. Then we become the essence of everything, which is the Sirr or Secret of His Creation. Then by understanding the Sirr or Secret of God through its contrast to the Sifat of God, we transcend the Sifat of God, become the essence of His grace, the Dhat of God, and in this way we become one with God, as the Power within the Essence of Everything. For as His Holiness told us one day, in response to the question, "What is the relationship between us, the Prophet of God Muhammad (Sal.), and God?" And His Holiness said, "Think of yourself as an orange, Muhammad is the juice of that orange, and God is the taste." And as His Holiness told us one day, in response to the request, "Bawa, please take us all to God. Right now. Please take us to God." And in response to this request, by one of His Children, His Holiness said, "I could do that, but you would see nothing." Then His Holiness went on to explain that God is nothing, that God is the no-thing, that in order to see God we must first change, we must first travel from the experience of thingness, from the experience of being something, which is the Sifat of God, the form of His creation, to being nothing, to being the no-thing, by becoming the Dhat or the essence of God's grace, and that we do this transformation of state, from the state of "separation from" to "oneness with", or of "something" to "nothing", by understanding the eternal life of the soul, the life of the Sirr, the essence of His creation, by using our wisdom, which is the life of our Shaikh within us, to see the contrast to the Sirr that is produced by the Sifat, by the form of creation. Because as His Holiness teaches us, "Understanding only occurs through contrast", and in this example, one becomes the Dhat, the essence of God's grace, one becomes the Alif, Lam, and Mim of God, by understanding the Sirr, by understanding the secret life of the essence of God's creations, which is hidden within each of us, by experiencing it in contrast to the Sifat, the form of God's creation. And in this way, the journey of our soul is from the dream of life in the illusory world that we see as existing "outside" of ourselves, the dream of a life of separations and differences, a life as separate and different from everyone and everything else, a life which we only see in ignorance of our ourselves, which is the life of darkness or selfishness within the "dot" under the Arabic letter "ba", life on the island of hell in the dunya within us, to the life of the Sifat of God, the life of the form of God's creation, the life of all of the creations of God within the 18,000 universes within us, which is life within the "sukun" or circle on top of the Arabic letter "mim". And this life within the "sukun" or circle, which we can only see through the qualities of God, through the eyes of our Shaikh, when we have become one with our Shaikh, is seen as existing within ourselves, can be seen only when we begin to live as "one with", not "separate from" all other livers, can be seen only when we awaken from the dream of separation and differences that we are currently experiencing "outside" of us, allowing us, in partnership with His Holiness, to extract from this Sifat of God, man as one with the creations of God. Having moved in partnership with His Holiness from the dream of separation and differences within us, to the realty of man as one with the creations of God within us, we then join with True Man within us to reveal True Man within man within us, and then we join with God within us to reveal God within True Man within us, and in this way, revealing God within God within us, as the oneness of True Man and God. My dearest loving sister Aziza, may we both reflect on these beautiful wisdom points, from the life and teaching of His Holiness. But this journey of the soul can only be completed within any of us, when we have learned to join with God by joining with His Holiness within us, when we have learned to join with His Holiness to get rid of "our presence", in all of its manifestation, and in this way, discarding "our presence" in all of its manifestation, and revealing the "presence of His Holiness", in all of His manifestation, and within His Holiness, revealing the "presence of God", in all of His manifestation. In this way, His Holiness teaches us that, in each moment, with each breath, we must stand alone and defenseless in front of God saying, "O God, it is all Your will!" Then ever so gradually "our presence" will leave and the presence of His Holiness will come into us, and within His presence will be revealed to us the presence of God. In this way, allowing God to reveal God within God, by revealing God within True Man, and True Man within God, allowing His Holiness to harvest man from the creations of God in the 18,000 universes within us, and True Man from within man, allowing God to reveal God within True Man. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. End of Page 4 of 7 ................................ Please go to page 5 to continue reading this letter. Due to the size restriction of the Web Page Builder, this letter had to be divided into 7 pages. Please forgive us for this inconvenience. My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler). |
This page was last updated on: July 16, 2004
