The Witness Within

In the late sixties and early seventies, there was a consciousness movement in the United States. Consciousness became a major topic of discussion among young people. One of the famous phrases in that area started by a man whose name was Timothy Leary out of Harvard was, “Turn on, tune in, and drop out.” There was this acknowledgement by much of the young people in society with some assistance by older people in the same movement that the behavioral patterns of our society had somehow gone awry and that we needed all to begin a new way of encountering our existence and our attitude towards our existence.And that was the time of a slew of Eastern gurus coming to the United States, bringing Eastern thought which really had been not much seen in this part of the world, not much practiced in this part of the world because it was separated by oceans. And actual practitioners didn’t come over that often, and all of a sudden they came in hoards. And also the cult figures, the iconic figures of the generation were going overseas to places like India and Nepal to find teachers of Eastern philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., to try to get a new grasp on what life meant. So, questions of existence came to the forefront of what was going on amongst young people in America.And this was fueled by a couple of different things. One of the things it was fueled by was all of a sudden there was a draft in America, and by draft, I mean people were being taken into the army, not necessarily willingly. They were being told they had to serve. So, there was a large reaction to this, and it was the anti-war movement. And this is of course the Vietnam war in the late sixties, early seventies. And when people began to question the war, they then began to question the morality of the people bringing on the war, the ethos of the people bringing on the war, and why did old people think it was ok to send young people to die? Why didn’t the old people go by themselves, and what would have happened if the old people would have to be the ones who would have to fight? Questions like these were beginning to be asked.But then as soon as you begin to question the authority of leadership, you then begin to question the standards that the society who these leaders belong to have set up.

What is the natural state of man, and where should we set expectations for ourselves? And what should we expect of our fellow beings? What should the standards be that we have for ourselves? In religious services in various religious institutions there are those who minister the flock, and then there’s the flock. So you have the one who leads the service and the ones who partake in the service. But in different areas different things happen. In a small Arab village where there is no hired imam, the people in the village may take turns leading the prayer. So, each one becomes a prayer leader. In the Jewish communities in Brooklyn, ten people are required to have a sufficient amount to have formal prayers; and very often they take turns in leading the prayers. In the Quaker community, if you’ve ever been to a Quaker service, nobody leads the service. People speak when they have the inclination or the call to do so, and there’s no formal hierarchical ministry. The Catholic church on the other hand has a very formal hierarchical ministry, where congregants are even told that you have to go through the priest or the minister to reach the point you’re trying to reach.So, what is the expectation that’s placed on us? Are we supposed to be good congregants and show up to a congregational service once a week or every morning, and then we’ve fulfilled our obligation? Is our obligation a passive sort of showing up, and then somebody else takes care of the rest of it for us. Well, it’s been made pretty clear that we are supposed to be involved in what we’re doing. We are supposed to be as involved as any congregation leader. We are supposed to be involved in direct communication or at least an attempt at direct communication with our Lord. We need to be involved in our salvation. We cannot depend on anybody else to do it for us.This means that there has to a certain committent in our relationship with God, a certain committent in our relationship with our way, a certain surrender to the way that we do things, a certain surrender to our obligations. And somehow we have to get into that mode.

When Bawa came he taught us about a monastic life outside of the monastery. There was no monastery except for his home. We lived in the world, we married and had children, but he spoke to us and he petitioned us and he implored us to live as if we were within a monastic setting in the world. And that’s the interesting aspect of entering reality in the way that we were taught. The monastery is something you carry with you. It’s not some place that you go. You are the monastery. Your body is the home of the monastery, and your actions within that are those of a monk, monk meaning either female or male.

The story of Jesus according to the Christian tradition was that he taught until he was 33 years old, and then he was sentenced to be crucified by the Romans. And they in fact made him carry his own cross and then crucified him. And he died on the cross. And in that death he healed the world. Now, that’s a very interesting concept. The man considered the son of God by the Christians passed from this world no different than any other man. And that passing had an effect quite other than passing. That passing healed the population of the world who took on the understanding of what he did and how he meant it. Now, that didn’t stop people from passing, but it healed them of something else. It healed them of their burdens. It healed them of their sins. It healed them of their impurities. It healed them of their connection to the world.Now, Jesus did not have a connection to the world. He was already healed from that. But he went through the agony that he went through on behalf of the rest of the world. It says something about agony and the fact that we have to go through some of that. But it also puts in perspective what healing actually means. Healing is the healing of the inner part of us. Healing is doing away with the diseases of the heart. Healing is resurrecting the qualities that belong to Allah. And Allah is the ultimate healthy One. Allah is the One without sickness, without death. And to join that place of no sickness and no death, we need to be healed, healed of our attachments to the world.