The Fateful Jump
Welcome to the June 18, 2020 issue of The Shamcher Bulletin, weekly excerpts from the archives of Shamcher Bryn Beorse. Warm greetings to new subscribers! If this was forwarded to you and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do it here.
This week features selections from an interview on elements and organization, as well as correspondence to Murshid SAM in support of sharing mystic experiences, rather than keeping them secret. Also in this issue: an excerpt from Man and This Mysterious Universe, a book inspired by Hazrat Inayat Khan and written by Shamcher in bits and pieces during wartime. Its title was a wink and a tip of the hat to The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans.
Nothing that has ever happened is important, it has been made to be important.
Elements and Forms
J: Do we have power over the elements?
S: We don’t have power over them. If we behave right they will gladly cooperate with us. The elements have much more power than the present civilization. We have very little power even over ourselves, even over our health and bodies. We are almost morons in the way we behave, and the elements are much more effective in their operations than we in ours. Although we could become even better than the elements in time…
J: Can humans concentrate on bringing rain?
S: Of course. Don’t you know that the Indians have done that for ages with their dances? Their dances express what they deeply feel. But it is not really the dances but their minds which are enticed by the dances which are making the rain…
J: This is what I’ve always heard you say about exoteric forms. It is not the dance but what the dance invokes… Would you speak on obsession and exoteric forms?
S: Yes. The exoteric form is the outer ritual that you see. For example, people taking part in parades, and the rituals one uses at devotional services. These are what one would call obsessional when the persons doing it are not aware of the symbolism and essence within it. They think that the services and the parades themselves are the essential meaning, and this may be dangerous.
The more so when the exoteric form involves the structure of society, and how that structure interacts with peoples’ lives.
I already gave you the example where the government believes itself capable of deciding which scientific technologies are important enough to be developed, whether they know anything about the particular technology or not. By adhering to the form of the society, or what people have come to believe is the form, people resign themselves to the decision of the government without questioning the process by which the decision has been reached, and hence we are stuck on the rather low level of technological advancement that we have today.
This goes for church organizations too, the way people will believe that a man simply because he has the title of Bishop or something must be right. In Sufi organizations of course, we are supposed to be better off than this because we are particularly aware of the unity of things. But there is some of this happening, and there are people who take it very seriously when someone who seems to have a higher responsibility says something. But actually the “higher responsibility” in the given situation means nothing more than someone had the particular idea that something should be said. Everyone has the right to say what he feels, in fact it is his duty to see that it gets said. You have the right not to believe that a certain thing must be right or wrong simply because a certain person has said it. Everything which is expressed in words is of rather inferior quality anyway. And it should be remembered that nothing that has ever happened is important, it has been made to be important.
(From An Interview with Shamcher Bryn Beorse, Photo by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash)
Experiences
Yes, as you say, it is not only permissible but important that experiences be reported, registered and understood. The idea that experiences should never be related is pure mischievous and envious nonsense. Of course a person is free to withhold his experiences at his own discretion. But he who volunteers his experiences does a great service to struggling and bubbling humanity.
We have the same story of lone struggle in life. To me it has been so evident from my 8th year or so that I have only pity on men (and some women) for their lack of insight and am enthusiastically surprised when I find exceptions (such as Hazrat Inayat and others) and I really find no foundation for scolding the poor blokes but perhaps I should, to wake them up. The world, today, is quite a miserable concoction of concepts and confusion. The thing is to find the best or at least not the worst key to sound development for the future.
(From correspondence - Letter to SAM, 1966)
The Fateful Jump
As human curiosity was the cause and basis of science and many other distinguished fields of endeavor, so also on the path curiosity is the driving force. In the beginning it may express itself in beliefs and theories about life and death, about earth and heaven. As the climber begins to realize that theories and beliefs may become obstacles rather than means to true revelation, he discards them. There are things which cannot be expressed in the language of this world any more than music could be explained to one who could not hear.
But things that cannot be spoken may be sensed or felt and, as the climber advances in this art, he will be distinguished by a habit of taking a farsighted view of things. His interest will be in matters of lasting importance and he will not worry about trifles or momentary losses. He will think and dream in terms of communities, nations, humanity – yet, without ever running out of affection for his individual friends. But the latter may become mildly desperate in the face of his gay indifference to their daily worries and his ferocious interest in the development of their souls! They may feel however, that even his indifference is not caused by lack of understanding but by a deeper than usual understanding. So his friend or wife or husband or child may forgive and even enjoy his indifference as much as they treasure his genuine affection.
Only the boldest can pass through the needle’s eye on the path. At this point they are called upon to give up and lose their very identity – as they know it – in order to merge into their chosen ideal. Whether by the hand of a friend and teacher, or alone, they jump into the darkness, not knowing where they will land, or if they will land. Such is their choice. Doubts and fears may then tower up before them, and they may even lose their foothold and tumble all the way down to the road, which they may then follow for a while to start anew on the path at a later time.
When the climber has passed the needle’s eye (so the story ends) he discovers that, far from losing himself by that fateful jump, he found a dazzling world which, from now on, he may call “himself”. What he once considered self-sacrifice and supreme renunciation now appears to have been but the beginning of his reign as King. From then on there is no turning back, only continuous contemplation of views and vistas that hold him spellbound. For this wanderer there are no more tedious trials, no more weariness. He moves even faster towards that moment when, it has been said, the trees in the forest, the fish in the sea, the beasts of the earth and all human beings will be enlivened by a surging ecstasy without yet knowing why: the universe is celebrating the rebirth of a soul, merging into Life Eternal.
(Excerpt from Man and This Mysterious Universe (1949) Photo by Kid Circus on Unsplash)
The Shamcher Bulletin brings you snippets from Shamcher’s writings that might help frame and context our experience of the world we live in today. In every issue, the text is as originally written, with only a few editorial tweaks if necessary.
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