This Magical World
Welcome to the July 10, 2020 issue of The Shamcher Bulletin, weekly excerpts from the archives of Shamcher Bryn Beorse. If this was forwarded to you and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do it here:
This issue features brief snippets from the book “The Future is Ours”, memories from Sabira Scott and a little bit from a 1980 article in “The Message”.
What Future Do We Want?
“How do most of us want the future to be?” The answer is “Prosperous, adventurous, unrestricted, secure. We want opportunities for realizing our abilities and resources. We want free choice in every walk of life, no shortages in our stream of supplies, good and happy neighbors”
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“The scientific method can be used to explore the the atom, but let it be applied to human affairs and at once the pressure of …. party loyalty, of nationalism, or merely of established customs prevent the acceptance of valid conclusions. It is the full revelation of the spirit of science, and the fact that it envisages all of civilization and not merely useful gadgets that will bring us to the age of science. To call on present science for help is futile. To call on politicians, lawyers, clergymen, economists, is equally futile until they have learned, from science perhaps, the spirit and method of research.”
(From The Future is Ours)
Memories
He said, “To me a Sufi teacher is one that meets you where you are and understands your mind and may say very little or nothing at all, but he PROJECTS into you what you need to know, and often more, which you can resolve and bring into order through the months and years as they pass.”
Shamcher was young-in-heart — God was his playmate, his friend, his companion. Shamcher felt that he was nothing, that God was the whole universe — some people mouth La Illaha, Il Allah Hu — Shamcher lived it — there was no difference between God and Shamcher — between Shamcher and God.
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We were in Miami for an OTEC convention. We had borrowed my daughter’s car and were driving down the highway to pick up Mansur. I noticed the gas gauge said, “empty.” I tried not to panic and turned to Shamcher and said, “Think full, Shamcher, think full.” He said he would try. We approached a gas station; it was 6:45 am. An old man came shuffling out of the station and we asked him to please fill up the tank. He opened the gas tank, inserted the nozzle — and started yelling,“Lady, your tank is already full.” Sure enough the gas was spurting all over his legs and feet! He went rushing in to get a mop — we sat there in hysterics.
(From Sabira Scott’s Memories of Shamcher)
MESSENGER OF SYMPATHY
From My Meeting with Murshid Inayat Khan (in The Message, February 1980)
(After meeting Murshid Inayat Khan) There followed two years of study with him at his summer school at Suresnes, Bois de Boulogne, outside Paris. I found that his ideas, which had seemed a little vague in a railway depot in Oslo, were as scientifically conceived as anything I had encountered in my engineering career or in my study of physics. They were already incorporated in several books.
In 1926, Eddington, Hylleraas, James Jeans and other outstanding physicists hypothesized what has been called the "vibration theory of matter," about which science is still fighting. This hypothesis is a true replica of Murshid Inayat's views, except that, to the latter, the "vibrations" were not just movement of inert matter, or of no matter at all, as has elegantly been suggested by some scientists. To Murshid Inayat, these vibrations were curls and twists of love — that unfathomable force that created and goes on creating and maintaining things and thoughts and sentiments.
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His goal in life was the same as for all earnest seekers: truth. But how does one look for truth? What better path than love? Sympathy? Looking at things from the other's viewpoint? Merging into that penetrating force that runs the world? This leads to harmony, which again breeds beauty and, in the atmosphere of Love-Harmony-Beauty, vision becomes clear, truth may be seen, reached.
Universal Worship, instituted by him, demonstrated his goal as well as his means of seeking it. This was a devotional service, or ceremony, conducted around an altar on which were placed, in the order of their age, six books representing the Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim religions, from which selected quotes were read. Behind each scripture was a candle lit from a taper with the words, "To the glory of the omnipresent God, we kindle the light symbolically representing the Hindu religion" (Buddhist, Zoroastrian, and so on), and at last a seventh candle in the middle was lighted, with the words, "To the glory of the omnipresent God, we kindle the light symbolically representing all those who, whether known or unknown to the world, have held aloft the light of truth amidst the darkness of human ignorance."
We who had the privilege of thus hearing, in one sitting, quotations from all the world's scriptures, were always amazed anew at the similar, nay identical, manner in which all of them dealt with our problems.
This Magical World
I lived in this kind of world from as far back as I can remember, unruffled by snow, ice, ski slopes, engineering and a stern Lutheran environment.
I wish everybody including business executives and public officials could share with me this bewitched and magical world where problems are solved as they arise, be it in the world of seers or in the land of doers.
Image from "L'Espace céleste et la nature tropicale, description physique de l'univers dessins de Yan' Dargent" - British Library
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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The Shamcher Bulletin is edited by Carol Sill, whose newsletter, Personal Papers, is HERE.
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