Br. sc. Nazif Hasanbegović GHP GCRAMBiH
Know, brother, that man was not created for a joke or by chance, but masterfully created for a lofty goal
(Ebu Hamid el-Gazali)
Whatever text, book, or advice of the Master of Ancient Wisdom you read, you will hear one and the same thing: “What you seek is not around you, but within you,” or “The essence of man is in the one who seeks.” The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “He who knows himself knows his Lord.”
When the Christian master says “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”, does he mean, as Wilmshurst says, “that in the depths of our being, hidden under the heavy veils of sensuality and base nature, rests that vital and immortal principle, which is said to “allude” on the Great Builder, because he is nothing but the spark of God Himself who is in us”.
We find clues and signposts and on the old mystery temples there was written the commandment “Man, know yourself and you will know the universe and God”. At the entrance to the ancient Greek temple of Apollo in Delphi is the inscription “Know thyself – gnōthi seauton.” In the Byzantine encyclopedia from the 10th century, dedicated to ancient knowledge, there is a warning next to this maxim: “The proverb can only be applied to those who have embarked on the path of self-knowledge and who want to learn as much as possible about themselves.” The rest of the people will not pay attention to this proverb, nor will it seem important to them.”
Dva puta a jedan cilj
In the Indžilu it is stated that the exalted God said:
“O man, know thyself,
you will know your Lord!”
He who is humiliated with his soul suffers
How will he know his master?
Hey, it’s basically as strong as it gets!
Well, you never know your God!
In contrast to most “Exoteric Spiritual Systems”, Freemasonry has not totalitarian ambitions. Freemasonry accepts that its modus operandi is another of the traditional ways of accessing knowledge and is inclusive of the various Gnostic schools with which it shares a number of basic elements.
For an individual who knows how and when to advance his knowledge, it does not have to be difficult or contradictory to encounter parallelism between traditions that in a certain way originate or, more precisely, lead to the same source. With minimal effort, we notice how Freemasonry can share essential characteristics and attributes with other social cultural movements and spiritual systems, and from which each Freemason draws values that help him build his own inner temple.
It is important to emphasize that accepting this fact must not lead us to the extreme assumption that “everything is identical”. Equalization would diminish the value of each of the systems and reduce everything to a common denominator, and eventually each of the systems would lose its own value and autonomy, and ultimately losing focus on the ultimate goals of Freemasonry would directly affect the beauty and value of our own inner temple. .
Acknowledging the above, many Masons who superficially study various Gnostic traditions can claim that one of the traditions outside the Western framework, and the closest to the philosophy of Freemasonry, is Sufism. Like Freemasonry and Sufism, they are rarely presented authentically in modern media, although there are many who seek the teachings of both spiritual systems. Sufi wisdom encompasses almost every aspect of spiritual life and represents one of the most complete and best-preserved metaphysical and esoteric traditions that have survived into modern times.
As you know Freemasonry accepts any “exoteric framework”, and on the other hand, Sufism can be fully lived only within the framework of the Islamic religion, there are certain similarities between Sufism and Freemasonry.
But, I will emphasize again, it is precisely the differences between these two orders that make it possible to practice both in parallel in moving towards the same goal.
This situation alone represents a convincing argument that the various layers of the journey, i.e. the tariqats, are presented in an authentic way, and enable especially the freemason, considering the inclusiveness of freemasonry, but also Taṣawwuf, the use of practices and paths that lead the individual to himself. Acceptance of similarities requires attention to both acceptance of differences and adequate effort to prevent misrepresentation and equating of fragments from the history and ritual of Freemasonry and Sufism.
Therefore, on this occasion, no matter how passionately the subject may be inspired, I will not apostrophize the narratives of travel, of dying before death, and similar more or less true relations and parallelisms that exist between these two institutions and their predecessors, as well as the obvious irrefutable and insurmountable differences .
I will focus of this work on the identity anchor point of both systems, the demand for understanding the importance of the road and travel, that is, understanding oneself.
Anyone who cleanses himself will surely achieve success
Sura Al-A’ala, 14
Sufism is the mystical dimension of Islam where Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.
It is designed to establish the nature of God and humanity and to facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the world.
On the other hand, Freemasonry is a fraternal society that studies morality and ethics through ritual, symbol, and allegory; its main principles are faith, hope and charity.
Both traditions and practices practice their principles of Love, Tolerance in any social/political context and call for (self) knowledge and love.
Therefore, in Sufism, as in Freemasonry, “self-knowledge” is one of the means that leads to peace in the human soul.
Furthermore, cognition also implies a way of living. Hence it follows that the mystical experience is not only a subjective, internal act, it encompasses the entire being of man, his physical and spiritual aspects.
As in other mystical traditions, and in Sufism, the concept of cognition is one of the most current topics that is discussed and approached in different ways. The same discussions show that it is a multi-layered concept. One of the elements that distinguishes the Sufi tradition in Islam from the philosophical tradition is the discussion of the way of knowing reality.
The inner feeling, the heart, according to the Sufi tradition, represents the main source of knowledge through which it becomes a serious and mystical experience. It is a mystical experience, which relies on knowledge and love, represents a communicative composition between being in the Divine reality and in the knowledge of that reality.
We must build a temple within ourselves, a new structure that is capable of awakening, and this is built precisely through Learning, Ideas, specific ways and techniques at the beginning, facing ourselves, getting to know ourselves and our personality, dreams and obsessions we believe in, getting to know emotion and dealing with them, movements and body mechanics and ways of working and raising awareness on all levels.
Enlightenment is not a mystical state. It is bringing the Light into our inner temple and that is the first step.
True happiness is within you, find those secrets within yourself! Hasan Kaimija said
Therefore, a mason in freemasonry, as well as a dervish in Sufism, needs to constantly carry out the ritual, understand it and repeat it on a common chain.
I will talk about the importance of rituals in both of these orders, as well as the similarities and differences between Masonic rituals and Sufi zikr (Remembrance of God) on another occasion. I will only emphasize here that the correct performance of the ritual, especially following the rhythm of a certain degree, leads us to a meditative space of higher dimensions in both Freemasonry and Sufism.
In Sufism, the prayer ritual called Zikr (Remembrance of God) allows us to purify our own psyche/life from negative thinking patterns (fear, depression), negative emotions (hatred, contempt, anger, lust) and negative practices (hurting others mentally or physically ).
Loving God and loving/helping every human being regardless of their race, religion or nationality, and regardless of any possible reward is the key to ascension according to the Sufis.
And for us Freemasons, the principles of freemasonry state that the society of freemasons: “receives into its midst free people of good repute, carried away by the desire to cultivate virtues and morals in society.” He does not distinguish between their nationality, nor their political beliefs, nor their civil status,” and We say in the ritual: “We recognize neither power, nor age, nor wealth; the position does not give greater privileges, but only imposes greater obligations on the brothers!”.
From the above, it is evident the unquestionable need for striving for perfection in the implementation of the ritual and its understanding, and as emphasized in Sufism on its path (tariqat), in order to reach the depth of one’s heart, a person needs to do the same as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Poslanik, s.a.v.a.( Sallallahu alejhi we sellem) ), first acquire the prerequisite knowledge to understand the deeper knowledge of truth and God (Allah) Himself. In a similar way, the rituals of the Freemasons lead us to the VGSS.
For Sufis, development involves the awakening of the spiritual centers of perception that are dormant in each person. In order to activate them in order, the help of a guide is necessary.
Each center is associated with a specific color, general area of the body, and often a specific prophet. The activation of all these “centers” is part of the inner methodology of the Sufi path or “Work”.
Cognition is the inner moment of knowledge, and the consequence of cognition is the greatest knowledge. Realization is the result of God’s intervention, say the Sufis, and freemasonry insists that on our journey to the eternal east we constantly work on the processed stone, that is, on the search for truth within ourselves.
To know oneself is the privilege of the chosen ones, where the ability to recognize the truth comes to the fore. And only through Truth or Reality does man realize his existence.
And when Halladž says “I am the Truth” it means nothing else than “I have come to know myself”
In order for this transformation to take place, there must be a traditional connection to the root or spiritual chain, familiarity with a discipline or method of soul training, a teacher who is able to apply that method and guide the student through the stages of that journey and, finally, knowledge of the doctrinal order. nature of things that will guide the student during his spiritual journey. And, of course, as a prerequisite, formal initiation must also take place, which binds to certain learning, binds the student to the teacher.
Initiation introduces us to the spiritual chain, and leads to higher levels of existence. These are the fundamental aspects of Sufism.
Insisting on the importance of the teacher and learning, including the discussion of spiritual methods, their method of implementation and the ways in which they become the very essence of the student’s soul, is equal to the relationship that exists in the Freemason hierarchy and the relationship between teacher and student.
The importance of mentors in Freemasonry and teachers in Sufism is another important point of contact. Just as the development of a young freemason takes place under the supervision of a mentor, the development of a dervish takes place under the guidance of a teacher. All Islamic philosophers spoke about the strength of the bond between the sheikh and the student.
The personality of the sheikh is one of the most important conditions in the process of development of a young Sufi. The sheikh is actually a spiritual teacher, a guide on the path of seeking spirituality. When someone wants to become a dervish, he will choose a guide, that is, a holy man of great experience and deep knowledge whose “most insignificant” word will be valuable advice.
The sheikh teaches his student self-discipline, monitors his condition, and when the student feels any spiritual restlessness or gets into some kind of doubt in life, the role of the sheikh is to encourage him and help him.
The dervish’s heart is opened by the ritual of remembering and invoking God – the so-called zichrome. Abu-Hamid al-Ghazali, in his book “Invocations and Prayers”, states that zikr has four basic meanings. First of all, dhikr is an act of continuous effort to reach awareness of God. In this sense, zikr is the exact opposite of carelessness and forgetfulness. And prayer, in some sense, is also an act of remembrance. Secondly, zikr is the repetition of spiritual formulas or the names of God.
This practice of invocation requires sincerity of intention, awareness, concentration, awareness, empowerment and commitment to the practice. The third type of dhikr is a temporary, internal, state in which the awareness of God completely overwhelms the Sufi and he becomes truly free from any worries about this world. The fourth type of zikr is deep and steady, internal, the station where invocation and awareness become permanent. Dervishes strive to practice the unity of breath, sound and movement in the ritual of zikr. Unity among the dervishes themselves brings them closer to God, who himself is Unity.
Just as at the end of the ritual the freemasons, forming a fraternal chain of mutual ties, express the highest degree of unity and respect for the Builder of all worlds. The joined hands of freemasons speak of honesty and unity, brotherly love, and like the Catena Aurea of Homer’s golden chain, they symbolize the bond that unites brothers beyond time and space,
Throughout the history of Islam, shaykhs were not only spiritual guides to the dervishes of their tekke, but were important advisors to sultans and common people alike. Their word was respected everywhere in the Islamic world as the word of extremely wise and upright people.
Such is the power of the words and advice of a true master, especially a Master Mason in relation to young freemasons who are just starting to work on raw stone.
A master mason who introduces a brother to the quarry of life should instruct him in the secrets of working on stone and open his heart to work on himself. The goal of self-realization in freemasonry should be to awaken the potential in yourself, to release trapped consciousness from different regions of the mind and body, to balance yourself, to work on the raw stone of your own body and spirit.
Spirituality for me is not to come up with the most fantastic theory or philosophy that has nothing real, but to awaken what is hidden by the veil of illusion of the mind, thoughts, emotions, in ourselves.
Therefore, it is important to understand that being Spiritual is not “doing” spirituality, nor is being Spiritual having a spiritual hobby. It is an upgrade that becomes a way of life that is neither stupid nor naive but intelligent, emotionally developed and complete, but also karmically – physically – manifested in its fullness. It is KNOWING and not having the information by which the human fearful nature can better protect itself.
Sources of knowledge
When Sufis speak of cognition, they mean a specific kind of cognition, not separate from cognition of the world or reality. This is where the “oneness of being” is observed, since nothing can be separated from God. That is why, in the foundation of the teachings of all Sufis, there is a well-known hadith in use that influences the formation of their epistemological views: “Knowledge is the light that God sends down to the heart of everyone who wants that light.” With a note that Knowledge of the heart, which includes human self-knowledge, is not cognition mediated by nothing and is different from conceptual cognition to which philosophers refer. Therefore, Sufism itself, not infrequently, is defined as a way of knowledge (ma’rifa). And love is also considered the main cognitive category; because in Sufi theory and practice, love and knowledge are indivisible conditions on the Sufi’s path to reality.
Where love and knowledge are present, imbued with each other, any conditioning or necessity is rejected. It is closely related to freedom or the set of possibilities it presupposes.
Therefore, it does not surprise a freemason when he reads the words of Hasan Kaimija, the first famous sheikh of Hadži Sinan’s tekija in Sarajevo, which he wrote three hundred years ago. In the divan of his poems, he expounds his Sufi theory and conception, believing that the truth is known only through the truth. He believes that the basic, or cosmic, mission of man is to know himself, and therefore he writes: “Return to yourself, know yourself, and look at yourself from within yourself”.
The truth is that Maturation is rare. One in a hundred matures for spiritual practice. The others think they are ripe for the same. Practice requires knowledge of both philosophy and theory, because without it there is no practice. But primarily it seeks rejection of the illusion of the mind, conceit, obsession in which one believes. “Knowing yourself” requires you to meet the “self” you ran away from into spirituality.
Let’s face it, we can lie to ourselves, but we can’t lie to ourselves completely. The imaginary self is not about running away from the everyday “I” or “self” and inventing spiritual levels and realities. Therefore, the closeness of Rumi’s words is not surprising: “God lives between the human being and the object of his desire.”
And Freemasons, in accordance with this, should be able to establish and accept the knowledge that at the core of everyone’s nature is a unique seed of desire, which grows and blossoms as the personality develops, and not through any suppression of it. The solution is not to become pale, desireless hermits. Animals of desire – should not be thwarted but lived, transformed and joined. It is the art of personality formation. Spirituality is to face yourself and what you have inside you and through that field of obsession, madness, illness, to embody yourself, to bring down the Spirit as the Force of Awakening. And the Consciousness that is ourselves, will release the seed in the unconscious, bring it into balance, make the subconscious aware, expand the conscious, crystallize the consciousness that is not there now but its foundation exists.
A spiritual man is not a conceited greatness but a practical, everyday man. Conscious, whole, manifested in every part of himself and his life, mature, stable and grounded. You don’t meet such people in spiritual places, nor can you recognize them by their orange T-shirts, tunics, saffron-colored scarves.
Maturation happens by becoming aware of ourselves and the life we have. It begins with the practice of confronting all the ideas and concepts that we represent, accept, and believe in. It continues with sexual intercourse, daily entry into oneself and the world of mind, thoughts, emotions, movements, but in a conscious way. A presence that stands in the background and observes the one who thought he was an employee, the one who acts.
The story of Consciousness is not Consciousness nor what most Brethren tell about it. Mindfulness is not an everyday memory that gives you the impression that you are aware and awake.
Awareness is not recollection, nor memory, nor everyday “awakeness”. Awareness is “being here and now” before the moment of the emergence of a process, any process within you.
It is the eternal Now that so many masters and masters talk about, and very few of them know what it is. The techniques do not serve to get you to some imaginary world, but to bring you to face yourself, to awaken the repressed, unconscious, subconscious.
Umjesto kraja
We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice.
Albert Pike
In such a short presentation, it should not be expected that I will even attempt to exhaustively discuss all possible ways of traveling from self to self.
The most that can be expected is a few notes and guidelines, which those who wish can develop for themselves in their own thinking, for as Wilmshurst says “no one can impart to another the deeper things in Freemasonry.
Everyone must discover them for themselves by traveling the path of understanding.” And that path of understanding is the path, the royal path for us, Brothers and Seekers, to understand what is happening within us and around us.
This path should lead us on the path of searching for the “lost word” that every Mason theoretically seeks and hopes to find with proper instruction and his own effort.
Thus, a true Mason can understand when the commander of the faithful, Ali, “peace be upon him,” predicts certain destruction to those who have not trodden the royal path of understanding and who have not devoted themselves to self-knowledge, and then says: “He who has not known himself has gone astray from the path of salvation and wanders in error and ignorance.”
Therefore, one who does not take a single step towards self-realization and who completely ignores it, according to the Sufis, has no value.
Hazrat Inayat Khan says, “Working on the inner life aims to make God one’s reality and no longer just a fantasy,” which is incomparably the most demanding task. It is necessary to establish a complete balance between love – ecstasy, delight and discipline – practicality, Rumi writes, and that an ecstatic human being is a polished mirror that cannot help but reflect. What we love is who we are. When the heart is purified, we see the Kingdom as it is. We become a reflection of light. When we live in the soul, everything can serve us for clarity. One thing is certain – polishing the mirror of the heart requires discipline.
And if we can do this, remaining aware of who is doing it, not identifying with the thoughts, emotions, reactions, illusions and meaning we have built into ourselves, then Spirituality is a natural extension of ourselves and it will unfold itself. Because the door was never closed, but the question is when we will stand in front of it.
So, knowing yourself is a universal message and one of the two only instructions of Freemasonry… And therefore
On the journey from yourself to yourself, O Hajjis (Hadžije),
because with such a journey the country becomes a gold mine
from sour and bitter to sweet
let the road take you
as thousands of fruit trees sprout from the salty earth
from Shems dika Tabriz
look at those miracles
because every tree gains beauty
when touched by the sun’s shine
Rumi
In both cases, it is about the unity of the diversity of the symbolic understanding of the path to the same goal. In the simplest terms, both theories and practices want a better world by improving oneself first.
Br. sc. Nazif Hasanbegović GHP GCRAMBiH (grand high principle of a grand chapter royal arch masons) Worshipful Master Research Lodge Quatuor Coronati or. Sarajevo no. 7 Past Deputy Grand Master GL BiH Past Worshipful Master Lodge
Master of Communication Sciences and certified trainer, with more than 20 years of relevant professional experience in disciplines that deal with processes and patterns in communication and behavior in interpersonal relations, communication with the public, as well as in other areas that include various aspects of personal, corporate and social communication and interaction.
Since 2005, he has been dealing with issues of esoteric learning and knowledge in the context of intercultural dialogue.