Everything is dependent upon remembering. One does not begin by learning, one starts by remembrance. The distance of eternal existence and the difficulties of life cause one to forget. It is for this reason God has commanded us: Remember!”
-Sheikh Ismail Hakki
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Traveler: If the purpose of life is to join in Kingship with the Creator; then, why weren’t we born with this awareness firmly fixed in our conscious mind? Why do we go through the struggle or journey of reaching this realization? Wouldn’t it simplify things if we were born Awakened to this Reality?
Master: Life is a journey, a multi-level experience, full of many activities. In the activity of remembrance, there is a personal act of creation. Daily when something happens that requires our attention often we forget our relationship with the Creator. Embroiled in our life situation, trying to work it out; our consciousness fixes on the problem and we loose awareness of the Creator.
This return to awareness or re-creative process is the entire point of the journey; as we have free will and voluntarily choose to recall the Higher Awareness, we re-create ourselves: in the image of our higher self and the Creator.
In order to have this primary act of creation and remembering, first, we must have the act of forgetting. Forgetting and remembrance are entwined and come from the same cloth.
Earlier we discussed the Fundamental Realization, when the traveler first realizes the goal of the journey. This is the initial act of remembrance and as the traveler proceeds, seeks to remember, daily, whenever they can. This level of awareness is achieved through activity like prayer, doing good deeds, and focusing inward, repeating the Holy Name, while participating in life’s events, Through discipline, the grace of the Way, and our own inner knowing, gradually, this capacity matures and we remember in every action. This is the condition of the Adept or Awakened One.
Continually life is a process of creation; everything we do is a creative act. In daily activity, the traveler seeks to join in Kingship with the Creator and do everything consciously for the higher impulse.
Traveler: I am confused, how can the act of destroying or killing be called an act of creation?
Master: Even when we destroy something- change it from its present form- this change re-creates it into a new condition. Consider when you take the fish from the stream and turn it into dinner. As you consume, what happens to the flesh of the fish? Nutritionists tell us that the fish turns into energy which we use in our body; and the spiritual essence of the fish returns to the spiritual form or Monad from which it drew life.
Spiritual travelers participate in the affairs of the world. We are multi-level beings who came here to experience, serve and love. All capacities and levels of awareness are to be used in our daily life; yet, we will have missed the essential point if we fail to remember, and align our self with the higher destiny.
Remembering Who We Are
The fundamental process engaged in by the spiritual traveler is remembering who we are and using this inner spiritual knowing in our daily life.
Deep within is the knowledge of our relationship with our Creator. Temporarily, by participating in this physical world and using our sensory awareness to perform the duties of the day, this knowing is forgotten or suspended. Yet it is still present and works on a deep inner level calling us forward; until this awareness is brought to full conscious awareness again through a period of spiritual activity and remembrance.
This awareness of our birthright and inner connection to the Creator provides a magic wand to create, destroy and eventually help us become who we really wish to become. Each is the child of Royalty and has within the regal capacity to choose; thus creating their own life and kingdom.
This is the Journey. This is the Path. It is evolutionary to remember and, in that instant, become the highest version of our self. For in that moment, we are one with the Creator; reaching upward with an act of individual creation. For in this creative activity; we and the Creator are spiritually united.
Remember. What you seek is already inside of you. You were created spiritually from a very rare, sublime essence; internally this is who you are and is the lost treasure; but in the world we have temporarily forgotten and suspended this wonderful Truth. This forgetting was by Design so that you could again remember; and thus create anew each time, an act of Joyous Magnificence.
The Creator is all love; opening his/her arms to welcome us Home; when we elect the higher portion of our self and turn toward Him/Her. Do not worry about your mistakes. Do not worry about your failures. They are part of the Design and fade in the Creator’s Love. This journey is about remembering who we are and using this knowledge to enrich our daily life. It is not about fear and regret. While these exist, they fade in the Beloved’s Mercy. In each activity, it is about opening to the Beloved; reaching higher and living our birth right.
In your prayers and actions, daily return Home. In each breath and movement, focus inward and seek to embrace your higher self. This self is always in contact with the Beloved. It is this aspect that has never forgotten and always Remembers who we are.
Thoughts to Ponder
- Deep within the earth, over millions of years, the primal elements combine; heating and cooling, being tossed upward and weighed down by millions of tons of pressure. Then one day, miracle of miracles, an extraordinary rare and beautiful stone appears. Still waiting, covered in the earth, the stone needs to be discovered and brought out by a miner; who cleans and brings it to a gifted jeweler for further cleaning, polishing and cutting. Finally completing the preparation, the jeweler cuts, molds, and sets this rare stone into a unique setting; and the ring is ready to adorn the finger of the Queen. Spiritual traveler, do you believe this process of spiritual realization is any different for you or me?
- All spiritual learning, or the road to enlightenment, begins by examining and remembering who we are. What is the higher potential of humanity? What is this potential, individually and collectively? What does your religion or spiritual path say about each soul’s travel through the universe? Go beyond preliminary discussions and seek the inner road to spiritual learning. Can all these grand highways be wrong?
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Check-out my two books: Sufism for Western Seekers: Path of the Spiritual Traveler in Everyday Life and The Ferryman’s Dream. Both books are also in Kindle format and available on Amazon.com or local bookstore.
If you are interested in learning more about this subject, universal mysticism and Sufism contact: drbitkoff@yahoo.com.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
How does this relate to people with Alzheimer’s disease or brain damage due to memory loss? One of the most spiritual priesthood member and elder in my late Husband’s church that He was ordained in, has very poor memory – esp. short-term – due to falling off a roof on His head when He was younger. i know since i had the accident with head getting banged up a few months ago and the pneumonia cutting the amount of oxygen my brain was getting back in Feb. i am going through what i am told is temporary, slight, short term memory loss – and that alone is a pain in my anatomy!
j/L “Granny” Matrika / Rolling Buffalo Woman
p s i.e. is that, what you describe above, a different type of memory, perhaps?
For the mystic, remembering is both an actual description of a process and a ‘technical’ term. Inside all of us is a deeply hidden awareness; a center or heart, that is always connected to the Light/God. This center is always praying, celebrating, and helping run things in our body/soul. When we enter the physical world, because of all the other stimuli, this inner awareness, on a conscious level, is in a sense covered over or forgotten (another technical term). While the inner knowing is continually operating, the day to day, covers over this sublime awareness, and when we consciously reconnect with this center, which is always there, we remember who we are. So in a sense we forget who we are, temporarily, so we can reconnect and remember again. This action of remembering, as freely chosen, is a pure act of creation.
The first time we remember who we are, the energy of this realization, or conscious awareness of our Higher self, confirms something we already knew; that we are a child of Light. That is why we are convinced, there is a God/Light, because it confirms something we always knew. We just had to remember it. Part of the job of the Light and the Unseen Forces is to rekindle and facilitate this Awakening or remembering who we are.
For most people, the day to day living in the world, generally blocks this higher conscious awareness. The healthy mind is so constructed that it can only keep one thing in it at a time. So when I am worrying about paying bills, or sick with a fever, or had a stroke; this multilevel effect on my (ordinary) conscious mind, generally, further impedes connecting to my Higher Self. Keep in mind, this Higher Self is always operating, even when my mind is filled with a raging fever; and in order to facilitate remembering there are prayers, moments of worship, exercises, and spontaneous energy bursts of holy awareness, that help me remember again.
Remember, we are never without the Light, it is always operating on a deep inner level; some people call this an unconscious level, and our job is to bring this Higher awareness into day to day thought and activity. During some periods and days in our life- this is very hard to do like with a short-term memory loss. I hope you quickly regain what was lost . . .
I hope this helps? Advise.