Is Mysticism All About Psychic Practices?

Recovering The Mysticism Of Everyday

By Mugees Ul Kaisar  

ALMOST every tradition, discourse and technology has its own pros and cons. A psychic practice based sufi path can often lead to a sort of a magic mongering, haal-centric endeavour which is not without its dangers. In almost all traditions, it is established that the highest path to Divine truths is basic fitri intelligence, what sufis call “ayn-al-qalb” or Indian tradition calls jnana yoga (the path of knowledge). Fitri (inner) intellect (ayn-al-qalb) is the faculty through which human beings are able to know math or logic or basic virtue.  It is this intellect/nous (eye of the heart) that directly knows metaphysical principles (for example; essential reality behind all this apparent plurality is one (i.e. tawhid) – is directly & intuitively known) without the requirement of any special supra-ordinary psychic practices. The highest ideals of Truth, Beauty and Justice & their pursuit are part of the very substance of the intelligence within human beings. Metaphysics/irfan fundamentally stems from this inner faculty of human being which directly accesses metaphysical principles; therefore, if we find certain derailment in certain representations of mysticism, it is the job of metaphysics/irfan to explain the final aims of these practices to avoid all sorts of anomalies and meaning crises.

When it comes to psychic practices, we need to first note that this is a path that human beings have been employing since ancient times to descend down into their own souls within. Just like a scientist wanders on the outside, observes and tries to know the workings of the apparent phenomena, similarly a mystic or a shaman descends down into his own self and observes its depths and contents directly. The ultimate aim of these practices is the sharpening of the attention and the witnessing of the doings/happenings of self/reality/consciousness silently without any superimposition of ego will or mental abstraction. This puts one in contact with reality.

Metaphysics/irfan directly perceives meanings behind actions, as mentioned above, and thus clarifies confusions so that Truth becomes directly accessible. The highest station for a sufi is not triumphant claims of attaining ultimate knowledge about everything but a humble submission before the wonder and mystery of God. Only a quack can claim to have cracked the “mystery” of existence which is the very fabric of reality. The highest station is bewilderment (hairat) which is the source of joy rather than discomfort for any saalik. This bewilderment/wonder can be experienced by any human being anywhere in the world, anytime on any plane. There is no need to seek out supra-ordinary ecstatic experiences to taste the wonder of creation. Everything becomes metaphysically transparent. Since when has so-called “ordinary” reality become so alienating that it becomes a necessity to seek out occultist out of the world ecstatic experiences? If we see, a mystic is actually defined as an extraordinarily ordinary person. He sees God’s doing everywhere. Everything manifests God’s creativity. Everything becomes an aayah of God. Every experience per se becomes “religious” experience, for him, rather than obsessing over certain special categories of supra-ordinary mystical experiences. The mere sight of a flower is extraordinary. God is most accessible. God is the highest presence. Great authorities on mysticism across east and west define mysticism as “attention without distraction”, “seeing what is”, “choiceless awareness”, “attuning to the present moment”, etc.

Although, a psychic practice based mysticism might be appropriate for some seekers (owing to their personality type) but it is high time that we recover the “mysticism of the everyday” for our youth so that they do not get too obsessed with details of psychic practices which may prove dangerous for some. Besides, if we see, a Sage is more efficient in his faculties of appreciation/reception/enjoyment; ordinary people are excited only if they eat certain delicious food or have intimate bodily experiences but a Sage is in ecstasy all the time; his heart is in the presence of God all the time; there is no need of special psychic extraordinary mystical trips to feel ecstatic rather he is ecstatic all the time in the ordinary. This mysticism of the everyday (jahan har dam yaar ka deedar ho) is what will save our alienated youth in the overarching postmodern milieu.

For a newborn, “ordinary” is what is “extraordinary”. It is only later gaflah (heedlessness) and lack of attention and lack of silent witnessing that one gets used to so-called ordinary and starts seeking out extraordinary in some special experiences. For a child every sight is magic. Consciousness, Being, Reality is the highest wonder in itself. Every moment of consciousness is extraordinary per se. Some masters translate the Quranic word taqwa in terms of awe/wonder and not mere “fear”. Every great mystic has praised and privileged a child’s mode of being. A sufi is advised to become like a child who is “ibn ul waqt” i.e. being the child of the “moment” who is free from mental abstractions of past and future and attentively opens himself to whatever is present. All ethical discipline seeks to purify psychological abstractions that insulate us from tasting reality; whether it be arrogance or desire/want or fear or any other mental abstraction, they fundamentally block us from accessing/touching “ordinary” reality which is itself “blissful wonder”. It is for this reason that Prophets & sages seek to purify us of pride, suspicion, lust and all other abstractions.

Faith, for mystics, is humble receptiveness to whatever comes in experience because every moment is a revelation/aayah of God. Sufism is fundamentally a disciplining of “attention”; learning to achieve an innocence of becoming. Philosophy i.e. love for wisdom is also fundamentally cleansing of “vision” as traditionally understood (i.e. darshana within Indian tradition) i.e. for a lover of wisdom, world doesn’t change, it still is the same, but the vision has changed i.e. now God’s manifestation is the most immediate presence for him. This re-orientation of life i.e. seeing God’s revealing/revelation/creation/hand everywhere is the aim of tassawuf.

• Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer

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