Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: The Ancient Path of The Mystic
OMTimes: How can a Human Being (a Seeker) develop a heart with no Judgement?
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: Judgment belongs to the mind and the ego with its patterns of division. As one goes deeper into the heart, one experiences a reality where there is no judgment, just the all-embracing acceptance of divine love. This is reflected when one first comes to the teacher and is accepted unconditionally as oneself, often for the first time in one’s life. True love is by its very nature unconditional, and acceptance is one of the qualities one develops along the path. Also, as one confronts one’s own darkness and human failings, one realizes that one has no right to judge another.
OMTimes: You have said that The Journey through God is Oneness; it is to be with all as One. The Zen Concept of Bearing Witness is to embrace both Joy and sorrows; it is to be one with suffering we may encounter, without Judgement. In doing such, we actively contribute to the healing of the situation. How does the Mystical Path of Sufism interpret the Practice to Bear Witness?
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: There is an important Sufi practice of witnessing, just to watch without judgment. This belongs to the spiritual tradition of watching and witnessing: that events in the inner and outer worlds need to be witnessed. Through watching and witnessing one brings a certain light, the light of one’s higher consciousness, into a situation. This, as you say, can contribute to the healing of the situation, and also stop certain darkness from encroaching further.
Initially, you learn to watch your self, you become aware of your self just through witnessing. You watch your reactions; you watch the patterns you live by. You don’t try to change them, because only too often when you try to change patterns you use the same attitude of consciousness that created them—then you just create a variation rather than any real change. It is actually a very important step on the spiritual path not to want anything, not to try to change, but just to be aware. This gradually creates a quality of consciousness, or awareness, separate from the ego and its patterns, desires, and fears—similar to the Buddhist practice of mindfulness—and is the beginning of bringing the consciousness of the Self into your life. Then you learn to use this light of consciousness in service to life as a whole. We watch our self, and we watch the world. Nothing is separate, everything is interconnected.
Sufis are sometimes known as “a brotherhood of migrants who keep watch on the world and for the world.” I feel that there is a vital need to witness what is happening in the world at this time. We are living in a time of fundamental change, a period of increasing divisiveness, tribalism, isolationism, even as a global consciousness of unity struggles to be born. And we are also participating in the catastrophic exploitation and destruction of the Earth’s ecosystem, the fragile web of life that supports us all. I titled one of my books Darkening of the Light: Witnessing the End of an Era to reflect this work of witnessing.
It can be very painful to watch in full consciousness what is happening to the Earth at this time, the living being who gives life to us all with endless generosity, how our consumer-driven materialistic culture is killing Her species, ravaging Her beauty and wonder. The Buddhist teacher, Joanna Macy, talks about feeling the grief from this experience, and how this grief can break open our hearts to feel the love that is needed to help to heal the Earth. I also have been made to witness the effects of our actions and attitude in the inner worlds, what I have called the loss of the light of the sacred. There is a spiritual teaching that what happens in the outer world is reflected in the inner world of the soul and in the world soul. Our culture’s forgetfulness of the sacred nature of creation and its continued patterns of exploitation and greed are creating an inner wasteland as devastating as the outer ecocide, more tragic because this inner darkening is unrecognized, unnoticed.
OMTimes: Giving sequence to the last question; do you believe that the practice to “Bear Witness” is part of our “Spiritual Responsibility” as Humans Beings; and does it present elements of Spiritual Activism, in your opinion?
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: I believe that we have a spiritual responsibility, especially at this time when the light and love of our spiritual self is desperately needed to help heal and transform the world. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “Real change will only happen when we fall in love with our planet.”
Spiritual Activism is an emerging field that calls for a spiritual response to our present global crisis—to our self-destructive identification with an old story of separation rather than embracing the living story of life’s interdependent wholeness. Yes, we desperately need to reduce carbon emissions and pesticides, to stop turning rainforests into ranchland or palm oil plantations. But there is also a call to reconnect with the sacred within creation, with the spiritual lifeblood of the planet. Otherwise, we will just be continuing the same one-sided conversation that has caused this devastation. We need to work together with the Earth, to include Her wonder and wisdom. And both our hearts and our hands are needed for this work.
OMTimes: About the Transformative Environmental Crisis we are facing, and evidently, have failed as natural caretakers of this Planet; I have two questions for you: How can we regain the role as rightful guardians of the planet, both as individuals and as a Race?
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: Firstly, there is a primal need to recognize that we are not separate from the Earth. That we are separate from the Earth—that it is just unfeeling matter, a resource to be mastered and exploited—is a painfully destructive story of the last era. We are part of the living being of the Earth, interbeing with all of creation. We are interconnected with every bee, every butterfly, every dewdrop on an early morning spider’s web. And spiritually our soul is part of the soul of the world, our light part of the light of the world. Only from this place of oneness can we respond to our present predicament without constellating the same patterns, the dynamics of separation that have created this situation. The Earth is not a problem to be solved, but a living being in distress, and we need to reconnect and learn to listen to Her.
The Earth will continue. We are now living through the sixth mass extinction of species in Her history. It is our shared future that is uncertain: whether we will keep to our ancient promise to witness Her wonder and beauty, honor Her sacred ways; or whether we will continue our present path, stumbling through an increasingly soulless wasteland, until the sea levels rise, the air becomes too toxic, the oceans too acidic, our souls too desolate. The real question is whether we can put aside our addiction to consumerism, our false myth of continued economic growth, and return to a place of simplicity that honors all of life, that remembers the Original Instructions given to the First Peoples: how to get along with all of creation. Only then can we find a way to redeem what we have desecrated, bring the world back into balance, and step into the shared future that is waiting.
OMTimes: How does Sufism see the Role of the Divine Feminine in the Dance of Creation? How can the Rebalancing of the Sacred Feminine influence the mystical transformations of the heart?
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: All around us, in all of the colors, sounds, fragrances, and textures of life, we experience the dance of the divine feminine. She comes to meet us in so many ways, and part of the tragedy of the present time is how we have forgotten Her sacred nature. We no longer recognize Her presence in our daily life.
For the Sufi, there are two aspects of the Divine: the transcendent, masculine aspect; and the immanent, feminine dance of creation. For the lover the Beloved is both the unnamable, unknowable, “beyond of the beyond”; and also manifest in the world around us, in every touch, taste, sight, and sound. In this world of, multiplicity, the Beloved reveals Herself— “I was a hidden treasure, and I longed to be known, so I created the world.” In every in-breath we return to the source, to the innermost essence; and with every out-breath, we come back into the world, in its beauty and sorrows, where the Beloved takes on form and dances around us. The work of the mystic is to recognize the face of the Beloved in the wonder around us—“Wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God.”
At this time, there is a pressing need to remember the sacred nature of this feminine dance of creation. For too long, our monotheistic religions have banished the Divine to heaven, leaving this world desolate of divine presence. We no longer recognize the immanence of the Divine in the rituals of our daily life, in our cooking or our lovemaking. We need to bring the sacred feminine back into life, because She is the matrix of creation, and without Her presence, nothing new can be born.
OMTimes: What are the Spiritual Precepts of Sufism referring to the Art of Dying?
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: Death is the friend of the mystic. In our prayers and our practice we aspire to “die before we die,” to leave behind our physical, emotional, and mental bodies, and directly experience, if only for a moment, the clear light of our divine self, the bliss, peace, or endless love of our true nature. Most people only experience their divine self after they physically die. This is the light at the end of the tunnel in near-death experiences, our soul waiting for us to pass over. But the mystic longs to have this experience while still present in this world. I remember sitting, praying, at the hospital bed of a friend. Suddenly she opened her eyes, which were full of bright light, and she smiled a radiant smile. Then I knew that she was ready to go Home.
The mystical path is a continual preparation for death; we die to our ego into order to be born to our true self. Again, and again, we die to our limitations, the patterns and constrictions that surround us. We also prepare for our final passing so that we can go into the light with “clean hands and clear eyes.” We aspire to leave behind the grip of desires or the burden of any resentments or other unfinished business. Having lived fully, we surrender fully into the light. I often say that when we come to this place, we should be able to say, “I have lived, and I have loved.” Death is our friend, a passageway that completes this life.
Oprah talks with Sufi mystic Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee about why it’s difficult for people to embrace the idea of oneness when the world feels so broken. They discuss how technology helps connect us and create oneness around the world.
Connect with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Connect with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee at the Golden Sufi Center goldensufi.org
