Sufi Magic
When I first read the words of Idries Shah I sought to learn as much as I could about the role of the Sufi in western mysticism. Most people know 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam', Ravel's 'Bolero', whirling dervishes, and assassins. This is just the start of a journey into deeper Sufi mysticism. This is a vast subject and I will attempt to add more information as I post my illustrations.
At present I am editing my version of the 'Book of the Book' - it will be published by this means in due course. A wise Sufi would probably say it will never happen... and therefore it happened, never!
For more on the life of a struggling poet and painter in recovery CLICK '> inanga >' at top left.
"The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice
Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute."
- Rubaiyat of Omar Khay'yam, XLIII
inanga
The Song Celestial
My copy of the 'Bhagavad Gita' and my Pam's Universal 3B1 Notebook containing the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Bless his Memory. My Mum told me the best way to learn something was to write it down. She started me early and told me to learn every capital city in the world. That hasn't been easy since the break up of the Soviet Union. Come on. What's the capital of Burkina Faso? Capital of Turkmenistan? Heard of Ouagoudougou? It's not that easy...
'The Bhagavad Gita is a spiritually transforming book. It commences with a strong plea to shed all anxiety and grief so that with a carefree, untroubled mind one can commence a dynamic spiritual practice. This leads to liberation of narcissistic egoism that veils the full power of the Self. Sublime peace and the Self Realisation of unconditional love are a natural corollary.
Chapter by chapter, the Gita rveals a step-by-step process leading to this Enlightenment. It is like a beautiful symphony, melodiously unfolding until it reaches the grand coda of spiritual freedom or 'moksha'!
Reading the Gita is intended to be an enjoyable experience, and if one continuously reads and re-reads it a living seed is planted in the psyche which can really transform one's whole life. There is no doubt that the exquisite poetry of Sir Edwin Arnold's translation is the best way of assimilating the Gita's sublime message.
The great sage Sri Ramana Maharshi was once asked if we should read the Gita now and again? His answer was simply: 'Always!''
Alan Jacobs, Chair of Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK
inanga
inangawiremuhogproductionshandgodproductionsaotearoanewzealandjeffwilliamslonelyplanetartnzjvillejohnsonvillewellingtonwelcomephigoldenratiowhitebaitms p jville2012
![The Difference<br />
<br />
i thought this the best place to discuss the genius of Michael Maier, the inventor of multimedia - not the tawdry sort you see today - but real 'multi' media. i bet very few of you have heard of him and i am not surprised as he published his magnum opus nearly 400 years ago. <br />
<br />
Michael Maier (1568-1622) was the quintessential alchemist and his 'Atalanta fugiens', first published in Latin in 1619 was the masterpiece of multimedia of all commonly-perceived recorded time. The full impact of 'Atalanta fugiens' ('Atalanta flees') has yet to undergo experimentation.<br />
<br />
In 'Atalanta flees' Maier has included 50 woodcut emblems, each with a motto eg Emblem 6: 'Sow your gold in the white foliated earth.'<br />
<br />
While you examine the woodcut there is a small discourse or epigram to consider - and for a woodcut 6 - a farmer walking through a field it is this:<br />
<br />
'The farmers entrust their seed to the fat<br />
earth.<br />
After having foliated it with their mattocks.<br />
The philosopher have taught that gold must<br />
be scattered over white fields<br />
Which react like a light leaf.<br />
When you undertake this, pay good<br />
attention to it,<br />
For from the wheat you see, as in a mirror, <br />
that gold germinates.'<br />
<br />
Clever so far and extremely cryptic, but what a mysterious story! And the best is yet to come... Maier composed 50 pieces of music - 'fugues' or canons - to accompany both the picture and the story. And more amazing still... if you look closely at these pictures, read and comprehend the stories [best in Latin], while at the same time, hearing the especial harmony of the 'fugues' you can achieve the state of 'samadhi' - not 'dharma-meghah-samadhi', however, as that involves further and continued disciplining.<br />
<br />
It is yogic multimedia gone wild, and it is freely available on the world-wide web. The entrance through this 'looking glass' is your own journey of self-discovery, so i have included all the important links below, including access to the 50 musical pieces to accompany the woodcuts and text. The people on this website have done all this for free - if you want this full yoga kit then why not contribute something to them to keep it up and going. It works, and it is based on the most fundamental principles of the 'philosopher's stone' including sophisticated harmonics. Adam McLean's Alchemy website, found on <a href="http://www.levity.com">http://www.levity.com</a> is meticulously researched and full of information on the philosopher's stone. In this segment you were just shot out to Michael Maier's woodcut 6 from 'Atalanta fugiens'.<br />
<br />
inanga<br />
<br />
The most informative part for MIchael Maier's 6th of 50 woodcuts is:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.levity.com/alchemy/atal_06.html">http://www.levity.com/alchemy/atal_06.html</a><br />
<br />
courtesy of Picasa 3, SmugMug, Google and Mozilla Firefox 2009<br />
<br />
inanga](https://photos.smugmug.com/Spirituality/Sufi-Magic/i-sdnZDqK/0/88e8b271/Ti/DSCF1842-Ti.jpg)
![Phi to 10,000 places<br />
<br />
detail from 'Phi to 10,000 places'<br />
<br />
acrylic, watercolour, oil, collage of wiki dump and paintings on canvas board 2008<br />
<br />
'This catalogue is a reproduction. This is not a commercial advertisement. Nothing is or ever will be offered for sale from The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension proper. Consider this first file an unusually complete bibliography and book review'. dmitri.<br />
<br />
Preface to the Introduction of the Incunabula: A Catalogue of Rare Books, Manuscripts & Curiosa, Emory Cranston, undated<br />
<br />
<br />
COGNITIVE CHAOS, KAOS MAGICK<br />
<br />
Kaos Magick<br />
Chaos science<br />
Chaos<br />
Strange attractors<br />
Order out of chaos<br />
Harder<br />
Chaos movement<br />
Quantum/chaos<br />
Magicians, mutants<br />
Everyday life<br />
Pure Math, and the Mind<br />
Alternative network<br />
Autonomous zone<br />
Jewel, passports, Yab-Yum<br />
Matrix Book<br />
Revolution<br />
Revelation 21<br />
Visionary recitals<br />
Seditious nonsense<br />
A perfect place for a UFO landing<br />
Cognitive chaos<br />
Fractal universe<br />
Outre typology<br />
Strange attractors<br />
Patterns of chaos<br />
Mandelbrot and Cantor<br />
Solved the problems<br />
n-dimensional strange attractors<br />
Mind maps<br />
Ride with chaos 'lucid dreamer'<br />
Surfing the wave function<br />
Chance<br />
Black modem<br />
Hedonics<br />
Peak<br />
Moorish science<br />
Brain machine<br />
Pure<br />
Mind machines<br />
Cognitive chaos<br />
Self liberation<br />
Deep grammar<br />
<br />
Higher<br />
Ground, taste<br />
Being/consciousness/bliss<br />
Satchitananda<br />
Tantrik<br />
Hard sciences<br />
Brain machine<br />
Brain waves<br />
Strange attractors<br />
Iconography<br />
Alchemical<br />
Threshold<br />
Cognitive chaos<br />
Diving<br />
Yogic powers<br />
Inner heat<br />
Absence of 'dis-ease'<br />
Descend<br />
Collapse of the wave function<br />
Schroedinger's [damned and] famous cat<br />
Become<br />
Create?<br />
<br />
Ride the wave<br />
Participation<br />
Orthodox<br />
Moment<br />
When? never!<br />
<br />
Alternating world<br />
The cat is both alive and dead<br />
Hillbert space<br />
Attractors<br />
<br />
Grok<br />
Cognitive chaos<br />
Cat Paramus<br />
Alice's Cheshire cat<br />
Schroedinger's poor victim<br />
Destination<br />
Memorized its address<br />
Strange attractors<br />
Probable<br />
Universe next door<br />
Ong's Hat Rod & Gun Club<br />
Accident<br />
The authorities<br />
Cognitive 'chaote'<br />
Carrying<br />
non-initiates<br />
Anywhere! - so long as out of this world<br />
EXISTS<br />
<br />
...ills of Consensus Reality<br />
Realised itself<br />
Chaos never Died!<br />
Sympathetic magick?<br />
Yes, sympathetic magick<br />
Newton emphasized force<br />
Quantum emphasizes finesse<br />
Christians have the Cross<br />
Islam Crescent and Stars<br />
Pagans have Pentagrams<br />
Buddhists have Wheels<br />
Quantum tantra the Fork<br />
It's bigger than both of us<br />
Precise unclarity<br />
<br />
Randomness<br />
Thinglessness<br />
Interconnectiveness<br />
White, hot & sticky<br />
<br />
Music is the connection in his technology<br />
Why?<br />
Because the possibilities are vibratory<br />
Alternate dimensions<br />
Egg-craft, travel cults, Tantrik-yoke<br />
Answers come as a result of <br />
finesse over force...<br />
Conclusion<br />
<br />
Order<br />
Against<br />
Health<br />
Margin<br />
Umm al-kitab<br />
Shapes<br />
Proofs<br />
Bricoleuse<br />
Raison d'e/^tre<br />
One<br />
Techne<br />
Icon<br />
Attention<br />
Other<br />
Chaos never...<br />
...died.<br />
<br />
inanga, 'Travel Notebook', 2001, in the year of a space oddity.<br />
<br />
Note: O-A-U-O-I-A-O is the key to understanding the above enigma of Other-dimensional Egg and Egg-less travel. It should be chanted as outlined below, three times: Oohh-Ar-Ooo-Oohh-Eee-Ar-Ooohhh. Try to emulate the vocal sounds of a Tibetan monk in a lamasery in Tyangboche, Nepal. If you are successful, buckle your seatbelt, and get ready to fly into a totally unfamiliar but quite spectacular realm. If you are not, We (the collective) suggest you try again. With impunity...<br />
<br />
For more see: <a href="http://www.deoxy.org/inc1.htm">http://www.deoxy.org/inc1.htm</a><br />
<br />
inanga<br />
<br />
NOT FOR SALE](https://photos.smugmug.com/Spirituality/Sufi-Magic/i-C4DKHC8/0/3ed13f0a/Ti/DSCF3203-Ti.jpg)
![Don Quixote's Delusions, Sancho Panza's Truth Collage<br />
<br />
Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart throughout the world. There in the horror of prisons,lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs,in brothels and gambling-halls,in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches,revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects,through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul. [Carl Jung]<br />
<br />
Dan Winter on-line article, my paintings and lots of other things September 2009<br />
<br />
inanga<br />
<br />
courtesy of Picasa 3, SmugMug, Google and Mozilla Firefox 2009](https://photos.smugmug.com/Spirituality/Sufi-Magic/i-n6vMxdV/0/d91ec798/Ti/13%20March%20200912-Ti.jpg)
![The Bhagavad Gita: The Song Celestial<br />
<br />
The key to understanding the 'Bhagavad Gita' for a westerner is good study materials. It's a magic book but you do not become an adept of its understanding by mere recitation of the words. You have to look more deeply into it.<br />
<br />
If you don't read Sanskrit - and that accounts for almost all of us - then it is essential to have a good translation. The one i consistently use (at this moment) is the Sacred Text's pocketbook version 'The Bhagavad Gita: The Song Celestial', translated by Sir Edwin Arnold (with the introduction to this edition by Alan Jacobs (Watkins, London, 2005)). i promise you, the words are more revealing with each reading. <br />
<br />
The interpretation, as always, is left up to you - the reader. You will, however, benefit by the wealth of information in these texts:<br />
<br />
'The Bhagavad Gita as it is' by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Brahupada, a publication of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the 'Hare Krishnas'). It has the original Sanskrit, a literal English translation, and then A.C.Bv.S.B's consideration and interpretation of the text and its meaning.<br />
<br />
You could begin at this wiki feed:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada</a><br />
<br />
Believe me, it helps if you hum this as you read:<br />
<br />
"Hare Kŗşņa Hare Kŗşņa<br />
Kŗşņa Kŗşņa Hare Hare<br />
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma<br />
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare"<br />
<br />
[For those who are struck by the magic of Krishna's words to the bowman Arjuna at the Battle of Kurukshetra, then you will undoubtedly gravitate towards the yoga sutras of Patanjali. If you are reading this then you have successfully penetrated another layer in the many that constitute the 'Umm el-Kitab' ('The Matrix Book'). And you are now being told that, like anything from the Middle East - whether it be the Mother of all wars or the Mother of all Invention, there is a 'Mother lode' book that encompasses even 'The Matrix Book'. In Sufi this is called the 'Umm el- Qissa'. More will be revealed about this extraordinary ethereal document as God wills it.] <br />
<br />
Patanjali's yoga sutras capture the essence of the 'Bhagavad Gita' and are almost a perfect prescription for the yogi learning the path. This eight-limb path ('ashtanga yoga') is simply:<br />
<br />
1 yama - moral injunctions;<br />
2 niyama - fixed obsevances;<br />
3 asana - posture;<br />
4 pranayama - regulation of breath;<br />
5 pratyahara - internalization of the senses towards their source;<br />
6 dharana - concentration;<br />
7 dhyana - meditation, and<br />
8 samadhi - absorption of the consciousness in the self, oneness with God.<br />
<br />
From my notes (based on Patanjali) it can be expanded:<br />
<br />
1 yama - non-violence ('ahimsa'), truth, abstention from stealing, continence ('brahmacarya') and absence of greed for possessions beyond one's need;<br />
<br />
2 niyama - cleanliness, contentment, religious zeal, self-study and the surrender of the self to the Supreme Self or God;<br />
<br />
3 asana - perfect firmness of the body, steadiness of intelligence and benevolence of spirit;<br />
<br />
4 pranayama - regulation of the incoming and outgoing flow of breath with retention (and ultimately these three are combined and non-deliberate);<br />
<br />
5 pratyahara - withdrawal of the senses, mind and consciousness from contact with external objects, and then drawing them inwards towards the seer;<br />
<br />
6 dharana - fixing the consciousness on one point or region is concentration;<br />
<br />
7 dhyana - a steady, continuous flow of attention directed towards the same point or region is meditation; and<br />
<br />
8 samadhi - when the object of meditation engulfs the meditator, appearing as the subject, self-awareness is lost and one is absorbed in God ('Isvara pranidhanat va').<br />
<br />
Check these sources:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://dailyreadings.com/sutras_1.htm">http://dailyreadings.com/sutras_1.htm</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali</a><br />
<br />
For a more western reading see:<br />
<a href="http://www.yogamovement.com/resources/patanjali.html">http://www.yogamovement.com/resources/patanjali.html</a><br />
<br />
The best book on the sutras, by far, is B.K.S Iyengar's 'Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.K.S._Iyengar">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.K.S._Iyengar</a>. If you by chance get this book out of a library your yogic path has well and truly begun. And a word of warning - you will not be allowed to turn back...<br />
<br />
And be assured, you have now found your teachers, dispensing their knowledge through the words writ.<br />
<br />
photo by inanga, the rest courtesy of Picasa 3, SmugMug, Google and Mozilla Firefox 2009](https://photos.smugmug.com/Spirituality/Sufi-Magic/i-BDvCZ2t/0/3d449f91/Ti/SANY0813-Ti.jpg)
![Kalki <br />
<br />
detail from the 'Yogi'<br />
<br />
'You are perfect;<br />
You are Nothing -<br />
Nothing's perfect'.<br />
<br />
Reducto ad absurdum!<br />
<br />
But it precedes an introduction to the wisdom of Don Juan to Carlos Castenada:<br />
<br />
'We learn to think about everything,' he said, 'and then we train our eyes to look as we think about the things we look at. 'we look at ourselves already thinking that we are important. And therefore we've got to 'feel' important! But then when a man [or a woman] learns to 'see', he [or she] realises that he can no longer think about the things he looks at, and if he cannot think about what he looks at everything becomes unimportant.' - don Juan to Carlos Castenada.<br />
<br />
'Seeing is for impeccable men [or women].<br />
My benefactor said that when a man embarks on the paths of sorcery he becomes aware, in a gradual manner, that the ordinary life has been forever left behind; that knowledge is indeed a frightening affair; that the means of the ordinary world are no longer a buffer for him; and that he must adopt a new way of life if he is to survive. The first thing he ought to do, at that point, is want to become a warrior, a very important step and decision. The frightening nature of knowledge leaves one no alternative but to become a warrior.' - don Juan to Carlos Castenada.<br />
<br />
'Become indifferent to your death. Upon learning to 'see' a man or woman becomes everything by becoming nothing. A man or woman who sees has, no longer, an interest in his or her fellows. 'Seeing' has already detached them from absolutely everything they knew before.' <br />
<br />
inanga](https://photos.smugmug.com/Spirituality/Sufi-Magic/i-xmnW2Xp/0/6eaf6a0e/Ti/DSCF1871-Ti.jpg)
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