SUFI LOVE PATH
The SUFI QUEST
WHAT IS LOVE?
ENEMIES of LOVE
Materialism
The Ego
Gusting Passions
Satan
PATHS TO LOVE
Take a Guide
Love in  your Life
Spiritual Practices
THE JOURNEY
Supplication
Love of ALLAH
LINKS
SUFI UPDATE
Site guide
Archive
e-mail me


 

786

 

Making the proper balance between Soul and Ego

 

            We have two personalities within ourselves.  The first belongs to the soul and the second to the lower self.  The proper balance is for the ego to follow the direction of the soul because the soul knows the way the spiritual powers want to go while the ego, left to itself knows only how to graze.  The lower self is always lazy, selfish and stupid, but when the balance is struck and it follows the will of the soul, it is a useful and able partner in accomplishing the task at hand.  Now, my believer friend, you must know that the most important challenge for us in our spiritual life is to keep this balance.  If the balance is upset we can do nothing and go nowhere.

When Westerners awaken to the need of seeking balance in their tormented inner lives they find that they must invariably seek help and guidance from the orient and its people.  The sun rises in the east.  In everything that we observe in the world we may find the fine balance of the Almighty.  You (westerners) have been gifted with material know-how and have attained technological advancement.  Western people are proud enough of their technology but now they are in need of the Orientals, the people of the sunrise countries . …..

My Grandsheikh has asked me to caution you against some pitfalls into which you may stumble in your pursuit of self discovery in the oriental world or among its people. In particular he is asking me to warn you about unbalanced ways, the two extremes to which the people of our time are flocking out of ignorance.

The first unbalanced way is one that attracts very large crowds and offers quick results without putting the lower self under control or through any discipline.  The proponents of these ways tell their followers, “Oh my students you must never oppose the urgings of your ego.  You must seek of provide it with everything it demands.  Your problems only stem from you trying to repress your ego – and when you repress ego you repress your soul.   Ego is soul and soul is ego.  You are advanced people and must therefore let yourselves go.   Discipline and regulation are only for ignorant and bigoted people who are on the level of common religiosity.  You must transcend religiosity and the duality of good and evil.  All is one, and one is all.  – Now, do what you like.”

That is a summary of their way – the way of demagogues.  But those who follow   these ways are never satisfied because the more they supposedly ‘let go’ the more the soul is repressed.  Under the onslaught of the unleashed frenzy of ego desires which seek satisfaction in evil without inhibition, the soul is buried alive, and screams, “ “What about me?  Oh lower self - oh you wretch - you are not I, nor are you my representative.  Do you really imagine that I am developing by your indulgence in such a spree of depravity?  If you are putting me down in this manner, making me a slave to your dictates, there will never be any spiritual development.”

A true teacher can’t say to his students; ‘Do as you like.’  If we seriously hope to reach our goal we must have a discipline;  no discipline, no attainment.  Those ‘guides; are deceiving people and have themselves been deceived by their lower selves.  This is the first kind of unbalanced way.

The second unbalanced way is slanted to the other extreme.  The teachers of those ways put such a heavy burden on people’s shoulders and demand the fulfilment of such difficult conditions that people are bound to rebel.  If you load a donkey beyond its capacity it is either going to squirm and jerk until it rids itself of that load or simply sit down; or it may plod on until its back is broken and it falls down dead.  Proponents of such ways have no understanding of the Quranic verse

‘Allah does not burden anyone beyond his capability.’

                                                                                                                                   (Surat-ul-Baqarah verse 286)

            In our days one very frequently encounters these two ways of imbalance.  You must be like a person who draw his cart or plough with two horses of comparable strength; and you must control them both with your strength and mastery of the task at hand.          It means we must balance between the pull of our souls and that of our egos using the spiritual powers bestowed upon us by our Lord.

Sometimes in oriental countries one comes across people ploughing a field with a plough pulled by a camel on one side and a donkey on the other. That is no good; it is cruel, for one is too tall and the other is too short. They cannot work together.  Instead of being cruel and foolish like that, we must keep a balance. We must put the soul in its rightful position, but grant the ego its rights as well.  

Since we are on a spiritual way we must concern our selves with strengthening the position of our souls which are now overpowered by our egos.  We must oppose the dictatorship of the ego’s whims until it concedes to allow the soul to grow strong;  but we must be careful  - because if we threaten to cut the ego’s share beyond what it can tolerate we are inviting it to rebel and kick us in the head.   Again we are faced with a question of balance.

            Both sides of ourselves must be satisfied because we are spiritual beings living physical lives. We are living in the world.. We must eat, we must drink, and we must marry.   These are the rights of our ego, and if we don’t feed it, it won’t carry us forward.   But when the ego seeks more than this  - to graze all day and go nowhere  (except when the she-ass appears at which time it lurches headlong forwards) -  our souls must object saying  “No.  Look here –I have some rights that you must recognise.” 

 If we can bring the two sides to agree to respect each other we may strike the balance required for our purposes.  Then the soul can proceed to the goal along the way it knows very well, and the ego, allowed the concessions needs to be able to do its job,  will be alongside to help it accomplish the journey.    That way all can proceed smoothly.

            What we have just described is by means an unfamiliar reality. We are all living under the same conditions. We all have higher and lower selves, and anyone who hopes to make progress in their spiritual life must recognise the need to exercise firm self control.  …        Don’t let your situation get so out of hand that some one else needs to step in and keep you under control.   If a person can take precaution that may prevent disease is it right for them to ignore those precautions, let themselves become ill and they have to go to a doctor for treatment?  Does that make sense?

You must always reflect upon you inner state and the actions that proceed from it, asking yourself,  “How am I doing?”   …   Those of you desiring a method of self examination must know that it consists in your consciously making an agreement with both sides of yourself to follow certain way from morning until night that will lead you to your day’s goal.

            In the morning you must make your intention and at night, after having gone on your way all day long. you must take account of your actions.  “Am I now as I hoped to be when I made my intention in the morning?  Am I a little better that when I started out the day?  Have I reached my day’s goal or not?”  This method is a most important instrument of self examination and a pillar of our individual practice.  It is a way that bears fruit and is one by which we may keep ourselves spiritually clean.  

At the end of each day you must ask yourself,  ‘Have today’s actions been for me or against me, profit or loss.’  Eventually, if you keep doing this, you will be in a state of inner preparedness..   Then someone will press your button and you will lift off to journey in you soul-space.

Everyone has such a private universe.  When you look inward you may find yourself alone with the world of yourself, in your self.  No one else may enter that universe.  There the soul’s realities are firmly established in a universe wider than the whole of material creation.  When you have faithfully practiced this method of self-examination the spiritual technician will be aware of your readiness and you will be launched through your universe. Then you will no longer be a prisoner on this planet.

            People may live amidst the hustle and bustle of high pressure city life for a certain length of time but at last they find themselves at their wits’ end and must escape to the wide open spaces.  But the greatest of all expanses is in ourselves  - in that universe you may find real freedom.    Don’t concern yourself so much with attaining freedom from the control of such and such people or government.

You will never be free until you take the inner control of yourself into your own hands.

 

(from Pink Pearls  pp6-14 abridged)