Healing Your Space

Healing Your Space
an electronic class with Ramana Smallen

Part One

Nayaz
Beloved Lord, almighty God
Through the rays of the Sun
Through the waves of the Air
Through the all-pervading Life in Space,
Purify, and revivify me, and I pray,
Heal my body, heart and Soul. Amen

This topic comes as a result of a moment of realization regarding our busy, overextended, highly charged and competitive lives. As we go through our day, we are continually bombarded with influences. Most of them are the bits of news from the media, particularly regarding the suffering of the various segments of humanity, as well as the advance of the scientific and mechanistic age in which we live. We find this bombardment takes it's toll, and spreads its influence in our life, as it creeps into our homes and among our families. The influence is felt, consciously or not in our immediate space, the walls we call home, the street we live on, the neighbors we see daily, and the members of our family. As the main attunement in the Sufi Healing Order is harmony, the main influence we feel around us is anything but. I have seen, as a result, I believe, of the Sep. 11 attack, a wounded silence in the Healing Forum, which followed a period of discovery and opening of the heart by many who learned that one could connect deeply, even on the computer. The question arises as to what we can do about this influence. Can we use the teachings given over many years to work with out immediate and distant surroundings to move in the direction of that main attunement, harmony? First, let us consider what is space. I am reminded of Pir Vilayat's reference, over the years, of the difference between the view of the worm, and the eagle. It is the same relative location, but a far different vantage point.

"Space is within the body as well as around it; in other words, the body is in the space and the space is in the body. This being the case, the sound of the abstract is always going on within, around and about man. Man does not hear it as a rule, because his consciousness is entirely centered in his material existence. Man becomes so absorbed in his experiences in the external word through the medium of the physical body that space, with all it's wonders of light and sound, appears to him blank." - Hazrat Inayat Khan; The Mysticism of sound: Abstract Sound

So this crowded life I referred to earlier has the effect of crowding our full experience of the space around and within us.

"...But what is space? Space is that which accommodates. The mind is a space also, a space which is wider than the world. Our eye is a space too; and as the mind does not mean the brain, so the space in the eyes of our body is not the only space; behind it is another space, which is connected with it. And when this idea becomes clear to man, that there is another space, different from this outer space which already accommodates so much, then the vision of the heavens is opened before him. When a Chinese philosopher was asked what the soul is like, he answered that it is like the pupil of the eye, which is so small and yet accommodates so much" - Hazrat Inayat Khan; Alchemy of Happiness/ Man, the master of his destiny

This requires a shift in perspective, possibly brought by a slight change in rhythm. It means to take a little time to consider what one thinks, hears and sees in a new light.

Practice:

1. The first clear night, lie down outside on your back and have someone read the following to you:

"There are 250 billion stars in the Milky Way. ...The galaxy we live in. If I were to ship off from one edge of it travelling at 700 million miles an hour (the speed of light), it would take me 144,000 years to get to the other side! ...There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies out there beyond our tiny planet. ...The swiftest object we humans have created is a spacecraft called pioneer 10, launched from earth way back in 1972. About twelve years ago it departed the solar system, zipping along at twenty five miles a second, Pioneer 10 now finds itself sailing through a vast vacancy, as solitary as a clam. Even traveling at 90,000 miles an hour, it is moving 7,500 times slower than the speed of light! The nearest star to Earth, other than our own sun, is Proxima Centauri, 4.3 light years away. It will take Pioneer 10 32,000 years to get there. 15 billion years to reach the next galaxy. 15 billion years is the current estimated age of the universe. Everything that has ever happened, from the big bang to your last meal, from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the rise of alien civilizations in star systems we don't even know about-everything has happened in those 15 billion years." - William Shatner; I'm Working on That; 2002

2. Sit in silence for thirty minutes, in a quiet place.

3. Go to a mountain or any high place and look around, a long time.

4. Do the same at the seashore.

5. After any of these four, write down your experience, and report back here.

Part Two

Impressions

We are, at some level, experiencing life as a series of impressions. Some we agree to and some we do not. Some are deeply held and require great effort and persistence to work with, and some are fleeting, and easily released. There is the impact of society's ills, the impact of the clash between cultures and the effect of ignorance as it culminates in religious wars, and the impact of our inheritance from both our biological parents, and all those standing behind them, and our spiritual inheritance, i.e., the teachings of The Message.

"Every experience we have through any of the five senses is an impression upon our mind. A word spoken by ourselves or heard from another, an action done by ourselves or done by another in our presence, becomes an impression. Its constancy depends upon the state of response on our part, also on the holding of that impression intentionally. There are some impressions which act to the benefit of ourselves or of another, and there are some impressions which act to the disadvantage of ourselves and of another.

Therefore the Sufi seeks the good will of another, worthy or unworthy, and avoids at any cost, at any sacrifice, the ill will of another. The former falls as the shower of bliss, the latter rises as the blaze of the fire. Concentration is, therefore, meant to enable us to hold any impression we may desire and to forget any undesirable impression, which, with the average person abides, making the heart its abode." - Hazrat Inayat Khan; Githa 1, Concentration

How does this impact on our space? It is part of the substance of it. It is the basis of our spiritual practice.

Let me tell you a story about an experience I had several years ago. This was what I call a vision that occurred in a very special circumstance; the first Sufi Camp in Israel in the seventies held in Latrun, overlooking the Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem Road. One morning some of us; Zalman Shachter included went across the road to the Trappist Monastery to catch Mass. We missed it, but the monks reluctantly allowed us into the balcony above the chapel. We decided to do our individual practices there. As I watched the solemn goings on below, my view rested upon a large statue of Mary holding the Christ Child. At that moment things rapidly changed for me, in the speed of blinks of the eye. First the statue grew larger and larger until there was nothing left in all creation but that statue. Then came a realization that I was still there viewing this experience. With that realization came the next piece...a red beam of light coming from the statue to me. When it reached me I felt the impact as total, complete knowledge of me, like Muhasibi times three. Then the realization came that this knowledge came with complete and total LOVE of all that was me. I then saw that this red beam represented the path, and that it was made of this LOVE and the destination was also made of this LOVE. With this came a new view. The beam began to grow something that looked like rocks and boulders on the path. With the realization that all the obstructions and difficulties on the path were also made of the same LOVE, the statue broke into many pieces (The Divine Mother allows herself to be shattered for the sake of her children), and the pieces fell all around me. They became the people I was with, the chapel I was in, the grounds outside, the whole of Israel, the creation (including you my dears). This has been a lot to work with, and a source of consolation and inspiration over the years. Right now it serves to illustrate that we are here to move along the path, but another part of us is already there. On one end of the continuum we are seeking the next step over the horizon, or through the next obstacle. On the other end, we are complete in our understanding, and purpose, filled with truth, light, joy, peace, and power. We use the breath, sound, light, concentration, presence, attunement to our rhythm, harmony and balance to gain mastery of what comes in and goes out. It is also the life's blood of the healer, who must come to a sense of confidence in the power of healing. I have thought of it as pride in God. If we examine impressions a little deeper, it goes far beyond the mind. I had a long-standing question answered for me a few years ago. The process still resonates with and informs me. The question: Is the soul perfect? If it is perfect (I had long been a healer focused on the experience of ecstasy associated with the soul), how does it get weak, or ill? The prayer Nayaz..."heal my body, heart and soul..." The answer: the soul is perfect... not subject to the trials of life on earth, and not subject to illness, or death. The soul is also perfectly impressionable. Otherwise, our life here would be incomplete in some way. Being impressionable, it believes what is before it. You are before it. Or the you who you think of as you. The set of experiences, and impressions, and qualities that come to make up your personality. Whatever are before it...the bills to pay, the people to relate to, and the news (not good in DC), it will hold. For many, then, the process of healing is Freedom of the Soul. Somehow relaxing the grip of these impressions on it.

Practice:

Sitting quietly, allow your mind to wander around your space. It may rest upon something in it, like the possessions you are responsible for, or don't yet have, but desire, or some other object, like food, etc. Visualize a thread running from you to the object. Depending on the strength of the pull, the thread may be quite thin and subtle, or heavy and weighty. Allow yourself to fully experience that thread and it's effects on your space. Now gently withdraw the thread from the object. This may be difficult, and require patience. It has no effect on the object, and says nothing about its or their intrinsic value, but you are withdrawing the thread representing its or their power to hold you. Watch your breath. Does it change?

Some other versions of the thread: "Imagine a wire extending to the object or thought, and experience yourself having plugged into it. Then unplug and pull the wire into your body. Imagine a rope tied with many knots around the object or thought. See the knot loosen, untie or slip apart. Pull the rope into your body. Imagine a tentacle, like an octopus's, with the suction cups attached to something. See the suction cups detach and draw back to you." Jim Gilkeson, Energy Healing p32

"Think of your attention as the way you send out your spirit and then 'call your spirit back' to you from the errands it has been on. When you see where your attention and energy are invested, say within yourself, I call my spirit back." You have the authority and power to do this." Jim Gilkeson; Energy Healing p32.

Part Three

Opening the Heart

"There is a story told in Arabia that the angels descended from Heaven to earth and cut open the breast of the Prophet; they took away something that was to be removed from there, and then the breast was made as before. It is a symbolical expression, which gives to a Sufi a key to the secret of human Life. What closes the doors of the heart is fear, confusion, depression, spite, discouragement, disappointment, and a troubled conscience; and when that is cleared away, the doors of the heart open. The opening of the breast, really speaking, is the opening of the heart. The sensation of joy is felt in the center of the breast, also the heaviness caused by depression. Therefore as long as the breast remains choked with anything, the heart remains closed. When the breast is cleared from it, the heart is open. It is the open heart which takes the reflection of all impressions coming from outside. It is the open heart, which can receive reflections from the Divine Spirit within. It is the openness of heart, again, which gives power and beauty to express oneself; and if it is closed, a man, however learned, cannot express his learning to others." Hazrat Inayat Khan, Unity of Religious Ideals, The Sufi's Conception of God

We think of the spiritual heart as being in the center of the chest. Pir Vilayat has referred to it as the center of our world representing the aura, which is part of another discussion. So we can locate a center physically that is intimately connected to another part of our being that is much larger, and has very little definition of it's borders, which are constantly changing, based on the condition of the totality of it's experience. And this aura is intimately connected to a world of light of which we are made, that is experienced as layers and levels of more and more subtle and farther reaching light. Then, there is the Boundless Heart. This is an opportunity to go beyond the descriptors used before. Himayat uses this in his training for the Raphaelite Work.

Practice: Domain of the Heart

Sitting quietly, focus your breath in the heart. Be present to the breath, and the heart, and watch for changes in both. This requires a mode of inquiry, without analysis. Just watch, without trying to explain or judge anything. As the center softens in the warmth of your presence, allow your self to be drawn there more fully. It is as though your eyes, which have been stuck in your head for so long, move in that direction as well. As this continues, you begin to feel yourself, or the place from which you view life as passing through a doorway. Passing through, you find yourself in a new space...one with no boundaries. Beyond all we have yet spoken of. You find that you fully fill this space, and that there is a sense of home here. However, there is a newness that calls you ever further. The questions to ask yourself while there/here include: Who is here experiencing this? Where is this? What do I see here? Can I see the "usual" world here? Is there anything new there?

Part Four

Absent Healing

Some things we have considered here so far also relate to absent healing. The Healing Circle is an official function of the SHO. It is the creation of a special atmosphere among healers that is conducive of healing, and is sent to a distance. The question is, how far can it go? This relates to the space we create. There are aspects to space that appear local, but are not really confined that way. In other words, in one level, we can move freely about our space, to great apparent distances, and with the grace of God, have an affect upon the atmosphere of another being who is there. In another level, there is really no distance in this space, and the being who we are praying for is right here. I have always considered this level as more authentic in the face of true healing. The level of the soul. We come together in this space and celebrate our easy connection to ourselves and ourself. In the course of the celebration, something is somehow communicated to the space of limitation in which we began the Circle.

"The mastery of Fikr helps a healer to hold the thought of the patient before his mind, and it is Fikr that helps to heal a patient from a distance. Breath, so to speak, is an electric current that can be attached anywhere; distance makes no difference. Current of breath so established puts the ethereal waves in space into motion, and according to the healer's magnetic power the space between the healer and the patient becomes rifled with a running current of healing power. There is no doubt that spiritual evolution is the first thing necessary; without this the mind power of a healer, however strong, is too feeble for the purpose." Hazrat Inayat Khan; Healing: The Application of Healing Power

Practice:

Join an ongoing healing circle, or create one of your own informally (just this once), and experience this aspect of space.

Contact the Author
February 18, 2004
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