"This is not my body. This is the Temple of God. This is not my Heart. This is the Altar of God." - Unknown
This song suggests an adjustment to our everyday understanding of who we are. Pir Vilayat presents it as a question of with whom we identify.
"The method advocated consists in first shifting our sense of identity, for example, identifying ourselves with our subtle body, or aura, or celestial body, or Divine inheritance. Each shift in our sense of identity is accompanied by a new mode of thinking,…and triggers off a new awakening." - Pir Vilayat Khan
Our usual identity is with ourselves as body and mind, with emotions thrown in to complicate the scene. Although it is initially difficult, the process of withdrawing from this identity brings us new levels of insight, and understanding of "who we are." The healing attunement is also appropriate for us to dive deeper into this inquiry. In fact, we are asked to become a channel for Divine Healing Power in every Healing Circle we attend.
This requires us to drop our set limitations, and open up to the reality of ourselves as connected to the Source. For me, it is the whole process of healing
"Life offers opportunity to either pick up pearls and throw away pebbles, or pick up pebbles and throw away pearls." - Complete Sayings, Hazrat Inayat Khan
This suggests awakening to who we are as a vehicle of the Source, and we are asked to do that in healing. The method brought by Himayat brings an understanding of the body, which possesses and always operates on a wisdom which thrives and blossoms under our presence to it. The medical models in existence so far, also rely on, and study the bodies methods and systems of giving and regenerating life. We often take this process for granted, unless something goes wrong. The allopathic medicines we take with every prescription from the doctor comes with an understanding that it is still the body.mind, which does the healing. The homeopathic approach seems to honor the bodies processes by administering substances that act more as triggers to healing, or signals to the body of a need.
So we as healers, study the human mechanism as a temple, or a container for the most diverse and , at the same time, harmonious activities. It is the healer who is called upon to reacquaint an individual to her.himself as a perfect being. If we see a temple come through the door, rather than a separate individual, we begin a process where the patient can awaken to a place inside where they were never anything other than perfect. "You may ask: but why does a perfect being need reminding?" It is that the soul is also perfectly innocent. What ever is before it, it believes. It is impressionable. So healing, or remembering is a process of freedom from the impressions that keep one separate, or ill. One's body.mind.emotions become a true temple when there is easy access to the highest vibrations, the highest aspects of our manifested qualities.
Practices: Let us follow Pir Vilayat's lead, and withdraw our identity from ourselves as a body.mind. I find it useful to see yourself stepping back from your body. Become aware of yourself as observer of yourself as a body.mind. This observer is also connected to the more subtle aspects. So it is possible to embrace your identity as an aura. A being of light, pulsating around the body you are observing. You are drawn to the subtlety, and the freedom from limits as a more finite entity. You see how easily you react to the surroundings, as well as to your inner states. Ya Latif (the subtle), Ya Basit (expansion) you are aware of yourself as flowing through these states with great agility. As if there was not as much holding you down, and this is in fact the case with the aura. You are also drawn higher. You as an aura communicate with other realms of light, like the angelic beings, and the archangelic beings. You are drawn to finer and finer realities, until you are faced with the Light of Intelligence. Ya Nur. The uncreated light, which is behind all manifestation. It is clear, and pure, and powerful. You can identify it as your source. From this vantage point, you may look back at the identity from which you have sprung, in the body/mind. You may see the vastness that is behind this reality, and know that it will never hold you in the same way again. This is an awakening to who you are. You will always be able to access in this direction, and if you can learn to share it with others, it may constitute a healing. It is the call for a healer, Ya Nur uncreated light, Ya Munawir the lamp, to become the lamp. Those who turn their eyes to you may see a beacon, which is a call to go deeper into the light. Then Ya Nur, Ya Zahir, Ya Munawwir, to make the impulse to manifest as light more powerful. To have it pervade the fiber of your being.
So I offer this version of the Dhikr which can be used as a practice for healers, or healees. It is the traditional full Dhikr: La illaha il'la 'llah Hu, with an attunement to the healing process.
The first phase: La illaha, is a circle of the head, during which one reviews ones life in the world in its totality. Aches and pains, worries, aspirations, possessions, joys and sorrows, illnesses, etc. One's life in the limitation we all experience. No judgements, just a review. This will take a slow sweep of the head.
The second phase, il'la, is gentle dropping of the head, accompanied by a surrender of all this we just reviewed. Also, no judgements just to be able to let it all go. Not a plunge, but a surrender of the conditions in which we experience limitation.
The third phase, 'llah, is an affirmation of ourselves as a perfect soul. Always here. Raise the head slowly, affirming an identity we always possess, but easily forget. It is by this act of affirmation that we free the soul, or identities as a soul, and confirm a version of ourselves free from debilitating impressions. Awake!
The fourth phase, Hu, is the answer: A new dispensation of Divine Healing Power coming through. An opportunity to perform our deep function as an emissary from the heavens. To be a more perfect channel for the Divine Power to Heal. No judgements, just to fully experience the flow, like the sun.
We enter into an experience of ourselves as the Temple. With the doors and windows open, like entering the Mosque.
"The Sufi Cause is a temple built for this time, a temple built for the worship of the future. And some will have to be the pillars of the temple and some will have to serve in the making of the walls. And some must help the positions of the dome and minarets. In truth all this is needed; this all must be provided and supplied. By what? By the devoted hearts of the mureeds…. The more you are conscious, the more you will make the temple. Never mind if your means do not allow you, or your everyday work; never mind if your life's situation will not allow you opportunity, as long as you intend to do your best for the best…" - Hazrat Inayat Khan