GATHA: There is a symbolical picture known in the philosophical world of China.

TASSAWUF: That is to say, "known by sages." No doubt sages of all countries have used symbology, but in china we have the most perfect records. These
records have been preserved for us in the simplest forms in the hexagrams. While the I Ching is not a part of Sufi studies, it undoubtedly belongs to universal occultism. In the new age, the wisdom of all peoples can be utilized, expounded and coalesced in the integrational fashion with other wisdoms and symbologies.

GATHA: That represents a sage with one shoe in his hand and one on his foot. It signifies the hereafter, that the change that death brings is to a wise man only the taking off of one shoe.

TASSAWUF: To the wise death and change both mean coming into a new condition. The shoe is a covering over a part of the physical body; its removal represents in this case the dispensing with the body itself. This
also appears in other symbolical pictures as the removal of a coat or cloak or any covering. In ancient times there was the "Dance of the Seven Veils." The dancer was supposed to remove those veils or garments one by one, symbolizing the removal of the vehicles of the soul until it stood bare before God or the Universe.

GATHA: The body of the philosopher in the picture represents his soul, or his person; the one shoe still on his foot represents his mind, which exists after death; and the withdrawal of the soul from the body is like
taking one foot out of the shoe.

TASSAWUF: There is a symbology in which all the parts of the human body have a symbolic meaning beyond their actual physiological function. Thus the arm might stand for power or action or forcefulness. The heart for love or wisdom or compassion or tenderness. The mind for thought, sagacity, etc.

GATHA: For the mystic, therefore, the physical body is something he can easily dispense with, and to arrive at this realization is the object of wisdom.

TASSAWUF: No doubt there are philosophical schools which consider the body as the vehicle of evil, and that as soon as man is freed from the body he is
free from sin. But the scriptures also teach that the human body is the temple of the divine spirit. It is to be used and perfected. Therefore, freedom from the body means freedom from control by the body. In what is
called the nafs ammara state, one is led by the body. In higher states of development one leads the body. No doubt there are angelic souls that act as if the body were unimportant and they do not care about it. The point of view of the mystic is slightly different. He does care about it; he lives as if the body were a family pet or servant. He is most meticulous about it, but he does not let it control him. Indeed, to arrive at the state, "Thy
body shall be full of light," one retains consciousness of the body, perfects the body, but also always leads the body and is not led by it.

GATHA: When, by philosophical understanding of life, he begins to realize his soul, then he begins to stand, so to speak, on his own feet; he is then himself and the body is to him only a cover.

TASSAWUF: We can see something of this in the above explanation.

There are three stages of effacement according to Sufi teachings: 1) fana-fi-sheikh, 2) fana-fi-Rassoul, and 3) fana-fi-Lillah.

In the first stage, one has before him some ideal in name and form, upon whose behavior patterns he can build his own ideas and actions; it is someone living, it is someone he knows.

In the second stage, one knows the name of the ideal and may have some vague idea of the form, but it is not any form he may be contacting through the senses. In this stage, however, Rassoul may be manifest if he desires before the devotee.

In fana-fi-Lillah, one is seeking effacement in that which is beyond name and form. It depends on functioning in Kashf and Mushahida. In the literature we encounter the word "shahud." All Muslims pray, "As-shadu Laillah el il Allah." If they only knew what it meant, they would have the keys to heaven and earth alike.

GATHA: The teaching of the Prophet is to die before death, which means to realize in one's lifetime what death means. This realization takes away all the fear there is.

TASSAWUF: There are many items in the Hadith to support this general teaching. The Prophet thought man should always be aware both of Allah and of death to avoid being caught by the intoxication of the moment.
Actually, the real death is this, being caught by momentary intoxication, which is nothing but delusion and vanity.

Fear can be one of the greatest obstacles of life. Those who have had to die before death, whether by loss of consciousness, or transformation after facing great obstacles or extremes and recovery or by any other type of experience, find that thereafter they are no longer subject to fear. They may not be able to explain it. Evidently there is a transformation and transmutation of nervous energy, so that this part of man's being
seems to have risen above all negativity. Of course there are ways of facing fear and of overcoming it, such as repetitions of "Allaho Akbar." But this transformatory experience is something else. It takes us out of the
bonds of limitation, it frees us, and it brings us into new vistas without necessarily involving a clear understanding of the renewed life.

GATHA: By the symbol of the shoe is shown also the nothingness of the material existence, or the smallness of the physical being, in comparison with the greatness of the soul, or the spirit.

TASSAWUF: This realization may come in part through designed practices in esotericism, such as the concentration upon the "dot and the circle", yet the shoe may be a symbol of itself. In the Hebraic Bible it is
related that God appeared before Moses saying, "Take off thy shoes for thou art on holy ground." It would appear that Moses physically took off his shoes, and this
institution has been preserved in many religions, strangely least of all in the Hebraic and Christian
religions, which in theory revere Moses the most.
There is another meaning to it. We pray, "Raise us from the denseness of the earth." God wished Moses to remove all the defilements of earth. But this
also involves the even greater defilement of the ego. It might be interpreted, "Remove thy ego for thou art in the presence of the Lord," but in all stages of fana, as explained above, the ego is removed. And one functions through the spirit consciously, unconsciously, or superconsciously.

GATHA: Hafiz says in Persian verse, "Those who realize Thee are kings of life," which means that the true kingdom of life is in the realization of the soul. The idea that one must wait until one's turn will come after many
incarnations keeps one far away from the desired goal.

TASSAWUF: Jesus Christ has said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." He said, "Come," and the people came. He did not say, "Come tomorrow." He also
said, "I come quickly;" "The son of man cometh like a thief in the night." etc. This doctrine of suddenness is also found in Buddhism. There is an unfortunate dialectical teaching that man must pass through many incarnations before he can hope for deliverance. While there may be a certain truth in it, it is based upon a
false assumption that man is and that God may be, rather than that God is and man may be. No doubt there is a cosmic evolution, just as there is a
biological evolution. We can see this in the oldest
Upanishads and beyond them even into the Vedas. We find this in the traditions and teachings of many peoples, literate and illiterate. But man is not a creature of chance; he is not so bound that he must stand in line
awaiting his turn.

GATHA: The man who is impatient to arrive at spiritual realization is to be envied.

TASSAWUF: Those who are fatalists, those who give all power to chance, are in effect either atheists or have conceived a mechanical God. The soul is ever desirous of freedom, and the efflux of the soul manifests in
those who desire to become free forever from samsara.

GATHA: As Omar Khayyam says, "Tomorrow? Why, tomorrow I may be myself with yesterday's seven thousand years." He means by this, don't bother
about the past, don't trouble about the future, but accomplish all you can just now.

TASSAWUF: Paul has said, "I die daily." We might even expand this to mean, we die hourly; we die with every breath. Indeed there is a way of dying and of being reborn with every breath and this can arise also when one becomes a master of fikar.

GATHA: Life has taken time enough to develop gradually from mineral to vegetable, from vegetable to animal, and from animal to man, and after becoming man delay is not necessary.

TASSAWUF: Biological evolution has only made its imprint since the time of Darwin. Cosmic evolution has been known or felt for many centuries. Both forms of evolution are now being offered to the world. Actually,
every time one practices a meditation, a jnana, a silence, one is somewhat transformed. He may not be aware of it, but he is changing. All schools of theoretical spiritual development present aspects of this cosmic evolution. Chance or design or purpose works more or less unconsciously until the human stage of evolution is reached. Then self-will begins to express itself. Self-will is really divine will channeled through personality and, therefore, disjunct. The power behind this will is one
power; it has one aim. But if freedom is both a means and an end, the universal energy operates as if every drop, every energy-facultative were separate. This continues until man becomes free and discovers such
separativeness was illusory.

GATHA: It is true that the whole lifetime is not sufficient for one to become what one wishes to be. Still nothing is impossible, since the soul of man is from the spirit of God; and if God can do all things why cannot man
do something?

TASSAWUF: We must not forget that we have begun here with a symbol. In the study of Symbology, geometric and archetypical symbols are presented
and explained. Their intellectual aspect are but one of many. They are and ought to be used as keys, keys which open doors, doors which open into the rooms
of palaces. The same is also true of picture symbols, only picture symbols usually have deeper connotations than the archetypical, elementary ones. Besides this, every word may be used as the basis of meditation (and
concentration). Here we must consider too the words as well as the form. Here we must picture the symbols and then use them as a scaffolding on which to improve. We have to learn to become one with the symbol. When we
have become one with the symbol, we may be realizing and no longer needing any explanation.