7rcTIX1xP

The Eighth Lesson: Sufiism.1271
social standing; while the term “Sufi” has been applied to a similar class of
mendicant beggars, dervishes, fanatics, and wonder-workers, infesting the
Mahommedan lands. There is a vast difference between a Hindu fakir, and a
real Yogi; and there is the same vast difference between a Persian, Egyptian,
Arabian, or Turkish fakir or dervish, and a true “Sufi.” As an old Sufi writer
once said: “He who forsakes the world is a Sufi—he whom the world forsakes
is a mendicant.” So in considering the Sufis, we must ask you to distinguish
between the true and the false, just as we once asked you to do in the case
of the Yogis, before you were familiar with the subject.
Passing on to the philosophy of the Sufis, we would say that the original
teachings did not go deeply into metaphysics or philosophical subtleties,
but contented themselves with affirming the Oneness of Reality—the
Omnipresence, and Imminence; Allness and Oneness, of God—and the fact
that he might be reached by Love and Devotion. The rest of the doctrine
was left to be developed as the sect grew and the philosophical interest
developed. Briefly, the teaching was that God was the Supreme Good. That
He was the Source of all Things. That He was Self-Existent, and Uncreated.
That the Universe was created by a reflection from, or emanation from God’s
own Being. That, therefore, He was imminent in, and permeated all Nature.
That Matter was but an appearance, being temporary and changing, and in
the nature of an illusory screen whereupon God could manifest his Universe.
That by Ecstasy and Contemplation and Meditation upon this All-Good, the
soul could and would rise to its source and be merged therein at the last.
That in the return to the Source—the All-Good—man must pass through
many incarnations, rising ever higher and higher. This was the essence of
the teachings, and the essence of that essence was that God was within
Man—that Man contained the Divine Spark within his inner nature, and that
that Inner Divinity, or Spirit, was the Real Self. Surely this was closely akin
to the Vedanta, even to its Inner Teachings. And, we feel sure, that after
reading the above paragraph, every one of our Yogi students may be able
to recognize the Sufi as his brother.