Shaykh Fadhlala Haeri

A post on the Enlightennext UK blog co-written with Carole Raphael to describe a summer evening spent in the company of a revered Muslim mystic.

We were honored to host Shaykh Fadhlala Haeri, his wife Aliya Haeri,, a Sufi master in her own right, and many of Shaykh Fadhlala’s devoted students at our London EnlightenNext Centre recently. It was an evening of rare spiritual camaraderie and joy.

Shaykh Fadhlala is a Sufi sheikh who comes from a long line of respected teachers of Islam. Born in the holy city of Karbala in Iraq, he was educated in Europe and the US and pursued a successful career as a businessman before becoming a religious teacher more than twenty years ago. Shaykh Fadhlala is the founder of the Academy of Self Knowledge, the author of many books on Islam, and spiritual guide to students living across the globe. Currently, living in the Republic of South Africa Shaykh Fadlalah is a progressive mystic and is as deeply informed by the global context and his scientific education as much as his spiritual heritage.

The evening began with an intimate dinner with the Shaykh, a few of his closet students, and EnlightenNext’s Managing Director, Finance Manager and Head of Operations. Following the meal Shaykh Fadhlala gave a talk in which he gave a brief overview of the Sufi Path, which he described as the spiritual heart of Islam.

His main theme was how to pursue an authentic life. With great warmth humour and clarity the Shaykh explained that authenticity, or the condition of being truly ourSelves, with a capital “S”, is the goal of the spiritual life. And by authenticity the Shaykh meant living from that part of ourselves which is highest—the divine within us, the light of God, the soul, or higher consciousness…whatever you want to call it, he said. That higher part is already in us, he said, and it is already enlightened.

Any virtuous attribute carried within in it an expression of divine essence, when drawn to express these qualities we become a vehicle for the infinite to express itself in the world. It is our work to turn away from that which is lower so that higher consciousness can be known and embraced.

The Shaykh sprinkled his talk with a number of metaphors. These imparted an intangible poetic quality, I thought, to what he was conveying as well as served as a tool for envisaging the breadth and absolute dimension of what he was speaking about. For example, he spoke about the “map of creation” as a way to express that life is a process and one with a definite goal. And the process, or path, has a direction, he stressed, one towards higher consciousness. “The issue is arrival,” he repeated in various ways.

He also acknowledged that we have to be aware that we are conditioned beings that our consciousness is conditioned no matter who we are and, at the same time, we are always changing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also experience the ever-present boundless dimension of consciousness. He explained that by accepting boundaries and our limitations, we will be able to transcend the lower attributes of the self. When the ego’s will is subservient to God’s will, or the authentic self, we are able to rise to higher dimensions. In a particularly beautiful turn of phrase, he said “we are already colonized… by [our] soul.”

With expert precision he identified the many pitfalls and delusions of ignorance, which shield us from progressively uncovering our sublime true nature. He also counselled us to avoid attachment, especially in spiritual matters, and to remain humble.

Thanks to the Shaykh’s spiritual transmission an extraordinary evening was conducted at the EnlightenNext Centre in an atmosphere of considerable mutual respect and warmth. A soul sharing between two dissimilar groups dedicated to the second face of God, connected and bonded by the mutual recognition of spirit being higher, through the auspices and grace of two visionary contemporary teachers. What occurred throughout the evening forged a template for an interfaith communion conducted at the deepest possible level and thereby opening up a potential for ecstatic unity to be spread amongst the diverse faith communities of the planet

I Am a Serious Man -New Film

This new and totally absorbing film by the Coen brothers is replete with their customary stylistic idiosyncrasies, gentle yet farcical humour and off beat quirky characters through which they stunningly pull off an incisive and culturally accurate film. Based on elements of their own upbringing, set in a mid west Jewish American middle class suburb in the late sixties, the narrative of the film throws up a series of unpredictable yet believable circumstances, as it depicts a tsunami of familial and personal crises that engulf its main protagonist.

The unerring precision with which the Coen’s portray this passage of history, its claustrophobic banality and simmering unspoken emotional tension, induces in the viewer a state of suspended horror even nausea, at the grating awkwardness of everything it portrays.

The area where the film scores its greatest successes lies in the riveting portrayal of a huge variety of Jewish characters played, by an assumedly all Jewish cast. These actors vividly bring to life the tensions of the time through not expressing them. This is conveyed magnificently and simply through the acutely precise body language through which each actor imparts the alienation and mute isolation of the times as well as the characters from one another. As a subtle contrast to this stifling tone, the film refers at times obliquely and at others more directly to the countercultural seismic shifts occurring outside the perimeters of this enclosed world.

Ultimately bleak, the film traces the travails of Larry Gopnick, Physics Professor as he is sideswiped by a completely unexpected separation and possible divorce, blackmailed out of the family home and cringingly patronised by his wife’s intended new husband and bribed and blackmailed by a student potentially undermining an impending offer of tenure. Understandably he descends into a state of anguish, from which not one single acquaintance is able to assuage his deepening gloom. In desperation he seeks out two of three local Rabbis only to be offered glib platitudes or meaningless obscurantism.

The film within its own parameters is a triumph of convincing pathos, humour and whilst not nostalgic, an affectionate backward look at a very a specific time and place of a cultural rite of passage.

However stepping outside the Coen brothers’ milieu and seeing through, the artistic oeuvre that they inhabit, it is possible to discern certain cultural assumptions upon which the film is based. These presuppositions pervade the fabric of the film and render the overall message and content of the film a portrayal of a lost and nihilistically bereft humanity.

Whilst perfectly capturing the emptiness and isolation of modernity, the knowing almost sneering, poking of fun at human eccentricity, the nonexistence of any sense of underlying meaning or purpose in the lives of those portrayed, guarantee this movie carries the Coen’s typical filmic emotional undertow –their pervasive signature note of human futility and purposelessness. Whilst this film is not as much overt homage to the death drive as ‘No Country for Old Men’, ‘A Serious Man’ its ultimate longer term affect is to reduce art to smug irony.

On the initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle in Tuscany July 25-August 16 2009

Seven weeks ago Andrew Cohen initiated the Discovery Cycle on the Being and Becoming retreat held amidst the outstanding beauty of the Tuscan hills.

The 'Being' part of the event was held over the first ten days where Cohen propelled participants into the perfect timeless ground of enlightenment. Using passages of his earliest work ‘Enlightenment is a Secret’ Cohen guided the most veteran meditators and the newest initiate deeper and even deeper into that nameless place where nothing ever happened and from which a problem never arose. After a day or two those attending felt an enormous magnetic field developing compelling them into letting go into the freefall of that weightless place. The field made the act of meditation increasingly natural and easeful allowing retreatants to shed layers and possibly lifetimes of habitual unconscious tension. With immense care and forensic precision in answering questions Cohen facilitated 120 delegates to encounter the mysterious wonder of enlightenment and allow it to fully permeate their experience. After ten days of total silence and immersed in that matchless perfection participants were radiating a rare quality of inner peace and stillness

Midway through the retreat it shifted gears into the 'Becoming' section, a handful of meditators left and 150 plus others arrived to take the retreat forward into hitherto uncharted waters. With his prodigious talent for creatively illustrating the dimensions of the self Cohen spoke for up to three hours at a time revealing the many subtleties and complexities inherent in the challenging task of conscious evolution. His consistent focus throughout the retreat was on the four essential elements of human experience, contrasting the authentic self the absolute positivity of the big bang in motion, with the sublime emptiness and indifference of the ground of being and then comparing these absolute dimensions with the relative and conditioned nature of the cultural as well as the personal psychological self.

Cohen’s consistently metamorphosing teaching style produced striking elucidations of both new and familiar principles. He defined ego as both best friend and worst enemy, the worst being that part of the self which is inert and violently resistant to change, the best being aligned with the culturally conditioned self that has developed over time and that which is capable of encompassing greater and greater degrees of evolutionary complexity. The core tenets of the teaching were described not as a guidance that if applied would create an improved person but kosmic laws that pulsated with their own radiant vertical enlightening energy.

In addition to these radical and illuminating discourses Cohen arranged the 250 plus people into groups of around 20-25 to meet daily and share their reflections insight and experiences on specific topics outlined by Cohen that he had raised in that morning’s talk. Each group was carefully arranged to compose of individuals with similar levels of knowledge understanding and familiarity with these Evolutionary Enlightenment teachings and were facilitated by two of Cohen’s most senior and closest students. Three or four groups were composed of individuals with little or next to no understanding and experience of evolutionary enlightenment the eleventh comprised of those with 11 -23 years, so a whole gradation of experience was represented within all the groups.

The morning teaching was followed by a group discussion in the afternoon and subsequently in the evening, all of the groups lead facilitators reported on the progress and some qualities of each group. During which Cohen took any questions offered by group members on the discussion content or group process. Remarkably every single day each group progressed step by step into deeper understanding of enlightenment and the process of intersubjective conscious development, irrespective of existing understanding or knowledge of the principles being taught. By the end of the retreat every participant was in an altered state, inspired enlivened and ecstatic and acutely conscious of the immense potential for the good of humanity and its future that this impersonal emergence represented.

In addition a small group of volunteers who had signed up for The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle Higher Development Research Project before the retreat and were assessed at the beginning and end of the retreat on a range inventories, scans and profiling instruments to gauge the impact of the retreat on these individuals. As the study will be longitudinal these scientific tests will evaluate the participants responses and conscious evolution over a significant period of time and eventually scientifically evidence and demonstrate the effectiveness of these teaching methods.

Overall, Cohen's initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle clearly demonstrated that a new utterly positive wholesome human culture can be created and/which is well within the grasp of anyone at a post modern stage of development, With little preparation or training 250 sincere individuals recognised that the future was in their hands and their creative power to affect the course of evolution was imminently achievable. It was also clear that this developmental milestone would be scaled up and made available to even larger numbers over time and as one former Buddhist observed that the retreat catalysed the turning the 'Fourth turning of the wheel'. A revolution in consciousness in culture is occurring and waiting for you to sign up!!

On the initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle in Tuscany July 25-August 16 2009

Seven weeks ago Andrew Cohen initiated the Discovery Cycle on the Being and Becoming retreat held amidst the outstanding beauty of the Tuscan hills.

The 'Being' part of the event was held over the first ten days where Cohen propelled participants into the perfect timeless ground of enlightenment. Using passages of his earliest work ‘Enlightenment is a Secret’ Cohen guided the most veteran meditators and the newest initiate deeper and even deeper into that nameless place where nothing ever happened and from which a problem never arose. After a day or two those attending felt an enormous magnetic field developing compelling them into letting go into the freefall of that weightless place. The field made the act of meditation increasingly natural and easeful allowing retreatants to shed layers and possibly lifetimes of habitual unconscious tension. With immense care and forensic precision in answering questions Cohen facilitated 120 delegates to encounter the mysterious wonder of enlightenment and allow it to fully permeate their experience. After ten days of total silence and immersed in that matchless perfection participants were radiating a rare quality of inner peace and stillness

Midway through the retreat it shifted gears into the 'Becoming' section, a handful of meditators left and 150 plus others arrived to take the retreat forward into hitherto uncharted waters. With his prodigious talent for creatively illustrating the dimensions of the self Cohen spoke for up to three hours at a time revealing the many subtleties and complexities inherent in the challenging task of conscious evolution. His consistent focus throughout the retreat was on the four essential elements of human experience, contrasting the authentic self the absolute positivity of the big bang in motion, with the sublime emptiness and indifference of the ground of being and then comparing these absolute dimensions with the relative and conditioned nature of the cultural as well as the personal psychological self.

Cohen’s consistently metamorphosing teaching style produced striking elucidations of both new and familiar principles. He defined ego as both best friend and worst enemy, the worst being that part of the self which is inert and violently resistant to change, the best being aligned with the culturally conditioned self that has developed over time and that which is capable of encompassing greater and greater degrees of evolutionary complexity. The core tenets of the teaching were described not as a guidance that if applied would create an improved person but kosmic laws that pulsated with their own radiant vertical enlightening energy.

In addition to these radical and illuminating discourses Cohen arranged the 250 plus people into groups of around 20-25 to meet daily and share their reflections insight and experiences on specific topics outlined by Cohen that he had raised in that morning’s talk. Each group was carefully arranged to compose of individuals with similar levels of knowledge understanding and familiarity with these Evolutionary Enlightenment teachings and were facilitated by two of Cohen’s most senior and closest students. Three or four groups were composed of individuals with little or next to no understanding and experience of evolutionary enlightenment the eleventh comprised of those with 11 -23 years, so a whole gradation of experience was represented within all the groups.

The morning teaching was followed by a group discussion in the afternoon and subsequently in the evening, all of the groups lead facilitators reported on the progress and some qualities of each group. During which Cohen took any questions offered by group members on the discussion content or group process. Remarkably every single day each group progressed step by step into deeper understanding of enlightenment and the process of intersubjective conscious development, irrespective of existing understanding or knowledge of the principles being taught. By the end of the retreat every participant was in an altered state, inspired enlivened and ecstatic and acutely conscious of the immense potential for the good of humanity and its future that this impersonal emergence represented.

In addition a small group of volunteers who had signed up for The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle Higher Development Research Project before the retreat and were assessed at the beginning and end of the retreat on a range inventories, scans and profiling instruments to gauge the impact of the retreat on these individuals. As the study will be longitudinal these scientific tests will evaluate the participants responses and conscious evolution over a significant period of time and eventually scientifically evidence and demonstrate the effectiveness of these teaching methods.

Overall, Cohen's initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle clearly demonstrated that a new utterly positive wholesome human culture can be created and/which is well within the grasp of anyone at a post modern stage of development, With little preparation or training 250 sincere individuals recognised that the future was in their hands and their creative power to affect the course of evolution was imminently achievable. It was also clear that this developmental milestone would be scaled up and made available to even larger numbers over time and as one former Buddhist observed that the retreat catalysed the turning the 'Fourth turning of the wheel'. A revolution in consciousness in culture is occurring and waiting for you to sign up!!