On the spiritual path there is an integration of the self. Your inner dialogue becomes compatible with your outer action. Your outer action becomes a portrayal of your inner dialogue, and your inner dialogue becomes a portrayal of your external actions.
Now, in this world, people sell meditations. They give you words to recite and they’re supposed to take you to a calmer quieter place. In Sufism, there are two types of meditation that I’ll speak about. One is the recitation of the names of Allah, the names of God like “ya rahman, ya rahman” which means, “The merciful, the merciful”. And, the repetition of that should set off a vibratory force within you to create vibration of what that name carries, the quality of what that name carries. So that internally, that resonance becomes part of you.
Now there’s a chicken and the egg situation here; can you be internally compassionate and externally angry, is it possible? Yet, people walk around all the time who are angry, and resentful and jealous, and they talk about the fact that they meditate. Well, the reality is that unless you have established, and let’s call it an external meditation, actions that conform to appropriate behavior externally, it’s very difficult to somehow sit still and meditate on qualities that you don’t exhibit externally. It would appear that you’re in the midst of what’s known as duplicity, or duality or hypocrisy. And, what we need to understand is that just as there is an internal meditation, there is an external meditation.
Every time you do an act of kindness it’s as if you prayed. Every time you do an act of compassion, it’s as if you meditated, because what is the act of meditation? The act of meditation is to take you to a place that is closer to reality, closer to Allah, closer to God closer to the qualities that God is.
Now if we can’t exhibit those qualities externally how are we going to obtain those qualities internally? Especially if we have a harder time recognizing what goes on inside than what goes on outside. Now, it’s easier to view what goes on outside and make a determination about it. Why? Because it’s a more sensual experience, in other words, we see it and we hear it and we’re more cognizant of it through our senses. While internally it’s just that. It’s an internal experience without an external manifestation of the experience. If it’s done right, God willing, it will become an external manifestation at some time.
But one of the things that we have to do on a regular basis, if we are serious and sincere about being on the spiritual path, is measuring the state of our external actions, measuring the state of our interactions with other people, measuring the way we are when we are amongst others. If we can’t control our public actions how can we control our internal actions?
It’s one circle, and that which manifests on the outside, is most likely, what’s going on on the inside, and that which is going on on the inside is most likely what is manifesting on the outside.
So, we need equilibrium of the inside and the outside. We need them to be in balance. We need them to be the same.
Hypocrisy means, or one of the things that it means is you don’t say what you mean. You say what you think you need to say in order to move ahead in a certain situation, in order to get what you want.
Duality is that you think you can live one life on the inside and another life on the outside. You think that the real you can be in certain places, and another you can be in certain places. And people develop different personalities for their encounters with different people. For instance; if somebody’s famous you show deference, if somebody is poor you show disdain, if somebody is able to do things for you, you should gratitude. If someone is incapable of doing things for you, you show disdain.
Is it possible that we can integrate our being so that our reactions are consistent and appropriate and fall in line with the qualities of Allah? Can we treat the beggar the same as we treat the king?
