{"id":6838,"date":"2020-09-04T08:16:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6838"},"modified":"2020-09-04T08:16:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:16:50","slug":"bawa-muhaiyaddeen-there-is-one-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/04\/bawa-muhaiyaddeen-there-is-one-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Bawa Muhaiyaddeen – There is One God"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is One God
\nby Bawa Muhaiyaddeen<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

There is One God.
\nHe created all beings,
\nAnd He exists beyond the beyond of religions,
\nBeyond the separations of race,
\nReligion, and philosophies.
\nHe is beyond mind, desire, and physical vision
\nHe is beyond the world, lust, torpor, and illusion.
\nGod resides in that spotlessly pure place known as the heart
\nAnd sees and knows everything.
\nHe sees each and every heart and mind and understands all things.<\/em><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Muslimnity<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

There is One God.
\nHe created all beings\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Several of the short statements of this poem can be read as rather simple, standard religious formulations. But when approached with a deeper understanding and an openness, these statements unfold to reveal profound truths\u2026<\/p>\n

That opening line, \u201cthere is One God,\u201d for example, is an important affirmation in all of the monotheistic traditions. For many, this is an assertion that their image of God is the right one, while all other ideas of God are false, especially religions that embrace a multiplicity of gods.<\/p>\n

For genuine mystics, however, the affirmation of One God is not about surface theologies. In the deepest blissful experiences of communion, the Divine is experienced as a profound, all-encompassing Unity. \u201cThere is One God\u201d is another way of saying that God is One, God is Oneness, that all things are One in the Divine Embrace. For the mystic in deepest communion, God is the living Wholeness in which all things have their being.<\/p>\n

Properly understood, \u201cThere is One God\u201d is not a sectarian war cry, it is an affirmation of the sacred unified nature of reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe created all beings,\u201d similarly can be read as a bland formulation about a creator God, but from the mystic\u2019s perspective it is a statement of observed reality. Mystics often report being flooded with a numinous light which is perceived as filling and animating all of creation. That light is recognized as the underlying strata of existence from which all beings and all things emerge. That living radiance is quite literally the source and creator of all beings.<\/p>\n

God resides in that spotlessly pure place known as the heart\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Here again we can read this line as a pretty but rather meaningless statement about some metaphorical heart \u2014 or we can settle deeply into ourselves and experience with the mystics the space of the heart, which reveals itself to be a wide-open, bliss and love-filled space in which we come to know ourselves as we truly are in profound simplicity and innocence.<\/p>\n

This is the pure space in which we see ourselves not as ourselves but in the image of the true Self, as an emanation of that Divine One.<\/p>\n

\u2026And sees and knows everything.<\/i><\/p>\n

I know that for some who worked hard to escape the rigid ideas of their religious upbringing, a statement like this can trigger negative reactions. Too many religious leaders view God as a sort of cosmic cop, always watching and ready to punish. (I am reminded of that Christmas song, \u201cYou better watch out. You better not shout. Santa Claus is coming to town. \u2026He sees you when you\u2019re sleeping. He knows when you\u2019re awake. He knows when you\u2019ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!\u201d) I hope it is obvious that this is not the nature of divine reality.<\/p>\n

What then does a statement like this really mean, that God sees and knows everything? We\u2019re not really talking about God as a source of information. What\u2019s the point of God being the heavenly Google? When mystics talk about God seeing everything or knowing everything, they are not talking about data, they are talking about gnosis. Yes, in communion, one\u2019s intuition may become highly refined and the ability to pluck surprisingly insightful pieces of information from the ether may be enhanced, but that is secondary. For many, the experience is as if one is bathing in an immense pool of Knowing itself. It is not so much the endless particles of information one sees as the living fluid that fills the spaces between all of those particles, allowing everything to interrelate and take on meaning within the universal whole. One becomes immersed not in informational knowledge so much as knowingness itself.<\/p>\n

And from this state one sees with a compassionate understanding the living web of interconnection we all share.<\/p>\n

The statement at the poems center is one of universalism and inclusion\u2013<\/p>\n

And He exists beyond the beyond of religions,
\nBeyond the separations of race,
\nReligion, and philosophies.<\/i><\/p>\n

When we overcome simplistic theological explanations and connect more directly with the divine reality, sectarianism, prejudices, and separations fall away.<\/p>\n

The universe with its kaleidoscopic diversity of expression is, beneath it all, a living Unity. All beings, all people are born from that same living Oneness. How then can we be troubled by differences in race or religion?<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Bawa Muhaiyaddeen<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A Book of God\u2019s Love<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nSong of Muhammad<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nCome to the Secret Garden: Sufi Tales of Wisdom<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nAsma\u2019Ul-Husna: The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nA Mystical Journey<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Bawa<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nBawa Muhaiyaddeen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka (1900? \u2013 1986) Timeline<\/a>
\nMuslim \/ Sufi<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was a Sufi Muslim saint from the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) at the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. He gained a reputation early on as a holy man, and many people from all faiths on the island would come to receive his teachings.<\/p>\n

In the early 1970s, he came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. There, he continued to teach a universal understanding of all religions. <\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution when the US hostage crisis arose in 1980, Time magazine interviewed him to gain a Muslim perspective on the situation. He was later interviewed in Psychology Today and several newspapers, sharing a wisdom and sense of unity that transcended religious sectarianism.<\/p>\n

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen wrote extensively on spiritual practices and religious harmony. He also wrote poetry.<\/p>\n

(Don\u2019t you just love the photograph of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen? There is something so serene in his eyes \u2014 gentle, clear-seeing, intelligent \u2014 yet also unsettlingly otherworldly, almost alien. Gazing at his picture, I almost feel I am witnessing a pure-hearted, wise extraterrestrial. Reminds me how fascinating and delightfully unexpected the spectrum of humanity can be\u2026)<\/p>\n

More poetry by Bawa Muhaiyaddeen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is One God by Bawa Muhaiyaddeen There is One God. He created all beings, And He exists beyond the beyond of religions, Beyond the separations of race, Religion, and philosophies. He is beyond mind, desire, and physical vision He is beyond the world, lust, torpor, and illusion. God resides in that spotlessly pure place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[426,353,2375,2376,2377,936,19,839],"class_list":["post-6838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-bawa-muhaiyaddeen","tag-gnosis","tag-muslim-poetr","tag-one-god","tag-sectarianism","tag-separation","tag-sufi-poetry","tag-unity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6839,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions\/6839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}