Eye of the Heart
Sufism, Time, & The Mayan Calendar
Dear friends,
Occasionally, I am asked, or I ask myself, would it be useful to have a blog dedicated to our spiritual work? But with the glut of information most people already deal with I have been reluctant to add more words. And yet, from time to time, we offer some reflections in the form of this “Eye of the Heart.” Following the Prophetic dictum, “Lord, do not make the dunya (world) my primary concern,” we have focused on the timeless wisdom of our tradition, and yet, especially since early 2007 events in our outer world have impacted everyone’s lives, spiritually, emotionally, and materially. If I choose to talk about the events and conditions of our outer life I hope it is always from a perspective that connects us with a wider, spiritual reality, and so, here goes . . .
I would like to share with you some reflections from my own research and observations about the times we are passing through--times that are energetically complex, exciting, and sometimes bewildering. Please take these reflections in the spirit in which they’re offered: that of inquiry, sharing, and trust in the ultimate Divine Order and Perfection of All. The tradition of Sufism provides a matrix to hold different visions . . . As the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, “Seek knowledge even as far as China.”
In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the year 2012, thought by some to be the end-date of the Mayan calendar, though Carl Johan Calleman, who will be referred to below, believes the end date is actually October 27th, 2011. 2012 has been sensationalized and trivialized, misunderstood and/or cynically dismissed. I believe, however, that the Mayan calendar, as it has been understood by Calleman and Jose Arguelles, among others, describes an amazing phenomenon of universal consciousness, an unfolding of increasingly more intense and accelerated periods in which consciousness within the universe undergoes something like quantum shifts. Let me try to briefly explain.
Picture all of time from the beginning of the physical universe until October, 2011 as one span of time. The first period initiated by the big bang was 16.4 billion years ago; the next period is 1/20th of that, 820 million years (the first signs of life), then another 1/20th, 41 million years (the first primates), then 2 million years (the first humans), then 102,000 years (spoken language), 5,125 (written language), 256 (industrialization), 12.8 (January 1999, the technosphere—internet, email, etc.), 260 days (?). All of these reach their completion on October 28th, 2011.
If Calleman's understanding of the Mayan system is correct, each of these time periods stack up on top of each other creating periods of greater and greater psycho-spiritual intensity. Each of the nine underworlds introduces a new quality or intensity of consciousness; each, in some sense, has as much content (information) as each previous period, though concentrated into a much shorter time span, and added to the larger period. Does this ring true in your own experience?
We moved from Vermont to California exactly at the beginning of the eighth underworld, January 1999, which was like jumping from the 19th century into the 21st. Yet, even if we had stayed in Vermont we would not have escaped the intensification of information, communication, and psycho-spiritual transformation of the last 10 years. With or without the Mayan calendar, it is obvious that time is not qualititatively the same in each of these periods, even though a digital clock would say that one hour today is quantitatively equal to one hour 16 billion years ago. Consciousness in the universe is different than it was even just 10 years ago, and the shifts seem to occur more and more quickly. A day today, in most people’s experience is not the same as a day, for instance, twenty years ago. People say things like, “There are not enough hours in the day.” Human knowledge and communication globally has been increasing exponentially.
The time-spans described by the Mayans are divided into 13 parts each, comprised of seven days and six nights in each period. Each Mayan day and night has its own quality whether it lasts for hundreds of thousands of years or a mere 20 solar days (as in the case of the final time-span of 260 days). The night we are entering on November 8th 2009, the sixth night of the penultimate period (1999-2011), which lasts until November 3rd, 2010—may be an especially complex and challenging period of time if Calleman is correct. We shall see.
What we might expect in this next “Mayan night” is a further economic downturn, the letting go of the idea that our economy will return to “business as usual,” the collapse of many forms of dominance, the collapse of illusory forms of money, and, hopefully, a new awareness of human equality, solidarity, interdependence, and focus on real values. Expect this next year to be very intense, requiring ever greater remembrance, courage, trust, and inner tranquility—qualities which must be sourced in our deepest connection to the Divine. This is where Sufism comes in. All of our spiritual wisdom, discipline, and love must come into play. Even if everything we have described so far is pure fantasy, the qualities mentioned in the previous sentence are just as important. If Calleman, Arguelles, and the Mayan Calendar actually do describe something real, the need for exercising our spiritual capacities will be even more dramatically and urgently called for.
It’s all good. And we are nothing if not Divine, Eternal Spirit. What is most real is Love. Our tradition and its teaching are more than adequate for whatever is coming to us—if we can awaken and sustain our dhikr (remembrance), our iman (faith), our taqwa (conscience).
This next year may be marked by an interesting event around July 17-18, 2010, the “Cosmic Convergence”, which may signify an important breeze of spiritual refreshment during these intense times. By chance, the second Baraka Institute retreat has been scheduled at La Casa de Maria in Santa Barbara for exactly that time (more information to come).
Here’s how Calleman describes it: Energetically speaking this time period, July 17, 2010 to November 3, 2010, is created through the overlap of the pre-Universal Underworld and the Galactic Underworld.** What this revolutionary time period most likely is going to amount to is a corresponding decrease of governmental and national authority (not that of any particular government, but governmental authority as such, something which humanity has inherited from the National Underworld). It will seriously come into question what we need governments and national borders for “when no soul shall have power (to do) aught for another.” (Quran 82:17-19) My vision for the time period from the Cosmic Convergence until the beginning of the seventh day of the Galactic Underworld is thus a total overhaul of human civilization. This then would also be a time to make choices of path individually.
One thing that is critically important is that we maintain the sacred matrix of our spiritual practice, having a clear intention to be faithful to our practice. We do see many people, especially outside our community, being overwhelmed by time, by distractions, by confusion. We need to be islands of calm and sanity at this time.
Looking beyond 2011 and the end of the Mayan calendar what kind of world reality do we see? Let’s not imagine a cosmic catastrophe, or the end of the world. Calleman describes a period when the dualities and polarities that have characterized existence during the day and night fluctuations will cease. Both Calleman and Arguelles (who has, in some sense, embraced Islam and the Qur’an, while being focused on this Mayan cosmology) refer to the Qur’anic description of the Day of Judgment, a New Earth, a Resurrection (Qiyama). Other wise mentors have suggested to us that we will enter a time when the relationship between thought and manifestation will be virtually immediate, placing an even greater responsibility upon each of us to be fastidious with every aspect of our inner and outer lives. In terms of Quantum Physics, human consciousness will have greater access to the non-dual, non-local oneness, a visible marriage between heaven and earth, or, as our mentor Mawlana Asad Ali has hinted over the years, it is time to establish The Civilization of Paradise.
Within our own Threshold community it seems we have been witnessing an intensification of our spiritual experience. It is fair to say, from the feedback we get, that every event of the last few years, from the small, intimate retreats we have had here at Casa Paloma, to the larger events at Garrison, in London, and recently in association with the Baraka Institute, each event has surpassed the one before it, shifts are being experienced--new depths and realization, deeper affection and friendship, an increasing, widening sense of community.
So. . . are we in a unique moment of human consciousness, or are we in the same situation we have always been in, with the same need to remember and trust in the Divine, with the same possibilities of realizing the Truth within ourselves? I heard a beautiful old English ballad this morning that talked about the bees gathering nectar, and I just wanted to be in that timeless meadow where nature is in order, where the human soul can take refuge. But, as we know, even the bees are challenged these days; even grand nature cannot be taken for granted or assumed as a constant. La illaha il Allah. There is really nothing to absolutely hold on to but “the rope of God,” that we might assist more and more fully in manifesting Paradise here, now.
Suppose October 2011, or December 2012 comes and goes without incident, the economy recovers, and life seems to return to “business as usual.” I propose that we are not off the hook. The mysterious journey of life still requires that we live more and more fully in this Infinite Mystery of Love, fulfilling all the possibilities for which the human heart and soul were created.
We are grateful for all that our tradition provides us with as ways in which to deepen our remembrance and guidance. Blessings upon our Pir Mevlana, our Master Muhammad, and all the Messengers and Saints, and thanks be to the Source of All, Infinitely Compassionate and Merciful.
In friendship,
Kabir
For more information on the 6th Night from Calleman:
http://www.calleman.com/content/articles/nov8_sixth_night.htm
