"I Build a Lighted House and Therein Dwell"
by a student

This talk is a consideration of the Sufi perspective on the keynote of Cancer, “I build a lighted house and therein dwell.”

Over the years I have come to believe that the Ageless Wisdom and the Sufi tradition, to which I belong, are both describing the same One Reality.  We share some keys concepts such as reincarnation, the existence of the Masters of Humanity and the understanding that the primary goal of all spiritual work is to live a life of service.  However, we do use different techniques to achieve conscious alignment and cooperation with this One Reality and different words to describe it.  By looking at the keynote of Cancer from the Sufi perspective I hope to give you a small taste of the Sufi way of experiencing the path.

I build a lighted house, and therein dwell.  Upon reflecting on this statement, the very first question that comes to mind is: “Who is the speaker here?”  Who is the “I” that builds the lighted house?  From the Sufi point of view there are not many options.  We believe that in all the universe there are only two, The Lover and The Beloved.  The Sufi way of thinking would lead us to surmise that the speaker in this case is the Beloved Himself, that One, Unnamable Reality, which we also refer to as God.  It would not make sense to the Sufi to think that the keynote refers to the Lover.  The Lover can refer to anything in Creation, as the Sufis envision every atom in constant remembrance of their Creator, the Beloved.  Usually, in the context of spiritual teachings the Lover refers to the spiritual seeker herself.

One of the basic goals of the Sufis is to bridge the duality of Lover & Beloved by removing the “I,” the ego which limits our experience.  A great eighth century woman Sufi saint, Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya, used to pray, “Oh Lord, please, please remove this ‘It is I’ that stands between us.”  For the Sufi the task is to tame the ego (or in the case of the great saints to annihilate it completely) so the Beloved can be experienced directly and consciously. We refer to this process as learning how to surrender.

The Sufi process of taming the ego is referred to in the Ageless Wisdom as the process of purifying the personality.  Both our traditions speak about the need to still one’s emotional nature.  For the Sufi this work is done by deliberately invoking intense feelings of longing in order to burn away all other desires.  We are asked to see the Beloved at all times, in all things and this constant remembrance serves to increase our longing for Union.

Our traditions also speak about the need to remove any psychological blocks from the mind of the seeker.  In my particular Sufi tradition we do a lot of dream-work to identify our personal issues and to train ourselves to think symbolically.  We reflect on paradoxical phrases and teaching stories to vanquish our mental resistance.  Sufis also rely on life to create exactly the problems and challenges needed to work through our issues.  Whether it is a difficult love life, financial or family problems, life is usually very good about sending us just the problems we need to keep our egos in check and remove this “It is I.” 

The keynote states that this “I” is a builder.  Again this can’t refer to the spiritual seeker.  It is said that the only thing that belongs to the Sufi is that which cannot be lost in a shipwreck.  This doesn’t leave very much.  Sufis are not builders.  The entire manifested universe is an expression of our Beloved, the One Creator, the Sustainer of all that exists.

The keynote also refers to a house or dwelling.  This can’t refer to the spiritual seeker either.  Sufis are often described as travelers for we are asked to “be like a traveler for this is not home.”  For Sufis the world of creation is a place through which we are passing.  We strive to become homeless, attached to no place, no identity, serving from wherever we find ourselves in whatever way is asked of us until we are asked to move on.

The keynote mentions that this house is lighted.  The subject of light is vast in Sufi literature. The great Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi beautifully evokes the feeling-quality Sufis associate with Divine Light in his poetry:

Oh daylight rise! Atoms are dancing,
Souls, lost in ecstasy, are dancing.
I'll whisper in your ear where the dance will take you.
All atoms in the air, in the desert,
They are all like madmen,
each atom, happy or miserable,
Is Passionate for the Sun of which
nothing can be said. (1)

God illuminates the very atoms of creation with his light.  But the light of the Sun, God’s own light is too immense to contemplate.  For this aspect we can look to the famous verse from the Quran, “The Light Verse,” which inspires much Sufi thinking on the tremendous subject of Divine Light. 

Allah is the Light
Of the heavens and the earth,
The parable of His Light
Is as if there were a Niche
And within it a Lamp:
The lamp enclosed in Glass:The glass as it were,
A brilliant star:
Lit from a blessed Tree,
An Olive, neither of the East
Nor of the West,
Whose Oil is well-nigh luminous,
Though fire scare touched it:
Light Upon Light!
Allah doth guide
Whom He will
To His Light… (2)

And this brings us to the one possible way that we might view tonight’s keynote as referring to the Lover or spiritual seeker.  The olive that kindles the light of the lamp is the life of the seeker herself. (3)  The fruit of the tree of our own life is the revelation of the light within our own hearts.  All lights, however bright or dim, are waves in the One ocean of Divine Light, separate but never apart.  I build a lighted house and therein dwell.  God has created us and dwells within our hearts.  Once we have surrendered and emptied of the limited ego, we can become conscious that a spark of this one light exists within ourselves.  While we are aware of being separate, we can finally penetrate the mystery that separation is only an illusion and Oneness is all that exists.

In today’s reading from Esoteric Astrology, I was delighted to come across a section in which the Tibetan says:

“The entire theme of the zodiac can be approached from the angle of light and its unfolding and increasing radiance and of the gradual demonstration in what I have called elsewhere, “the glory of the One.”” (4)

This is language that resonates deeply within the heart of the Sufi, at least it resonates in my heart.  “I build a lighted house and therein dwell”--to think that all our lifetimes of experiences–good and bad–are opportunities to experience the glory of the One as it unfolds in manifest creation. For the Sufi, God dwells in you and as you. 

I will leave you with a quote from an eleventh century Sufi Sharafuddin Maneri that captures the Sufi’s inner state of being:

"When, however, the Light of God comes into view without the veil of the soul or heart, it becomes perfectly clear. There is no color, quality, limit, comparison, or contrast to it. It itself is the stability and firm support of all existing beings.  Here there remains neither rising nor setting; right nor left; height nor depth; space nor time; near nor far; day nor night; neither earth nor world nor heaven itself.  Here the pen breaks; the tongue is tied; the intellect sinks into the pit of nothingness, understanding and knowledge are lost in the wilderness of amazement." (5)

May we all be amazed.

(1) Rumi (unknown source)

(2) Quran 24:35, translation from, Light of Oneness, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, 2003, Golden Sufi Center

(3) ibid

(4) Esoteric Astrology, Alice Bailey, 1951, Lucis Publishing Co.

(5) Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters, Translated by Paul Jackson, 1980, Paulist Press