Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee portrays the awakening of the seeker to the bond of love that has existed within the human heart since the beginning of time. Drawing on sources both Sufi and Christian, he details the unfolding of this eternal love affair between the human seeker and the Divine Beloved. As it explains the tremendous importance of this mystical relationship not only to the lover but to the world, this book suggests that through the inner relationship with the Beloved the lover brings this higher consciousness into every day life and helps the world remember that it belongs to God. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a Sufi teacher specializing in the area of dreamwork. The Bond with the Beloved The Mystical Relationship of the Lover and the Beloved By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee The Golden Sufi Center Copyright © 2012 The Golden Sufi Center All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-9634574-0-0 Contents Preface, Introduction, The Shadow Side of Spiritual Life, Pregnant with God, Stages of Prayer Part One: The Birth of the Beloved, Stages of Prayer Part Two: Living in the Two Worlds, Stages of Prayer Part Three: Ecstasy, The Dhikr, Meditation, Notes, Bibliography, Index, Acknowledgments, CHAPTER 1 THE SHADOW SIDE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it. Abû Yazîd '1-Bistâmî THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD. Sufis believe in the Oneness of Being because there is nothing other than God. This quintessential truth is expressed in the shahâda, the saying "Lâ ilâha iliâ 'llâh" ("There is no god but God"). In the depths of our heart we know this, for this is the secret covenant between the Creator and His creation. We know that we are not other than God. The aim of every mystical path is to return to this primal knowledge, to know what we knew before we experienced separation from God. This truth is hidden like an embryo within us. It is the essence of consciousness. In our normal understanding, consciousness necessitates duality, the separation of subject and object. If there is no differentiation there is no consciousness. We know and identify things by their differences. Everything that has been created is distinct and individual; no two leaves are the same. But the mystic knows that consciousness has another dimension in which things are known not because they are separate, but because they are all one: "In our hall of mirrors, the map of one Face appears." The recognition of oneness within multiplicity is the recognition of the Creator manifest in the creation. It is the real purpose of consciousness, as expressed in the Qur'an, Sura 7:172, when "before creation, God called the future humanity out of the loins of the not yet created Adam, and addressed them with the words: 'Am I not your Lord?' (alastu bi-rabbikum) and they answered: 'Yes, we witness it' (balâ shahidnâ)." The witness (shâhid) is the one who sees God in everything. Paradoxically, in order to realize this state of consciousness we have to lose it. We have to experience separation from God in order to realize that we are never separate from God. The mystic is one who comes into this world with the prime purpose of rediscovering this state of union and then living it. In being born he surrenders himself to the pain of separation in order that he may come to know God more fully, may come to know God as He has revealed Himself in His creation. In His creation God has manifested both His eternal Majesty (jalâl) and His eternal Beauty (jamâl), and so allowed Himself to be known more completely. At the core of creation He has hidden an innermost secret aspect of Himself. The mystic's purpose is to discover this secret and offer it back to the Beloved. This secret cannot be told in words, but it is contained in the whole mystery of the mystic's return journey. The journey from God back to God embraces the painful process of separation. Leaving the state of uncreated oneness we come into this world and are engulfed in forgetfulness. In being born we give ourself into this unknowing, this separation from the direct knowledge of G Used Book in Good Condition