COMMENTARY BY: Pir Aga Mir
Sufi Elder

THE SUFI ART OF DYING 

I died as mineral and became a plant.

I died as plant and rose to animal.

I died as animal, and I became human.

Why should I fear anything?

When was I ever less by dying?

— Rumi

I come from a line of Sufi mystics that trace their lineage back to pre-Islamic times. We have kept our oral wisdom tradition intact, despite constant migration from Arabia to Egypt to Persia to India to Africa, and now as a global diaspora in hiding. There are many in my tradition who oppose the sharing of these teachings. They see them as endowments to heirs of a legacy and lineage. There is no more time for gated initiations, for sweeping up at the mosque or ashram for years before our ‘teachers’ share their knowledge. This is the time for gnosis. There is no guru and no disciple. There is no Imam and no follower. There is only co-evolution into becoming.

BRINK OF EXTINCTION

I see a species on the brink of extinction, paralyzed by fear, with no correlation between eldership and leadership. We are at a critical crossroads in our civilizational experiment. Precipice is a more apt word. Pandemics, viruses, floods, droughts and ecological destruction of biblical proportions will only continue to increase until we fundamentally change our global operating system and our internal guiding systems. 

Whatever happens, one thing is certain: as mortal beings, this incarnated journey will end for all of us, at least in the physical form. Our entire lives are a preparation for the moment we die. Here is one of my central inquiries: If our spiritual and religious practices are not expanding our circle of empathy, compassion, love and care, what is their purpose? If they are not preparing us for our physical deaths, what ends are they serving? Part of the reason that institutional religions have lost their way in this regard is that the praxis of a once-enlightened human cannot be calcified and universalized.

CONTEXTUAL BEINGS

As humans, we are contextual beings. The context of Jerusalem 2100 years ago or Mecca 1500 years ago or India 4,000 years ago, or even the Amazon 100 years ago, does not translate into a relevant code of ethics or moral philosophy in this messy, entangled world of modernity. In fact, the context of Jesus or Mohammed, may peace be upon them, could not translate from the moment they left the material realm.

As we become increasingly self-aware of our role in the greater cosmos and the animate field of this planet, as we awaken our ability to be in dialogue with consciousness itself, we open our possibilities for expansion and renewal, and perhaps, even redemption.

This is not to say that practices and traditions and aspects of culture should not be preserved and perpetuated. Rather, they should be openly shared and discussed. Key insights about death and dying have been passed on to me from my culture and I have validated them for myself through direct experience, critical thought, a subjective contemporary critical lens, and the loving embrace of the evolutionary impulse that lies within all of us. Does our spiritual practice make us better students of the impoverishment of our times? Does it allow us to be in deeper service to the transformations that are happening now? Does it connect us more deeply to the body we inhabit? Does our spiritual practice root us more profoundly to this generous planet that serves as our home and our mother?

UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS

In that spirit, I share with you some of my interpretations. I suggest you do the same. Take only what your intuition validates. Also, question which aspect of you is in judgement or rejection. Truth is a negotiation amongst many gods. Remember, whatever happens, one thing is certain: as mortal beings, this incarnated journey will end for all of us, at least in the physical form. 

Our entire life is preparation for the moment we die.

In the Sufi tradition, we believe that we have incarnated on this planet to live and die in a better way than we did last time, to right our relationships with thought-forms, deities and souls, and to continue the cosmic mystery of being, some may call this karma or dharma. The event horizon of physical death is not something we need fear. It is the culmination of all of our lessons, from this life and others. How we die is more important than how we live. We are in preparation for that ultimate moment of surrender. The Arabic word for surrender is Islam. This means live with death as our advisor, our companion and, Insha’Allah, our final lover. Reincarnation is not simply a belief. As there is a cycle of birth and death in this realm, our souls also engage in cycles of creation and re-creation. In the ancient world, this was so deeply embedded in our spiritual understanding that only the uninitiated and lost would question the universality of being-ness. In Sufism, we believe there are two primary identities: the universal identity and our individual identity. We live in a culture that undermines the former and deifies the latter. 

The aim of our spiritual practice is to transcend the subject-object duality, and journey back into our universal identity as fractal manifestations of unity consciousness, of the divine itself. This does not mean we have to lose our individual identities. Rather, they are constructs — beautiful constructs we have chosen — that provide a pathway into universal consciousness and the Cosmic Mind. In Islam, we call this Al-aql al-kulli. This is the great love affair between our temporary selves and the divine. And there is no greater aphrodisiac for the divine than humility.

None of us are free until all of us are free.

We have all chosen to incarnate in troubled times. We may describe our context as the Anthropocene, the Kali Yuga, the dark ages in the Vedic cycle, or late-stage capitalism. Regardless, it is a context that rewards short-termism, greed, psychopathy, narcissism, and extraction. We must all be good students of our culture in order to be conscientious objectors. In the dominant culture, this means being conscientious objectors to capitalism. This is the path of the mystic. Some may call that heretical, I would describe it as being contextually relevant.

RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIPS

Part of our spiritual practice is to study our cultures in order to understand the antidote logic. In our culture of capitalist modernity, to borrow Abdullah Öcalan’s phrase, (Who Is He?) the antidote, or healing aspect, is to cultivate reciprocal relationships, to live in dialogue with a living planet, to act in solidarity with all life, to beneficially empower ourselves and oppose oppression, and to live in this gift, without usury, speculation or accumulation. We know that our souls will continue coming back to this planet until we create heaven on Earth. Non-dualistically, we also understand that heaven on Earth is already here. 

I can do no better than to borrow from our siblings who wrote the Talmud:

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now. 
Love mercy, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work, 
But neither are you free to abandon it.

RINGS OF SATURN

Allah (God) is a metaphor for the universe becoming self-aware. In Sufism, we believe that as we die, we return to our creator seat within the God-head. This could be momentary before a swift return or this might be an eternity. Time as a concept appears both existent and non-existent within the overlapping, fractal nature of source-consciousness. As we enter the Calibi Yau manifolds, all of possibility will open to us. As the portal of death opens, be aware of our bodies, our pain, our grief, our attachments. Do not by-pass the felt experience and immediacy of that moment. This is the gateway we incarnated for. Acknowledge the life we have lived, and hold the vision for what we could be, for what our souls could contribute without succumbing to any false modesty. Become the rings of Saturn if that will serve.

THE DEATHLESS DEATH 

There are many ways to practice surrendering to the remembering — what we Sufis call the deathless death — from dance to long periods of isolation and silence. None is more powerful than the psychedelic experience. Especially when it occurs within a cultural context and container that understands how to hold the conscious merger with plant teachers and allies. Plants are the evolutionary elders and have symbiotically co-evolved with us. Part of the reason modern culture is so sick is that it has severed its direct connection to plant consciousness. This work also requires deep integration through a daily practice, or sadhna, as the Vedics call it. We must create our own Hadith, or life ceremony as embodied practice, as Prophet Muhammed did, may peace be upon him. We may call upon our ancestors for help in this regard. Afterall, we are the living prayer of our ancestors. Their redemption work is happening through us.

As the portal of death is opening for many souls during this time of pandemic and polycrisis, we need to be aware of our thoughts and prayers. Our cultural and personal phobia around limits, and the end of things, has created deep repression and delusion, spiritual escapism and religious dogmas; dangerous desires for artificial intelligence & singularity; fanatical fantasies for messiahs & apocalypses which then strengthen the morphogenetic field of dystopian possibility; addiction to life extension technologies; a belief in consumption as salvation; and a constant yearning for “more”.

BECOMING SELF-AWARE 

We must pull ourselves out of the entropy of victim-perpetrator syndromes and the belief that things are happening to us, rather than through us. As we know, our lives are a consequence of our prayers, and our prayers are entangled with all other prayers. Get ready to let go. As above, so below. May peace be upon us. Shukran Lillah Wal Humdu Lillah (All praise is due to Allah, the most high). We are Allah becoming self-aware.