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Karas

“The last time I was born was in the land of former Assyria. As an adolescent, I served in a temple where they worshipped the Sun as the progenitor of everything. Every morning we would perform a divine service at the time when the Sun rose above the horizon.

“During these services, I assisted the priest who performed them. Yet, I did not sincerely accept this faith, nor did I try to comprehend its postulates with the mind. For Me, this faith with its rituals was a part of the daily traditions of the society where I lived.

“… But one day, something new came to the habitual daily routine of My life — it was a stranger who came to our land. He sought manuscripts containing religious — namely esoteric — knowledge. It was for the purpose of collecting such manuscripts that he traveled.

“He was received with respect. During the repast, he had a conversation with the priests. He asked questions about our faith and told about his views and about the religion practiced in the land where he came from.

“As a servant, I had an opportunity to be near the table and hear their conversation. His narration captivated Me. Unlike our priests, He was not a dogmatic person who blindly accepted the faith of the ancestors. He did not avoid confronting different views, doubting postulates, drawing his own conclusions. There was something living in his faith and in this man himself — in contrast to the priests.

“This conversation made Me sincerely interested in the knowledge and practices of the tradition described by this man. I wanted very much to follow him — to gain this knowledge. And I beseeched him to take Me as a servant with himself.

“In this way, I came to the Sufis…

“… The main thing that happened to Me on the first stage of My apprenticeship with the Sufis was opening of the spiritual heart. I began to live by the heart — and the entire world transformed for Me! My life became full of love, which I did not know before!

“For opening the spiritual heart, Sufis used a method similar to the one used by Christians-Hesychasts at that time. Abandoning all other thoughts, one had to repeat — with love for Allah — a prayer-appeal to Him to come to one’s spiritual heart. And, after some time, a feeling of increasing bliss appeared in the chest, in the anahata chakra, as a sign that Allah accepted the prayer.

“After cognizing and mastering this state, the mureed* could live in it and not just experience it during a prayer.

“Then the mureed was taught that since Allah is great — one’s love for Him must also be great.

“And if one’s love for Allah grows, from a certain moment it cannot be contained in one’s chest. And thus, quite naturally it begins to pour out, to expand beyond the chest.

“Pushing the walls of anahata from within with the hands of the consciousness was one of the helpful methods in this work. It allowed one to experience oneself, for the first time, as a heart-love of size larger than the body.

“The mureed was taught to expand with love as wide as possible: Allah is present everywhere, thus one should love Him in the entire space around!

“Expanding thus with love and living in this state, the mureed gradually lost the habit of perceiving oneself as a body.

“The mureed lived by love for Allah, and the feeling of Allah’s abiding in everything gradually replaced the feeling of the mureed’s separate ‘I’.

“And when the separate ‘I’ disappeared completely, only Allah remained.

“… But we learned not just meditation. In Sufism, there is a rule: in the process of learning, mureeds have to develop themselves along many directions, one of which is to master the craft of their sheikh. As an apprentice of My Master, I started to learn the art of carpet weaving.

“The carpets created by My Master were highly valued by the townspeople. They believed that a carpet bought in our shop brought to the house happiness and joy. Indeed, these carpets had such a magical power, because My Master created them as yantras.

“At first, I, as other apprentices, learned the carpet weaving technique itself. After that, we began to practice by reproducing the patterns created by our Master.

“I liked to stay for long periods of time in the shop and observe how He worked. For Him, carpet weaving was not just a craft: He did not weave, He created carpets! I saw how masterly He chose the color of thread out of a great variety of hues of goldish, red, light-blue… Each carpet created by Him was… a declaration of love for the Creator! It looked as if He wove love…

“I tried to imitate His work and stayed for a long time in the shop.

“… Once I noticed that the Master stood behind Me and watched how I worked. I got confused…

‘You are trying to construct love with your mind… But it lives in the heart! Kindle in your heart love for Allah — then your hands will tirelessly create beauty for the glory of Allah!’

“I heeded the Master’s advice, and love appeared on My carpets. Yet, My works were not as good as those of the Master. I asked His advice, and He replied:

‘Your carpets are good. But the true Beauty lives deeper. In the depth of the expanded spiritual heart, you will find the endless Source of the Beauty! There live the vivid colors of joy! Threads originating in the depth of a developed spiritual heart shimmer with all hues of love! Pictures, which you can find there, will bloom as living flowers and sing as spring birds on your carpet! If you do so, then Allah Himself will create Beauty through your hands for the glory of Himself!’

“From that moment on, My learning of carpet weaving went along with the mastering of meditation. Every time I created a carpet, I had to connect the hands of the consciousness with the depth which was achievable for Me — and create from that depth. And then, this depth’s Light, with which the consciousness was connected, refracted into the beauty created by the hands.

“Of course, not every apprentice became a Master. Most of them were capable of mastering only the craft of carpet weaving. The process of teaching was arranged so that not everyone could find out where the true mastery lies, what its secret is. But those who managed to solve the secret ascended to the next step, where the craft of carpet weaving turns into the art of carpet creation…”

“Excuse me, please, Karas: Your description of the methods of cognition of Allah does not seem sufficient, in my opinion. Going the path outlined by You, mureeds most likely did not find the Abode of the Creator, but crystallized the consciousnesses in that eon of the multidimensional space which was most convenient for them, most habitual for abiding in. For cognition of the Creator, one needs the methods of refinement of the consciousness and, at least, to have general ideas about the multidimensional structure of space and the methods of crossing the borders between the eons. This is necessary because the Creator is the Most Subtle of all consciousnesses!…”

“Yes, you are right. I wanted to tell about this a bit later.

“Yes, refinement of the consciousness cannot be done against the background of ‘killing’* nutrition.

“You are also absolutely right that the control of one’s own emotional states — with complete refusal of coarse emotional manifestations! — is an essential part of any spiritual progress.

“The beauty of the Creation, of our common home created by Allah, was important as well! And the attunement with this beauty, which reflects the beauty of the Creator, was practiced too.

“The students who could not encompass this were excluded from intensive learning; they were switched to another work. If they wished, they were allowed to stay at the School and perform various household duties. In Sufism, this is called a station. It can last for years. Then these students were involved again into the esoteric practices if they desired it and if it was in accordance with the Will of Allah…

“But I have not told yet about the main thing.

“My Master was a real sheikh knowing the art of educating… But there was another great moment in My life: when My Master counted Me ready, He took Me to Divine Imam…

“You developed in a different way… There was not incarnate Allah with you… You had to carve the way yourselves… Our intent in this case was to make it possible that you accumulated a comprehensive collection of spiritual knowledge…

“But it can be in another way… — when the spiritual Path is clearly shown by, as Messiah Isa* said once, a Vine — by an embodied Representative of Allah, an embodied Part of the Creator.

“…I also want to tell you about My Great Teacher — about Divine Imam.

“It was a miraculous gift of Allah: to see Him incarnated in a body!

“Love for Him Who became One with Allah has neither borders nor limits!

“I witnessed a Manifestation of Allah on the Earth! I saw a Son of the One; He wore flesh, but was not this flesh!

“I knew then that the Beloved Lord can be attained, that one can dissolve in the Almighty! I saw this manifested through the Teacher.

“It was enough for Him to touch a heart aspiring to Allah, — and it flamed up, like oil in a lamp, with fire radiating the Light of Love!

“He taught: a heart filled with Love is fathomless. And invited others to submerge into His own Fathomlessness…”

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