Imagination versus Intellect

In essential Sufism, rather than relate to Divine qualities as characteristics of a Supreme Being separate from ourselves, such qualities are used to describe how God manifests Godself, namely through human beings.

Plato and Aristotle
For most of us, this concept is quite radical. However, the origins of these apparently conflicting apprehensions of Divinity extend back well into ancient times.
 * Aristotle's approach to God was to rely on use of rational proof, which is how we avoid the problem of abstraction. Rambam and the Alte Rebbe (founder of Chabad Hasidsim) were Aristotelian. It was the Alte Rebbe who tried to reconcile Rambam with Kabala.


 * Plato, on the other hand, sought to identify God's inherent qualities, akin to Rabbe Nachman's בחינות (roughly equivalent to 'analogies').Rebbe Nachman was a Platonist. Sufism is inherently Platonic.

The Heart: The Sufi's Subconscious
In Sufism, there are two ways to reach the heart, or the subconscious:


 * 1) Great desire - love, passion as motivators
 * 2) Intellect - ask question and narrow your focus until you reach an answer. This entails using intellect as your servant.

God, Truth, and Reality
Make God a reality in your life and God will make you the Truth - Hazrat Inayat Khan, the first revered Sufi teacher to bring Sufi teaching to the West (1920's).

I would extend this to making God the only reality, as ultimately, there is nothing else of permanence.

The content of this page was gathered at a Sohbet that took place in Jerusalem on November 13, 2006, under the leadership of Ya'qub Ibn Yusuf.