Shaaban
Archetype: Tuareg
Shaaban is the Sufi name that I’ve received through initiation. During the life journey, I met followers of Idris Shah, Rumi, and the mystical school of Sufism of the Naqshbandi tradition in Indonesia. In this school, I learned about the Sufi tradition in great detail while not being attached to a specific order. It was surprising for me, and later I met various Sufi followers in India, who directed me away from joining one or another order. This fact shows a particular aspect of Sufism, which focuses on liberation from everything, including the idea of baraka (spiritual blessing).
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, son of Hazrat Inayat Khan, murshid Khizrayat and founder of Sufi International Order, who proposed an integrated approach to Sufism, also calls for this. Here it is interesting to mention Baba Rekseba, the representative of the Bektashi order in America, who suggested recognition of the Sufi path in a form that is understandable to the West. The same was offered by respected teacher Hazrat Azad Rasool, an Indian Sufi who unites several Sufi orders: Naqshbandi, Chishti, Qadiri, Shadhili.
I took the path of a salik, a spiritual seeker. I followed the path of knowledge and did not strive for a rank, becoming a wandering observer of all Sufi forms of teaching. Thus, my Sufi line was built by my experience of communicating with various Sufis, at meetings with murshids, at the reading of «Mesnevi» by Rumi, on the works of Attar, Saadi, Nazimi. It was the Sufi path that helped me identify my relationship to the spiritual path.
Spiritual development is sometimes a very speculative concept. Only when a person makes an effort on this path and not just follows someone or tradition it becomes deeply personal. And in my opinion, a person who didn’t comprehend the state of inner peace and harmony cannot talk about spiritual development. I think that you need to organize your body and mind to find proper orientation in your life.
Again, this is something personal and intimate, and no one has the right to require the spiritual development of another person. This idea took me away from joining the Sufi orders, which seems to create a paradox, but actually, it shows the greatness of the Sufi path. Notwithstanding the choice of a direction, a person should aim to satisfy his need for the unlimited.
Sufism allows one to operate in atheistic terms, and this contributes to the formation of the doctrine of unconditional development, where there are no external and internal contradictions. This is what I wanted to show in the book «The Bag of Sufi and the Cart of Magic». In the book, there is a story about an inevitable result of internal progress or, at worst, spiritual mania if you start you spiritual journey.
Undoubtedly, life itself becomes the principal scene of exploration and the expression of the art for the Sufi. Essential that there are no crises and crashes in it, and the anticipation of the future is mostly positive. But this is not a form of hedonism. Reversely, it is the art of love for life, when requirements for oneself are higher than for anyone else.
