Thoght plus emotion=belief

Sufism and ideology

Being based on direct experience Sufi thought resists being converted into an ideology. In ideologies, right and wrong, tolerable and intolerable, etc., become absolute categories, already known or written down. What, one wonders, would Bayazid Bistami, as an example, say ? He might possibly direct us to seek the answer in China ( cf. ” seek knowledge even if in China “).

In Lao Tsu’s terms, they, these categories or thoughts/beliefs, become the “named” way, hence not the WAY, anymore.Al Ghazali, perhaps out of caution or fears, , advised against sharing some of these experiences=knowledge with all and sundry, in whose minds, these become equated with the description in words, resulting in potentially, unhelpful, rigid categories, rather than a guide, pointing one toward the experience or, at least, a person who could guide one in the search..It must not be easy to become a Sufi ideologue, of the ” my way or the highway”type.

In order to learn this way of experiencing reality, one needs to learn how to learn ( see Idries Shah‘s volume: Learning How To Learn )).

” Those who seek, should not stop…until they find. When they find they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and they will reign over all”.( Gospel of Thomas ). It is like a therapeutic experience, leading to claiming and integrating a human potential, of the soul, or the total personality, as Dr Zaidi might, I hope, put it.

: Learning How To Learn ).