An Expansion of Consciousness

“Today in the western world, where great emphasis is placed on the ability to think and reason in an intellectual way and where catch phrases about human rights, democracy and freedom of the individual go hand in hand with notions that science provides the only truth that can be proved, and where ideas of a Creator ruling the universe are regarded as archaic, the whole atmosphere operates in direct opposition to the promotion of disciplined mystical endeavour. Such endeavour seeks to develop the mind by taking the soul on a journey, with the aim to reach the end of the journey by returning to the Source of our creation and to operate in complete harmony as an intrinsic part of creation.

Mysticism therefore is concerned with inducing the expansion of consciousness to develop the latent possibilities within the physical body and to teach the mind in that body to lead the soul, or as some would have it, the psyche, into changing its conceptions about life through a method of experiencing and understanding experience, so that a complete transformation of a spiritual quality takes place in the way that the Source of all life has intended it to evolve.”

Sheikh Abdullah Sirr Dan al-Jamal.
20^th century  Naqshbandi Shaykh.