About Spiritual Letters See "Note" Below Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. My love you, my dearest brothers and sisters. [Note: this "About Spiritual Letters" was written when the early spiritual letters were first available, back in October 2001, and provided a review of Spiritual Letters 05 through 11, which were all bundled within the Home Page for the Spiritual Letters. Since then we have started writing all of the Spiritual Letters unbundled, that is, giving each letter its own URL or Web Address, and an "About Spiritual Letter" is included with each letter. Therefore, this "About Spiritual Letter" is not intended for the newer unbundled letters but for these early bundled letters. Also, this "About Spiritual Letters" has a series of pointers to these early letters which do not work with this version of the Home Page for Spiritual Letters, which is for all of the unbundled letters, starting with Spiritual Letter 14. However, we kept this "About Spiritual Letters" in the new Home Page to give you a flavor of the start of these letters. To access these early "Spiritual Letters" and to read an "About Spiritual Letters" where these points still work, please click on the following: Home Page - Spiritual Letters (early)] Outline For This Web Page: Text For This Web Page: 1. The Purpose For Writing Spiritual Letters - back to outline The purpose for writing Spiritual Letters is to share some of letters that were written by this child at the feet of His Holiness. These letters were written by Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) to members of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, or potential members, starting in February of 1989. 2. The True Shaikh-Disciple Relationship - back to outline These letters, and especially the act of writing them in partnership with Bawa, are a beautiful introduction to the work that must be done within The True Shaikh-Disciple Relationship, if we are ever to see God again. They provided an example of how to build a personal relationship with God, by building a personal relationship with Bawa, to serve the needs of the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. 3. Learning to Live And Work At The Feet of The Shaikh - back to outline For this child, this work of living at the feet of the Shaikh, at the feet of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) started in earnest in February of 1989, when a letter was received by the Fellowship from a brother in Nigeria, Africa, asking a series of beautiful questions, and this child, in partnership with His Holiness, wrote the brother a letter, titled, "Who Are We? Who Is God? And What Is The Relationship Between Us?, which included a series of beautiful answers. Since that time, this child, in partnership with His Holiness, has authored letters to different children in the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, and recently to others. These letters have helped my life tremendiously, and hopefully, the life of others as well. 4. The Original Letter Written To The Brother In Africa - back to outline If you would like to read this original letter to the brother in Nigeria, Africa that was written in 1989, click HERE, or access it as Spiritual Letter 01 in the List of Spiritual Letters, with the title, "Who Are We? Who Is God? And What Is The Relationship Between Us And God?". 5. About Spiritual Letters 5, 6, & 7 - back to outline The more recent letters have been addressed to a much wider audiance. This started with Spiritual Letters 5, 6, and 7 which were written to the Web Site Utorials.com, which is a public forum for information on many different topics. This web site is called Tutorials for U by U. To find these three letters at the Utorials Web Site, do a search on "Good Disciple", the author of the letters, or look under the category "Life Lessons & Culture", and select the topic "Experiences". If you like, you can access there letters from here as follows: a. Spiritual Letter 7 --- The Meaning of Life b. Spiritual Letter 6 --- The Life of Deception Within Us c. Spiritual Letter 5 --- The Great Difficulty of Our Life This set of 3 Spiritual Letters (5, 6, & 7) where added to the Utorials Web Site by this child, Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler), over a period of 16 days (from October 31 to November 16, 2001),and represent a discussion about The Meaning of Life from the perspective of the life the teachings of His Holiness, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), but without specific reference to His Holiness, or the Islamic or Sufi concepts that are apparently a large part of the teachings of His Holiness, but are foreign to an American audience with little or no background in Islam, or in the Sufi traditions. 5-a. God And The Truth Cannot Be Contained In Any Religion - back to outline This exercise turned out to be a wonderful way to describe the life and teaching of His Holiness because in truth we do not need any of these things to understand His Holiness, to receive what God has given to the world for this age, and in fact these very things, these traditions and concepts of other religions, beliefs, and teachings, can prevent any real understanding from occurring. Because God and truth cannot be contained in any religion or set of concepts or boundaries of any kind, they can only be held within the grace of God, within the place within each one of us which has no form, is formless, that transcends everything, even formlessness. Therefore any attempt to use established boundaries such as the religion of Islam, or the teaching of Sufism, and any set of concepts such as those found in the religion of Islam and in the teaching of Sufism, can immediate mask the formlessness of the life and teaching of His Holiness, and the grace of God they contain. 5-b. We Must Let The Teaching of His Holiness Completely Take Over Our Life But if one goes right to the life and teaching of His Holiness, joining with it as one's own life and teaching, allowing it to completely take over one's life and teaching, and everything we currently know and understand, allowing it to live, grow, and flourish within oneself as oneself, allowing it to push out everything else, allowing it to become God's intention within us and True Man's intention within us, then it will be very valuable both to us and to everyone who has been born with us. 5-c. We Must Let God And True Man Finish What They Have Started Within Us In this way, if we allow our life to become what God and True Man are doing within us, within each Other within us, which is to reveal the Other while hiding Oneself within the Other, as the Other is being revealed, then we will become successful in our life, then our wisdom will reason over our fate. If we let God and True Man finish what they have started within us, by joining with God within us to reveal True Man within God within us, while God hides Himself within True Man within us as True Man is being revealed by God within us. And by joining with True Man within us to reveal God within True Man within us, while True Man hides Himself within God within us as God is being revealed by True Man within us. This is the true work of our life, that is already going on within us, through the efforts of God and True Man within us, that we must realize, understand, accept, and learn to join, and we must do this before we die, or it is then too late. In this way, we must realize that we are only of true value to God and True Man within us while we are alive, while we are still alive in the world, not after we have died. After we die, we become just something to judge, not someone to join. 5-d. We Must Join The Divine Work of God And True Man Within Us This is the Divine work of God and True Man within us that we must join, that we must make our work within us, our work in partnership with God and True Man within us, our work in partnership with the Truth and Light of God within us. Everything else we do, every other kind of work that we do, that we join in partnership to accomplish, is monkey work, and will only take us to hell, to the suffering of the grave and eternal hell. We must realize this without the slightest doubt, and stop doing our monkey work, the work of mind and desire. 5-e. An Example of The Apple Seed And The Apple Tree Hidden Within It Lets look at the example of an apple seed and the apple tree hidden within it to better understand this Divine work of God and True Man within us, this work of "oneness with" rather than "separation from", and see how different it is from our usually monkey work, the work of mind and desire, and our life of separation and differences living in the illusory world that we see as existing "outside" of us. This Divine work of God and True Man within us, within each Other within us, is like the work of an apple seed and apple tree, one revealing the other within it, while hiding oneself within the other as one reveals the other, and in this way, the apple seed reveals the apple tree hidden within it, while at the very same time hiding itself within the apple tree, and then within the apple. And the apple tree reveals the apple seed within it, first as a flower, then as a baby fruit, then as a mature fruit, then as an apple seed within the mature fruit, and finally as the apple seed hidden within the earth, the very same earth that it has grown in, all the while progressively hiding itself within the flower, the baby apple, the mature apple, the apple seed within the apple, and the apple seed hidden in the earth, which when it germinates, again reveals the apple tree hidden within it, and the process begins again. In this way, the earth, the apple seed, and the apple tree are one, simply three reflections of the same thing, of the One Thing, one within the other as one, one revealing the other within it, one hiding itself within the other as one reveals the other. And in this way, His Holiness, "us", and God are one, as the earth, the apple seed and the apple tree are one. Or said in a more traditional way, the Shaikh, the Disciple, and God are one, are in truth the Triple Flame of God, the Triple Flame of God happening and becoming One, becoming the Oneness of God and True Man, or we can see it as how God reveals Himself within True Man and how True Man reveals Himself within God, or how God and True Man become One, one within the other as One, One revealing the other within it as One hides oneself within the One being revealed, as an apple seed hides itself within the tree as it reveals the tree. 5-f. The True Path of God Has Nothing To Do With What We See "Outside" of Us My dearest loving brothers and sisters, it is just that simple, and it has nothing to do with the religion of Islam or the teaching of Sufism, these things have form and only exist "outside" of us, within our mind and desire, they do not contain the taste of God, these things are of the mind of separation and differences, they are not of God, they are like a painting of an apple instead of the real apple, they have no taste and cannot nourish our hunger. 5-g. Difference Between An Apple And The Painting of An Apple Please reflect on these beautiful wisdom points a little, they could save us from the suffering of the grave, and from an eternal hell, because these lifeless forms of our mind, there forms that we see as existing "outside" of us, like the physical aspects of all religions and their religious scriptures, as well as the teaching of this and that belief, are like the painting of the apple which is designed to deceive us into thinking it is real, but will never nourish our hunger for God, the hunger of our soul. In truth these images of our own mind and desire will only lead us to the angel of death and the suffering of our grave. In truth these things are the taste of hell, the taste of separation and differences for this age, not the taste of God for this age, not the taste of oneness and unity, of justice and truth, of compassion and unity for this age, and as such they will eventually lead us to an eternal hell. 5-h. Life And Teaching of His Holiness Is The Taste of God For This Age While the life and teaching of His Holiness is in truth the taste of God for this age, and our realizing, understanding, accepting, and joining with the life and teaching of His Holiness, as this, as the gift of God to the Children of God for this age, as the life and teaching of God for this age. And if we understand of ourselves as this, as the Children of God for this age, as the form of the life and teaching of God for this age, as the Light of God to the world for this age, then we will become one with them, with God and True Man within us, with the life and teaching of His Holiness, with the life and teaching of God for this age, and we will become the taste of God for this age, we will become the Light of Heaven for this age, we will become what leads the world to heaven, and to God within heaven, both here and in the hereafter, allowing us, allowing everyone living in this age, to escape both the suffering of the grave and eternal hell. My dearest loving brothers and sisters, this is the truth. Please reflect on these beautiful wisdom points a little. It is very important. 6. About Spiritual Letter 8 - back to outline Spiritual letter 8 was written over a two week period to our sister Aziza (Bitsy) Weiss, and was in response to a general letter that she had written to the same Fellowship mailing list used by this child. Her letter seemed to be in response to the general feeling of anxiety and concern experienced by all of us at the destruction of the World Trade Towers by terrorists on September 11, 2001, and the letter seemed to be a response by His Holiness to calm all of nerves, and shift our focus from the dream of our life, from the "outside" of us, to the reality of our life, to the "inside" of us. It is a beautiful letter with a great deal of subtlety, and many direct quotes from the life and teachining of His Holiness. It is a very long letter and goes into many topics. It was sent to Aziza as 7 separate letters, each with about 12 pages, making about 84 pages in all. Therefore, we have made a separate Table of Contents for Spiritual Letter 8 to allow the reader to easily navigate around the 7 separate sub-letters, and we have provided a large outline for each of the 7 sub-letters, so the reader can easily navigate around the different topics that are covered in each sub-letter. You can access the Table of Contents for Spiritual Letter 8 if you like by clicking HERE. 7. About Spiritual Letter 9 - back to outline During the month of Ramadan, 2001, around the end of November, I was watching a television program called "Booknotes" on the public channel called C-span, and they were discussing a book called, "The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition", which was very interesting. This program had been orginally recorded on February, 5th,1995, during an interview between the author of the book, a Mr. M. Stanton Evans, and Brian Lamb, the moderator for the program. A lot had happened in the world since 1995, and yet the book could not be more relevant to the world we live in today. What caught my attention was the author and the topic of Freedom, but mainly something within me that was moved by the comments of the author, especially his search and determination, and the question that he has been asking since his childhood, a question that dominated his life and produced the book they were reviewing, but a question which was never answered to his satisfaction, even with the publication of his book, the question, "But where did our freedom come from?" In the letter, we join with Mr. Evans in his search, and introduce him to some of the things that have been learned by this child over the last few years about the topic of freedom, by living at the feet of His Holiness, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased wtih Him), and offer a series of answers to his question. This letter, like the letter to Aziza (Bitsy) Weiss, is quite long, and is made up of 4 separate sub-letters, each with about 12 pages, making about 50 pages. Therefore, we have also made a separate Table of Contents for Spiritual Letter 9 to allow the reader to easily navigate around the 4 separate sub-letters, and we have provided a large outline for each of the 4 sub-letters, so the reader can easily navigate around the different topics that are covered in each sub-letter. You can access the Table of Contents for Spiritual Letter 9 if you like by clicking HERE. My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler). 8. About Spiritual Letter 10 And 11 - back to outline The last two letters were recently written to our sister Rumi, and have a very special quality to them. They are the most this child has experience not doing anything, while something of great value is being done by the child, hearing what was written as coming from the pure heart, from a place that is just starting to open within this child. For as His Holiness teaches us, "A human being who gives salaams will hear the voice of the One who is the Lord of everything, and his heart will florish with the joy of knowing the sound of Allah. Then he will see his heart open, and hear the worship of that One who is Allah." This is the experience of these last two letters from this child to our dearest sister Rumi, from my heart to her heart, within the One Heart that is our Shaikh, our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). Letters of most subtle wisdom for the children of God for this age, this age of Bawa Mkuhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), if they will but listen, and having heard, accept what they have heard, and move in that direction, the direction of the Oneness of God and True Man. May we all take heed of these beautiful words and join with His Holiness in this Divine Work of God within each of us, and put down everything else, everything that "we" are doing as separate from God, as separate from Bawa within us, viewing all of our work of separation as but an abstacle to this work of the One, of His Holiness joined in partnership with God within us, this work of the Three becoming the One. Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen. Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar. You can access these two letters to Rumi from here. The first letter is called The Sound of God and the second letter is called Another View of The Five Kalimahs End of About Spiritual Letters .................................................. |
This page was last updated on: January 4, 2007
