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The IAM Cosmology
The following are some of the terms, concepts, and principles of
the Path to the Divine Heart.
The Nature of Reality
- God
- The One and Only Being, which contains all beings and
is within all beings. Every form and identity has being,
and God is the beingness of being which unites all
existence into a coherent reality. But God is also beyond
any form, concept, existence, place or time.
Part of God is knowable, and part is not.
- Self
- An instance of The One and Only Being.
The relation of Self to God
is like a ray of light to the sun.
Like a ray of light within a universe of light, this ray
of individuality may have distinguishing colors.
- Soul
- The first step in the creation of an individual being
from the entire Being. A soul is created as an act of Love
at the moment when an angel realizes there is a wish in
the Heart of God and volunteers to serve that wish.
The soul is the pure, perfect gift of the divine
Qualities appropriate for the purpose for which the soul
is designed. The soul can never be tarnished or hurt.
It cannot be separated from its source, which is within itself.
It has no need for development, being already perfect.
Its only need is to fulfill its purpose.
- Heart
- A container to reflect and then hold the pure light
of the soul. This container has a capacity, which can be
expanded practically without limit. The heart is compared to
a bowl, a lake, or an ocean, depending on its capacity.
The heart is very fragile and easily wounded, but also has
the ability to quickly heal itself. The heart has two sides,
the left which is receptive and the right which is expressive.
The function of the heart is to guide one toward one's purpose
and to create the conditions in life needed to accomplish it.
The heart is anchored in the body by the heart organ and also
the Thymus gland and the Cardiac Plexus.
At the surface of the heart is the mind and at the
depth of the heart is the Inverted Space.
- Inverted Space
- The whole contained within the part;
the universe contained within each object;
humanity contained within each person.
We naturally feel the reality of being contained within something,
the universe, or within a Being, God.
The concept of the Inverted Space is the opposite: that
every thing and the whole Being is contained within each of us.
Access to the Inverted Space is through a portal
at the depth of the heart, the Solar Plexus.
The portal is not a link "back" to the source of all being
(see Alpha),
but a link "forward" to the re-union of all being in existence
(see Omega).
The more deeply one goes into one's self, the more one discovers
a truth that is universal; this is passing into the Inverted Space.
At the depth of the lake, what appears to be separate water lilies have
a common root. A plant or animal can act both individually and as
a representative of its species. (See "ego".) The access it has to its
species, and ultimately all species, is through the Inverted Space.
- Mind
- The surface of the lake of the heart.
What appears on the mind are the ripples of the currents running
deeply through the heart, and also the ripples caused by the wind
of sensations.
The mind is a wonderful instrument, capable of answering any question
put to it, but lacking a sense of priority or direction.
The place of the mind is at the service of the heart.
The location of the mind is only partly in the brain.
Some of the mind is located in the cells surrounding the intestines and
in the heart, and every cell has memory.
- Ego
- The illusion of separateness. Using ego, a person can feel free
to act on their own, and therefor to take responsibility.
Separateness is an illusion, since no part of the divine Being can be
separate from another part nor from the whole. But this illusion,
reinforced by our sensations, is quite compelling. And it has a purpose:
to allow each being of the One Being to act on behalf of the One.
Through the development of individuality, made possible by ego,
a greater diversity is created. Diversity brings out the infinite
richness of the One Being, the way a rainbow brings out the colors
inherent in the sun's white light. But ego can also lead people to
act as if their own interest was independent of the interest of others.
When the heart is developed, the ego allows one to act individually
on behalf of God.
- The World
- A place of incredible beauty and variety that proves the wonder
of the design of the universe, as a house proves its blueprint.
What is effected in the world is anchored in reality,
distinguished from all that is only concept and potential.
The world is the last step in the process of creation that begins
with pure spirit and becomes increasingly more tangible and
material at every step.
The entire world is created from the same intention, so all of
nature and all of us are perfectly crafted for interaction,
with one's world and one's inner condition in symmetry.
A change in either causes a change in the other.
While the world is perfect the way it is, it could be improved.
Our objective is to have a greater impact on the world
than the world has upon us.
- Alpha
- The origin of the universe, a state of union, eternal
bliss and unconditional love, before individuality; heaven.
This unity can be reached by transcendent meditation that
"unrolls the wheel of becoming" [Buddha] to return to the
condition before the creation of space-time.
This is antithetical to the Path of the Heart which is forward
in direction and which values each person's contribution
to the enrichment of the whole.
- Omega
- Another state of unity, the re-union of all beings after having
become individuated. Alpha is the source; Omega is the destination;
both are states of unity.
Whereas Alpha is a condition in the creation memory of all
people, Omega is a condition that does not exist until it is created
by creatures who discover their common divinity.
The creation of Omega is our responsibility as representatives of
the divine Creator. This work requires the heart, the only
faculty that has the magnetism to draw together the strands of the
universe that have become separated.
The Path Itself
- Religion
- There is one religion: the striving for Truth, and one worship:
all that softens the heart.
The various religions of the world are not the same; each has made a
further contribution to mankind's understanding of God and the
relationship between the individual and God.
Each religion has been an instance of the one religion that
worships the heart and enlightens mankind to the one reality.
Today there are many groups that perform the function of religion
without the trappings of religion.
- Sufism
- One who searches for Truth is a Sufi whether he calls
himself that or not. [Hazrat Inayat Khan]
More formally, a Sufi is a student of a Sufi.
Discipleship with a living teacher is a key component of Sufism.
Sufism is not associated with any particular religion,
although every religion tries to claim the Sufi.
A Sufi worships with every worshipper, feeling the
effect of the ritual upon the heart.
Western Sufis have included St. Francis, Shakespeare and Walt Whitman.
The spiritual background of IAM is Sufism and IAM's founders
have had a long training in the Sufi message.
More from Hazrat Inayat Khan
- Realization
- What you know without question and act upon without hesitation.
Each person constructs an internal model of reality that represents
how things work, how people respond to one, and who one is.
From this model one forms their attitude toward themselves,
others, and God. One's realization is the basis for all one thinks,
says and does, and forms one's life. "Everyone is in their place in
life according to their realization."
Realization is developed through direct experience.
- Initiation
- A commitment to one path and one school, forming a link in the
soul that endures beyond time as a lifeline of
strength and inspiration.
In traditional schools initiation is a link to one teacher;
at IAM it is a link to a body of teachers who are themselves
linked to a network of teachers.
Traditionally, initiation is a prerequisite for access to the
school's teaching. At IAM, initiation is never required of a student,
it is only required of teachers.
As the source of all our teaching at IAM is
Hazrat Inayat Khan,
a Sufi sage who lived in the west from 1910 to 1927,
the initiation we give is primarily a link to him.
More from Hazrat Inayat Khan
- fana
- Literally, "surrender", which we interprete as coordination.
In order to act on behalf of God (see "ego" above), one needs to
see as God sees, and then allow the divine power to operate through one.
There are two preparatory stages to this:
The first stage is acting on behalf of one's teacher, which overcomes
the sense of limitation one feels in oneself and allows one to
understand and do things that otherwise would not be possible.
The second stage is acting on behalf of a great prophet, for example,
knowing exactly what
Jesus would do in a situation and doing it naturally.
Fana is surrender in the sense that one's own point-of-view and
sense of identity is eclipsed by another, through a conscious choice
and effort of contemplation.
- Hiearchy
- The natural ordering of people according to their scope of influence
and sphere of concern. For example, the one who is concerned about the
health of the country is superior to the one who is concerned about
the health of a company in that country, who is superior to the one
concerned about their own family, who is superior to one who cares
only for himself. Everyone who cares about the health and growth of
others has a place in the spiritual hierarchy.
Hierarchy is based only on the responsibility one has accepted,
not age, family, class or gender. A position cannot be given to a
person; everyone functions in the position they can hold.
- Chakras
- Reservoirs of energy in the body, of different kinds and grades of
energy. In the system of seven chakras we use at IAM, the heart is
the fourth, or middle chakra, and the key to the whole system.
The Manner of Walking this Path
- Women
"Woman, whom destiny has made to be man's superior,
by trying to become his equal, falls beneath his estimation."
[Hazrat Inayat Khan]
There are certainly no barriers to women in the Path of the Heart.
When Hazrat Inayat Khan was living he recognized several women
as having attained the senior rank, but no men.
He was married and had four children. His oldest child, Madeleine, was
a heroine in WW2, featured in the movie and book
A Man Called Intrepid, and the subject of the book Madeleine.
The President of IAM is a woman, Susanna Bair.
- Religions
- While we are eager to worship with any worshipper,
and while our own mystical experiences have given us
a strong inner comprehension of and belief in
the teachings and events described in scripture, still we are not
comfortable with the rules and dogmas of any religion
as we realize how distant they can be from the original inspiration.
People usually belong to a religion by birth, not choice, and
people seldom understand their religion.
The discovery of the heart gives one's religion real meaning and life.
Many others do not belong
to a religion and yet have found some way in which they can be
moved in their heart and paused in a state of awe.
This is also the Path of the Heart.
- Dogma
- We discourage anyone from believing what they are told, and
strongly encourage the belief in what one feels directly and
personally, in the body.
The heart has no rules, but it does have a strong sense of direction.
When one goes the way the heart is leading, one gains happiness.
- Lifestyle
- There is no lifestyle that is prescribed or prohibited in
the Path of the Heart. The heart loves diversity; only by fully
exploring one's uniqueness can one contribute something new to
humanity's understanding of itself.
We do not seek unity in uniformity, but in re-union, the
re-weaving of the strands of the One Being after having become
fully individualized.
- Money
- The Path of the Heart is a path of wealth in every sense of the
word. The Path of the Soul, in contrast, is a path of simplicity,
pure essence and non-materiality which goes well with poverty.
When the heart is opened, it becomes magnetic.
Things start to happen! Success and fulfillment follow.
- Obedience
- The lack of freedom. We seek to be obedient to the heart's wish,
and free of the mind's compulsions.
An IAM teacher will not tell you what to do,
other than how to practice listening to your heart.
- Sexuality
- Sex is as basic a human need as eating or sleeping.
With love, sex can be exquisitely beautiful.
Making use of the sexual impulse for gain over another is exploitive.
Sex with someone who is dependent or less powerful is a form of
rape. A sexual relationship between a teacher and a
student has an inherent danger of exploitation and is
contrary to the manner of our school.
- Drugs
- The human body is a powerful chemical factory with
amazing intelligence about what chemicals are needed for the
sustenance and growth of the body. Occasionally one needs to
supplement the inner factory for health reasons, so we do
use antibiotics and vitamins, for example.
We do not sanction the use of drugs for experimentation of
consciousness, as they actually limit and distort reality.
- Diet
- We recommend the kind of diet that is good for the physical
heart. Beyond that, refer to page 103 in Living from the Heart.
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