SUFISM AND SUBUD
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SUFISM AND SUBUD

As he perceived the utter confusion that prevailed for some centuries (and still prevails) in Western Esoteric circles, Guénon understood how important it was to refer to the original source of much of this material, that is, how essential it was for himself to bathe in the pure Muslim Tradition, with its profound and rich Esoterism that has been continuously disciplined by various chains of great Masters...

Unfortunately to us, this Tradition is not adequately transplanted to other cultural regions, as it organically integrates itself to Muslim lifestyle (or habitus) and is only fully operational in such a milieu. Efforts aimed at adapting Sufism to the West have been quite disastrous. On the other hand, to live this Path integrally is practically impossible for a Westerner, as it comes from a culture where contrary to the West there has not been the historical rupture between exoterism and esoterism. The honorable exception to this rule is Subud, a powerful Initiation brought to the West by the Indonesian Bapak Subuh. Contradicting Guénon's Scholastical distinction between Virtual and Real Initiation, Subud is a Real Initiation that is being offered in the present to people of all creeds. Some people think that the last historical occurrence of Subud would have been in the Sufi circles around the shaykh and Spiritual Pole (Qutb) of his time Abd al-Qadir al-Jilâni (1077-1166), in Baghdad.

Bapak Mhd. Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (1901-1987) photo: Michael Rogge

Anyway, it is essential for the Western Initiate to be able to read what these Eastern Masters left us, as they constitute an excellent example of unbroken Esoteric Orthodoxy. The legacy and the example set by this centenary Tradition could be instrumental in the intellectual and metaphysical purification of our own Tradition, if we think the latter is worth being re-operationalized... This might not be at all necessary for, contrary to the Muslim Tradition, there exists nowadays external Traditions that are far more easily adaptable to the West.

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Regarding Dante, if you read his De Vita Nuova, where he describes his meeting with Beatrice, you will easily find Sufi symbolism, just as the abbot Miguel Asín Palacios found Sufism in his Divine Comedy. After reading De Vita Nuova one is certain that Beatrice never existed in flesh, at least in the way she and the meeting with her are described, although Dante might have based himself on a real Florentine woman to elaborate his metaphor/parable.

Beatrice seems to stand for Sophia, and everything about her is permeated with a constant reference to the number 9... Suggestively, the esoteric and symbolic use of Magic Squares, where the number 9 is an essencial feature, was one of the many items that the West learned from the Arabs at that time... Some authors suggest that the Neoplatonic fraternity that both Dante and his friend Guido Cavalcanti belonged had contact with Sufism... Although such assertions are difficult to prove, there are striking similarities between Dante's specific symbolism and the writings of his close predecessor the great Andalusian Sufi Ibn Arabi...

The fraternity that Dante and Guido Cavalcanti belonged was called the Fideli D'Amore... Some Sufi circles view this group as inspired by the North African Shadhili Order of dervishes... Indeed, there is the same kind of "love" poetry and the same symbolic conventions... It seems the number 9 is a reference to the necessary initiatic degrees in order to contemplate Sophia, degrees that were symbolically spacialized in the spirit's ascention through the 9 heavens... Much like pre-Islamic Gnosis... and much like the hadiths of the Prophet's Ascention, which seem to be an Islamic transposition of these initiatic degrees (in the traditional form of a spacialized 'journey').

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The trembling of Truth. One of the gifts of the latihan, and not one of the lesser, is the recognition with all our Being when we happen to contact Truth. Our body and soul praise and tremble in unison, strong shivers that raise to Heaven and that exit through our mouths that call and praise God. It is our Inner Child that expresses himself in this way, with his pure Love for the Lord of the Worlds and who longs so much for His Glory. The flame searches for the Flame and recognizes it in the World. How hard and arid is the Exile far away from the Father of Lights.

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