Nothing should stand between yourself and God. Not imams, priests, rabbis or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership. Not spiritual masters, not even your faith. Believe in your values and your rules but never lord them over others. If you keep breaking other people’s hearts, whatever religious duty you perform is no good. Stay away from all sorts of idolatry, for they will blur your vision. Let God and only God be your guide. Learn the Truth but be careful not to make a fetish out of your truths.
The claim for a direct contact between man and God is probably as old as the church and is a conflicting part of its whole story. Different religious groups have shared this claim, which has lead to uprisings, wars and splits of churches. Again and again, people realize that there should not be any institutionalized representative of the divine interfering in the direct contact with God or even worse facilitate it.
The hierarchical consciousness has invented the cone theory: God pours His wisdom into the angels which pass it on to the bishops and these to the priests, and what finally arrives at the common and unholy people, is just a fraction of the original outcome. Every step on the ladder from above to below has its own filter which takes away what is considered inappropriate for the lower laymen.
By this, people were incapacitated and stayed like that, and religions could establish themselves as instruments of authority. What people had to believe was dictated, and who dissented was handed over to the cruel elements of the power machinery. For deviant directions of faith had to be valued as direct threats for the power monopoly of the church. Discussion and development of the teaching could only happen within strictly defined borders where it hardly could blossom. Too many critical questions and reflections were forbidden.
Personalistic consciousness rebelled against such paternalism and limitation. It was considered as impertinence to state that a function in the hierarchy could help to a prerogative in wisdom. Functions are obtained by serving the needs of the power structures and stick to its rules, so an appropriate behaviour of subordination is needed. Those who bow in the right way climb the ladder to take care that bowing is done correctly by those below. So being in a function is only a sign for hierarchical intelligence and nothing else.
Yet wisdom cannot be gained in power controlled institutions. Wisdom is a wild plant which does not grow in regulated and tamed gardens. It is often explored and proclaimed by outsiders. Many prophets, saints and renovators reported about direct experiences of God, often in nature and usually in seclusion. They pointed out that God does not talk via institutions and chains of offices but that He seeks His own ways to the hearts of people. Faith does not get along with administration like a wild animal, which does not survive the cage. Faith loves risk and challenges to take risks.
So life apart and beyond institutions is harder and unsafer. Doubts are mightier as truth has to be searched and cannot only be read in a holy book or be taken over from an institutionalised preacher. And each of these searches for truth is individual, it cannot be copied from someone else’s how to make it. I do not find any role model on my way, because it is different from any other. I probably find people who give me good hints by telling me when I go array, but they cannot tell me what the next steps could be and when I have reached a goal.
On the one hand, I have to go my way on my own, on the other hand I cannot walk it alone, for I need by comrades as signposts, correctors and companions. I can easily get lost within myself by mixing my prejudices and projections with the truth. So I need the feedback of others, which they share verbally or which I get served indirectly by experiences I have difficulties to cope with.
This field of tension has the purpose that I can learn to withdraw my inclinations to generalize my experiences as this is done in the administered apparatus of truth: What is good and true for myself or for my group has to be good for all the others. Those who share my faith with me are with me, all the others are against me. Rather I recognize that my truths change, expand and refine permanently in the course of productive interactions with my co-seekers.
The internalized apparatus of power, which transforms people into fighters for faith, fanatics and bigots, collapses with the readiness to hold on to the tension between individual search and collective adjustment. Sharing and attaining power is replaced by creative and communicative growth in faith. By this, consciousness teaches itself to enter into the systemic and holistic level in order to prepare the social and individual conditions for the opening to the ultimate truths and deepest insights.
In the systemic panorama of faith, there exist many perspectives of truth and value setting, and all of them get connected with all the others. Not a single one exists independently and detached from the others, not a single one has an absolute position and not a single one stays unconsidered in the back corner. In this field, all the directions of faith can mutually learn from one another and grow in connection. Each one is appreciated in its unique feature and its special contribution. No perspective can claim a superior position over the others.
When this atmosphere is prepared, more and more people should succeed in entering the holistic level. Then they do not need any deities but are filled by the light of a free view on the innermost truth and clearest experience of God. By this, peace spreads on this planet.
The rules are taken from Elif Shafak's novel “The Forty Rules of Love” (Viking 2010). They are inspired by the Sufi tradition and worded by the autor's imagination. www.elifshafak.com
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