THE SOVEREIGN SOUL:
SUFISM: A PATH FOR TODAY

By Phillip Gowins


PREFACE

By Abi-Ru Shirzan (Debra Bunch Ghosh)



Sufis tend to emphasize that, as a form of communication, words are too limited to have great value. Even Rumi, the prolific poet, whose 30,000 verses top American bestseller lists 750 years after his death, scoffed at the ability of words to convey "that Reality." A Sufi book, then, is something of a paradox. It is a collection of words about something that cannot be conveyed in words. Phillip Gowins, in this insightful personal narrative, acknowledges as much, more than once.

Why read it, then? Rumi, asked a similar question, replied, "Words set you searching. They are not the objects of your quest...Words are like glimpsing movement far in the distance. You start in that direction to see better." And so, in reading the words that follow, you set your feet on a trail.

Just the act of picking up this book and glancing at it suggests that you are a seeker. You may have been intrigued by its title and wanted to know more. You may even have heard about Sufis and wondered who they are.

Like so much else encountered on the Sufi Path, the word Sufi itself is mysterious in its origin and manifold in its meanings. Some are convinced that the word has its origins in the Arabic term for the coarse woolen cloaks that early seekers wore; others insist that it comes from the Arabic word for the verandas where those closest to Mohammad fervently prayed. Another derivation suggests a common ancestry with the Greek sophia, or wisdom. Many prefer to look to saaf, or purity to explain the name. For Sufis, however, such debates are of only mild interest. It is being that captivates their attention.

The automatic and unthinking response of many scholars is to categorize Sufis as Islamic mystics. Like many "definitions" connected with the Sufi Path, this one has elements of truth, yet is not completely true. For many centuries, Sufis—or, as they are alternately known, dervishes—have found the warmest welcome in countries and areas that have embraced Islam, as a quick glance at the names of Sufi teachers and saints demonstrates. While many Sufis are devout, observant, and orthodox Muslims, however, many others are less orthodox, and many others are adherents of other religions. Sufis frequently point out that, although the name "Sufi" is associated with the followers of the Prophet Mohammad, spiritual seekers known by other names both predated him and greeted him once he arrived. The Sufi Way is not a religion or a component of a religion but the heart of all religions and spiritualities. So far is it from dogma that Sufi teachers often express their discomfort with the term "Sufism," which suggests a rigid and fixed doctrine.

It is also very common for Sufi teachers to spend considerable time and energy explaining other things that the Sufi Path is NOT. In different ways, the masters all emphasize that Sufis offer no one-size-fits-all philosophy, no shalt and shalt-not commandments, no guarantees, and no clearly delineated goal. As The Sovereign Soul demonstrates, progress on the Path demands a constellation of qualities—commitment, authenticity, patience, surrender, love, and yearning, among others—but the evocation and balance of these characteristics is unique for each individual.

Because there is no equivalent of a catechism or a creed for Sufis, teachers are essential. The very presence of a teacher helps a student progress spiritually and much teaching is transmitted nonverbally. Because teachers are channels for divine light, initiates of Sufi orders preserve knowledge of the silsila, or chain of transmission from one teacher to the next. The silsila can be likened to an electrical cord that carries the charge from the source of power to a particular lamp. Because Sufis adapt to conditions and populations that vary and change, however, there are many groups, or orders, of Sufis. Orders have originated in many locales and are found all over the world; in the United States there are branches of more than a dozen Sufi Orders. Each order has its own "personality" and flavor, coming as it does from a particular place and the interpretations of individual teachers. Just as each lamp in a house can appear different and shed light in its own way, though, each order draws on the one source of power acknowledged by all Sufis: Divine Love. A Sufi may be affiliated with the Naqshbandi Order, or the Ni'amatullah, Mevlevi, Qadiri, Rifa'i, Bektashi, Tijani, Shadhili, or one of many others. The distinctions among Sufis are considered much significant than their similarities.

The author of the present book is part of the Sufi Order International, a Chisti branch of the Sufi Path. The silsila of this order, like those of all genuine Sufi orders, begins with the Divine One, followed by the Angel Jibra'il, or Gabriel, and then the Prophet Mohammad and the blessed Ali. It proceeds to a thirteenth-century Syrian saint who initiated Afghanis in the Sufi Way and from there to a series of saints who migrated to Gujurat, India and taught there for hundreds of years.

In 1910, an initiate of this order, under instructions from his own spiritual teacher, brought the Sufi Message to the West. Hazrat Inayat Khan thus began great spiritual awakening and transformation of those who heard him speak and read his writings. In the span of only 17 years, Pir-o-Murshid (Leader and Teacher) Hazrat (Holy Presence) Inayat Khan begin the Sufi Movement in North America and Europe. A gifted and celebrated master of Indian classical music, he sacrificed his composing and performing to teach tolerance, love, unity, and consciousness. Upon his early death, his son Pir Vilayat Khan succeeded him. In 2000, Hazrat Inayat Khan's grandson, Pir Zia Inayat Khan, assumed leadership of the Sufi Order. These are the teachers of whom Phillip Gowins writes. His many years of close communion with Pir Vilayat and his decades of teaching and leadership enable him to write from experience and first-hand knowledge about tasawwuf, the Sufi Path.

The way in which he writes is identifiably Sufi. Like Rumi's Masnavi and Sa'adi's Gulistan (and many other Sufi works), this book appears to have very little pattern. On the surface, it seems to be a fascinating tangle of anecdotes, autobiography, philosophy, practices, references, reflections, musings, and meanderings. A casual reader might find the organization oddly elastic, or even suspect that there is very little organization at all.

The casual reader would be mistaken. As Sufis constantly remind us, there's a lot going on below, above, and beyond the surface. There is a jazzy rhythm to this writing that echoes the unpredictable syncopation of life itself. Our attention seems to be drawn first here, to a memory of a Guide, then here, to a recollection of a student's frustrations, then there to something Pir Vilayat said on retreat. In trying to follow the apparent digressions and circular stories, we may feel that we are losing our concentration, our grip on what we are being told. We may become anxious about whether we are getting the point.

And that, of course, is precisely the point—that we can let go and surrender to a pattern that we may not easily discern, that we can give up control and linear logic and just immerse ourselves in what is given. Phillip Gowins invites us along for a ride and tells us that we don't need to drive the car, that we can admire the scenery and enjoy the journey. Like the very best storytellers, he keeps us so spellbound that we don't worry about the bumps in the road and the bends in the tale. It may be some time before we even notice that, though he sits in the driver's seat, his hands seldom grip the wheel. There is a pattern in this book—but it is not imposed by either reader or writer. It emerges.

As you begin the wonderful trip through these pages, though, you don't really need to map out where you are going. It is needless to worry about patterns or fret about what exactly a Sufi is. Just glimpse the movement far in the distance, as Rumi suggested. Let the words set you searching.



THE SOVEREIGN SOUL
Sufism: A Path for Today
By Phillip Gowins


The aim of the 1,500-year-old spiritual tradition of Sufism, it has been said, is “the elimination of all veils between man and God.” In June 2004, Sufi Master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan died peacefully at his home in Paris, France. As leader of the Sufi Order International which first brought Sufism to the West in 1910, Pir Vilayat had spent more than 40 years teaching this and other truths of Sufism to audiences in Europe, the United States and Asia.

For 25 years, Sufi teacher Phillip Gowins was able to take advantage of the many visits of Pir Vilayat to the New York region. Thus The Sovereign Soul: Sufism: A Path for Today is a homage to the Master, providing as it does an introduction to the ancient stream of wisdom embodied by Sufism—but present in other religions and humanistic philosophies as well—that Pir Vilayat was able to impart to students around the world.

The Sovereign Soul is also a description, always concrete, often humorous, of the mystical path that Phillip Gowins himself has pursued over the years. With many examples and exercises, he shows us how we can practice the spiritual life ourselves. The path he lays out is strewn with pitfalls and pleasures alike. He tells us how we can avoid the one and enjoy the other—and attain to love and self-mastery in the increasingly complex 21st century.


PHILLIP GOWINS was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1945. He has been a cabinet maker since 1980. In 1979, he met Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and shortly thereafter was inducted into the Sufi Order in the West. A teacher in that order, he runs a Sufi Center at his home in Yonkers, New York, with his wife, Majida, who is also a teacher. Her daughter and their grandchildren live with them.


New Paradigm Books. ISBN # 978-1-892138-10-1. Q.P. 6” x 9.” 240 pp. July 2006