Another Language
Nov 01, 2024 10:36 pm
Hi there,
This week, I have invited Isabelle Legros, a long time student of Adnan Sarhan, to share her thoughts on the language of Adnan's Sufi work.
Another Language by Isabelle Legros
Michelle sent a photo of birds drinking from the little fountain that George had made near their cabin and somehow it acted as a little cascade of revelation for me about other languages and messages that reach us without words, delicately yet powerfully.
During a sufi workshop, we strive to immerse ourselves into another language with its own grammar, its passive and active modes but only one tense: the Present Tense.
It is made of two parts: the inhale and the exhale.
In the precise moment of transition, there is a deep awareness of the present. When one breathes in the outside world, it lets the exterior into our being. Breathing out, we release our own self back into the world.
This binary language expresses itself through a vocabulary of hands, arms, legs, and torso. They move with the inhale and the exhale. It has artifacts, like the veil, which catches the air and releases it. It has music that we hear fully when we are present in our breathing. There are names of God that we pray with the breathing in and out.
Something, that always struck me in Adnan’s arm movements, was the split second between the expansion (inhaling) and the retraction (exhaling) of the movement: part 1 and part 2. It was as if there was an elastic band that went as far as it could and then was forced to release itself.
The passive and active modes
You are in the active mode when you expand your lungs. When you breathe in, they grow bigger. When you breathe out you are in the passive mode. The lungs deflate and have no choice other than to empty themselves.
My intuition: both inhaling and exhaling can be active when you are still on the I will button, i.e. doing exercises with your mind directing the process.
The moment your breath becomes natural, i.e. passive, it reaches the Present. It ‘happens’ and we fall in love with our breath. The real expansion of our being happens at this moment.
Slow movement, dancing, etc are active while letting the music in is passive. Listening and sleeping are passive. Listening to the drum is passive. Whirling is a mixture of active and passive. We start with an active decision to turn and then the whirling takes over and one tries to let go. The same can be said of dancing, moving with a veil, and the slow movements of the arms. They become so passive that the next step is falling into a deep sleep and having to be woken up.
The brilliance of Adnan was his ability to transform the active into the passive.
The passive voice is different from the active because in the active voice, one is the subject of the sentence.
- I lift my arms
- UK/ Yemeni father sold his 2 daughters in Yemen
In the passive voice, there is an agent who directs our actions. We don’t have a will anymore. It is taken away.
•My arms are lifted by a power beyond my will
•My sister and I were sold by our father ( “Sold” is the title of their book)
The techniques of Adnan transform the active into passive. In the Sufi Work, the agent is God. He takes us from "the darkness of separation to the dazzling lights of the spirit."
We submit to his power and let go, feeling blessed, witnessing the miraculous inside us and outside us, blessing our existence, becoming one with humanity, with the air, with the water, with the earth.
"In this state, you can’t have a negative thought even if you try."
Pearls of enlightenment
Transcribed by Paul Reps.
From Zen Flesh, Zen Bones*
It is about the Immanent experience. It presents 112 ways to open the invisible door of consciousness.
Shiva first chanted it to his consort Devi in a language of love we have yet to learn.
18. Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as the feeling deepens into this silent harmony.
27. When in worldly activity, keep attentive between the two breaths, and so practicing, in a few days be born anew.
36. Sweet-hearted one, meditate on knowing and not knowing, existing and not existing. Then leave both aside that you may be.
39. With utmost devotion, center on the two junctions of breath and know the knower.
71. When some desire comes, consider it. Then, suddenly, quit it.
78. Oh Beloved, put your attention neither on pleasure nor pain but between these two.
Time to let go of your will, and your active involvement in life, and experience the passive voice of the moment. Join the Sufi Classes: Sunday, November 3rd, 8:00 am PST and Tuesday, November 5th at 10:30 am PST
Remember, most of the USA goes on Standard Time this Sunday. Check your time zone.
The Zoom LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88050735178?pwd=zkrVoc4Mtg0pSXtAAWmoCrHWQb2qb1.1
Don’t forget to use the password SUFI all in caps if you are asked for the password.
Be brilliant,
Dr. Michelle
Life Transformation Coach
Empowering Women to Reinvent Their Life After Loss
Secrets of Life and Death
