Peter E. Pflaum - Golden Globe - The Synergy Network
http://www.wiredbrain.net/  pflaump@cfl.rr.com

RE: Fees for Practice:

Sufi is not other worldly but promotes success in this
world. The wisdom gained in becoming a complete human and
the charisma and power released will give force to any and all
activity. (The force be with you) There is magic in "the focus"
of a free, spontaneous, intuitive mind and spirit in complete
union and beyond self. All the waste of self doubt, insecurity,
social habits, internal battles, fears of feeling and the terror
of freedom is released and every day is a peak experience and we
all become Maslow's Self-actualized transcendental person. There
is a method to educate people in this way.  The simple process is
to release psychic energy that is bottled up. The process
involves music, sounds and tones (Om-Mani-Padme-Hum- Sssuuuf and
movement, bio-energies, wake-up, focus attention, Ti Ch'i, Zen,
visualizations and meditations, all of which raise awareness and
energize the mind and body with the life force.

In the long and honored history of Sufi Schools and guides
(Teachers) there are only two rules or principles of
instruction. The first is that "evil" (practically the only
mention of evil in the literature) comes from the belief
that your ideas are reality. Sin comes from Ideology, the
worship of idols, false prophets and blind faith in bad
leaders. (People are worse than beasts, stones, or storms - which
are natural - man can fight, pretend, and ignore nature and their
inter-selves- for long enough to do real harm. )

Reality exists outside the person or culture (A priori) and has
clear existence outside our thoughts, feeling, or beliefs. Human
attitudes are based on an experience of Illusions, we only see
shadows and social conventions.  -
When we really begin to experience directly reality - it is our
relationship with that external existence that give knowledge and
truth. We can never be certain that we have not just raised our
level of illusion. A simple remaining doubt is necessary.  As
Cromwell said to Parliament "Be think ye Gentlemen you maybe
wrong." We remain arrogant and foolish. 

The second principle is the refusal to engage in a "fee for
practice" service arrangement. Sufis can not take fees. The
conflict of interest is clear. If you are making your
"living" by consulting or guiding - then you confuse your
interests and the interest of the "client".  You are the
post in the story of the drunk holding on to the lamp post - the
consultant is there more for support than illumination. Sufi
instruction is not always easy or pleasant. You may
have to confront barriers. 

Sufi methods depend on spontaneous and free response to
intuitions they have about other people. They tend to tell other
about what they are. These "hunches" maybe the result of neurosis
or imagination. Even if correct, most people do not want to know
more about their limitations, most prefer adulation and
avoidance. If you are concerned about social conventions, fees,
and how it will "come across", then you are a salesman, a
performer, not a teacher. You are not going to kick people off
their "life-rafts", or take away the physical and emotional ties
they have to protect themselves in what is perceived as rough
water.  You are trying to help them ashore - and then point out
they don't need to care the weight of their rafts with them. Real
education requires real change - wake up - open your eyes - you
have been living in a dream - pay attention - 

Short History of Sufi:

I think the origin was as shaman of the Caucasian tribes. In UR
and the first civilizations they then became priest and kings.
Meditative orders of monks grew up in the Hindu Kirsh which are
responsible for the order of the universes. (Like the Hopi) In
the first few thousand of years travelers in wool trades became
wandering teachers. Students were passed from one to the other
using signs, codes, and the numerical systems of language
(Letters being numbers - transformed into patters which gave an
internal or secret writing also pictures and patterns ). The
example of John the Baptist is a model of the Sufi man from the
wilderness, teacher and spiritual guide. 

The contact between Persia, the Greeks, and Hindu cultures
produced a more complex and formal neo-platoist, Hermes, and
other schools that influences the Manichaean Gospels of Leucius,
St. Augustine, and mystic Christian. Sheikh Daud Yusuf, Jesus of
the House of David, a Prophet, a teacher, a Messenger of the rank
of Insan Kamil or Complete Man. (The Acts of John) The church may
have for bureaucratic reasons misunderstood the idea of "Son of
God." In some way Jesus has become less of a door and more of a
pit or barrier in formal churches. The idea that following blind
ritual and having an blind nonrational faith will cause salvation
is very un-Sufi. Wisdom is sought to fulfill the incompleteness
of our souls and for its own glory or merit - Slaves and peasants
may need prizes and promises that can not be met. As the Grand
inquisitor says they need a guiding hand and to have hope in the
impossible pie in the sky when they die.

The name Sufi appears with Mohammed and the organized schools
were very close to the family of the Prophet's grandchildren from
Fatima and Husin. The interactions of Moslem and Sufi culture
makes one believe that one is the reflection of the other. A law
and way for the masses, and another way for the "brotherhood." 
All religions have to deal with the lazy and ignorant. No one has
found a way to make purses from pigs ears. I am working hard on
the way to do this. Democracy and current conditions require new
experimental methods. The old ways are too occult, complex,
mysterious and elitist. 

Formal schools involved Thursday night meeting where circles of
annotated world work on mystic rights under the leadership of a
guide. Rumi founded the Dervishes. The Builders (al-Banna) became
the Freemasons, and the "secret knowledge" was much sought in
Europe from the time of the crusades on.  The Philosophers stone
and alchemy that Newton spend most of his life trying to
understand may have been an allegory for psychological rather
that physical experiments. 

A short list of influences:

Christians associated with St. Augustine and St. John of the
Cross (Rosticrusian), St. Teresa of Avila,
St. John the Baptist - the wool and Sheikh Daud Yusuf, Jesus as a
Sufi Teacher. (Hallaj)
The Romance Literature and Troubadours, William Tell, Coffee,
clothes (shirt, belt, trousers) Andalusian, dance
waltz, morris dance, Dante, Robinson Crusoe, Chaucer,
William Tell, Freemasons, Tarot Cards, 
Arabist School of Montpellier (Jews from Spain)
Medicine - Ibn El-Arabi
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence of Arabia)
Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Bilal, Ibn Riyah, Abu Abdullah, Salman the
Persian (Zoroastrians)
Burton's 1001 Nights, Omar Khayyan - 
Jalaludin Rumi (and the Dervish)
The Rose, Rosicrucians, Rosary from the Spanish illuminist
(illuminati) 
Sufi claim a decent from: (Saracens the Reciter)
Hermes of Egypt, Mary the Hebrew, Democritus of Greece,
Morienus of Rome, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) of Arabia, Albertus
Magnus of Germany, Arnold of Villaneuve of France, Thomas
Aquinas of Italy, Raymond Lully of Spain, Roger Bacon of
England, Melchoir Cibienis of Hungary, Anonymous Sarmata
(Michael Sendivogius ) of Poland.
Roger Bacon, Geber, (Western Alchemy), Raymond Lully the
Majorcan, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dante, Milton - Hans Christian
Anderson, Kipling, 
Jungian archetypal from Ibn El-Arabi (Modern Man in Search of a
Soul" C.C. Jung)
Robert Graves "The Crowning Privilege"
The Bhakti of Hindus, Zen , Yoga,  Knights Templar, The Order of
the Garter, Freemasons.

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Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D.                 * THE_SUFI_METHODS
               pflaump@cfl.rr.com
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