Self-analysis
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
People generally assume that self-analysis is a kind of psychotherapy that one applies to oneself. This is a very limited view and it demonstrates ignorance about the true state of what it means to be transcendental.
Sheikh Ahmadinejad al-‘Alawî, a Sufi mystic of the 20th century, said that there is a hierarchy between Gnostics – the word he used to indicate what I usually call ‘mystics’ – those who have a knowledge of their Lord, and those who have a knowledge of themselves. Those who have a knowledge of themselves have a stronger Gnosis than those who have a knowledge of their Lord.
This may seem strange from a Western viewpoint that is used to seeing the divine or ultimate as something apart and superior to oneself. From a transcendental viewpoint, however, this statement is obvious.
You may have all kinds of ideas about the Ultimate: about Abbah, but whatever idea you may have, it is always a construction that is determined by the way your habitual programmes of perception work.
On the other hand, knowledge of yourself, which implies knowledge of your transcendental nature of which the divine is an integral part, approaches your Natural State more closely. There is nothing but Abbah, and all is Abbah, therefore you cannot separate Abbah from everything. You cannot put Abbah on a pedestal in order to observe it carefully or to study it properly.
Self-analysis in the true sense, should always start with the vertical dimension. Nothing can be known about the vertical dimensions, but they are always and by definition an elaboration of the main principle that there is nothing but Abbah and that everything in one or another way reflects Abbah.
From this general principle you step to the horizontal dimensions: those dimensions that constitute experience.
With the background of the vertical dimensions the horizontal dimensions gain a very different significance.
For instance you may suffer from a natural feeling of insecurity. It will be obvious that this is rooted in programmes that were formed in early childhood. You may understand these programmes, but it is very difficult to transcend these programmes without the awareness that they are contrary to the Natural State of our transcendental being.
In the transcending awareness all seemingly opposing currents are always transcended in the embracing unity of All is Abbah. This happens in the same way as Yin and Yang are united in Tai Chi, the circle itself. It can also be expressed as the all-embracing Love of the Divine.
What matters is, that in self-analysis a connection is established between our horizontal being that happens in the dimensions of experience and our vertical being that happens in the dimensions of awareness. Only the gnosis of ourselves in this sense is the strong gnosis that Sheikh Al-Alawî mentioned in his comparison.
It is obvious that self-analysis as a tool of the mystical path has a very different meaning than the common meaning. It implies a research into how the ‘All is Abbah’ is disclosed and unlocked in the daily experience of ordinary life.
In other words, it concentrates on the degree to which the horizontal experience is permeated by the vertical awareness. In this way alone self-analysis is a tool for the LivingNâm.
