SHAGHAL

by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Shaghal (1)

The object that the Sufi has in life is not necessarily the attainment of power or the achievement of inspiration, it is to touch the depth of life -- that plane of existence whence springs every activity manifesting through different channels. The physician who gets to the heart of the patient can know more and better about the general condition of his health than he who looks for the pain in the affected part. In the same way the Sufi by the practice of Shaghal gets to the heart of things, where he can see the seedling of the successes and failures, where he can see the signs of forthcoming joy or pain.


The question why he must know it and what it is that tells him can be answered thus: That by Shaghal the Sufi learns to see by his sight independently of the eyes, and he learns to hear by his hearing independently of the ears, and as soon as his senses get this independence from their limited instrument of experience, they begin to see and hear beyond the limitations of these physical instruments, and the area of vision becomes widened. The sight which can only be seen by the limited instrument of the eyes up to a limited horizon, now sees independently of that much further than before. So the hearing that could hear by the help of the ears so much and no more, now hears, after mastering Shaghal, much more than ever before. The seeing and hearing are on the abstract plane, and are called clairvoyance and clairaudience. It is this divine faculty which is often mentioned in the Qur'an as Sami-un-Basir.


But the opening of hearing and sight is not sufficient for the purpose, because it is simply an opening; illumination is something else. With the development of those two faculties by Shaghal the necessity for illumination remains nevertheless. You must know the language of the voice that speaks from within, and you must recognize the letters that you find written on the record within. The mystics heard it and read it and kept quiet; the prophets on hearing and reading this gave it out but little; and this that was given is the only Scripture there is, call it Bible, Kabala, Vedanta or Qur'an.


Number 2
Shaghal (2)

Shaghal is a process that is contrary to the process that life has taken for its expression towards manifestation. There is no possibility of touching the inner world, of seeing or realizing the self within without the help of Shaghal. It is the tendency of the breath to proceed outward, which is the main source of all creation in thought, speech, word, and deed, and all experience of the external world that one perceives through the senses and by the mind. When the process is reversed, then the breath, instead of proceeding forward, withdraws backward.


The breath is likened to a snake that has two mouths. When it withdraws backward, its face is backward too. In other words, as the consciousness that, so to speak, rides upon the breath, which is its buraq, its vehicle, experiences the external world, and the breath is the mystery of both. The breath may be called a bridge which connects the external world and the world within. But as the general tendency is to walk forward, and as it seems strange to take steps backward, and as one fears that he might tumble down and fall on something, or something might fall on him, so one feels in the practice of Shaghal.


The consciousness, which has never taken a ride on a path which seems so strange to it, feels confused, and even the breath, the tendency of which is to go forward, feels it difficult to step backward. It is this mystery that is spoken in the story of Aladdin, who went to find the magic lantern. The magic lantern is the light within, and to get it there is only one process. And the confusion of Aladdin, after entering the cave where he found nothing but darkness, is the picture of the confusion of Shaghal. But the prize of courage that Aladdin received is a prize that every courageous Shaghil gets, for he receives by Shaghal the root of all power and inspiration.


Number 3
Shaghal (3)

Man's soul is always inclined to look outward for its experience, and therefore it remains unaware of the inner being; so to speak, it turns its back on the inner life, absorbed in the vision of the external through the five senses. In Shaghal the Sufi closes the door through which the soul is accustomed to look out, and as it finds the doors of its experience closed, a time comes when it turns its back to the external world on finding the doors closed for its experience. It is just like changing place for the soul. It sees before it a different sphere altogether, a sphere that has been within it.


This sphere is abstract; in this sphere the individual soul is raised to a cosmic spirit. Here the soul has a wonderful and interesting vision, a vision both visible and audible, and the light and power of this vision lasts with the soul even after it has had this vision and illuminates the mental and physical planes for the soul, to see and understand more keen and clear knowledge that the soul then perceives by the same things it had seen before. It is like coming to the same room in the daytime which the soul had once visited in the darkness of night. Everything in life becomes clear to perception, to conception, and questions that once confused the soul are now solved by it without any difficulty.


RIYAZAT
Number 4
Esotericism:
The Mystery of the Phenomena in Shaghal


The Sufi by the practice of Shaghal withdraws the breath from one direction and sends the breath to another direction, meaning instead of allowing the breath to work outwardly he directs the breath in Shaghal so as to let the breath work inwardly. Breath is life and light and sound in itself, therefore in the Vedantas breath is called Suram or Suara, meaning sound. The breath, therefore, in the practice of Shaghal produces its vibrations within, and the sense within, which may be called the root of all senses, which in reality is the spirit of all five senses, begins to hear; and as its hearing develops, so the breath becomes more audible.


Also the clashing of the vibrations of the breath produces the light which is seen by the innermost sense, and so the inner vision becomes clear to the inner sense, even clearer than things are to the perception of the outer senses. There is no scripture of the ancient Teachers that does not speak in some way or other of this mysterious vision of the mystic. There are many benefits that the Sufi derives from Shaghal. Among them one, and the simplest, is that he gains control over all the senses, the senses that are slaves to every external call to them. By constant practice of Shaghal a Sufi is able to draw a blind over the senses which he may not wish to use for a certain time. By this control the senses become keen, more percipient, and every sense becomes a sight. By this the body becomes a fitting instrument for a fuller experience of life.


Number 5
The Nature of the Sound Audible in Shaghal

Man is constituted of three aspects of body. One is the finer aspect of body, which the senses and their organs represent; there is a gross aspect of the body, which actions and their organs represent; there is yet a third aspect, which is a causal body, or a controlling body, which directs activities, which stands as an impetus or an impulse behind every activity. The manifestations of the activity of this body are first reflected within and then they manifest without; and the one who has even the least little idea of this knowledge will never believe for one moment that there exists such a thing as chance. There are suras of the Qur'an in support of this: "Everything is appointed upon a certain time." "Not one single atom moves without the command of God." "God has His dominion over all things." And this part of his being is the divine part in man.


The effect of every activity that is started in this part of one's being manifests in the form of light and sound which is audible within. The one who has trained his senses by Shaghal is able to turn his senses, and the senses (which in the case of the average person see outward phenomena alone) in the case of the seer can see the external world as well as the inner world. The inner world can be seen to a great depth, even deeper than this world; this is only an intermediate step to the inner vision. One may say, "Where are the objects of perception for the inner vision?"


One may say, "Where are the objects of perception for the senses within?" The answer is, everything is within, if only one can see it. Light is there, form is there, fragrance is there, sweet, sour, and bitter is there, and the inner world is more interesting than the external. There is a joy of Heaven and the agony of Hell. But two senses are the principal ones -- sight and hearing. Hearing is still higher, for it appeals to the first manifestation, that is the Word. First was the Word, then came Light, then all was created, as the Bible says. Therefore everything that happens is first audible to the hearer and then visible to the seer who can see and hear within.


There are ten sounds recognized by the mystics and vaguely described as the noise of humming bees, and the vina, and of bells ringing at a distance; and every sound denotes to a mystic that the activity is in a certain direction of the body. For there are twenty tubes, ten belonging to each side of one's body, through which these sounds manifest. On these tubes the Chinese instrument of ten reeds was made. When doubled they are twenty. Every direction of the activity of the breath suggests a certain cause and a certain effect to the hearer. From this he knows of failures and successes and of things hidden and unknown in their preparatory stage.


This sound helps to rise higher and higher until one rises to a plane of abstract where there is a sound called an hat or sarmad, which is full of intoxication, joy and happiness. The hearer of this sound has no fear if he is in the depth of the sea or if he is floating in the clouds, no fear of any kind. The strength of the Almighty abides in his heart. He is in the world and above the world. He is in the crowd and far from it. He sees and does not see and hears and does not hear if he wants to. His happiness has no limit, his peace is indescribable.


Number 6
The Nature of the Light Visible in Shaghal

"Allah is the Light of Heaven and Earth," says the Qur'an. This may be understood thus, that heaven and earth are made of light and are light in themselves. That which we recognize as space or what we call vacuum is all light. It manifests when the vibrations unite together and when atoms group together. It is audible when it acts as vibrations and it is visible when it manifests as atoms. As the external world is made of light, so the inner being is made of light, and the best vision of the inner world becomes vouchsafed to the adept who practices Shaghal.


The question how the secret of the universe could be found within oneself, in a drop which is like a drop in the ocean, may be answered thus, that the drop itself is nothing but ocean, and he who studies the drop can study the ocean. The saying of Christ, "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way," speaks of the gate within the body, which seems a narrow gate compared with the external world which is so vast. But when one enters by the gate which is within oneself by the help of Shaghal one discovers gradually the whole process of the working of the whole universe.


And when man touches the place of the abstract he has two senses with which to experience, the sense of hearing and the sense of sight. The Qur'an says, "God is pure, Who sees and Who hears," which may be understood that the soul which is the ray of God is pure, pure from earthly substances and pure from mortality, and without the help of the external organs it is capable of seeing and of hearing. There is another sura of the Qur'an where it says, "We showed him some of Our wonders which he knew not." Those wonders one sees through Shaghal when one masters it and when one dives deep within oneself and sees the light within, every particle of which is inspiring and its every flash and every change the expression of some secret of life.


Number 7
The Light in Shaghal

Shaghal is a practice by which the life forces are drawn to a center. The construction of the light of Shaghal is like that of the light of the sun, for the sun is the light of the universe drawn into a center. The light has two tendencies -- to spread out and to draw in. In spreading out lies the weakness, for the atoms are scattered and spread about, which naturally causes dimness. When it is most spread it is that state which we call darkness. In reality there exists no such thing as darkness; life is light, and light is omnipotent and omnipresent. It is the comparison of the light that is concentrated or centered and of the light that is scattered and spread out.


Man is all light. His soul, his mind, his body are nothing but different grades of radiance focused in a limited form. This light expresses itself outward all the time; when man feels, when he thinks, when he acts, in all things he is throwing his light outward. The Sufi, by mastery of self, learns to draw in, so to speak, the outstretched rays of his being. When by the practice of Shaghal he has managed to draw them in, the light focuses itself in a center and begins to manifest to the extent to which it has been gathered. The idea of clasping the hands, of crossing the legs, of closing the lips, of shutting one's eyes, all suggest withdrawing the rays of one's light, but when one has mastered the breath, then one is capable of drawing in all forces; and when they are drawn in and focused in a center, the illumination comes. This becomes a torch of the mystic. In the light of this sun within he becomes able to see things clearly within and without.


Number 8
Contemplation of the Inner Voice

The nature of sound is such that when the ears become accustomed to it, it becomes in time inaudible. For instance, when a person who is unaccustomed to the noise of a factory goes where the machines are working he feels the noise because he is unaccustomed to it. If we think of the noise of the works of the whole Universe which is continually going on, the noise of a factory in comparison to it would not be even as a drop compared with the ocean, and man never hears it. When sailing in a ship, at the beginning the noise becomes unbearable to the unaccustomed ears, but as one goes on hearing it the ears become so accustomed to it in time that man never notices it.


The workings of the mechanism of the body and especially the working of the breath in all the vacua of the body have a particular sound. The words "opening of the center" mean the clearing of the center and emptying of the veins and tubes of the body which enable the breath to move about freely in the body. In every center the breath makes a distinct sound, and in every tube the breath has a particular sound, and ten different sounds are recognized by a mystic.


When these ten different sounds are distinctly audible to the Sufi then it is evident that his body is purified and the senses are keen. Then he is capable of contemplating upon sound. His body becomes a dome in which the breath echoes, and by this his innermost being is awakened and every part of his being is thrilled. The joy of this experience is incomparable with any earthly sensations. The whole being of the mystic becomes etherealized and uplifted. And when spiritual meditation is attached to it then it is like a fragrant gold.


When a mystic is so etherealized as to be able to enjoy this contemplation, pain and diseases keep far away from him and his perception becomes keen. All things of the external world and of the inner world are perceived by him. Therefore Hindus call him Antarjnani, the Knower of the World Unseen. It is mastery of Shaghal which in time leads to this bliss.