NUFS

by Tanzen Two-feather

 

nafs, nufs - soul, breath (nafas, plural of nafs), the individual

psyche/soul, the self, especially the lower self when it gets in the way of

the spiritual life.

Usually our nufs is graded by our personality, both the outer and the inner.

There are many ways to grade, here are two:

A. from Naqshbandi Tradition

  1. Nafs-i-ammara (the depraved, commanding nafs)
  2. Nafs-i-lawwama (the accusing nafs)
  3. Nafs-i-mulhama (the inspired nafs)
  4. Nafs-i-mutmainna (the serene nafs)
  5. Nafs-i-radiyya (the fulfilled nafs)
  6. Nafs-i-mardiyya (the fulfilling nafs)

  7. Nafs-i-safiyya wa kamila (the purified and complete nafs)

Human self consciousness has endless facets. Some reflect inferiority complexes such as the need for praise and admiration, and others arise from superiority complexes such as satisfaction in humiliating and dominating others with an unquenchable thirst for self-assertion. And the more one tries to dissimulate one's weakness behind a mask of outer appearance, the more one's self-confidence collapses like a sand castle under the waves of the rising sea. But when the ego is fully "softened", through progressing through the seven stages, it harmonizes in all circumstances like the little bubbles which float along the waves even in a stormy ocean.

Progression starts when a person out of personal control, believes himself to be a coherent personality, starts to learn that he, like all undeveloped individuals, has a multiple and changing personality. The "accusing" stage is the dawn of self-awareness, in which automatic thoughts are seen for what they are. Next, the beginning of real mental integration, when the mind becomes capable of operating on a higher level than was its previous futile custom, the "inspired" stage.

Next we come to the "serene" stage of balance, equilibrium of the person, followed by power of "fulfillment", where new ranges of experience not susceptible to description beyond approximate analogy.

At stage six, "fulfilling", new activities and funcitons come into play, including extra dimensions of awareness. Finally, "completion" where capacity for objective understanding occurs, where possibility for teaching others comes into play. The whole human is a channel for the only Teacher, through the collective High Selves, the Spirit of Guidance, which is as close to absolute as we get!

Sufi SAM (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti) used these, from Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat

Society (SIRS):

  1. Nafs Ammara: one who lives only for material satisfaction. He has no particular consideration of others, but is not necessarily opposed to those who do not interfere with him andhis efforts at self-satiating.
  2. Nafs Aluwama: one who is still subject to faults, sins and emotional disturbances. He will atone for his acts; in practice this type of person tends to be religious rather than moral.
  3. Nafs Mutmaina: one who thinks, lives and acts according to moral principles or high intellectual ideals.
  4. Nafs Selima: one who has attained peace, or who has surrendered to Allah (God, absolute).
  5. Nafs Alima: the perfect "nafs"; one who acts as if in the manner of Allah. All ideas of separation and identification have been removed.

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Hope this helps a little.

Love, only love,

Tanzen