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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.sufi,alt.islam.sufism,talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Subject: Various: Gurdjieff and Naqshbandi Sufis
Date: 20 Dec 1997 16:05:57 -0800

[technical difficulties enforced delay of repost]

[from tariqas@world.std.com: "Frank Gaude" ]

Shaykh Abd Allah ad-Daghestani and George Gurdjieff
excerpted from "The Naqshbandi Sufi Way: 
History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain", 
by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, KAZI, 1995. 

Grandshaykh Abd Allah used to serve in his master's
khaniqah. Every day hundreds of visitors
arrived to visit the shaykh, most of them coming
from Daghestan. Among the many visitors to the
shaykh was the Russian teacher George Gurdjieff. 
Having recently arrived in Turkey, after a long
and arduous escape from Russia at the time of the 
Communist revolution, Gurdjieff came to visit
Shaykh Sharafuddin. He had had many contacts with 
Sufis of various orders and had been raised
in, and had traveled extensively throughout, the 
long region of the Caucasus. He was pleased to
find the inheritors of the distinguished Daghestani 
Naqshbandi lineage.

Shaykh Sharafuddin asked Shaykh Abd Allah to host 
their guest. Shaykh Abd Allah recounted the
events of the meeting to several of his disciples 
many years later. As soon as they met, Shaykh
Abd Allah said, "You are interested in the knowledge 
of the nine points. We can speak on it in the
morning after the dawn prayer. Now you eat something 
and rest."

At the time of the dawn prayer, Shaykh Abd Allah 
called Gurdjieff to come and pray with him. As
soon as the prayer finished, the shaykh began to 
recite Surah Ya Sin from the Holy Quran. As he
finished reading, Gurdjieff approached him and asked 
if he could speak of what he had just
experienced. Gurdjieff said, "As soon as you finished 
the prayer and began to recite, I saw you
come to me and take my hand. We were transported to a 
beautiful rose garden. You told me that
this garden is your garden and these roses are your 
disciples, each with his own color and
perfume. You directed me to one particular red rose 
and said, 'That one is yours. Go smell it.' As I
did, I saw the rose open and I disappeared within it. 
I entered its roots and they led me to your
presence. I found myself entering into your heart and 
becoming a part of you. Through your spiritual
power I was able to ascend to the knowledge of the power 
of the nine points. Then a voice,
addressing me as Abd an-Nur, said, 'This light and knowledge 
have been granted to you from the
Divine Presence of God to bring peace to your heart. 
However, you must not use the power of this
knowledge.' The voice bid me farewell with the salutation 
of peace and the vision ended as you
were finishing the recitation from the Quran."

Shaykh Abd Allah replied, "Surah Ya Sin was called 'the Heart 
of the Quran' by the Holy Prophet
(saws) and the knowledge of these nine points was opened 
to you through it. The vision was by the
blessings of the verse, 'Peace! a Word (of salutation) 
from a Lord Most Merciful' [36:58]. Each
of the nine points is represented by one of nine saints 
who are at the highest level in the Divine
Presence. They are the keys to untold powers within the 
human being, but there is no permission to
use these keys. This is a secret that in general will 
not be opened until the Last Days when the
Mahdi appears and Jesus returns. This meeting of ours 
has been blessed. Keep it as a secret in
your heart and do not speak of it in this life. 
Abd an-Nur, for that is your name with us, you are free
to stay or go as your responsibilities allow. You are 
always welcome with us. You have attained
safety in the Divine Presence. May God bless you 
and strengthen you in your work."

===========================================================

"tanzen two-feather" :

David Barton :
> Tanzen writes:
> 
>    The so-called "nine points" or Ennead contain within the concept of
>    Ray of Creation (Law of Three, Law of Seven) as presented by
>    Maurice Nicoll in his works, "Psychological Commentaries, On the
>    Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky", Robinson &
>    Watkins: London, 1964 (five-volume set).
> 
> Is this the same as the enneagram?  If not, what is the relation?

Likely not. At least not that of the enneagrams of certain factions in the
Roman Catholic Church or Helen Palmer. Nine points (Ennead, Ray of Creation
as presented by Nicoll and Gurdjieff), from my studies, has, had nothing to
do with personality development.

As to the relationship, that would take books of words to explore. I
loosely followed Palmer and the RCC's role in using the enneagram, but soon
lost interest.

[...]

>    I have on my computer that piece from Shaykh Kabbani's book that
>    relates the remarkable story. Want it?
> 
> For those interested, I have my notes on the presentation that Shaykh
> Kabbani made at the recent Enneagram Conference, with Laleh Bakhtiar.
> It may be found on my web page; follow the "hypnosis" link and page
> down to "conferences".
> 
> 					Dave Barton <*>
> 					dlb@intermetrics.com )0(
> 					http://www.intermetrics.com/~dlb

David, I found the area to which you pointed but could find no notes on
what Shaykh Kabbani or Laleh Bakhtiar said.

=============================================================

Ken McFarland 

At 08:27 PM 9/24/97 -0700, tanzen two-feather wrote:

>> Is this the same as the enneagram?  If not, what is the relation?
>
>Likely not. At least not that of the enneagrams of certain factions 
>in the Roman Catholic Church or Helen Palmer. Nine points (Ennead, 
>Ray of Creation as presented by Nicoll and Gurdjieff), from my 
>studies, has, had nothing to do with personality development.

I have a journal article, from the "Journal of Clincal Psychology", 
titled: "Reliabity and validity study of a Sufi personality 
typology: the enneagram" which states:

	"This system originated in the Naqshbandi order of 
	 Sufism; it was learned by Gurdjieff and taught in 
	 his groups. The study supported the validity and 
	 reliability of the enneagram personality typology. ["]

===================================================================

~From: "tanzen two-feather" 

David Barton :
>>    David, I found the area to which you pointed but could find 
>> no notes on what Shaykh Kabbani or Laleh Bakhtiar said.
 
> I just checked, and it's there.  The conference is the Second
> International Conference on the Enneagram; go to that presentation,
> and it's near the end of the page.

Okay, found it...

"When Gurdjieff was given the knowledge of the enneagram, they asked 
him to not reveal some of the information. Some of these were kept 
from his students."

Sorta goes along with the Shaykh Kabbani's account of the knowledge 
being secret and is to be kept that way.

"They are the keys to untold powers within the 
human being, but there is no permission to
use these keys. This is a secret that in general will 
not be opened until the Last Days when the
Mahdi appears and Jesus returns."

Gurdjieff stated in several places that his system was "esoteric
Christianity". Of course there are many such systems in existence even
today.

Thanks, David, for bringing all this to light. We each have to pick a path
and stay with it, in my opinion... books, diagrams, and the like, are one
thing, living the experience, making contact, is another.

======================================
          
~From: "tanzen two-feather" 

Well, I was following the "popular" press regarding the Enneagram and
decided to stop... to each their own.

From all the material that I had studied in the '60s written by Gurdjieff
and his followers I saw little or nothing that would indicate a common
source for Helen Palmer's work and that of Gurdjieff's Ennead, Ray of
Creation. That's it for me. I follow the path suggested by Hazrat Inayat
Khan these days. Ray of Creation, Kahuna (Triune Self) teachings have been
found useful tools, but really just another way of looking at things, at
self, at Self, at Absolute.

EOF
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