Unity

Pupil: Is the brotherhood we try to achieve an aspect of unity?

Abdullah: We can talk about unity as Sufis and, more especially, as Gnostics, which is what we in this group are. We believe in the unity of all religious experience, and in brotherhood, which obviously has unity in it. We believe in unity in the endeavour of human beings on a planetary scale. Unity is at the very core of what we are teaching.

Pupil: Is it the ego that stops us from recognising the unity between us and the rest of the Earth?

Abdullah: That is correct. Only when a person loses his ego completely does he understand this unity for sure. Other people may know it to a limited degree, but the egoless person knows and understands it completely in a certain way. Hindus teach that this Earth we are living on, and the whole solar system, is maya – illusion – but we do not teach you that. We tell you the illusion you have is that you think you are your body. That is on a spiritual scale. On a physical scale, obviously you are your body and a part of the Earth, so it is not illusion. It is all God, but God on the level of the Earth, the Mother God, whereas the Sun is the Father God or active God. These are just words to give you an idea of what it is about.

In regard to our being on this planet, we have to get away from the idea that we are unique and realise that we are just a part of the Earth, what Gurdjieff calls organic life on Earth and Abdullah prefers to think of as a cell of the Earth. In our bodies, we think of ourselves as whatever our name is, but actually we are all the Earth. You have seen photos taken at a distance from the Earth and moon, where this planet appears as a big ball. If you look closely you may see some of the great seas, but you cannot see any kings or queens – just the Earth. You must try to grasp this. We are all conditioned to think of ourselves as our own lifetimes, and that is our big illusion. We do not see the unity of the whole thing.