The Bond With The Beloved: The Inner Relationship Of The Lover And The Beloved

The Bond with the Beloved i ii The Bond with the Beloved The Mystical Relationship of the Lover and the Beloved Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee iii First published in the United States in 1993 by The Golden Sufi Center P.O. Box 428, Inverness, California 94937 © 1993 by The Golden Sufi Center All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Cover Design by Tennessee Dixon Printed and Bound by McNaughton & Gunn using recycled paper. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data, Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn The Bond with the Beloved: The Mystical Relationship of the Lover and the Beloved 1. Spiritual life 2. Dreams–Religious aspects 3. Sufism ISBN 0-9634574-0-3 iv Contents vii xi 1 Preface Introduction The Shadow Side of Spiritual Life 28 Pregnant with God 57 Stages of Prayer Part One: The Birth of the Beloved 80 Stages of Prayer Part Two: Living in the Two Worlds 102 Stages of Prayer Part Three: Ecstasy 116 The Dhikr 134 Meditation 136 143 146 151 Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments v vi Preface Throughout this book, for reasons solely of continuity and simplicity, the masculine pronoun is used for both the seeker and the teacher. Similarly, God, the Great Beloved, is referred to as He. The Absolute Truth is neither masculine nor feminine. As much as It has a divine masculine side, so It has an awe-inspiring feminine aspect. vii viii He loves them and they love Him. Sura 5:59 ix x Introduction Introduction Our work is the love of God. Our satisfaction lies in submission to the Divine Embrace. Blessed John Ruysbroeck1 This book is written for the lovers of God. It is for those who know that they are His lovers and also for those for whom this is as yet hidden within their hearts. There are certain souls whom God has chosen to be His lovers. His lovers belong to Him since before the beginning of time; to quote the Blessed John Ruysbroeck: “Thou art Mine and I am thine: I am thine and thou art Mine, for I have chosen thee from all Eternity.”2 The central purpose of the lover’s life is to be responsive to the needs of love, to be receptive to the call of the Beloved: “Our activity consists in loving God and our fruition in enduring God and being penetrated by His love.”3 The lover’s responsiveness to the needs of his Beloved flows from a bond between the lover and the Beloved that was formed before the beginning of time. Just as a child is bonded to its mother, so is the lover bonded to the Beloved. But the bond between the lover and the Beloved exists on the level of the soul and it can never be broken. This bond is imprinted in the substance of the lover’s soul. Until now this bond has been a secret, silently shared by those who know that they are His lovers. It is communicated through the look of the eyes or in the xi The Bond with The Beloved silence of a group