It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer. The listener has no choice. It is like hypnotism. L.V.Beethoven

La musique classique, c'est trop complique' et trop sophistique' pour rien. Zineb

Whatever bird has been singing you these songs... Hany 5/28/01

Sufi Trance Communal ceremonies characterized by rhythm, repetition and endurance where their participants dance and sometimes sing with great intensity, until they reach the state of trance. Sufism is a thirteen hundred years old tradition that gets its shape inside Islam, as well as picking up elements from older religious practices. The core of Sufism is to leave the ordinary life, in order to shorten the distance to God, and henceforth truth and knowledge. The soul is seen as an element that can stretch out from the carnal body, and pass through the divine spheres. In Mysticism of Sound, Hazrat Inayat Khan writes: "Abstract Sound is called "saute surmadi" by the Sufis. All space is filled with it. It was the "saute surmadi", the sound of the abstract, which Mohammed heard in the cave of Gar-e-Hira. Moses heard this very sound on Mount Sinai. It was heard by Christ when God manifested to him in the wilderness. Shiva heard the same "anahad nad" during his samadhi in the cave of the Himalayas. The flute of Krishna is symbolic of the same sound. This sound is the source of all revelation to the Masters. Whoever has followed the strains of this sound has forgotten all earthly distinctions. The sound of the abstract is always going on within, around and about man. Man does not hear it as a rule, because his consciousness is entirely centered in his material existence. In comparison to it, the sounds of the earth are like that of a whistle to a drum. When the abstract sound is audible all other sounds become indistinct to the mystic. The sound of the Abstract is called anahad in the Vedas, meaning unlimited sound. The Sufis' name it surmadi, which suggests the idea of intoxication. The word intoxication is here used to signify upliftment, exaltation, freedom of the soul from its earthly bondage. Those who are able to hear the "saute surmadi" and meditate on it are relieved from all worries, anxieties, sorrows, fears and diseases; and the soul is freed from captivity in the senses and in the physical body. The soul of the listener becomes the all-pervading consciousness. Some train themselves to hear the "saute surmadi" in the solitude of the seashore, on the riverbank, and in the hills and dales; others accomplish it while sitting in the caves of the mountains, or when wandering constantly through forests and deserts, keeping themselves in the wilderness apart from the haunts of men. The bells and gongs in the churches and temples are meant to suggest the same sacred sound, and thus lead a man toward the inner life. This sound develops through ten different aspects, because of its manifestations through ten different tubes of the body. It sounds like thunder, the roaring of the sea, the jingling of bells, the running water, the buzzing of bees, the twittering of sparrows, the vina, the whistle, or the sacred sound of shankha, until it finally becomes the hu, the most sacred of all sounds. This sound hu is the beginning and the end of all sounds, be they from man, bird, beast or thing. A minute study will prove this fact, which can be realized by listening to the sound of the steam engine or of a mill; the echo of bells or gongs gives a typical illustration of the hu sound. The more a Sufi listens to the "saute surmadi", the sound of the abstract, the more his consciousness becomes free from all the limitations of life. The soul then floats above the physical and mental planes without any special effort on man's part, which shows his calm and peaceful state. A dreamy look comes into his eyes and his countenance becomes radiant. He experiences the unearthly joy and rapture of wajad (ecstasy). When ecstasy overwhelms him, he is neither conscious of the physical existence, nor of the mental. This is the Heavenly Wine, to which all Sufi poets refer, and is totally unlike the momentary intoxication of this mortal plane. A heavenly bliss then springs in the heart of a Sufi, his mind is purified from sin, his body from all impurities, and a pathway is opened for him toward the worlds unseen; he begins to receive inspirations, intuitions, impressions and revelations, without the least effort on his part. He is no longer dependent upon a book or a teacher, for divine wisdom, the light of his soul, the Holy Spirit, begins to shine upon him. ALT '01

 

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