Çilingir Sofrası 9 / Zahmetsiz Rahmet Olmaz (with english subtitles)

0:00****translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam****

0:03Now there is something very lovely: like Şemsettin Yeşil Efendi has said, music has its own literature.

0:06Music is such an art that it is not sufficient to just learn technique.

0:09Music is a comprehensive art.

0:13So playing a string instrument, such as saz, is up to us, our will.

0:18To bring our will in harmony with the music we play, there is an object that we use to hit the strings.

0:23It is called ‘pena’ in the West.

0:26I am not sure what the meaning of pena is. It doesn’t say anything to me.

0:30But ‘Mizrap’ does mean something.

0:35When mizrap hits a string and the string vibrates,

0:40That is called ‘Darp’. So when Mizrap hits a string, it is called Darp.

0:45Mizrap, Darp, and the sound that we hear is called ‘Izdırap’.

0:52So you see the saz, too, becomes part of a sohbet.

0:58So we need a ‘word’ that hits and creates a wound.

1:03Remember we had earlier said that ‘words’ can create wounds, create yearning.

1:09When words create wounds, that means we have been hit (darp) and we are now in ‘ızdırap’ (pain).

1:16The one who is wounded is now in pain and is in love (aşk).

1:21The person who is in pain speaks of his/her yearning and love.

1:30These are face to face with each other.

1:35The yearning inspires you to speak up and the other urges you to listen.

1:39It is a dialectic.

1:42The people of Marifet know this.

1:46- And the musician is called ‘Mıtrıp’.

1:48Yes, as you see, we have a whole literature here, from words that are connected to each other

1:51with the same root (d, r, p) and they have symbolic meanings.

1:54If we make up new words to replace these, we end up losing the deeper meanings we just talked about

1:58Because music has to be played with a deep understanding of these meanings.

2:03Then it becomes a whole. There is poetry here.

2:12- So it is like we are eating ready made food.

2:15Yes, but aren’t we having breakfast everyday?

2:19We don’t say we ate breakfast yesterday, so let’s not eat or that we just ate the same things.

2:23No, we still get hungry every day. The taste we get every day is different.

2:27- Let’s get hungry and let’s get satisfied, and get hungry again.

2:38-So we were going to talk about mystical knowledge from India.

2:42Yes, you are right. What is happening now, are we on break or something?

2:48What happened is the pain put us in a ‘hal’ (state).

2:52If there is no ‘hal’ (state) then there is no ‘mahal’ (location) and when there is no ‘mahal’, there is no ‘inzal’ (divine inspiration).

3:01Divine inspiration doesn’t come to a ‘mekan’ (physical location)

3:06Because God is ‘lazaman’ (timeless) and ‘lamekan’ (placeless).

3:09Divine inspirations, like raindrops, come from the the timeless and placeless to the ‘mahal’, meaning

3:15to the one who is in a ‘state’ (hal) ready to receive them. The one who is ready, who is in that ‘state’ will receive them.

3:24It is like this, we know that there are television and radio waves everywhere.

3:28We may not hear them or watch them.

3:32They are always there, yet we won’t hear or watch them unless we have adjusted our dial to the right frequency.

3:36Some might even deny that they exist. They might say, we don’t hear them, we don’t see them.

3:42If they deny their existence, we can say: bring your radio or television set

3:47and adjust it to this particular frequency. Find out what program is on.

3:51Then they might say, how come I never knew that there are so many programs.

3:55In the same way, we need to be prepared to receive what arrives, by adjusting our own frequency.

4:01We need to transform our own selves to receive divine inspiration.

4:07At every spiritual station, divine realities appear which are appropriate to that station.

4:17When you get there, you find out that they are there. This is what is meant by secret heaven. (cennet-i naima)

4:26The words ‘cin’ (genie), 'can' (life), ‘canan’, (beloved), ‘cenin’ (fetus)

4:34these words all mean covered or veiled. That means you don’t see them, just like we don’t see radio waves.

4:40until we tune in to that particular frequency,

4:44We are not aware of the programs that are broadcast.

4:48Once we are aware, we might try to explain to others but they might still deny their existence.

4:54And you would say: why don’t you adjust your radio to this frequency?

4:58I can assure you they are here.

5:03But you need to change yourself in order to receive them.

5:07They might still say, you are making this up, why can’t I get the right frequency?

5:11You can’t get it in the physical world either. You need the right instrument adjusted to the right frequency.

5:18Spiritual journeying is something like this.

5:22- Just like when they say that the physical and spiritual worlds are parallel to each other.

5:24Exactly. When we talk about gin (genie), cenin (fetus), cennet (heaven) or cehennem (hall), some people might be incredulous.

5:31But all of this is based on a particular culture, literature, and language.

5:35When we talk about cennet (heaven), one might ask, what is there in cennet?

5:41There are four rivers that flow under.

5:46What does this mean? How can we interpret this?

5:50It is hard to understand.

5:53But gnostics (Arif's) would know

5:56that the mother’s womb is called ‘Rahim’.

6:02God’s attribute ‘Rahim’ (Compassion) These are God’s Beautiful Names: Rahman and Rahim.

6:08Rahim is meant for the individual person

6:15whereas ‘Rahman’ (Mercy) is open to all.

6:19Why is the womb not called ‘Rahman’? It is ‘Rahim’

6:24Because the Rahmet (Mercy) is specially meant for the baby who will be born.

6:29All right, so what about the four rivers?

6:34So there is the river of wine: red blood cells.

6:40There is the river filled with water. We all know water.

6:43There is the river of honey: glucose

6:48There is the river of milk: white blood cells, our immunity system

6:53So those are the four rivers in the human body.

6:55Is there ‘Rahim’? Yes.

6:58‘Rahmet’? Yes.

7:03So the ‘cenin’ (fetus) is lying there in the womb. It is in ‘cennet’ (heaven).

7:13The birth is when the fetus appears on earth.

7:16That means that we have all descended from heaven.

7:19It is not that someone called Adam descended from heaven first, and then the rest of us came from him.

7:23No, each one of us has descended as a divine gift from heaven. (Cennet)

7:26According to the Qur’an, we descended from heaven,

7:31But according to the Torah, we have been thrown out of heaven.

7:41So people may question why there is such a discrepancy here.

7:47Torah says, people (Adam and Eve) are thrown out of heaven,

7:54and the Qur’an says they descended from heaven.

7:58What does this mean?

8:00Isn't this the same one God?

8:02But instead of investigating the deeper meanings of these things,

8:06some people might categorically deny them.

8:13They might say that since the Qur’an and Torah say the opposite, it is all meaningless.

8:25But people of Marifet don’t worry about it,

8:30because these are ignorant remarks.

8:36Instead we must ask:

8:42How come here are two opposite interpretations of the same phenomenon?

8:49Which one is right? How should we understand this?

8:53The answer is both are right.

8:58Because when the baby

9:03is ready to be born,

9:06it could be nine months or a baby may be born in seven months, both are possible.

9:14When the time of birth arrives, if the birth doesn’t take place,

9:17the mother will die.

9:20So the midwife tells the would-be mother:

9:24Push, push hard. So that is what the Torah talks about.

9:26Throw the baby out of heaven!

9:28That is what the Torah talks about.

9:33So the Torah is coming from the mother’s perspective.

9:39Meanwhile, the father who is waiting anxiously.

9:43He is waiting, the baby is thrown out of heaven according to the mother,

9:48but is descending from heaven as a divine gift according to the father.

9:56When you ask the father: What is happening here?

10:01He says: Allah is giving us a gift, as divine mercy (rahmet)

10:04A gift of mercy, of compassion is descending from heaven.

10:08You ask the mother: she says, I am in such pain

10:14that if the baby stays inside, I have no idea what will happen.

10:20But the midwife knows. She says,

10:24if the baby stays inside, the baby will rot and the mother will die.

10:27-She has the relevant knowledge.

10:29Do you understand?

10:32So you see the deeper meaning.

10:38- So heaven is where the fetus is.

10:41And when ‘Rahmet’ is personal, it is called ‘Rahim’

10:46From the perspective of the mother, the baby needs to be thrown out of heaven

10:52whereas from the perspective of the father, the baby descends from heaven as a gift, as a trust.

10:58So the father now has to protect the baby that is entrusted to him.

11:02-So, some people might now have a question about heaven. They might ask:

11:07- What about heaven after death?

11:12- Isn’t there such a thing as going to heaven after death?

11:16Very good, we had talked about eight heavens before.

11:21Now you see, there is manifest (zahir) and unmanifest (batin).

11:25At every ‘mertebe’ (station), what manifests and what remains secret is different.

11:29That’s why we have symbolic interpretations.

11:31We don’t have one explanation for everything.

11:34What does this mean? Let me try to explain.

11:38Scientific knowledge is reductionist.

11:44It is conceptual and interested in ‘cause and effect’.

11:50Whereas here, we are talking about different tecelli (manifestations) at every ‘mertebe’ (station).

11:54What does this mean?

11:56Some people might say, we don’t understand.

11:58Could you at least explain this in terms of manifest (zahir) and unmanifest (Batin)?

12:01Okay, a little while we talked about a symbol, talking about ‘meaning’

12:04but we showed how it manifests in something material, like childbirth,

12:06something that is experienced universally, something that happens inside a woman’s body

12:11which has a scientific basis.

12:13But we talked about childbirth in terms of its scientific basis but we also talked about the symbolic meaning of childbirth.

12:20Its different interpretations based on divine revelation.

12:31So, now that we have descended from heaven,

12:34Isn’t there a return to heaven?

12:37This is also a topic in mythology.

12:40There are mythologies about the source of life.

12:45Explanations based on archetypes.

12:49There are also myths about the ‘Return’.

12:55When we look at the Torah,

12:58This is not some group’s ‘torah’ or rules,

13:01but they are divine rules.

13:05So in the Torah, it says that we were thrown out of heaven and

13:10That women (Eve) will suffer excruciating pain in childbirth,

13:14men (Adam) will have to put out a lot ‘zahmet’ (effort)

13:21in order to receive the fruits of their labor.

13:26Some might say, it is terrible that we have to work so hard, that we have to put out so much effort.

13:31Look at our suffering because of Adam.

13:33But the gnostic (Arif) says:

13:34without effort, there is no reward, there is no mercy, there is no fruit.

13:37You work on your saz,

13:39learn how to play it,

13:41your fingers hurt, your teacher admonishes you.

13:43You are upset and crying.

13:50But when you come to the understanding: how could one deny God’s divine gifts and offerings?

13:56Now the fruits of your work have appeared and can be offered to others.

14:00People say, you worked so hard, you suffered so much.

14:04And we forget about the effort we put in.

14:07Therefore, how do we go back to heaven?

14:11By putting out an effort.

14:14The myth of the return.

14:18We left heaven and we will reenter heaven.

14:22****translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam****