Çilingir Sofrası 11 / Özgürlük Benim Karakterimdir. (with english subtitles)

0:00***translated by Prof.Dr. Nükhet Kardam*** Çilingir Sofrası 11 /Freedom is my character

0:01This is the construction of a temple.

0:04If this was an already constructed temple, or restaurant we could go in and out.

0:07So it has no menu.

0:08Not only does it have no menu, but this is a temple that doesn’t yet exist,

0:11and needs to be built.

0:13Can we leave it there and come back to it?

0:15No. We have to take it down and rebuild it.

0:19Moses had a revelation on Mt. Sinai.

0:22This is all symbolic.

0:25He was asked by God to travel with the sons of Israel

0:29and build a temple just like what was revealed to him.

0:35This is in the Torah.

0:37What would they build?

0:39A tent.

0:43The name of this tent is ‘The Gathering Tent”.

0:45So Moses was being asked to build the Gathering Tent.

0:48In Hebrew, the word for tent is ‘Hayme’.

0:53Why a tent instead of a house?

0:57Wouldn’t it have been better to build a house?

1:01Of course, it might have been better but they are traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land.

1:05They are in the desert,

1:09they can’t build a house in the desert in the sand, so they build tents.

1:16Families set up their own tents in the desert.

1:23They set them up and have to take them down again.

1:30But there is also the Gathering Tent. (Hayme)

1:34Everyone comes together to

1:38set up this common tent. A bigger tent.

1:43More than a bigger tent, the point is that this is a tent

1:47where they will practice particular rituals together,

1:51that they can’t in their individual tents.

1:55This would be a place where spiritual truths may manifest.

2:00This tent is called The Tent of Gathering.

2:02You can look it up in the Torah.

2:10- Serhan: So, these tents are periodically built and then taken down,

2:15until the next stop where the process is repeated.

2:19Is that right?

2:20Yes, exactly, this is so interesting.

2:22At night when they stop,

2:24a cloud appears, an illuminated cloud

2:26which brings Nur (Light) at night.

2:30That is spiritual light.

2:33They spend the night under this light.

2:36In the morning, the tents are taken down.

2:38And this time the cloud provides shade for them.

2:43That means at night a spiritual sun is born.

2:49In the morning, as the manifest sun rises,

2:54the cloud now provides shade and protects the people.

3:01There are many deeper meanings to this,

3:04but we are just

3:07touching them briefly right now.

3:13So there are a lot of details in the Torah

3:17about how to set up tents.

3:23But what is interesting is that

3:25It is not like there are experts designated to set up the tents.

3:29Everyone participates and sets up the tents together,

3:32Whether you are an assistant, an apprentice or an expert.

3:35And of course, there is Moses who serves as the architect of the whole process

3:39turning his imagination, the revelation he has received into reality.

3:45Everyone is involved in building the tent.

3:48Inside the tent, they pray and hold devotion ceremonies.

3:55But even more importantly, something that is not well-understood today,

4:00is that there are rituals, ceremonies.

4:03Rituals are the repetition of certain movements.

4:08They all have symbolic meanings.

4:11For example, tents are set up in exactly the same way each time because it is a ritual.

4:15Same with rules of behavior and the progression of rituals.

4:18And they are repeated in the same way each time.

4:22Just like a ‘saz’ is tuned each time

4:27according to the rules of harmony.

4:31If it is not, then the musical notes will not come out right.

4:40It won’t work.

4:45Of course, there is also ‘kara düzen’ where tuning may be done without being in harmony with other instruments in an orchestra.

4:50But that’s different.

4:51Now there is

4:54an artistic aspect to these rituals, of course.

4:57But the main question is: what is the purpose of these rituals?

4:59These people were slaves in Egypt.

5:02They didn’t know anything about bureaucracy

5:04or how to run a government or the arts.

5:08They only practiced crafts because they were slaves.

5:11But in order to create a society, they needed to know all of these things.

5:19How would that be possible?

5:21By these rituals which created an internal map.

5:24We call this navigation.

5:27One way is to look at a prospectus and try something out. But that’s external.

5:31Another way is to turn it into a habit and to create an internal map.

5:35I am talking about how huy (habit) turns into ‘ahlak’ (ethical behavior). That’s when you have an internal map.

5:39You can have a map even when you are in the desert.

5:43In the desert, our internal map is the sky.

5:47We can find our way at night by looking at the stars.

5:50You can’t find your way during the day.

5:53Our rituals or habits become our character when they are repeated over time.

5:59As they bring our capabilities out into the open.

6:04By repeating them over and over again and turning them into our character.

6:14So that our habits may turn into our character.

6:19But the most important and absolutely necessary aspect of character is

6:22‘Freedom from Slavery’.

6:24Unless we can say that freedom is our character.

6:29We cannot claim to be a servant of God.

6:32We are then the servant of the Pharaoh

6:34or some other belief system.

6:37To be a servant of God means that freedom has become our character.

6:44How will that happen? By coming together in that temple, leading to the creation of an internal map.

6:50Now, I also talked about art. And you might say what is the connection of art to religion?

6:57Art, religion and philosophy are all interrelated.

6:59Culture is an organism. In order to understand it, we create such categories.

7:04So why art? What is artistic here?

7:06Now modern art is something that supersedes all previous art

7:12And concentrates on two things.

7:16One is performance

7:18And the other is installation.

7:21Modern Art is a combination of installation and performance.

7:29In modern art, we don’t just make a sculpture

7:33and install it in a museum and leave it there.

7:38Now in modern art we might install

7:41a sculpture, or a painting at a gallery temporarily.

7:46After an exhibition, we uninstall it and take it away.

7:49In fact, I remember an American artist - can’t recollect his name right now -

7:53who organized a beautiful exhibition of sculptures.

7:58At the end of the exhibition, he took a hammer and destroyed all of them.

8:06Everything is fleeting.

8:09The point is the freshness of the exhibit at that moment. That taste.

8:16Of course, you might catalogue all the pieces in order to remember them afterwards,

8:18that’s a different subject.

8:19Isn’t all the manifestations of God just like that?

8:22In April and May, flowers bloom.

8:26That is an installation.

8:28But then in the summer they dry out.

8:30And you can’t see them in the winter.

8:31Sinan: It is like the cycle of construction and deconstruction.

8:32Yes, exactly

8:39Creativity must destroy in order to create.

8:45Like the tents that were built and then taken down in Moses’ time, that is the installation.

8:51So,

8:52performance?

8:55-Sinan: How is it done? By who?

8:57What is its quality?

8:59That is dependent on the people who build the tent,

9:04of the kind of activities they choose to undertake.

9:09Performance and installations are interrelated there.

9:12Sinan: So perhaps they are singing and doing rhythmic movements like we see in films.

9:15No, that’s not the point.

9:20After this introduction,

9:23let’s examine the manifestations in the world of the process I described.

9:28So Ibn Arabi says that

9:30The people of wisdom do not limit themselves to a particular creed.

9:38Does that mean they have no creed?

9:40Yes, there is such a station - a station of no creed.

9:42We call that ‘Lakayt’.

9:44Those who have reached that station have been granted that station.

9:51But it can’t be copied.

9:53Those who claim that they are ‘lakayt’

9:56but in reality have not reached that station are called “Laubali”.

10:00Some people claim that ‘lakayt’ people are ‘laubali’.

10:08That’s not true.

10:10'Lakayt' means a person has received the inspiration from God who is timeless and placeless and

10:13has been granted that station.

10:16He is not ‘lakayd’ by his own will, but was bestowed that station.

10:22Such people are innocent.

10:25But the people who, by their own will, call themselves “lakayt’ are ‘laubali’

10:29and have not even reached the station of ‘shariat’.

10:33These stations are confused with each other.

10:37But you see there is a huge difference, even an abyss, between them.

10:43Now

10:45Ibn Arabi says that the people of Marifet (Wisdom) do not limit themselves to one creed.

10:51A creed has its limitations and a boundary and to limit oneself this way is not acceptable to God according to Ibn Arabi.

10:58To be stuck in one creed is not acceptable.

11:03As the Surah Rahman points out: How can you deny God’s ‘rahmet’ (beneficence)? (Surah Rahman)

11:08How can you deny God’s beneficence in its many manifestations?

11:13‘Rahman’ (Beneficence) are many,

11:18That means creeds, belief systems are part of ‘Rahman’ (Beneficence). Creeds give birth to wisdom.

11:26The point is not to deny a creed, it is about not getting stuck in one.

11:31So what is the solution?

11:33Ibn Arabi responds:

11:35one can become a person of Marifet (Wisdom), by the ability to move from one creed to another.

11:43What does that mean?

11:44Supposing one has adopted a creed,

11:48and has witnessed its manifestation, consumed it over and over again,

11:51A person of Marifet (Wisdom) would also be able to witness the manifestations

11:55of God’s ‘rahmet’ in a different and separate creed.

11:58When we talk about witnessing, we are talking about Marifet.

12:02We are at the table of Marifet.

12:05We said that a person of Marifet (Wisdom) would be able to move from one creed to another.

12:12The person who is ‘Arif’ (person of Marifet) is in ‘Araf’ (In between).

12:17He or she is not an ‘alim’ (scientist) because science restricts, creates boundaries.

12:22But ‘arif’ is someone who can move from one discipline to another.

12:27Lets say you were a geographer, then you studied physics, then you learned biology.

12:32These are all different disciplines, but what is required from a person of Marifet is to be able

12:38to stand in between and learn from those disciplines

12:42without a preference from one or the other and

12:47to be able to synthesize them.

12:50That’s why ‘marifet’ comes after ‘hakikat’.

12:54Many people assume that ‘hakikat’ comes after ‘marifet’. But that is not the case.

12:59Whatever is given to you, outside of your own will, is Hakikat (reality).

13:04You didn’t create it, it was already there.

13:10For example, water is reality, it is not a copy.

13:15How would we know? We test it to see.

13:19Testing is ‘tarikat’, it is a laboratory.

13:24To do the research to see if this is water or not.

13:30That is ‘tarikat’, the method.

13:34Once you know that the water is real,

13:38then tarikat is over.

13:40Now you know this is water, it is not a copy,

13:45It is not oil, it is not something that looks like water.

13:51But water itself.

13:54So you found that out but then what?

13:58What do we do next?

14:01Reality is one. There are realities, but the reality of water or each thing is one.

14:08So once you found the reality of water, do you just accept it?

14:14Why did you do it? You have put out all this effort. What is the point?

14:20The point is: I learn the Reality so that then I can see what can manifest from this reality.

14:24That is called Marifet.

14:27We talked about this before and will again.

14:30The question is: What can I make out of this reality?

14:36Remember, we talked about what we can make out of milk in a previous sohbet.

14:38Shall we make yogurt or cheese?

14:41There are more than 60 kinds of cheeses in Türkiye, and more than 300 in the world.

14:46They all come from the same milk, same shariat but Marifet is different.

14:49There is also ‘Marife’ which means to implement, to put theory into practice.

14:54One can become an expert in theoretical knowledge,

14:58but we need to also be able to put it in practice.

15:01Suppose Serhan said to me: study music and become proficient in the theoretical knowledge of music.

15:07I may have acquired all that knowledge

15:11But I will still not be able to play an instrument.

15:13So I have to become ‘usta’ (expert) in practice too.

15:18So ‘Arif’ must become an expert in practice as well as theory, whereas ‘Alim’ remains in theory.

15:26‘Marife’ means combining theory and practice

15:31***translated by Prof.Dr. Nükhet Kardam***Çilingir Sofrası 11 /Freedom is my character