Çilingir Sofrası 38 / Gece Yürüyüşü ve Sekine (with English subtitles)

0:00Çilingir Sofrası 38 / Night Journey and Tranquillity ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***

0:02We call human beings ‘besher’ because we don’t acknowledge themselves

0:05You see we are always complaining, always upset about something.

0:08There is always something to be critical about,

0:11complaints about this or that (reference to Mazhar Fuat Özkan song called ‘Ondan Şikayet Bundan Şikayet’) It is a great song

0:21So it is true that. We complain a lot.

0:23According to Ismail Emre

0:27One could define Sufism in many different ways.

0:28There are many definitions

0:29Someone asked him to define Sufism,

0:32his answer was:

0:34Sufism means abandoning the ethics of objection.

0:43It is of course sometimes necessary to object to something or to be critical.

0:51But if you want to find yourself

0:55You should be critical of yourself.

0:57Of course you should be able to object as well, but you should turn it towards yourself

1:12like wrestling with yourself.

1:15Imagine if a wrestler’s opponent was himself, I wonder what that would look like.

1:19Maybe someone should enact this in theater.

1:21I would have liked to see it, it would be great to watch.

1:30But because that wrestling is internal, it is invisible.

1:34Because it is invisible

1:38It is called night (leyl)

1:42When it is external,

1:44we call it day (nehar),

1:47when it is internal, it is called night.

1:52You could ask why this is important.

1:55We can’t seem to go to India,

2:00who is not letting us go?

2:02Now

2:04Isra

2:05is

2:06is - ra

2:07means night journey

2:12is - ra

2:13The word Israel is derived from that.

2:16Prophet Muhammed undertook this night journey, that we call Miraj.

2:25He didn't go somewhere in his body,

2:28it was an internal journey in his soul.

2:30He lived this journey in his imagination.

2:33Why Israel?

2:35The name of a country

2:37No, I am talking about Prophet Jacob,

2:40who at night

2:43Who at night, isra,

2:46wrestled with Archangel Michael.

2:52He wrestled

2:54with Archangel Michael till daybreak

2:57till morning.

3:01This is in the Torah

3:03Prophet Jacob wrestled with Archangel Michael.

3:08Finally, as dawn broke,

3:13he overpowered the Archangel

3:16But right then

3:19The Archangel touched the sinew of his thigh

3:24And as a result Prophet Jacob developed a limp

3:30and then

3:32Jacob asked him for his blessings

3:36as he was an angel of God.

3:40And the Archangel said:

3:42from now on your name is Israel not Jacob.

3:45So his name changed

3:47and he gained a ‘name’

3:51He now had a ‘horse’

3:53called Michael.

3:54Sinan: He wrestled the whole night

3:58Can: In the book ‘Awakened Dreams’ by Ahmet Hilmi, there is the fight between good and evil that lasts a long time

4:08So we call this internal spiritual journey ‘seyri suluk’

4:12Isra or night journey

4:17This path is internal, there is no external path

4:22I am talking about spirituality

4:24You cannot follow anyone and say,

4:26I wish there was someone in front who I can follow

4:30Saints walk on sand

4:33Because they walk on sand, there are no footprints.

4:36Everyone has to find their own path by walking it by themselves.

4:41There is something very interesting in the Qur’an about this

4:44It says that:

4:46There are as many paths to God as the number of breaths.

4:56What is ‘nefes’? It is breath

5:01It also means individuality.

5:04Remember that spirit (ruh) is one, but your own breath is individual.

5:09Everybody has their own voice, their own breath, their own individuality,

5:22own path to God.

5:26cannot go someone else's path.

5:31Everyone finds their ‘Rab’ through their own ‘esma-i hass’ (divine name)

5:34and establishes their connection with the Divine Receives God’s mercy and serves others

5:40We can’t follow someone else’s path

5:43If we do that,

5:44we are idolaters.

5:46We are in duality

5:48Why are you following someone else’s path, when you have your own path?

5:52This means originality.

5:54There is a surah that says that "Allah does not like imitators."

6:01What is the opposite?

6:02So He likes those who are original

6:06You have been created as an individual who is original

6:08Why are you imitating someone else?

6:12We say there are certain rules established by the Prophet to be followed, this is very important.

6:20But if you imitate others, as Bektashi saints have said, imitation does not lead one to understanding Reality.

6:29We are trying to imitate someone, who has been applauded by others but we are not satisfied.

6:34You can’t be satisfied by imitation.

6:38Is imitatation worthwhile in art?

6:40No

6:42We have to be original, everyone is already original, therefore, we need to manifest our own originality

6:49and serve in the way that we are meant to serve others and acknowledge

6:56and approve of ourselves and arrive at the Satisfied Self (Nefs-i Mutmainne)

7:05That’s when an invitation comes.

7:08You, the Satisfied Self, Come, come hither!

7:15Where? to India?

7:17No, the call, the invitation is to Himself, to God

7:19They say the same thing in India that we are called to ourselves

7:22Yes, since we said India, we were talking about Brahma

7:28Brahma is above all relationships.

7:32Brahma has no opposites, no direction, and is not visible.

7:38It is not possible to conceive of Brahma. Everything and everyone

7:44finds calm and peace within Brahma.

7:49So Brahma is not based on the senses is not visible,

7:53cannot be conceived, but we are talking about

7:58something called ‘Brahma’

8:01with a name but not a form. If there is a name, there should be a form associated with it

8:09or there should be some attributes or some activities associated with it

8:15so I almost want to say Brahma doesn’t exist but I cannot say that.

8:19It is not possible to say that.

8:21Sinan: timeless, placeless

8:24Timeless, placeless so are we going to say it does not exist? I can’t really bring myself to say that

8:30So there is negation here Not this, not that

8:39In Islam we call that

8:42La ilahe.

8:44La ilahe.

8:47but there is also ‘illallah’

8:49The fourth is illallah

8:52That which is in everything, every being where every being finds tranquility (sekine)

9:08‘Sekine’ is a very important concept

9:13Sekine; it means finding ‘sukun’ (serenity)

9:16It means serenity but it also means place (mesken)

9:22A place of serenity.

9:25This is usually understood as

9:27a place,

9:29finding a place to live and settle there.

9:36But that’s not all.

9:38Wherever we are serene and peaceful, that’s where our mesken (home) is

9:41Can: that’s when we are peaceful

9:44To be calm and peaceful means that we are soothed,

9:54we are no longer in an internal conflict.

10:02When we are at peace with ourselves

10:04that means we are now home

10:08Your home is where you find tranquility

10:15and peace

10:22So when we say peace and tranquility, do we mean no motion at all?

10:28But there is no existence without motion.

10:34So what does ‘sekine’ or ‘sukun’ mean

10:37if it means stillness or no motion?

10:39This can’t be real as there is no existence without motion

10:41Is it just an emotional state?

10:44Then it cannot be in everything

10:48But it is in everything!

10:50Let’s contemplate this

10:52So we say that there is ‘sukun’ (stillness) in everything but how can there be motion in stillness ‘sukun’ then?

10:56If there is no motion, how can there be existence?

10:58We know everything is energy and is in motion So now we are saying there is stillness in motion! How come?

11:04Allah Allah Allah

11:05If there is stillness in motion meaning there no motion

11:08then there is no existence

11:10What do we understand by ‘sukun’ then?

11:16Musicians know the answer.

11:18harmony

11:21Sound is energy.

11:25When sounds are in harmony With each other, that is serenity

11:35When the sounds or the notes are harmonious, there emerges a sound.

11:44That is in balance.

11:49That balance is ‘Sekine’

11:53Sinan: Sometimes we think something that is turning very fast is standing still.

11:55That’s different, that’s a misperception

11:58This is real

12:03Sinan: So sukun is this, something that exists in everything it means balance

12:10Think about an atom please.

12:13The electrons are turning in the outer orbit

12:17They get faster and faster as they get closer to the center

12:20Just like the solar system, Planets that are further away from the sun

12:25turn more slowly, closer ones move faster.

12:29That's right.

12:30But the solar system is just like the structure of an atom The earth moves together with

12:37the other planets and moons in the solar system.

12:42They all move in relationship to each other

12:48The earth is influenced by all the other members of the solar system.

12:52Also influenced by the constellations of further stars

12:56We say that the sun constitutes a system

13:00What does that mean?

13:01The sun is not just a ball of fire moving on its own

13:07but it moves together with the planets and their moons.

13:13It travels very fast

13:15Together with the planets in its system

13:19So to the balance between all the members of the Solar System

13:25we called ‘Sekine’

13:31The balance between their different forces is what keeps them going

13:38We didn’t know this till Newton came along.

13:42We are grateful

13:44that he opened up this reality to us offered the science of God to us

13:53We should appreciate people who give us such gifts. They don’t have to be prophets

13:59We are devoted to titles And do not see the real servants of God

14:03in many different locations and cannot appreciate them

14:08We don’t understand that Beethoven or Mozart are gifts of God

14:13to us through music

14:17A group of Americans visited me once they were interested in Sufism

14:24There were musicians among them They wanted to play a piece for us

14:30and said that they had adapted a poem by Ibn Arabi to music

14:39Three women guitarists picked up their guitars

14:45They each played different notes One might play ‘C’’, the other ‘D’

14:48We here, on the other hand, always go by one sound We go after just one sound

14:54go after one leader

14:56and follow that leader, hard to have democracy here

15:01They are not like that. One says C, the other says E

15:03If you are there, I am here too

15:09So what we mean harmony, for example is C major chord is made up of C-E-G

15:15There are three different sounds there But the root note is C

15:21When we touch C

15:26Just wait, it gradually turns into E and G That’s harmony

15:35That’s the direction C wants to go It goes towards G

15:45passing through E And once it meets G

15:51meets its love

15:53C says I met my love now

15:57They are in love with each other

16:03That’s ‘sekine’

16:06That road is called the straight path Sirat-al mustakim

16:13C can only go towards g, then it is satisfied.

16:21I am talking about these notes c, g, e because I hope that Sinan will offer some music to us.

16:26So can we perhaps have some music now? Some jazz?

16:30Can: Serhan is not here

16:33Sinan: let’s see what we can do withouut Serhan. Can we have a jazz improvisation perhaps?

16:41We still couldn’t go to India

16:44The spirit of this place is so powerful, it attracts us

16:52Can: How about a jam session? Sinan: I am not sure what I can do, let me see

16:58I am sure you can figure out something

17:05Can: Kind of Jam Session.

17:17Sinan: Watch out for the microphone.

18:11Sinan: Ataman...

18:20We arrived in Ataman and still couldn’t get to India!

18:23See he still didn't take us to Indıa, he said "ATAMAN" instead of "ATMAN".

18:28Can: It got a bit confusing.

18:30Sinan: We are further north (Ataman is a proto-Turkish word), where the mogols were.

18:35Can: They were also in Mesopotamia, going back to Sumerians.

18:41Sumerian comes from them.

18:45Çilingir Sofrası 38 / Night Journey and Tranquillity ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***