Faadil's question on identity & beingness

 After reading my Blogpost 'B & B', Faadil, a friend from South Africa, wrote to me with this question:
  
'The self is inextricably linked with the social organisation. Identity is derived from the contrasts of the "otherness" of social organisation. So much of Sufism centres around this theme," See creation as yourself or even better than yourself", says Shaykh Fadhlalla. So, is the experience of  identity also the experience of "otherness" of the social group? How does  this relate to "beingness"?'

Having not actually defined anywhere what I mean by 'being and becoming' (I rather thought to let this drip-feed through the posts!), here's a response to Faadil's question that was specifically triggered by my statement: "And yet. and yet. The only aperture through which you can experience this 'beingness', this miracle of existence, is the self, your 'self'."

That blogpost was only a cursory glance at identity.  I would certainly agree that our identity does derive part of its contours and textures from the 'otherness' of social organization. Aspects of our identity are defined in relation to our role in other people's lives, or larger social units, or organizations. We are each sons or daughters, mothers or fathers, brothers or sisters, friends or co-workers, and so on. We are also teachers, artists, lawyers, counsellors, doctors, sweepers, factory workers, craftsmen, sailors etc.

How we define ourselves is often in correlation to archetypes, stereotypes and human 'tropes' if you like. Psychology has given us several typographies we can subscribe to  - like the Myers Briggs - to help chart our personalities and locate ourselves in relation to others, or how we are perceived by others.

But is the sum total of our identity dependent on the 'otherness' of 'social organization'? To some extent it is dependent on the perception of 'otherness' coming from within ourselves. Carl Jung wrote: 'Not only can you analyze your unconscious, you can let your unconscious analyze you.' Our self-awareness, like the torchlight of a third party on the cavern of our own psyche, can be perceived as an 'other' in relation to an Essential Self - a non-changing background of soul-energy that is linked to Higher Consciousness that is just that - Pure Consciousness,  unlimited, undefined, eternal.

Conscious awareness of beingness, of existing both in time and space and yet somehow connected to something that transcends the limitations necessarily imposed by by these dimensions,  is not limited by the shadings and colourings of our individual identity. Nor is it separate to it. Rather, it is woven through the warp and weft of it. This is part of the dazzling, endlessly interesting paradox of the human condition. 

Your quote of Shaykh Fadhlalla's statement is possibly taken from a discursive context of how one should approach one's 'self'.  He implies seeing things with the eye of tawhid, in which there is no separation between you and anything outside of yourself. Failing that, if you cannot stop seeing yourself in separation, then at the very least you should see yourself  as wanting in relation to the perfection saturating creation, thus placing yourself on the carpet of humility that is per se the portal to higher knowledge and freedom from the illusion of separation. Shaykh Fadhlalla often exhorts us to have least concern with the self. If you are least concerned with the ego-self, or micro-self, the idea is that you should be most concerned with the macro self, the ONE SELF from which Allah created all selves. And what is that but light reflected from Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and refracted through the prism of our individual identities.

Hopefully I've answered in part your questions, Faadil. Apologies if I haven't or I misunderstood. I'll leave you with something from the supreme poet and realized master, Maulana Rumi:

We are from above and up we will go.

We come from the sea, we'll go to the sea.

We're from there, not from here.

We are from nowhere, to nowhere we'll go.

Like Noah's ark in the flood

we must move without legs.

Like a wave, we grow out of ourselves.

When we want to feast our eyes, we withdraw.

The way to God is narrow as the eye of a needle. 

We slip though alone like a single thread.

Remember home and companions

knowing that we leave them behind.

You have read: 'We return to Him,"

so you know where it is we are going.

Our star isn't found in the turning wheel.

We're bound to venture past the Pleiades.

O words, stop. Don't come with me - 

I'm leaving even my self behind.

O mountain of self-existence, stay out of our way.

We're on our way to Mount Qaf and the Anqa.

(From: Say Nothing, Poems of Jalal al-Din Rumi in Persian & English', Iraj Anvar & Anne Twitty, Morning Light Press 2008)

Glossary:

Tawhid: unity, the underlying connectivity of everything seen and unseen.

Subhanahu wa ta'ala: May He be glorified and exalted.

Mount Qaf: Mystical mountain that surrounds the world, metaphorical destination of the journey to Divine presence.

Anqa: another name for the Simorgh, the mythical bird that lives on Mount Qaf, symbolizing Divine presence, wisdom and truth (Anvar & Twitty, 130)