Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) today we look at one of the aspects of our personalities commanding self, highlighted via this fact pointed by the author, Idries Shah. “The Commanding Self” here points to the “mixture of primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written in response to requests for “clarification, interviews, question-and-answer sessions, lectures”, the following section of the book present study theme intended to enable the student to observe the functioning of their own emotional and conditioned responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Moth and The Soot<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: People talk about psychological and spiritual evolution. Is this misleading? If physical forms change in response to the interplay between inner and outer forces, how can this happen in more subtle areas? It seems to me as if we are talking about brain washing and indoctrination if we work on the human mind in a way analogous to evolutionary processes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: <\/strong>This is an interesting question, because it enables us to explain something which pin-points the difference (<\/em>not the similarity) between mind shaping and Sufi-learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us begin with the currently very popular true story of the light grey Biston betularia<\/em>, a common moth of Manchester, in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The body and wing colours of this insect were grey, a form of protective camouflage which enabled it to merge with its wood-land surroundings and escape the birds which would otherwise have killed it. Some time after the great nineteenth-century industrialisation of Manchester, such was the prevalence of soot deposits on many surfaces that the moths began to show up against the grime. It was then observed that, by the interplay of its genetic characteristics with the darker environment, the moths began to grow darker. After half a century, the overwhelming majority of those born were black. This development also took place in many other industrialised areas throughout the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, in the social field, something very similar occurs. Put someone among people who wear different clothes, sing certain songs, carry out unfamiliar practices, and what do you get? This individual will either reject the new environment, will remain unaffected or will imitate it. It will depend upon where he (or she) finds more comfort and safety. In the case of people with a well-defined idea of their own identity, and with a community with which to identify, you may expect rejection or no effect. Among those who are uncertain, estranged, fearful, you will be most likely to find imitation. This ‘convert’ will have found what is imagined to be safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commanding Self – Idries Shah<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link: <\/p>\n\n\n\n