What follows is an excerpt from a television program aired on October 7th, 2009 by German television station ZDF. It takes a skeptical viewpoint in trying to debunk God and Faith. They also address an interesting scientific experiment which tries to research what happens in the brain during deep meditation in which the state of oneness is experienced by the believer. The program brings this up in an attempt to give a natural explanation of a deep devotional experience. The problem is however that the program misses the deep mystery of consciousness, especially the duality of a brain wave field created by the matter of our neurons and how in this experiment synchronized wave patterns produce a perception of being at one with the underlying reality of our universe, which in turn is also based on a matter/wave duality.

When our brain wants us to focus on certain parts of our visual perception, neurons in the prefrontal cortex fire in unison and send signals to the visual cortex to do the same in order to become synchronized, directing our focus of attention. Source

During meditation we do not focus our sensory perception, still our brain waves become nearly completely synchronized by which the boundaries between inside and outside dissolve.

Science and religion has a hard time understanding the paradox of Jesus the God-Man, uniting two perfect natures in one person, fully divine and fully human, one in essence.

The skeptical view:

Abenteur Forschung
Brain Research Brain and God

Is faith measurable?
Every year millions of believers go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in the hope of a cure, and all united in the belief in the power of a miracle. In 1858 in the grotto Massabielle the Virgin Mary appeared several times to the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous. A vision, a fantasy, a perceptual illusion? Researchers are on the trail of the phenomenon. They want to find out exactly what happens when such a phenomenon occurs, and how faith can actually be created. Visions or apparitions are a particularly intense form of spiritual experience. Faith is apparently widespread in many different cultures as a universal principle. Does Faith have a material basis?Researchers are now looking in the brain for measurable traces of faith and religiosity. Experiments suggest that certain areas are more active in the brain during religious experiences than others.

What happens during a vision?
 Is the brain of a believer distinct from that of non-believers, and how does our brain work, while we believe? During an observation brain researcher observe nuns during prayer in MRI. The aim is to find out what events occur in the brain during intense spiritual meditation, prayer, and if that leaves specific traces, so to speak, religiosity has a “place in the brain.” The comparison is striking: The brain of a person in prayer is different from a non-worshipers. The result: The activity of the brain during prayer varies by region. Fast passive is the center, with which we orientate ourselves in space and perceive. It is surprising that this region is supplied much less with blood during the prayer than, say, in resting subjects who do not pray. Some researchers see in this shut down of orientation the reason why prayer is often perceived as closeness to God.

The art of meditation
The Interest of science for Buddhist monks. In Buddhism meditation has for 2000 years placed meditation at its center. Many experienced monks train their brains in their lives often more than 10,000 hours. They describe their feelings as “one with the environment”, the borders to the outside world seem resolved.

That makes researchers interested. As neurophysiologists measure the brain waves of a monk in meditation, they are surprised: The brain waves vibrate remarkably uniform at a certain frequency. Die researchers draw the following conclusions from it: stimuli from our sense organs lead to nerve cells which continue to corresponding brain centers, there arises the perception of our surroundings. During the meditation changes the pattern. The derived excitation now shows nearly synchronized waves. A condition which probably completely changes the perception.
This provides the explanation for the brain researcher of what the monks during meditation experience: that the boundary between interior and exterior dissolves. This creates the feeling of being in complete harmony with the environment.

A matter of faith
Some scholars see in these results also a clue for the explanation of religious phenomena. As potential triggers they suspect specific excitation patterns in the brain. Some even go so far that they think they can selectively induce such visions. A converted helm is the ultimate tool for their experiment: It generates a weak magnetic field, and aims to stimulate such a small target area of the brain. The subjects should describe directly, which results in internal images. Some indeed report religious phenomena, others see mysterious luminous phenomena in the sky, UFOs or even extraterrestrial visitors. Again the images are determined by the individual cultural background. For example only those who have a strong religious commitment report corresponding appearances.

Source: ZDF Abenteur Forchung

“Teacher”, the pupil said, “when I venture on the path of the spiritual journey what will happen to my life’s house?”

The teachter paused to scoop water from the brook and after a pause looked at the pupil and said “Our house will be shaken to its very foundations upon what it is build, it will come tumbling down around us. When we move on the contours of our old house are fading and instead we experience the promise of a house and a whole city without walls. The struggle is that our eye cannot perceive the air that separates the inside for the outside, but that is just the illusion we cling on to.

To unearth the vision that lies beyond our grasp and reunite the light of the eye to its true source that shines brighter as a thousand suns and still is kinder than the sun in the sky.”

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54
- working title “Songs from the wilderness””, H. Blum

“What is the temple you are going to build me? Child of man! Do not I fill heaven and earth? And did not I establish its foundations? Did not Salomon inform you that his temple build of stones, cut out by human hands, could not contain me!”

“Is not Life an expression of itself and do not I form the the gift of Life within you? So what could you possibly give me, that is not mine?”

The student fell to his knees.

Thundering ”What is the desire of your heart? To have more of what belongs to me? ……. Or to be found worthy of the gift?”

The student ran to his teacher and cried out I am unworthy!

The teacher answered “Are we not all beggars and thieves? Still we can be found Kings and Priests. Remember that God through his Prophets predicted that Mount Sion would be plowed over and the temple made of stone destroyed. Plowing might be descructive to the old roots still it prepares the ground to receive the seed for the harvest.”

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54
- working title “Songs from the wilderness””, H. Blum 

Indubitaly no man is born fatherless;
Only one Jesus exists in the world.
- Shabestari

The Sufis believe that Jesus was born of Mary through the breath of the Holy Spirit, and had no physical father.
The Qoran describes the Divine animation of man as a breathing of God’s Spirit unto the human frame, using the the same expression for the generation of Jesus as for the creation of Adam, that is, by a blowing of the Divine Breath, respectively, into the womb of Mary and into the clay of Adam’s body - a breath which is none other than the Grace of the Holy Spirit.

What the Sufis understand by a reference to the concept of ‘Father’ with respect to Jesus, such as when the Gospel quotes Jesus as saying, “I go to the Father” (John 16:16), is that the saints are the spiritual children of the Divine, so that Jesus as a saint, can be regarded as just such a ’spiritual offspring’.

As Rumi puts it,

My boy,
All the saints are sons of God:
Whether here or there, present or absent,
Always aware, vigilant and awake.

Shaikh Shabestari provides a lyrical rendering of this concept in his Golshan-e raz:

First the suckling infant,
Bound to a cradle, is sustained on milk,
Then, when mature, becomes a wayfarer;
If a man, he travels with his father.

The elements of nature for you
Resemble an earthborn mother,
You, a son whose father
Is a patriarch from on high.

So Jesus proclaimed upon ascension:
“I go to my Father (Abba) above.”
You too, favorite of your father,
Set forth for your Father!

Your fellow-travelers went on;
you too pass on!
If you wish to be a bird in flight,
Leave the world’s carcass to vultures.

In his commentary on the Golshan-e ráz, Shaikh Làhiji explains the concepts of the Holy Spirit (ruh al-qodos) and the ‘Spirit of God’ (ruho’lláh), which appear in another part of Shabestari’s work, verse by verse in the following manner:

Within the inner court of holy Oneness
Lies the soul’s monastery.

Nurbakhsh, Dr. Javad. Jesus in the Eyes of the Sufis.Terry Graham, et al. Trans.
London: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications, 1983.

Confronted with the grief of a student over the distress that has befallen him, the student asked him “why teacher, doesn’t the love of God protect us from harm?”

The teacher looked in the distance and answered “As his word teaches everything in life returns to us, so that should direct our ways. In life everything that befalls us is an opportunity to learn and I needed still a lot to learn about the essence of life as in His love He gave me many opportunities to learn. Sometimes a lesson is painful and only that pain can occupy our mind. If we widen our view the necessity to learn presents itself.
We are never alone in our times of distress. The field of trouble is also a door of hope as long as we allow His light to penetrate our darkness.”

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54
- working title “Songs from the wilderness”", H. Blum 

I read in the past about a letter of Michelangelo in which he tried to describe to one of his supporters the immanent nature of God in  creation by the following analogy:

Place a candle between two mirrors, how many reflections do you see?

I am still looking for the original source of that analogy. Help is appreciated. 

Hadith: “God says, ‘My heavens and My earth encompass Me not, but the heart of My gentle, believing, and meek servant does encompass Me.‘”

Rümi often refers to this hadith directly or indirectly.

The heart of the saint “contains” God, while the heart of the ordinary man is mired in water and clay. What determines the worth of a man is the state of his heart. Man’s task in this world is to cleanse his heart. to polish it, and ultimately to make of it a perfect mirror reflecting God. This he can only accomplish with the guidance of the Possessor of the Heart.

Quoted from the “The Sufi path of love,
the spiritual teachings of Rumi” by William C. Chittick

“Teacher” said the pupil, “Why is there a difference between a spiritual man and those that are not?”

Son, is there such a thing as a non-spiritual man? In this world there are man who have fallen in love with the gift so much that they have forgotten to seek the face of the giver. Others seek his face constantly. Both bring a smile to the face of the giver.
The misuse of his gift will sadden him.

He gave us of His essence, that we may manifest His essence for He loves us so much that he gave his own that we may find life.

In our darkness and to blinded to see we choose to put out the light and remain in darkness.

Can a woman with a loving and faithful husband remain ignorant of his lovingkindness? Knowing that if she accepts and returns his love that will make her the most revered bride?
Praise the faithful husband that in his lovingkindness he still sees the beauty of his bride even though her missteps in his severity cause his face to turn away. 
Praise the husband that he is a faithful husband!

From a work in progress based on Psalm 119, 54 - working title Songs from the wilderness, H. Blum 

How many words the world contains! But all have one meaning. When you smash the vessels, the water is one.

Rumi - Divan- i Shams-i Tabriz

THREE DIMENSIONS OF SUFISM

Sufi teachings can be divided into three broad categories. The first two categories may be referred to as “wisdom” and “method,” or in terms more commonly used in the context of Islam, “knowledge” (’ilm) and “works” (’amal), i.e., “theory” and “practice.” According to the Prophet, “Knowledge without works is like a tree without fruit.” Here of course “knowledge” is the same thing the Prophet has referred to in many other sayings, such as, “The search for knowledge is incum­bent upon every Moslem”; “Seek knowledge, even unto China”; “Knowledge is a light which God causes to descend into the heart of whomsoever He will!.” It is the knowledge of God Himself and of man’s ultimate end. For Moslems, it is the knowledge revealed by the Koran. In such a perspective “works” means the application of this knowledge to one’s everyday life. For Moslems it is the practice of Islam.

Within the context of this Islamic conception of knowledge and works, the Sufis emphasize a third element that is not set down so explicitly in the Koran and the Hadith: spiritual realization, or the ascending stages of human perfection resulting in proximity to God. Again the Sufis cite a saying of the Prophet: “The Law is my words, the Way is my works, and the Truth is my inward states.” Here the Sufis understand “Law” or Shariah in its widest sense, as embracing “knowledge” and all the theoretical teachings of Islam. The “Way” or Tariqah is then the method of putting the Law into practice. And the Reality or Haqiqah is the inward states and stations attained by the traveller in his journey to God and in God.

The Law is like a lamp: It shows the way.
Without a lamp, you will not be able to go forward. When you enter the path, your going is the Way. And when you reach the goal, that is the Truth.

The Law may be compared to learning the theory of medicine. The Way involves avoiding certain foods and consuming certain remedies on the basis of this theory. Then the Truth is to find everlasting health and to have no more need for theory and practice.
When man dies to the life of this world, the Law and the Way will be cut off from him, and only the Truth will remain…. The Law is knowledge, the Way is works and the Truth is attainment to God. (M V introd.)

These then are the three dimensions of Sufi teaching: the Law, the Way, and the Truth; or knowledge, works, and attainment to God; or theory, practice, and spiritual realization.
Knowledge of God, man, and the world derives ultimately from God Himself, primarily by means of revelation, i.e. - in the context of Islam - the Koran and the Hadith of the Prophet; and secondarily by means of inspiration or “unveiling,” i.e., the spiritual vision of the saints, or the realized Sufis. Knowledge provides the illumination whereby man can see everything in its proper place.

Thus “knowledge,” or the theoretical dimension of religion, which becomes codified in the farm of the Divine Law, situates man in the total universe, defining his nature and responsibilities as a human being. Knowledge and theory find their complementary dimension in practice, or the Way, which is determined by the “works” or Sunnah of the Prophet, the norm for all God-directed human activity. To follow the Sufi path is to obey the commands and prohibitions of God ac­cording to the model provided by His Prophet: “You have a good example in God’s Messenger, for whosoever hopes for God and the last day, and remembers God often” (Koran XXXIII 21). “Say (oh Muhammad)! ‘If you love God, follow me, and God will love you and forgive you your sins’” (III 31) More specifically the Sufi Way is to follow the model provided by the Prophet’s representatives on earth, the saints, who are the shaykhs or the spiritual masters.

Once having entered the Way, the disciple begins to undergo a process of inward transformation. If he is among those destined to reach spiritual perfection, he will climb the ascending rungs of a ladder stretching to heaven and beyond; the alchemy of the Way will transmute the base copper of his substance into pure and noble gold.

The Truth or “attainment to God” is not a simple, one-step process. It can be said that this third dimension of Sufi teaching deals with all the inner experiences undergone by the traveller on his journey. It concerns all the “virtues” (akhlaq) the Sufi must acquire, in keeping with the Prophet’s saying, “Assume the virtues of God!” If acquiring virtues means “attaining to God,” this is because they do not belong to man. The discipline of the Way coupled with God’s grace and guidance results in a process of purification whereby the veil of human nature is gradually removed from the mirror of the primordial human substance, made in the image of God, or, in the Prophet’s words, “upon the Form of the All-Merciful.” Any perfection achieved by man is God’s perfection reflected within him.
 
In the classical textbooks, this third dimension of Sufi teachings is discussed mainly under the heading of the “stations” (maqamat) and the “spiritual states” (ahwal). From a certain point of view we can call this dimension “Sufi psychology” - as long as we understand the term “psyche” in the widest possible sense, as equivalent to “spirit” in Rumi’s terminology. Sufi psychology could then be defined as “the science of the transformations undergone by the spirit in its journey to God.” One must remember, however, that this science bears no resemblance to “psychology” as known in the West today.
For in Rumi’s terminology, modern psychology is based totally upon the ego’s study of itself. But the “ego” (nafs) is the lowest dimension of man’s inward existence, his animal and satanic nature. Only God or the spirit can know the spirit, which is man’s higher or angelic nature. Ultimately the ego cannot even know itself without a totally distorted viewpoint, for it gains all of its positive reality from the spirit that lies above and beyond it. Only the spirit that encompasses and em­braces the ego can know the ego. And only the saints have attained to the station whereby their consciousness of reality is centered within their spirits or in God.
In Sufi psychology, the “stations” are said to be the spiritual and moral perfections, or the “virtues,” achieved by the traveller on the path to God. For example, once having actualized wakefulness, the traveller moves on to repentance and then to self-examination; or once having achieved humility, he ascends to chivalry and then to expan­sion. A work such as Ansari’s Manazil al-sa’irin, from which these examples are taken, classifies the ascending stations in ten sections according to one hundred different headings. Other Sufis have em­ployed totally different schemes and classified the stations in a greater or lesser number of headings. But the general idea of all the classi­fications is the same: an ascending ladder of spiritual perfections that man must climb.

As for the “states,” they are usually said to consist of spiritual graces bestowed directly by God and outside of man’s power of ac­quisition. Unlike the stations, the states are not seen as moving in an ascending hierarchy, but rather as coming and going as God wills.
However this may be, Rumi does not discuss the “stations and states” explicitly or as such. But he does discuss the inward spiritual experiences the traveller undergoes in great detail, as well as the attitudes and mental states man must try to achieve. As indicated earlier, numerous poems in the Diwan may be viewed as poetical expressions of specific spiritual states and experiences.
In short, Rumi provides a detailed elucidation of Sufi psychology, but not in terms of the systematic schemes found in the classical textbooks. Hence the student of his works must himself provide a framework within which these teachings can be discussed.

Quoted from the introduction of “The Sufi path of love,
the spiritual teachings of Rumi” by William C. Chittick