To fill any useful “stuff,” you must “empty the vessel”
In everyday life, we often use the word “nafs” as an ominous prediction, meaning that a person filled with negative emotions towards us “shoots” some unpleasant impulses in our direction, and as a result, our plans fail. Less often, we use the phrase “heavy-tempered person,” i.e., someone with heavy breath; it is ultimately also associated with negative aura, reluctance, and communication problems.
However, the Arabic word “nafs” has a different meaning in the Sufi branches of Islam. It is roughly what is called “ego” in Western culture. One of the famous representatives of that direction, Javad Nurbakhsh, characterized “nafs” as “instinctive animal spirit,” “worldly “other.” It is contrasted with “spirit” – breath, wind, divine qualities of man.
Therefore, the way to spiritual transformation is to renounce the “nafs” to overcome it. Nurbakhsh quotes the words of Prophet Muhammad. “My glory comes from spiritual poverty. I was glorified above all the prophets because I was endowed with spiritual poverty.” You have noticed, of course, that the same idea exists in Christian teaching. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).”
There are hundreds of interpretations of that idea. In my humble opinion, it means the following: you must empty the vessel to fill it with some useful, quality material. (Incidentally, Buddhists also have the concept of “emptiness”). You must “make room” and be poor and empty to develop spiritually and improve. And what do you get rid of? What do you throw in the trash? I think it should be clear from the previous essay: “nafs,” “ego,” and secular “self.”
Due to my work, I often communicate with people of various professions and social positions; I want to know their ideas on getting out of our current crisis. Ninety percent of my interlocutors use the pronoun “I” in almost every sentence of their answers: what he has done over the years, what services and virtues he has. That allows me to conclude that the crisis we are living in is primarily spiritual.
Mainly, the social reality significantly contributes to developing “nafs”-ego. People are constantly “in touch,” worried about how many people admire and curse them. To get out of the level of “nafs” you need, paradoxically, some loneliness. It is not the loneliness that isolates from people. It is spiritual independence when a person does not set himself the task of purifying his own “ego” and thus does not separate, but, on the contrary, unites with the “soul” of all people, the divine qualities.
I think it is clear why all this is important for us Armenians now. If it’s unclear, consider why so many dividing lines separate us.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
“Aravot” daily newspaper, 29.08.2023
