Mysticism’s purpose is to cleanse the heart, to teach and transform the self, and eventually find God. There are seven spiritual levels of the self. The basest level is full of arrogance, greed, selfishness and lust. Here, the temptation is to stray from the truth. The self is an evolving identity that arises from the interaction of body and soul. Once the soul is reborn, it forgets its divine nature and turns into a material being. This is what creates the self. Energy of the lowest level is to satisfy desires. These forces rule reason and judgement, and have to be controlled by the true seeker. It is only by training the self can you force it to serve you. The great Sufi master Sheikh Muzaffer wrote: “The self is not bad in itself. Never blame it. Part of the work of Sufism is to change its state. The lowest state is that of being completely dominated by your wants and desires. The next state is to struggle with yourself, to seek to act according to reason and higher ideals and to criticise yourself when you fail. A much higher state is to be satisfied with whatever God provides for you, whether it means comfort or discomfort, fulfillment of physical needs or not.”
The commanding self: This is another name for the first level. It seeks to dominate and control each individual. Here morality or compassion doesn’t exist. These have been called the swine and the dogs of the self—the sensual traits are like swine, the ferocious ones like fierce dogs or wolves. Wrath, greed, sensual appetites, passion and envy are examples of traits at this level of the self. People refuse to believe they have a problem and hence there is no hope of change.
The regretful self: As people live on the first level, gradually wisdom and insight dawn. The negative effects become clearer and though base desires dominate, a sense of regret grows and the person begins to yearn for a higher spiritual plane.
The inspired self: Prayer, meditation and spiritual activities seem joyful experiences. Motivation towards truth, morality and idealism starts. This is where the person begins to become a Sufi. But beware, unless those ideals are lived, the motivation with fade away.
The contented self: A strange peace envelops the soul. Old impulses have departed, the ego begins to fade and the seeker becomes closer to the divine. It is a period of transition: the person becomes liberal, grateful, trusting and adoring, and feels secure. At the end of this phase, the disintegrated self reintegrates itself as a part of the divine.
The pleased self: Contentment is the prevailing state of mind and the difficulties and trials of life seem pleasing, and are seen as those sent by God.
Self pleasing to God: At this stage, the self realises it is nothing by itself. Everything—all power and energy and the power to act—comes from God. This liberates them from fear and want. The Sufi sage, Ibn Arabi, described this level as the inner marriage of self and soul. At this stage, the seeker has genuinely united with God within and has become whole. People see the world as a broken mirror, since it reflects a myriad sides of reality, usually distorted. Once the mirror becomes whole, it shows only a single, unified image. The confusion and variables within are healed and the Sufi experiences the world as whole and unified.
The pure self: This is the final level in which the Sufi has transcended the self entirely. No ego exists at this level, neither is the sense of a separate self felt. The union with God is a constant state of mind. At this stage, the truth becomes clear, “There is no god but God.” Only the divine exists as the ultimate reality and truth, and any sense of individuality or separateness is just an illusion.
Adapted from the book, Essential Sufism