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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

The Shaykh begins by having spiritual directees look at Stage 2
their faults, repent of them, and then become detached The second Sufi station is wara’, watchfulness or fear
from them. They work with their shadow side, develop- of God and abstention—Attar’s Valley of Love (172).
ing their consciousness of it, not to wallow in guilt but There are three ranks of watchfulness: avoiding what lies
to accept the reality of their weaknesses. This exercise is between the prohibited and the permitted; then being
done in prayer and meditation (“remembrance”), and cautious with anything concerning sin; and finally being
spiritual directees begin to feel the pull towards the suspicious of anything that distracts from God (Sells). At
Beloved and begin to submit to this attraction. Once this second station it is not the fear of the punishment of
they start experiencing the Beloved, they start forgetting hell that is the interior movement, but rather the fear of
the self, transfusing to the higher self (Hadian [b], 1–5). being eternally separated from God. A deeper longing for
Hadian writes that “you will reach to a stage where you God is experienced. Spiritual seekers in this stage choose
see all that you have been searching for, and loving for, to abstain from contact with people or things that might
the Beloved had been doing that long before you started distract or detract from their companionship with God
looking for [the Beloved]” (4). (Camp, 65).
One of the first lessons that Shaykhs teach their For Teresa, in the second mansion “are found souls
spiritual directees comes from the Sufi mystic Rabi’a. which have begun to practise prayer; they realize the
Someone asked her: “I have committed many sins; if I importance of their not remaining in the first man-
turn in penitence towards God, will [God] turn in mercy sions, yet often lack determination to quit their present
towards me?” “No,” she replied, “first [God] must look condition by avoiding occasions of sin, which is a very
upon you, then you can turn towards [God]” (Vaughan- perilous state to be in” (Teresa [a], 60). Teresa expressed
Lee 2000, 7). This is the beginning of the journey of the notion of abstention as detachment. She identified
learning to trust in God rather than oneself with all its different elements for each mansion, and named “conver-
inadequacies. The Shaykhs guides them towards moving sion” as distinctive of the second mansion, the mansion
from a limited image of God to the living image of God. of purification. For Teresa, conversion in that mansion
“You love God because God is your Beloved, not because is “a clear realisation of the shoddiness of their lives and
you want something” (Vaughan-Lee 2009). the paramount need to do something about it” (Burrows,
Teresa also emphasized the importance of the spiritual 20). “Doing something” is the action of detaching the
teacher or spiritual director as guide and protector at this self from everything that is not God and from self-love
first stage when spiritual directees are not strong enough and self-indulgence, that is, the death of the ego. It is
to defend themselves from their own doubts, confusion, choosing to align one’s will with God’s will (Burrows,
and resistance to the new self-knowledge that arises in the 22, 25). Teresa saw little capacity in people at this stage
initial loosening of their attachments (McLean, 5). Teresa to receive God’s communication directly. Their experi-
echoes the Sufi approach by warning against too much ence of God is through nature and human relationships.
self-absorbed introspection (as opposed to self-knowl- Having begun a reorientation of the ego, the Sufis and
edge). She recommends rather that spiritual directees look Teresa see a similar movement as spiritual travellers go
constantly at Jesus Christ and his example. By compar- deeper into their response to the Divine attraction by
ing themselves they will acquire greater self-knowledge loosening their ego-attachments.
(Burrows, 19): “We shall never succeed in knowing
ourselves unless we seek to know God” (Teresa [a], 38). Spiritual Direction for Stage 2
Author and Roman Catholic priest, Chester Michael sug- At this second stage, Sufi Shaykhs accompany their
gests that the spiritual director can give hope to people in spiritual directees in their state of awakened conscious-
this stage by helping them see God as a loving rather than ness and remembrance of God by helping them to focus
punishing parent (Michael, 100). For those beginning on on constant spiritual discrimination and watchfulness
the journey through the mansions, “the door of entry into for distractions. They are then steered from attentiveness
the castle is prayer and meditation” (Teresa [a], 31). to these attachments towards renunciation of both their

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