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Spiritual Letter 21 - Original Version                         About Spiritual Letter 21
Title: "Become The Hammer, Not The Carpenter", Date: June 29, 2002  
Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)
Written to: Asma'el Muhaiyaddeen (Rick Hacket)

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Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Al-salam 'alaykum, my dearest loving brother Asma'el Muhaiyaddeen.

My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler).

Thank you very much for your beautiful letter, it was certainly a labor of love, and we could feel the battle raging within all of us as you tried to take on and defend every possible position within the war. But that is not the point, my dearest loving brother, that is not why we have come here.

When this child first met Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) in 1975 I was 36 years old and was living at Temple University in Philadelphia in a new apartment complex that had been built just for the students. It was a really nice place to live, with a swimming pool, and lots of pretty young girls.

Having separated from my wife Mary and my two year old son Christopher in 1970, I had returned to the college scene to get my Master's and Doctorate degrees in Psychology at Temple University, and this second time at college was at first my own personal heaven, it was what I had dreamed about during a very difficult first marriage.

And these dreams included the freedom to pursue all of the things that I thought I needed or wanted, mainly answers to all of the questions that seemed to be driving my life from a very young age, like "who was I", "where did I come from", "why was I here", and most of all, "what was the point of it all", and of course, someone to love. But gradually my personal heaven turned into the most difficult time of my life.

After five years of this experience, which included getting my Master's degree in Special Education, and completing all of the course work for my Doctorate in Educational Research, and then leaving the Doctorate program in disgust, and after going through 4 near-marriages, one lasting for nearly 4 years, and still not finding someone to love, I had reached the end of my road. What to do?

It was in this state that I started to look for a Shaikh, having read the book, "Autobiography of a Yogi", by Paramahansa Yogananda, and thank God, ending my search very quickly, within a few months, when I saw Bawa and His Children on a TV program on a Sunday morning in August, 1975.

After meeting Bawa there was nothing left in my life but Bawa, not even His Children. There was Bawa and that was it, and that is still it. That is the point my dearest loving brother Asma'el Muhaiyaddeen, we must let it all end. We must find something that is so powerful in our life that it replaces everything else in our life, our friends, our family, our battles, our searches, and even ourselves. We can't have two masters.

That is the blessing of this child, that something came into my life that ended my life, and began it a new as something else, as the Child of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). For this child nothing else is important, for as He goes so goes His child.

We really died in 1975 at the age of 36 and started the life all over again, but this time within the life and teaching, within the heart, of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), spending 12 years at His Physical Feet, 12 years at His Grave, and now 3 years so far within His Heart. This is the learning of this child, nothing else.

The letter that was written to Muhammad Abdul Qadir (Michael Green) and then to you, and now the letter that you have just sent to this child, were written because "My love you", because the Shaikh within us moved, not for any reason that we know about or could understand. For example, in the Forward to the book, The Pearl of Wisdom, page 7, His Holiness says,

          "These are gracious words emerging from the tongue of humble Bawa, the
          unclean stinking corpse, without His will and without His knowledge. However,
          these are words of reason, justice, and virtue. They have the grace of the Primal
          One."

What does the hammer know of the intention or actions of the skilled carpenter, it is just a valuable tool, and its value lies in its anonymity, the quality or state of being anonymous, in the hands of the skilled carpenter.

Your concern about the letter that was sent to you needs to be addressed to the master carpenter not to the hammer. When you did that in your letter to this child, invoking Bawa Muhaiyaddeen to address your concerns, your letter took flight and became the fragrance of the ambrosia of the Triple Flame of God - Ya Allah, Ya Rasul, Ya Muhaiyaddeen. Al-hamdu lillah. Allahu Akbar.

My love you my dearest loving brother Asma'el Muhaiyaddeen, as my love our dearest loving brother Muhammad Abdul Qadir (Michael Green), as my love all of our brothers and sisters in the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, both on the outside and on the inside of all of us.

We are all very good Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him and with Us), but we must all be very careful in our dealings in the world, nothing is as we see or understand it to be.

These three letter that have been recently exchanged between the Children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Us) have nothing to do with us, so don't get into them, they have to do with Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him) and what He is doing within His Children. He knows why they were sent, and that is enough. We don't need to make sense of them, or pick them up as our work, or try to explain or modify or correct or defend them, or do anything with them.

Our work is to know His work, and His work is everything, and like the Prophet
Abraham (peace be upon Him) in the pit of fire, we need to,

          "Make our knowing that He knows enough."

Then we will find peace in our life.

Please give my love and salams to your wife, Qadir-Bee-Bee (so very sweet), and to all of your friends and family. Your letter gave we a wonderful journey into the open heart of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). Everything is fine. We are all so blessed.

My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)


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