One two three good evening ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests and fellow Masons it is with great honor and enthusiasm that I welcome you to the chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Li live lecture series my name is um wri woral Steven Adam ruin I’m the deputy Grand Master of the grand LOD of the
State of New York and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to be here with you this esteemed Institution steeped in the rich traditions of Freemasonry has been the beacon of knowledge Enlightenment and fraternity for almost 175 years Tonight We Gather in the spirit of curiosity and Enlightenment to partake partake in the engaging
Lecture that promises to broaden our Horizons I also would like to um thank the um Trustees of the Holland home for their financial support of our library the board of directors of the Robert R Livingston Library Museum um President right wor wrer Stephen King and it’s my
Distinct honor to to welcome at this time very worshipful Michael araka the director of the Robert Dar Livingston liary give that to greetings everybody a little bit about the Museum library we have over 37,000 artifacts many of them may be very interesting to specific lodges we also have a reading course
With over 60,000 books some of that is on digital content we have an app called odill you can watch online on on your phone or a tablet we also do genealogy where if you’re looking for information on a potential New York Mason in your past that’s a relative we
Could also do that for you too for free we also have access for you to to the American large of research the lest the oldest um research Society in America and we have everything’s on the digital content and if you’re looking for something specific that you could always
Uh talk to me or Alex in the library we could scan an article for you to help you maybe do a program for your Lodge we also have uh have the international one o we also have a lot of founding documents to almost all The Lodges most
Most lodges don’t know that the founding document is not that Charter it’s a petition and then leads to a dispensation then if the all the eyes are dotted and te’s across and you do your rituals well then you get a charter at that next Grand Lodge but we will
Often make U exact fa similes or high resolution faimes of the petition and the Char and the dispensation of your Lodge if we have it and I could bring it to your Lodge and do a presentation based on your history and a little bit about the library too I promise it won’t be
Boring and I I can can travel all over the state to do this too so come to our library on the 14th floor and let us come out to you too that’s my job to take the library and the museum experience out to your lunch so please use me as a resource and
Finally we have our live lectures so the lecture this evening has been a formation since 1995 he’s the founder of anat Lodge 1183 three I was the first master of that Lodge met was also the assistant Grand lecturer of his district he served at the valley of New York City ancient
Accepted Scottish right and was the head of all four bodies he received the meritorious service award and the 33rd degree in which case he served as the depuy’s representative from 2011 to 2020 brother talum giogo has served in a high leadership position in the Royal Arch and the cryptic Council tonight’s
Talk talk will be a high-end discussion of Sufism in particular the baz order of the dervishes its brief history and organization structure and common elements of its belief system with respect to Freemason it is entitled a Sufi perspective of freemer the BAGI order of dervishes please help me welcome toogo oh
Uh we we we we actually had a walk in with one of the trustees he’s the first vice president of the trustees of the Livingston Library he would like to say a few words yeah I just wanted to get in before speak I want to welcome thank
You I want to welcome you all on behalf of the library we’re very proud of this library and as you’ve heard Michael our executive director is traveling all over the place please speak to him invite him over it’s a very interesting presentation that he does give about what we have in this Library
A lot of us don’t know the treasures we have this Library so I invite you to please explore the library call us up you have any ideas speak to Michael so we here for you wonderful so welcome on behalf of the uh trustees thank you thank you right wor for
Ry and once again help me welcome me Tom Thang right we grandmas distinguished Brothers brothers and friends and ladies good evening uh I’d like to first start to thank rightful brother Michael to give me this opportunity to talk talk tonight about Sufism and particularly in a Bashi order of
Dervishes I know this topic is very very Broad and we could talk about it days even not even weeks uh but I’m going to make it very precise concise and a very high-end presentation albe it it’s going to be a little bit confusing for a lot of you
Because of the foreign language that we’re going to be introducing tonight okay I apologize that up front the title is hopefully this is working just one second the Michael is this working oh okay I got it the title is a sui perspective of Freemasonry the Bashi order of
Dervishes and on this very first page you see this calligraphy and this calligraphy is very very common in most of the Sufi orders and particularly the order what’s unique about this if you look closely this is a mirror image you can cut this from half and there is an
Arabic scripts writing here which basically says Allah Ali and Val Val being the representative and Ali is something somebody that we’re going to be talking about tonight in detail and the same exact image is duplicated on the other side basically and this is very very common
If you do travel in turkey and go to museums and go to any any orders anyy order larges if I may say so and you’ll see these type of calligraphy all on the walls all the time okay I’m going to start with a disclaimer working with the lawyers of
Course I have to do that nobody is allowed to speak about Freemasonry nobody especially in public with the exception of The Grandmaster so I am also not allowed to speak about the Freemasonry but I’m going to make certain mention of Freemasonry as I understand it okay as I’m a Mason for 20
Something years as you heard and this will be all my personal opinion and it doesn’t represent the grand largest view whatsoever same thing goes with the Bashi order of dervishes I am not I’m not allowed to speak about them okay and these whatever I’m going to say here is
All personal my own interpretation my own experience and my own research so I’d like to say that up front second again I told you that we going to be introducing a lot of foreign words here particularly Arabic and some fary and fary is being the Persian
Language the Iran uses uh it’s going to be a little bit confusing so please bear with me I’ll try to explain each and every word as I go through now Sufism is part of Islam Islam is the second largest religion of the of the monotheistic religions on the earth
Billions of people believe in it and Islam originated from Arabia that means it’s using Arabic as his formal language and it’s using the Arabic script the Sufism also uses Arabic words and uh as well as far SE Words which is Persian words but the Bashi order that I’m going
To talk about today originated from Turkey okay from Anatolia and therefore everything is going to be in Turkish form in Turkish spelling okay not Arabic not Persian okay what is Sufism how many of you here know a little bit about sism let me see Hands little bit so there are some people that
That don’t know about the Sufism Sufism is very broad Sufism is actually is the esteric dimension of Islam one of the one of the religions I would call it the philosophy of is Islamic teachings it’s the it’s the philosophical part of the religion not the actual application or the laws or
The rules but the philosophical meaning of the religion is in a sense similar to gnosticism in the west gnosticism is the same thing gnosticism comes from the Greek word Gnostic which is knowledge and the knowledge is basically nism particular is implies to the Western thought of philosophy or the
Christianity albe it it’s taking some elements from from the Jewish tradition particularly cabala so the essence of Islam is submission of one’s will to Allah the god submission in Turkish is called testim oop sorry wrong button uh so we’re going to see this word again teslim means submission and we have a
Particular regalia that I’m going to be showing in the Bashi orders which is called the teslim stone sufis what do they do they seek to find the truth truth of the Divine love and light and light meaning the knowledge and in Arabic and Turkish is called n
And I believe in Persian also is called nor through the direct personal experience of HW HW is the Turkish word of God particularly used in Sufi orders okay instead of using Allah as as the real real word religious word hog is used sufis address themselves at the
Poor or fak fakir means poor darish now I’m going to change my pronunciation this is the Turkish way of spelling it derish is the same thing Po in Persian in Far okay so Arabic is fak arabish is the fary word so what do they do they they call themselves poor because they
Want to isolate themselves from the worldly goods and be closer to the creator of the universe so this is somewhat familiar to the Freemasons right so we have same concept in a way that we can talk about the word Sufi is derived from an Arabic word Stu it means
Wool which basically references to Woolen garments in general and in Turkish is hka hka is nothing but a wool Woolen clock okay something that you can wear during the winter time but that’s very much particular to the Sufi orders in general okay is an Arabic word and that’s the Turkish
Way of spelling it is the inner or esoteric face of Islam which literally means to dress in Wool so if somebody tells you that I’m wearing my hka HR k a that means he is a he’s basically following a Sufi order or Sufi belief mut is a derivation of Tas this
Particular word it’s a person and that person follows the tasa teachings above and beyond the Shar the Shar the hard rules of Islam who strives to be a Sufi what you see on the screen is a portion of lyrics that I took from one of the most common Anatolian songs uh
Which everybody knows all the Turkish people know this song pretty much and I took the very first verse first verse uh and this song is from from the bber district the eastern part of Anatolia what does it say let’s take a look and the translation is mine father am I a
Derish have I dawned my Woolen clock I have loved they have taken why have I died now what I’m what’s the purpose that I’m showing this to you is the purpose is very simple purpose is to see all the Sufi elements in this one particular verse the first thing is
Father father obviously means the Creator grand architect of the universe but also it means Baba the actual father biological father but it also means the master of the Bashi order or Bashi Lodge that we will see later so there is a connotation here to the vashi lodge connotation of being a derish derish
Again means fakir poor somebody who is desolate in the sense that he has no interest in the worldly Goods but in the other side closer to the God and the statement done my Woolen clock basically is represented here tells you that he is a Sufi okay and that’s
Exactly why I wanted to show you that particular verse now you may ask the Sufism influence Freemasonry the answer short answer absolutely Freemason is such such an old organization that nobody knows how long it goes back in time it may go all the way to Sumerians Egyptians Hittites western
Part of Europe eastern part of Europe even Far East and eventually eventually comes down to the UK and 1717 it became known to the world that we are here right so that’s this brief history of Freemasonry but Freemasonry is somewhat influenced by the knight’s Templar teachings and everybody familiar with
Knights Templar and we have organizations and Knights Templar organizations even in this building right Knight Templars were in Jerusalem right and they were basically guarding the Mida the one of the one of the Holy Holy structures of the Islamic world and they were dealing with the Assassins oops
Sorry again wrong wrong button which is basically another order it’s called the is order okay Nar is order and they were learning from them they were taking certain Concepts and the concepts include religious tolerance sounds familiar right Freemason Devotion to God in general right so they were taking all these teachings and they
Were bringing them to Europe eventually to be integrated in the culture where the Gnostic thought evolved eventually now we have we see strong influence of Sufism particularly in the shrine organization which I’m going to talk about that later okay how many Shriners are here any Shriners several okay when
I make certain comments they will understand what I’m talking about exactly why I’m saying this very briefly the shiran organization originated from originated here in New York City by the two brothers one of them is is a actor and the other one is a doctor medical doctor and they traveled to Europe at
Some point they got invited by an Arabic Ambassador or some sort uh and they were taken to a place a theater and they observed a ritual one of them actually not both of them but one of them observed a ritual which he liked it so
Much and they came back here in New York City and said why why don’t we create an organization and mimic that type of ritual and we can use it for fun that’s what they say okay in my personal opinion what they have observed was not was nothing but a Bashi ritual the
Actual ritual which is being used today the reason I’m saying that is there are so many common common elements between the beachi ritual and the shrine ritual if you’re a Shriner you would understand what exactly I refer to we’re going to get back to that okay now I’m going to
Switch gears to talk about bektashi order in Turkish we call it bektashi uh so this is the name that I’m going to be referring toik is a liberal very liberal teaching established in Turkey in Anatolia in the 13th century it was it’s an initiative order initiative order what does what does
That mean you cannot become a Bashi unless you go through a certain ritual sounds familiar right we cannot become a Mason unless we go through the enter the prentist degree same way okay so it’s an initiative order but I have a note here unlike Ali Le Ali is a sect in turkey
And also certain parts of Northern uh countries like Syria and Iraq and so forth uh they believe in similar Concepts not exactly the same but similar concept and follow a Bashi way of life and this is the cultural group they don’t go through any initiation process necessarily some of them do but
Some of them don’t if you’re born from an aliv father and mother and you become an Al automatically this does not happen in the Bashi order unless you come on your own free will and Accord knock the door and get in there and get initiated okay
So there is a difference uh between the two um it’s one of the many many Islamic sexs okay there are so many Sufi orders this is not the only one but this is the one that is very much resembling the Freemasonry okay that’s what I’m talking about
Be and the Sufi orders in general called tarikat in Arabic and Turkish tarikat simply means a school or the path okay that that path that you follow to become a better man basically it takes his name from this particular person his name is haju beash
He was born in 12 9 in nishapur in Horan and Horan is part of Eastern Iran and that place dominated by the Turkish speaking people particularly the turkman and the AUST Turks and so forth coming from Asia and he spoke Turkish so he was not an Iranian per se but he was born
There most of the Sufi orders by the way born in that particular region the horasan region of Iran and he came to Anatolia at some point and he lived in Anatolia in the city called NE which I’m going to show you some pictures at the end and he established the teaching of
This particular order okay he was a contemporary of the Muhammad jalaludin roomi as everybody knows him as the worlding dervishes they’ve seen them then the people turn and so forth that’s another type of a Sufi or order which I’m not going to talk about here and his
His founder his founder was RI and RI simply means Roman in Turkish okay so what’s unique about this picture if if you can take a close look and you see a person beard is always representing some sort of an authority in religion he’s wearing a hat we call him touch and
Touch simply means crown and his head has points particularly 12 points and we’re going to talk about that later and he’s wearing the wooling Woolen clock that I talked about okay this is the Woolen wool but what’s unique about this picture although it doesn’t look like it but this is a
Lion and this is a lamb a lion and a lamb together the two opposite forces okay to controversial opposite forces that he’s holding them basically implying Unity okay in this case so hajash originally from nishapur I told you in 129 he was born but then moved to
Anatolia he is considered the peer and pier in Turkish basically the patron of the order but he is not the founder of the order so I want to underline that although the order it takes his name from him he’s not the F founder of the order he the founder of the order is
Balum Sultan who lived four centuries after so he this was a 16th century where beash lived in the 13th century basically lived and died in 13th century this order takes this root from the yesi schools of thought from Horan again Ahmed Yi was the was the big
Philosoph oper lived in horasan who was responsible and he was instrumental basically to help the religious thinking the Sufi thinking from horasan and most of the Sufi orders were born in Horan not all but most okay and they are called the yes schools beash the Bashi order is the
Official religion of the Janis series or we call them in Turkish Yer I mean many of you heard this term before let me see janies were the Elite Force of the Ottoman Empire they were consisting of the dev Sons boys and de means converted every time the Ottoman Empire
Made a campaign a military campaign went somewhere and they won the war they were asking families of of of the conquered land and they were taking boys anywhere from 7 years old all the way to 20 or 16 17 years old they were taking the boys bringing them to Turkey to Anatolia to
Train them educate them to become soldiers okay this is the this is the J jary force and they were taking only one out of five boys if the family have five boys they were taken only one if they had one boy they wouldn’t take it okay
So it wasn’t it it wasn’t necessarily A forceful taken and I’d like to add my personal opinion some families actually prepare to give their boys to the Ottoman Empire because of the education that they get these boys were brought into Anatolia they were given in given first two families to live with Ali
Families in Anatolia and again alevi is very much similar to Bashi okay the same way and they were first learning the language then learning the religion learning the alivei principles and then they were taken to the Palace in Istanbul in constantinopolis and given formal education each of these boys were
Literally learning how to write read compose music play music all that stuff on top of being a soldier since they were they sh they were separated from their families they thought or they were thinking that the sultan who was the top leader of the Ottoman Empire was their
Father so they follow him and they were fierceful Fighters and they were the Royal Elite Class of soldiers in the Ottoman Empire now because they were originally most of them not all Christian they kind of adapted the Bashi philosophy very easily because Bashi philosophy have certain Elements which are of Christian thought
Okay so it’s very much similar and that’s why I’m not saying it’s Christian but I’m saying it has Christian elements in it so that’s why they were able to adapt it and they were able to live with it and they became uh became again yeri which is which means by the way Yer
Means new soldiers or new troops in Turkish now every time the otoman Empire made campaigns in in the in Europe at some point the Turkish forces were all the way down all the way west to Vienna if you know the history the entire Balkan States including entire Greece
Bulgaria Romania all that Ukraine and so forth even parts of Poland were occupied by the Turkish forces particularly Yer these this forces they left their culture behind and today in Balkans the Bashi order is very very known a famous and followed particularly in Albania right now the Bashi order is governed by
Albanians okay so I’m not going to get into too much politics of it but I’m going to talk about the Bashi order in general but today Albania is the leading country in the Bashi order although it’s originated in Turkey now what is this order what does it
Believe right well first of all this Islamic on the basis but it follows the Shiite uh belief and I’m going to talk very very little about the Shiite and the Sunni differentiation in Islam it believes in the concept bate simply means Muhammad’s household or people of the household literal translation and
Muhammad being the prophet Muhammad of the Islamic religion right Muhammad bin Abdullah or in other words muham mmed the son of Abdullah was the prophet of Islam his very first wife which who was older than him is called ha this is the Turkish spelling and they had a daughter
Named Fatima or FMA in Turkish and sometimes the AR Arabs call it the Fatima Al Z and this is Muhammad’s daughter from haij he she married Muhammad’s cousin his name is Ali and Abu Talib of the son of Abu Talib Abu Talib is again Muhammad’s uh wrong button again
Muhammad’s uh uncle and Ali became not only in son-in-law but also the fourth cff of the original Islam there are four original cffs of Islam if you know the Islamic history Ali had two sons Hassan and Hussein these two sons both of them were assassinated especially one of them was assassinated
By decapitation in in mosque and that’s why today the alivi sect and the Bashi do not necessarily pray in mosque because of that but they pray in a special place called gem EV okay that’s under under parenthesis I’d like to add and these guys the the family of Muhammad in the household
And the sons and great and Great sons of Hassan and Hussein totally 12 imams is basically the concept that the Bashi order believes in and follows okay this is a Shiite uh these 12 imams as a Shiite imams again Shiite the deviation of Islam and who they are basically 12
People here starting with the Ali Ali is the very first one okay very highly in a very high place in the order and Order his sons Hassan Hussein and their sons all the way to the one who’s coming and it’s called Ali or basically means messenger or Christos
Okay the same way and he’s going to come at the end okay basically believe to come uh so that’s 12 imams each of them have some annotation or or adjective I would say uh Ali for example is called ad mza which is acceptable or Desir desirable
One Hassan is the chosen one Hussein is the chief of the martys because he was killed uh Ali another saying son Ali or H son is the one praying and so forth the one that I put the asteris M Kaz I put the as there because hajash the the major thinker of the
Whole order is believed again cannot prove it believed to originate from from the genealogy of mus Alm and that’s why I wanted to distinguish that well again I’m not going to bother you with this with the complex Graphics but this I took it from the Wikipedia basically uh it tells you about the
Islamic sects in general or Sufi sect in general what I want to show you that Islam is basic Bally divided into two sections the Sunni order where most of the Arabic countries and turkey turkey is part of the Sunni order Iran however and some portions of Iraq and and Syria
They are in Shiite or shei order which is very much complicated here the Ahmed yesi that I mentioned earlier in Horan belongs here this is Haj Ahmed yesi if you follow this this goes to all the way to hajash the the original thinker of the order and the
Hajash teachings okay that’s what but what I want to show you this you can also reach this point from the Shiite the 12 imams and so forth which I’m not going to bother you with this but it also has a link to another another religious thought melik which is basically influenced by the
Eastern religions particularly the Buddhism okay and and Hinduism okay so that if you follow that you will also come to the same same place okay so now I want to do a comparison what’s first of all most most of us are Freemasons right so we know what the philosophy of
Freemasonry is what the objectives are these are my personal opinions again I’m not allowed to talk about it except our Grandmaster does uh to me the free is nothing but the philosophy of fre nothing about unification of men of good character you have to be good men under
A common belief of fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood brother of men regardless of religious ethnic or social backgrounds so come whoever you are says Ru me ru what’s our objective in Freemasonry basically we’re not really making any man good or better we’re just guiding them that’s my personal opinion so to
Guide them to learn to subdue their passions and improve themselves those it’s all individual between you and the Creator or the grand architect of the universe well this is the cliche that we always say we take good men we make them better right hopefully that’s the that’s the
Objective well what’s the objective of Bashi order beash well V believes in a concept called that’s an Arabic word somewhat Persian grammar Arabic words it basically means Unity of one body it means the unity of being Unity of all creations including animals plants everything and humans with the Creator so they’re all
In one so the whole Sufi philosophy here is this okay Unity of being okay now in particular meashi order has these particular elements these are Arabic words uik means lism there is a numerology and secret Mysteries of the actual holy book Quran very briefly I’ll tell you that there
Are 28 characters in Arabic alphabet but there is one accent which is called Hamza that makes it 29 and there are 29 verses in Quran which starts with certain letters with no explanations like a l a l m for example and everybody all the all the religious philosophers and thinkers are
Still thinking about what they are and nobody knows what they are the only person who knew who knew what they were was Muhammad himself okay and uh basically the Sufi orders basically spent time to interpret those 29 versus those characters that okay that’s what they are called in
Arabic iik is something again half Arabic half Turkish is deviation from the strict rules of Islam so Bashi order does not follow the strict rules of Islam they don’t pray five times a day they don’t necessarily do certain things that all the other Muslims do and they
Are also not all but some do drink alcohol okay which is prohibited by Islam in general so this is is the ibah version of it there is a tesis tesis is is the triangle Okay in Arabic uh basic this Trinity concept and that may be introduced again this is my personal
Opinion that may be introduced in Anatolia when the two cultures already existing Christian culture which basically the Armenians and the and the Greeks living in an at the time and the others and when Turks Arabs or the Iranians and shahim is actually invaded the Anatolia at some point came in and
They clashed and they learned from each other so is Islamic thought took some concept from the Trinity from Christianity and in beash he always pray using this these three words Allah Muhammad and Ali and obviously Allah is the god Muhammad is the prophet and Ali is the fourth ciff that I talked about
Earlier okay which is the first Imam in the Shiite sect is another uh another concept which is basically somewhat resembles the Christian Trinity concept of the Holy Spirit okay uh so the God’s presence is always inside in you as a human being basically that’s what that’s what the belief is and most
Importantly is Ash in Turkish Ash means love but in this case not of of Love of the genders in general but love of humanity in general and love of God okay so these make the Bashi order philosophy in general objective is very simple objective is to take a person man and
Woman by the way Bashi don’t distinguish man and woman in Islamic culture they are separated but in Bashi order they are to together okay and men and women Bashi order wants to make them a perfect human being and in Turkish it’s called insan or you may heard from cabala from
The Jewish thought Adam kadmon right it’s the same concept and most of the calligraphy that you can see in the on the walls you will see an actual a silhouette of of a men in Arabic script basically indicating this or or this perfect human that’s the objective of the Bashi
Order what do they believe what they believe first of all T I talked about t t is the esoteric esoteric portion of Islam not the actual hardcore rules but the philosophy Islam they believe in hi in Turkish or Arabic that’s means seeking the truth does that sound familiar to Freemasons absolutely right
This is what we supposed to do as Freemasons we seeking the truth okay CH is an intercession of the Prophet between God and man so there is a representative who can guide Humanity basically and that’s very common in Christianity in Judaism and in Islam Al together he met a
Zeal okay that means you try hard to do things and Tob is repentance so you Reg reget sometimes and you pray God that you’ll be for forgiven right and there is these two words Arabic words one is called and the other one called be they they means Disappearance in
Allah or appearance in Allah what that actually implies is given up all worldly belongings the first one that means you are out of the material world right remember the first degree Freemasons or we have the same concept and uh the second one is ever remembering the Omni presence of the
Creator okay then I already talked about this which is unity of being Unity of man and God that everyone has the god inside that belief and also very important beash to to any Bashi is an alh principle or philosophy and Al HW basically is I am what I am
No further explanation to that I will continue now teachings okay what do they teach well they teach to be basically to be a better man better woman okay better human being right all together that’s what the whole Sufi order basically says RI again the verling dervishes founder
Roomi said either seem as you are or be as you seem I think it’s a very very powerful word powerful state statement be truthful be real be wise and be faithful also very important control your hand and you will see this later at the very last slide your word and your lust to
Become a better person right and to all Freemasons no thyself okay that’s the most important part know thyself I took a verse from from a very old very famous Turkish Sufi thinker his name is yunus emre okay he lived in 12th to 13th century again the same time frame that the hajash
Lived and I translated it it may not make sense but if you think about it it does knowledge is knowing the knowledge knowledge is knowing yourself you don’t know yourself thus read many says so what does that mean know thyself okay now numerology in Bashi order is also very
Interesting you see here before I talk about the numerology you see here the test Li Stone and this is one of the regalia that the mtashi dervishes we especially in the cere is and most of The deashi Lodges if you go you’ll see this hanging on the
Wall okay and what’s unique about that this particular Stone only comes from one place on Earth which is where thej beash Val is buried in in the city of n here and you see exactly 12 points on this one indicating the 12 imams and the 12 uh thoughts okay that each Imam
Represent as a comparison the 12 imams are nothing different than the 12 Apostles of Jesus right so if you think about them so I want you to think about them so this 12 is an important number the one that I baled here one three five and seven are prime numbers
In mathematics okay one obviously indicating God the creator of the universe great architect of the universe three Muhammad Ali and I’m sorry Allah Muhammad Ali the the Trinity Concept in Bashi order five represents their sons the Hassan and Hussein included and seven represents the whole household the
Two women one the mother and the daughter and nine is 3 by3 and again this may be familiar to York right Masons and 12 is the 12 imams and 12 Apostles okay and 40 now you may say why 40 right 40 comes from the from the thought of the Bashi thought of there
Are 40 stages to reach the goal and to reach that goal you have to go through four different doors okay and that is introduced by the hajash himself that’s his to and that’s what the 40 comes from the first door is called sharat which is basically the hard rule of Islam and
That is the other law okay that you need to know you need to learn before you become anything you have to believe in Allah and go through the actual ritual of the of actual religious rules and and regulations and then after you pass 10 stages and each
Door has 10 stages then you go you reach the second door the second door is called tarat tarat again meaning pth or school and this is the inner one this is the Inner Path that you educate yourself and to become a better person and then the third is the marifet door which
Means the skill that now you’re able to convey your knowledge to other people you can train other people similar to our way of doing things in Freemasonry okay and eventually the goal is going into the fourth door and the fourth door is to find the truth and that is exact
The same in Freemasonry as you know right so how does this organization work it’s very much like the Freemasonry organization it has lodges right and it has an organization it has individual lodges and it has a Supreme Being just like a Grand Lodge if you think about it
And and there is a a jurisdictional governance and so forth uh so this is a typical well this is from the actual where hajash is the musum of hajash N I took this photos and uh what’s unique about these photos is this is the meeting place what you see here on the
On the on the on the floor is the actual lamp skin white indicating peace right and uh basically you have the lamp skin and everybody sits on the lamb skin and again Lambkin is a common element between Freemasonry and the Bashi order okay and the place meeting place is
Called darah and darah is a fary word or there is also other words like zavia and so forth which are not being commonly used but D is the most common terminology used and simply means large the large room and the ritual place where the ritual takes place is called
Maidan and maidan is simply means yard okay that’s that section of the DAR the large room where the actual initiation ritual is conducted okay and the post we call these lampkins the post basically what they are you know they are from the lamp right whoever becomes a Bashi has to give a Slaughter
Of a lamp Okay this is this is part of the part of the part of the requirement and he takes or she takes the post of that animal and us it just like our lamb lamb skin aprons okay now these are the ranks or these are the degrees or or the
Titles I should say might not the degrees necessarily the titles you may attain in the Bashi order first you you have to become a sympathizer that you have to believe in the Bashi thoughts of living and that’s Ash and again Ash or asuk asuk is the person who has the Ash
And asuk meaning basically the sympathizer who believes in the thought and as again love in Turkish then once you get initiated and you get what you get and you become a MIP and a MIP is also called do in Turkish do is a friend in Turkish but not any friend but a loving
Friend okay just like brother in Freemasonry and if you are into this and you spend at least 10 15 maybe sometimes more time working teaching all the es thoughts meaning about the order you eventually become a derish when you become a derish you are crowned with a
Touch a hat just like in our Scottish right Freemasonry okay very similar okay some of these dervishes are celibate that means they’re not allowed to marry not all but if they are celibate dervishes they they have a higher rank in the in the in the DAR in the large
Room and then when you go into the government of the whole organization you become halif Baba and yeah I skip Baba I’m sorry Baba means Turkish in Turkish means father okay but we also call it mid basically his equivalent to the worshipful master and then alif Baba is higher rank
Of the governing body and and then de Baba is the top guy who runs the entire organization okay all right now I’m pressed with time so I’m going to go a little bit fast there are post I didn’t have any English explanation of them but
There are 12 posts okay and each of them represent something for example some of them represents the ma on monitoring and some of them represents food preparation bread making and all that stuff so there it’s in this slide and also there are other workers in in the D um one of them
Is saki for example who who distributes the drinks and who and who decides who’s going to drink and who’s not going to drink based on the outcome of the alcohol okay basically and so forth so I’m going to skip that uh rituals right we talked about rituals initiative societ Society
It has a ritual and it has rituals has different name El Alma meaning the taken hand from the actual from the worshipful master or from Baba or from mid okay or to see the maidon to see the yard or to be in the yard uh that’s they all mean they all
Mean the initiation so there is an initiation ceremony but then then there is a general ceremony that every time the bektashi brothers get together or sisters get together again wom and men are together here okay that’s the big difference between the traditional Islam and this and uh they
Perform a gem meeting okay gem meeting usually start starts with the prayers and songs are sung basically the songs we call them nees or nefs nees basically means breath in Turkish we believe that the God believe God basically gave breath into the nostrils of each and every being and that comes from the
Judaistic tradition and then there is seah seah is dancing okay the particular dancing what’s unique about the Bashi order and other Sufi orders don’t have is the table Lodge they have a table Lodge tradition we call them sofra sofra has the same exact thing that the prayers food LMA drinks them and then
There’s conversational lessons and and songs eventually all right now commonality I’m coming to the end commonality between the Bashi order and the freem basically the philosophies and the object objectives that I already talked about uh believe in God HW and the immortality of the Soul I’ve written a paper in
2011 in one of the Masonic organizations here in New York City and I have copies of that paper about the immortality of the Soul I’m going to distribute anybody’s interested okay it’s a good reading it’s about the same topic Sufi philosophy of immortality of the Soul
What does it mean and uh there is an initiation ritual like like Freemason does concept of death and rebirth is there okay and use of candles and we have candles in Freemason right we don’t by the way burn candles we awaken them in Bashi order okay there’s a big
Difference nothing is destroyed but awaken the candle not burn the candle and cable to is there W actually it’s a Woolen rope sign of fidelity which is exactly the same as the shrine way of saluting exact same way and there is also dards and token which are also the
Same as Shrine okay again coincidence and Ralia is worn hats are worn we call them touch I and there is also the structure on top of everything else there is also the background right the background Freemasonry is the is the actual storm Masons and the guilds we
Have the same thing in Anatolia there was an AI organization AI it’s not the food auna but the a organization and that basically is the guild predating the Christian Ys in in Europe okay predating Renaissance and they existed in Anatolia of a long time before and they have a degree system same exact
Same exact way of doing things in Freemasonry which I’m not going to go into detail and again table Lodge is a common element all right this is where the beash is buried his mum and the actual D here is is in a little village or little town called beash is his
Name in the ne province of turkey okay and that’s the door okay and uh this is something that I took from that particular D and I’m gonna play you a song an FS while you reading what beash said Okay so let’s see how we’re going to do this okay is it speaker on
Michael that’s my last slide so On Fore Mam Fore Foree For Okay this song is called nias simply means asking help from the creator of the universe and in the song He recited the names of the 12 imams and their annotations whatever I showed you earlier on the slide that basically ends my presentation any comments questions and
I I put my email here and you may email me if you have any [Applause] question okay right right before we go to questions and answers a very quick commercial break um we have here very special really really unique challenge coins this supports the library these are Lafayette they’re going to be
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Pins for $5 too please afterwards please come up uh support the library see if you can make a purchase and uh for the questions raise your hand and we have to use the microphone so that the camera hears so that they can hear on YouTube so does anyone have any question
Questions uh you intrigued me when it came to the part about uh the J the Janis series and then I saw the what was it called the the derga is that the reason was the the large spoons that the Janice series carried uh in relation to to their work in the
Dega jeries again it’s a military order I have my why yeah it’s a military order but at the same time they’re well versed and trained in every art basically uh and they were actually trained in the palace for a certain time some of them went back to their troops and become the
Soldiers and continue in the campaigns some of them stayed in the palace and they became they took other responsibilities for example they became uh mayors of certain towns they became governors of provinces they became other government organizational titles some of them so uh again but they believe in
This particular sect the Bashi order it practice their lives accordingly okay so that’s very important that’s what if I don’t know if that answers your question but I was just asking about the spoons the big well the spoon is basically is in their in their troops when they were trained
They had these big pots and I had a little picture of the pot in one of the slides and they were cooking for everybody so they were trained to cook as well so that’s what they had these spoons with them okay being besides being a soldier having a sword that’s
What I thought when I saw the 12 posts in the DGA you know it it said it seemed like the troops that were all trained how to this this wasn’t in the common sense or traditional sense of being soldiers but they were soldiers very fierceful soldiers but at the same time
They were Cooks they were cleaning they were cooking they were playing music composing music they were writing poems you know all kinds of stuff but that organization unfortunately over the years and centuries became degenerated you know then they abused their power and they were eventually uh cut down by
The by one of the one of The Sultans abolished the entire organization at some point because of the degeneration okay any other questions I’m sure there’s been I can hold it hi good evening um one of the slides you showed um had four doors um correct the final of which was truth
And it remind me a lot of the four veils in the roal Larch and I was wondering if you could share where the initiate is traveling from is it from a place of ignorance Darkness materialism similar to Freemasonry darkness is the starting point right and again in Freemason the same thing we we
Take the brother we initiate him and give them the light and in in the Bashi order is the same thing but then the first door is actually the sharat where they learn the religion and they learn the rules and then they become you know they go through the other doors and the
Goal is to go through the fourth door and not necessarily everybody’s achieving that obviously and again there a lifelong ambition I should say to do it to seek the truth and find the truth eventually okay okay I do I do have a follow-up question so so with any initiation um
Point is to separate you from the outside IMB you with these teachings um do you then go out into the world and try to make a difference or this is purely internal well it’s very much like Freemasonry so almost like Freemasonry so does that does that separate you from
Outside not necessarily so it’s here the same thing but as you go through the initiation yes of course you’re separated from and you’re separated from all the worldly Goods so our first degree right so same same exact way any anyone else right there hold hold
Sorry I got it thank you uh you said something very early a reference to the Sumerians or the Hittites what was that reference no I said that I said that as as part of freemasonry’s History right nobody knows exactly what the Freemason came from right right Freemasonry touched every each and every
Civilization including that’s what I say including those okay thank you okay but I have a a question too get you next um it might be a long question I consider that when you started going into the philosophy I would call this and forgive me if I’m if I’m um saying it wrong or
Describing it wrong I would call this a non-duality philosophy non-duality being that they don’t believe in separation from God and um there’s also a point where you said that they do not follow the hard laws and I was wondering and you also mentioned too that but first
You do first you do got to follow learn the hard learn it learn it now there was a a philosopher who died 1981 in India nurad um not very well known but I was studying you know his work after he died and is a part of it where he said he was
Very very he was very much a nalist and he had he was fully self-realized he’s considered fully self-realized being and he said that that if you identify yourself as a body mind entity you you you incur Karma but if you see yourself as one with the Universal Mind
Consciousness itself God you do not incur Karma now this is not to say that I guess most people would have the fear they would jump in well then that makes you think you could do do anything but a person at that State of Consciousness is not really doing anything wrong really
So would you say that there’s a similarity for this and maybe a correspondence pretty much so yes okay yes absolutely thank you yes pretty much so yeah so uh the fourth door I was wondering U what the the exact name or pronunciation of that fourth door and I
Was thinking that it was very close to uh cut is the name is the pronounce Hy cut oh okay which is truth or okay and then um I thought it was very close to uh the name of heah or hakah or something like that an Egyptian that’s
That’s an Arabic word by basic it’s origin Arabic the Arabs May pronounce it differently I’m not Arabic obviously so I pronounce it as Turkish way of doing it okay aat is is the name thanks all right yes you other question sorry you just had a followup um since you said the the
Sharat is the first thing and then you go beyond uh when later on uh they decide to close the gates of itad did the Sufi basically keep it open and get in trouble for doing so in a time that led up to Val faki and mandated the jurist if if all that in
Between is a clash okay that’s possible that’s potentially possible yeah because I often look at as like why would you close the gate on heaven and you know but this like progression reason reason but it’s a progression it’s same same exact way of doing the free free Masonic progression right you
You take your first degree you learn certain things you get to the second degree you learn certain things and you get to the third degree right which is the highest degree in Freemasonry and then you know that’s a progression but that doesn’t mean that you cannot go
Back to the first right so you always and again we’re allowed to do that in Freemason the same thing here okay the idea of the first door is basically to introduce the initiate and call you know the moib to learn the religion first in the first place because if he doesn’t
Learn the religion then rest of it is not going to make any sense right so he has to go through the sharat door to learn the religion but then slowly back away from that door and then start thinking the Inner Path and follow that Inner Path eventually potentially would
Lead him to the truth right and does does everyone reaches the truth again do we reach the truth as Freemasons again that’s the question I ask everybody I don’t know right that’s what you’re trying to do right sorry one more question we’ll take one more question
I’m sorry one more question um you said um Sufi ORD is a lot like masonry so this particular order I’m talking this particular order so this particular order um in the US you know Masons wear their Rings they have bumper stickers signs everything um I saw a lodge in
Eastern Europe where you couldn’t even tell it was a lodge from the outside it’s very much hidden very much a secret how would you describe the relationship with this order with the community around it okay good question very good question uh let me before I answer that
Let me ask let me also tell you about the Freemason in Turkey by the way I’m the grand representative of the grand large of turkey I don’t know if you know it or not uh the Freemason in Turkey is a very very powerful organization but in
A way that is secretive just like you said it’s not really open to the public much because of the potential enemies okay of Freemasonry and obviously turkey and that whole region is Islamic right uh predominantly and Islam as as a religion does not necessarily go Hand by hand with
Freemasonry or free Masonic thought right so and there are also misbeliefs Mis misunderstanding misconcepts okay about Freemason what it is about same thing goes with the beachi order okay most of the Sunni Islam okay which is Hardcore Islam does not uh take the bachis as Muslims okay in the same way because
They don’t follow the rules you know to the to the point because they drink they don’t pray they don’t this they have all kinds of different stuff and they don’t go to mosque okay that’s the most important and that’s why they become somewhat like they are more like under
The table and holding themselves a little bit secretive just like Freemasons are in Turkey okay right sounds like Freemasons in the Catholic church thank you thank you so for what for it is uh the my privilege to do a closing remark is and maybe just for you to give an
Affirmative response if if there is one is um there was a book written by paramahansa Yogananda the autobiography of Yogi George Harrison of The Beatles bought thousand copies and and and almost gave them all out to everyone he knew in it this enlightened Soul Pras Yogananda said that the Saints know each
Other regardless of of religion and it seems to me that this like mysticism of all the great religions seems to have this perennial experience where we all they all come to the realization that God is within everyone and connects everyone and we all one in God but it
Has to be a personal experience to really truly appreciate it and it seems to me like because freemasony allows this element and is touched by and touched all the religions and all the mysticisms and it is the oldest and the largest fraternity of men would you agree with the statement that we truly
Do have the ability to save this world as a Freemason yes thank you very much
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