Moving from one to another rests on understanding oneself. In Dancemeditation this means time spent with, and in, the body. We are our bodies. Within a movement practice, we see, feel, and discover who and what we really are. As Qushayri’s stages suggest, we are more than the ‘self’ we can cognitively grasp, more than we can intuitively grasp. We are picked from Nothingness, grasped into being-ness, beyond our understanding.

1. Shu ‘a u’l basira — Awareness of Your Being
This concerns spiritual knowledge and information, aslo doctrinal and theoretical knowledge. This is where we learn through words — reading, talking, analysis. Accessing the cognitive to penetrate the mysteries of our Path.

2. Ayn al basira — Awareness of Your Non-Being
Opening of the spiritual heart’s ‘eye’. (Ayn means eye.) In this stage, the heart opens and the ego diminishes. Intuitions flows, we begin to be less involved in the illusion of control, and we acquire trust.

3. Haqq al basira — Awareness in Truth, beyond Being and Non-Being
Truth, Certainty in the Divine Eternal, the end & goal of the Path. This is fana, or dissolution of the small self into Unity.