Abdullah Isa Neil Dougan
Encyclopedia
Abdullah Isa Neil Dougan (1918-1987) was a Sufi
Sheikh
of the Naqshbandi
order. He ran open, Westernised groups, initially based on the Fourth Way ideas of GI Gurdjieff, with reference to Sufi
, Hindu
and Buddhist traditions. Through his inner work Abdullah further developed the ideas and subsequently regarded his teaching as Gnostic
.
Neil Dougan was born in Longburn, New Zealand
, and served in the Mediterranean and North Africa during World War II
. Upon returning to New Zealand, he lived an outward life as welder, carpenter, builder and finally potter. Located in the Auckland
area, he was married twice and had five children and three step-children. He died in September 1987.
In the late 1950s and 60s Dougan participated in, then led a Gurdjieff group that came under the direction of CS Nott
. After a time he questioned some aspects of the approach and concluded that Nott and other Gurdjieff pupils were identified with Gurdjieff’s personality. In his quest for the truth he was led first to the Sufi teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan
and then to that of Ramdas
. In 1968 he travelled to Europe and then Afghanistan where he met Sheikh Abdul Al Khayyum of Kandahar and Sheikh Ibrahim Mujadiddi of Kabul and was initiated as a Sufi Sheikh of the Naqshbandi
order and given the name Abdullah — ‘Slave of God’. From this time Abdullah became the teacher of the New Zealand groups. Abdullah drew increasingly on his own inner experiences to direct and focus his work and that of the groups. In late 1974 Abdullah undertook extensive travel in India, Afghanistan and the Middle East. During this time he completed a 40-day fast on water alone, then went on to Saudi Arabia via Pakistan and performed the Hajj
with one of his pupils.
From 1968 until his death Abdullah held weekly meetings for his pupils which took the form of question and answer sessions at which seminal works from the major religions were studied and discussed. Material from these meetings forms the core of a series of books published by Gnostic Press. One of Abdullah’s aims was to make the inner truth within all these teachings more accessible and to show that the one truth is contained in all true teachings. In the mid-1980s Abdullah established The Gnostic Society of New Zealand. based in Auckland, which continues to run the groups in New Zealand. Abdullah’s wife Rosalie directed the groups from 1987 until recent poor health intervened.
Abdullah left a considerable legacy of works illustrating and amplifying his teaching. A number of his books have been published or are in preparation by Gnostic Press; he produced around two hundred paintings and screen prints and wrote a symphony (‘Solar Suite’).
Abdullah’s succinct summary of his method of working on oneself (using Gurdjieff terminology) is to make the body obedient, the name strong and then passive, and eventually destroy the ego. Abdullah directed initial psychological work principally towards making the body obedient to the name part, with an emphasis on developing and balancing the intellectual, emotional and moving-instinctive-sex centres that comprise the name part. Abdullah held that spiritual development came as grace from above; that all we can do is foster the conditions by striving towards objective love through selfless service with the ultimate goal of annihilating self, merging into God. In later years Abdullah emphasised Ramnam, the continual repetition of God’s name in one’s heart, and an active striving towards silence: "The highest thing in the solar system that man can tap into is the silence that comes from the Sun, an extraordinary quality which exists in everything and everybody, but is realised by only very few people. To gain this silence is the acme of our efforts on this planet."
The main yearning we have is for a body and it is this craving which brings us back to the Earth repeatedly. The body is real enough in the third dimension but is illusion in the fifth.
The way out of the rounds of lives and deaths is to know we are not the body but the essential self, call it spirit, soul or consciousness."
"The best way to make your body obedient is to fast. We recommend you fast one day a week, and also try the dawn to dusk fast of Ramadan. Some people find the fast comes easy. They must keep it going for a few years then they will start to learn something. After a while it begins to get very hard. What most people lack is consistency, they can only do a discipline for a little while."
"Prayer wakes you up. Suppose you had been brought up as an agnostic and had a very derogatory attitude to prayer - if you tried to pray you would start to break down the materialism in yourself. Most prayers are petitions, but as you develop, your needs change and your prayers change. When you first start praying, it's I, I, I all the time. You're asking. Later on, you start to get some devotion in your prayers."
(Daoist Principles in Practice as taught by Huang Sheng Shyan
).
Robert "Abdul Salam" Drake, one of Abdullah's students, provided the architectural plans for the first purpose-built mosque in New Zealand
and attended some Muslim
community meetings.
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
of the Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
order. He ran open, Westernised groups, initially based on the Fourth Way ideas of GI Gurdjieff, with reference to Sufi
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
and Buddhist traditions. Through his inner work Abdullah further developed the ideas and subsequently regarded his teaching as Gnostic
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
.
Neil Dougan was born in Longburn, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and served in the Mediterranean and North Africa during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Upon returning to New Zealand, he lived an outward life as welder, carpenter, builder and finally potter. Located in the Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
area, he was married twice and had five children and three step-children. He died in September 1987.
In the late 1950s and 60s Dougan participated in, then led a Gurdjieff group that came under the direction of CS Nott
Charles Stanley Nott
Charles Stanley Nott was an author, publisher, translator and a student of G. I. Gurdjieff. He first met Gurdjieff and A. R. Orage in New York in 1923. He spent time at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and became a close student of Gurdjieff. He helped with the publication and...
. After a time he questioned some aspects of the approach and concluded that Nott and other Gurdjieff pupils were identified with Gurdjieff’s personality. In his quest for the truth he was led first to the Sufi teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Inayat Khan
Inayat Khan was an exemplar of Universal Sufism and founder of the "Sufi Order in the West" in 1914 . Later, in 1923, the Sufi Order of the London period was dissolved into a new organization formed under Swiss law and called the "International Sufi Movement"...
and then to that of Ramdas
Swami Ramdas
Swami Ramdas was a philosopher, philanthropist, and pilgrim. Giving up worldly possessions at a young age, he became a wandering monk...
. In 1968 he travelled to Europe and then Afghanistan where he met Sheikh Abdul Al Khayyum of Kandahar and Sheikh Ibrahim Mujadiddi of Kabul and was initiated as a Sufi Sheikh of the Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
order and given the name Abdullah — ‘Slave of God’. From this time Abdullah became the teacher of the New Zealand groups. Abdullah drew increasingly on his own inner experiences to direct and focus his work and that of the groups. In late 1974 Abdullah undertook extensive travel in India, Afghanistan and the Middle East. During this time he completed a 40-day fast on water alone, then went on to Saudi Arabia via Pakistan and performed the Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
with one of his pupils.
From 1968 until his death Abdullah held weekly meetings for his pupils which took the form of question and answer sessions at which seminal works from the major religions were studied and discussed. Material from these meetings forms the core of a series of books published by Gnostic Press. One of Abdullah’s aims was to make the inner truth within all these teachings more accessible and to show that the one truth is contained in all true teachings. In the mid-1980s Abdullah established The Gnostic Society of New Zealand. based in Auckland, which continues to run the groups in New Zealand. Abdullah’s wife Rosalie directed the groups from 1987 until recent poor health intervened.
Abdullah left a considerable legacy of works illustrating and amplifying his teaching. A number of his books have been published or are in preparation by Gnostic Press; he produced around two hundred paintings and screen prints and wrote a symphony (‘Solar Suite’).
Abdullah’s succinct summary of his method of working on oneself (using Gurdjieff terminology) is to make the body obedient, the name strong and then passive, and eventually destroy the ego. Abdullah directed initial psychological work principally towards making the body obedient to the name part, with an emphasis on developing and balancing the intellectual, emotional and moving-instinctive-sex centres that comprise the name part. Abdullah held that spiritual development came as grace from above; that all we can do is foster the conditions by striving towards objective love through selfless service with the ultimate goal of annihilating self, merging into God. In later years Abdullah emphasised Ramnam, the continual repetition of God’s name in one’s heart, and an active striving towards silence: "The highest thing in the solar system that man can tap into is the silence that comes from the Sun, an extraordinary quality which exists in everything and everybody, but is realised by only very few people. To gain this silence is the acme of our efforts on this planet."
Quotations
"According to the Lord Buddha (Gautama) one of the main reasons for our being on the planet is that we are dominated by our desires and our craving after them.The main yearning we have is for a body and it is this craving which brings us back to the Earth repeatedly. The body is real enough in the third dimension but is illusion in the fifth.
The way out of the rounds of lives and deaths is to know we are not the body but the essential self, call it spirit, soul or consciousness."
"The best way to make your body obedient is to fast. We recommend you fast one day a week, and also try the dawn to dusk fast of Ramadan. Some people find the fast comes easy. They must keep it going for a few years then they will start to learn something. After a while it begins to get very hard. What most people lack is consistency, they can only do a discipline for a little while."
"Prayer wakes you up. Suppose you had been brought up as an agnostic and had a very derogatory attitude to prayer - if you tried to pray you would start to break down the materialism in yourself. Most prayers are petitions, but as you develop, your needs change and your prayers change. When you first start praying, it's I, I, I all the time. You're asking. Later on, you start to get some devotion in your prayers."
Influence
One of Abdullah's students, Patrick A Kelly, now teaches Abdullah's inner message throughout Western Europe. Patrick asserts that Abdullah's closest internal contact was the Sage Li Po who worked through the Daoist and Buddhist traditions, and Patrick Kelly has attempted to follow the guidance of these two teachers by merging their inner teachings through the outer practice of TaijiTaiji
Taiji 太極 is a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potentiality, contrasted with the Wuji 無極 "Without Ultimate"...
(Daoist Principles in Practice as taught by Huang Sheng Shyan
Huang Sheng Shyan
Huang Sheng-Shyan, 黃性賢, Huang Hsing-hsien or Huáng Xìngxián was born in 1910 in Minhou County of the Fujian province in Mainland China. He began studying Fujian White Crane with Xie Zhong-Xian at the age of 14. In 1947 he resettled in Taiwan where he became a disciple of Cheng Man-ch'ing...
).
Robert "Abdul Salam" Drake, one of Abdullah's students, provided the architectural plans for the first purpose-built mosque in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and attended some Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
community meetings.