The Station of No Station: Open Secrets of the Sufis [Paperback]

Henry Bayman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2001

The teachings of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, offer a startling resolution to many contemporary problems. This book outlines the main tenets of Sufism as taught by the Sufi masters of Central Anatolia. A discussion of Sufi psychology and its seven levels of selfhood heralds the possibility of psychological evolution for all human beings to higher stages of consciousness. Using the promise of the Sufi vision, the author builds a bridge between the West and Islam.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Bayman is an American engineer who has lived in Turkey for the past twenty-five years. He is a student of Sufism and an independent scholar. He is the author of The Secret of Islam.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books (March 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556432402
• ISBN-13: 978-1556432408
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,995,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sufism 201, September 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Station of No Station: Open Secrets of the Sufis (Paperback)

As excellent as this book is, it is not an Introduction to Sufism. The reader must decide: Is it my heart I want touched, or my head? If it is the head, then the surveys by Chittick, Knysh, and Haeri are in order. If it is the heart, R. Frager's Heart, Soul, Self, is probably the best book out there.
One might place Bayman after Frager, but Bayman is short on detail where Frager explains in great care. But in a word, Bayman begins to treat certain post-basics elements in more depth, but too often stops short. Moreover, Bayman's Sufism is firmly rooted in Islam; his Sufism is serious stuff, not the deracinated Universal Religion of New Agers.
Bayman spends a good deal of space analyzing Nietzsche and where his failed Death of God and unrealizable Superman have led Western Civilization to the point of self anhilation. Sufism contains psychological elements derived hundreds of years ago that Western "Psychology" cannot grapple with, and hence Sufism offers a spiritual alternative to the malaise affecting Western - and now Globalized - Civilization.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pure Teachings Of Islam, September 8, 2001

By 

Ahmad Jamil "Jamil Ahmad" (Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Station of No Station: Open Secrets of the Sufis (Paperback)

The Station Of No Station, in essence speaks from the very heart of Islam... The Pure Islam, which was practiced by the Prophet Muhammad himself. Henry Bayman, who has a profound understanding of Islamic Sufism, spent most of the last quarter of the twentieth century with the great grandfather of Islamic Sufism "Ahmet Kayhan". In this contemporary book of authentic wisdom, Mr.Bayman has in a sincere, direct and clear manner colourfully explained and presented those very Pure Teachings of Islamic Sufism. This book is without any doubt essential for anyone interested in spirituality, religion, mysticism and love... In the words of the great Sufi saint "Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi"... "I follow the religion of love: whatever way loves mounts take, that is my religion and my faith".

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not particularly useful, December 23, 2003

By 

Hafizullah Chishti "Hafizullah" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Station of No Station: Open Secrets of the Sufis (Paperback)

As one other reviewer has said, this is not a good intro to Sufism. There is no real esoteric teaching here. Nevertheless, it is instructive, but more from the standpoint of style and process than from content.

There was a great deal of polemic against Nietzsche and pop culture, and of idolizing of his shaikh. From a random opening/scanning of the text, I was expecting a concise introduction to the Lata'if, the Sufi framework of subtle centers which are not chakras but something of a different and subtler order. What there was instead was a mention of the lata'if but no real background on their function in the development of the human being.

The polemic was an annoyance after a while. It took up too much bandwidth, even though I'm no particular fan if Nietzsche and tend to agree with the author on the corrosiveness of junk culture and the profanity of the present materialistic society.

The skillful teacher will set an atmosphere of beauty and sacredness into which those present are *invited* by the appeal to the heart and the sacred within oneself. Here, one feels bludgeoned about what is wrong with things (and onself) as the encouragement to undertake a spiritual study.

The tone of many passages discloses a lack of real assimilation of the Teachings and individuation of the true ego. The author has swallowed the Teachings whole and is living them mechanistically instead of from his own developed depth. That is not bad in itself; it is a developmental stage that one has either crossed or not. But one cannot teach in this Way (nor should one be writing books on it) until that process is well-along -- and it had barely started (IMO) when the book was written.

There are many hidden masters, and many of them have only a small handful of students -- or none at all -- because their task in the maintenance of the world is not primarily in teaching. It is necessary for some minds to have the particular devotional relationship to the Teacher than Mr. Bayman shows in his writing about his shaikh, and there is a certain beauty in his ingenuousness. But I would say that he himself is not cooked enough (or traveled enough) to know whether his shaikh is "unique" in the world or really just the only teacher for *him.* One hopes that his devotion to his teacher has not prevented him from finding another mentor after his teacher's passing, or his progress on the Way will likely be slowed unnecessarily.