Wishing to express Threshold’s approach to spiritual awakening, development, realization, here and now in the year 2025, we offer these words. It is using all of our human faculties illuminated by the finer energies of divine love. It is nothing less than an awakening of the heart that transforms our relationships, and reveals a new meaningfulness in every moment.
The heart is not about sentimentality. It is a full pallet of divine qualities. The heart can be tender when tenderness is called for. And the heart can be fierce when circumstances require it.
It is a knowingness that far transcends the ego’s perspective. The heart receives its guidance and inspiration from a vast intelligence, infused with knowledge and love.
What does it take to open a human being to these finer energies, to this communion with the Friend, the divine Beloved?
One: The first step is clearing of the heart of the toxins of egoism: envy, resentment, pride, jealousy, greed, lust, blame, and shame.
Two: At a subtler level, it is the clearing of trivial distractions, and remembering our true longing. It is respect for our higher self, and freedom from the bondage of our lower self. It is a purification of consciousness. The tools we use are meditation (muraqaba), remembrance (zikr), intention (niyah), God-consciousness (taqwa), trust (tawakkul), surrender (taslim).
Three: At an even subtler level, it is true worship, taking refuge in the divine, the effacement of the false self, as it accepts the embrace of infinite love. Worship has its traditional forms, but above all, it is a way of being. This way of being is gradually developed by continually opening the heart, opening to the guidance and inspiration of the moment, clearing the heart of the toxins of egoism, overcoming the trivial distractions of a world of false values, and surrendering to the Real.
Over the last 50 years, with the help and knowledge of many of God’s true friends, a body of knowledge and practice has taken shape, supported by a sincere community. This knowledge and practice is expressed in contemporary translations of the primary sources of this tradition, as well as new writings that convey what we have received from our teachers, and what we have lived in our own experience.
Imperfect as we are, we offer this freely to anyone who wants it and is willing to do the work. We express our gratitude to all who have stood by our side, have seen the value of what we are trying to achieve, and have placed their trust under the light of the generations of seekers and guides that have come before us, and especially through the baraka of Hazrati Mevlana, and our beloved Prophet. Hu….