The purpose of presence is to allow us to listen to the Heart with enough continuity that we can hear its subtle guidance when it comes. Reason, although insufficient alone, may help us to confirm the guidance of the Heart. We are learning to perceive more sensitively from the Heart, to overcome doubt, uncertainty, and fickleness. Objective Faith is certainty of the Heart.
Threshold Society Theme for July and August, 1996 "The self-righteous person finds fault with the world and spreads fire in the name of religion. The religion of lovers is an inner fire which spreads only greenness." In our search for the Divine Truth we may forget that the real proof of our spirituality is in [...]
A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of the human being are aspiration. In the case of the lover who is soiled with good and evil, don't pay attention to the good and evil, pay attention to the aspiration.
The Law, by which we mean any true religion or ethical system, will set some limits on the ego's cravings, while giving the self its due. The self has a right to healthy and unselfish pleasures, but it does not have the right to take from others, either through power or deception, in order to gain its own advantage or satisfy itself. This is the teaching of all real religions, and it is the essential foundation upon which the next stage of human development depends.
We are embodied spirits--spiritual beings imprisoned or enshrined in bodies of flesh. We can make the mistake of paying too much attention to the desires and needs of the body. Then our spirits weaken and shrink. And we can make the mistake of hating our bodies, of denying our bodiliness in the name of some notion of spirituality. Then we live incomplete and unhealthy lives. Neither of these are the way of Sufism.
We live in a culture preoccupied with materialism and amusement, with compulsive consumption and drudgery, with busyness and speed, with cynicism and individualism. We live in a culture that has lost its bearings and knows it, but does not know in which direction to turn. We all sense the loss of soul, the loss of an inner direction, and we are swimming against a tide of unconsciousness. Psychologically we are searching for antidotes to our numbness, loneliness, and depression. To ignore these conditions of modern life is only a form of denial.
Though Light is the food of the spirit and spiritual vision, the body also partakes of it, son. If your belly is greedy, turn away from the world; the only way is by a change of food.
We are responsible for every moment, every breath, and every action. Our "remembrance" can extend to how we handle every relationship of our lives. There is a Sufi practice called "self-reckoning" (Muhasiba), which means examining at the end of our day every action, every thought, and feeling we experienced that day. What did I do, what did I think, how did I respond?