https://youtu.be/TvHnAdDf7i8?si=PAgsuuhKqh99ZgDV
“The road your self must journey on lies in polishing the heart.
It is not by rebellion and discord that the heart’s mirror is polished free of the rust of hypocrisy and unbelief: your mirror is polished by your certitude by the unalloyed purity of your faith.
Break free from your chains you have forged about yourself; for you will be free when you are free of clay. The body is dark – the heart is shining bright; the body is mere compost – the heart a blooming garden.
He doesn’t know his own self:
how should he know the self of another?
He knows only his hands and feet, how should he know about God?
This is beyond the sage’s grasp: you must be a fool if you think that you know it.
When you can expound on this, you will know the pure essence of faith; till then, what have faith and you in common?
It is better to be silent then to talk nonsense like one of the learned;
ask from him nothing other than himself,
When he has chosen you for a friend,
you have seen all that there is to see.
There’s no duality in the world of love
what’s all this talk of ‘you’ and ‘me’?
How can you fill a cup that’s full already?
Bring all of yourself to his door:
bring only a part
and you’ve brought nothing at all.
It’s your own self defining faith and unbelief:
inevitably it colors your perception.
Eternity knows nothing
of belief or unbelief;
for a pure nature
there is no such thing.
And if, my friend, you ask me the way
I’ll tell you plainly, it is this:
to turn your face towards the world of life,
and turn your back on rank and reputation;
and, spurning outward prosperity, to bend
your back double in his service;
to part company with those who deal in words,
and take your place in the presence of the worldless.
The way is not far
from you to a friend: you yourself are that way:
so set out along it.
You who know nothing of the life
that comes from the juice of the grape,
how long will you remain intoxicated
by the outward form of the grape?
Why do you lie that you are drunk?
How can you go forward?
There is no place to go;
how will you leap?
You have no foot.
Not one knows how far it is
from nothingness to God.
As long as you cling to your self
you will wander right and left,
day and night, for thousands of years;
and when, after all that effort,
you finally open your eyes,
you will see your self, through inherent defects,
wandering around itself like the ox on the mill;
but, if, once freed from your self,
you finally get down to work,
this door will open to you within two minutes.
God will not be yours,
as long as you cling to soul and life:
you cannot have both this and that.
Bruise your self for months and years on end;
leave it for dead, and when you have done with it,
you will have reached eternal life.
Remain unmoved by hope and fear.
To non-existence mosque and church are one;
to a shadow, heaven and hell likewise.
For someone whose guide is love,
belief and disbelief are equally a veil,
concealing the doorway of the friend;
his very being is a veil
which hides God’s essence.
Until you throw your sword way,
you’ll not become a shield
until you lay your crown aside,
you’ll not be fit to lead.
The death of soul
is the destruction of life;
but death of life
is the soul’s salvation.
Never stand still on the path
become non-existent.
Non-existent even to the notion
of becoming non-existent.
And when you have abandoned both
individuality and understanding,
the world will become that.
When the eye is pure
it sees purity.
Unself yourself…
until you see your self as a speck of dust
you cannot possibly reach that place;
self could never breathe that air,
so wend your way there without self.
~Hakim Sanai (1044-1150)
The Narrow Path 