But, are you satisfied with the rules? Do you follow them and still find yourself asleep?
Structure is not awakening, it is not liberation, not mystic realization.
Structure has its place, but a life lived by structure is not a mystic’s life.
If you choose a mystic’s way, and it is not an easy way, you cannot live a life of shall/shall not. Love your rules, if you like; abandon them if you wish to live the mystics way.
You must choose.
Is structure god enough? Is constrained freedom the reason you want to enter the great desert? Did you feel the empty spot in your heart only to fill it with rules? When you meet with the divine, will you recount how virtue filled your life, or will you fall into the beloved’s arms, weeping with joy to be in his arms? Will you quote a scripture to defend yourself, or will you wash his face with your tears?
I am a theologian, it is among my many interests, but I cannot, and do not, turn to theology to assuage the fears by which we are all beset. I draw about me the direct perception of the divine. I follow the way of my dervish bretheren and take up company with the sufi of all time. Measured by structure, measured by rules, measured by a point of view informed by any traditional scripture, I may very well be seen as a lost soul.
Lost though I may be, I dance in the cold sorrow of life. Sinful as I am, I wash my masters feet with my joyful tears. As I bound through the temple with my head bare, giggling with gratitude, I certainly do not have the decorum of a saint. My wildness comes from a soul enslaved to the divine. My freedom comes from the cell the divine assigns me. My liberation comes from the burdens I am blessed with.
This is my water, and it gives life. Squeeze your rules, your scripture, if it gives you water, it gives you life, drink deeply. When I write these missives, I am seeking to strike a resonant tone. I am trying through anecdote, example, idea to reach into your heart and find our common ground. Do you know this land? Can you move from rules and ritual to delight and joy? Do you know spontaneous serenity?
