If this question were asked of several people each would perhaps make out a list of not less than one thousand things that they want in life. At the same time, perhaps, after writing one thousand things they want in life a person rarely knows what they really want. What a person apparently wants in life is not what one really wants, because the nature of the outer life is illusion. As soon as a person feels, “I want this in life,” then the world of illusion answers, “Yes, you want me in life, I am the particular thing you want in life.” This is because when a person finds a lack in life, they only find the outer lack, they do not find the lack within themself. And coming to the central theme of this question, I would say that there is something that we can all be in accord with. The thing that we lack in life is to be tuned to the infinite, and to be in rhythm with the finite. In simple words, this means to be in rhythm with the conditions of life and to be in tune with the Source of our existence.
I should like to explain more plainly what I do mean by being in rhythm with the diverse conditions of life that we have to face. Our perpetual complaint against all things in life comes from not being in rhythm with the diverse conditions, and then thinking that if these conditions will change into something that we wish for, it will make life easier. But that is an inexperienced expectation. If we were placed in the same condition that we now desire as the best, we would not say that we are quite satisfied; we would then find what is lacking in that condition also. Because with all the errors and mistakes and lack that we find in our external life, we see a Perfect Hand working behind it all. If we looked at life a little more deeply than we look at it generally, we would certainly find that all the lacks and errors and mistakes and faults add up into something, making life as complete as the wise hands that are working behind it wish it to be.
There is a Persian saying, “The gardener of this garden of the world knows best which plant to rear and which to remove.” A person might respond to this saying by calling it too fatalistic. No, I do not wish to take you further into fatalism. I want to bring you into the sphere of action. What I wanted to do with this saying is to touch the bounds of fatalism and then come into the sphere of action. No doubt there is a great deal in the hands of human beings to improve our life’s condition, if only we do not lose our patience before a desirable condition is brought about, if our courage has not been exhausted, and if our hope has remained.
The question then becomes, “How can a person come into at-one-ment with the rhythm of life, in other words with the conditions of life. A condition of life and a person’s own desire, these are two conflicting things. If not always conflicting, mostly conflicting. If desire gives into the condition, then the condition gets the upper hand, and if the condition is mastered then no doubt desire has the upper hand. However, the condition is not always mastered by a conflict, by a struggle. There is always a precaution needed in fighting with a condition in life. If by peace a harmony can be established, it is better to avoid battling. If one can harmonize with a condition in life without struggling, it is better than to harmonize through struggling with it. Do not be surprised if I were to say that those who complain most about life and those who are very disappointed and very troubled with life are the ones who struggle with the conditions of life most.
Therefore, in coming into at-one-ment with the conditions of life, a person needs not always to use a weapon; they must first try to harmonize with a particular condition of life. The great heroes who have fought through life and gained life’s victory in the real sense of the word have not been those who have fought with conditions; they are those who made peace with the conditions of life. The secret in the lives of great Sufis in this world, in whatever part of the world they have been, is that they met with conditions, favorable or unfavorable, with a view to coming into at-one-ment with the rhythm of life.
Desire is sometimes our friend, and sometimes our enemy. Sometimes, in unfavorable conditions, desire becomes agitated and desire loses its patience, and desire wishes to break the condition. Instead of breaking conditions, it breaks itself. The great souls have given their hand first to their worst enemy, because the one who makes their enemy their friend will make their friend their own self. A bitter condition, as bitter as poison, will be turned into nectar if you will get into rhythm with that condition, if you will understand that condition, if you will sustain that condition with patience, with courage, with hope. When there is a favorable condition, very often a person is afraid that this might pass, but when there is an adverse condition a person does not generally say that it will pass, they think that it will last forever. Where does this distinction come from? It comes from the fear of the condition, it comes from the agitation, the desire to get out of it. Hope is lost, and that is the only source that keeps us alive.
When we see the nature of life, we see that from morning till evening everything in life changes. Why then must we not have the hope that an unfavorable condition will change and a favorable condition will come? A person can get into a habit of expecting the worst. A person who has had some bad experiences throughout life always thinks that whatever comes to me will not be good, nothing good will come to me because I have gone through bad circumstances. They think anybody else can have a better time than me, because I am born with that unfavorable star, and that unfortunate condition will last through my whole life.
As there are many imaginative and intelligent people who, day after day, read newspapers and draw from them the conclusion that there must be a war, so there will be a war. Every little struggle they read about gives them only the idea that the world is going to pieces. There are other people interested in astrology, who have gone further from ordinary astrology, so that they are expecting the end of the world year after year, month after month. It gives people a topic to speak about at the dinner table, but at the same time it gives those a shock who wish to live a little longer than the world’s end. Many such dangers of world destruction have passed, but the prophecy and expectation still remain, and it will continue. By this, what I mean to say is that the best thing to do is to go through every condition that life presents with patience, with understanding, and with eyes wide open. Try to rise above it with every effort you can make.
Now let’s come to the other side of the subject of what is needed in life—to be in tune with the infinite. How can a person be in tune with the infinite? The nature of being in tune with the infinite is like comparing our soul to a string of an instrument. It is tied at both ends, one in the infinite, and the other in the finite. When a person is conscious all the time of the finite, then they are tuned with the finite, and the person who is conscious of the infinite is tuned with the infinite. Being in tune with one, makes us limited, weak, hopeless and powerless. By being in tune with the other, we obtain that power and that strength to pull through life under all adverse conditions.
The work a Sufi considers their sacred work has nothing to do with any particular creed, nor has it to do with any particular religion, only this simple thing that I have just now said: to be in rhythm with life’s conditions and to be in tune with the infinite.
How can we come to be in accordance with life? Instead of being frightened by life’s condition, our first effort is meeting it and observing it keenly, and then harmonizing for that time with that condition. The next effort is to rise above it, if it is adverse. For instance, a young Arab was sleeping in the field and a serpent happened to slide over his palm, and the young man in his sleep, not knowing, held the serpent with all his might, leaving the serpent helpless and unable to bite. As soon as the man woke from his sleep, he was frightened at the sight of the snake in his hand and he at once let it go. As soon as the serpent was out of his hand, the first thing the serpent did was bite. A person can manage a condition better when it is in their hand than when the condition has been lost and the situation is out of a person’s hand.
For instance, if a person is cross at another and has lost their temper, the natural tendency is to give back to the other in the same coins as that person gave out. The outcome is a struggle; it culminates in disappointment. When that person is cross, and has lost their temper, they are the weak one at that time, and that is the time you can manage the person. That is the time that the situation is in your hand. That person is weak, you are strong.
If a person wishes to improve their position in life, and everything depends upon their relationships with other people, do they not run the risk of creating by this action a worse situation for those who are near them, particularly for those for whom they have an affection? For example, someone wishes to become very rich, and if they become extremely rich and everyone is in a sort of slavery towards them, this slavery will weigh very heavily upon them. Our life in this world is dependent on one another, and wealth, however powerful it seems to be, at the end of the examination, is not as powerful as it appears to be. Its power is limited, and it does not always take away the dependence that a person has upon another. The whole secret is to meet your condition with understanding and with complete resignation. The first thing is to meet the condition as it is, and the second thing is to better the condition. The less conflict a person creates the better it is. The more a person can avoid conflict the better it is. For instance, if you are travelling through the wilderness, and you meet a robber there, who says, “Give me your purse, or I am going to take your life!” I say, that in order to meet this situation, the first thing to do is to reason with the robber and get out of danger without having to kill the robber. I mean we cannot always avoid conflict, and we must not turn our back if it comes to a conflict. After all, life is a struggle, and we must be ready to struggle. But we must not be made drunk by our struggles, causing us to lose the way of peace which is the first thing to consider. We must not be like a boxer who is always looking for another person to box with them, simply because boxing is their great pleasure.
What is the other way? The way of tuning oneself to the infinite. That way is through silence, through meditation, through thinking something that is beyond and above all things of this mortal world. That way is through giving some moments of our life to that which is the source and goal of all of us, with the thought of getting in tune with that source, for in that source alone is the secret of our happiness and peace.
Undated
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