The Guest House
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This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
The poem is quoted from Rumi: Selected Poems, translated by Coleman Barks, with John Moynce, A. J. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson (Penguin, 2004).
The Sacrament of Truth
The Sacrament of Truth is celebrated every time we value the substantial over the ephemeral. Sufis say, “They both sparkle, glitter and gleam, but diamonds will be here long after snow has melted.”
The Chilla of “I”
The practice of abstaining from using the first person pronoun—I—is found in many spiritual traditions. Among Sufis it is used as an in-the-world way to experience one of their central disciplines, fanah—the transcendence of the personal ego.
Abstaining from “I” can be seen as a practicable extension of zikr—the mystical affirmation that “There is no god, but God”. By not referring to the existence of a self with this pronoun one is asserting that, “There is no I, But (that which is denying this affirmation)”.
If that seems incomprehensibly “spiritual”, please consider its relevance from these perspectives:
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Ego Dissolution: The use of "I" declares an autonomous self. By avoiding the use of this pronoun, we can diminish the emphasis on our personal identity, fostering a sense of union through interconnectedness.
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Humility: Refraining from using "I" can open pathways to humility. It encourages a sense of appropriate modesty by recognizing how small this momentary “I” is in relation to everything around us.
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Mindfulness: This practice promotes awareness of language and thought patterns. By consciously choosing alternative ways to express oneself without using "I," we can become more attuned to our speech and its impact on our mindset.
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Detachment from Outcomes: By depersonalizing language, we can create breathing room between self and personal desires. This can reduce attachment to the results of actions, fostering equanimity.
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Encouraging Inclusivity: Avoiding the use of "I" can promote more inclusive communications, emphasizing our interconnectedness; contributing to a sense of unity and shared interests.
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Expressing Oneness: Some spiritual traditions teach the idea of oneness or union with the divine. Refraining from using "I" can be a way of embodying and expressing this concept linguistically.
These gifts, however, may not come easily. For many of us the use of the pronoun “I” is so deeply ingrained that this chilla may feel like trying to walk on our hands and gesture with our feet. The patience with oneself that this will require is itself a form of adab. So it may be helpful to remember that, as with many chillas, a dedicated attempt is as valuable as satisfactory success.
Conscious Harmony
One has to look quietly at all one's qualities and capacities, and see really what one has at one's disposal. I think it is not a question of condemning some and praising others, but of looking at them all as apart from one's real central 'I', as the tools which one's innermost self has available, so to speak.
For example, if one is sensual, it is not one's sensuality, it is one's body's sensuality, and it wouldn't be a strong healthy body if it didn't have its own strong sensuality, through which one can learn a great deal about the world that couldn't be learned in any other way. If this sensuality gets loose, and starts acting on its own account, calling itself I, then it may get one into all kinds of trouble. But as an instrument, as a servant, as something at the disposal of the innermost self, it is a wonderful thing. And so with all one's other qualities.
Rodney Collin, in The Theory of Conscious Harmony
The Guide From Beyond Game
STEP 1: Intention
Every week pick a particular day and in that morning take a few minutes to set this intention: to be aware of any experience that triggers an internal response that unsettles you. It may be an interaction with another person, or with something you encounter online, or with something about yourself, but it must be something that actually disturbs you (i.e. tightens your stomach, affects your heart rate, alters your breathing rhythm, your muscular tension, etc.).
STEP 2: Personography
As soon as possible after that “triggering”, exit whatever you’re doing and sit quietly, close your eyes and enter the following visualization. (This may not be possible in every situation, so it’s better to do this only when you can have a few minutes alone soon after the triggering.)
Visualization: Imagine you’re the host in a cozy guest house, say a homey bed and breakfast in a pleasant location. There’s a knock on the door and, although you are occupied with something else, you go to answer. Take a few breaths, settle yourself, before you open the door. You welcome the traveler into the reception area. While you observe their face, you ask their name and where they’ve come from.
Note A: It’s not important in this game that this person be directly connected to the triggering you’ve just experienced. There may be no obvious connection at all.
Note B: The name might not be a conventional name, it could be a sound or even a symbol. And where they’ve come from might not be a place but a situation—prison, war, wandering, shopping, etc.
STEP 3: The Conversation
At the end of your day, when obligations and activities have subsided, once again sit quietly and enter the following visualization. All you’ll need is a few minutes of quiet.
Visualization: Bring this visitor who arrived earlier a tea or a drink and sit with them in the parlor. Ask: “So what's your story?” Listen carefully. They may remain silent at first, but if you sit patiently…
Whether you’ve gleaned anything from this, or feel like “nothing happened”, seal your intention for that day by: that night, when you get into bed, as you fall asleep whisper something like…”Beloved, show me”.
You may well ask, “What’s the point of this game? How do I “win” or “solve” it? But if we reply, you may not discover the answer for yourself.
Now is the Time
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child’s training wheels
To be laid aside
When you can finally live
With veracity
And love.
Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That invites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to deeply compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.
Hafiz, The Gift, Daniel Landinsky