Yol III

The path is paved with testing, it is the direct confrontation with the self. It encourages introspection, that we become aware of our mental behavior, and the meta/physical consequences of that behavior. A heart that has not undergone or at the very least undergoing the purification of the self will not be able to endure this state. This is the science of cleansing the self of all desire, turning the heart toward God at all moments, and adhering to His religion and seeking His forgiveness. The wayfarer gives himself in service to God in a life of service, he embraces humility and no longer knows pride. He accepts humiliation and scorns praise. He welcomes poverty and shuns wealth, and if wealth is given to him he offers in charity. The remembrance of God is in every breath, and His nobility is witnessed wherever the wayfarer turns. These are the aspirants of annihilation, who have purified themselves of this world so to move through this world pure in their service to the proclamation of His oneness and mercy. Such believers are called to the path, literally guided by our Lord to a life of faith and into the company of those who both practice and teach the systems of practical religion. These remarkable teachings have produced countless saints and lineages, an experiential religion where the presence of God is not only contemplated, but engaged with. Through rigorous regimens of personal piety and under the compassionate guidance of a spiritual guide. 

This is a life of great beauty, and also immense stress. There are few experiences more disconcerting than when we begin to literally experience self reflection, a contemplation of our actions and their consequences as well as both the far reaching and long term effects of every action. As we attempt to rectify these behaviors, we gain a sense of progress, but in the end we find ourselves falling into the same patterns of temptation and sin, of rationalizing our shortcomings and justifying inaction in times of where our faith feels empty. This is not failure, it is practice. At this moment the wayfarer is unaware that they’re confronting their ego. Through this practice without faltering, the wayfarer will steadily become more attuned with reaction of the lower self to worship and remembrance of God, how it resists and manipulates our perception, and so influences our actions. We realize that though we are acquiring and understanding the knowledge of the purification of the self intellectually, we are still too both spiritually and mentally weak to be fully aware of the subtle actions of the ego, and so it subverts us by manipulating how we understand this knowledge. This is why arrogance, pride, a sense of superiority for our study of the “esoteric” are often inevitable and appear quickly within the wayfarer in the first years of this spiritual life. It is not that we are inherently arrogant or prideful, rather these are traits we are conditioned with and the ego is aware of them and makes great use of them. The purification of the self is to take control over our ego, to literally purify it of its conditioning by external influences, and draw inwardly from the very fitrah from that point onward. This is a human being for whom the words of the verse, “Wherever you turn, there is the face of God”, is a reality.