What is Sufism? Is it a religion? Is it a branch of the Islam?

Sufism or mysticism in general is a travel; a travel from the alienated self to the real self.

What is this real self?  This real self is a point in the depth of the heart of each one of us and this point can be developed and become a pearl, a priceless pearl.

But the place of this point is in the oyster and the place of this oyster is in the depth of the ocean of our existence, and this ocean is very, very deep and has different layers.

The alienation from the real self is the identification with the bubble on the surface of the ocean and having completely forgotten this point in the oyster in the depth of the ocean.

What is the bubble on the surface? The bubble is the connection between the ocean of the personal existence with the external world; with the world of phenomena.

When I identify myself with the bubble on the surface of the ocean I am forgetting my real self. How am I forgetting myself, how am I identifying myself with the bubble on the surface of the ocean? When I am looking at my picture in the mirror, and I think it is me.

When I am identifying myself with my picture in the mirror, this is the alienation.

If this picture is not me, if this picture has nothing to do with me, then who am I?

‘Who am I?’ was the question posed by Sufis like Mowlana Rumi. He explained this question day and night; he explained his thoughts about this substantial question: ‘Who am I?’

This path from the alienated me to the real self, of self-understanding, of self awareness, of realising the self awareness, is the base of Sufism.

Sufism is called ‘Er fan’, and Er fan means understanding ourselves. Therefore it is said: To know yourself is to know your God. So the question is not solving the problem of God, or knowing God. The question is knowing myself, knowing yourself.

Rumi, Mowlana, said that when you don’t know yourself yet, how could you possibly define God or Goddess. You can only give a wrong definition and because of these wrong definitions people are fighting with each other.

The similarity between a butterfly, a bird, or a pearl is that all of them are the result of a second birth. A pearl cannot exist on its own in the universe. An oyster comes into being in the universe and it gives birth to a pearl after something happens. A butterfly does not directly exist in the universe; a little worm does and gives birth to a butterfly. In all these instances a second birth takes place.

A mother bird gives birth to an egg. Then, after undergoing a treatment for the second birth, the egg becomes a bird.

The same applies to a seed I have in my hand. In this seed is a tree. A tree does not exist directly in the universe but comes from a seed. This seed is full of energy, of potential to become a tree, but it needs treatment. The transformation of this seed into a big tree is the secret of the substantial evolution.

I am here thanks to my first birth, from the womb of my mother. And during the biologic evolution, my sensorial understanding, intelligence and understanding develops naturally. But the substantial evolution of the extra sensorial understanding needs another treatment. It needs a second birth.

The alienation from the real self is limiting the existence to the capacities of the five ordinary senses, to sensorial perception, to intellectual perception and all of that together, is the alienation.

In mysticism, mystics like Sa’adi, like Rumi, like Hafez, etc. announce their message:

‘Really be a human being! Be a real human being!’

What does it mean? It means to develop your hidden capacities, your substantial capacities. Be a new human being thanks to a new birth, a second birth.

When you put an egg under a bird and put your ear to this egg after a few days, you will hear a beating in it; the heart beating. It was ordinary matter in a solid state, without any life, without any movement. After a few days, thanks to the treatment, it becomes a musician. You can hear the inner vibration inside of it. The vibration which is coming from inside the egg is propagating outwards, everywhere.

The science of inner vibration takes a very important place in the teachings of mysticism and Sufism. In Sufism the Sufi master is like a mother bird, and the disciple is like an egg. The hidden capacities of the disciple need treatment, the substantial treatment for being developed and realized. And all of this is possible thanks to certain rhythms.

When in the womb of the mother the fetus is accomplished, the heart of the child is beating to invite the soul to come in.

This initial heartbeat is a natural mantra, which is very important for the Sufis. They try to listen to their heart and hear their natural heartbeat. This natural heartbeat is the same vibration, the same rhythm, the same melody for all hearts.

When I am mediating in my heart, I am hearing your heart beat also and so a natural and spiritual connection is established between you and me etc, etc.

What does this poetry by Mowlana Rumi mean?

Mordeh bodam: I was nothing, I was dead.

Zendeh shodam: I became alive.  (This is the second birth. Biologically I was alive, but this was not important.)

How? Thanks to love.

Dowlate  Esch Esch means love

Amad eman Thanks to love. Man means me

Dowlate Pau I became eternal

Yendeh shodam I found eternity thanks to love

This is mysticism. Here, there is only one point: love, love in the heart: that is all; that is Sufism. That is all.

Before falling in love Mowlana was a very, very important person and a very famous theologian of his time. He acquired a large quantity of knowledge but was without wisdom.

After meeting his Master, his teacher, he became alive. Then he understood that before this meeting he was ignorant, and that he ignored his being ignorant. He then also understood the secret about himself, the reality of himself.

Because of this he said to his master: ‘You are my king, you are my sultan, you are my bread, you are my water, you are my breath, you are my everything, you are glowing in me and I am becoming alive. You are giving me not only one life, but hundred thousands lives.

Thanks to the path of substantial evolution this is realized.

Thanks to poetry, the rhythm, and the musicians propagating this kind of rhythm in the space of the existence of the seeker. The musician is the heart of the teacher. The heart of the teacher is propagating this inner vibration in the space of the existence of the seeker.

For this reason this revolution is continual, thanks to this invisible connection between the heart of the teacher and the student. That is why the student is so attached to her or his teacher.

For example Mowlana said:

This is Sufism….! This point is Sufism, that’s all.

Without anybody I can be, without you I cannot. That is all!

My heart was burnt by you. It cannot go anywhere but near to you.

You are my soul, you are my life. You are the life of my soul.

Mowlana says: I am neither a Muslim nor a Jew nor a Christian nor a Zoroastrian.

I am neither from the East nor from the West. I eliminated duality, I found unity. Unity is the subject of my research, unity is what I think; unity is what I search. Unity is what I explain. Unity.

Doy as chod meaning from my self, As means from, Chod means self. I put away every duality from myself and I found the whole universe in oneness, in unity.

I am talking only about oneness, I am looking for unity, unity is the only one thing I know and I sing only about unity

This is the message of Mowlana, mysticism and Sufism.

I am neither a Christian, nor a Jew, nor a Zoroastrian nor a Muslim.

I am neither from the East nor from the West.

I am neither from the soil of this phenomenal world, nor from the substance of the spiritual world. It is only my Beloved which is running in me as butter in milk in the visible and the invisible universe.

Aly Jan Nam. ‘If the army of sadness would like to attack the hearts of the lovers, me and the cupbearer will organize our army for breaking the sadness.’

So Mowlana says to eliminate your ego, to eliminate your self or your ego in this love and any person who is interested in discovering Sufism: this is Sufism. And that is all.

And the first question is: Is it necessary to have a teacher?

Yes, it is necessary to understand that the spiritual life is coming through the door of the second birth. And this second birth is due to special treatment, through special practices, special exercises, etc. There is some kind of spiritual connection between the teacher and the student so the education depends not only on verbal teachings or the teaching of the rhythms only. The relation between the teacher and the student is exactly like the relation between a chicken, the egg and the bird. It is exactly like this, it cannot be told, be explained because there is more to this, like an invisible treatment, through an invisible connection. During this invisible connection the hidden capacities of the seed are developed. And the seed gradually becomes, step by step, a very, very tall and big tree. The teacher may be compared to a garden keeper, who is taking care of the seed.

There is a kind of fight or battle between the soul and the ego inside each one of us. My personal power, my force is not enough for breaking the power of my ego, being so much more powerful than my soul.

The teacher is important because he gives a hand and brings his help to the seeker to fight his or her ego. In doing this the hidden faculties of the soul are developed more and more.

The substantial evolution has nothing to do with intellectual capacities, the intellectual faculty or sensorial perception.

It is totally different. You don’t ‘walk’ with your mind, you are walking with and in your heart. That is why the method and the system of education of the substantial evolution are totally different from any other system of education.

The inner vibration produced by the teacher in the heart of the disciple, is translated into love.

Hafez and other mystics said: ‘I don’t know who is there in my heart, because I am always silent, but somebody else in my heart is moving, is boiling.’

now what kind of love or stage of love do we need to find our second birth?

In mysticism life has a very, very powerful attraction like the one that exists between the sun and the earth, between the earth and the moon. This attraction is named love. The moon cannot do anything else than turn around the earth.

As I explained in the poetry of Mowlana, he said: ‘Without anybody I can be, without you I can not.’

This love, the attraction of the student, the disciple, the seeker towards his master is like when you put a piece of cotton in water. When you lift the cotton from the water, the water is in each molecule of the cotton. The water is not outside the piece of cloth but inside it. If the cotton could look at itself it would find the water inside, outside and everywhere of itself: everywhere it looks, it will find the water. That is the unity, the elimination of whatever stands between the water and the cotton.

So the difference between Sufism, between the kind of mysticism that is called Sufism and every other path, is that the principle of the Sufi path is love. Love: only love. Love means negation of me, negation of the ego, negation of you, negation of the ego. How to do this? By the fire of love.

With just a little quantity of fire, just a little bit of fire, you can put fire on a piece of wood. After a while a whole building will be on fire and nothing remains of this building after the fire is gone. That is the power of fire. But the power of this fire must be put to work gradually, like the same power that gives birth to the bird, the same power that gives birth to the tree. It is due to the same fire, the same energy. This energy is canalized through the channel of creation, and not annihilation. It is the annihilation of the ego and the creation of the real self.

At the end of the period of inner evolution of the bird, when the evolution is completed, it is necessary for the bird to break the shell of the egg. This is annihilation of the egg to give birth to the bird, to an eagle. Negation and creation. Negation and then creation.

But the egg is attracted and attached to itself as it is, satisfied with being an egg. This attachment stops it from evolution. That is why it is necessary to summon an external force: the force of love. This love comes from the mother bird going inside the egg, not outside.

Another question  is that :must the teacher have undergone the substantial evolution?