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Quote by William C. Chittick

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The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi

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William C. Chittick

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“Endeavor to Make God Your Companion in Every State Intention based only in my own limited will is incomplete. All my limited will can do is make an intention to realize there is some work to be done, whatever that work may be. For us there’s the work of transformation, transformation of the self. Do we ask for it? Do we call on the Infinite for a little help? A little mercy? A little strength? A little discipline? When our striving comes from that higher level, when intention is enfolded with presence, we may understand the truth of the above passage from the Qu’ran, and in this line in particular, And it is God who has named you as those who are surrendered. You are lifted above the immediate clash of opposites and brought into a more spiritual perspective, surrendered, aware of divine support and Grace, no matter what the outcome. You can be an example of this surrender, this striving to live in the Divine Way, the Way that reflects the highest truths.”

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Author:Kabir Helminski
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“Realization, in its fullest meaning, is not merely knowing something, but making it real in oneself. We come to this essential Self through a process of deconditioning, reconditioning, and unconditioning. This can also be described as minimizing what is negative, increasing what is positive, and, ultimately, opening to Spirit.”

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Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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“A Seed has no energy of its own, but it can respond in the right environment. Every form of life has a capacity for response but none so much as the human being. In an infertile environment this capacity for response may be dormant. The cultivation we need to provide is through conscious awareness. This makes the difference between nominally being alive and being alive abundantly. Life is not just this bioenergetic vitality, but a spiritual vitality that is eternal, and we are that. This life span that we know on earth is said to be one chapter in the story of Life. This eternal Life reflects through us. With awareness we can develop all our faculties. The body, mind, spirit, and ecology form an interconnected whole. When a harmonious relationship exists among all of these, we have abundant life.”

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Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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“The work of presence is first to purify and harmonize our conscious and subconscious faculties, to purify the heart around a single center; and second to patiently awaken those latent human faculties that have gone to sleep or atrophied. One day the heart may reach such contact with its own Source; it will gain an intimacy with the Creative Power and know the One behind multiplicity. It will rediscover its home in the unity of all that is. This possibility exists, and human beings are destined to realize it more and more. This is the complete human being, the drop that becomes the sea. It is not difficult, as our teachers told us, because we are made for it.”

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Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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“Our work is to cross a treshold into emptiness and stillness. It is like entering an empty room that proves to hold a great presence. The apparent emptiness of simple presence is richer than the crowded experience of ordinary personality. We can either be empty with Spirit or full of ourselves.”

EnlightenmentIslamAwakeningSufismSufi WayTreshold SocietyTradition Of Rumi
Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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“To cross the treshold from habits and conditioning to emptiness, which is the receptive quality of the soul, we must become still and patient. We must give up certain impulses and let go again and again. This is the way we come into our essential Self. We leave behind our compulsive egos, embodying the „I am“ and selflessness at the same time. The „I am“ is not the mechanical self - the role-playing, superficial personality - that feels its existence through its ordinary reactions and resistances. With the right kind of attention and observation we can see the relationship between our various thoughts and sentiments and how each of them invokes some imaginary „I“. Instead we can learn to feel our own existence through recollection and intention. A positive sense of I-ness emerges through recollection. It is the first thing we can trust: our own presence, the sacred „I am“.”

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Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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“The apparent conflict between a strong sense of our own presence and selflessness can be resolved if we realize that presence helps us to be more selfless. Selflessness is the soul's own willingness to make sacrifices in the material world as well as in the artificial world of personality. The „I am“ is selfless in that it holds no special idea of itself, does not justify itself, and is not envious, resentful, or proud. Because it already feels secure in the infinitely merciful Spirit, it can accept the annihilation of what is false in the ego personality. If we are rooted in presence, we ar e capable of leting go of the demands of the ego. If we are not secure in th eemptiness of pure presence, we will cling to events and things, to lies and fears. But in a state of presence, free of the coercions of the ego, we can become our most authentic selves.”

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Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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“We can bring quality into the details of life if we remember to be and act with precision. If we can consciously be at that point where the horizontal force of active choice meets the vertical force of Being, a certain „something“, larger than life, will be activated. This „something“ can be felt in anything produced by the hands and hearts of a conscious human being – in works of art, in a well-tended garden, in food prepared with love.”

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Book:Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
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