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The word 'sufi' comes from
an Arabic word 'safa'. Safa means purity. Sufi
means one who is pure in the heart.
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Sufi is the Bhakta on the
Mohammedan path; Bhakta is the Sufi on the Hindu
path. There is no difference between a Bhakta
and a Sufi.
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Curiosity is not enough.
You have to be ready. Sufis say that a master
accepts you not because of your inquiry, he
accepts you because of your preparation -- and
that is a totally different thing.
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Sufis are very careful. It
is not easy to find a Sufi master; he may take
months or sometimes years to find -- and perhaps
the master is just living in front of your
house. The Sufis wait for the right moment.
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Nobody can come to the Sufi
master unless somebody from his company
introduces him, unless somebody takes the
responsibility that the person is ready,
somebody brings him, introduces him: "He is
ready. He needs your grace."
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The Sufi is rebellious
because the Sufi has seen it. And naturally he
will always find it difficult to explain it to
people. That's why Sufis don't believe in
explanations. If you go to a Sufi he starts
giving you methods, not doctrines. That's why
they are called the people of the path. They
give you a method. They say, heart, opens your
being, you will know. ' They will not give you a
single doctrine, a single principle -- they have
none. They have only methodology. It is very
scientific. They give you the taste. It is hard,
arduous work.
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The Sufis were the true
Mohammedans -- but Al-Hillaj Mansoor was
murdered, and Sarmad was killed. Then Sufis had
to go underground; there was no other way.
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A Sufi Master has no
teaching, he is his teaching. A Sufi Master does
not philosophise about reality, he exposes his
heart to the disciple. Even if he sometimes uses
words, those words are only indicators -- just
like arrows being used on milestones -- just
indicators that you have to go on and on. As the
disciple becomes more and more attuned with the
Master then less and less words are needed. Then
the presence of the master is enough.
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A real Sufi has such
presence that he does not ask for attention. The
unreal Sufi can be immediately judged if he asks
for attention.
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Sufis say that your prayers
should be in the middle of the night, when even
your household people are fast asleep. Nobody
should know that you pray. Your prayer will be
just a whisper between you and the unknown; you
should not be an exhibitionist.
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A Sufi is just the opposite
of a philosopher. A Sufi is one who is not
concerned with words at all. A Sufi is one who
is not interested in scriptures at all. A Sufi
is one who is interested in going into existence
itself. He does not want to bother about the
word "beauty", he wants to experience beauty
itself. He is not concerned about the word
"water", he is thirsty and he wants to drink
water. His interest is in drinking, his interest
is existential.
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Sufis talk about love, of
paradise, of the garden of paradise. They think
of God as the Beloved. They talk about wine;
wine is their symbol. They talk about
drunkenness; they are drunkards, drunkards of
the divine. They abandon themselves in dance and
song. They feast, they celebrate. That seems
absolutely logical. Enough of the desert -- they
have to balance it by an inner garden.
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On the surface, from the
outside, the Sufi seems to be dancing. But he is
not dancing, because there is no dancer. It is
pure dance. God has taken possession of him. The
Sufi is drunk, intoxicated. His state is that of
non-being. He is anchorless. The waves of the
ocean toss and turn. First his inner being is
stirred, great joy arises there; and then it
starts spreading towards his body.
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Once you understand the art
of nonidentification, you have learned all that
Sufis can teach you. Gurdjieff introduced Sufi
essentials into the West. He was the man who
brought to the West the secrets of the Sufis.
His whole teaching depends on one word, and that
is nonidentification. Don't get identified with
anything because consciousness is always
transcendental. It cannot be reduced to
anything.
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Sufis work with their hands
-- carpetmaking, shoemaking, carpentry, or
anything whatsoever, but with their hands. Hand
and head are the two poles, and if your energy
is moving through the hands, the head by and by
subsides. And if for years, twelve years -- such
a long time! -- you are simply working with the
hands, you completely forget the head. There is
no need of it. The head becomes nonfunctioning,
and that is what is needed for a disciple: the
head must be in a nonfunctioning state. Thinking
should stop. The mind should become like a
no-mind. Not filled with thoughts, dreams,
ideas. Completely empty.
