Unclear Journal: 2

Ten. The conflicts over divisions and supremacy of the Creator based on various beliefs and doctrines that have persisted across the world century after century have gradually pushed humanity away from the true understanding and grace of the Creator. Each community has its own interpretation of the mystery of life. None of these interpretations can be dismissed as deranged or absurd, for it is by embracing and following them that members of these groups have lived well in their own way for generations. The meaning of life changes with time, varying in different environments and dimensions according to life’s experiences and needs. Similarly, what is truth and what is falsehood—acceptable explanations of these are entirely relative. When a person enters a place of worship with a beautiful heart, they truly bring with them sincerity, love, reverence, devotion, faith, and human virtues, just as one loves to keep their most trusted friend close and feels secure with them. When a connection is then established between the person and the Creator, the credit belongs entirely to the human heart that accompanied them with supreme compassion in that sacred space. The closer we think we draw to the Creator, the closer we actually move toward the infinite power of our own hearts. Each person thinks differently about God’s existence. For instance: God is everywhere, God dwells in everyone’s heart, one can merge in unity with God, God is our friend, God can be found when called with heart and soul, God has many forms, God is one and indivisible—and much more. The problem arises when some intolerant religious believer harbors hostility toward other views and paths, considers their own religious doctrine superior, politicizes religion, commercializes faith, wages wars. Since the dawn of civilization, such conflicted situations have repeatedly pushed societies toward crisis in various parts of the world. There can certainly be different thoughts or realizations about life and religious philosophy; anyone can walk the path that allows them to live well in their own way—but not by disturbing others’ peace, not by hurting others’ feelings and beliefs about life. Let each person be well in their own way! Let each walk their comfortable, trusted, familiar path! If we don’t accept others’ differences, how can we expect others to easily accept our differences? Through showing respect and honor toward other opinions and paths, people grow greater and make their own religion more beloved. The path to the Creator’s presence is built on peace, humility, and tolerance. There is no place for arrogance, pride, or bigotry. Whatever the religion, opinion, or path, each essentially points toward a journey—a journey to awaken the being within oneself. To feel the Creator’s existence means to feel the existence of a sacred power within oneself, a power that teaches love, teaches human welfare, awakens the soul’s infinite possibilities, gives life shelter in peace and comfort. Humanity, searching for the Creator across the entire world, finally feels Him within themselves when exhausted by failure. This is an invisible power whose presence can only be sensed by the one within whom this power resides. What power reigns within which person, no one except that person can truly know. What you really are—no one but you will ever know.

No one but the person themselves can truly know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The inner strength of an individual spreads such joy and peace within them that it influences their way of life, their philosophy, and their beliefs. When someone speaks of humanity with their lips, thinks of becoming a good person, yet lacks genuine sincerity toward these ideals, their words and thoughts sound like the bell tolls of a prayer hall—whose only function is to resonate, meaninglessly so. What power does a sound possess that the bell itself cannot contain, that dissolves into the wind and scatters to distant places? Even if someone could absorb all the knowledge and learning of the world within themselves, even if their faith in their own abilities were so unwavering that it could move mountains, yet if they cannot hold love in their heart, then all their riches combined can give them nothing. Even if we were to distribute everything we possess among those who have nothing, even if we subjected ourselves to suffering equal to worship itself, we still could not advance very far if there is no spring of love in our hearts, or if that spring runs dry. Love has no religion, yet love is the fundamental basis of all religions. Love initiates us into compassion and empathy, teaches us to live with patience, keeps us away from all envy and pride, brings the beauty within us before our eyes, creates respect and tolerance toward others. Love teaches us to push sin away, to embrace truth. Love gives shelter, births faith, awakens hope, increases patience. This is a mysterious power that guides us. We breathe, blood circulates through our bodies, our nerves respond in various ways to different environments as needed—all of this is controlled by the influence of an infinite power. When we love that power, when we feel its presence within ourselves, and when we awaken ourselves to that power, it becomes easy to live a beautiful, peaceful, and serene life.

Eleven. Sometimes one must listen to the self within. When no shore or boundary of a problem can be found, when all paths to resolution seem blocked, then one must try silently, quietly, in solitude to understand what the mind speaks. At such times, saying nothing may reveal a better way than the most beautiful words. When the heart is utterly broken and shattered, when all lights go out one by one, when the body can no longer endure its battle with the mind, then the heart must be allowed to follow its own path. Setting aside our ego, our pride, our achievements, our intellectual posturing, our communal arrogance, our status—we must seek the Creator with an empty mind and empty hands. The journey toward the Creator must begin from emptiness. A burdened heart cannot bear even the weight of light. One must completely remove oneself from within and fill that inner space with the feeling of the Creator’s existence. There is no temple greater than the heart. When one heart is surrendered in search of the Creator’s grace, countless hearts bloom like lotuses. How unfortunate is the person who travels the entire world in search of beauty, yet never finds a moment to look toward their own heart. The answers to life’s most important questions can only be found within one’s own heart. This heart-temple alone is the eternal truth, here alone is God’s dwelling place. The Creator does not grace every heart—only that heart which knows how to surrender itself completely, forgetting all pride and arrogance, becomes the Creator’s beloved abode. The Creator dwells in human consciousness, wisdom, and conscience. In all our actions and thoughts, before and after, around us, in our sleep or waking, in the hearts of those who truly wish us well, in our eyes or in the compassionate eyes of our friends, in all our good intentions and good deeds—the Creator’s blessings and grace are clearly evident. When we sing the Creator’s praise, we actually purify our own hearts, our thoughts become beautiful, joy dances in our minds, a wonderful feeling arises within us about ourselves and the world around us, beautiful thoughts and beautiful intentions make our work beautiful, and we live in a world that is good and beautiful. Whatever is beautiful may not always bring peace; but whatever brings peace is certainly beautiful. In the dance of beautiful light, the realm of darkness vanishes. Devotion and love toward the Creator is nothing but the awakening of the beautiful being within ourselves. If such an awakening of conscience occurs on distant mountains, by the sea, in caves, in prayer halls, or in any solitary, secluded place, we call that place sacred and rush there drawn by the heart’s pull. We call that place a pilgrimage site where the dormant state of the heart comes to an end. Temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, or any other place of worship cannot bring us close to the Creator until we can awaken our hearts. Due to various illusions and ignorance, we search for peace, love, happiness, and comfort in our external world. This plants within us the seeds of disappointment, melancholy, inequality, false self-satisfaction, and dejection, because we spend our lives as eternal strangers to the endless stream of love and good tidings that flows within us. The more we seek peace in the wealth of the external world, the stronger becomes the wall between the Creator and ourselves. Gradually, this wall moves us further away from the Creator—that is, from our own hearts.

When the eyes of the heart open, we come to realize that the vast ocean of boundless peace flowing ceaselessly within us is perhaps what I have been groping for all this time, seeking not even a droplet of it. We may not have a good house, we may never ride in a fine car, we may never in this lifetime have the means to eat expensive food, we may never have the good fortune to visit all the wonderful places in the world, costly clothes or ornaments may never grace us; let us assume that we possess none of those externalities from which people seek peace; yet we have the light of the heart within us, our beautiful qualities will remain ours forever, we can free our independent thoughts from the chains of external worldly enchantments. Nature has gifted us beautiful mountains and valleys, the starlight in the night sky keeps us spellbound, the rays of sun and moon bathe our bodies, the variations of day and night through different seasons make us contemplate the infinite mystery of our Creator, the eruption of volcanoes or the rainbow after a shower, the friendship of clouds and wind, beautiful fields of crops, rivers flowing in melodious streams, the colorful flight of birds across the sky, sailboats floating on the ocean’s breast, the miraculous birth of a child—all of this makes us devoted to some invisible, incomprehensible, hidden power. We worship that power, we dedicate ourselves to the practice of attaining proximity to that power. When we dive into that bottomless ocean of wealth within ourselves, there arises in us this profound feeling and conviction that we ourselves are the most primordial, proven vessel of that worshipped power. A current of inherent, otherworldly joy makes us still, teaching us to walk silently with bowed head on the golden path of knowledge.

Twelve. To change the world, we must first change ourselves—then everyone around us will change: family will change, society will change, the nation will change, and eventually the world itself will change. The flow of consciousness must begin with oneself. When we awaken, our own world awakens too. Every religion essentially performs this work of awakening. Through prayer, a connection is established between our external being and the Creator, or with our own heart. Gradually, our thoughts and actions move from a scattered state into a settled, linear rhythm. Religion offers us the discovery of boundless joy through beautiful thoughts and good deeds. Religious philosophy serves as a stairway to ascend into that ineffable, mysterious realm of bliss. One who does not feel the Creator’s presence in their own heart will not find even the smallest trace of divine grace, no matter how many sacred places they visit around the world. All our prayers are therefore nothing more than methods of awakening ourselves. The death of worldly feelings means emerging from the artificial shell in which we hide ourselves, abandoning those external impulses that conceal our hearts from us. Such death awakens us on the path of light; to walk the path necessary for peace and happiness, we prepare ourselves to journey unburdened by earthly attachments. To discover ourselves in a new life, leaving behind an unwanted, meaningless existence, there is no alternative but to bring death to all the self-contradictory conditions of the present for the sake of such resurrection. The death of the present self is essential for the desired resurrection or rebirth. We dream of seeing ourselves in a new form while keeping everything around us exactly as it is, continuing to do what we do now in the same way we do it. This never happens. New birth begins only through the death of our present comfortable way of living. This death means emerging from old habits, throwing ourselves with infinite courage beyond the circle of comfortable experiences, preparing ourselves to walk on novel paths, daring to embrace what was never mine, is not mine now, but whose presence within me is my deepest need, elevating ourselves to the highest level of our capabilities through continuous practice, sacrificing momentary pleasure and joy to journey toward unlimited peace, removing ourselves from the fathomless ocean of alluring harm and evil to undergo the severest test of walking the thorny path of truth. When we pray, we essentially imagine our unity with the Creator and prepare ourselves to receive divine grace. This preparation means preparing to elevate our minds and hearts to a higher level. The first step of this preparation is the magnificent willing death of our present false self.

Thirteen. The magic of stillness is wondrous. Where there is no silence, where processions of sound march endlessly onward, there even the most exquisite chain of words becomes meaningless. Without knowing how to truly listen, or how to receive with the heart, even the world’s most beautiful words cannot heal the wounds of anyone’s soul. Sometimes the absence of distance renders constant proximity meaningless. To lighten the heart’s burden and prepare oneself to receive the Creator’s grace, one must return again and again to stillness. Prayer is nothing but casting all one’s burdens upon the Creator’s shoulders and continuing one’s work with an unburdened mind. Then two different beings operate within the same body. One being bears the burden on behalf of the Creator, while the other works tirelessly in a lightened form. When we awaken, a luminous torch begins spreading light throughout the world. In that light’s fierce radiance comes the purification of our souls. We ourselves must plan how our present and future will unfold. If we do not arrange the pattern of our lives ourselves, someone else will arrange that pattern according to their own convenience. If we remain asleep, if we do not awaken, then one day we shall find ourselves as slaves to another’s desires and aversions. Unless we surrender mastery over our own destiny into our own hands while there is time, we must one day accept servitude to another’s fate. The Creator’s command is in truth the dormant divine directive of one’s own conscience. In silent mind and peaceful heart, making love and human compassion the foundation, one must listen to conscience’s guidance. Only through awakening the wealth of the mind can one reach near to one’s goal. One must receive the Creator’s grace by strengthening one’s position against injustice, sacrificing apparent happiness, and making mercy and compassion one’s companions. When the lightless night of despair is swept away and the light of hope plays in life, in dawn’s magical moment the withering heart becomes fresh again; touched by the Creator’s beauty and excellence, even a silent drop gains the vastness of an ocean; under divine light’s touch, even a firefly’s dim particle of light blazes brighter than a radiant star. One must bind oneself in such enchantments, bathed in the nectar-stream of the heart’s devoted faith and love. A person who remains indifferent to their own strength, or leaves their strength unused, differs only slightly from the powerless. To journey as a traveler on the path of eternal truth requires infinite courage and patience to embrace the death of one’s false self. Such spiritual death is the preliminary step in preparing oneself for new birth. Through this death alone begins new life. Just as the recently departed past always seeks to shackle the feet of the present, so too, even at the moment of resurrection from death, the tranquil irresistible attraction of death continues to call from behind. One whose capacity to disdain that attraction is greater possesses correspondingly greater self-power.

Fourteen. What is beautiful and what is ugly cannot be determined hastily. What appears beautiful to one person may seem ugly to another. To look at something and immediately declare it ugly is a form of foolishness and arrogance. Beauty lies hidden within every good thing—what meets the eye may appear ugly at first glance, but to hastily dismiss it based on that surface view reveals a shallow character. A heart that is beautiful is sincere, magnificent, and transparent. One who possesses such a heart is compassionate and just not only toward themselves but toward all humanity. Perhaps they have no money in their pockets, or they struggle to survive on meager means, yet the wealth of their heart touches everyone. While a person with a beautiful face burns inwardly from the pride of their own beauty, at the same time, a person with a beautiful heart spreads their radiance all around. The purity of the heart is far more important than the purity of the body. We do so much to keep our bodies pure and beautiful, yet how many of us tend to our hearts? We keep temples, mosques, churches, and pagodas spotlessly clean, then go there with dirty hearts to sit in clean places and pray. Can this earn us the Creator’s grace? The cleanliness of places of worship and the purity of the heart—it is the coexistence of these two that creates the proper environment for prayer. The Creator dwells in our hearts, not in prayer halls—that space must be kept clean, must be kept pure. When we hurt someone, when we cause pain to someone’s heart, we are actually hurting the Creator within them. The bleeding of a wounded person’s heart distances us from the Creator’s grace; at such times, we must seek forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness from someone, we are actually seeking forgiveness from the Creator who resides in their heart. We receive forgiveness from the Creator dwelling in the heart, not from the person themselves. The weaker the Creator’s presence in someone’s heart, the less their capacity to forgive. One who can forgive frees themselves from the raging fire of anger and stubbornness, and moves forward light as a feather toward receiving the Creator’s grace. Anger burns the angry person themselves. By forgiving others, our hearts are freed from the unbearable burden of rage and hatred toward others. Then we can walk empty-handed with an open mind along every subtle path of beauty in our lives. Whatever I love, whatever would bring peace and comfort to my life, whether it is before my eyes or not, I can carry it in my heart as I journey forward. Whatever distance exists between my dreams and my reality, whatever needs to be done to bridge that gap, our hearts can be ready to do it all, because then I can walk the path with only myself. To harbor hatred and anger toward someone in one’s own heart means carrying the burden of that person’s sins on one’s own head as one walks through life. Such pointless anger creates heaps of unnecessary suffering. What is the point of destroying one’s own peace by thinking about someone we cannot even bear? By setting others free, we can set our own souls free. Losing with love and prayer for oneself brings far more peace than winning by nurturing anger and hatred toward others.

No. When did the concept of the Creator enter our minds? How did it come? Why did it come? Where does the Creator dwell? We seek the Creator in our prayers, imagine Him in our prostrations. The Creator lives in our love; we remember the Creator in all our righteous deeds, hoping to reach Him through absolute devotion, spending our lives preparing for heaven in the hope of attaining divine presence. Then when we look at the world around us, we see the reign of violence and hatred, the triumph of hypocrisy and betrayal. Injustice and cruelty make our faith questionable, human savagery in the name of religion constantly pains believers, racism and discrimination elevate the deceitful to higher levels, people live in the darkness of the grave while still alive and seek happiness there, constantly burning themselves voluntarily in the fire of lust and desire. The world calls liars intelligent, calls the innocent foolish, and calls those who belong neither here nor there opportunists. The Creator does not dwell in prayer halls but in the hearts of those who pray. The Creator cannot be found in some distant lonely mountain, island, valley, or pilgrimage site; the Creator’s primordial abode is in the secret sanctuary of our own hearts. The search for transcendent supreme peace lies within our hearts; the measure and scope of our power exceeds all our imagination. We are the light, we are the darkness—the darkness against which we wage war lies within our hearts, and the light we spend our lives seeking also comes from the heart. Both our greatest creation and our most terrible destruction come from within us. Between the Creator and us there is nothing else; we mistakenly bring something in between and increase our troubles. No religious teacher, no place of worship, no prayer book, no religious ritual—nothing can take us to the Creator if we cannot fully prepare our minds for divine communion. The closer we can come to our hearts, the closer we can be to the Creator. Our beliefs, our customs, our traditions, our rituals—everything develops in accordance with our philosophy of life. No religious philosophy is superior or inferior. Every religion instructs its followers to show respect and tolerance toward other religions. For each person who follows a particular religion, that religion is sufficient. The more reluctant we are to accept this truth, the more unnecessary conflicts will arise. Such conflicts or disputes contradict the fundamental philosophy of any religion. However perfectly we may pray while hurting or belittling others’ philosophies, it is impossible to gain divine grace. Our heart is our prayer chamber. In that chamber, we must sit peacefully and present ourselves before ourselves in the light of the surrounding world and our experiences. This purity of heart reveals the existence of the Creator. When we say we love the Creator, we actually express our love for ourselves. To love the Creator means to feel within our hearts the noble qualities that the Creator has ordained. Such love purifies the self. If we can feel the existence of the Creator dwelling in our hearts, then our actions become as sacred and sincere as our prayers, our thoughts reflect the noblest impulses of our hearts. Whatever we need to do to follow the way that keeps us at our most beautiful—we do it all.

Genuine love for the Creator teaches us to think beautifully, making our intentions pure, unblemished, and resolute. It infuses our body and mind with a wondrous power, guiding our lived experience along the path of beauty and truth. All of this brings us peace, deepening the tranquility in our hearts. By utilizing our mental faculties to their fullest, we can bring welfare to ourselves and the world. This well-being and well-doing is the finest prayer of all. To live beautifully oneself while helping others live beautifully—this is the essence of all religions, beliefs, and paths. Therefore, to love the Creator means to love oneself. Through this love alone comes the discovery of true knowledge. All the letters in all the books of the world combined could not reveal even a quarter of this wisdom. When we are preoccupied with our ego, we can never find our most beautiful essence. At such times, thick, obscure veils of darkness come to conceal the path of light before us. A strange gloom envelops our inner and outer being. When that dense darkness lifts, torrents of divine light kindle every lamp in the heart, one by one. Just as lighting all the lamps in a place of worship allows us to call upon the Creator with sacred mind and focused devotion, so too can we illuminate every chamber of the heart to create an atmosphere conducive to attaining fulfillment through the soul’s earnest practice. The Creator recognizes no religion; no specific structure of any prayer house can bind Him. The Creator is pleased only by the offerings of the heart. It is through His grace that humanity finds the path to supreme joy.

Ten. The conflicts over divisions and supremacy of the Creator based on various beliefs and doctrines that have persisted across the world century after century have gradually pushed humanity away from the true understanding and grace of the Creator. Each community has its own interpretation of the mystery of life. None of these interpretations can be dismissed as deranged or absurd, for it is by embracing and following them that members of these groups have lived well in their own way for generations. The meaning of life changes with time, varying in different environments and dimensions according to life’s experiences and needs. Similarly, what is truth and what is falsehood—acceptable explanations of these are entirely relative. When a person enters a place of worship with a beautiful heart, they truly bring with them sincerity, love, reverence, devotion, faith, and human virtues, just as one loves to keep their most trusted friend close and feels secure with them. When a connection is then established between the person and the Creator, the credit belongs entirely to the human heart that accompanied them with supreme compassion in that sacred space. The closer we think we draw to the Creator, the closer we actually move toward the infinite power of our own hearts. Each person thinks differently about God’s existence. For instance: God is everywhere, God dwells in everyone’s heart, one can merge in unity with God, God is our friend, God can be found when called with heart and soul, God has many forms, God is one and indivisible—and much more. The problem arises when some intolerant religious believer harbors hostility toward other views and paths, considers their own religious doctrine superior, politicizes religion, commercializes faith, wages wars. Since the dawn of civilization, such conflicted situations have repeatedly pushed societies toward crisis in various parts of the world. There can certainly be different thoughts or realizations about life and religious philosophy; anyone can walk the path that allows them to live well in their own way—but not by disturbing others’ peace, not by hurting others’ feelings and beliefs about life. Let each person be well in their own way! Let each walk their comfortable, trusted, familiar path! If we don’t accept others’ differences, how can we expect others to easily accept our differences? Through showing respect and honor toward other opinions and paths, people grow greater and make their own religion more beloved. The path to the Creator’s presence is built on peace, humility, and tolerance. There is no place for arrogance, pride, or bigotry. Whatever the religion, opinion, or path, each essentially points toward a journey—a journey to awaken the being within oneself. To feel the Creator’s existence means to feel the existence of a sacred power within oneself, a power that teaches love, teaches human welfare, awakens the soul’s infinite possibilities, gives life shelter in peace and comfort. Humanity, searching for the Creator across the entire world, finally feels Him within themselves when exhausted by failure. This is an invisible power whose presence can only be sensed by the one within whom this power resides. What power reigns within which person, no one except that person can truly know. What you really are—no one but you will ever know.

No one but the person themselves can truly know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The inner strength of an individual spreads such joy and peace within them that it influences their way of life, their philosophy, and their beliefs. When someone speaks of humanity with their lips, thinks of becoming a good person, yet lacks genuine sincerity toward these ideals, their words and thoughts sound like the bell tolls of a prayer hall—whose only function is to resonate, meaninglessly so. What power does a sound possess that the bell itself cannot contain, that dissolves into the wind and scatters to distant places? Even if someone could absorb all the knowledge and learning of the world within themselves, even if their faith in their own abilities were so unwavering that it could move mountains, yet if they cannot hold love in their heart, then all their riches combined can give them nothing. Even if we were to distribute everything we possess among those who have nothing, even if we subjected ourselves to suffering equal to worship itself, we still could not advance very far if there is no spring of love in our hearts, or if that spring runs dry. Love has no religion, yet love is the fundamental basis of all religions. Love initiates us into compassion and empathy, teaches us to live with patience, keeps us away from all envy and pride, brings the beauty within us before our eyes, creates respect and tolerance toward others. Love teaches us to push sin away, to embrace truth. Love gives shelter, births faith, awakens hope, increases patience. This is a mysterious power that guides us. We breathe, blood circulates through our bodies, our nerves respond in various ways to different environments as needed—all of this is controlled by the influence of an infinite power. When we love that power, when we feel its presence within ourselves, and when we awaken ourselves to that power, it becomes easy to live a beautiful, peaceful, and serene life.

Eleven. Sometimes one must listen to the self within. When no shore or boundary of a problem can be found, when all paths to resolution seem blocked, then one must try silently, quietly, in solitude to understand what the mind speaks. At such times, saying nothing may reveal a better way than the most beautiful words. When the heart is utterly broken and shattered, when all lights go out one by one, when the body can no longer endure its battle with the mind, then the heart must be allowed to follow its own path. Setting aside our ego, our pride, our achievements, our intellectual posturing, our communal arrogance, our status—we must seek the Creator with an empty mind and empty hands. The journey toward the Creator must begin from emptiness. A burdened heart cannot bear even the weight of light. One must completely remove oneself from within and fill that inner space with the feeling of the Creator’s existence. There is no temple greater than the heart. When one heart is surrendered in search of the Creator’s grace, countless hearts bloom like lotuses. How unfortunate is the person who travels the entire world in search of beauty, yet never finds a moment to look toward their own heart. The answers to life’s most important questions can only be found within one’s own heart. This heart-temple alone is the eternal truth, here alone is God’s dwelling place. The Creator does not grace every heart—only that heart which knows how to surrender itself completely, forgetting all pride and arrogance, becomes the Creator’s beloved abode. The Creator dwells in human consciousness, wisdom, and conscience. In all our actions and thoughts, before and after, around us, in our sleep or waking, in the hearts of those who truly wish us well, in our eyes or in the compassionate eyes of our friends, in all our good intentions and good deeds—the Creator’s blessings and grace are clearly evident. When we sing the Creator’s praise, we actually purify our own hearts, our thoughts become beautiful, joy dances in our minds, a wonderful feeling arises within us about ourselves and the world around us, beautiful thoughts and beautiful intentions make our work beautiful, and we live in a world that is good and beautiful. Whatever is beautiful may not always bring peace; but whatever brings peace is certainly beautiful. In the dance of beautiful light, the realm of darkness vanishes. Devotion and love toward the Creator is nothing but the awakening of the beautiful being within ourselves. If such an awakening of conscience occurs on distant mountains, by the sea, in caves, in prayer halls, or in any solitary, secluded place, we call that place sacred and rush there drawn by the heart’s pull. We call that place a pilgrimage site where the dormant state of the heart comes to an end. Temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, or any other place of worship cannot bring us close to the Creator until we can awaken our hearts. Due to various illusions and ignorance, we search for peace, love, happiness, and comfort in our external world. This plants within us the seeds of disappointment, melancholy, inequality, false self-satisfaction, and dejection, because we spend our lives as eternal strangers to the endless stream of love and good tidings that flows within us. The more we seek peace in the wealth of the external world, the stronger becomes the wall between the Creator and ourselves. Gradually, this wall moves us further away from the Creator—that is, from our own hearts.

When the eyes of the heart open, we come to realize that the vast ocean of boundless peace flowing ceaselessly within us is perhaps what I have been groping for all this time, seeking not even a droplet of it. We may not have a good house, we may never ride in a fine car, we may never in this lifetime have the means to eat expensive food, we may never have the good fortune to visit all the wonderful places in the world, costly clothes or ornaments may never grace us; let us assume that we possess none of those externalities from which people seek peace; yet we have the light of the heart within us, our beautiful qualities will remain ours forever, we can free our independent thoughts from the chains of external worldly enchantments. Nature has gifted us beautiful mountains and valleys, the starlight in the night sky keeps us spellbound, the rays of sun and moon bathe our bodies, the variations of day and night through different seasons make us contemplate the infinite mystery of our Creator, the eruption of volcanoes or the rainbow after a shower, the friendship of clouds and wind, beautiful fields of crops, rivers flowing in melodious streams, the colorful flight of birds across the sky, sailboats floating on the ocean’s breast, the miraculous birth of a child—all of this makes us devoted to some invisible, incomprehensible, hidden power. We worship that power, we dedicate ourselves to the practice of attaining proximity to that power. When we dive into that bottomless ocean of wealth within ourselves, there arises in us this profound feeling and conviction that we ourselves are the most primordial, proven vessel of that worshipped power. A current of inherent, otherworldly joy makes us still, teaching us to walk silently with bowed head on the golden path of knowledge.

Twelve. To change the world, we must first change ourselves—then everyone around us will change: family will change, society will change, the nation will change, and eventually the world itself will change. The flow of consciousness must begin with oneself. When we awaken, our own world awakens too. Every religion essentially performs this work of awakening. Through prayer, a connection is established between our external being and the Creator, or with our own heart. Gradually, our thoughts and actions move from a scattered state into a settled, linear rhythm. Religion offers us the discovery of boundless joy through beautiful thoughts and good deeds. Religious philosophy serves as a stairway to ascend into that ineffable, mysterious realm of bliss. One who does not feel the Creator’s presence in their own heart will not find even the smallest trace of divine grace, no matter how many sacred places they visit around the world. All our prayers are therefore nothing more than methods of awakening ourselves. The death of worldly feelings means emerging from the artificial shell in which we hide ourselves, abandoning those external impulses that conceal our hearts from us. Such death awakens us on the path of light; to walk the path necessary for peace and happiness, we prepare ourselves to journey unburdened by earthly attachments. To discover ourselves in a new life, leaving behind an unwanted, meaningless existence, there is no alternative but to bring death to all the self-contradictory conditions of the present for the sake of such resurrection. The death of the present self is essential for the desired resurrection or rebirth. We dream of seeing ourselves in a new form while keeping everything around us exactly as it is, continuing to do what we do now in the same way we do it. This never happens. New birth begins only through the death of our present comfortable way of living. This death means emerging from old habits, throwing ourselves with infinite courage beyond the circle of comfortable experiences, preparing ourselves to walk on novel paths, daring to embrace what was never mine, is not mine now, but whose presence within me is my deepest need, elevating ourselves to the highest level of our capabilities through continuous practice, sacrificing momentary pleasure and joy to journey toward unlimited peace, removing ourselves from the fathomless ocean of alluring harm and evil to undergo the severest test of walking the thorny path of truth. When we pray, we essentially imagine our unity with the Creator and prepare ourselves to receive divine grace. This preparation means preparing to elevate our minds and hearts to a higher level. The first step of this preparation is the magnificent willing death of our present false self.

Thirteen. The magic of stillness is wondrous. Where there is no silence, where processions of sound march endlessly onward, there even the most exquisite chain of words becomes meaningless. Without knowing how to truly listen, or how to receive with the heart, even the world’s most beautiful words cannot heal the wounds of anyone’s soul. Sometimes the absence of distance renders constant proximity meaningless. To lighten the heart’s burden and prepare oneself to receive the Creator’s grace, one must return again and again to stillness. Prayer is nothing but casting all one’s burdens upon the Creator’s shoulders and continuing one’s work with an unburdened mind. Then two different beings operate within the same body. One being bears the burden on behalf of the Creator, while the other works tirelessly in a lightened form. When we awaken, a luminous torch begins spreading light throughout the world. In that light’s fierce radiance comes the purification of our souls. We ourselves must plan how our present and future will unfold. If we do not arrange the pattern of our lives ourselves, someone else will arrange that pattern according to their own convenience. If we remain asleep, if we do not awaken, then one day we shall find ourselves as slaves to another’s desires and aversions. Unless we surrender mastery over our own destiny into our own hands while there is time, we must one day accept servitude to another’s fate. The Creator’s command is in truth the dormant divine directive of one’s own conscience. In silent mind and peaceful heart, making love and human compassion the foundation, one must listen to conscience’s guidance. Only through awakening the wealth of the mind can one reach near to one’s goal. One must receive the Creator’s grace by strengthening one’s position against injustice, sacrificing apparent happiness, and making mercy and compassion one’s companions. When the lightless night of despair is swept away and the light of hope plays in life, in dawn’s magical moment the withering heart becomes fresh again; touched by the Creator’s beauty and excellence, even a silent drop gains the vastness of an ocean; under divine light’s touch, even a firefly’s dim particle of light blazes brighter than a radiant star. One must bind oneself in such enchantments, bathed in the nectar-stream of the heart’s devoted faith and love. A person who remains indifferent to their own strength, or leaves their strength unused, differs only slightly from the powerless. To journey as a traveler on the path of eternal truth requires infinite courage and patience to embrace the death of one’s false self. Such spiritual death is the preliminary step in preparing oneself for new birth. Through this death alone begins new life. Just as the recently departed past always seeks to shackle the feet of the present, so too, even at the moment of resurrection from death, the tranquil irresistible attraction of death continues to call from behind. One whose capacity to disdain that attraction is greater possesses correspondingly greater self-power.

Fourteen. What is beautiful and what is ugly cannot be determined hastily. What appears beautiful to one person may seem ugly to another. To look at something and immediately declare it ugly is a form of foolishness and arrogance. Beauty lies hidden within every good thing—what meets the eye may appear ugly at first glance, but to hastily dismiss it based on that surface view reveals a shallow character. A heart that is beautiful is sincere, magnificent, and transparent. One who possesses such a heart is compassionate and just not only toward themselves but toward all humanity. Perhaps they have no money in their pockets, or they struggle to survive on meager means, yet the wealth of their heart touches everyone. While a person with a beautiful face burns inwardly from the pride of their own beauty, at the same time, a person with a beautiful heart spreads their radiance all around. The purity of the heart is far more important than the purity of the body. We do so much to keep our bodies pure and beautiful, yet how many of us tend to our hearts? We keep temples, mosques, churches, and pagodas spotlessly clean, then go there with dirty hearts to sit in clean places and pray. Can this earn us the Creator’s grace? The cleanliness of places of worship and the purity of the heart—it is the coexistence of these two that creates the proper environment for prayer. The Creator dwells in our hearts, not in prayer halls—that space must be kept clean, must be kept pure. When we hurt someone, when we cause pain to someone’s heart, we are actually hurting the Creator within them. The bleeding of a wounded person’s heart distances us from the Creator’s grace; at such times, we must seek forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness from someone, we are actually seeking forgiveness from the Creator who resides in their heart. We receive forgiveness from the Creator dwelling in the heart, not from the person themselves. The weaker the Creator’s presence in someone’s heart, the less their capacity to forgive. One who can forgive frees themselves from the raging fire of anger and stubbornness, and moves forward light as a feather toward receiving the Creator’s grace. Anger burns the angry person themselves. By forgiving others, our hearts are freed from the unbearable burden of rage and hatred toward others. Then we can walk empty-handed with an open mind along every subtle path of beauty in our lives. Whatever I love, whatever would bring peace and comfort to my life, whether it is before my eyes or not, I can carry it in my heart as I journey forward. Whatever distance exists between my dreams and my reality, whatever needs to be done to bridge that gap, our hearts can be ready to do it all, because then I can walk the path with only myself. To harbor hatred and anger toward someone in one’s own heart means carrying the burden of that person’s sins on one’s own head as one walks through life. Such pointless anger creates heaps of unnecessary suffering. What is the point of destroying one’s own peace by thinking about someone we cannot even bear? By setting others free, we can set our own souls free. Losing with love and prayer for oneself brings far more peace than winning by nurturing anger and hatred toward others.

Eight. A life without love is nothing but a waste of infinite possibilities. Spiritual love, material love, or physical love—such distinctions in love lead our judgment about love toward discrimination. Love has no name, love falls into no particular category, love cannot be defined through any universally accepted means. Love is not part of any specific world; love is itself a world. Either we live within it, or we remain outside it. There is nothing in between. When love stirs the heart, our words and actions follow the Creator’s ordained path, and then all needless arguments, victories, and debates come to an end. Certainly, measured silence holds more power than scattered words. Through silence and patience, the immortal music of service and peace is composed. Love need not be expressed; love expresses itself. For that treasured wealth which is love’s object, a person can stake their life and fight with a smiling face in the dream of possessing it. One whose heart holds the power of love can overcome all suffering and trials with a smile. Life is greater than… all of life’s suffering, all sorrow, all shame, all anguish, all pain, all grief. Despair and frustration will come to life, but let them not block our path forward, let them not obscure our dreams. The Creator who has kept us in His care for so many years of our lives, who has kept us well, can certainly keep us in suffering for some temporary period. We cannot accuse Him for this, cannot lose faith in Him. Rather, during those difficult times we must strengthen our faith in His justice even more. To do otherwise is nothing but sin. Surely we are on a path that is harmful for us, which is why the Creator wants to turn us away from that path by making us understand its infinite suffering. In every action of the Creator lies the welfare of both present and future. For all that we have, we thank the Creator, but for all that we have not been given, we should thank the Creator equally. He did not respond positively to our prayers because surely some misfortune was hidden within our prayers. We would have been happy if our present suffering were reduced, but who can say—perhaps it is only by increasing the present suffering that the suffering can be completely removed! The path to removing a bullet from a bullet-wound temporarily increases the agony of that moment. Perhaps applying ointment to that spot would reduce the pain, but the pain would not end. Therefore, one must grit their teeth and endure infinite suffering. The apparently endless torment given by the Creator—that period of torment ends through the attainment of limitless happiness. Therefore, the best response to all our sorrow and grief is silence. Difficult times increase our inner strength and teach our hearts to heal wounds. We learn to live with more resilience than we ever imagined, a new dimension of our personality unfolds that makes us tolerant, restrained, teaches us to be humble. We learn to know ourselves and the world around us in a new way. When people fall into bad circumstances, they can know life most intimately. A full wallet, good fortune, or good health—none of these teach us to know life. The first step to understanding life’s meaning is to completely drive out the ego from within oneself.

If we can do this, we will feel unburdened, and as we bloom in the light of our own inner being, a kind of wondrous connection will form between the world within us and the world outside. In doing so, we draw closer to power, and we discover that place in our hearts where the Creator resides. If we do not let ourselves be disturbed by the conclusions that scattered, chaotic thoughts try to lead us toward, and instead follow the signals of our hearts, then everything that is beneficial for us enters our lives. What happens when we pray? Our heartbeat, our breathing, all our feelings merge and blend together, surrendering ourselves as one unified being to the Creator. The inconceivable power of prayer can even transform a person’s destiny. Prayer is the magic of awakening our own faith and inner strength.

No. When did the concept of the Creator enter our minds? How did it come? Why did it come? Where does the Creator dwell? We seek the Creator in our prayers, imagine Him in our prostrations. The Creator lives in our love; we remember the Creator in all our righteous deeds, hoping to reach Him through absolute devotion, spending our lives preparing for heaven in the hope of attaining divine presence. Then when we look at the world around us, we see the reign of violence and hatred, the triumph of hypocrisy and betrayal. Injustice and cruelty make our faith questionable, human savagery in the name of religion constantly pains believers, racism and discrimination elevate the deceitful to higher levels, people live in the darkness of the grave while still alive and seek happiness there, constantly burning themselves voluntarily in the fire of lust and desire. The world calls liars intelligent, calls the innocent foolish, and calls those who belong neither here nor there opportunists. The Creator does not dwell in prayer halls but in the hearts of those who pray. The Creator cannot be found in some distant lonely mountain, island, valley, or pilgrimage site; the Creator’s primordial abode is in the secret sanctuary of our own hearts. The search for transcendent supreme peace lies within our hearts; the measure and scope of our power exceeds all our imagination. We are the light, we are the darkness—the darkness against which we wage war lies within our hearts, and the light we spend our lives seeking also comes from the heart. Both our greatest creation and our most terrible destruction come from within us. Between the Creator and us there is nothing else; we mistakenly bring something in between and increase our troubles. No religious teacher, no place of worship, no prayer book, no religious ritual—nothing can take us to the Creator if we cannot fully prepare our minds for divine communion. The closer we can come to our hearts, the closer we can be to the Creator. Our beliefs, our customs, our traditions, our rituals—everything develops in accordance with our philosophy of life. No religious philosophy is superior or inferior. Every religion instructs its followers to show respect and tolerance toward other religions. For each person who follows a particular religion, that religion is sufficient. The more reluctant we are to accept this truth, the more unnecessary conflicts will arise. Such conflicts or disputes contradict the fundamental philosophy of any religion. However perfectly we may pray while hurting or belittling others’ philosophies, it is impossible to gain divine grace. Our heart is our prayer chamber. In that chamber, we must sit peacefully and present ourselves before ourselves in the light of the surrounding world and our experiences. This purity of heart reveals the existence of the Creator. When we say we love the Creator, we actually express our love for ourselves. To love the Creator means to feel within our hearts the noble qualities that the Creator has ordained. Such love purifies the self. If we can feel the existence of the Creator dwelling in our hearts, then our actions become as sacred and sincere as our prayers, our thoughts reflect the noblest impulses of our hearts. Whatever we need to do to follow the way that keeps us at our most beautiful—we do it all.

Genuine love for the Creator teaches us to think beautifully, making our intentions pure, unblemished, and resolute. It infuses our body and mind with a wondrous power, guiding our lived experience along the path of beauty and truth. All of this brings us peace, deepening the tranquility in our hearts. By utilizing our mental faculties to their fullest, we can bring welfare to ourselves and the world. This well-being and well-doing is the finest prayer of all. To live beautifully oneself while helping others live beautifully—this is the essence of all religions, beliefs, and paths. Therefore, to love the Creator means to love oneself. Through this love alone comes the discovery of true knowledge. All the letters in all the books of the world combined could not reveal even a quarter of this wisdom. When we are preoccupied with our ego, we can never find our most beautiful essence. At such times, thick, obscure veils of darkness come to conceal the path of light before us. A strange gloom envelops our inner and outer being. When that dense darkness lifts, torrents of divine light kindle every lamp in the heart, one by one. Just as lighting all the lamps in a place of worship allows us to call upon the Creator with sacred mind and focused devotion, so too can we illuminate every chamber of the heart to create an atmosphere conducive to attaining fulfillment through the soul’s earnest practice. The Creator recognizes no religion; no specific structure of any prayer house can bind Him. The Creator is pleased only by the offerings of the heart. It is through His grace that humanity finds the path to supreme joy.

Ten. The conflicts over divisions and supremacy of the Creator based on various beliefs and doctrines that have persisted across the world century after century have gradually pushed humanity away from the true understanding and grace of the Creator. Each community has its own interpretation of the mystery of life. None of these interpretations can be dismissed as deranged or absurd, for it is by embracing and following them that members of these groups have lived well in their own way for generations. The meaning of life changes with time, varying in different environments and dimensions according to life’s experiences and needs. Similarly, what is truth and what is falsehood—acceptable explanations of these are entirely relative. When a person enters a place of worship with a beautiful heart, they truly bring with them sincerity, love, reverence, devotion, faith, and human virtues, just as one loves to keep their most trusted friend close and feels secure with them. When a connection is then established between the person and the Creator, the credit belongs entirely to the human heart that accompanied them with supreme compassion in that sacred space. The closer we think we draw to the Creator, the closer we actually move toward the infinite power of our own hearts. Each person thinks differently about God’s existence. For instance: God is everywhere, God dwells in everyone’s heart, one can merge in unity with God, God is our friend, God can be found when called with heart and soul, God has many forms, God is one and indivisible—and much more. The problem arises when some intolerant religious believer harbors hostility toward other views and paths, considers their own religious doctrine superior, politicizes religion, commercializes faith, wages wars. Since the dawn of civilization, such conflicted situations have repeatedly pushed societies toward crisis in various parts of the world. There can certainly be different thoughts or realizations about life and religious philosophy; anyone can walk the path that allows them to live well in their own way—but not by disturbing others’ peace, not by hurting others’ feelings and beliefs about life. Let each person be well in their own way! Let each walk their comfortable, trusted, familiar path! If we don’t accept others’ differences, how can we expect others to easily accept our differences? Through showing respect and honor toward other opinions and paths, people grow greater and make their own religion more beloved. The path to the Creator’s presence is built on peace, humility, and tolerance. There is no place for arrogance, pride, or bigotry. Whatever the religion, opinion, or path, each essentially points toward a journey—a journey to awaken the being within oneself. To feel the Creator’s existence means to feel the existence of a sacred power within oneself, a power that teaches love, teaches human welfare, awakens the soul’s infinite possibilities, gives life shelter in peace and comfort. Humanity, searching for the Creator across the entire world, finally feels Him within themselves when exhausted by failure. This is an invisible power whose presence can only be sensed by the one within whom this power resides. What power reigns within which person, no one except that person can truly know. What you really are—no one but you will ever know.

No one but the person themselves can truly know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The inner strength of an individual spreads such joy and peace within them that it influences their way of life, their philosophy, and their beliefs. When someone speaks of humanity with their lips, thinks of becoming a good person, yet lacks genuine sincerity toward these ideals, their words and thoughts sound like the bell tolls of a prayer hall—whose only function is to resonate, meaninglessly so. What power does a sound possess that the bell itself cannot contain, that dissolves into the wind and scatters to distant places? Even if someone could absorb all the knowledge and learning of the world within themselves, even if their faith in their own abilities were so unwavering that it could move mountains, yet if they cannot hold love in their heart, then all their riches combined can give them nothing. Even if we were to distribute everything we possess among those who have nothing, even if we subjected ourselves to suffering equal to worship itself, we still could not advance very far if there is no spring of love in our hearts, or if that spring runs dry. Love has no religion, yet love is the fundamental basis of all religions. Love initiates us into compassion and empathy, teaches us to live with patience, keeps us away from all envy and pride, brings the beauty within us before our eyes, creates respect and tolerance toward others. Love teaches us to push sin away, to embrace truth. Love gives shelter, births faith, awakens hope, increases patience. This is a mysterious power that guides us. We breathe, blood circulates through our bodies, our nerves respond in various ways to different environments as needed—all of this is controlled by the influence of an infinite power. When we love that power, when we feel its presence within ourselves, and when we awaken ourselves to that power, it becomes easy to live a beautiful, peaceful, and serene life.

Eleven. Sometimes one must listen to the self within. When no shore or boundary of a problem can be found, when all paths to resolution seem blocked, then one must try silently, quietly, in solitude to understand what the mind speaks. At such times, saying nothing may reveal a better way than the most beautiful words. When the heart is utterly broken and shattered, when all lights go out one by one, when the body can no longer endure its battle with the mind, then the heart must be allowed to follow its own path. Setting aside our ego, our pride, our achievements, our intellectual posturing, our communal arrogance, our status—we must seek the Creator with an empty mind and empty hands. The journey toward the Creator must begin from emptiness. A burdened heart cannot bear even the weight of light. One must completely remove oneself from within and fill that inner space with the feeling of the Creator’s existence. There is no temple greater than the heart. When one heart is surrendered in search of the Creator’s grace, countless hearts bloom like lotuses. How unfortunate is the person who travels the entire world in search of beauty, yet never finds a moment to look toward their own heart. The answers to life’s most important questions can only be found within one’s own heart. This heart-temple alone is the eternal truth, here alone is God’s dwelling place. The Creator does not grace every heart—only that heart which knows how to surrender itself completely, forgetting all pride and arrogance, becomes the Creator’s beloved abode. The Creator dwells in human consciousness, wisdom, and conscience. In all our actions and thoughts, before and after, around us, in our sleep or waking, in the hearts of those who truly wish us well, in our eyes or in the compassionate eyes of our friends, in all our good intentions and good deeds—the Creator’s blessings and grace are clearly evident. When we sing the Creator’s praise, we actually purify our own hearts, our thoughts become beautiful, joy dances in our minds, a wonderful feeling arises within us about ourselves and the world around us, beautiful thoughts and beautiful intentions make our work beautiful, and we live in a world that is good and beautiful. Whatever is beautiful may not always bring peace; but whatever brings peace is certainly beautiful. In the dance of beautiful light, the realm of darkness vanishes. Devotion and love toward the Creator is nothing but the awakening of the beautiful being within ourselves. If such an awakening of conscience occurs on distant mountains, by the sea, in caves, in prayer halls, or in any solitary, secluded place, we call that place sacred and rush there drawn by the heart’s pull. We call that place a pilgrimage site where the dormant state of the heart comes to an end. Temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, or any other place of worship cannot bring us close to the Creator until we can awaken our hearts. Due to various illusions and ignorance, we search for peace, love, happiness, and comfort in our external world. This plants within us the seeds of disappointment, melancholy, inequality, false self-satisfaction, and dejection, because we spend our lives as eternal strangers to the endless stream of love and good tidings that flows within us. The more we seek peace in the wealth of the external world, the stronger becomes the wall between the Creator and ourselves. Gradually, this wall moves us further away from the Creator—that is, from our own hearts.

When the eyes of the heart open, we come to realize that the vast ocean of boundless peace flowing ceaselessly within us is perhaps what I have been groping for all this time, seeking not even a droplet of it. We may not have a good house, we may never ride in a fine car, we may never in this lifetime have the means to eat expensive food, we may never have the good fortune to visit all the wonderful places in the world, costly clothes or ornaments may never grace us; let us assume that we possess none of those externalities from which people seek peace; yet we have the light of the heart within us, our beautiful qualities will remain ours forever, we can free our independent thoughts from the chains of external worldly enchantments. Nature has gifted us beautiful mountains and valleys, the starlight in the night sky keeps us spellbound, the rays of sun and moon bathe our bodies, the variations of day and night through different seasons make us contemplate the infinite mystery of our Creator, the eruption of volcanoes or the rainbow after a shower, the friendship of clouds and wind, beautiful fields of crops, rivers flowing in melodious streams, the colorful flight of birds across the sky, sailboats floating on the ocean’s breast, the miraculous birth of a child—all of this makes us devoted to some invisible, incomprehensible, hidden power. We worship that power, we dedicate ourselves to the practice of attaining proximity to that power. When we dive into that bottomless ocean of wealth within ourselves, there arises in us this profound feeling and conviction that we ourselves are the most primordial, proven vessel of that worshipped power. A current of inherent, otherworldly joy makes us still, teaching us to walk silently with bowed head on the golden path of knowledge.

Twelve. To change the world, we must first change ourselves—then everyone around us will change: family will change, society will change, the nation will change, and eventually the world itself will change. The flow of consciousness must begin with oneself. When we awaken, our own world awakens too. Every religion essentially performs this work of awakening. Through prayer, a connection is established between our external being and the Creator, or with our own heart. Gradually, our thoughts and actions move from a scattered state into a settled, linear rhythm. Religion offers us the discovery of boundless joy through beautiful thoughts and good deeds. Religious philosophy serves as a stairway to ascend into that ineffable, mysterious realm of bliss. One who does not feel the Creator’s presence in their own heart will not find even the smallest trace of divine grace, no matter how many sacred places they visit around the world. All our prayers are therefore nothing more than methods of awakening ourselves. The death of worldly feelings means emerging from the artificial shell in which we hide ourselves, abandoning those external impulses that conceal our hearts from us. Such death awakens us on the path of light; to walk the path necessary for peace and happiness, we prepare ourselves to journey unburdened by earthly attachments. To discover ourselves in a new life, leaving behind an unwanted, meaningless existence, there is no alternative but to bring death to all the self-contradictory conditions of the present for the sake of such resurrection. The death of the present self is essential for the desired resurrection or rebirth. We dream of seeing ourselves in a new form while keeping everything around us exactly as it is, continuing to do what we do now in the same way we do it. This never happens. New birth begins only through the death of our present comfortable way of living. This death means emerging from old habits, throwing ourselves with infinite courage beyond the circle of comfortable experiences, preparing ourselves to walk on novel paths, daring to embrace what was never mine, is not mine now, but whose presence within me is my deepest need, elevating ourselves to the highest level of our capabilities through continuous practice, sacrificing momentary pleasure and joy to journey toward unlimited peace, removing ourselves from the fathomless ocean of alluring harm and evil to undergo the severest test of walking the thorny path of truth. When we pray, we essentially imagine our unity with the Creator and prepare ourselves to receive divine grace. This preparation means preparing to elevate our minds and hearts to a higher level. The first step of this preparation is the magnificent willing death of our present false self.

Thirteen. The magic of stillness is wondrous. Where there is no silence, where processions of sound march endlessly onward, there even the most exquisite chain of words becomes meaningless. Without knowing how to truly listen, or how to receive with the heart, even the world’s most beautiful words cannot heal the wounds of anyone’s soul. Sometimes the absence of distance renders constant proximity meaningless. To lighten the heart’s burden and prepare oneself to receive the Creator’s grace, one must return again and again to stillness. Prayer is nothing but casting all one’s burdens upon the Creator’s shoulders and continuing one’s work with an unburdened mind. Then two different beings operate within the same body. One being bears the burden on behalf of the Creator, while the other works tirelessly in a lightened form. When we awaken, a luminous torch begins spreading light throughout the world. In that light’s fierce radiance comes the purification of our souls. We ourselves must plan how our present and future will unfold. If we do not arrange the pattern of our lives ourselves, someone else will arrange that pattern according to their own convenience. If we remain asleep, if we do not awaken, then one day we shall find ourselves as slaves to another’s desires and aversions. Unless we surrender mastery over our own destiny into our own hands while there is time, we must one day accept servitude to another’s fate. The Creator’s command is in truth the dormant divine directive of one’s own conscience. In silent mind and peaceful heart, making love and human compassion the foundation, one must listen to conscience’s guidance. Only through awakening the wealth of the mind can one reach near to one’s goal. One must receive the Creator’s grace by strengthening one’s position against injustice, sacrificing apparent happiness, and making mercy and compassion one’s companions. When the lightless night of despair is swept away and the light of hope plays in life, in dawn’s magical moment the withering heart becomes fresh again; touched by the Creator’s beauty and excellence, even a silent drop gains the vastness of an ocean; under divine light’s touch, even a firefly’s dim particle of light blazes brighter than a radiant star. One must bind oneself in such enchantments, bathed in the nectar-stream of the heart’s devoted faith and love. A person who remains indifferent to their own strength, or leaves their strength unused, differs only slightly from the powerless. To journey as a traveler on the path of eternal truth requires infinite courage and patience to embrace the death of one’s false self. Such spiritual death is the preliminary step in preparing oneself for new birth. Through this death alone begins new life. Just as the recently departed past always seeks to shackle the feet of the present, so too, even at the moment of resurrection from death, the tranquil irresistible attraction of death continues to call from behind. One whose capacity to disdain that attraction is greater possesses correspondingly greater self-power.

Fourteen. What is beautiful and what is ugly cannot be determined hastily. What appears beautiful to one person may seem ugly to another. To look at something and immediately declare it ugly is a form of foolishness and arrogance. Beauty lies hidden within every good thing—what meets the eye may appear ugly at first glance, but to hastily dismiss it based on that surface view reveals a shallow character. A heart that is beautiful is sincere, magnificent, and transparent. One who possesses such a heart is compassionate and just not only toward themselves but toward all humanity. Perhaps they have no money in their pockets, or they struggle to survive on meager means, yet the wealth of their heart touches everyone. While a person with a beautiful face burns inwardly from the pride of their own beauty, at the same time, a person with a beautiful heart spreads their radiance all around. The purity of the heart is far more important than the purity of the body. We do so much to keep our bodies pure and beautiful, yet how many of us tend to our hearts? We keep temples, mosques, churches, and pagodas spotlessly clean, then go there with dirty hearts to sit in clean places and pray. Can this earn us the Creator’s grace? The cleanliness of places of worship and the purity of the heart—it is the coexistence of these two that creates the proper environment for prayer. The Creator dwells in our hearts, not in prayer halls—that space must be kept clean, must be kept pure. When we hurt someone, when we cause pain to someone’s heart, we are actually hurting the Creator within them. The bleeding of a wounded person’s heart distances us from the Creator’s grace; at such times, we must seek forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness from someone, we are actually seeking forgiveness from the Creator who resides in their heart. We receive forgiveness from the Creator dwelling in the heart, not from the person themselves. The weaker the Creator’s presence in someone’s heart, the less their capacity to forgive. One who can forgive frees themselves from the raging fire of anger and stubbornness, and moves forward light as a feather toward receiving the Creator’s grace. Anger burns the angry person themselves. By forgiving others, our hearts are freed from the unbearable burden of rage and hatred toward others. Then we can walk empty-handed with an open mind along every subtle path of beauty in our lives. Whatever I love, whatever would bring peace and comfort to my life, whether it is before my eyes or not, I can carry it in my heart as I journey forward. Whatever distance exists between my dreams and my reality, whatever needs to be done to bridge that gap, our hearts can be ready to do it all, because then I can walk the path with only myself. To harbor hatred and anger toward someone in one’s own heart means carrying the burden of that person’s sins on one’s own head as one walks through life. Such pointless anger creates heaps of unnecessary suffering. What is the point of destroying one’s own peace by thinking about someone we cannot even bear? By setting others free, we can set our own souls free. Losing with love and prayer for oneself brings far more peace than winning by nurturing anger and hatred toward others.

No. When did the concept of the Creator enter our minds? How did it come? Why did it come? Where does the Creator dwell? We seek the Creator in our prayers, imagine Him in our prostrations. The Creator lives in our love; we remember the Creator in all our righteous deeds, hoping to reach Him through absolute devotion, spending our lives preparing for heaven in the hope of attaining divine presence. Then when we look at the world around us, we see the reign of violence and hatred, the triumph of hypocrisy and betrayal. Injustice and cruelty make our faith questionable, human savagery in the name of religion constantly pains believers, racism and discrimination elevate the deceitful to higher levels, people live in the darkness of the grave while still alive and seek happiness there, constantly burning themselves voluntarily in the fire of lust and desire. The world calls liars intelligent, calls the innocent foolish, and calls those who belong neither here nor there opportunists. The Creator does not dwell in prayer halls but in the hearts of those who pray. The Creator cannot be found in some distant lonely mountain, island, valley, or pilgrimage site; the Creator’s primordial abode is in the secret sanctuary of our own hearts. The search for transcendent supreme peace lies within our hearts; the measure and scope of our power exceeds all our imagination. We are the light, we are the darkness—the darkness against which we wage war lies within our hearts, and the light we spend our lives seeking also comes from the heart. Both our greatest creation and our most terrible destruction come from within us. Between the Creator and us there is nothing else; we mistakenly bring something in between and increase our troubles. No religious teacher, no place of worship, no prayer book, no religious ritual—nothing can take us to the Creator if we cannot fully prepare our minds for divine communion. The closer we can come to our hearts, the closer we can be to the Creator. Our beliefs, our customs, our traditions, our rituals—everything develops in accordance with our philosophy of life. No religious philosophy is superior or inferior. Every religion instructs its followers to show respect and tolerance toward other religions. For each person who follows a particular religion, that religion is sufficient. The more reluctant we are to accept this truth, the more unnecessary conflicts will arise. Such conflicts or disputes contradict the fundamental philosophy of any religion. However perfectly we may pray while hurting or belittling others’ philosophies, it is impossible to gain divine grace. Our heart is our prayer chamber. In that chamber, we must sit peacefully and present ourselves before ourselves in the light of the surrounding world and our experiences. This purity of heart reveals the existence of the Creator. When we say we love the Creator, we actually express our love for ourselves. To love the Creator means to feel within our hearts the noble qualities that the Creator has ordained. Such love purifies the self. If we can feel the existence of the Creator dwelling in our hearts, then our actions become as sacred and sincere as our prayers, our thoughts reflect the noblest impulses of our hearts. Whatever we need to do to follow the way that keeps us at our most beautiful—we do it all.

Genuine love for the Creator teaches us to think beautifully, making our intentions pure, unblemished, and resolute. It infuses our body and mind with a wondrous power, guiding our lived experience along the path of beauty and truth. All of this brings us peace, deepening the tranquility in our hearts. By utilizing our mental faculties to their fullest, we can bring welfare to ourselves and the world. This well-being and well-doing is the finest prayer of all. To live beautifully oneself while helping others live beautifully—this is the essence of all religions, beliefs, and paths. Therefore, to love the Creator means to love oneself. Through this love alone comes the discovery of true knowledge. All the letters in all the books of the world combined could not reveal even a quarter of this wisdom. When we are preoccupied with our ego, we can never find our most beautiful essence. At such times, thick, obscure veils of darkness come to conceal the path of light before us. A strange gloom envelops our inner and outer being. When that dense darkness lifts, torrents of divine light kindle every lamp in the heart, one by one. Just as lighting all the lamps in a place of worship allows us to call upon the Creator with sacred mind and focused devotion, so too can we illuminate every chamber of the heart to create an atmosphere conducive to attaining fulfillment through the soul’s earnest practice. The Creator recognizes no religion; no specific structure of any prayer house can bind Him. The Creator is pleased only by the offerings of the heart. It is through His grace that humanity finds the path to supreme joy.

Ten. The conflicts over divisions and supremacy of the Creator based on various beliefs and doctrines that have persisted across the world century after century have gradually pushed humanity away from the true understanding and grace of the Creator. Each community has its own interpretation of the mystery of life. None of these interpretations can be dismissed as deranged or absurd, for it is by embracing and following them that members of these groups have lived well in their own way for generations. The meaning of life changes with time, varying in different environments and dimensions according to life’s experiences and needs. Similarly, what is truth and what is falsehood—acceptable explanations of these are entirely relative. When a person enters a place of worship with a beautiful heart, they truly bring with them sincerity, love, reverence, devotion, faith, and human virtues, just as one loves to keep their most trusted friend close and feels secure with them. When a connection is then established between the person and the Creator, the credit belongs entirely to the human heart that accompanied them with supreme compassion in that sacred space. The closer we think we draw to the Creator, the closer we actually move toward the infinite power of our own hearts. Each person thinks differently about God’s existence. For instance: God is everywhere, God dwells in everyone’s heart, one can merge in unity with God, God is our friend, God can be found when called with heart and soul, God has many forms, God is one and indivisible—and much more. The problem arises when some intolerant religious believer harbors hostility toward other views and paths, considers their own religious doctrine superior, politicizes religion, commercializes faith, wages wars. Since the dawn of civilization, such conflicted situations have repeatedly pushed societies toward crisis in various parts of the world. There can certainly be different thoughts or realizations about life and religious philosophy; anyone can walk the path that allows them to live well in their own way—but not by disturbing others’ peace, not by hurting others’ feelings and beliefs about life. Let each person be well in their own way! Let each walk their comfortable, trusted, familiar path! If we don’t accept others’ differences, how can we expect others to easily accept our differences? Through showing respect and honor toward other opinions and paths, people grow greater and make their own religion more beloved. The path to the Creator’s presence is built on peace, humility, and tolerance. There is no place for arrogance, pride, or bigotry. Whatever the religion, opinion, or path, each essentially points toward a journey—a journey to awaken the being within oneself. To feel the Creator’s existence means to feel the existence of a sacred power within oneself, a power that teaches love, teaches human welfare, awakens the soul’s infinite possibilities, gives life shelter in peace and comfort. Humanity, searching for the Creator across the entire world, finally feels Him within themselves when exhausted by failure. This is an invisible power whose presence can only be sensed by the one within whom this power resides. What power reigns within which person, no one except that person can truly know. What you really are—no one but you will ever know.

No one but the person themselves can truly know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The inner strength of an individual spreads such joy and peace within them that it influences their way of life, their philosophy, and their beliefs. When someone speaks of humanity with their lips, thinks of becoming a good person, yet lacks genuine sincerity toward these ideals, their words and thoughts sound like the bell tolls of a prayer hall—whose only function is to resonate, meaninglessly so. What power does a sound possess that the bell itself cannot contain, that dissolves into the wind and scatters to distant places? Even if someone could absorb all the knowledge and learning of the world within themselves, even if their faith in their own abilities were so unwavering that it could move mountains, yet if they cannot hold love in their heart, then all their riches combined can give them nothing. Even if we were to distribute everything we possess among those who have nothing, even if we subjected ourselves to suffering equal to worship itself, we still could not advance very far if there is no spring of love in our hearts, or if that spring runs dry. Love has no religion, yet love is the fundamental basis of all religions. Love initiates us into compassion and empathy, teaches us to live with patience, keeps us away from all envy and pride, brings the beauty within us before our eyes, creates respect and tolerance toward others. Love teaches us to push sin away, to embrace truth. Love gives shelter, births faith, awakens hope, increases patience. This is a mysterious power that guides us. We breathe, blood circulates through our bodies, our nerves respond in various ways to different environments as needed—all of this is controlled by the influence of an infinite power. When we love that power, when we feel its presence within ourselves, and when we awaken ourselves to that power, it becomes easy to live a beautiful, peaceful, and serene life.

Eleven. Sometimes one must listen to the self within. When no shore or boundary of a problem can be found, when all paths to resolution seem blocked, then one must try silently, quietly, in solitude to understand what the mind speaks. At such times, saying nothing may reveal a better way than the most beautiful words. When the heart is utterly broken and shattered, when all lights go out one by one, when the body can no longer endure its battle with the mind, then the heart must be allowed to follow its own path. Setting aside our ego, our pride, our achievements, our intellectual posturing, our communal arrogance, our status—we must seek the Creator with an empty mind and empty hands. The journey toward the Creator must begin from emptiness. A burdened heart cannot bear even the weight of light. One must completely remove oneself from within and fill that inner space with the feeling of the Creator’s existence. There is no temple greater than the heart. When one heart is surrendered in search of the Creator’s grace, countless hearts bloom like lotuses. How unfortunate is the person who travels the entire world in search of beauty, yet never finds a moment to look toward their own heart. The answers to life’s most important questions can only be found within one’s own heart. This heart-temple alone is the eternal truth, here alone is God’s dwelling place. The Creator does not grace every heart—only that heart which knows how to surrender itself completely, forgetting all pride and arrogance, becomes the Creator’s beloved abode. The Creator dwells in human consciousness, wisdom, and conscience. In all our actions and thoughts, before and after, around us, in our sleep or waking, in the hearts of those who truly wish us well, in our eyes or in the compassionate eyes of our friends, in all our good intentions and good deeds—the Creator’s blessings and grace are clearly evident. When we sing the Creator’s praise, we actually purify our own hearts, our thoughts become beautiful, joy dances in our minds, a wonderful feeling arises within us about ourselves and the world around us, beautiful thoughts and beautiful intentions make our work beautiful, and we live in a world that is good and beautiful. Whatever is beautiful may not always bring peace; but whatever brings peace is certainly beautiful. In the dance of beautiful light, the realm of darkness vanishes. Devotion and love toward the Creator is nothing but the awakening of the beautiful being within ourselves. If such an awakening of conscience occurs on distant mountains, by the sea, in caves, in prayer halls, or in any solitary, secluded place, we call that place sacred and rush there drawn by the heart’s pull. We call that place a pilgrimage site where the dormant state of the heart comes to an end. Temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, or any other place of worship cannot bring us close to the Creator until we can awaken our hearts. Due to various illusions and ignorance, we search for peace, love, happiness, and comfort in our external world. This plants within us the seeds of disappointment, melancholy, inequality, false self-satisfaction, and dejection, because we spend our lives as eternal strangers to the endless stream of love and good tidings that flows within us. The more we seek peace in the wealth of the external world, the stronger becomes the wall between the Creator and ourselves. Gradually, this wall moves us further away from the Creator—that is, from our own hearts.

When the eyes of the heart open, we come to realize that the vast ocean of boundless peace flowing ceaselessly within us is perhaps what I have been groping for all this time, seeking not even a droplet of it. We may not have a good house, we may never ride in a fine car, we may never in this lifetime have the means to eat expensive food, we may never have the good fortune to visit all the wonderful places in the world, costly clothes or ornaments may never grace us; let us assume that we possess none of those externalities from which people seek peace; yet we have the light of the heart within us, our beautiful qualities will remain ours forever, we can free our independent thoughts from the chains of external worldly enchantments. Nature has gifted us beautiful mountains and valleys, the starlight in the night sky keeps us spellbound, the rays of sun and moon bathe our bodies, the variations of day and night through different seasons make us contemplate the infinite mystery of our Creator, the eruption of volcanoes or the rainbow after a shower, the friendship of clouds and wind, beautiful fields of crops, rivers flowing in melodious streams, the colorful flight of birds across the sky, sailboats floating on the ocean’s breast, the miraculous birth of a child—all of this makes us devoted to some invisible, incomprehensible, hidden power. We worship that power, we dedicate ourselves to the practice of attaining proximity to that power. When we dive into that bottomless ocean of wealth within ourselves, there arises in us this profound feeling and conviction that we ourselves are the most primordial, proven vessel of that worshipped power. A current of inherent, otherworldly joy makes us still, teaching us to walk silently with bowed head on the golden path of knowledge.

Twelve. To change the world, we must first change ourselves—then everyone around us will change: family will change, society will change, the nation will change, and eventually the world itself will change. The flow of consciousness must begin with oneself. When we awaken, our own world awakens too. Every religion essentially performs this work of awakening. Through prayer, a connection is established between our external being and the Creator, or with our own heart. Gradually, our thoughts and actions move from a scattered state into a settled, linear rhythm. Religion offers us the discovery of boundless joy through beautiful thoughts and good deeds. Religious philosophy serves as a stairway to ascend into that ineffable, mysterious realm of bliss. One who does not feel the Creator’s presence in their own heart will not find even the smallest trace of divine grace, no matter how many sacred places they visit around the world. All our prayers are therefore nothing more than methods of awakening ourselves. The death of worldly feelings means emerging from the artificial shell in which we hide ourselves, abandoning those external impulses that conceal our hearts from us. Such death awakens us on the path of light; to walk the path necessary for peace and happiness, we prepare ourselves to journey unburdened by earthly attachments. To discover ourselves in a new life, leaving behind an unwanted, meaningless existence, there is no alternative but to bring death to all the self-contradictory conditions of the present for the sake of such resurrection. The death of the present self is essential for the desired resurrection or rebirth. We dream of seeing ourselves in a new form while keeping everything around us exactly as it is, continuing to do what we do now in the same way we do it. This never happens. New birth begins only through the death of our present comfortable way of living. This death means emerging from old habits, throwing ourselves with infinite courage beyond the circle of comfortable experiences, preparing ourselves to walk on novel paths, daring to embrace what was never mine, is not mine now, but whose presence within me is my deepest need, elevating ourselves to the highest level of our capabilities through continuous practice, sacrificing momentary pleasure and joy to journey toward unlimited peace, removing ourselves from the fathomless ocean of alluring harm and evil to undergo the severest test of walking the thorny path of truth. When we pray, we essentially imagine our unity with the Creator and prepare ourselves to receive divine grace. This preparation means preparing to elevate our minds and hearts to a higher level. The first step of this preparation is the magnificent willing death of our present false self.

Thirteen. The magic of stillness is wondrous. Where there is no silence, where processions of sound march endlessly onward, there even the most exquisite chain of words becomes meaningless. Without knowing how to truly listen, or how to receive with the heart, even the world’s most beautiful words cannot heal the wounds of anyone’s soul. Sometimes the absence of distance renders constant proximity meaningless. To lighten the heart’s burden and prepare oneself to receive the Creator’s grace, one must return again and again to stillness. Prayer is nothing but casting all one’s burdens upon the Creator’s shoulders and continuing one’s work with an unburdened mind. Then two different beings operate within the same body. One being bears the burden on behalf of the Creator, while the other works tirelessly in a lightened form. When we awaken, a luminous torch begins spreading light throughout the world. In that light’s fierce radiance comes the purification of our souls. We ourselves must plan how our present and future will unfold. If we do not arrange the pattern of our lives ourselves, someone else will arrange that pattern according to their own convenience. If we remain asleep, if we do not awaken, then one day we shall find ourselves as slaves to another’s desires and aversions. Unless we surrender mastery over our own destiny into our own hands while there is time, we must one day accept servitude to another’s fate. The Creator’s command is in truth the dormant divine directive of one’s own conscience. In silent mind and peaceful heart, making love and human compassion the foundation, one must listen to conscience’s guidance. Only through awakening the wealth of the mind can one reach near to one’s goal. One must receive the Creator’s grace by strengthening one’s position against injustice, sacrificing apparent happiness, and making mercy and compassion one’s companions. When the lightless night of despair is swept away and the light of hope plays in life, in dawn’s magical moment the withering heart becomes fresh again; touched by the Creator’s beauty and excellence, even a silent drop gains the vastness of an ocean; under divine light’s touch, even a firefly’s dim particle of light blazes brighter than a radiant star. One must bind oneself in such enchantments, bathed in the nectar-stream of the heart’s devoted faith and love. A person who remains indifferent to their own strength, or leaves their strength unused, differs only slightly from the powerless. To journey as a traveler on the path of eternal truth requires infinite courage and patience to embrace the death of one’s false self. Such spiritual death is the preliminary step in preparing oneself for new birth. Through this death alone begins new life. Just as the recently departed past always seeks to shackle the feet of the present, so too, even at the moment of resurrection from death, the tranquil irresistible attraction of death continues to call from behind. One whose capacity to disdain that attraction is greater possesses correspondingly greater self-power.

Fourteen. What is beautiful and what is ugly cannot be determined hastily. What appears beautiful to one person may seem ugly to another. To look at something and immediately declare it ugly is a form of foolishness and arrogance. Beauty lies hidden within every good thing—what meets the eye may appear ugly at first glance, but to hastily dismiss it based on that surface view reveals a shallow character. A heart that is beautiful is sincere, magnificent, and transparent. One who possesses such a heart is compassionate and just not only toward themselves but toward all humanity. Perhaps they have no money in their pockets, or they struggle to survive on meager means, yet the wealth of their heart touches everyone. While a person with a beautiful face burns inwardly from the pride of their own beauty, at the same time, a person with a beautiful heart spreads their radiance all around. The purity of the heart is far more important than the purity of the body. We do so much to keep our bodies pure and beautiful, yet how many of us tend to our hearts? We keep temples, mosques, churches, and pagodas spotlessly clean, then go there with dirty hearts to sit in clean places and pray. Can this earn us the Creator’s grace? The cleanliness of places of worship and the purity of the heart—it is the coexistence of these two that creates the proper environment for prayer. The Creator dwells in our hearts, not in prayer halls—that space must be kept clean, must be kept pure. When we hurt someone, when we cause pain to someone’s heart, we are actually hurting the Creator within them. The bleeding of a wounded person’s heart distances us from the Creator’s grace; at such times, we must seek forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness from someone, we are actually seeking forgiveness from the Creator who resides in their heart. We receive forgiveness from the Creator dwelling in the heart, not from the person themselves. The weaker the Creator’s presence in someone’s heart, the less their capacity to forgive. One who can forgive frees themselves from the raging fire of anger and stubbornness, and moves forward light as a feather toward receiving the Creator’s grace. Anger burns the angry person themselves. By forgiving others, our hearts are freed from the unbearable burden of rage and hatred toward others. Then we can walk empty-handed with an open mind along every subtle path of beauty in our lives. Whatever I love, whatever would bring peace and comfort to my life, whether it is before my eyes or not, I can carry it in my heart as I journey forward. Whatever distance exists between my dreams and my reality, whatever needs to be done to bridge that gap, our hearts can be ready to do it all, because then I can walk the path with only myself. To harbor hatred and anger toward someone in one’s own heart means carrying the burden of that person’s sins on one’s own head as one walks through life. Such pointless anger creates heaps of unnecessary suffering. What is the point of destroying one’s own peace by thinking about someone we cannot even bear? By setting others free, we can set our own souls free. Losing with love and prayer for oneself brings far more peace than winning by nurturing anger and hatred toward others.

Eight. A life without love is nothing but a waste of infinite possibilities. Spiritual love, material love, or physical love—such distinctions in love lead our judgment about love toward discrimination. Love has no name, love falls into no particular category, love cannot be defined through any universally accepted means. Love is not part of any specific world; love is itself a world. Either we live within it, or we remain outside it. There is nothing in between. When love stirs the heart, our words and actions follow the Creator’s ordained path, and then all needless arguments, victories, and debates come to an end. Certainly, measured silence holds more power than scattered words. Through silence and patience, the immortal music of service and peace is composed. Love need not be expressed; love expresses itself. For that treasured wealth which is love’s object, a person can stake their life and fight with a smiling face in the dream of possessing it. One whose heart holds the power of love can overcome all suffering and trials with a smile. Life is greater than… all of life’s suffering, all sorrow, all shame, all anguish, all pain, all grief. Despair and frustration will come to life, but let them not block our path forward, let them not obscure our dreams. The Creator who has kept us in His care for so many years of our lives, who has kept us well, can certainly keep us in suffering for some temporary period. We cannot accuse Him for this, cannot lose faith in Him. Rather, during those difficult times we must strengthen our faith in His justice even more. To do otherwise is nothing but sin. Surely we are on a path that is harmful for us, which is why the Creator wants to turn us away from that path by making us understand its infinite suffering. In every action of the Creator lies the welfare of both present and future. For all that we have, we thank the Creator, but for all that we have not been given, we should thank the Creator equally. He did not respond positively to our prayers because surely some misfortune was hidden within our prayers. We would have been happy if our present suffering were reduced, but who can say—perhaps it is only by increasing the present suffering that the suffering can be completely removed! The path to removing a bullet from a bullet-wound temporarily increases the agony of that moment. Perhaps applying ointment to that spot would reduce the pain, but the pain would not end. Therefore, one must grit their teeth and endure infinite suffering. The apparently endless torment given by the Creator—that period of torment ends through the attainment of limitless happiness. Therefore, the best response to all our sorrow and grief is silence. Difficult times increase our inner strength and teach our hearts to heal wounds. We learn to live with more resilience than we ever imagined, a new dimension of our personality unfolds that makes us tolerant, restrained, teaches us to be humble. We learn to know ourselves and the world around us in a new way. When people fall into bad circumstances, they can know life most intimately. A full wallet, good fortune, or good health—none of these teach us to know life. The first step to understanding life’s meaning is to completely drive out the ego from within oneself.

If we can do this, we will feel unburdened, and as we bloom in the light of our own inner being, a kind of wondrous connection will form between the world within us and the world outside. In doing so, we draw closer to power, and we discover that place in our hearts where the Creator resides. If we do not let ourselves be disturbed by the conclusions that scattered, chaotic thoughts try to lead us toward, and instead follow the signals of our hearts, then everything that is beneficial for us enters our lives. What happens when we pray? Our heartbeat, our breathing, all our feelings merge and blend together, surrendering ourselves as one unified being to the Creator. The inconceivable power of prayer can even transform a person’s destiny. Prayer is the magic of awakening our own faith and inner strength.

No. When did the concept of the Creator enter our minds? How did it come? Why did it come? Where does the Creator dwell? We seek the Creator in our prayers, imagine Him in our prostrations. The Creator lives in our love; we remember the Creator in all our righteous deeds, hoping to reach Him through absolute devotion, spending our lives preparing for heaven in the hope of attaining divine presence. Then when we look at the world around us, we see the reign of violence and hatred, the triumph of hypocrisy and betrayal. Injustice and cruelty make our faith questionable, human savagery in the name of religion constantly pains believers, racism and discrimination elevate the deceitful to higher levels, people live in the darkness of the grave while still alive and seek happiness there, constantly burning themselves voluntarily in the fire of lust and desire. The world calls liars intelligent, calls the innocent foolish, and calls those who belong neither here nor there opportunists. The Creator does not dwell in prayer halls but in the hearts of those who pray. The Creator cannot be found in some distant lonely mountain, island, valley, or pilgrimage site; the Creator’s primordial abode is in the secret sanctuary of our own hearts. The search for transcendent supreme peace lies within our hearts; the measure and scope of our power exceeds all our imagination. We are the light, we are the darkness—the darkness against which we wage war lies within our hearts, and the light we spend our lives seeking also comes from the heart. Both our greatest creation and our most terrible destruction come from within us. Between the Creator and us there is nothing else; we mistakenly bring something in between and increase our troubles. No religious teacher, no place of worship, no prayer book, no religious ritual—nothing can take us to the Creator if we cannot fully prepare our minds for divine communion. The closer we can come to our hearts, the closer we can be to the Creator. Our beliefs, our customs, our traditions, our rituals—everything develops in accordance with our philosophy of life. No religious philosophy is superior or inferior. Every religion instructs its followers to show respect and tolerance toward other religions. For each person who follows a particular religion, that religion is sufficient. The more reluctant we are to accept this truth, the more unnecessary conflicts will arise. Such conflicts or disputes contradict the fundamental philosophy of any religion. However perfectly we may pray while hurting or belittling others’ philosophies, it is impossible to gain divine grace. Our heart is our prayer chamber. In that chamber, we must sit peacefully and present ourselves before ourselves in the light of the surrounding world and our experiences. This purity of heart reveals the existence of the Creator. When we say we love the Creator, we actually express our love for ourselves. To love the Creator means to feel within our hearts the noble qualities that the Creator has ordained. Such love purifies the self. If we can feel the existence of the Creator dwelling in our hearts, then our actions become as sacred and sincere as our prayers, our thoughts reflect the noblest impulses of our hearts. Whatever we need to do to follow the way that keeps us at our most beautiful—we do it all.

Genuine love for the Creator teaches us to think beautifully, making our intentions pure, unblemished, and resolute. It infuses our body and mind with a wondrous power, guiding our lived experience along the path of beauty and truth. All of this brings us peace, deepening the tranquility in our hearts. By utilizing our mental faculties to their fullest, we can bring welfare to ourselves and the world. This well-being and well-doing is the finest prayer of all. To live beautifully oneself while helping others live beautifully—this is the essence of all religions, beliefs, and paths. Therefore, to love the Creator means to love oneself. Through this love alone comes the discovery of true knowledge. All the letters in all the books of the world combined could not reveal even a quarter of this wisdom. When we are preoccupied with our ego, we can never find our most beautiful essence. At such times, thick, obscure veils of darkness come to conceal the path of light before us. A strange gloom envelops our inner and outer being. When that dense darkness lifts, torrents of divine light kindle every lamp in the heart, one by one. Just as lighting all the lamps in a place of worship allows us to call upon the Creator with sacred mind and focused devotion, so too can we illuminate every chamber of the heart to create an atmosphere conducive to attaining fulfillment through the soul’s earnest practice. The Creator recognizes no religion; no specific structure of any prayer house can bind Him. The Creator is pleased only by the offerings of the heart. It is through His grace that humanity finds the path to supreme joy.

Ten. The conflicts over divisions and supremacy of the Creator based on various beliefs and doctrines that have persisted across the world century after century have gradually pushed humanity away from the true understanding and grace of the Creator. Each community has its own interpretation of the mystery of life. None of these interpretations can be dismissed as deranged or absurd, for it is by embracing and following them that members of these groups have lived well in their own way for generations. The meaning of life changes with time, varying in different environments and dimensions according to life’s experiences and needs. Similarly, what is truth and what is falsehood—acceptable explanations of these are entirely relative. When a person enters a place of worship with a beautiful heart, they truly bring with them sincerity, love, reverence, devotion, faith, and human virtues, just as one loves to keep their most trusted friend close and feels secure with them. When a connection is then established between the person and the Creator, the credit belongs entirely to the human heart that accompanied them with supreme compassion in that sacred space. The closer we think we draw to the Creator, the closer we actually move toward the infinite power of our own hearts. Each person thinks differently about God’s existence. For instance: God is everywhere, God dwells in everyone’s heart, one can merge in unity with God, God is our friend, God can be found when called with heart and soul, God has many forms, God is one and indivisible—and much more. The problem arises when some intolerant religious believer harbors hostility toward other views and paths, considers their own religious doctrine superior, politicizes religion, commercializes faith, wages wars. Since the dawn of civilization, such conflicted situations have repeatedly pushed societies toward crisis in various parts of the world. There can certainly be different thoughts or realizations about life and religious philosophy; anyone can walk the path that allows them to live well in their own way—but not by disturbing others’ peace, not by hurting others’ feelings and beliefs about life. Let each person be well in their own way! Let each walk their comfortable, trusted, familiar path! If we don’t accept others’ differences, how can we expect others to easily accept our differences? Through showing respect and honor toward other opinions and paths, people grow greater and make their own religion more beloved. The path to the Creator’s presence is built on peace, humility, and tolerance. There is no place for arrogance, pride, or bigotry. Whatever the religion, opinion, or path, each essentially points toward a journey—a journey to awaken the being within oneself. To feel the Creator’s existence means to feel the existence of a sacred power within oneself, a power that teaches love, teaches human welfare, awakens the soul’s infinite possibilities, gives life shelter in peace and comfort. Humanity, searching for the Creator across the entire world, finally feels Him within themselves when exhausted by failure. This is an invisible power whose presence can only be sensed by the one within whom this power resides. What power reigns within which person, no one except that person can truly know. What you really are—no one but you will ever know.

No one but the person themselves can truly know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The inner strength of an individual spreads such joy and peace within them that it influences their way of life, their philosophy, and their beliefs. When someone speaks of humanity with their lips, thinks of becoming a good person, yet lacks genuine sincerity toward these ideals, their words and thoughts sound like the bell tolls of a prayer hall—whose only function is to resonate, meaninglessly so. What power does a sound possess that the bell itself cannot contain, that dissolves into the wind and scatters to distant places? Even if someone could absorb all the knowledge and learning of the world within themselves, even if their faith in their own abilities were so unwavering that it could move mountains, yet if they cannot hold love in their heart, then all their riches combined can give them nothing. Even if we were to distribute everything we possess among those who have nothing, even if we subjected ourselves to suffering equal to worship itself, we still could not advance very far if there is no spring of love in our hearts, or if that spring runs dry. Love has no religion, yet love is the fundamental basis of all religions. Love initiates us into compassion and empathy, teaches us to live with patience, keeps us away from all envy and pride, brings the beauty within us before our eyes, creates respect and tolerance toward others. Love teaches us to push sin away, to embrace truth. Love gives shelter, births faith, awakens hope, increases patience. This is a mysterious power that guides us. We breathe, blood circulates through our bodies, our nerves respond in various ways to different environments as needed—all of this is controlled by the influence of an infinite power. When we love that power, when we feel its presence within ourselves, and when we awaken ourselves to that power, it becomes easy to live a beautiful, peaceful, and serene life.

Eleven. Sometimes one must listen to the self within. When no shore or boundary of a problem can be found, when all paths to resolution seem blocked, then one must try silently, quietly, in solitude to understand what the mind speaks. At such times, saying nothing may reveal a better way than the most beautiful words. When the heart is utterly broken and shattered, when all lights go out one by one, when the body can no longer endure its battle with the mind, then the heart must be allowed to follow its own path. Setting aside our ego, our pride, our achievements, our intellectual posturing, our communal arrogance, our status—we must seek the Creator with an empty mind and empty hands. The journey toward the Creator must begin from emptiness. A burdened heart cannot bear even the weight of light. One must completely remove oneself from within and fill that inner space with the feeling of the Creator’s existence. There is no temple greater than the heart. When one heart is surrendered in search of the Creator’s grace, countless hearts bloom like lotuses. How unfortunate is the person who travels the entire world in search of beauty, yet never finds a moment to look toward their own heart. The answers to life’s most important questions can only be found within one’s own heart. This heart-temple alone is the eternal truth, here alone is God’s dwelling place. The Creator does not grace every heart—only that heart which knows how to surrender itself completely, forgetting all pride and arrogance, becomes the Creator’s beloved abode. The Creator dwells in human consciousness, wisdom, and conscience. In all our actions and thoughts, before and after, around us, in our sleep or waking, in the hearts of those who truly wish us well, in our eyes or in the compassionate eyes of our friends, in all our good intentions and good deeds—the Creator’s blessings and grace are clearly evident. When we sing the Creator’s praise, we actually purify our own hearts, our thoughts become beautiful, joy dances in our minds, a wonderful feeling arises within us about ourselves and the world around us, beautiful thoughts and beautiful intentions make our work beautiful, and we live in a world that is good and beautiful. Whatever is beautiful may not always bring peace; but whatever brings peace is certainly beautiful. In the dance of beautiful light, the realm of darkness vanishes. Devotion and love toward the Creator is nothing but the awakening of the beautiful being within ourselves. If such an awakening of conscience occurs on distant mountains, by the sea, in caves, in prayer halls, or in any solitary, secluded place, we call that place sacred and rush there drawn by the heart’s pull. We call that place a pilgrimage site where the dormant state of the heart comes to an end. Temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, or any other place of worship cannot bring us close to the Creator until we can awaken our hearts. Due to various illusions and ignorance, we search for peace, love, happiness, and comfort in our external world. This plants within us the seeds of disappointment, melancholy, inequality, false self-satisfaction, and dejection, because we spend our lives as eternal strangers to the endless stream of love and good tidings that flows within us. The more we seek peace in the wealth of the external world, the stronger becomes the wall between the Creator and ourselves. Gradually, this wall moves us further away from the Creator—that is, from our own hearts.

When the eyes of the heart open, we come to realize that the vast ocean of boundless peace flowing ceaselessly within us is perhaps what I have been groping for all this time, seeking not even a droplet of it. We may not have a good house, we may never ride in a fine car, we may never in this lifetime have the means to eat expensive food, we may never have the good fortune to visit all the wonderful places in the world, costly clothes or ornaments may never grace us; let us assume that we possess none of those externalities from which people seek peace; yet we have the light of the heart within us, our beautiful qualities will remain ours forever, we can free our independent thoughts from the chains of external worldly enchantments. Nature has gifted us beautiful mountains and valleys, the starlight in the night sky keeps us spellbound, the rays of sun and moon bathe our bodies, the variations of day and night through different seasons make us contemplate the infinite mystery of our Creator, the eruption of volcanoes or the rainbow after a shower, the friendship of clouds and wind, beautiful fields of crops, rivers flowing in melodious streams, the colorful flight of birds across the sky, sailboats floating on the ocean’s breast, the miraculous birth of a child—all of this makes us devoted to some invisible, incomprehensible, hidden power. We worship that power, we dedicate ourselves to the practice of attaining proximity to that power. When we dive into that bottomless ocean of wealth within ourselves, there arises in us this profound feeling and conviction that we ourselves are the most primordial, proven vessel of that worshipped power. A current of inherent, otherworldly joy makes us still, teaching us to walk silently with bowed head on the golden path of knowledge.

Twelve. To change the world, we must first change ourselves—then everyone around us will change: family will change, society will change, the nation will change, and eventually the world itself will change. The flow of consciousness must begin with oneself. When we awaken, our own world awakens too. Every religion essentially performs this work of awakening. Through prayer, a connection is established between our external being and the Creator, or with our own heart. Gradually, our thoughts and actions move from a scattered state into a settled, linear rhythm. Religion offers us the discovery of boundless joy through beautiful thoughts and good deeds. Religious philosophy serves as a stairway to ascend into that ineffable, mysterious realm of bliss. One who does not feel the Creator’s presence in their own heart will not find even the smallest trace of divine grace, no matter how many sacred places they visit around the world. All our prayers are therefore nothing more than methods of awakening ourselves. The death of worldly feelings means emerging from the artificial shell in which we hide ourselves, abandoning those external impulses that conceal our hearts from us. Such death awakens us on the path of light; to walk the path necessary for peace and happiness, we prepare ourselves to journey unburdened by earthly attachments. To discover ourselves in a new life, leaving behind an unwanted, meaningless existence, there is no alternative but to bring death to all the self-contradictory conditions of the present for the sake of such resurrection. The death of the present self is essential for the desired resurrection or rebirth. We dream of seeing ourselves in a new form while keeping everything around us exactly as it is, continuing to do what we do now in the same way we do it. This never happens. New birth begins only through the death of our present comfortable way of living. This death means emerging from old habits, throwing ourselves with infinite courage beyond the circle of comfortable experiences, preparing ourselves to walk on novel paths, daring to embrace what was never mine, is not mine now, but whose presence within me is my deepest need, elevating ourselves to the highest level of our capabilities through continuous practice, sacrificing momentary pleasure and joy to journey toward unlimited peace, removing ourselves from the fathomless ocean of alluring harm and evil to undergo the severest test of walking the thorny path of truth. When we pray, we essentially imagine our unity with the Creator and prepare ourselves to receive divine grace. This preparation means preparing to elevate our minds and hearts to a higher level. The first step of this preparation is the magnificent willing death of our present false self.

Thirteen. The magic of stillness is wondrous. Where there is no silence, where processions of sound march endlessly onward, there even the most exquisite chain of words becomes meaningless. Without knowing how to truly listen, or how to receive with the heart, even the world’s most beautiful words cannot heal the wounds of anyone’s soul. Sometimes the absence of distance renders constant proximity meaningless. To lighten the heart’s burden and prepare oneself to receive the Creator’s grace, one must return again and again to stillness. Prayer is nothing but casting all one’s burdens upon the Creator’s shoulders and continuing one’s work with an unburdened mind. Then two different beings operate within the same body. One being bears the burden on behalf of the Creator, while the other works tirelessly in a lightened form. When we awaken, a luminous torch begins spreading light throughout the world. In that light’s fierce radiance comes the purification of our souls. We ourselves must plan how our present and future will unfold. If we do not arrange the pattern of our lives ourselves, someone else will arrange that pattern according to their own convenience. If we remain asleep, if we do not awaken, then one day we shall find ourselves as slaves to another’s desires and aversions. Unless we surrender mastery over our own destiny into our own hands while there is time, we must one day accept servitude to another’s fate. The Creator’s command is in truth the dormant divine directive of one’s own conscience. In silent mind and peaceful heart, making love and human compassion the foundation, one must listen to conscience’s guidance. Only through awakening the wealth of the mind can one reach near to one’s goal. One must receive the Creator’s grace by strengthening one’s position against injustice, sacrificing apparent happiness, and making mercy and compassion one’s companions. When the lightless night of despair is swept away and the light of hope plays in life, in dawn’s magical moment the withering heart becomes fresh again; touched by the Creator’s beauty and excellence, even a silent drop gains the vastness of an ocean; under divine light’s touch, even a firefly’s dim particle of light blazes brighter than a radiant star. One must bind oneself in such enchantments, bathed in the nectar-stream of the heart’s devoted faith and love. A person who remains indifferent to their own strength, or leaves their strength unused, differs only slightly from the powerless. To journey as a traveler on the path of eternal truth requires infinite courage and patience to embrace the death of one’s false self. Such spiritual death is the preliminary step in preparing oneself for new birth. Through this death alone begins new life. Just as the recently departed past always seeks to shackle the feet of the present, so too, even at the moment of resurrection from death, the tranquil irresistible attraction of death continues to call from behind. One whose capacity to disdain that attraction is greater possesses correspondingly greater self-power.

Fourteen. What is beautiful and what is ugly cannot be determined hastily. What appears beautiful to one person may seem ugly to another. To look at something and immediately declare it ugly is a form of foolishness and arrogance. Beauty lies hidden within every good thing—what meets the eye may appear ugly at first glance, but to hastily dismiss it based on that surface view reveals a shallow character. A heart that is beautiful is sincere, magnificent, and transparent. One who possesses such a heart is compassionate and just not only toward themselves but toward all humanity. Perhaps they have no money in their pockets, or they struggle to survive on meager means, yet the wealth of their heart touches everyone. While a person with a beautiful face burns inwardly from the pride of their own beauty, at the same time, a person with a beautiful heart spreads their radiance all around. The purity of the heart is far more important than the purity of the body. We do so much to keep our bodies pure and beautiful, yet how many of us tend to our hearts? We keep temples, mosques, churches, and pagodas spotlessly clean, then go there with dirty hearts to sit in clean places and pray. Can this earn us the Creator’s grace? The cleanliness of places of worship and the purity of the heart—it is the coexistence of these two that creates the proper environment for prayer. The Creator dwells in our hearts, not in prayer halls—that space must be kept clean, must be kept pure. When we hurt someone, when we cause pain to someone’s heart, we are actually hurting the Creator within them. The bleeding of a wounded person’s heart distances us from the Creator’s grace; at such times, we must seek forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness from someone, we are actually seeking forgiveness from the Creator who resides in their heart. We receive forgiveness from the Creator dwelling in the heart, not from the person themselves. The weaker the Creator’s presence in someone’s heart, the less their capacity to forgive. One who can forgive frees themselves from the raging fire of anger and stubbornness, and moves forward light as a feather toward receiving the Creator’s grace. Anger burns the angry person themselves. By forgiving others, our hearts are freed from the unbearable burden of rage and hatred toward others. Then we can walk empty-handed with an open mind along every subtle path of beauty in our lives. Whatever I love, whatever would bring peace and comfort to my life, whether it is before my eyes or not, I can carry it in my heart as I journey forward. Whatever distance exists between my dreams and my reality, whatever needs to be done to bridge that gap, our hearts can be ready to do it all, because then I can walk the path with only myself. To harbor hatred and anger toward someone in one’s own heart means carrying the burden of that person’s sins on one’s own head as one walks through life. Such pointless anger creates heaps of unnecessary suffering. What is the point of destroying one’s own peace by thinking about someone we cannot even bear? By setting others free, we can set our own souls free. Losing with love and prayer for oneself brings far more peace than winning by nurturing anger and hatred toward others.