In Joy Praise God, In Sorrow Seek God

In Sufism, suffering is God calling us back into itself. Rumi speaks of sorrow as the ‘priceless pearl’. In this meditation, we sink deeply into our current experience through the layers of thoughts, sensations and feelings and, when we are divested of these limitations, our naked being stands revealed as impersonal, infinite being – God's being. We don’t become the impersonal self, we are always only God's infinite being, the only being there is, shining in, and as, the experience ‘I am’. The non-dual understanding is expressed in the Sufi oath ‘There is no god but God’ or in contemporary language, ‘Nothing exists; only being is’. For a Sufi there are two possibilities: when in sorrow, seek God; when in joy, praise God. To the question, ’What is a Sufi?’, we answer, 'Everyone is a Sufi’ in a state of longing or love. Say ‘I’, God’s name, once and listen in the silence for God's response, ‘Here I am’.