Status Updates From The Face Before I Was Born:...

I only know that I have to be vulnerable and give myself, not to another person, but to the divine that is hidden. In my vulnerability I have to listen, half in this world, half somewhere else, and to talk as I feel, not restricted by the inhibitions of the world.

Because this consciousness within the heart does not belong to time or space, once the heart is awakened it never sleeps. [...] Inwardly the lover always looks to his Beloved, attentive to His will. The awakening of the heart is one of the central mysteries of the mystical path.

We had been taught that if the inner attitude is right the money will be there.

Then the pilgrim returns home, to the home of his origin... that is the world of Allah's proximity, that is where the home of the inner pilgrim is, and that is where he returns... Beyond this no news can be given, for beyond is the unperceivable, inconceivable, indescribable. - Al-Gîlânî

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The traveler on the journey is never allowed to rest for too long. States of fulfillment or completion give way to the next turn of the spiral, the next test.

The young woman [...] was telling me about a man she loved, who did not seem to be in love with her. I asked her what she wanted from life and she replied, “To love and be loved.” In my heart I knew[...] how a man could never answer the depth of her need.[...] I said nothing, but felt the sadness of an old traveler who knows the length and suffering of the journey that awaits someone just starting out.

Looking back, I know the journey is worth-while because I now know what awaits the traveler. But then there was no such knowledge and the path seemed to stretch forever, the goal just a distant dream beyond the horizon.

I know about projection, how a man or woman projects his or her inner partner onto another human being. This projection creates the magic and danger of the relationship, as we see our own inner divinity in the eyes and body of another.

Come out of the circle of time
And into the circle of love.