In what way does he discover that life in him which was never born and will never die? By self-analysis; but a self-analysis according to what mystics know of it, which means the understanding of what this vehicle which we call our body is to us and in what relation we stand to it; by understanding what the mind, that which we call mind, consists of; by asking oneself, "Am I, then, this body, am I this mind?" There comes a time when man begins to see that he himself is the knower of the body and of the mind. But he only arrives at this realization when he can hold the body and mind in his hands, like objects which he uses for his purpose in life. Once he has done this, then the body and mind become like two floats which he puts on in order to swim in the water without danger of drowning. The same body and mind which cause man's mortality, at least in his thought, then become the means of his safety; they save him from drowning in the water of mortality.

In point of fact mortality is only our conception; immortality is the reality. We make a conception of mortality because we do not know the real life. By realization of the real life and the comparison between real life and mortality, one learns that mortality is non-existent. It is no exaggeration to say that the work of a Sufi is unlearning. What he is accustomed to call or recognize as life, he then begins to recognize as death; and what he is accustomed to call death, he then begins to recognize as life. Thus for him both life and death are not conditions to which he is subject, but conditions which he himself brings about. A great Persian Sufi, Bedil, says, "By myself I become captive, and by myself I become free." In simple language this means, "By myself I die, and by myself I live." Why does a Sufi say this? Why does not everyone say this? Because for a Sufi it is a condition which he brings about; for another person it is a condition in which he is helpless.