In order to rise above the conception of death, one should play death, and try to know what death is. And it is a great lesson to play death. What we do is a very false thing, for we play life when we are subject to death. If we played death it would be something real, and not a hypocrisy. It is through this that we shall discover life; for we experience death by playing life, and we experience life by playing death. What we call death is the death of this body, and if we attach ourselves to this body as our being, then it is death.

A simple man asked a friend, "How shall I know that I am dead?" "Well," the friend said, "it is very easy; when your coat has become torn and worn out, that is the sign of death." And when his coat was worn out and torn, this man began to think that he was dead, and he was weeping bitterly. Then some thoughtful person came along and told him, "It is only your coat that is torn. How can you cry? You are still alive!'

This story illustrates exactly the mystical idea. To the mystic the body is a garment. But it is no use realizing this intellectually; for if one says intellectually, "My body is my garment", the next question is, "But then what am I, and where am I?" It is by the meditative process that one finds where one is and what one is, and this does not remain as a belief; it becomes faith, and even greater than faith; it becomes conviction.

There was a king who thought that he would give up his kingdom and become a mureed. He wanted to give up all worldly things, and just lose himself in spiritual thought. And when he went to Bokhara, under the guidance of a teacher, the teacher gave him a probationer's work, and that work was to sweep and clean the whole house where all the pupils lived, and to collect the garbage and take it out of the village. No doubt the pupils were very much in sympathy with this man, and they were shocked that he, who used to sit on the throne and be a king, had to do this. They thought it must be a terrible thing for him. The teacher, knowing the object that he had before him, could not do otherwise. He said, "He must do it, for he is not yet ready."

Once all the disciples came and said, "Teacher, we are all in sympathy with this man, and we think he is so refined, so kind, and so cultured, and we would be so glad if you would relieve him of this duty." The teacher said, "We will have a test." One day when he was taking his garbage pail outside the town somebody collided with him, and all was spilled on the ground. He looked up and said, "Well, this would not have happened in the past, that I can tell you!" And when the report was brought to the teacher he said, "Did I not say that the time had not yet come?'

After some time a test was made again; and when the same thing happened, this man looked at the one who had pushed him and said nothing. Again the teacher said, "Did I not say that the time has not yet arrived?" But the third time when he was tested he did not even look at the man who upset his pail; he gathered up everything that had been spilled and carried it along. Then the teacher said, "Now is the time, now he can play death.'

All the teachings of Christ, such as: if one should strike you on one side of the face, turn the other side; if one should ask you to go one mile, go still farther; if one asks you for your overcoat, give your cap also; when we think of it, what does it all mean? Is it not all teaching us how to play death? Therefore, if at any time the teachers of truth have prescribed for their pupils any process of behavior towards their fellow-men, that process can be called nothing else but playing death.

One might think that this is very hard, that it is very cruel on the part of the teacher; but the instructor had also to go through the same cruelty at a certain period of his life. Sometimes the greatest cruelty is the greatest kindness; it is hard, but the hardest path can be conquered in this way. And how many times do we take to heart unnecessary things; how many times do we cause, of take interest in, disharmony which could just as well have been avoided? How often do we refrain from evil which we could just as well have refrained from? This is all playing life, and the other is playing death.

When we play death we arrive at life; when we play life we arrive at death.

Playing with death is rising above the sensible and the insensible, because what we call sensible and insensible belongs to a certain stage. One can rise above that stage; then all is sensible.

Besides one will always find that those who play death or who have played death are the ones who are the most open and sympathetic to the pain of others; for while they are playing death, automatically they are playing life too. That is why they are alive to everything that can help them to aid others, although they are dead to all the wrong things that come to them.

What is the life of a mystic, of a man who has realized God, if it is not playing a part? The part is not one part; it is a thousand parts. He has to play the part of a servant, of a master, of his parents" son, of a friend, of the father of his child, of a neighbor; and yet in his mind he realizes unity. In all capacities he goes on playing the part and yet keeping that feeling of oneness alive.

The further one advances on the spiritual path the more one will have to learn to play a part.

The twelve Apostles could suddenly speak many languages, and from that day they were able to play many parts and to answer the questions of everyone in his own language. The inspiration that came to them enabled them to play the part.

If one wants to take part in the play produced before one, this can be accomplished by effacing oneself. One has to become separate from one's self; that is the whole secret: when one is no more what one thought oneself to be. Annihilation, which is such a frightening word, is in reality nothing but acting in a play with a different name, a different form, a different appearance.

The annihilation of the self comes first by adoring another form or appearance. That annihilation never kills a person. It is Fana-fi-Shaikh, and later come Fana-fi-Rasul and Fana-fi-Allah; these are the three steps on the path of annihilation. One step is annihilation in the ideal of form, the next in the ideal of name, and the third step is annihilation in the nameless and formless.