I should speak about the magnetism of the Spirit that is, really, still beyond the magnetism of the Soul. I don't know whether one can speak about it at all. It is because of the importance of this magnetism that in my seminars I have been giving practices like, for example, going to the source of life and experiencing the water of life and the communication of the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the life of your life. And we've been doing the practice Hu - Hayy. The Spirit is the origin of the Soul.

You may reach a point when you experience yourself as being a soul, or as being the Soul even, because there is not really such a thing as a soul. There is just Soulness, at every level the merging of beings is more intense. At the top it is just One Being, and at the bottom, let's say, there is a relative autonomy of the individuals, in multiplicity. But the Spirit is beyond. There are several ways to use the word Spirit. I'm not talking about spirits in the sense of spirit phantoms or anything like that, or spiritism, but Spirit, in the real sense, like the Spiritus in the Latin sense of the word and, of course, Quddus in the Ruh-al Quddus in the Arabic. That is the essence. That is the perfume of the rose. The Soul is the seed of the plant. That is the difference. The word is used in Arabic as Ayn. This is the meaning of resurrection. What is it? You are drawing the essence of the essence of the essence of the essence. The attar of roses, for example, that's the Spirit. When one says "the Holy Spirit," that is what it means. The Holy Spirit is not an angel, because an Angel is a soul, where Spirit is not a soul; it is beyond a soul. So if you can experience the life of your life, you experience it as being something that is flowing through you, like the energy behind energy. We talk about prana. Well, prana is cosmic energy at a certain level, but Spirit is the energy of that energy. That is what we mean by Spirit. It is always something beyond, always the essence of something, the life of your life.

As you know, all Sufis belong to the tradition of Khidr, who is called the green man in the desert, and who appears to the initiates sometimes, a mysterious being who is always present in any real initiation. He is he same person as Elijah, and Elijah is always linked with the water of life. So if you can draw the power of healing from the water of life, from the source of life, that is where your healing will be effective. That is a higher level than the level of the Soul. It was in order to promote this consciousness that the tradition of the Virgin Mary arose. It is the immaculate state. It is only through an extreme purification of body, mind, heart and soul that one reaches into the consciousness of the Spirit. It is only the being who is immaculate, who is first of all the instrument of the Spirit and then, secondly, becomes pure Spirit. There are some people, it is very rare, but you can find people who are just pure Spirit! They are so fine, so delicate, pure Spirit, just Life! There's no matter, hardly any matter there, just Life. The penetration of that Life is like a transfusion of Life. Actually that is what healing is: it is a transfusion of Life. It is just like a blood transfusion.

There are all kinds of levels of life, so you have to heed what kind of magnetism you are introducing in this organism. There are organisms that will refuse a foreign agent that it is not in harmony with. So if you introduce, for example, a magnetiseuse, I don't know, I suppose you have them also in America, (who) just have a lot of magnetism and they may be reasonably good people, and I'm sure that they can do a lot of good to a lot of people, but there are some people that are so sensitive that they would become ill by being subjected to their magnetism. It just means that their magnetism is too gross for the magnetism of the patient. As I said, it is limited; whereas the very fine magnetism is always absorbed by all beings, the magnetism of the Spirit, there is room for it in every being. The grosser magnetism can be too gross for you.

The other thing that we have to take into account is that the transfusion of life will give an extra impulse to the organism in its fight, because that is what an illness is, the organism is involved in a battle. The whole of life is a battle. The body is in a state of battle against the vultures that are trying to make it into a prey. Everywhere in nature, just look at the plant life, you'll find that there are parasites that live on the plants. Parasites live on the animals, which is natural; but survival is always the ability of the organism to overcome the inroads of the parasites upon itself. Parasites represent the lower kingdoms, but, we are parasites too, you know. We are living on other organisms. It is one of the tragedies of life, that life can only be promoted by one being living on other beings. It is a fact. You might say, "Well, I'm a vegetarian," but you're still living on vegetables, and vegetables, as we know, still feel pain. You can say, "Well, it is being dedicated to God." Yes, but still, there is pain involved in the process. It is true that that thought brought certain hermits, like, for example, Ibrahim Ibn Adam, Buddha talked about this several times, to the point of letting the organisms come and feed on them, like the worms were feeding on them. There was an ants' nest on Buddha's head and, of course, the body would soon be eaten up by the microbes and by the germs unless there was some resistance, or at least some power in the body to resist inroads.

Now, this is what healing is: You are giving the body an extra push, but the body has to be able to assimilate the energy that you are giving; and, also, the body has to be able to learn how to produce it is own energy. It is been depleted so that it is lost the ability to produce its own energy and you have to now give it an extra push, but you can only help a person to help himself.

What, for the scientist, is germs and microbes and viruses (actually, viri), which haven't been seen as far as I know, except perhaps maybe they see some of the larger ones in electronic microscopes, but the fact is that science has been able to ascertain the existence of microorganisms that can multiply at a tremendous rate and will live on the organism or maybe live on the microbes which are necessary for the organism, which may account for cancer. Anyway, from as much as can be ascertained from the point of view of, let's say, the instruments of scientific research, each one of these organisms is a being. Actually, every cell in our body is a being, and we have millions of beings in us, and that means that they are endowed with, there's no such thing as a completely independent existence, but they are endowed with a consciousness. They're endowed with a soul, they're endowed with a spirit. Millions, millions, millions of beings within the body, some that constitute what we call the body, others that constitute what we call parasites that are trying to fight to live on the body, like the mistletoe on the trees, it is the same principle, or ivy.

There's no doubt that if these beings have a reality, that means that they also exist at the mind level, and that physical illnesses are in some way associated with our thinking. For example, a person with a lot of anxiety will develop ulcers, and a person who is burning himself out in his emotions will develop tuberculosis, and a person who is holding back on his emotions will develop cancer. Cancer is like a revenge of the physical organism that is multiplying because it is being restrained. It is a question of proliferation, you know, and there is a balance of forces in nature.

In ecology one is beginning to discover these things, and supposing if you allowed, well, I'll give you an example: There was a leper colony and the rats were eating the feet of the lepers, and nobody could sleep because the rats would just walk over your bed, and they weren't even afraid of a stick. It was because they killed the cobras. Then the doctor who was running this home made a covenant with the cobras, and the cobras increased and the rats decreased. It is a case of the balance of ecology in the world, and people are discovering more about it nowadays. So we need certain parasites. We call them parasites, maybe in our body, like germs that are good and others that are not. Perhaps there is a balance between them, or perhaps there are too many. I spoke to you of that man who was controlling all these monsters. Well, the human will has the ability to control the minds of these beings. If you can do it you can heal yourself. And you can heal others. It takes a lot of power, of course. As we said before, the whole purpose of life is mastery. You have to become a master of all conditions.

Now I'm saying this, and I can become ill, and, of course, it isn't true to say that there are a lot of masters who have been ill. It is not true to say that a perfect being or a master cannot be ill. You shouldn't pass a judgment about things. There are a lot of factors. Perhaps one has to experience the suffering of the world in one's flesh, karmic participation in suffering . I don't subscribe to the theory that if people are ill it is because they're re-paying a karma. We talked about karma the other day and we said that that could be one reason; but there are other reasons, like the testing that one has to undergo, and the fact that one is sharing cosmic karma.

You remember the question that was put to Jesus: "Why are these people born blind or lame?" You know, they were thinking that he might have confirmed the theory of reincarnation. "Was it because of their parents?" No, no, it was so the works of God may be accomplished. So there was some planning in it. There was some reason for these illnesses that maybe we cannot understand with our mind. I know we are perplexed and say, "Well, why is this child born blind?", or, "How is it possible that this person suffers from paralysis?", and so on. Why does this happen? Well, we don't always know the plan. When we know the plan then we'll understand it, but for the moment we can say, What can we do?

There is such a thing as intercession, for example; you can intercede for somebody. That is what a lawyer does. He, the barrister, intercedes. What does it mean to intercede? Do you know what it means? It means to take upon yourself part of the karma of the person. That is what it means to intercede. You cannot heal a person unless you would rather have the illness. You are interfering in the Divine Plan, but you are part of the Divine Plan. So God wishes you to intervene in the Divine Plan; otherwise He wouldn't have given you free will. It is something that you are taking upon yourself that means that there is no yourself, because there is just God, but still there is within the greater self a karmic involvement which has its consequences. You know, you picked a child up from the street who is begging. Well then, you have the responsibility, that child was begging. And you've taken an animal out of nature, and that animal was able to fend for itself. You've taken a bird from the nest, you've taken away its possibility for survival now. You are responsible for it. You can't thrust it back in nature again because it hasn't got the power to defend itself. That is what healing is. You have intervened in a situation in which there was a certain balance. That balance is not perfect anyway, but it is a balance. You have intervened, right? Well, from that moment you're involving yourself karmically. You are involving yourself karmically with those little beasties that are trying to destroy that person. So you got them all at your doorstep, right?

It is just like if you exorcise a person, it is the same thing. You get them knocking at your door. Those spirits, they have been living on a person. You have disturbed their life and they don't like it. They don't have anyplace to live. They come and say, "Look here, you have deprived us of our existence!" I know some exorcists whose life has become a complete hell. It is only a very powerful person who can become an exorcist. The responsibility you are taking upon yourself is tremendous. Like Hazrat Inayat Khan, there was a lady who came to him and said, "Oh, I'm obsessed by this being all the time. There are two persons in me. It is so terrible! I'm so confused! I can't go on living like this." Actually, it was the person whom she loved and who was killed during the war. So Murshid said to her, "You're sure that you want to be free of this obsession?" "Oh, yes, Murshid, I can't go on like this!" "All right," said Murshid, "all right." He spoke to the spirit and it is almost as simple, it is like saying, "Go away." You wouldn't believe it, but he went. She came back a few days afterwards and said, "Oh, I feel so poor in myself like this. Oh, please, could you bring him back?" Murshid said, "All right, but once I bring him back I won't be able to exorcise him again. Are you sure that you want him back?" "Yes, I do! I do! Yes!" "All right," said Murshid, "all right."

You see, you have to respect the will of a person. You can't heal a person against his will. If they don't want to be healed, you have to ask their permission before you place them on your healing list. They might not want to be placed on the healing list. Actually, some people wish to be ill. They are only happy if they are ill. It gives them something to talk about. You take away their illness and they feel just empty. Illness fulfills a function in life. If not, it wouldn't be there. It is like an abscess that brings out all the impurities. There is a reason for it. It can get out of hand, but the original cause, as all causes, all purposes, are the Divine Impulses. Don't blame God for illnesses. The Divine Impulse got out of hand because people didn't know how to deal with it. Then that lady came back to Murshid again and said, "You said you couldn't exorcise me again, but do you think you could?" Then he said, "All right, but I will never be able to bring him back again."

Now we are coming across everyday miracles which we're discovering and yet they have been there all the time. I don't know if you have seen a film of the operations in the Philippines without surgical instruments. You wouldn't believe it. I've seen them, and actually, one reaches a point when one thinks that it must be trick photography. It's not possible. But I know people who have been there, who have had operations done to them.

This man takes a big rusty knife and he scratches an abscess off the eye of a person and it is all bleeding. That person stands there and doesn't move. Then he softly blows "Foooooh," and the person recovers and looks quite baffled and is able to see. This is actually what I've seen.

Then there is a patient in agony, lying on that filthy table. No precautions to hygiene at all, and this man with his own hands, with dirty nails, starts grabbing inside this body. All the blood is gushing out. One should perhaps get those films. And then he's pulling and pulling on this part which he is pulling out, you know, an abscess or something like that. The patient lies there absolutely still, as though actually hypnotized, because he doesn't know it. Then all he does is put his hands like this with the skin. And the skin, you can see the skin actually coming together, and all the blood is stopped. No more blood rushing. And the person stands up and is healed and walks back home. No ambulance.

They do the same thing with a brain operation. There was this man working behind the eye of a man, and he couldn't get through with the knife so he got an old rusty wire and poked that up through behind the eye. Anyway, that is what I have seen. I'm not telling you something. Really, I have seen it.

Perhaps one day those methods will be introduced in our hospitals. For the moment, the medical profession is already very much on the defensive with all the new methods that are coming in.

There are new methods coming in, like being able to diagnose by looking into the eyes, and new things coming in now that are not new because they were used right in the time of the old Egyptians. Back in the past, people had relied on certain very narrow methods of cure which are beginning to prove unsatisfactory, or not altogether satisfactory. They had their disadvantages. You can cure a lot of illnesses now with antibiotics, and at least now there's an immediate stoppage of the assault of the germs; but the consequences to the organism in the long run are absolutely disastrous.

Other methods are slower but may be in the long run more effective. You can use certain herbs. You know that the ancients used to follow the bears in the forest to see what herbs they were eating under certain circumstances and that is how they found out the curative powers of herbs. We're beginning to discover quite a lot of things, the effects of different herbs, of different drugs, of roots, of the difference between, for example, the grain and the fruit.

For example, in Oshawa methods it is all the difference between being a tomato and being a cactus. The wiry types, like the Japanese are more wiry and so they don't need so much fluid, so much, the lush thing about the fruit, the yin aspect - they will develop the yang aspect. If you subject the European temperament to, well I'm generalizing a bit too much now, but let's say there's a temperament that is a little more lush and not that wiry, and if you subject them to the Oshawa method they dry up. You have a lot of people really drying up. Whereas, on the other hand, for people who are proliferating too much, of course that means that they're eating too much and that is why this method is a good cure for cancer. It is because you have to get back to really basic things, the root, you see. Then you get to eat cereals, or buckwheat, or something like that, really hard cereal. It will give you strength, whereas if you eat fruits and things like that, then you get into what is the end of the process of growth, and the degeneration has set in the end process in the fruit. Then, all the energy of the fruit is in the formation of the grain of the fruit. If you eat the fruit you don't get the real energy because it is being prepared in the seed.

We'll reach a point when we will realize that we can gain much more energy by eating the seed. All things that have grown a little further, like in the case of meat, for example, beef, a lot of toxins are in beef because it is been involved in life, whereas the very young animal would be better to eat if you're not a vegetarian. If you're a vegetarian, as I say, you'll find that cereals are much more important than fruit. There is something in fruit that cereals can't give, vitamins and so on; but still you will find that you will have to bring your diet more and more to the mineral, to the seeds. On the other hand, you'll have to find just the right balance according to your nature, and not just be too dogmatic about it.

In falconry, there's something I know about when a falcon is ill. You can sometimes save its life by giving it chicks that come out of the egg. You see, that is because the life force is there before it has developed toxins, and as soon as it becomes a chicken then it doesn't have the same value any more. A lot of things that we'll be learning about food and how to balance. There are things that we don't know about. How many vitamins are necessary for life? How to use proteins? The seeds that have the best proteins are beans, for example, which we cook and of course we ruin completely all the food value by cooking them. And then, on the other hand, we don't know how to eat them raw, you see. Soy beans, for example. So if we learn how to be able, as the ancients used to do, to make a powder of them and predigest them. There is a lot of science that we are just putting our hands on now.

Like in India, it is a very secret knowledge, but I'm revealing it to you now, it is a way of rejuvenation. That is, you go on a retreat, and you select a very wonderful cow. And somebody prepares wonderful meals, with cereals and fruit and rich cream and all kinds of marvelous food and you give it to the cow. Then you drink the milk of the cow until you have milk intolerance, just gallons of milk. I don't know how one does it, because medically there's just so much milk that you can stand. Gorging yourself with milk of that cow that has been overfed, apparently you come back and all your white hair is gone, which some people would like, and your wrinkles are gone, and I don't know if that is the kind of thing people would like.

With all your good will to heal people with your magnetism you can do a lot of harm. That is the reason why Hazrat Inayat Khan instituted the service of healing. The fact that it is not just one person is already a help, that they are linking themselves as instruments of the Divine Power of Healing, so that it eliminates a lot of ego. Also, because it is done in a prayerful way, so people are really dedicated to a higher consciousness; whereas, if you're there facing a patient the ego is involved. It is very difficult to get rid of it. And because, as I said, your magnetism may be just too gross for the patient, and you're doing the patient harm.

Be very careful, particularly of certain cases, for example, cancer.

The warmth of your human magnetism will just make the cancer proliferate much more. You have to treat the patient with a cool healing atmosphere, not a warm one.
Be careful, if you're in a state like a madhjubiat with his feel of fire in your being, don't approach a being who is already blazing. You have to be very cool.
You have to know how to bring cool magnetism in your hand and how to bring warm magnetism in your hand.
You have to know how to draw through your fingers the polluted magnetism away from the patient, and you have to know how to reverse the energy and send out energy through your hands.
You have to know when to press with your fingers in the flesh of the person, when to hold your hands above the body of the person, how far to hold the hand above the body, how to earmark exactly the spot where is the source of the disease.
And remember that just curing the cause is not curing the patient. You have to cure the cause of the cause. All good doctors know that.
In fact the hands are only one means, and there are cases where your hands would communicate too gross a magnetism, and where you should use your breath because you can breathe over your hand and by so doing you are able to sweep the magnetism that is warm, maybe warm magnetism of the hand, over towards the patient by your breath and your breath will make this magnetism finer, will make it digestible by the person. Maybe it might be better to do that than breathe directly on the person.

There are so many different circumstances you have to consider.

You may, of course, find that you feel that you can breathe directly on the part that is affected.
Then there's again the warm breath and there's the cool breath, the warm breath when the mouth is open, cool breath when the lips are closed.
You can, for example, put cloth on the person's body, the part that is affected, and blow warmth through your lips; and the lips are, of course, very strong center of magnetism.
You have to know how to use your glance, and, of course, your glance has to be very pure. You can use your glance on the part of the body that is affected.
You can use your glance through the glance of the person.
You can use your mind.
You can actually talk to the minds of the molecules of the beings that are affecting the person.
You have to know how to talk to the person concerned, and free him from all the mind trips that he's going through in his illness.

And then what is much more important is that the illness in the body is not only a symptom of the illness in the magnetic field of the person, but also in all his higher bodies. So, you cure the physical body and the higher bodies are still ill and so the physical body gets ill again, so you're not beating the problem. You have to see where the cause of the illness is, not just in the mind, but in the soul of the person, the heart of the person. Then enter into communion with that person and perhaps give them a spiritual practice which will cure the psychological cause of the physical ailment. So you see that healing is not that simple a thing.

The highest form of healing is faith. The greatest miracles have happened just by faith, and it wasn't by the intervention of a person, or a place, like Lourdes [France] for example. They think that it is going to Lourdes. You don't have to go to Lourdes for it, but as people think that's where they'll get it, well then of course it will happen that way. It is also true to say that in those places where people converge their thoughts and aspirations, higher beings come; they descend upon those places. That is the meaning of a temple, because otherwise the real temple of God is the body of man.

You can pray anywhere you like, but there are some places that are more sacred than others, because either a holy being has lived there for some time and their presence has left an atmosphere that continues for ages and which would be worn out if it weren't for the people that come there and pilgrimage, and who strengthen the atmosphere of that place, like a djiner for example. As I talked about the other day, there are some places that are holy spots, meccas, because there was, one day, a being, in the case of Mecca it was Abraham, who prayed there or made a wish there and the heavens were moved by his prayer and the angels came, descended upon that place. That place is protected by the angels, and whatever one builds there, it won't take away anything except that, of course, it wears down a little bit in time unless people are able to come there and maintain their prayers at that place.

That is why, when I saw those orthodox nuns at the top of the Mount of Olives, I realized that they were protecting that place from being desecrated. Just nearby, there were people quarreling and throwing banana peels on the ground, or children throwing stones at each other and so on. Those were the places where Jesus had been and was walking in the last stations of the cross, and so on, and that those orthodox priests, well, nuns, were there and they felt that their object was just to protect this place so that it would remain a place where people can find inspiration. And you will find that is true. You will find under the tree of Buddha, for example, the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, they used to sit there the whole night, and somehow the being of Buddha is more present there than elsewhere, although he is present everywhere, but still, the atmosphere is there.

You go to the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi and they built a wonderful cathedral. There's no atmosphere in the cathedral, and you go there just next to the sarcophagus and his being is so strong. So sometimes going to places will be helpful. It is a strength of faith of the person that heals him; but still, healing is performed by angels who have become used to being present in that spot. Healing is the victory of spirit over matter.

There is a saying of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan: "I am the wine of the holy sacrament. My very being is intoxication. Those who drink of my cup and yet keep sober will certainly be illuminated, but those who do not assimilate it will be beside themselves and exposed to the ridicule of the world."

That you must have felt in the course of all the different states of mind and all the emotions and all the states of consciousness that we have shared during these days. Perhaps you've felt the particular salt, the particular yeast, of the Message, which is of course the essence of Sufism, and that is exaltation, ecstasy. The word that is used by the Sufis is hal, or wajd, which is the most precious thing there is in the world. The most precious thing that you can ever give to another being is perhaps to say one word that touches their soul and that they'll never forget for the rest of their life. Perhaps just a glance or a gesture or something that uplifts the soul.

One cannot live by bread alone; one also needs wine. So, of all the utilitarian things that we are seeking for in our life, there is that perfume, there is that thing which cannot be accounted for by all the demands of life in which is the only thing that really makes life worthwhile living. If you watch through your life and think of the moments that were really worthwhile living, you will realize that they were the moments when you were so intoxicated, when you were so in love, when you were so shattered, when you were so exhilarated, so overwhelmed, that nothing made sense and everything made sense, because it didn't make sense and nothing mattered and everything mattered, and, well, you were in that state of inebriation or intoxication. It is epitomized of course by the drunken man, and of course the Sufis are always speaking in terms of drunkenness. Although, as you know, wine was forbidden by Islam, and I think it's possible that even Omar Khayyam, who speaks about it so much, probably never partook of that substance that we call wine, but it was the spiritual wine of ecstasy that they were referring to. It is what in America is called being high. It is something that everyone experiences from their birth. There are moments when one s heart beats faster, and when it burns more intensely by more intense flame; and, of course, the height of that moment is the moment of awakening, when all of a sudden all of the forces of life have broken through into a kind of climax of awakening.

Everyone is intoxicated with some kind of wine, and you have to be intoxicated to see the intoxication of others. That is why this madhjub, who was standing in the streets of Calcutta, was able to laugh as he did because he was so intoxicated that he could see. The drunken person will always recognize another drunken person, just like a thief will always recognize a thief in the middle of the city, and birds of a feather flock together. So you will experience that intoxication. Youth experiences it in the intoxication of the children for their toys. They're so excited about their toys. They can't go to sleep without their toys. Then there's the intoxication of youth, of being in love for the first time, of discovering the mysteries of the body, of discovering the whole excitement of life. There's a tremendous intoxication.

Hazrat Inayat Khan described all the different stages that one goes through in life. In five stages, each one is a different form of intoxication.

The first one is the one of youth of course, which is just like a butterfly that is so fascinated by everything. One is ready to spring into the fire, and everything is just really so fascinating and one doesn't care for the morrow and it is all wonderful, and when they cry it seems like the worst tragedy on earth and the moment is all gone. It is just pure intoxication.
Then there's the intoxication of the person who has begun to be conscious of his ego. In fact, the ego grows with youth, and that is often the reason why, well, unless it were for spiritual unfoldment, generally people are better when they are young than later on in life. If it were not for spiritual development a lot of people lose that wonderful spontaneity and innocence of youth. The reason is because the ego develops. It is part of the unfoldment of the human being, of the soul coming on earth. It is like the core of individuality, like a focal center that has to unfold. As one descends the ego becomes stronger. In fact, the world makes it so. For example, if you don't affirm yourself, they will walk over your dead body. You have to. You realize at the time, well, you are doing things right and you wonder, you know, people take advantage of you and of your innocence, and finally you feel, well, I must make a life for myself, and I must have a house, and I must have a family, and so on and so forth. So eventually this whole spontaneity of youth disappears and there's a need for you to affirm yourself, affirm the ego.
And that is another intoxication which comes in; that is, the intoxication of one becomes so interested in things, one learns so much, all the nature of the atoms and the planets and the nature of the plants and the nature of human beings and the world is so fascinating the more one learns, and then, when one develops the spiritual knowledge and wants to find out, like Buddha, for example, the cause of existence, one feels like dismounting the whole mechanism and seeing how it all ticks. So that is a passion. It's a real fascination. A scientist in his laboratory working with all this organic and inorganic matter, and the physicist with all his gadgets, it's a real fascination, an intoxication!
Then there's a strange intoxication that takes over people at the certain time when they feel that everything seems to be not worthwhile. People are deceptive and they're caught up in their trips. One meets ingratitude, and one wonders, What am I toiling for? There comes a time when one feels that one has exposed one's emotions to other people and they have betrayed one. There's a time of course, when there's a tendency to withdraw; and its all right if one has already lived very intensely. That is the time to develop this intoxication for the wilderness, a need to leave everything and go into the wilderness. A real need. Find yourself amongst the rocks in the snow with a clear sky away from everything. The tremendous attraction of the being who has become completely peaceful, completely empty of himself, it is a tremendous attraction. People will give up their whole life to follow the path of sanyassin in India.
Then, the next intoxication, I don't know whether perhaps it is sobriety, is the fifth state, in which you come back into the world again and you just enjoy it all. Not like the child any more, because you've gone through so many stages in between; but you enjoy the fact that people enjoy themselves, and you share in the sufferings of all beings, and you share in the ignorance, and you don't try to show self as knowing any more or being any better. You are just playing the game. Then you give assistance to every being that you can, and that is the state of perfection. It is the fifth state, and each one of these states is a state of intoxication.

We need exaltation, as I said, in order to live; and, as a matter of fact, you may meditate for hours and hours and days and days and months and months and. months, and years and years, doing all the things that were prescribed, and nothing happens. Then all of a sudden you come in contact with a being who is intoxicated himself, and you are carried beyond yourself and in that moment you have done more progress than in all those years of hard work practicing. And that is the reason for the gurus, if they are gurus. The guru is the one who sweeps you off your feet, I mean your personal feet, into Divine Consciousness, who lifts you upon wings of ecstasy. He is the one who performs the fana', that is, the annihilation, of your opinion, and the baqa', which means the eternalization of Divine understanding. I'll say that again: the fana' of opinion, it is zikr, actually, the fana' of opinion in the baqa' of Divine realization.

His being can act so powerfully upon you that, as I say, you are shattered in everything that you ever thought and everything that you ever knew and everything that you ever felt. There's no emotion that can come anywhere near the emotion of ecstasy. You might have experienced extremes of despair and tremendous joy, and yet this is something different, something unexplainable in words. You may find that his presence is such that it burns you. Shams Tabriz, when he was in a state of incandescence, said, "Don't come near me, don't come near me. You will burn, you will burn. Keep away, keep away!" And the others are so completely peaceful that you feel as though you were at the source of all life, in that snow countryside that I've often talked about.

Of course, there are many things that give you ecstasy. Apart from a being, you can have ecstasy looking at the immensity of space, by the fact that your consciousness is free from the tyranny of your ego, just looking into a clear sky or into moonlight, or looking at that wonderful array of colors at dawn that you see sometimes, all those different shades of colors and the brilliance of the light. Something that gives you a feeling of splendor, the splendor of the heavenly realms. You can experience it by the vertigo that you experience at the top of the mountain, when you feel annihilated by the greatness of the mountain; because exaltation always has to do with fana', it always has to do with annihilation, and with baqa', which means to survive the annihilation, but transformed.

Sometimes you may experience exaltation by watching the beautiful smile of a child; or, if you have humbled yourself before someone, perhaps someone whom you've asked forgiveness, you have been able to overcome your ego; or perhaps someone asks forgiveness of you. The other day we spoke of when you feel gratitude to someone who has acted so beautifully towards you, or when your heart goes out to someone in his suffering, or when you fall in love, or when you feel the power of the Divine Perfection in you working in human limitation.

For example, well, I always think of Christ captured by the Roman soldiers, experiencing exaltation. Christ experiencing exaltation on the cross, which is perhaps the greatest exaltation there is, experiencing the disintegration of the body.

When Al Hallaj was crucified, his friend Shibli said, "Had we not warned you not to welcome a friend?" And that friend was God. He was crucified for having revealed the secret of his lover. And then his friend Shibli asked him what is the highest degree of exaltation? And he said, "You will see it tomorrow." And the next day he was crucified. He had said, on the night before, "I have engaged myself from the wild seas I and my boat are shipwrecked. I shall die in the religion of the cross."

And then when he was on the cross, do you know what he said? Well, he quoted, of course, a verse of the Quran, and it said: "The one who dies may wish for this terrible test to be over soon, but the one who knows the meaning of death wishes for it to come slowly because it is the moment of truth!" So he was experiencing fana of the destruction of his body, and this was at the same time the exaltation of the spirit that is freed from all the travails and limitations of the earth.

There are other ways in which we can feel exalted when we see a reason behind things that we hadn't seen. Even the child, for example, with the, I don't know if you have that in America, we have that in France, little children had little pictures, a face of a man hidden somewhere in the tree, and then, "Do you see it?" "No, I don't see it." "Yes! Of course!" That is the moment of exaltation, when you're able to see it. And that is the exaltation, when you're able to see the hand of God working through all things. Or the cause behind the cause, or the essence of wisdom, or you touch upon the depth of your heart.

It is like a bell that you ring in which you are not used to touching. A lot of people just live at the surface of their being, and they only hear the bell outside, and never listen to the bell inside. Imagine the exaltation when you reach a point when you actually experience the way the rocks are exalted and the birds, and the whole of nature is exalted. That is because you are exalted; you are able to feel the exaltation of nature. Another feeling of exaltation is described by Abdul Qader Jilani when he says, "I am a bird from the heavens and I experience at present my visitation on the earth." There is a time when you can touch a particular phase of existence in which one feels raised above limitation. In fact, that is the essence of exaltation. It is when you feel that you are raised beyond limitation by having touched a certain plane of existence that was always there, but you hadn't really struck into the depth of your being.

Well, every form of intoxication passes. Everything is relative. So the girl gives up her dolls at some time, and as one progresses, the things that intoxicated one before don't intoxicate one any more, and there is something else that intoxicates one. One is always changing, going from one wine to another, everyone is intoxicated by some wine or another. Hafiz said, "Oh, if those pious ones of long robes listened to my verses and my song they will immediately begin to get up and dance." And then he went on to say: "Forgive me, O pious ones, for I am drunken just now." And the dervish says, "If I cannot dance, what am I to do?" The dance of the soul is participating in the ecstasy of creation. That is like the dance of Shiva, or the dance of some of the Sufis who are absolutely enraptured by the ecstasy of creation. And the beauty of it is, of course, that you are led away from where you are into the unknown. That is, you leave the place where you are, that's the meaning of ecstasy. Ecstasy means going away from the place where you are your state; it is being carried beyond your state. Murshid says, "Come to the mystic and sit with him when you are tired of all the other remedies that you have employed in vain. Come and take a glass of wine with him."

The mystic Wine is the inner absorption. And of course, the highest of all exaltations is the one expressed by Christ when he said, "Be perfect as your father is perfect." The actual realization of the divine perfection in one is the greatest exaltation there is; and that is of course the exaltation of the prophet, Insan al-Kemal, the perfect man, who experiences the divine perfection. That is the greatest thing that can happen.. As I said, you can be exalted by the beauty of the sunrise or the mountains or beautiful poetry or beautiful music or whatever. But imagine the exaltation of coming across a human being who incorporates the divine perfection, who can incorporate it in a way that nothing in nature could ever express. This is the reason why Jelal-ud-din Rumi said, when he saw Shams Tabriz, "The God whom I have been worshiping all my life has today appeared to me in the form of a man." It happens when the heart has been touched or tuned to a certain pitch or melted.

Shams-i-Tabriz says, (The sun-faced one's name was Shams Tabriz, Shams means "the sun.")
"When the sun-faced one has arisen, each atom of the two worlds arose.
When the light of his face sent its shadow, by the shadow various names I became.
The things, what were they? The pictures of the names.
The atoms, what were they? He, in reality.
The waves, what were they? They were in reality the sea."

That is the kind of vision of the one who is lost in ecstasy. He just sees Him. Him. There's nothing but Him. Baba Kule of Sheraz, that is the place where dervishes congregate at his tomb, and what he says, his poem is always, everything is Him. Everything, it is Him. Everything, it is the discovery of the Divine Beloved that gives the greatest exaltation. Because the greatest exaltation is love, and when one is able to see the One Beloved behind every beloved then one experiences the highest exaltation. What the exalted one does is read the mind of the universe. In fact, the expression of the ultimate exaltation is, of course, the condition of the prophet. That which expresses the prophet is that he reads the mind of the Universe.

You know what Hajji Sherif Zindani said: "This is death, where the divine impulse becomes stale in the isolation of the ego."

And life is where you have freed God from the prison to which we have subjected Him in your ego-self. There comes a time when one thinks that one has reached sobriety. For example, one had been intoxicated by some fancy or other. You know, the Buddhists speak about intoxication as Asavar, which means something that is alluring and takes you away from your realization. It is strange how these two, we have already seen how Sufism and Buddhism complete one another, and, of course, contrast with one another. We have shown how exaltation is a case where the emotions are extremely intensified, but in a very special direction which is neither joy nor peace. Whereas Buddhism tends towards Nirvana, which is a kind of sobriety, which is often thought of as sobriety; but one must understand that it is just like introducing indifference into action. Introducing sobriety into ecstasy. It cures you from one wine and makes you appreciate a more subtle wine.

There are some who like beer and there are some who like champagne. That subtler wine is the higher intoxication. You see, there are moments when you are intoxicated by the music of Brahms, and then there might come a moment of sobriety that you pass through, and you want to be very quiet and you can't listen to that music. You want to be very, very quiet, but it is not an emptiness; it is just a need for some other wine. Then you hear the music of plainsong, and you realize, Yes, now that is my wine; because now you need another kind of wine. So sobriety is like kemal. It is a passage from one state of intoxication to another. As Hazrat Inayat Khan says, "The highest intoxication is where there is no emotion," and that is the condition of Christ, of course, when he says, "It has been fulfilled."

Now, you know that you can make yourself high. You can do it. It is because you don't think you can do it that you can't do it. But if you know that you can do it, you can do it. You can just, it is something that you, it is just like switching on an electric light. You do something. You bring the physical world out of focus, but you have to be ready to disappear, you have to be ready to be dissolved, and you have to enjoy being dissolved and even want to be dissolved. Then also you have to really have a tremendous nostalgia. Actually, the human being is an expression of nostalgia. So it is not like you have to have nostalgia: you are nostalgia. But you have to be conscious of your nostalgia, of being nostalgia. Then, all of a sudden you can be absolutely focused on another level. Imagine that you reach a point where everything begins to live around you. It is like you're in an enchanted universe; and, as I say, you experience the exaltation of all things. Then you will begin to see the auras of all beings, and you will begin to see the eternal faces of all beings, and you begin to see meaning behind all things. You begin to hear the music of the spheres. And you watch your body walking and it makes you really laugh because you can't in any way see what relation there is between your body and you. It just seems to be such a very remote appendix of your being.

To understand the consciousness of the consciousness, that is, carried beyond the limits of the person, one has to understand the meaning of the Message, because one's own purpose only makes sense in terms of a greater purpose. There are some people who reach a point when they can't see what is gained by what they are doing, and if only they felt that they could do something that was really worthwhile doing, they would give their efforts for it. But just to do something that seems to gratify their needs, well, I think that a lot of people feel, "Well, my needs are not so great and I don't see why I should work so hard to just be able to eat and have clothes and so on. I don't have to have such beautiful clothes, and I don't have all that life has to offer." So one begins to discover a reality behind beyond one's own purpose, and this is what extends one's consciousness to the consciousness of the Masters, Saints and Prophets. So it is the consciousness of the Message that gives a sense of purpose, and, again, the sense of purpose will give one an exaltation. In fact, exaltation, this cosmic form of exaltation, comes when one realizes God Who is realizing His Oneness through one. He realizes Oneness through all things. But when the instrument through which He realizes His Oneness, then of course you experience exaltation. And that is the thing that the prophet is always pointing out. Because that is his condition. He is trying to make you share in his condition, which is the supreme condition of a being who has become the instrument through which God realizes His perfection. His Oneness and His Perfection. As we advance, the Unlimited Being working through us makes His own way and realizes His perfection. For in doing this He only realizes himself.

God knows Himself by His manifestation. Manifestation is a self of God, but a self which is limited, a self which makes Him know that He is perfect when He compares His own being with this limited self which we call nature. Therefore, the purpose of the whole creation is the realization that God Himself gains by discovering His own perfection through his manifestation.

Has God a consciousness of the whole creation beside the consciousness He has of separate being? This may be explained in this way: Every part of one's body is conscious of the pain that it has; it suffers through that pain, through pain from a sting, for example, but at the same time it is not that particular part only which is conscious of it. So if God is all and in all, then He does not only experience life through all forms and through all entities separately, but also collectively, as the pain of one organ is experienced by the whole body.

This is what I mean when I say that you are so much in connection with all beings that you experience the suffering and the joy of all beings. And that is when you are in tune with the consciousness of the Messenger, or the Prophet. What can be said is that in creation God manifests Himself. In suffering He Himself suffers; He Himself is puzzled in His creation. And one day He Himself realizes His perfection. God alone exists, no one else.

Hazrat Inayat Khan says in the the book, "In An Eastern Rose Garden", the following: "The one whom I have called God, whose personality I have recognized, and whose pleasure or displeasure I have sought, has been seeing His life through my eyes. Has been hearing through my ears. It was His breath that came through my breathing. His impulse, which I felt, and therefore I know that this body, which I had thought to be my own, is really the true temple of God. I did not realize that this body was the shrine of God." Not knowing that God experiences this life through man, one is seeking for Him somewhere else, in some person aloof and apart from the world, whereas all the time He is in oneself.