A Mentor Who Knows the Path

And then he says: he accompanies a mentor who knows intimately the courses of action. So part of becoming purified is being in the company of people who have already done this. And this is the big problem, because most of the books say that they do not exist any more; so we are all in trouble. But there is the idea of being with somebody who has worked on themselves, and of keeping good company — protecting that person from the destructive places on the path. That is the person who reminds one of God whenever he is seen, and who takes the servant to his Master.

He takes himself to account for each breath. In the Islamic tradition there is a tradition that Mūsā asked God: what is the most hidden of all Your blessings? And He said: the breath. Breath — human breath. And this is why in traditional Buddhism the first practice that one learns is to become aware of one's breath: just the fact that one is actually breathing in and out.

And then he said: he weighs his suggestive thoughts in the scale of the sacred law. This is the idea of learning to control thoughts, which is a very high position in Islam: the idea that we can have pure thoughts, and that our impure thoughts can be mastered, and that we can get beyond this thrust of negativity — that we can actually change the way we think, and that we can become positive. There is a beautiful tradition in which the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that God says: I am in the good opinion of My servant. If he thinks good of Me, he finds good; and if he thinks bad of Me, he finds bad. Which means literally that we are creating our realities: that the paradigms that reside in our understanding are confirmed by our experience, and as we change those paradigms, the experience of the world changes qualitatively.

And then he says: he preserves well the obligatory, which is his capital, and extra acts are his profit, and it is through them that he enters into divine protection. This is the idea of doing extra acts: one does what is obligatory, but then one does extra acts. So one pays one's zakāt, but one gives charity also; one gives above and beyond. And constantly remembering God with an unperturbed heart, a pure heart. And in all of this there is assistance from your Lord. In other words, if one sets out on this path, there will be assistance for it.