Frequently, we speak about reflection – including
every New Years’ – a Sufi’s job is to continuously
reflect, to critically discriminate himself as best he can in a positive,
detached and non-judgemental way. Of course, that’s a bit confusing
because to discriminate you have to judge, but once you start and
begin recognising your faults you learn to be detached and not judge.
Know that nothing is perfect except Beloved; therefore, we all have
faults.
Working with your shadows and starting to discern your
faults is the start of repentance.
You need to develop consciousness so that you can find
your way; these faults really block your progress. But once you realise
your faults, you become more aware and detached, then you start noticing
your conscious developing. You will not be like ordinary people whose
unconscious rules them, repeating the same pattern throughout their
life. You will start making decisions – real choices. You might
say that you no longer wish to live as you have been, you no longer
want to listen to this program or read that magazine that you used
to, simply because those things are not enabling you to look into
your inner self – they are not helping you.
And once you become aware of those faults, the repentance
comes in. Becoming aware of a fault is, itself, repentance. Repentance
doesn’t mean you have to feel guilty – you don’t
need to feel guilty to repent. When that happens and you start developing
that consciousness, you reach a stage on the path where, from time-to-time,
you really start to feel the loving of the Beloved in your heart;
your meditation feels different, your prayer feels different. That’s
a stage when your heart is opening to experiences.
One thing you’ve got to remember – you
must not look at the fault as sin. Without fault, you cannot develop
consciousness.
As an example, when doing Sufi Reiki you experience
something wonderful and you remember it just for a second. If you
have a bad experience, it lasts you a lifetime. Nevertheless, the
positive point about faults is not to say, ‘I’ve got this
fault so I feel ashamed of it’, no, on the contrary, you say,
‘I’ve got this fault, I’m so glad Beloved that you
made me aware of this fault therefore I can understand myself and
develop my consciousness’.
That’s how you’ve got to look at
faults rather than saying, ‘Oh, I’ve got a fault, therefore
I’m terrible, I’ve got five faults, the other person probably
has three faults …’ – that’s not going to
get you anywhere. All the faults are attributes of the Beloved too;
the Beloved made you, you are part of Him, the fault you’ve
got is His too. But the fault is there for you to develop yourself
and your consciousness in this way.
