Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol 1

CHAPTER 1

A Rare Kind of Magic
11 August 1977 am in Buddha Hall

UWAIS WAS ASKED, ’HOW DO YOU FEEL?’
HE SAID, ’LIKE ONE WHO HAS ARISEN IN THE MORNING AND DOES NOT KNOW WHETHER
HE WILL BE DEAD IN THE EVENING.’
THE OTHER MAN SAID, ’BUT THIS IS THE SITUATION OF ALL MEN.’
UWAIS SAID, ’YES, BUT HOW MANY OF THEM FEEL IT?’

ONCE a learned Mohammedan came to me and asked, ”You are not a Mohammedan, then why do
you speak on Sufism?’ I told him, ’I am not a Mohammedan, obviously, but I am a Sufi all the same.’
A Sufi need not be a Mohammedan. A Sufi can exist anywhere, in any form – because Sufism is the
essential core of all religions. It has nothing to do with Islam in particular. Sufism can exist without
Islam; Islam cannot exist without Sufism. Without Sufism, Islam is a corpse. Only with Sufism does
it become alive.

Whenever a religion is alive it is because of Sufism. Sufism simply means a love affair with Gd, with
the ultimate, a love affair with the whole. It means that one is ready to dissolve into the whole, that
one is ready to invite the whole to come into one’s heart. It knows no formality. It is not confined by
any dogma, doctrine, creed or church. Christ is a Sufi, so is Mohammed. Krishna is a Sufi, so is
Buddha. This is the first thing I would like you to remember: that Sufism is the innermost core – as
Zen is, as Hassidism is. These are only different names of the same ultimate relationship with God.

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