Nature tells us everything. It is, in itself – metaphorically – a universe to educate us on the spiritual path.

Now, in the spring, we watch the beautiful emergence of green buds and flowers on virtually every living plant. What seemed dead a few short weeks ago is now, almost miraculously, vibrant with life and energy.

What does this tell us about ourselves and our own lives? What is it in ourselves that is our true state? Are we examples of life, death and rebirth? Is this our lot? Are we subject to this eternally? Or, is there another truth, one which goes beyond and above all this?

The sage tells us that there is but that to reach it, taste it and savor it we must first find wisdom and then with wisdom and God’s qualities we must die before we die.

If this is done, we will never die. We will cease this endless death and rebirth which we observe around us each year.

The wise one tells us “Do not wander about trying to make the world peaceful. If everyone would make his own mind peaceful, the whole world would have peace.

“The holy war within is the war between the qualities of God and the evil qualities – this is the true jihad.

“We must wage war against all the armies which attempt to cut off our connection to God and which attempt to disrupt the unity among people by dividing one man from another.”

Many of those who see themselves “on the path” seek to understand the esoterics of the discipline or school of thought they are following. 

To understand, intellectually, a passage in a spiritual book or to have an “aha” experience is a rewarding and useful thing. But, it is only the beginning and, in truth, it is the finger pointing to the moon, and not the moon. The real work and value on any path lies in putting into practice that which has been gained intellectually.

Without this hard work it is simply “talking the talk” not “walking the walk” and amounts to very little in the development of character on the path.

As a wise woman told me once,”Your character is your religion”.

One day a man was complaining to Bawa Muhaiyaddeen that a certain person was doing many harmful, cruel and insensitive things.

When he finished his long complaint, Bawa paused a few seconds and replied, “But, my child, that’s what he came to do.”

Another time, a woman was complaining about a person’s bad faults and how she was trying to correct them unsuccessfully.

Bawa answered, “If you try to wash a dog’s backside, it doesn’t like it and may bite you. That person must come to see his faults in his own time and correct them himself.”