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that you come to realise life not as a dry awareness but as a celebration.
Sufism is great celebration. I invite you to celebrate it with me.
Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol 1
Chapter #2
Chapter title: In Hiding
12 August 1977 am in Buddha Hall
Archive code: 7708120
ShortTitle: SUFIS102
Audio: Yes
Video: No
Length: 92 mins
The first question:
Question 1
HAS SUFISM ARISEN AS A REBEL AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISLAM? OR IS IT PRE-ISLAM?
It is both. Anything that is alive is both. It is very ancient and it is very new -- together, simultaneously.
Sufism is pre-Islam and yet it is a unique new phenomenon too. It is the essential core of Islam and yet it is a rebellion against the establishment of Islam too. That's how it is always. Zen is also both -- it is the essential core of Buddhism and a rebellion against the establishment.
It has to be understood. Whenever a man like Buddha or Mohammed happens, the essential flowers. But sooner or later the human mind will make an establishment out of it. That too is natural because man needs something to cling to. And man needs something pseudo because the real transforms him. The real is dangerous. He needs something which only looks real but is not real. He needs a toy to play with. That's what the Church is, the establishment is; it gives the appearance of doing the real thing. So you can enjoy doing it and you can enjoy the ego trip and yet you remain the same. It does not penetrate you, transmute you, at all. Nothing is at stake.
If a man really goes into prayer he will die. He will never come back the same again. He will come back, but as a totally different person. The one who has gone into prayer will never come back. Something new, something that has never existed before, something that is discontinuous with the past, will arise. You will be lost and then only will you find the real you. Real prayer is dangerous; it is a death and a resurrection.
So man is very tricky -- he creates a false prayer. He makes a ritual out of prayer, he pretends to pray. He only goes through
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