The Struggle Between Imagination and Reality

In society if our behavior becomes inappropriate, things occur that put us outside of society. For instance, if you break the laws they put you in jail. You’re not allowed to be with the rest of society. On the spiritual path it’s also like this, only it’s not visible. And people don’t understand the separation. In the physical society if somebody gets put into jail, they are behind bars, they are in a different location, but the spiritual path is intermingled without physical being, and intermingled with our physical path. So others can’t see whether we’re allowed into the spiritual realms or not. And we ourselves aren’t so aware of whether we are allowed into the spiritual realms or not. But in the same way that there are laws which if they are broken you are put outside of society, in the same way there are laws on the spiritual path, which if you don’t follow them you can’t get it. You can’t be allowed, you are restricted.

These are things that we do ourselves that restrict ourselves from entry into what is known as haqīqat, reality. Some basic terminology: sharī‘at is the rule of law, tarīqat is the beginning of the path and haqīqat is where the path takes you, the entrance into reality. Now, a candle is like tarīqat and sharī‘at, it is involved with the two of them. You take a candle and light it. Now you can either keep it in front of you and look at it, change its wick, add wax and play with the candle or you can go outside in the night and it can take you somewhere in the darkness. It becomes a guide. So for a candle, a light to be used in the night appropriately you have to take it somewhere, it has to take you somewhere. The sharī‘at, the law, is this candle. The law puts you in an appropriate state and then you have to go on a path with the law, in other words you have to incorporate it into action. You have to put it into your life. You have to understand what it is, and you have to learn it, and then you have to adhere to it, and then you have to move with it. And then it will take you to the places that are available on the path.

Now, the interesting thing is that one of the things that holds us back is our own preconception of where we are going. We have this incredible imagination that goes wild and begins to tell us things. If we listen to our imagination then what happens is we limit our reality. The two words sort of indicate what’s going on, imagination and reality. If we are overwhelmed by imagination we are not going to be able to see reality when it’s shown to us, because we have imagined reality.

The Khidr Nabī, which is the Eternal Prophet, is supposed to wander the earth and assist people in certain situations. Well there was this man who wanted with the depths of his being to meet the Khidr Nabī, and he sat and he meditated day after day on him. And then after a couple of months of meditating, he took out a piece of paper and drew a picture of the man who he imagined was the Khidr Nabī, he folded the piece of paper and he put into his pocket. And then he made the intention to go on a search to find him. He walked for months, for years, he went from village to village, town to town, country to country looking for him.

Finally one day as he is asking if anybody had seen or known of the Khidr Nabī, somebody said, “He was just here, he is in the next village.” He immediately hurried over to the next village and asked, “Is he here?” And they said, “Yes, he’s over there.” And he went into the house and he said, “Is the Khidr Nabī here?” And a man stood up and said, “I am the Khidr Nabī.” And he took the piece of paper out of his pocket and looked at it and the face didn’t match the face he had drawn and he said, “No you’re not.” He put the piece of paper back in his pocket and went looking again!