Sufism is a path of dissolving the ego, which is about becoming nobody. It’s not about becoming some big important thing.
This is important to understand because it’s the number one way that Sufi practices can go wrong. We go wrong when we start thinking that our spiritual practices are about creating positive emotions and looking good. This quickly builds our ego, and we get sucked into the vortex of trying to be something.
The trap is to ‘become’ a person who has positive emotions. How we look becomes more important than how we are. And we also set ourselves up for constant failure… anytime we feel bad we fail!
The path of healing is tricky too. We try to become a person who is healing or a person who is being healed. Both are projections.
To truly be a Healer, you have to be nothing and nobody. The ego dissolves under the idea of being nothing and nobody because that’s the only idea the ego can’t hold. The ego needs a ‘thing’ to project onto.
So here’s a great story.
So… Mulla Nasrudine comes into the temple, and he’s praying to God. He prays loudly, “Oh great beloved master, I am nothing and nobody before you. Please hear my prayer.”
Suddenly he hears a rustling back in the back. So he jumps up, and goes and hides behind the curtain. In comes this powerful Sheik with his beautiful hat and his robes. The Sheil kneels down and starts to pray, “Oh Allah, I am nothing before you. I am nobody. Please hear my prayer.”
He hears a rustling in the back, so he jumps up and hides behind the curtain.
In comes the most despicable beggar possible: skinny, dirty, smelly, ugly. He stumbles in, kneels down, and prays, “Oh God, beloved God, I am nothing and nobody before you. Please hear my prayer.”
Over behind the curtain, Mulla looks at the Sheik and declares in disgust, “Hah! Look who thinks he’s nobody!”
The lesson is that we can take anything and turn it into ego, right? So, keep yourself clear. The whole idea is to dissolve ourselves down until we’re nothing but a natural, relaxed human being. Then, as the relaxed human being, we can live life to our fullest potential.