Chapter 15 Art of Dying 

You can live in two ways. One way is to be a mind-oriented person, which will make you successful in the world, creating wealth, status, and power, achieving political success, and becoming a role model for the world. But internally, you may fail completely because the mind-oriented person cannot enter the inner self. You can also be a heart-oriented person, where when the energy of your life is concentrated in your heart, you become a Sufi.

Sophie means a person of the heart, a person full of love; not worrying about the future, not concerned with worldly power, not even asking any questions – he simply lives. Existence is just like that; only fools ask where it comes from, even if they know all the philosophical terms, they are still fools. Only those who live with existence are wise, right here, right now! Who cares where the world began? Whether someone created the world is not important. You live here, dance with existence! Live and exist! Let all the mysteries of existence happen within. When a person no longer worries about where he comes from, doesn't ask questions, but only receives answers, that is a miracle. Not being curious about things, but simply celebrating all that already exists, one will suddenly understand what the origin is, what the peak is; the beginning and the end meet in the mystery within each person. If you take this mystery as the object of observation, you will miss it and never understand it. If you want to understand it, you must go to its center and become it.

You can become it, because you are already a part of it. You can become it, because it is also a part of you. Suddenly, all the problems disappear, and the answer is there. It's not that you solved the problems—no, it's that there were no problems to begin with. When all the problems disappear, you will be able to live in the mystery of life, becoming a living god.

Now, without any effort, you can become a Sufi. If you stop thinking, seek nothing externally, and are simply content with your existence, suddenly you can become a Sufi. Sufis are more like a song than a sermon. They dance vividly, like birds singing in the trees, the wind blowing through the pines, the rushing water of a waterfall, clouds turning into rain, and vegetation growing. They do not preach dogma. Their whole life is a dance, pulsating with infinite life.

The mind is the most dangerous thing in the world. Every civilization has its so-called religion, which prevents people from accessing the mind from childhood. Because the mind is very dangerous. Reason is safer; with reason, you can be more certain of your own position, everything is calculated and measured. You feel like you are with most people, they support you, and you move with them. The mind, however, makes you feel lonely; no one is with you, and you are consumed by fear. You will not know where you are going, or where you are going, because you do not blindly follow the majority, and you do not move with the majority.

Everyone assumes that the majority is moving in the right direction. In reality, the majority doesn't really move; the group never achieves any goal; they simply move blindly. They were already moving blindly before you were born, and they will continue to do so after you die. You feel safe and comfortable moving with the majority of people who are smarter, older, and more experienced than you; you assume they know where they're going anyway.

But when you fall into your own heart, it's like falling into a bottomless pit. Like falling in love, your reason tells you it's a trap, a loss. You'll feel lonely, no one is with you, you'll be afraid, not knowing where to go, no one stands in front of you as a signpost, not even a smooth road! Everything is immeasurable, unpredictable. Only immense fear remains.

My entire effort is to free you from fear, because you can be reborn through the mind, but before you can be reborn, you must die. No one can be reborn before they die. All forms of Sufism—Zen, Sufism—are about how to die. Complete death is an art. You too must be taught how to die.

You can only be reborn if your current form dies. Your current form imprisons you, restricts you, and places boundaries everywhere. With every movement, a stone wall appears before you. My effort is to help you break down these walls! Your walls are not made of stone, but built from your thoughts. Dogmas and precepts surround you. You take them with you wherever you go, like shackles. How do you break them?

Break them, and you'll feel like you're dead. You'll no longer be the person you once were; you'll suddenly become someone else… someone you never knew before, someone hidden within you. Your life will become discontinuous. The old is gone, the new has come in, and this new life is not integrated with your past, so we call it death. There's a vast generation gap between the new and the old. Looking back, you no longer feel that everything in the past was real; it will seem like a dream; like a novel you've read, like someone else's story, so I call it death.

An absolutely new phenomenon enters existence; it is absolutely new, completely unrelated to the old. It is resurrection, but one must first die to be resurrected. Sufism is both death and resurrection. It is the true religion.

Let's delve into this beautiful story. "Wealth and generosity" is a peculiar combination. Usually, the poor are more generous, while the rich are not. That's why they become rich. A rich person becomes generous because he begins to deeply understand that wealth is useless. He realizes that taking is not better than giving, and he begins to share with others. Otherwise, he would only become more and more calculating.

Our reason always craves more, whether you're a beggar or a king. Reason never feels it has enough; that's its nature—insatiable greed. You'll rarely find a truly wealthy person. So far, I've only met one. He was rich because he understood the futility of money. When he first came to see me, he brought several thousand rupees and offered them to me. I said, "I don't need them. If I ever need money, I'll tell you." The old man laughed and said, "Don't say that. Because I'm poor, I can't give you anything except money. If you refuse my money, you're refusing me, because I have nothing but money." Only this man understood that the wealthy are poor, so I call him a truly wealthy person.

"Generosity" means that although he lives a life of luxury, he understands that this world is just a dream. He knows that wealth is merely an illusion and cannot truly make you rich. He is not confused, so he becomes generous and able to share; he no longer demands more wealth. Instead, he distributes and shares all that he has with others.