I went to pick up my mail a month ago and found Amazon had sent me a book that I hadn't ordered. It was called "The Heart Of Sufism". I checked to see if I had opened up someone else's mail --- nope, there was my name! So I looked through the enclosed air bill and saw that it was gift from one of my retreat clients! How wonderful! I remember her saying that my teaching reminded her of Sufism! I know nothing about that philosophy so I was curious. I opened to the page below and right away I thought -- "Wow, someone else is talking about this idea of learning how to learn --- or as I call it -- deep-listening on retreat! Cool! Here you go:

"The difficulty in the spiritual path is always what comes from ourselves. Man does not like to be a pupil; he likes to be a teacher. If man only knew that the greatness and perfection of the great ones, who have come from time to time to this world, was in their pupil-ship, and not in teaching! The greater the teacher, the better the pupil he was. He learned from everyone, the great and the lowly, the wise and the foolish, the old and the young. He learned from their lives and studied human nature in all its aspects."

The one who learns to tread the spiritual path must become as an empty cup in order that the wine of music and harmony may be poured down into his heart. You may ask: "How can one become an empty cup?" I shall tell you how cups show themselves filled, instead of being empty. Often a person comes to me and says: "Here I am. Can you help me spiritually?" And I answer: "Yes." 

Mystics therefore have adopted a different way. They have learned a different course, and that course is self-effacement, or, in other words, unlearning what one has learned. They say in the East that the first thing that is learned is to understand how to become a pupil." - The Heart of Sufism by Hazrat Inayat Khan

A Ho,