Many believe that a spiritual path should necessarily bring a change in the character, but it is not true. In the dervish path we do not work to transform the character. Rather we try to make it as transparent as glass, so people may have a clearer view, to receive and perceive the divine light without filters.
If you think how you were twenty years ago, you realize that at the end your character has changed very little. You can not change, and there is not even the need: rather, you should be able to transcend your personality.
In our way you are welcomed as you are. We try to practice respect which means to renounce to the will to change the other.
The master find a structure that suits you, a hut of your size and he offers it to you; you get inside, and you stay there. The Shaykh does not work on your character, it is you working from within till you become transparent, turning on a light inside of you.
This hut is called adab, good behavior. These are simple rules you adapt to: do not scream, do not attack, do not lie … They are like the Ten Commandments, but more precise and numerous. Buddhism has thirty-five rules to follow, we dervishes we have less. The number of precepts may vary, but the guiding principles are the same.
God created us in His image and likeness. However this does not mean that He has a body and looks like us. It means that we are the perfect cup where he can unfold Himself to the best.
God dwells in you: for this you can develop your own divinity, which though it has nothing to do with your private or your personality.
So far you have been trying to develop your personality, but in doing so you have created a lot of confusion. But now the time has come to give birth to the divinity within you. If you enter into the divine order and find your place, many others will make it: all those who are behind you and are waiting in the line. If you do not practice gratitude and praise serving the divine and the humanity, you block them too.
