Shun all support and then you will receive his.

He is the only help for the helpless.

There is no other guide but him –

all other guides are obstacles on the path.

If you want to reach the master avoid all teachers.

Don’t be afraid to make yourself empty

for that alone is the door,

that alone is the path –

and that alone is the destination.

The courage to be empty

is all that is needed to become one with the all.

Those who are full stay empty,

and those who are empty become filled –

such are his mathematics.

Do not consider doing anything –

through doing you can never reach him,

nor through chanting,

nor through austerity,

for he is already here!

Stop and see!

To do is to run,

not to do is to halt.

Yes! If he were far away we could run to meet him,

but he is the nearest of the near!

If we had lost him we could search for and find him,

but to us he has never been lost!

85. Love.

I am glad to have received your letter.

The I is not to be given up because how can you drop that which is not?

The I has to be looked into, understood.

It is like taking a lamp to search for darkness –

the darkness vanishes!

Darkness cannot be stamped out because it doesn’t exist.

You just have to bring a light and darkness is unmasked.

It is the same with your thoughts – do not fight with them.

The effort to be free of thought

comes itself from a thought.

Know your thoughts, watch them, be aware of them,

then they quieten down without difficulty.

Witnessing finally leads to emptiness, and where there is emptiness –

there is the all.

86. Love.

Why does man suffer so much?

Because in his life there is pandemonium

but no soundless music.

Because in his life there is a babble of thoughts

but no emptiness.

Because in his life there is a turmoil of feeling

but no equanimity.

Because in his life there is a mad rushing around

but no stillness which knows no directions.

And finally, because in his life there is much of himself

but of God, nothing at all.

87. Love.

The time is ripe.

The hour draws nearer every day.

Innumerable souls are restless.

A path has to be created for them.

So hurry!

Work hard!

Surrender totally!

Forget yourself!

Plunge into God’s work like a madman.

Here, only madness will do –

and there is no greater wisdom

than such madness for God.

88. Love.

Non-attachment is not concerned with things

but with thoughts.

Non-attachment is not related to the outside

but to the within.

Non-attachment is not to do with the world

but with oneself.

One day a beggar went to see a Sufi fakir

and found him seated on a velvet cushion inside a beautiful tent

with its ropes tied to golden pegs.

Seeing all this the beggar cried: What is this!

Honorable Fakir, I have heard much about your

spirituality and non-attachment,

but I am completely disillusioned by all this ostentation around you.

The fakir laughed, replying:

I am ready to leave all this behind and come with you.

So saying, he immediately got up and walked off with the beggar

not even waiting to put his sandals on!

After a short while the beggar became distressed.

I left my begging bowl in your tent, he said.

What shall I do without it?

Please wait here while I go and fetch it.

The Sufi laughed. My friend, he said,

the gold pegs of my tent were stuck in the earth

not in my heart,

but your begging bowl is still chasing after you!

To be in the world is not attachment.

The presence of the world in the mind is the attachment,