Make spirituality a centerpiece of your life

A man should be in the marketplace while still working with true reality. Sahl

The Sufis believe that spirituality should be in everything we do from dawn to dusk. We need to make spirituality the centerpiece around which everything in our life revolves.

Sufis consider the spirit and body to be one whole. They believe in integration, not dichotomies. What we do in our physical lives affects our spirituality, and vice versa. We cannot look at our lives in a vacuum. Our lives must be integrated with our environment, ethics, and family.

Religious formation should allow us to find meaning in life through illumination of both our material world and the spiritual world. We pray for what we want, but work for the things we need. Action is important. Without action, prayers are not of much use. The Sufi way is not to relinquish worldly responsibility, but rather to be spiritually entrenched in worldly responsibility. The Sufi does not establish himself upon a mountain with no work to do.

Rumi says, “God questions a soul at the gates of heaven: You are the same as when you left! You were blessed by a life full of opportunity, so where are the bruises and scars left by your journey?”

As the sun rises in the morning, a Sufi starts with a prayer and then works hard and ethically during the rest of the day. As the stars appear at the end of the day, he offers prayers of thankfulness and tends to his family and health needs.

A Sufi lives an “esoterically exoteric”* life, which means he lives his physical life grounded in spirituality.

 

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