Stolen from one of Border Zone author Arsen Darnay’s recent posts comparing the Tao with Sufism:
“The Sufi is an individual who believes that by practicing alternate detachment and identification with life, he becomes free. He is a mystic because he believes that he can become attuned to the purpose of all life. He is a practical man because he believes that this process must take place within normal society.” – The Sufis, by Idries Shah
I doubt I qualify as a practical man, but I will draw a comparison to my post on Karma:
“In other words, to manifest your karma so you can clear it, you have to engage in systems which, on at least some level, have the potential to generate more karma. Once manifest, the karma can be addressed. This tends to create cycles in which a person will increasingly become engrossed by one of these human journeys and their karma associated with it until a critical point is reached, conscious recognition of the karmic patterns occurs and the person begins the process of ending the karma. Sometime after the karma is ended, the person will begin another cycle, possibly even with the same aspect of the human journey, but with all new karma or a deeper layer of the same karma.”
In other, much more succinct and mellifluous words, “…by practicing alternate detachment and identification with life, we become free.”
