The power of acceptance.
Because we have this problem among different human beings from different cultures,
they will accept what comes from their religion, their society their culture,
but they will not accept what comes from other societies, from other cultures.
So you lack in the knowledge of acceptance.
So, you need to evaluate the power of acceptance.
I mean, how accepting are we? Did you ever ponder how accepting you are?
There is a problem, my friend.
If you only accept what come from your culture, your society your religion,
and when something, which obviously is the truth at the bottom,
is coming from a different society,
is coming from a different culture,
coming from a different religion,
you instantly denounce it, deny it, reject it, dismiss it as reality.
You don't accept it.
So, this is self-actualisation.
We need to know the power of acceptance in you.
A Sufi is universally accepting, as it is declared by my master, Gohar Shahi.
My master Gohar Shahi said,
"Those who want to truly love God,
they do not give any importance to cultural, societal, religious background of a person.
They only want to see if this person is capable of bridging him with God.
As long as he has the ability and capability of bridging a man with God, a Sufi must accept him".
This is what Gohar Shahi said.
So, as a disciple of His Holiness Gohar Shahi,
one has to be universally accepting.
You must accept the truth,
no matter from which society it comes from,
from what religion it comes from, you have to have this acceptance.
Now dig deep in your heart, and see how accepting you are.
That process will be known as self-actualisation.
Number two, which is very important,
[is] to be able to accept all sides of yourself.
It's a very small sentence, but it will rip your ego apart.
it's a very small sentence. What is it?
To accept all sides of yourself.
Are you able to do it?
Do you really understand what it means to accept all sides of yourself?
You know, in my language we say,
'meetha meetha hap hap, karwa karwa thu thu'
When something is sweet we don't even make any sound, we just swallow it.
But we cannot swallow our pride because it's bitter.
In the process of self actualisation, one must be able to accept all sides of himself/herself.
What does it mean?
A normal person - which is not normal -
a normal person today in our societies,
they only accept good sides of themselves.
And they do not recognise any negative sides in them.
So the first step towards the spirituality, is to own yourself.
Whether it's good or bad, accept it.
If you do not accept your clothes are dirty, how will you clean them?
To be able to accept what?
What comes from people? No, no, no, no.
That's another thing. You must accept it, but before we get on to that stage in spirituality,
let's talk about our own selves.
Am I able to accept all sides of myself?
Or I just want to hear good side of myself?
And when a negative side of myself reflects in my character,
I straightforwardly go into the state of denial and I say, 'No, no, no. This is not me.'
'No, no, no, this is not me. I did it because i was sitting with him!'
'I developed this bad thing because I kept company of Hafiz Fareed.'
- Just an example.
If I said something wrong, I find people to put the blame on.
So you have a problem my friend. You do not have the ability to accept your own bad side.
How can you become a spiritual man?
According to one traditions of the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him,
God said to him, 'Tell your servants, your disciples,
when I want to elevate some somebody's spiritual welfare,
I manifest his flaws upon him.'
Accept yourself.
Why are you running away from yourself?
Are you running away from yourself?
How will you accept anybody else, when you have this inability to accept your own side.
Good or bad, accept yourself - 'Yes, this is me. I know I am bad. I need help to become good'.
Before your badness converts into goodness, you must know the bad side of your character.
If you are unable to accept your own bad side, how will you accept God?
Who, for the moment, is alien to your soul.
Alien to your physical and spiritual system.
People don't like when the bad side is talked about of them.
How can you become a spiritual then?
So, accept.
It's easy to accept your good side, you love to do that don't you?
It's easy. 'Oh yes you look beautiful', 'oh yeah, yeah, that's true'.
'You look ugly', 'Huh? What? Are you jealous of me?
'No, no, no, you look bad'.
Find out if that is true. And if it is, accept your side.
You do not embrace your own self. How will you embrace love?
How will you embrace God when you are unable to embrace your own self?
Self actualisation.
What is number one?
To develop acceptability.
Charity begins at home, doesn't it?
So first, you need to accept yourself.
I'm really sorry, but I have put my heart into this Sufi Course.
And these things were very impatient in my heart. I wanted to talk about it.
And I just found a pretext of this Western Sufi Course.
I wanted to share this knowledge with you for a long time.
These are the principles of Goharian philosophy.
This will carve your character. This will make you a sublime character.
Right?
Acceptability.
Acceptability starts with your own self.
Say after me, 'I accept, all sides of myself,
including my shortcomings.
I accept all my cures and desires without shame or apology.
I accept all.
I have unconditional acceptance for people and they're unique wrongdoings and desires.
Because I accepted my bedside I know there are some bad dirty corners in me.
I accept that.
Therefore, my fellow human beings, when they do something wrong I am not going to be agitated.
I will accept him. I will not say he is a disbeliever.
I will not say he is bad.
Because I have accepted my bad side.
As a result of accepting my own bad side, I will give him a margin, I will accept his bad side too,
and I will make sure that his shortcoming will not affect on our relationship.
and we will continue to love each other, and we will continue to embrace each other,
and our relationship will not be broken.
Do you want to pursue in this type of spirituality?
I accept my shortcoming.
I accept my shortcoming, my desires,
and at the same time, I accept your shortcomings.
And I understand this is a bad side of you, which is also a bad side of me.
So let's work on it, and do not taunt each other.
Right?
Do not socially persecute each other.
Do not pick on each other on the shortcomings of each other.
No matter how people behave, no matter how disrespectful they are to you,
you must continue to exhibit divinity. You must continue to manifest divinity.
Now you will understand what Jesus said;
'when somebody smack you on your right cheek, turn your left cheek also'.
Right?
Meaning, when somebody lets you see your bad side, accept it.
So, this art of acceptability is the first step towards self-realisation, towards self-exploration,
towards self-actualization.
We need to work on this. And in order to further enhance the spiritual senses in our own being,
let's start by turning on the first spiritual sense.
And the requirement is, that we accept all sides of ourselves.
Are you going to accept all sides of yourself?
What does it mean?
It means, know yourself
and then know the fact that you have this bad side in you, and then work on it.
Why is it important to accept all sides of you?
Why? Because God wants to sort virtues and ugliness out, so that you know the flaws.
When you know the flaws, only then you will work on the flaws.
Spirituality is to work on the flaws and turn the tables.
And make all sides of you good sides.
And that will only happen, when you recognise bad sides of you.
So the first step is acceptability.
Accept yourself.
When you have successfully done that, honestly, half of the spirituality is covered.
This is exactly what the Prophet said;
Cleanliness is half faith.
Cleanliness of the body - your own self.
We don't want to recognise the bad side of ourselves.
But before becoming a Sufi, you must recognise your bad side.
One of the saints of Chistiya Sufi Order, Baba Fareed,
Baba Fareed said in his poetry,
he said, people call me Dervish, they call me a saint of God, but when I look into my heart
it's all dark.
When I look into myself
I do not see anything but evil.
Sant Kabir said, 'I used to
find false with others, but when I looked into my own heart
then I could not find a flaw with anybody'.
Once I found the flaw with my own self,
then I could not find any flaw within anybody in the world.
This is very, very important.
We find faults with others, we recognise their faults
and then use it in order to character assassinate them.
Is this a character of a Sufi?
No.
Is this a character of a good human being?
No.
What is the use of that religion that you practice every day?
In your mosques, temples, and churches and synagogues,
if your religions are not able to let you accept your bad sides,
come to this this type of spirituality.
In which, the spiritual armory is ready to pierce through your bad characters.
To pierce through your bad sides, and bring them up to the surface,
and put them on display.
Display to you and display to the world.
So you may know who you are and they may know who you are.
When everybody knows who you are you will then reprimand.
You will then repair yourself.
You will then mend your ways.
You will then characterise your own being through the process of actualisation.
This is very, very important.
Do you think this is good start for spirituality?