A Concise Teaching
Q: Could you resume all your teachings in one single statement?
A: “He is One and there is no deity but Him.”
Q: Do your teachings refer to “The Art of Transcendental Life”?
A: This is also another name which has been given to them. But these are not my teachings; they belong to the Flow of Truth. I have nothing of my own and I am nothing and no one.
Q: What is the guideline of the Art of Transcendental Life?
A: It has basically a truth oriented tendency.
Q: Which truth do you mean?
A: There is only but one truth even though it may appear [to be] “many.” “He” is the only truth. The truth is “presence” and existence.
Q: What is the difference between the truth you are speaking of and reality?
A: The truth exists and will always exist; it has always existed and is eternal. However, reality has once existed yet it may no longer exist. Or, it now exists but may not exist later. It may neither have existed in the past nor exists right now but it may “be realized” some time in the future. Reality is whatever “exists” yet truth is the existence of that which “exists.” Whatever exists is a part of existence; but the existence itself is not a sub-constituent of whatever exists. Not only is the truth living and present but it is unbounded and limitless as well. Reality may not be so. However, if it comes to have identical qualities as the truth, it is then a part of the flow of truth…
Q: Can we therefore assume that the statement “He is One and there is no deity but He,” or the more familiar one “There is no god but Allah,” refers to truth-orientation or the very fundamental principle of transcendental life?
A: Yes, indeed.
Q: What about principles of transcendental life?
A: Principles of transcendental life are general dimensions and main axis of truth-orientation.
Q: Does this mean if we are truth-oriented in our lives we are also on the way to a transcendental life?
A: Yes, indeed; and [you are also following] the way of divine guidance.
Q: Is truth-orientation the same as God-orientation that you use to mention it so often?
A: [God-orientation] is a more concrete and comprehensible term for people who have a close relation with God and are familiar with religion; otherwise both terms have an identical meaning.
Q: Why don’t you use only the term God-orientation just to prevent your audience to get confused?
A: The unique truth is the one and only Lord. However, god has been so much misinterpreted, limited, inadequately explained and unjustly understood by people that he has even become a creation of their mind. Such god is a delusive and a dead one. But the Lord I am speaking of is a living and unbounded God. He is Omni-present and All-Seer. He is the existence and exists… We, therefore, speak of “the truth.”
Q: What should one do to become truth-oriented?
A: We should live on the basis of the truth in every dimension of our lives; we should get consolidated in it. [We should] see, hear, think, act and behave according to it. [We should] keep in touch with it and be always ready to perceive it. We should always be submitted to and receptive of the truth; to reveal it and be its personification.
Q: To seek the truth is an inherent characteristic of human nature; why do you then bring about the subject of truth-orientation?
A: God’s religion is also inherent in human nature. Man has an inherent tendency toward unbounded power and intelligence and toward an unlimited presence. Man has so many inherent potencies within himself yet he does not follow them in his life and get involved with mundane nature and become negligent of his own. Although man has an inner potentiality of knowing [the truth], yet many messengers and teachers have come to teach him this very inherent human nature.
Man has become captive and worshipper of delusion. He continually follows his own phantasms, worships his own delusive god and seeks for the truth in his own illusions. To eliminate this delusory approach and worship, it is necessary to teach him “truth-orientation.”
Q: In what fields should we be truth-oriented?
A: In every dimension of life and in all levels. [You should be truth-oriented] in your outside and inner life, in your individual and social existence, in political, economical, scientific, cultural, ecological, relational and religious fields as well as in all other grounds.
An Exalting Formula
Q: Is it possible to resume the principle of truth-orientation in a single formula?
A: Yes. Truth can be infinitely small and infinitely big. “The process of who am I?” consists of a practical exercise to achieve truth-orientation. Every dimension of this principle is included and resumed in [this process.] One could follow the course of a transcendental life through the question of “who am I?” The more we progress in finding its answer, the further we move in the course of perceiving and revealing the truth. “Who am I?” is a formula for sublimation and salvation.
Q: Could we assume that, from this angle, “the process of who am I?” resumes your teachings?
A: If we consider this process in its totality and from its every angle, [the answer would be] yes.
Q: It seems quite simple indeed!
A: An atom is also very simple yet it holds many worlds inside itself.
Q: Are you suggesting that “the process of who am I?” is comparable with an atom?
A: Yes.
Q: Why do you consider “the process of who am I?” as being so important and essential?
A: “Who am I?” leads to self-awareness; and man’s life is a reflection of his self-awareness. Destiny is transformation of self-awareness. Whatever you lose and gain is the result of self-awareness. Good health and illness, greatness and baseness, poverty and wealth, failure and success, comfort and trouble and everything arise from self-awareness. Self-awareness determines your place in the existence. People’s self-awareness has an impact on the society you live in; and, even, national self-awareness determines their governmental system. Your strength and weakness depends on your self-awareness…
To reach the truth and to know God lies also in self-awareness; for one’s self-awareness will evolve into God-awareness. [In fact] self-awareness is the result of “the process of who am I?” Along the growth of one’s self-awareness goodness grows in one’s life – and this means one’s integral growth. “The process of who am I?” is another interpretation of the growth of self-awareness. Human pain and deviation are rooted in ignorance; self-awareness brings an end to evil and wickedness and eliminates [human] suffering and bondage. The answer to “who am I?” is the answer to all questions of man. [This answer] leads to love, to God and to the truth.
Q: What will one ultimately achieve through “the process of who am I?”
A: To be a man. You will become what you are; [you will achieve] your true human identity.
Q: Do you think there is sufficient ground in our times to accept this teaching?
A: Yes; for man is facing an “identity” crisis or rather a life crisis. “Who am I?” has belonged and belongs to all times, indeed.
Q: Is there any special procedure to follow “the process of who am I?”
A: This is a [general] course one has to follow during all one’s lifetime – of course, it cannot be applied to a particular life’s span. ”Who am I?” is the systematic meditation of the art of transcendental life. To achieve a transcendental move one has to practice this meditation along one’s existence in general and across one’s life in particular.
[This meditation can be practiced] along one’s life through observation and awareness. [We have] to be constantly aware of “who am I?” To find out “who this “I” is” we have to constantly watch and listen to this “I”; to observe the “I” who is in action, communicates with others and reacts…
That is how we are going to keep ourselves in an ever-growing course towards harmony and concurrency and everything is going to become slowly polarized towards the truth. That is how contradictions and inconsistencies appear and, thanks to one’s continuous awareness and observation, they will be eliminated and be gradually replaced by union and integrity. “The process of who am I?” results in “a increasing [self-] control.”
Q: Could you give and example of how “the process of who am I?” eliminates contradictions and brings about harmony?
A: Let’s suppose that a person believes he is a servant of the Lord. The question “who am I?” triggers an observation which, [in its turn], makes that person realize his belief has no practical outcome; for he lacks signs a servant has. He is not at the service of his “lord;” he does not obey His orders. According to indications, he realizes he is “someone else’s servant.” He consequently faces a bitter and painful reality – a reality we plainly deny in ordinary situations. Now he has two options; either to continue to serve that other person or to return to the service of his creator. He has become aware of huge gap – a gap between his words and acts, between his beliefs and behaviors. He realizes falsehood and delusion have taken over him. As this observation goes on, he tries more and more to get closer to the real fact – to be the servant of the Unique Creator. He slowly or suddenly renounces to be someone else’s servant. Slowness or suddenness [of one’s reaction] depends on the intensity and completeness of one’s observation. This is how a person gradually harmonizes himself with his inherent reality and takes a direction towards the flow of guidance. This is how contradictions and inconsistencies decrease in his existence and vanish away.