Category: Discourses

Divine Love

by Alireza Nurbakhsh

The first time I read Rumi’s story of Moses and the Shepherd, I was struck by the fact that the shepherd was much closer to God than Moses even though the shepherd’s conception of God was not even remotely plausible. Years later, when I revised this story, it appeared to me that Rumi had unravelled a deep mystery of divine love; in order to love God, one does not need to have a correct conception or description of God; what is required is a burning heart.

 

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The Experience of Nothingness

by Alireza Nurbakhsh

“In one of his last interviews, my father said that the goal of Sufism is nothingness, and then added, “because it is only when one is zero that one experiences the infinite.”  To paraphrase what he meant in this context: it is only when we do not experience our own individuality that we experience the divine in ourselves and in others.”

(Original Enso by Kazuaki Tanahashi)

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