Pathways to the Garden: Contemporary Insights on the Sufi Path

It is a natural human drive to discover and develop the perfect Garden. We long for a state where we have no concerns, anxieties or needs, just living in the Garden in the eternal drift of time. Only a few reach a point of bewilderment when they are not certain whether the Garden is in them or they are in the Garden. Truth is beyond space and time, therefore its apparent confusion is a big grace when the 'you' is lost and the cosmic Oneness illuminates all.

Cosmic Light is boundless and eternal. Throughout human history, irrespective of religious orientation or culture, people have reflected on the eternal truth of this reality. Some of these sages, like Shaykh Sa'd ud-Dīn Mahmūd Shabistārī, were able to convey this in a universal light. In my experience and understanding, the conditioned consciousness of human beings has within it a drive towards higher consciousness and intelligence. Throughout our history, this appears in diverse ways and forms, cloaked within the culture of the time. With the rise in intelligence and education, today's people can easily understand duality and the quest for unity without it being too esoteric. Young people today can also easily appreciate the truth that our existence has emerged from a mysterious unific source and will return to it after the end of time. Every one of us is challenged by the mystery of now, which is ever-changing and constant, and the unique gift of life.

All quests and teachings lead to the realisation that the soul, or essence of life, is eternal and that the moment radiates from timelessness. We are obsessed with that which is eternal and ever-present. In my lifelong search to uncover and share the dazzling lights of Truth, I have been propelled to make more accessible translations of specific seminal texts from the Sufi tradition available, as I have done with 'The Secret Garden'. This book, Pathways to the Garden is presented as an update to key questions for today's time.