the intention to awaken happens on a metalevel, just as presence is a meta-awareness on a higher level than physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts.

The compulsive self is a Sufi term for that state of the self in which egoism rules, in which there is little or no separation between the impulses and compulsions of the ego and one’s everyday waking state. In other words, this is a state in which all of one’s self is absorbed into desires, needs, or impulses. In such a state, “I” am my hunger, my

Soul is what our inner being feels like when Spirit is the active force and the self is receptive to it. Then our attention is guided by Spirit rather than merely reacting to circumstance.

The seeker has come to see how much they have been perpetuating the state of sleep, and out of this realization comes a sincere wish to be more sensitive, more awake.

This work is not undertaken for the sake of “earning heaven” but for the sake of self-knowledge and discovering who we truly are. In time, we realize that what is most precious and real is invisible, that the true life is the life of the soul, and the true work is the work of the soul.

this desire to gain the approval of others leads us further and further away from our inner being, our essential self.

Having described the interrelationship of ego, soul, and Spirit,

To acquire this kind of being is to become illuminated, to be connected to a greater Intelligence that will guide us step by step on the way. The developed soul, instead of living in fear and uncertainty, becomes more and more able to trust the unfolding of life.

So many forces in today’s world routinely use emotional conditioning and social engineering for the purpose of control. Most people are very suggestible and are easily subjected to emotional and mental manipulation. It is only necessary to provide a powerful emotional experience in some form of mass suggestion to convince people that something is