Jami, the last great poet of the Persian tongue, gathered the wisdom of those who came before and distilled it:
"Being is one. There is no multiplicity except in appearance. The wave believes itself separate from the ocean, but this belief is illusion. The wave rises, crests, and falls back — and never for one moment was it other than ocean.
"So too with souls. We believe ourselves separate — separate from each other, separate from the Divine, separate from all that exists. But this separation is a dream from which we must awaken.
"How do we awaken? Not through thought, for thought is the dream's own language. Not through action, for action occurs within the dream. We awaken through fana — annihilation. The dream-self must dissolve.
"Some are annihilated by love. Some by grief. Some by the shock of sudden recognition. Some by the slow wearing away of all supports until nothing remains to stand upon. Some by the sword, the rope, the bullet.
"The method matters not. Only the destination: the death of the false self, the revelation of the Real."
And Jami wrote of the Beloved:
"I sought the Beloved in mosque and temple, in Mecca and Jerusalem. I did not find the Beloved there.
I sought the Beloved in books and arguments, in debates and dissertations. I did not find the Beloved there.
I sought the Beloved in caves and mountains, in fasting and vigil. I did not find the Beloved there.
At last I looked within my own heart.
And there — only there — the Beloved was waiting."
Teaching 4
The Divine is not found in any external form but only in the depths of the awakened heart.