It would be counterproductive to leave the world and seek our freedom. The challenge is to find freedom within these constraining circumstances. It's a question of how we feel. Do we feel absolutely dependent upon circumstances, or do we feel they are conveniences enabling us to fulfill our service in life? They are not the end we pursue in our motivation. That is what Christ means by being in the world but not of the world. When the sun is in the sky, we can't see the stars. In fact, there is a practice that is to keep on trying to see the stars as long as possible after the sun rises. We can increase our capacity for doing that. The stars are much brighter, but further away than the sun. If we are aware of the physical world, it is very difficult to be aware of that which is transpiring behind that which appears, a deeper reality.

For example, there is a countenance behind our face - the configuration of our subtle body or of the aura behind the physical body, because the aura and the electromagnetic field are the template in which our body is fashioned, configured. So it's a deeper reality. It's a subtle reality because it does not have contour. It doesn't have a profile.

As we turn within, we discover a very different world. It's not made of objects that are discrete entities, that have frontiers or boundaries. Everything is intermeshed. If we throw sand on the surface of a lake, we produce eddies. If there are a lot of eddies, we lose sight of the eddies, and all we see is what is called a wave interference pattern. The waves are still there. As we turn within, we might think we are being resorbed in the void, and have lost our sense of personal identity.

We have to be very wary of doing that. We have to adapt our thinking to outer experience - in our minds - so we'll be able to reconcile the fact that our identity is both personal and impersonal at the same time. It's difficult to reconcile the irreconcilables. The best example is the wave in the wave interference pattern. It's still there, but we can see it in its context.

Our being is part of the totality. It's not just a fraction of the totality because the totality is potentially within it. As we turn within we are plunging into the world of potentialities. Sufis call it imkan, potentialities, the potentialities of the Universe as us that are lying in wait and are really calling to be actuated in existence. We can get indigestion of course. We can't assimilate all those things; it's chal- lenging. In order to meet that challenge, we need to call upon our potentials.

We can really feel what the Sufis call Ishq Allah, the nostalgia of God, as a potentiality of our being.

God is a virtuality, at least that aspect of God which is a virtuality, that is a secret treasure, according to the Sufis, which is longing to be known.

To be known, it has to manifest as our being. We have to know it by manifesting it. We can't know it before we manifest it. It's like a sculptor who is able to manifest his/her statue by making it.

The same thing happens with our food. In order to digest our food, we produce enzymes. The enzymes are going to act on the food - proteins, and fats, and hydrocarbons - in order to transform them into amino acid chains that we can incorporate in ourselves.

There is an action of us upon the environment, or the way the environment has been ingested. This is the key to unfurling the potentialities of our being. Therefore, it is important in terms of our self-esteem.

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