In the Sufi path there is an individual practice and a community practice. The main motto of our way is: ” Our path is based on gathering and all the goodness comes by the congregation .”
You are meeting with a group not because you love to meet the people there, for the “horizontal” event, but because you know that these meetings could open a door to a higher level, to strengthen the energies pointing up, the verticality, the connection with God.
It is not just what you can get from a meeting, but also the contribution that you may give: in you there may be something valuable for others. We come together because we share the same intention. We are not necessarily friends or attracted to each other in a special way: the benefit is to be able to reflect oneself in the other.
To learn to accept all, has a very important effect on your daily life: each group represents the whole of humanity, in all its aspects. And if you can accept every single person in the group, then you’re ready to accept the whole of humanity. This is a spiritual step. So come to peace. This is your true experience in the Sufi path. Besides this, for the master it is easier to reach you, to keep an eye from a distance if you are part of a group, he always knows where to find you .
In a dervish brotherhood to make mistakes is a human right. And we have to accept it, otherwise it would not be a brotherhood. Everyone comes as is. We do not speak of the errors, do not criticize others as much as we can. We do not focus on the personality. What we try to do is to support each other in the path.
The friendship is fine, but to be brothers and sisters is deeper. Your friends is the group less valuable because you’ve chosen them, among you there is an agreement for complacency one another and confirm each other. But this does not help to advance in the way. To meet your friends simply means to confirm your personality. Rumi said, “Be careful with your friends, they never tell you the truth.”
