When the right answer comes we will recognize that it is the truth because it will vibrate irresistibly with the truth we already have within ourself, even though it might be buried beneath all the veils and illusions of the world, even though it runs against everything we have learned to accept as true in the past. The truth of God sounds a specific note which always rings in tune with itself, always knows itself and responds readily, like the sympathetic strings on a viola d'amore which lie directly beneath the bowed strings. This instrument makes a nice analogy for some understanding of our relations to the Sufi master, to the perfected human being already merged with God. If we want the explanations of the wisdom he has already acquired, if we want access to his love, his mercy, grace and compassion, we must merge with him as he has merged with God, and this means we must learn to vibrate sympathetically with him while he is played by Allah. Then we must go beyond that and become the string beneath the bow.

It is essential to find a truly wise being, a perfected being who can open the book of our life for us and show us how to read it. This is not something we take from a printed book, it comes from a living connection, and living might not always imply a physical, outer, visible being, it could be a presence

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