[We are longing for] awakening. And if it is just a personal desire then our ego stands in the way. And, therefore, it has to be the way that the universe awakens as you rather than the way that you want to awaken to the universe. And that’s the reason for switching your consciousness in the antipodal point-of-view to the usual one. And the access to that is sacredness.

That’s the reason why people go to church. That’s the reason why people go to the mosque. Everybody in Ramadan, during, in Cairo, everything stops. Carpets down and everyone is looking for the sacred. People are transfigured by the sacred. We are looking for circumstances that are favorable to experiencing the sacred. The music, the beauty of a cathedral or a mosque or the temple, temple bells, chants, costumes, pagentry—looking for circumstances that are favorable to getting into an attunement of sacredness.

But, as I said, the Sufis and the early Iranians and the Jews they had to find that sacredness in themselves without counting upon favorable circumstances. So of course it’s wonderful to see—I don’t know whether you, it means what it means to me, but—it’s wonderful to be able to really participate in the cosmic celebration of the heavens right on Earth. Thanks to modern technology. It’s quite amazing.

But having done so then we need to find that sacredness in ourselves. And that is again the child within that is pure and cannot be defiled even though it seems to be distorted as it grows older, but the child is still there.

That is what is called finding the God within. Pir-o-Murshid says, “God is hidden in His creation.” I would say, “Embedded.” So then think of yourself as a condition of God. That’s again a word of Pir-o-Murshid. As a condition of God. Like the waves are a condition of the sea.