Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is the founder of the Golden Sufi Center and the author of many books including Spiritual Power: How It Works and Working With Oneness. In this paperback, he challenges us to take up the mystical calling to participate in the transformation of the world. Sitting on a cushion or just thinking spiritual thoughts are not enough:
"Life is an interdependent living organism that reflects the collective consciousness of humanity. As humanity has become obsessed with materialism and forgotten the sacred nature of life, so has life forgotten its own sacred nature, its primal purpose of divine revelation. We need to redeem this desecration, give back to the world an awareness of its divine nature. This is the work of the mystic. The mystic, the spiritual seeker, belongs to the core of life, to the mystery of life's revelation."
We are called to honor the sacred nature of creation and that means a new respect for the natural world and daily efforts to do what we can to halt the polluting of the good Earth. Vaughan-Lee sees the pattern of oneness everywhere, yet led by our ego, we insist on erecting walls that divide matter from spirit and one individual from another:
"The particulars of the path are the particulars of our life. But we must also see that each particular is universal, an expression of oneness. It is all one breath, breathed in many different ways in each moment. We are the breath of the One. We are the multiplicity and also the oneness. The wonder is the many ways in which the oneness manifests, each unique, each a different expression of the one, all connected together, all interrelated. And we are a part of this divine consciousness, awakening to its wonder."
Vaughan-Lee makes a convincing case that the Sufi practice of love is the way to usher in a new world. The heart is "a multidimensional organ of spiritual awareness and light." During this transitional time when everything around us seems to be dying as a result of selfishness and greed, we must attune our hearts to the "axis of love" which runs through creation and manifests itself in our acts of kindness, compassion, and generosity.
