Nevit O. Ergin is the English translator of the complete Divan-I Kebir--all 44,829 verses of Rumi's opus. He is with Will Johnson author of the Rubais of Rumi. A Turkish-born surgeon, Ergin has been an initiate in the Itlak path of Sufism under the tutelage of Sufi master Hasan Lutfi Shushud since 1955. In this community the three main practices are zikr or breathing exercises, fasting, and mental suffering. Since not much is known in the West about Itlak Yolu, the Sufi path of annihilation, Ergin devotes many pages to its basic tenets and practices. In addition, there are plenty of Rumi poems.

The author describes his first meeting with Hasan Lutfi Shushud. This Sufi impressed him as a very patient, extremely modest man who "went out of his way to make everyone feel most important and welcome." Scattered throughout this paperback are quotations from Hasan Lutfi Shushud, such as:

• "The self is the source of all kinds of troubles, individual, national, international. This is common knowledge of saints and prophets. How to annihilate the self? It is technical matter, and it is a long journey."

• "The Itlak path is not for readers and talkers. It is for doers."

• "The Itlak path is not connected to any religious tradition, including ordinary Sufism."

• "Traversing this path is ascending in perception."

• "Humanity's greatest skill is blending the opposites."

• "You will never know the human until you go beyond the humanity."

• "God has nothing to do with us. In other words, if we believe in God or not, God doesn't care. If we take our journey on a speedy horse or a lame donkey, for God it's the same. This will hurt a lot of people's dreams, but this is it."

• "If you know the world, you don't try to improve it."

• "Itlak is not about learning, but about unlearning.