Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a Sufi teacher, author of 19 books on Sufism and Western Psychology, and one of S&P’s Living Spiritual Teachers. He writes in the introduction to this book:
"The Mystic is one who is drawn to seek the Real — to uncover the Absolute within the play of manifestation, within the wonder and beauty of life, and also to make the return journey through the planes of manifestation, into primal emptiness and beyond, back to the source. As a lodestone draws iron, the heart of the mystic is drawn on this impossible quest, all for the sake of the Real. The Absolute draws us back to Itself. And it also opens our eyes to the Real within creation, allows us to see what is hidden within life – life's great secret."
Vaughan-Lee affirms the servanthood path of Sufism as an expression of our intimate relationship with the Divine. Or to put it another way: "I am not here for myself. I am not here to get anything. I am here to be in service."
Our relationship with God grows out of intention, which is an attitude of mind and an attitude of being. In the Sufi tradition, this leads to the practice of adab. It refers to "courtesy of behavior." Adab is based on the relationship between the soul and God. It includes humility, respect, devotion, and continual watchfulness. Thus those who are committed to the spiritual life are stabilized on the plane of oneness.
For the Sufi, love for the Creator and love for creation are the two poles of remembrance. The work of the mystic is to rejoice in the wonders of nature and to rejoice in the bounties we have received from God.
