Irina Tweedie

Irene Tweedie speaks:

Effort.

"Most people who come to me are only spiritual tourists - not wanting or willing to make the tremendous effort it takes to know your true self."

Teacher.

It is important to have a teacher. You see (for example), there comes a time when you are conscious on the different planes of consciousness, say somewhere which is not a physical plane. There you can encounter beings -- they could be angels, or they can be dead people, or they can be evil spirits -- and they perhaps will tell you that they are the guru, the teacher, or something.

Now, how will you know, if there is not somebody who takes you by the hand and explains it to you? So at the beginning one does need somebody. You see, if you go to unknown country, the forest or desert, you always need a guide.

The Sufi teachers are called guides. They guide the soul. They are not gurus, and not even teachers -- just guides. That is really their function.

Inner Contact.

I can always contact my master. At the beginning he would come through my dreams. Later I could contact him in meditation. Now I can contact him at any time. It's just an impression into the heart, and one knows.

But I never can contact him for me, only for others, when somebody needs help. For myself I can never contact him.

Intuition.

You see, you have to confuse the (superficial) mind in order that the mind should give up and the intuition (deep mind) should come through. It is as simple as that. It is all done on the entirely psychological level.

And if you really have the time and the will to read the book, you will see that the whole ancient training of Sufis, devised thousands of years ago, is really modern psychology. Then where the psychology ends, the Sufi spirituality begins.

Meditation.

Our meditation is not meditation. It's a state of being. We try to leave the mind behind completely. There is a method which is given to everybody: The body is completely relaxed, any position is allowed. Completely relaxed, so you can forget the physical body. As we are made in the image of God there is a place in our hearts where only God resides.

Now we relax and we try to enter this place which belongs only to him. We have to do three imaginings. We must imagine that we go deep within ourselves. Deeper and deeper. There we must find this place, where there is stillness, peace and above all love. When we find this place we must do a second imagining. We sit in this still chamber in our heart, physical body and all, we are there surrounded by the love of God. We are loved, we are secure, and nothing remains outside, not even one hair, everything is there. That is the second imagining.

But if when we are sitting still thoughts will come into your mind. Then just do the third imagining. Imagine you get hold of this thought and you drown it with love. And if it is done well the thought must go and there is nothing there. And it will really go because the feeling of love which you generate by being in the place of love is much more dynamic than the thinking -- that thought will really dissolve. So that is the practice. Later, I am 25 years at that "job", I'll just say to my mind, "Stop" and it stops (then the third step is not necessary).

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