In the new wave of medicines they are producing methodologies wherein your own systems are induced to heal you. Instead of giving you things that do the work, they give you things that make your body do the work itself.
In the same way, a sheikh, a teacher, is there to induce you to become your higher self; he’s there as a catalyst to help you, within yourself, become your better self. Your better self is already inside of you. Your higher self is already inside of you. The various levels of wisdom are already inside of you but they’re dormant; they haven’t been brought out into actuality, they need a little push, they need a little cajoling, they need a little love to bring them out. And this is the work of the teacher.
He explains to you what it is that needs to be done in order to allow the higher parts of yourself to come out. He explains to you that this world is illusory, that all of the things that you think are real are not necessarily real and have a way of disappearing, and if you hold onto things that disappear, very quickly you find out that you’re holding onto nothing.
It’s like walking through the desert and seeing a mirage, and thinking the mirage is water, and when you go to drink all you get is sand. Well, this world is a mirage and all of the things that you think have meaning, and permanence, and will give you things, you find out very quickly don’t really have that quality.
There was a sheikh who had a disciple who was very wealthy, and the disciple used to come to him every day and ask for a blessing. He gave him blessings, and then one day he took out a needle and he handed it to this wealthy disciple and said, “Take this needle, hold onto it, and when we get to the other side give it to me.”
And the disciple took the needle home and he said to the wife, “The sheikh gave me this needle and asked me to give it to him when we reached the other side after we pass.”
And his wife said, “That’s silliness, you can’t take anything with you.”
So he took the needle the next day and he brought it back to the sheikh and said, “My wife explained to me very clearly we can’t take anything with us when we go to the other side so I brought you the needle back.”
And he said, “Oh, you realize now, so all of these things that you’re hoarding, you can’t take them with you. All of this money that you’ve accumulated, you can’t take that with you. All of these things that you think are going to help you, they’re not!”
He said, “Then what should I do?”
And he said, “Use your wealth to help others. Use all that you’ve accumulated to give away so that you can become a force of good in this world.”
And that’s what the sheikh does; he stimulates, he acts as a stimulant to bring out your better half. And he does it through examples, through speech, and through experiences that he gives you…
