Pull Up the Ship’s Anchor
In the name of God,
As the session report was being read, a number of thoughts came to my mind. We had some discussions about mental imagery, and it truly plays a very important and practical role. Every once in a while, we should hold a workshop on this topic so we can practice its techniques and learn how to apply them.
For today's agenda, I would like to return to the book 60 Degrees Below Zero. There are certain passages that follow a particular sequence and carry a special significance. I'd like to bring them out one by one, analyze them, and examine them carefully so that we have a clear direction for our work. Along the way, whenever we encounter specific issues, we can investigate those as well.
Just as human beings possess a wide range of characteristics—some extremely positive and others quite negative—I would like to add another characteristic to the list, one that most of us share to some degree. That characteristic is this: human beings are the most gullible creatures in the world!
You may laugh and say, “The most gullible creatures in the world?” Yes!
We humans are incredibly susceptible to words. Someone only has to whisper a few sentences in our ear, and without taking the time to examine the roots of the matter, its depth, its context, or its reality, we immediately allow those suggestions to influence us. We hear a statement without even knowing whether it is true or false, what the speaker's intention was, or what purpose lies behind it, and yet we instantly change. Our thoughts and beliefs can be completely transformed in a moment.
That is why I say that, in addition to all the other traits we possess, human beings may very well be the most gullible of all creatures. Because, honestly, I sometimes think that animals—pardon the expression—are not this gullible! If you look across the animal kingdom, you do not see this behavior to the same extent. But human beings certainly have this tendency.
You may be sitting at home and have a very good relationship with someone. Then suddenly, someone comes along and says, “We were somewhere the other day, and that person said such-and-such things about you behind your back.” Without giving it any thought, the person who, in your mind, was an angel, a good friend, or a kind companion instantly turns into an enemy. Just like that—in a matter of seconds.
Our opinion of them changes immediately. And as soon as our opinion changes, we react. We start talking and saying things like, “Yeah, you're right. Now that I think about it, I remember the way he looked at me that day,” or, “When he said that, this must have been what he meant.” Before we know it, we've turned everything upside down. We react at once, without any investigation or reflection.
This is one of our characteristics. Whenever we hear something, whenever a story reaches us or information is passed on to us, a single sentence, a single remark, can create an uproar within us. Our entire structure, our entire outlook, can be thrown into disorder because of one statement.
Now consider the opposite situation. Imagine you're criticizing someone, speaking badly about them, and you really dislike them. Then someone casually says—even if it isn't true—“By the way, the other day we were somewhere and that person was there. Someone asked what he thought of you, and he said, ‘Actually, he's a very good person. He gets a little upset sometimes, but he's a good person.’”
Just that one sentence.
Immediately you ask, “Really? He said that?”
“Yes, he did.”
And suddenly the response becomes, “Oh, he's wonderful!”
So you see that the reverse is equally true. A single sentence can completely change the way we feel.
What this shows is that human beings often do not examine the depth of words. We do not look for their roots. We do not stop and think about the purpose behind what was said, the intention of the speaker, or the motive that may lie beneath the statement. We rarely investigate these things at all.
These kinds of issues and problems often arise because of a single sentence. One remark can spark a conflict, create hostility, or trigger all sorts of complications.
For example, someone might say, “I like so-and-so.” Yet there can be a thousand different meanings behind that statement. But as soon as we hear that someone has said, “I like that person,” we become completely unsettled. We have no idea what kind of relationship exists between them, what the nature of that affection is, or what the situation actually involves. We do not know the story behind it at all.
Instead, the mental images we already carry within ourselves immediately begin to grow larger and larger. They expand, shift, and transform. We start building entire scenarios in our minds.
This is why I say that, despite all the remarkable qualities human beings possess, they are also incredibly gullible creatures. A person may be greedy, ungrateful, or possess many other weaknesses, but alongside all of that, human beings can be astonishingly naïve. It is surprisingly easy to throw a person into confusion with just a few words, and it is just as easy to bring them back together with a few words.
With a handful of sentences, you can create hatred and hostility within someone. With a few other sentences, you can create peace, affection, and harmony.
The more ignorant and unaware a person is, the more gullible they tend to be—even though they would never admit it and would insist, “I'm not like that.”
Yet from what I have observed, roughly ninety-nine percent of people follow this pattern. They are easily influenced and rarely examine the roots of a matter. They do not dig beneath the surface to understand what is really going on.
I believe this is another characteristic that should be added to the list of human traits.
In our previous session, we explored a valuable topic, and mental imagery is truly one of the most important subjects we can study. Whenever we have a specific program or topic, we discuss it, and when we do not, we return to the subjects presented in the book. We do not examine every topic in the book; rather, we select certain passages from different sections and analyze them one at a time. Let's see whether we can unpack some of the metaphors and gain a deeper understanding of them.
The first topic I would like to discuss is:
“Pull Up the Ship’s Anchor.”
Before I begin, let me explain that the ship’s anchor is a metaphor for the human being.
There are times when a person makes decisions under ideal conditions—when they are governing, managing, or leading a system that is stable and balanced. Imagine that you become the director of a factory that is profitable, functioning smoothly, and free of major problems. Its warehouses are stocked with raw materials for years to come, the products it manufactures are in demand, and their quality is excellent. Now you are placed in charge of that factory.
Managing or leading a stable system is something almost anyone can do. When everything is running properly and the system is balanced and self-sustaining, directing it is relatively straightforward.
There is another situation where you are asked to lead a system that is in complete disarray. Imagine being put in charge of a factory that has no raw materials at all, where the production machinery is broken, the workers have not been paid for six months, and there is nothing available to manufacture a product. No matter where you look, all you see is crisis.
That, too, is a form of management. You are expected to govern and lead a factory whose entire operation has fallen apart.
For this reason, management can be divided into two categories. One is the management of a stable and balanced system, and the other is the management of an unstable, disordered system.
In today's world, there is a concept known as crisis management, which deals precisely with this type of situation. Crisis management requires a special set of skills and conditions.
For example, imagine being responsible for a city that has been struck by an earthquake. The water, electricity, and gas services have all been cut off, and the entire infrastructure is in chaos. Managing a situation like that is what we call crisis management.
You may also be in charge of a family whose foundations have become unstable, a household filled with disorder and confusion. This, too, is what we call crisis management.
When we work within the Congress 60, we are essentially dealing with a system in crisis, because all the individuals who enter the Congress arrive in an unbalanced, disordered, and inconsistent state from the very beginning. That is why we refer to it as a crisis system.
Each one of us, when we enter the Congress and begin our journey in the first travel phase, is also in a completely critical condition. No one comes in while already being mentally, emotionally, and overall balanced. That is the nature of the system we are working with.
All of us in this field are part of a structure whose purpose is to eliminate this crisis. For example, you may be responsible for a lajeneh (group), and the individuals in it are completely disorganized. In such a case, you are clearly dealing with a crisis system. You should not expect it to be a fully stable, dynamic, and orderly system—it is fundamentally unstable.
Now, we move from the factory, to the home, and then to ourselves. Ultimately, we are trying to govern ourselves. When we enter this system, we, as human beings, are in fact trying to manage our own personality—a personality that is completely disordered.
Therefore, managing oneself is also crisis management. We are not dealing with a system in balance and order; rather, we are dealing with a completely fragmented structure.
This is why it is an art. Crisis management is a discipline that in recent years has been taught in many universities. In reality, we are constantly facing crisis management situations.
This crisis exists at the level of the individual, as inner disorder; it exists within the family; and it extends to higher levels of society. And we are constantly trying, with all our effort, to find a way out of this crisis and reach a stable system.
Therefore, all the writings and teachings of Congress 60 are centered on this very idea: how to move out of a crisis system.
We are not among those who, as mentioned earlier, sit back and say, “God, you come and save us from this crisis,” like the Children of Israel who constantly told Moses, “We want food, we want this, we want that.”
No. In this process of overcoming crisis, we ourselves play the central, constructive, and highly sensitive role.
So wherever we are, this principle always applies.
In the section dated 1375/12/11, Master Sardar speaks and says: “I know that you are not in very favorable conditions.” This statement applies to all of us, meaning that none of us are truly in completely favorable conditions.
He continues: “Time is passing, and we are fully aware of the situations that arise.” This means that time is moving forward, and the various states and conditions that appear in the lives of the students and in our own lives are fully known and understood.
He says: “In the dimension of material life, this is how it is.” In other words, this is a general law of material existence. Life on Earth, in the physical and material realm, is inherently accompanied by continuous crises and instability.
He adds that these crises are not limited only to addiction; addiction is just one type of crisis. There are also other conditions in which people are not addicted, yet they still experience different kinds of crises.
In material life, crises are always present. This is simply how it is—there are always problems, and there has never been a completely stable and unchanging system.
“Man is sometimes like a bird that has boarded a ship.” In this expression, the human being is likened to a bird on a ship. This bird, in reality and in terminology, represents the human soul or the human self. The soul or self is like a bird that, although capable of flight, is still on board the ship. And what does the ship symbolize here? It is a metaphor for the human body.
“Man is sometimes like a bird that has boarded a ship and sees the world through this very window, and sometimes travels to infinity with a small boat, even imagining that he could make the boat itself fly, and at times he remains in one place and does not reflect on causes and effects.”
In other words, a human being, like a bird that boards a ship, observes the world through the window of that ship or through the window of that system. In his thoughts and imagination, he sometimes believes that he might even be able to make this boat or this ship fly.
At times, if we look at it in a physical sense, a human being can also “fly” with his physical body, which leads to various discoveries and inventions. That is, sometimes this being—this human with his boat—is in motion, in travel, in journey, whether in the physical sense or in the spiritual sense. He is dynamic, moving forward, progressing, creating, bringing things into existence.
And at other times, he remains in one place; he becomes stagnant and motionless. Sometimes he reflects on causes and effects—what the causes were, what the consequences were. He suffers bankruptcy and sits in one place, thinking about his debts and obligations. Or he experiences failure in a situation, sits down, and becomes stuck, thinking about the causes of success or failure, revenge, and so on. Or he becomes trapped in addiction, wondering why he became addicted or why not, what happened and what did not happen, constantly dwelling on such thoughts.
“He knows well that he must change his place; however, he becomes trapped in turbulent waters until he reaches dry land.”
When such a condition arises, the human being enters a state of crisis; he becomes involved with opium, bang, hashish, crack, meth, and so on, and begins to think in terms of causes and effects. He knows that he must change his situation. If he wants to be freed from it, he must move; he must change his position.
However, at times he becomes trapped in the waves. He wants to move, but the intensity of the situation and the conditions that dominate him do not allow him to move; it is as if he is stuck in a tight confinement.
It is like a substance user who wants to stop using, but the pressure of withdrawal and similar conditions overwhelms him and does not allow him to act. He wants to improve his financial situation, but creditors have surrounded him, and he is in debt, so he cannot even take the smallest step.
So he clearly knows that he must change his place. He understands this, but he remains trapped in turbulent waters.
“The storm continues. In this context, one must think about the inner forces and draw strength from them.”
This is a very important point. A person wants to move forward but is trapped in turbulent waters; he wants to move, yet the storm continues in the same way. You have seen in films how a ship at night is struck by a storm: waves enter the ship, overturn it, break the mast, tear the sails, and throw everyone into the sea. He wants to move forward, but the storm does not allow it. At times, the metaphor of our life is exactly the same. We want to escape a situation, but it cannot be escaped.
It is said that the storm continues; therefore, one must think of one’s inner forces and draw strength from them. One may ask: “Can strength really be taken from inner forces? How can a person—especially an addict who is still using substances—draw strength from within, in such a condition?”
In such a situation, one returns to two possible scenarios. One scenario is that the person says: “We are going to die anyway, we are going to disappear anyway. This ship will eventually sink. We are unlucky. We only wanted to travel once by ship, and now we are caught in a storm. This is how it happened.”
In this way, he condemns himself in advance to failure, to death, and to nonexistence. He says: “There is nothing I can do, I cannot continue anymore. I am an addict, I am ruined, I am helpless. My time has passed, years have gone by, it is already over for me.”
At times, a person may think in this way; in this case, he is also using his inner force, but in a negative direction, which leads him toward decline and decay, and he merely waits for death.
At another time, in such a crisis, he can turn inward with a different kind of thinking and say: “I must escape this storm. I will use all my strength and power. I am someone who has the ability to get out of this crisis.”
He may say: “Even if the entire ship is broken apart, I will continue my path on a piece of wood. And if even that piece of wood is destroyed, I will continue by swimming in the water.”
When he looks at the situation with this mindset, he gradually begins to gain strength, slowly and steadily. He starts to become more powerful. This is possible, and it depends on the images we hold within ourselves—on the belief that I am someone who can, I have the ability, I possess great inner strength, I am not someone who is shaken by these winds, I am someone who will overcome this problem.
If I have fallen into this situation by chance, I know how to get out of it. I will continue my effort with all my strength and with every last drop of my being, and surely God will help.
Therefore, every person can bring about their own reality. What transforms us is within ourselves; there is nothing outside. What changes us is inside us—our thoughts and our mindset.
A person may be dying of thirst. He has no strength left to take even half a step, because his hope has been cut off. He is lying in a battlefield, in extreme heat, in a desert where there is not a single drop of water, and he is dying. At the very last moment, as he is about to take his final breath, someone suddenly tells him: “Water will arrive in 48 hours.”
Not that it will arrive now, but that it will arrive in 48 hours—or even 24 hours. Immediately, that person who was on the verge of death, breathing his last moments, sits up, because hope has been created within him. This is just a thought, an idea, a word, a sound, a statement.
Words, sounds, speech, and thoughts can either transform us or destroy us. This is where we can use the power within. Whatever you vividly imagine within your inner mind is, in a sense, already done.
Even if it is difficult, if your goal is, for example, to buy a house, you will eventually buy it—even if you do not have the money at the beginning. You go after it, you find ways, you act, because the thought is a correct one.
And even if the thought is negative in the beginning, you will still reach the same outcome.
So here, a human being can draw complete strength from his inner thoughts. The only thing that can make you determined in a journey, throughout your entire life, or in your existence, is gaining strength from within yourself.
Either you become a symbol of despair within yourself, sinking deeper and deeper into decay day by day, or you become a positive-minded, reflective, joyful person, living a dynamic and happy life.
This is why, with a positive outlook, you can change. These twisted, broken, and collapsed appearances can be transformed into happy, healthy, and well-ordered faces.
Yesterday I was at a ceremony, a memorial service. My brother Amir has told me this several times, and yesterday he said it again. He said: “Hossein, what have you done? Your children are very balanced; they all have a great sense of calm.”
He looks at their faces. Because if you look at the members who have entered the second journey, you will see that their faces are different from others—they have a complete sense of balance and a certain calmness. Both men and women enjoy a relatively good inner peace. Their faces are no longer depressed, distorted, or broken.
Because all of this comes from inner thoughts, and from an inner vision that gains strength. It is strengthened from within. The inner self has an infinite energy, and you are still not fully understanding what I am saying.
Let me say something in parentheses because it is related to our discussion. My father lived to be over 90 years old. When he was in the hospital for the last time, he stayed there for about a month.
They brought him down from the bed and brought a wheelchair so he could sit on it, but he kicked the wheelchair over and said: “I will not sit on a wheelchair.” They brought a stretcher to take him home by ambulance, and he said: “I don’t want a stretcher,” and argued. They said we must go by ambulance, and he finally agreed: “Alright, let’s go by ambulance.”
He came in front of the ambulance and said: “Okay, let’s go,” and he sat right in front of it.
I am not focusing on my father here, because his way of seeing things was positive. He never said: “My life is over,” or “I am ruined,” or “I am helpless.” Until the very last moment, he remained strong.
He had several good qualities. One was that he held no hatred or resentment toward anyone. No matter how badly someone treated him, he would forget it after five minutes.
He was completely self-sufficient. Another trait was that he lived entirely in the present moment. He was never stuck in the past, never regretting it, and never dwelling on it. Nor was he worried about the future, thinking “What will happen? I must prepare for the future.”
He lived for over 90 years. Just three days before his passing, he said: “I surrender now; I am leaving.” He had already taken care of all his affairs. A year earlier, he had even said: “Next Moharram, I will not be among you.”
He had prepared everything.
To show how much he lived in the present, let me mention something else. My younger sister is four years old—her name is Fatemeh, very beautiful and lovely.
Another interesting point is that my father’s mother’s name was also Fatemeh—his own mother’s name.
I also have several sisters. My father wanted to name one of the daughters that God had given him “Fatemeh,” but my mother did not agree, because it was her mother-in-law’s name and she did not like it. She refused.
And I am saying this seriously—she insisted and did not allow it.
She insisted so much that it eventually happened; she passed away, and he remarried. From that marriage, God gave him a daughter, and he named her Fatemeh.
That is why he was lively and energetic; he was not like those old men who walk bent over, needing glasses, unable to read without them. He could still read texts without glasses.
This is a sign of drawing energy and power from within. Inner power says: “I will not sit in a wheelchair. I will not lie on a stretcher. I am someone who has the ability to do this. I am someone who can overcome addiction. I am someone who can defeat addiction. I am someone who can get out of crisis.”
I am not someone who sits holding my knees, crying helplessly, sinking into negativity and saying: “My life has always been dark. I am unlucky. I am helpless. I am nobody.” None of that exists.
Therefore, one can gain strength and power from within.
“One must carefully consider all aspects of the matter and understand how to benefit from the dormant divine forces within oneself in order to gain freedom and liberation from being trapped in the waters.”
One should examine and analyze these inner divine forces to understand how to make use of them and how to be able to escape from this crisis.
“One must make proper use of what the Almighty God has placed within the human being, and in doing so, one will become a teacher for the future.”
Whatever God has placed within the human being—the creation of man, attributes such as knowledge, generosity, mercy, power, thought, and intellect—must be utilized properly.
If we make use of these qualities, we can become teachers for future generations, for our own future, and for others as well.
“For thoughts, it is better to create expansiveness in action. Do not have closed thinking, do not be rigid, and do not remain within a fixed framework, endlessly circling around yourself like a draft animal.”
Some people are always sitting and thinking about the past—sometimes the good memories of the past, sometimes the bad ones—saying “those were the days,” or remaining in sorrow and regret over the past.
We must broaden our vision. “And for our ship, in which existence and continued life depend, we must become something different.” Here, the ‘ship’ refers to the human body.
This means that in order to escape the storm, we must become a different kind of being. I have said this many times: if you think you can change neither your awareness nor your behavior and actions, and you insist on remaining the same disordered person of the past, stuck in the same old ignorance—sitting all night and smoking hookah, or taking drugs and getting intoxicated—if you keep doing all of that without becoming a different person, you will never be freed from addiction.
Even if fifty years pass, even if five hundred years pass, you must become a different person to escape that storm. And these changes must be fundamental—rooted within, not merely in words.
“If yesterday you used to get upset over a small word, today you should not get upset anymore. If someone came and said, ‘What’s wrong with your eyebrow?’ and you wanted to tear his stomach apart, that no longer works; those belong to states of inner turmoil.
This morning I came by taxi. A car stopped in front of me for a minute, and the driver started honking: ‘Beep, beep… you idiot… look at this fool, he’s blocking my way.’ I said: ‘What’s wrong with you, man? What’s going on? It’s early in the morning. You’re more agitated than anyone else. So what if he’s stopped for a minute? He’ll move. Just look at how much your pressure just went up.’ And if you stay in that same state, then yes—you need to become a different kind of person.”
“You know that at first the work is difficult, but pull up the ship’s anchor.”
The changes that exist within a human being are difficult; they may seem impossible. Yes, they are possible—but they are hard, they are challenging. However, the first step in solving the problem is this: the ship that is now being destroyed by the storm, trapped in it while the storm keeps intensifying, and whose anchor you have already dropped so it is stuck in place and being crushed by the force of the storm—you must change your position. The very first step is to pull up the ship’s anchor, meaning the ship must start moving. The first action is to move.
Because the anchor is what keeps the ship fixed to the ground; it is a heavy weight that is lowered into the depths of the water with a chain so the ship does not drift from side to side. It is like tying a horse to a post or a nail in a stable with a rope. That anchor is the ship’s stable post. You must pull this “stable post” out of the water and begin to move. This is the first step: the message is that you must first move in the direction of construction and rebuilding.
You know that at first it is difficult—yes—but pull the anchor up. The first thing you do is simply say “Ya Ali” (an expression of calling for strength and resolve, invoking Imam Ali) and pull the ship’s anchor so that it begins to move.
“Starting movement in the infinite becomes a new beginning, and a new life-giving initiation.”
This is the point: when a human being reaches a stage of readiness and maturity, he begins to hear the footsteps of the teacher from afar. In spiritual matters, it is the same.
“When the student is ready, he hears the footsteps of the teacher. Do not go searching for the teacher. If you are ready and have the proper condition, God Himself places the teacher on your path—you do not need to search for him. If you try to go and look for a teacher, you will keep searching from one place to another, and you may end up finding false or unsuitable guides; worse, your path will become longer and you will become confused and scattered, and eventually you go your own way. But if you are ready, you do not need to search—you will hear the footsteps of the teacher yourself.
When a human being moves toward positivity and intends to walk the straight path (the Sirat al-Mustaqim), divine support begins there. Assistance begins there. It is not something you suddenly witness in full; rather, you gradually see its effects over time. And if a person moves toward negativity, then negative support begins as well. As it is said: “He inspired it with both its wickedness and its righteousness” (Holy Quran)—both deviation and piety are inspired within the human being.
Therefore, when you pull up the ship’s anchor, divine help also begins to come toward you. New movements begin there: for revival, for progress, for improvement, for a better life—whatever you can name. It gives life to the system. We have always said that we do not shift responsibility away from the human being onto God, but we keep God in view. He Himself carries out His own work.”
“I, too, sit beside a stream. Sometimes I take a short journey back into my past and remember all my lives.” Sardar says.
This, as you already understand, carries its own meaning.
“The passage of life is like a black triangle, which sometimes is pulled from its angles and takes on another form; yet one can pass through all of it easily and pay no attention to its many struggles.”
He says: the passage of life is like a black triangle. As I mentioned, a triangle is the first shape that emerges from a line into a surface—meaning the passage of life is not smoothness, ease, or an open highway. Rather, it is filled with hardship, difficulty, and darkness. Life’s passage is not a wide and open road; it is as if a black triangle stands in front of you, blocking your way and preventing passage.
“The one who has not stormed the steep path… and what do you know what the steep path is? It is the freeing of a neck…”
This refers to a difficult passage mentioned in Surah Al-Balad in the (Quran). It is saying that it is a steep and difficult passage. So whoever has not crossed this steep path has not truly passed the obstacle (Aqaba). And what do you know what the Aqaba is? It is the freeing of bondage.
Therefore, the passage is the passage of life: “He has not crossed the steep path.” In the Quran, it points to the passage of life. Some interpret it as the bridge of Sirat in the hereafter, but in essence, the passage of life for everyone is a difficult and arduous path.
It is like a black triangle placed before you. Yet this triangle can be pulled from different angles. When you pull a triangle from its angles, it takes on different forms. Various shapes appear. And if you keep pulling any shape from different angles, its surface changes and shrinks—eventually it becomes a line. Thus, a triangle can be drawn and transformed into another form.
“The passage of life is like a black triangle that is sometimes pulled from its angles, and when it is pulled, another form appears.”
“However, one can pass through all of it easily and pay no attention to its many inner struggles and tensions.”
It is possible to pull it in such a way that a new form emerges, and to pass beyond it—without focusing on these constant back-and-forth struggles.
“In other words, it is possible to give possibility to what seems impossible.”
Meaning: we can say that what appears impossible to you can be made possible—it can be turned into something achievable. The impossible can be made possible.
Now leave aside trivial matters—things like “a bit of crack, a bit of opium smoke, and such nonsense.” Put all of that aside. It may seem impossible for you. It was also impossible for me to think I would ever leave addiction one day. It was impossible for all of you too—but we made it possible.
We took that triangle, we stretched it, and we passed through it. Therefore, in other words, it is possible to give possibility to what seems impossible.
“We must say that to some extent, what happens to us is not independent of ourselves.”
In other words, whatever happens to us—whatever misfortune befalls us—we are not without influence in it. We ourselves play a key role in the events and misfortunes that come upon us.
“We abandon our legitimate desires without even realizing that they belong to us. We are so bound by our own manners, customs, and social etiquette that, as a result, we delay our responsibilities to the point that in many cases they are no longer recoverable.”
Sometimes, as you said, we are caught in this ongoing struggle. One side of it is negative issues—one aspect of the matter. But there are also situations where we even give up our rightful and legitimate desires.
We have certain legitimate needs and wants, yet we step away from them because we become bound by certain social conventions and habits. For example, someone owes us money and says, “I’ll pay it back in one month,” but then does not pay it back. Yet we feel too embarrassed to tell him, “Please return our money.” We become constrained by etiquette and social discomfort.
Or someone says, “We will come to your house tomorrow night,” but we have no food, no preparation, no readiness. Still we say, “Please come, you are very welcome,” even though we actually need to go somewhere else. We feel compelled to observe politeness.
In reality, we could say: “Tomorrow night we are not at home—we have another appointment, for example at Zeynab’s or Hassan’s or Abbas’s house. Please come another night.” But instead, we often accept in silence, and situations like this happen repeatedly. We become overly bound by etiquette and manners, and in doing so we create unnecessary pain and pressure for ourselves.
They take away our rights, they take away what belongs to us, and we have a claim—but we do not demand it. We remain bound by etiquette and social manners, without even realizing that it is ours. That money is ours.
Today, we cannot accept a guest; or someone says, “Come, let’s go to such-and-such city,” and we reply, “I cannot come, I have work.” Yet again, we become constrained by manners and social etiquette, and this creates delays in our responsibilities. These behaviors disrupt the order and system of our lives, and in most cases they are not recoverable—sometimes they are not recoverable at all.
At times, a person is even “offered” into a relationship, but because of social expectations, he says no. Or he enters a marriage not because he truly wants it, but because “people said so.” He does not even like the other person, but he accepts out of obligation to custom. The same happens in reverse. One remains bound by etiquette and says “fine,” and then suffers a lifetime of misery that cannot be undone.
“We have conveyed to you what was necessary according to the command. The rest depends on you: which direction you choose to take.”
In other words, we have told you everything that needed to be said. The rest is up to you. If you want to go toward corruption and wrongdoing, go ahead. If you want to go toward righteousness and discipline, go ahead. If you want to use drugs, use them. If you do not want to use them, do not. If you want to increase it, increase it. If you want to go so far that you remain constantly dazed and half-asleep, go ahead.
We have delivered what we were instructed to deliver. Now, which path you choose is entirely your responsibility—it has nothing to do with us.
“The meaning of a war without casualties and bloodshed—you are well aware of it—but when recklessness or courage enters the scene, the calculations of the battlefield change completely.”
A “war without killing and without bloodshed” essentially means there is no war at all. You cannot say, “We will fight a war without casualties and without blood.” It becomes meaningless.
Someone once went to the battlefield. In the middle of the fight, he was battling with sword and shield. Suddenly, right in the middle of combat, he dropped his sword and shield. The opponent was still fighting, but he said: “I am not fighting anymore.” They asked him: “Why?” He said: “What kind of war is this? I hold my shield, and you strike with your sword from the other side.”
If a war is supposed to have no killing and no bloodshed, then it is not war at all. The same applies to life: if you want a journey where there is no hardship, no problem, no withdrawal pain, no difficulty, no loss—then that is not possible.
War is movement. And in every movement, there is some injury, some loss. You may even be destroyed in the process. If you want it to happen without any of that, it is simply not possible.
Therefore, when you want to move forward, you must sometimes accept losses. You cannot say, “I want to go into the water but not get wet”—such a thing does not exist.
Then it is said: you are well aware of the meaning of a war without casualties and bloodshed, but when recklessness or bold courage comes into play, the calculations of the battlefield change completely.
When recklessness is present in a person who is fighting, he may still be wounded or even killed—but at the same time, that very boldness can also prevent him from being wounded or killed. So although war without casualties does not exist, when courage of this kind is present, the entire calculation changes.
When you possess this inner boldness, you may complete your journey in the best possible way without suffering unnecessary hardship. You may solve your problems in the most effective way without being crushed by them.
But the key point is this: the one who has courage “takes everything on himself”—he accepts full responsibility. He says: “I am going forward. I may be killed, I may be wounded, I may be destroyed—but it does not matter. I will go.”
With this mindset, he proceeds with courage. “Even if I die, I die—but I will reach my goal.” And sometimes, with this attitude, nothing harmful happens at all.
So when courage exists, the calculations of the situation change completely—it becomes an entirely different equation.
“Both—whether in the positive or negative direction, whether one is killed or wounded, whether there is bold courage or lack of it—may ultimately lead to fatigue and inner unrest. But you know well that in matters of vital importance, assigning responsibility to God means stripping responsibility from oneself.”
In this regard, the question is not clearly defined: who is meant to come under command—man or the Divine?
If God is supposed to solve all our problems, then why were we created in the first place? Are we meant to be the ones who follow command, or is it God who follows command?
God, being the Absolute Commander, when He says “Be,” it becomes. So if everything is to be solved by God again and again—our problems, our decisions, our struggles—then what is our role? What are we here for?
So how is it that God has given human beings free will and delegated responsibility to them?
It is like when someone appoints a representative. If that representative is told to do everything, but then every single action must again be approved and executed by the original person, then why was the representative chosen at all?
If every instruction must again be referred back and only then carried out, then what is the purpose of appointing anyone in the first place?
Therefore, here it says that the responsibility is unclear as to who must be under command—whether it is the human or the divine command. The issue is whether it is the command of reason, or that everything simply becomes “done” without question.
God exists, so He has created us, given us life and free will, so that we may reach thought and understanding, and so that we too may come under command in a way that allows us, as beings, to move within existence and solve problems.
Each one of us is like a cell of information and awareness, or one of the elements within the system of God; we must reach a high level of capacity and potential.
It is somewhat difficult, but it is achievable. We engage in movement, we receive commands, but even in non-command-based and non-ordinary states, we are not without thought and reflection, because in every dimension, action in its own conditions is considered a necessity.
In other words, we go about our work, but in every dimension you are in, action is one of the necessities. There is no state in which a human reaches a point where there is no activity at all.
For example, when a person dies and goes to the other world, is he supposed to sit there doing nothing, being idle, and simply be given a heaven where he just remains inactive? As I have said many times, this is a metaphor. It is not meant literally that someone would just sit in heaven doing nothing.
I go to heaven and sit idle: there is a stream of wine, a stream of honey, and a stream of milk, and there are also houris there. So I keep eating and eating, going back and forth with the houris like this, from morning till night, forever and ever. So what is the point then? Women, in their own way, the same question applies.
What is it really in the end? One day, two days, three days, four days, five days, six days… until when? How long am I supposed to keep eating honey? How long am I supposed to keep drinking milk and sikanjabin (sweet herbal syrup)?
“Like the Garden promised to the righteous…”—it is described as a garden beneath which rivers flow. This is a simile; it is not meant as a literal physical place where one sits forever doing nothing.
Some people imagine it exactly like that and prefer it that way, but eventually even they would get bored.
It was like when we used to smoke opium. They would ask, “What do you want from God?” Believe me, we would say: “We want a house from God where it is full of opium.”
Someone once won a one-million-toman lottery ticket. They asked him, “What are you going to do with it?” At first he said, “Nothing special, I’ll spend 500 tomans on opium and charcoal, and the other 500 on other things.” They said, “Is that it?” He said, “No, actually I’ll spend 600 tomans on opium and charcoal.” Then they said, “What about the remaining 700?” He said, “I’ll spend all of it on opium and charcoal.”
That was an opium-based mindset.
Now here too, there is also an opium-like way of thinking. Even in the so-called other world, in another dimension, there is still activity; no one sits idle. Work and action are necessary in every state, because if there is no activity, the human being would fall into a kind of self-destruction.
It leads, as you can see, to a sense of emptiness and destruction. Therefore, this principle is valid in every dimension of life, though in each state it appears in its own specific form. I have already read these points in the context of “non-commanded life.”
In any case, in these specific conditions, action is considered a necessity.
God, in creating human beings, acts with such perfection that whatever He states is realized in action. When God created man, He did so without flaw, and whatever He says comes into being.
Therefore, we too—being a particle of the Divine existence—must act with the same level of precision in thought and action. We are, in essence, a small part of God’s being.
Whatever we say, we must act upon it. If I say this 100 milligrams is mine, then I must respect exactly that 100 milligrams—nothing more, nothing less. We do not need to do great or exaggerated things; even the smallest commitments must be fulfilled precisely.
If you say ten doses, then keep it to ten doses. If you are on opium, stay on opium—do not switch to crack. If you are on crack, then follow that path. Whatever your condition is, whatever your situation is—whether you are an addict or not—the key is that whatever you say, you must try to act upon it precisely.
So that both you and God may be satisfied with you.
When we act in this way, self-satisfaction becomes very important. I do not mean arrogance or self-importance—this is not about being self-righteous. Rather, it is about being truly satisfied with oneself.
Sometimes a person judges themselves and says: “I am a bad person, I am corrupt, I am disorganized, I am opportunistic, I am self-serving.” But sometimes they can also say: “No, I am not greedy, I am not exploitative, I am committed to the path, I have done what I was supposed to do, I have not misused opportunities, and I have not violated the rules.”
Translated by: Companion Marjan
6/20/2026
