When al-Hillaj Mansoor asserted, “I am God,” Mohammedans killed him. Sufism is always killed by religious people, so-called religious people, because they cannot tolerate it, they cannot tolerate a man asserting that he is God. Their egos feel offended. How can a man be a God? But when al-Hillaj says, “I am God,” he is not saying, “I am God and you are not”; he is not saying, “I am God and these trees are not”; he is not saying, “I am God and these stones, rocks are not.” Asserting that, “I am God,” he is asserting that the whole is divine, sacred. Everything is divine.

So when these people – fanatics, believers in dogmas – said, “God created man, so man can only be a creature, not a creator; and this is profanity, the very apex of profanity to assert that ‘I am God,’” they killed him. And what was Mansoor saying when they killed him? He said loudly to the sky, “You cannot deceive me! Even in these murderers I see you – you cannot deceive me. You are here in these murderers! And in whatsoever form you come, my God, I will know you because I have known you.”

Sufism is not thinking about existence, it is being existence. It is not thinking, it is not doing something about existence. It is neither thought nor action; it is being. And right now, without any effort, you can be a Sufi. If you stop thinking and if you drop the idea of doing something, if you drop the idea of being a thinker and a doer, if you simply are content to be, suddenly you are a Sufi. And this will be my effort while I am talking about Sufism: not to indoctrinate you, not to make you more knowledgeable, but to make a Sufi out of you.

Sufis sing, they don’t give sermons, because life is more like a song and less like a sermon. And they dance, and they don’t talk about dogmas, because a dance is more alive, more like existence, more like the birds singing in the trees and the wind passing through the pines – more like a waterfall, or clouds raining, or grass growing. The whole life is a dance – vibrating, throbbing, with infinite life.

Sufis like to dance; they are not interested in dogmas. And they tell beautiful stories – life is more like a story, less like a history. And Sufis have created beautiful small stories. On the surface you may miss; on the surface it will look just like an ordinary anecdote. But if you penetrate deep, Sufi stories are very pregnant – pregnant with significance, pregnant with the significance of the ultimate. So I will tell you a few stories, discuss the stories to help you penetrate into their deeper core – just to make you understand a few things about the heart, to help you, your energy, your whole being, for a new journey towards the heart; to push you, because you will be afraid.

The heart is the most dangerous thing in the world.