The Eighth Valley

The path is revealed with progress.
The waves, crash on land like a whirlwind and take all that are precious as safekeeping and this is carried out only through Divine Command. Thus to those of you who have taken an oath, be in the contemplation of rising up from the earth and proceed to the commanded destination. Inaction creates nothing, everything takes shape with movement and then structures emerge and creatures are created so the travel in the creation vortex can begin.
When the supreme power created the human being, one of his favorite guardians who had a high position in the heavens opposed the divine command and refused to respect the status of this new creation and began a rebellion. Perhaps, the supreme power himself wanted this to happen. Nevertheless, this guardian or commander whom we refer to as Satan, thought with the power he had received from the supreme power he can rule the creation, therefore he asked for a respite to keep his power. And so the supreme power gave him a deadline until the promised day and banished him from his court. Thereafter, he gathered a group of his supporters and made human beings his number one enemy. Then, the angel announced that he will use all his power to mislead humans from the right path and make them disobey the divine laws. Satan knew that a human being is the only creature with free will and the gift of choice which means he can either choose the path of virtue, love, truth, compassion, and honesty or the path of vice, crime, hate, corruption, and bloodshed. At this time, Adam and Eve were in heaven and soon Satan’s conspiracy deceived them and they disobeyed the supreme power’s commands. The supreme power questioned them about this and they apologized and said: “we made a mistake, please forgive us and we will make amends.” The supreme power accepted their apology and told them that they had to show their remorse in action. Thereafter, he gathered all the mankind who were in the heavens and told them: “I make a pact with all of you, am I your Lord? That means: Do you acknowledge that I am the supreme power, your Master and that you will obey all of my commands?” We all said “yes.” The pact was made and the supreme power said: “go to earth and the path is revealed with progress but I warn you that Satan is your greatest enemy. Go and it shall be known in deed and direction which one of you are determined to keep this promise, that which one of you will obey the Satan whose appearance is beautiful and deceptive but has a terrifying nature, and which one of you will traverse the path of light and divinity. In the end, your position is determined and if you move in the right direction you can arrive at the initial point from which you have diverged and return to your Lord with honor and joy. Although the point from which you started this adventurous journey is the same point that after many sufferings, adversities and joys, you will return to, there is a sharp contrast between them. Because all the knowledge, awareness, and teachings remain with you and they can be used to control the hidden aspects of one’s personality. Go the path will be revealed with progress. This valley of “the path is revealed with progress” is a universal law similar to Newton’s law and how beautiful a wise man described this law: Persian poem “if you are the man of battles, you must pass through the battlefield filled with blood; if your feet are tired you must crawl the rest of the way; you step on the path and don’t say anything, the path itself will tell you how to continue the journey”. That’s right; the path itself will tell you which way to go. Of course, we must emphasize that we need to plan and have a strategy for any journey and we can’t just simply say we move forward and everything will fall into place. For example, how can anyone cross over a freezing mountain without a guide and equipment and finish the journey safely? Fortunately, we have the previous seven valleys in our backpack, like the first valley that says “structures are formed with contemplation” or the fourth valley which teaches us that “in vital matters, one must not leave the responsibilities to God.” This valley tells us that when we want to march toward a goal after gathering all the information about the journey, we shouldn’t expect to know all the details as it is impossible to predict everything that might happen along the way. This means that what I imagine can be very different from reality and when theory is put into action many of our calculations could have a different outcome. Therefore, in this valley, we learn not to panic in these situations and rely on God and continue our journey and as we go further down the path, our destination will become clearer. Along the way, we might come across guides and friends who can assist us in our difficulties. For example, if we want to apply for a job, we have to leave home and go down to the office and fill up an application form, otherwise,e if we sit and wait for eternity nothing will happen by itself. Let’s discuss some important points:
1. The goal or the desire must be clear, sometimes we don’t even know what we want along the way. For instance: do I want to continue my education or not? Do I like that person or not? Do I want to get married? Do we want to get divorce? Do I want to save money? And thousands more desires which need clarification in how to do and why to do it!
2. When the goal or desire is determined, we must strive to reach that very goal, like a thirsty person striving for water. We must concentrate on that goal fully. We must mention that reaching some goals requires a great amount of time. Like planting a tree which needs caring through time.
3. Along the way we will be confronted with multiple ways. These ways are fallen into two major groups: values and disvalues, or vices and divine. The way will be picked due to wisdom or lack of wisdom. Consider this case: a fawn seas delicious herb away from the main road, changes his way without thinking and takes more and more distance from the main road, in the end, he will find himself in a point which he didn’t want, he has forgotten the main road. We can mention other laws for movement, if our desire is to reach peace, love, and bliss therefore we must pay our debts initially. Paying back our debts to ourselves: We may have done some damage to our body or psyche, initially, we must forgive ourselves and try to make amends for those damages. We must supervise ourselves, and take a good look at ourselves! Have we done any damage to our personality, body, or psyche? If the answer is yes, then we must try in fixing those harms. Paying back our debts to our families: What is the role of a father in a family? What about the mother role? The children’s role? At the most of cultures father works outside of the house and the mother takes responsibility for the house keeping. Parents are responsible for raising children. But the children’s responsibility toward their parents is not so clear. In past children were working in farms alongside their parents and they had a great role in family. But nowadays the role of children in family is unclear. Today’s urban life has changed children to become receivers! They expect love and other things from their parents. Don’t they have any obligations in the family as well? If they have any, do tell please! Of course, there are always those children who fulfill their responsibility toward their parents. But our discussion here is that if we belong to the group in which we have done damages to our family we must make amends for them! Paying back our debts to society: We always have expectations of our societies and this is normal; but shouldn’t we think about what society expects of us? For instance: I have learnt my profession in society and expenses of my education were paid by society, do I have the permission to destroy myself? To kill myself? Let’s pay attention to some basic points in a society: Isn’t throwing garbage in the streets harming society? Isn’t leaving our garbage in nature harming? Perhaps some would say: they have destroyed hectares of jungles and now me throwing a little dump is harming?! Yes! Leaving garbage in a jungle is harming indeed! Destroying hectares of jungles is betrayal and is a crime of course but let’s remember that others’ wrong deeds are not a justification for us to do the same! Thus, if we believe that we have damaged society and we want to make amends for them, initially we must stop doing more damages and then secondly we must start doing society-valued deeds.
The pact
Carrying out this stage voluntarily is designed for individuals who have completed their first journey successfully and at least six months have passed from their redemption date. First, they talk to their guide and announce their eagerness to make the pact and then upon permission they can carry out the ceremony. Until further notice, the permission is given only by the Guardian of Congress 60. Individuals who have quit drugs using the cold turkey method must have at least 18 months of sobriety. Location of the ceremony: beside a river or a seaside or in a valley or a mountain The starting time for the ceremony: 12 pm (noon) The finishing time of the ceremony: 4 pm (afternoon)
Conditions of the pact
1- Cleansing of the body before leaving for the location of the ceremony, wearing clean clothes like a white shirt or a white scarf
2- No one else should be around us
3-  No one should hear our voice
4- During the ceremony food and drinks must not be consumed

Equipment needed for the ceremony
1- A blanket to sit on
2- Pen and paper
3- Matches or lighter
The ceremony of the pact
The ceremony is divided into two sections:
1- Writing the list
2- Requesting from the supreme power
Writing the list:
The time to write the list is from noon to 1:30 in the afternoon and the time to read the list is from 1:30 in the afternoon to 2 pm. The method of writing the list: first, we pay our respect to the supreme power in whatever way we feel comfortable, and then we clarify our intention. Then, we write all of our actions that we think were inappropriate or bad (sins in the past) on a piece of paper and read it in a loud tone 3 times and then we ask God for guidance and forgiveness and we promise not to commit any more indecent, immoral and harmful deeds. We ask for opportunities to make amends and serve humanity, especially substance abusers. After contemplating for about one minute, we will burn all of our writings and scatter the ashes into water or wind. If there is any time left, we spend it in solitude and silence and let our thoughts take us wherever they wish and we try not to resist them. At 2 pm the first stage of the ceremony must end.
Request: In this phase, we must write whatever we want from the supreme power for ourselves or others and any prayers we have, on a piece of paper and we promise to put all of our efforts in achieving these wishes as well. Afterward, we read these wishes and prayers 3 times aloud and we plead with the supreme power to comply our prayers. Then, we observe one minute of silence and then we tear that piece of paper into small pieces and slowly leave them to the wind or the river as they also have been the witness of our ceremony and our pact. Thereafter, we sit in silence until 4 pm and let our thoughts take flight. At 4 pm, we end our ceremony. We wish you the best and pray for us too. Important point: you should carry out the ceremony in a manner that no one under any circumstances can come close to you or disturb you or read your list of wishes and confessions. This is a pact between you and the supreme power and no other being should know about this; even the closest people to you.

Adopted from the book " Love, 14 Valleys to Know Thyself"

Translated by: Ehsan Ranjbar