Transcription of the Fifth Valley CD

Part one

With the absolute power of God, we start the meeting.
Hello, friends, I am Hossein, a traveler.
Hello, Hossein.
Please, for our liberation from our most powerful enemy, which is our own ignorance and unawareness, let's observe a 14-second silence and seek refuge in the Almighty.
Thank you, friends.
I kindly request the honorable secretary to read the summary of the previous session's performance and announce the agenda for today's session.
Hello, friends, I am Soheila, a traveler.
Hello, Soheila.
In the name of God, the fifteenth session of the nineteenth round of Congress 60’s meetings is held with the agenda of the Fifth Valley, under the supervision of Mr. Hossein Dezhakam and Ms. Soheila as the secretary on September, 11, 2012. The session commenced at 9 a.m. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, friends, I am Hossein, a traveler."
The Fifth Valley asserts that “in our world, contemplation q  is not the absolute power of solution; it becomes complete with departure and arrival”. I repeat, in our world, meaning the physical world, the absolute contemplation does not solve the problems of life.
As we start our departure, it will be complete. Overall, from the First Valley to the Fourth Valley, we worked on thinking. We explored thinking from various and different persectives, we stated that all structures come into existence through thought. In the second valley, it was mentioned no being has come into existence for futility. Then, we must know that no creature thinks about itself as much as the creature itself does. In the Fourth Valley, the issue of what God was addressed. Well, it teaches us that everything begins with contemplation.
Then, it showed us the field, framework, and lines of thinking and even the Fourth Valley raises the issue of responsibility. And we determined the distinctions between our own responsibilities and God’s. So that among these lines, we cannot find a refuge to give our responsibilities to God. He closes and blocks the way, this valley blocks all our refuges, until we reach the Fourth Valley, where we have only one way. We had various paths in front of us, like blaming everything on our parents.
If my parents were rich, my situation wouldn't be like this. If my parents, for example, were born in Switzerland, my life would be different. If my parents were Italians, I would be able to speak Italian now. If, for instance, I had been born in Massachusetts, I would have a green card and residency; and I wouldn't suffer so much. This person’s life is full of "ifs" and "buts". One of my friends once said: if these “ifs” and “buts” get married, their child would be called “wish”.  I heard this statement from a man talking on TV. Now we have to throw all these “buts” out.   In this valley, all the paths (of refuge) are closed.  We have only one way, and that is to work on ourselves
Certainly, we do not deny the help of others, society, community, or family. However, the important thing is that the major responsibility lies on us. [A part of a poem by Persian poet, Sa’adi, the great Iranian poet] mentions the sons of a minister [in the past], because of their ignorance and lack of wisdom,  went begging in the villages. However, the village children came to the cities and became ministers. They became Ministers, lawyers, and such – the rural children of the county who had neither educated parents nor enough food to eat – are now working in NASA or teaching in prestigious universities around the world. The children of ministers and wealthy lawyers are now begging, either on the streets or in different parts of the city. Some of them are begging here and there. I mean, not all of them, but the majority of them. So, it is not a reason to ask why this or why that (happened to me). All of these are important, our viewpoint is important. Unless we count on ourselves and consider our own potential, we cannot reach anywhere (anything). Otherwise, like the beggars of Samarra (a city in Iraq), we have to stretch out our hands and ask for help from others. Even for love, we have to beg. We must beg even for affection.
Sometimes, others show kindness to us. This valley asserts even if we know and have access to all the thoughts, coming from valleys one, two, three, and four; even if we know all the information in this regard, if we do not apply them in our life, these words and thoughts are not worth a penny [A thought that doesn't turn into action is worthless]. We had so many individuals in Congress 60 who had studied various texts, like Sardar series, and Eagle series; they were number one in terms of information and awareness. They memorized ten pages of a book, but they couldn't figure out how to use even one single line of that information. One Persian poem reads, “it does not matter whether the bequest that is left after you is gold or stone”.
What is a difference between a kilogram of gold and a kilogram of mud buried in the earth? I have a wealth of information, but I don't know how to use it. What is it good for? It's possible that we know a lot of things, but mere knowing is not useful. They come to the media, and say Mawlana (Rumi) says this, Hafez says that, Nizami Ganjavi says this, Descartes says that, Shakespeare says this, Spinoza says this, Mulla Sadra says this, and also Imam Mohammad Ghazali says this. Well, what do YOU say? Well, they have already said it. Now, what do you say? Now, can we act based on this collection of sayings or not? The fifth valley says that knowing is valuable only if we can use it. If we can't use it, it's worthless.
Knowing without application is worthless, like you knowing all the techniques of judo and karate, mastering all martial arts, knowing all the rules and commands, but not being able to perform a personal defense. What's the use of all the knowledge? Our purpose of gathering knowledge is to implement and execute it. Now, in the fifth valley, it is stated that now that we are sitting here, as humans on this earthly planet, we are living in several worlds. Okay, we may say we are living in only one world. I'll tell you about three worlds, which you will also accept.

The first world is the one where we are living now. The one that we are all awake in, and we all accept it. The second world is the world of dreams; when we sleep, we exist in another dimension (world). We see some dreams, and some dreams are remembered while others are forgotten. What remains in our memory is related to the Common Sense. The internal senses give their information to the common sense, and our common sense gives it to the five external or animal senses. We remember a part of it, the rest is unknown to us (since the circle of receiving information from the internal senses is interrupted due to some unknown issues, that is why we cannot remember the whole dreams). This is also a dualistic world. The third world is the Mental World. The mental world is an extraordinary, complex, and fundamentally important world. It is so astonishing that we don't absolutely grasp its value. One of the very great masterpieces of creation is this mental world that we have. Why don't we see it? Why don’t we understand it? Because it is so great and vast that we don't recognize its greatness, and it is very ordinary for us. When you stand in front of a very, very massive mountain, you might not be able to recognize the peak of the mountain; you don't see it at all. The mountain is so large that you don't see it. The Earth is so large, you walk on it, but you don't see the Earth at all. You don't understand what shape it is or how it is. How do you feel when you realize that the Earth is moving at a speed, for example [1,000 miles (1600 kilometers) per hour and orbits around the Sun at a speed of about 67,000 miles] or around the Milky Way galaxy? I don't know its [exact] speed, it might be a million kilometers per hour. Now, no matter how big the earth or the sun or everything is; they are so giant that we cannot feel them at all; we are not able to comprehend them.

From the first valley to the fourth valley, we worked on our mental world, whatever we had in valley one, two, three and four was for our mental world. It was in our minds. Now, the fifth valley says that you must step into the operational and practical world. This means that what has come into existence in your mind; whatever you've planned and executed in your mind, now must be executed in the outside world. You must step out of the mental world, take a step into the tangible world or the operational world. What is the use of these mental structures, if they are not executed and operationalized in the outside world? What value do they have? Some people have a very powerful mental world, meaning that they know a lot, but they are unable to bring that mental world into reality.
I want to talk about the vastness and magnificence of the mental world. Perhaps it is even greater and more magnificent than the external world because the mental world works based on your order (you decree a thing and immediately it exists in your mind). Like when God says, "Be," and the creature exists, meaning when He says "Exist," it comes into existence. Human beings have this quality too and this ability exists in our mind. If you want to see how God says something and it is created, you can easily refer to your own mind. Whatever you say becomes present in your mental world. For example, right now, if I say "giraffe," all of you can immediately imagine a giraffe in your mind. Now, imagine a giraffe with two heads – you all see a giraffe with two heads. Imagine a giraffe with a head like a lion – you all see a giraffe with a lion-like head. By “shir”, I mean lion, no other meanings of it [in Persian, the word “shir” has many meanings including lion, or faucet]. You can visualize everything. You can portray a human with four hands in your mind – or you can visualize a human with six feet. If you say, "Be," it is created immediately in our mental world. But when we want the mental world to exist in the outside world, it is a different story. The problem of the parameter of time is raised here; that is why it is a different matter.
Now, I am reading from the valley because this valley is extremely important for us. The first four valleys are the prelude to the fifth valley and I have rewritten this valley on September first 2012. I have rewritten this valley because now the valleys include two sections: the valleys written in 2012 for non-travelers and the valleys before 2012 for travelers. Texts in these two can be very different from each other. The fifth valley reads:
“In our world, contemplation is not the only power of solution; it becomes complete with going and reaching”. When we look at the sea, we see water and waves. Or when we look at the sky, we see a blue sky and the sun, sometimes with clouds. And when the sun hides behind the mountain for the creatures to rest, we observe the sky full of stars. When we look, we see all these: water, sea, sky. But if we penetrate into them, what do we see? We normally see the sea, we see the blue sky. But if we penetrate into the water, what do we see? If we penetrate into the sky, what do we see? We see grandeur and greatness. Inside the water, various creatures live, such as sharks, whales, fish, corals, and more. Or in the sky, we only see stars. Stars are for lovers or the moon is for lovers. Stars are also for lovers. However, if we see the stars up close, and the moon up close, we get terrified. From afar, they are beautiful, but up close, it's like a dry desert – no water, no grass, nothing at all. Or the stars are all fire and flame, heat and cold. Something else is inside them or [consider] a black hole that swallows everything into itself. The sky is very frightening, with all its beauty, it is truly terrifying. But, if we penetrate into them, what do we see? Humans are the same. When we look at them, we sometimes see a few tens of kilograms of flesh and bones walking – a few tens of kilograms of flesh and bones. You see fifteen, fifty, sixty, seventy kilogram- creature walking, and talking. They are fat or slim; they are white or black, yellow or red. However, if we can penetrate into them, then we will see [recognize] a greatness that is NOT less than the external world, and when we go inside this creature (human), we see that it has not less greatness than the external world, and the greatness we see is beyond our imagination.
Now, let's consider a simple question, in this brief glance at human being. If we take a brief look at human, in how many worlds humans do live? You probably say, in one world. However, if you pay a little attention, you will realize:
1. The first world we are living in is the physical earthly world that is entirely tangible to all of us, and we are consciously living in it. So the first world, is this earthy world.
2. Second is the world of sleep (dreams), as I explained, where we unconsciously live. I provided a brief explanation of this.
3. Third is the world of Mind (Mental World), many people live in the world of the mind. They live so much in the mental world that they become depressed and sometimes, they commit suicide. These people must first commit suicide in the mental world, then it happens  in the external world. If they are depressed, this depression intensifies itself. How does it intensify itself?
Inside us, our mental world acts just like a laser. The mental world is very dangerous in its place, just like a laser. How does it work? Imagine a tube, a mirror at one end, and another mirror at the other end. Consider it as a cylinder. A beam of light is radiated under specific conditions to the mirror, and hits it, then it is reflected to the other mirror in front of it, the beam hits that mirror, and goes back and forth and each time it gains more speed. It gains more speed until it is fired. It is so speedy that it pierces through anything. The mental world works the same. The mental world nurtures a subject so much within itself in the mental world that, in the end, it may lead to suicide or generate such intense hatred towards someone and it amplifies this hatred so much that the hatred reaches its highest level. Anything in the mental world can come into existence, even depressions. The mental world intensifies the depression, it can intensify despair as well. Now, the opposite can also be true.
An optimist intensifies being optimistic in their mental world. If this person wants to be fit; they do sports, and constantly intensify this exercise. If they want to study, or anything else; they keep repeating these positive desires. If they want to distance themselves from the negative values, they keep repeating it until they reach the values.
So, this exists in all aspects of life. The mental world is very important. Therefore, the third world we are living in is the world of the mind. Of course, there are other lives (worlds) that are not currently visible to us, such as the Seven Bodies in the seven layers of the Heaven, and so on. Now, just take these three, the rest is not to be discussed in here; what other Bodies or other Organs are like and how they are, is not discussed in here. You can almost say these Seven Bodies are the same as the Seven Heavens. It can be said that in those individuals who reach a stage of mysticism, theosophy, and so on, as they are sitting in a place, they can enter the Fifth World, acquire some information, and return back [to their physical body]. Few people can go and return, but for others, it is impossible. These topics are complicated, and are not useful for you. Now let’s talk about one of these worlds.

The first world that we discuss is the mental world, the mental world is the prelude to planning, action, or practice to live in the earthly world and other worlds. So, what is the mental world? It is a prelude, a prelude to what? It is a prelude to planning, action, or practice to live in the earthly world or other worlds. The mental world is a place of exercise for living in the earthly world or other worlds, by other worlds we mean “the worlds after death”. Whatever you practice now will continue after your death.

This planning is done through thinking and its structures. We discussed the details of contemplation in the first four valleys. Therefore, the mental world is a prelude to the exercise of how to live, and its tool is thinking. This planning is created by the structures of thinking. Contemplation shapes the structure of the mental world. We previously talked about the first four valleys. Now, it gives an example of how it works. For example, it uses very simple and ordinary examples. When we decide to eat a sandwich, when we want to take a sandwich, first, we must plan all the stages from preparation to eating the sandwich in our minds. When we want to go out and eat a sandwich, we have to plan all its stages. Do we want to eat it outside? Do you want to eat it at home? Do you want to buy the sandwich from outside, bring it home, and eat it? Or do you want to buy cold cuts, sausages, and hamburgers from outside, bring them home, prepare them, and eat them with baguette bread? Do you want to eat it with lavash bread or with your Taftoon bread? You see, there are thousands of possibilities. If you want to eat this, you must first plan its mental structures, specify it, and then enter the stage of operationalizing. Eating a simple sandwich or having a cup of tea is the same. First, we must plan all the stages from preparation to eating the sandwich in our mind.
Sometimes, in the execution of our mental stages, we realize that we don't have money. We construct a mental framework that we want to eat a sandwich; we do everything, and then realize, oh, we don't have any money. It's just an illusion that has led us to think about eating a sandwich or that there is no sandwich shop where we are. For example, sometimes we plan something, but, we see we don't have money or we are in a desert where there is no sandwich shop, or we are in a place where there is no sandwich shop. Immediately, we cancel this structure and plan another structure, we examine the possibility of other foods.

When we build this new structure, and we see we don't have money or there is no sandwich shop, immediately, we change the structure.
This change of structure sometimes happens. I once told you a funny story: Someone went abroad. He did not know English, he went to a restaurant, saw people ordering food. He looked at the next table, and they were ordering a hamburger. Well, this person ordered a hamburger too, which in Iran we also call it “hamburger”. The waiter put a hamburger in front of him and he ate, it became his everyday routine. Every day, he ordered a hamburger because he did not know any other foods; therefore, he had no other choice. His mental structure was merely “hamburger” since he had no other choices.
Eventually, he gets fed up with hamburgers. He thinks to himself, let’s see what the next table orders and I try another food today. He realizes the next table orders “hot dog”. He thinks this is good. He awaits and sees that the hot dog seems delicious. Immediately, he orders one. The waiter comes and asks, how do you want hot dog with sauce or without sauce? He only says, hot dog. The waiter repeats, with sauce or without sauce? He keeps saying, hot dog, not understanding what the waiter is saying about different sauces. The waiter gets angry and shouts, with sauce or without sauce? He keeps saying, hot dog. In the end, he says, nothing, just a hamburger, a hamburger [please]! Now, sometimes in our mental structures, we want something, but the prerequisite is not ready yet. In any case, two essential points are necessary for eating a sandwich or any other foods. The simple point is:

1. Think and form appropriate mental structures for eating a sandwich. Here you can see how simply the author is speaking; he doesn't want to be too philosophical or use fancy words. The examples are straightforward and simple so that all of us understand.

For any task, two factors are required: one is the thinking and formation of a suitable mental structure for eating a sandwich, is it reasonable to eat a sandwich? What sandwich do we want to eat? Do we have money or not? The other factor is the execution of the mental structure of having a sandwich, preferably with a drink. So, the first item is to plan it (in our mind) and the other is to execute it. If we do not execute it, we will not have a sandwich. When we do not apply what we think about and prepare in mind, it will be useless and unimportant, this is just like planning to eat a sandwich with a drink, but not eating it.

Therefore, two elements are required:

1) Contemplation and forming appropriate structures (to eat a sandwich). We have to plan all the required [mental] structures.
2) The execution of the mental structures; to do all the procedures to eat a sandwich preferably with a drink. Therefore, in this valley, if we cannot turn our mental structures and thoughts into operational structures, we will never achieve results.

It is useless if we cannot operationalize our mental structure, in other words, we permanently created the mental structure of eating a sandwich; however, we have never reached its operationalized and enjoyable part, which is eating that sandwich. We have always planned to eat, but we did not eat any sandwiches.

In other words, creating mental structures for a sandwich is like saying sweet words about Halva (a type of Iranian confectionary); but uttering the word “Halva” doesn't sweeten the mouth. Therefore, we practice in this valley to put our mental structures from potential into action. Potential means something exists in latently; for example, when we say this mountain is made of gold, that is a mountain is potentially made up of gold; however, in action, we must extract the gold from it.
“Action” here means “performance”.  Therefore, we practice in this valley to transform our mental structures from potential to action and let logical thoughts enter the stage of execution and operation. To make the transition from mental to operational structures, we need to do certain things. We must execute the logical and operational structures in our minds and turn them into practical actions.

We may create numerous structures and have worked hard on them, or we are working on them, but they are not executable or operational. Therefore, we should operationalize structures that are logical and practical, to do so, we have to take some steps.
When transforming a mental and thought structure into an operational structure, certain conditions must be met. We need to create a conducive environment (bed), otherwise, we will never succeed in doing them. How can we make that environment?  We should get rid of anxiety, fear, lack of self-confidence, hopelessness, and other negative factors, to step into a state of calmness and peace.
When we want to enter the operational phase, if we have anxiety, fear, lack of self-confidence, and hopelessness, we will not be able to execute the plan or we do it incompletely. [Therefore], we shall do it gradually. Again, we come to purification and refining. In reality, these negative emotions need to be gradually eliminated or reduced so that we can comfortably perform our tasks.

For example, when we want to participate in a track and field contest and feel a lot of anxiety, fear, and worry, we can't take even a step. Similarly, someone attempting an exam with anxiety, fear, and hopelessness will fail the exam and forget even what they know.
To transform mental structures into practical ones, we must eliminate anxiety, fear, lack of self-confidence, hopelessness, and other negative elements to step into a state of peace and calmness. Achieving this calm state is essential for making our desires practical, and to reach tranquility, we must initiate self-purification and self-construction. To correct behavior, ethics, and character, we need to consistently consider three principles: healthy thinking, healthy words, and healthy deeds.
Well, we shall see our efficiency in actualizing our rational wants, here we are dealing with what percentages of our logical desires we can put into action. We have to see how much of our logical thoughts can be executed, and what conditions are necessary for this transformation, it is not accidental, we must take action.
To overcome fear, anxiety, lack of self-confidence, and hopelessness, purification is essential. What is purification? It means we have to change our behavior, our morals and our characters. To change all these items, we have to consider three principles: healthy thinking, healthy words, and healthy deeds.  By healthy thought, we mean our contemplation and thinking must be healthy, our words must be healthy, and then our deeds must be healthy. Instead of good thinking, good words, and good deeds (mentioned by Zoroaster), I have used healthy thinking, healthy words, and healthy deeds, because healthy thoughts, actions and words [which have good ending] are more important to us.
Always remember when our thoughts and contemplation are healthy, our speech automatically becomes healthy too; when our contemplation is healthy, our words will get healthy too, and as our words get healthy, we are led towards righteous and peaceful actions.

It's essential to understand that knowledge alone, without practical application, is worthless. I have emphasized this point from the very beginning of Congress 60. Many individuals have vast knowledge, quoting verses, stories, and facts from the greats, knowing various cultures, religions, and schools of mysticism. For any discussion, immediately they consider themselves as erudite; however, unfortunately, they are not able to use their knowledge. They are like people with thousands of gold coins who is dying of hunger, unable to part with even one coin to buy bread and survive.

Their story is just like a person dying of hunger, although he has thousands of gold coins. They are not able to give up one gold coin and buy bread and stop dying of hunger. They know thousands of stories, fables, science, and information; however, they are not able to use even one of them, alright let’s continue.
As we already know, to transform polluted and dirty water into clean and clear water, there is only one way: purification. We have mentioned this point multiple times – just as a bowl of muddy water has only one method of becoming clean, which is through purification – similarly, to convert an unbalanced and completely disordered individual into a balanced and rational person, there is only one way: purification and refinement. This means distancing oneself from anti-values and moving towards values. As mentioned earlier, consider a bowl filled with muddy, dirty, and black water. If we leave it there from morning till night and recite prayers or read all the holy books to it, if we read all the heavenly knowledge into that bowl, practice asceticism, and say prayers; the muddy water will not turn into clear water.

In the same vein, an individual, who is in disarray and imbalance, has only one way to transform: purification. Just like water purification, it requires staying away from anti-values. Now, to exit or ascend from anxiety, worry, distress, despair, illness, and many other things towards liberation, we must take certain steps and pass through stages.
Alright, let's go through these steps.
1. Turning Away from Anti-Values: I introduced a change in these steps because, when an individual’s psyche is contaminated with anti-values, they become restless. Therefore, it is necessary to abstain from anti-values altogether, and we should reverse the path of anti-values. What do we do with anti-values? We have to turn away from them. This is called repentance. Repentance means coming back. It means if you are in the depths of darkness, come out of it. It means if you are addicted, return from addiction, get out of it. Returning is not a one-time event; you must gradually come back. It means you have to turn back the way you have passed. It's like saying, "I went to Karaj, and now I want to return. I must go back through the same path I took in Karaj to reach Tehran." Repentance does not take place offhand. Well, the amount that we are involved in anti-values needs to be returned. You might ask what anti-values are. In the first step, if everyone goes within themselves and thinks for a moment; they will realize what valuable actions are and which steps are anti-values. Some might ask what anti values are, the answer is that if you go within your own self [if you think], you quickly realize what anti-values are and what values are. It is not a strange and unusual thing. Things like murder, lying, corruption, and despair, you know, all are the anti-values.
2. If a person goes within themselves and takes a moment to think, this will be revealed to them, this is a self-evident truth. In the second step, anti-values might differ slightly in different cultures. Therefore, the first one is to “Go within yourself”, while the other is that different cultures might have different cultural perspectives. For example, in some societies, drinking alcoholic beverages is acceptable, while in others, it is not. Dressing in one culture might be different from how it is in another. Therefore, the values can be determined based on the cultural, civil, and religious laws of each society. Secondly, some things are shaped based on their culture; considering their civil and religious culture, each society has its own values, which might be different from others.

So, I will exemplify some of the anti-values.
Let's name a few anti-values that are universally recognized [as detrimental] by the collective wisdom of the world, the ones on which all religions, the faithful, the atheists, and even the savages, all people, and tribes are in agreement and all acknowledge these as anti-values: lying, theft, bribery, breach of contract, drug consumption, backbiting, giving false testimony, violating the sanctity of others, espionage in others' affairs, and so on. All are Anti-values. Well, these are clear.
2. Self-Restraint: Sometimes, whatever you think about doing something, you don't reach a conclusion. Occasionally, you want to do something, and no matter how much you think, you see you can't determine if it's right or wrong. What do you do? Some say they consult divination to decide whether to do it or not. Some might cast lots (like opening the holy Quran and receiving an impression) to decide whether to perform that task or not. Others might roll dice or draw straws because they don't know whether this job is right or wrong. Sometimes, for doing something, no matter how much you think, you can't reach a conclusion. In other words, you don't know if that action is beneficial or harmful to you, or if doing that action is a value or anti-value.
3. In these circumstances, Aql (wisdom) dictates that one should refrain from performing that action. When we don't reach a conclusion, it might be useful to conduct some research to arrive at a decision. For example, if someone is considering a marriage proposal and is unsure whether this person is good or not, they should investigate. They do research and analysis. This means everything requires research and analysis, but sometimes, even though we've conducted research and analysis, we still don't know what to do. In that case, we should refrain from doing those actions or deeds whose goodness or badness is unknown to us. I am thirsty, I do not know whether or not this glass of water is contaminated with poison or is drinkable; I have to restrain drinking this water. Therefore, we shall stop doing the actions whose goodness or badness is unknown to us.

4. Well, the third one is Contentment. We all emerged from nature, NATURE acts as our mom and we have to learn from nature how to create the best from the simplest things and the least facilities. This valley asks us to look at nature and see how from the simplest things, it creates the best. Truly, this is the masterpiece of creation, but we fail to realize it. When a plastic flower is made, just like the ones I give you on the day of your liberation from addiction, hundreds of factories are working to make such a plastic flower, if you see, lots activities are done to make a plastic flower; from oil extraction companies, oil tanker transportation, oil delivery, to sea piracy – finally it reaches refineries, gets purified, becomes petrochemical, and then designers come to make molds for it to turn it into plastic.
5. Oh, how much time does it take? With lots of time [and energy], only a plastic flower is made, in other words, an artificial flower is made. Now, let’s see how nature works. It makes a very sweet melon from the salty land, the bitter water, and with some cow, sheep, and chicken droppings, using some simple things, nature produces [the best], Varamin’s melon which tastes like honey, Mashhad’s sweet melon which is very delicious, cherries with their extraordinary beauty, color, and taste, green cucumbers with their [good] smell and taste; wheat, dates, fresh dates. See, from the simplest and most basic things, and with the least facilities, nature creates the best and the most beautiful things. How about us as humans? Everything must be prepared for us to do the simplest things. We have all the facilities, yet we are ungrateful and unappreciative.
6. In the past, seven or eight children were living in a house. In the old days, a mother, seven children, a husband, and other relatives were all around. The mother fed all the family members at noon, she would heat water and add a bit of onion with some oil, sprinkle some turmeric, and add salt and pepper to make a meal. Some onion, pepper, and salt with lots of water, it was their meal. They would break four or two eggs into it; if they were rich, Tehranis call this food "Eshkene," and Kermanshanis call it "abgarmo" [which means heated water]. All cultures have this dish. Seven or eight people would eat this food. What about now? With those [simplest] facilities, they raised the best and healthiest humans.

Children wouldn't sit in front of their fathers or mothers with their legs stretched. They would sit cross-legged or on their knees. In Nowruz, they would go to see their father and relatives and kiss their parents’, uncles’ and aunts’ hand [to show respect], and receive a 1000 or 5000 Rial note. Once a year, they would get new shoes. The shoes were not like now; they had to measure your foot. We had to stand on a piece of cardboard, and the shoe maker would draw around our foot on the cardboard using a pen, or a piece of charcoal and say, "alright, your shoes will be prepared in a month, go now and come back one month later." What about now? All children are demanding.
7. One of my friends said that his child came to him and said, "Determine our share of the inheritance." A 24 or 25-year-old child goes to his father and asks, "Determine our share of the inheritance, give us our share”. The generation who wouldn't even stretch their leg in front of their father, now has changed into ones who claim their inheritance and want their share. What share are they talking about? You're 18; go find a job. Your share? You have to earn your share yourself. Until now, they've given you more than what you deserve. What share shall your parents pay?! Our ancestors  raised powerful and strong humans from the weakest facilities just like Nature. How about now? We have prepared the highest facilities, and all mothers and fathers have become their children’s servants. The era of patriarchy has been over, the era of matriarchy has been over, now the era of child-oriented families has begun. A spoiled child is so adored that it will be spoiled, parents go crazy for it. Now, parents give too much love and attention to their children, they spare no expense for their children, if the child feels hot, they cool it, if the child gets cold, parents will take it to a doctor prescribes Novalgin and Diphenoxylate. If the child moves [runs] this way or that way, the parents take it to the doctor, the doctor claims this child has ADHD,  and prescribes [Ritalin]. If the child sits silently, again they take it to a doctor.  They take the child to doctor consecutively, and it consequently becomes an isolated individual sleeping all the time, because they take the child to doctors frequently.

As a result, because of excessive attention, a mischievous, rude, disrespectful, and sickly child is grown up, as if it were the only child created in the existence, as if there were a famine in this regard. A child should be valued, respected and educated; however, they must not be spoiled, worthless and undisciplined. We must educate children, not raise lazy  spoiled freeloaders. I get surprised when I hear a child has come to his father asking for his share of inheritance. The father has spent his lifetime raising the child, he is still alive, but the child comes to take its share of his father’s properties!

You ask your living father to give your share! This is because we don't know contentment, we don't know how to be content. Contentment means this, it does not mean that we act like a beggar, being content does not mean, for instance, gathering everything, no. It means at all levels, you should make the best use of minimum facilities; making the worthiest use of minimum facilities.
Don't waste even a crumb of bread. Look at the trash bins, all houses’ trash bins are filled with bread, rice, meat, food, and such and such. You can find anything in trash bins. They eat one meal in the morning, one at noon, and another in the evening. The child comes and makes a fuss at the table, addressing their mom “what's this? Every day you make the same rice and stew”. Or some children, if there's no rice, they refuse to eat it since they only want and eat rice and stew! Why you didn’t make a different dish, they ask. We've raised some spoiled and overindulged children in this way. If I claim you've raised some monsters, I'm not lying. You've been doing this since their childhood. These things will make you suffer. These same kids will put you in a nursing home and won't take care of you.
These children will take you to nursing homes, they'll consume all your property, they'll consume your money, they'll consume your properties. While you're living in your own home, they'll sell your home, they'll make plans to sell the house you've settled in. When these kids grow up, even your sons-in-law and daughters-in-law will get involved and sell the houses and change your house into money. They'll put you in a nursing home and won't pay any attention to you at all. No matter how hard you've worked and toiled, they'll use it up, because we didn't teach them contentment, just because you thought this was the only child sent to you and this is the only person came into this world for you, and you want to live all your failures through your children. If you didn't study [at its time in your past], now you want your children to study; if you couldn't achieve what you wanted, you now want your child to achieve it; well, this can be too much, it can be an extravagance.
Extravagance happens not only in food, but also in upbringing. When you pour out a kilo of rice, that's one thing, but if you neglect discipline and indulge your child, you will come up with an impolite and spoiled child. These are crucial points. So by contentment, we do not mean turning into deprived destitute individuals. Contentment applies to all levels. We should learn it from nature itself. How does nature utilize [its resources]? How does nature bring its own creatures into existence?
How are different types of plants created? How is our food made? You scatter wheat or watermelon seeds in a desert, once a year you scatter them in a desert, a dry desert, or you scatter watermelon seeds, next year you go there, you harvest a lot of wheat, they call it rainfed wheat, some areas are rain-fed, you scatter wheat in the desert, on the ground, hills, ups and downs, and so on, you collect the wheat, what is human nature? In the desert, you pour one kilogram of wheat, it gives you 50 kilograms of wheat, what about humans? How did we raise them? We give them everything, they consume whatever given to them, but do they respond to us or are they demanding and insulting us? If they do this, it is a wrong upbringing; this means we did not know how to raise them, we did not learn it, and we spoiled them, we ruined them, we corrupted them, we wasted [our time and energy] in our upbringing.
Now let’s return to our discussion, contentment. So, we all come from Nature, and nature is our mother. We must learn from it how to create the best from the simplest and least of resources. For example, from salty soil, bitter water, and animal manure, it brings forth the most beautiful flowers and the tastiest fruits. We must learn to create the best conditions for life with minimal resources and simultaneously plan in a way that we gradually strengthen the financial foundations of our lives. Of course, it is essential to note that our intention is not to become destitute and penniless for the rest of our lives, no, never ever. Because we can be generous and help others, only if we are rich, otherwise, a poor person is always begging others to receive some money. Finally, we shall understand that there is a big difference between being greedy and being content.
One told the crow to go and bring the most beautiful baby animal. The crow went and brought its own baby which is the ugliest among birds. They used to say that among all animals, the crow's baby is the ugliest, even the crow is told to go bring the most beautiful baby, it brings its own baby. Now, we humans, we all think our baby is the most beautiful baby in the world. We always spoil them and appreciate their talent and quality.
If you want to serve your children, educate them, teach them [how to behave]. Educating them is not as easy as it seems; they look at you and learn from you just as they learned to walk from you, just as they learned to talk, they learned language from you, just as they learned to sleep from you, just as they learned to wash their hands and face from you, just as they learned to eat from you, they also learned manners and etiquette from you, and it is your behavior that they learn from. So, if you want to educate them, the first step is to correct your own behavior, sitting, standing, and walking. If you are correct, the child will be correct; if your behavior is wrong, the child will be wrong too.
If you truly love your children and want to serve them, try to raise them, teach them culture, impart expertise, literacy, humanity, and art to them, and teach them sports. Raise them in this way. So, what was the interesting point for us? It was that contentment must be instilled, meaning we must cultivate the best things from the simplest resources. Putting everything within reach for your child is the worst way to raise them. Parents who don't have bread to eat buy five pairs of shoes, coats, clothes, and the best things for their children. Some parents claim we prepare everything for our children so that children will not develop any complex [psychological diseases]; however, they are spoiling their children, corrupting them; why do these parents say these words?!
They think since our child is going to school, they have to prepare the best for them. Well, I hope we raise good children for the society. The next issue we'll address is patience, which is the fourth step; the fifth step will be avoiding “stalking, contentment, backbiting”, the sixth step will be savings, and the seventh step will be trust [in God], contentment, and surrendering [to God]. In the old version, we had other parts, but they have been merged together. I hope we can make practical use of them.
Thank you for paying attention to my words.

Translated by Elahe

Part Two

Hello friends, I’m Hossein, a traveler. In our previous session, we worked on the first part of the Fifth Valley. We said that whatever we have in our mental world,whether it’s our thoughts or the structures that are formed through those thoughts,must eventually enter the practical and applicable stage. We explained that the First to the Fourth Valleys were all about our mental structures, but in the Fifth Valley we step into the operational stage. The domain of thought in the First to the Fourth Valleys showed us, to some extent, what needs to be done. Now we are entering the Fifth Valley.

The Fifth Valley means putting our thoughts and ideas into action. Look, in our country we’ve had some truly great figures,giants, really. Though to be honest, not so much in recent centuries. For the past four or five, maybe six hundred years, we haven’t really had anyone of that caliber. But when I say we have, I mean people like Rumi, like Suhrawardi, like Avicenna, Al-Biruni, and other well-known and outstanding scholars. They spoke of many things. But here’s the point: if ordinary people were to read what they wrote, they wouldn’t understand a word of it.
For example, take Ibn Arabi’s Meccan Revelations. It might be around forty volumes. I myself have at least twenty-five of them, and each one is six or seven hundred pages. You can read and read, and still not understand a thing. Or if you pick up Avicenna’s Pointers and Reminders, you won’t make sense of it either. Or The Four Journeys, which has been translated into Persian in several volumes,you can keep reading, but you still won’t grasp much, because these are difficult philosophical discussions with their own special language.
It’s just like medicine. When doctors talk among themselves, you don’t understand a word. One says, “His IBS is this, his DS that, his HIV looks like that,” and throws around terms about the pancreas and this and that,you don’t get what they’re saying at all. Philosophers are the same way. When they talk, we can’t follow, because they’re speaking in their own language with each other.

They themselves argue back and forth over certain issues, but what we really need today are the points that are close to the truth, the ones we can actually put into practice. If we just keep everything trapped within the old frameworks and definitions, it won’t do much. We need to expand it, open it up, and then we’ll get more results.
Last time, I spoke a bit about contentment. Until now, we always thought contentment meant things like saving on food, saving on money, and so on. But when we looked at it from a new perspective, we saw that contentment can play a role in every aspect of life. As people say nowadays, it’s about optimization,how to get the best output from the resources we have, how to achieve the maximum result from the minimum means.

Contentment means being able to live comfortably even in a fifty-square-meter space. There are people who can’t manage even in a two-hundred-square-meter home,it still feels cramped to them, just because they’ve filled it up with so much stuff and clutter. Contentment means that at every level of life, we learn how to get the most out of the least.
We gave an example before: the best model for contentment comes from nature itself. Think about it,when we give salty soil, bitter water, a little chemical fertilizer, or even just manure to the earth, it still produces the sweetest fruits, the most delicious harvests, the most beautiful flowers, the very things that are the essence of life. And yet, what about us humans? We’re always complaining to God,“I want this, I want that.”
We complain about what God has done for us, what our parents have done for us. But have we ever asked: what have we done for them? What have we done for other people? What have we done for nature? What have we done for our parents? At some point, we have to admit that we are less than a tree. We need to accept this truth. Sometimes a tree is given nothing more than salty water and a bit of manure, and in return, it gives the sweetest fruits.
Take a walnut tree, for instance. It doesn’t need much water. It doesn’t suffer from blight that needs constant spraying. It just needs a little plain water, and in return, it gives hundreds of thousands of tomans’ worth of walnuts each year, depending on the variety. One tree, with just a few buckets of water, produces so much. But what about us human beings? With all that we receive, what do we give back?
Think about what Congress 60 has given us. And then ask: what have we done for Congress 60? With everything we have received, how much have we given in return?

If we pay attention, we’ll see that sometimes we are even less than a sheep. Excuse the comparison, but some of us are even less than a tree. At least a sheep gives something,it gives milk, it gives yogurt, it gives cheese, it gives meat, it gives wool. But what about us? What have we given? What do we give at all?
So often, we waste and squander, and at the same time we act as if the whole world owes us something. We complain about everything. We complain about what others have done or not done for us. We complain about the government, about the country,what has the country done for us? But what have we done for our country? We complain about our family,what have we done for our family? We complain about Congress 60,but what have we done for Congress 60?
If we compare, the truth becomes clear. Contentment can play a role at every level of life. The best kind of contentment is when we learn how to make the very best use of the very least. To take the highest benefit out of the smallest means. And then look at nature,look closely. We, who call ourselves the noblest of creatures, what are we really doing?

Sometimes we’re even less than a desert bush, less than a tree, less than a sheep. Why? Because we turn into useless consumers. We consume everything, but we’re of no use, of no real service. What good are we? Sometimes we should put ourselves on trial and ask honestly: what good are we? Maybe the only answer we can give is that we’re good for reproduction. But animals reproduce too, don’t they? They mate, they produce offspring. So really, what good are we? This is a very important question.
Now, after that step we move on to the next one,patience. We already spoke about the earlier steps: repentance, restraint, and contentment. The fourth step is patience. And again, we must learn from nature. In fact, in all aspects of life, we need to learn from nature, we must take nature as our example. Humanity has always modeled itself after nature. Scientists too,they’ve taken all their examples from nature.
Look at airplanes; they were made by studying the flight of birds. Look at submarines; they were modeled after fish. Everything comes from nature. So when it comes to patience, we also have to look at nature. Let me read something: If we look at nature, we’ll see that for nature to produce its results, it always requires time. By passing through the different seasons, by gathering the raw materials and the essentials,water, soil, air, temperature,nature provides us with all kinds of crops and products.

Therefore, we can say that patience means passing through, going through, or enduring a period of time, along with the necessary effort and hard work, in order to reach a set goal. If we look at nature, everything that nature wants to produce comes with patience. Agricultural products grow with patience, with time, and with the passing of the seasons. So, we can say that patience means passing through, or going through, or enduring time, not to play with words, but time that is accompanied by effort and hard work. If you plant wheat or a tree and don’t water it, it may dry out. Sometimes it may grow on its own with rainwater, but still, it might dry out. So, it requires care, attention, and many things. Patience always requires effort and hard work.
So, patience is not some strange or mysterious thing that makes us think we are highly intellectual or wise just because we have patience. No, patience is simply one of the tools of life. There’s no way around it, we must have patience. Food needs time to cook; you must wait until it’s ready. To cook a meal, you need time. Agriculture, farming, everything, absolutely everything depends on patience.
So, patience means enduring time with effort in order to reach a goal. Of course, sometimes patience is very difficult, and sometimes it is bitter and exhausting. Patience is not always sweet. As I’ve heard, the word “patience” comes from the name of a plant that is extremely bitter, I hope I heard that correctly. So sometimes patience is bitter, hard, and exhausting. In the end, however, it is one of the essential elements of life that we must learn.
In every part of life, if you want to go from one point to another, you have to consider this element of time. Ultimately, patience is one of the necessary components of life that we must acquire, because after patience comes victory, and after the dark night comes the bright day.
I think this much is enough to understand that in all matters, we need patience. God also calls on human beings to practice patience in certain aspects of life, saying: “God is with those who are patient.” This is one of the divine attributes. Because at times, we may find ourselves in difficulty or hardship, and we must endure it. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, tomorrow has not yet arrived, so don’t cry out.
If you toss an apple into the air, before it lands, it spins countless times and takes countless shapes. Today, we may be in a crisis, in hardship, or in terrible suffering, and think the world has ended. But a year from now, things may change. Six months from now, two months, one month, even one hour later,everything may change, either for the better or for the worse.
So, if everything is going perfectly for you, don’t be overly happy. And if everything is filled with sadness and problems, don’t be overly upset either. Because life keeps moving. Right now, we are sitting here, but in the next moment, there could be an earthquake. We might no longer be here. There could be bad news, or there could be good news.

So, someone who takes their own life , commits suicide , that’s a grave mistake, because they don’t understand the philosophy of life. Life can change. Look at me: fifteen, sixteen years ago, who I was, where I was , every day I wished I’d die. But now? What changed? With patience, what comes? Victory comes.
So if we have problems, crises, hardships, we must be patient. Be long-suffering; don’t be hasty. Sometimes you want something desperately and God doesn’t give it to you , and sometimes that’s for your own good. For example, suppose someone desperately wants a child and God doesn’t give one. If they keep pushing and pushing, maybe they’d get a child born with severe disabilities , would that be better? Or maybe they’d end up with a partner who ruins their life. Insisting blindly can make your life miserable. So don’t let these things upset you , be patient and long-suffering. If God isn’t giving you something, it’s surely for your own good; God never intends harm for any of His servants.

All right, I packed this into the Fifth Valley and I added a little twist: I broke the Valley down into three topics under the Fifth Valley, spying, judgment and gossip. These three are extremely, extremely important, so I put them into this part of the program and I’ll read from it and then continue.
Now, the people who work in the police intelligence units and in law enforcement, God forbid you join those units, but if you do, there is a department called “investigation.” They have officers whose job is to snoop around, to search here and there, to find out who said what, where a theft happened; they stake out places, they catch thieves, they interrogate people, that is called “investigation.” The investigators in the police and the detectives who look for thieves and criminals, likewise judges who carry out legal judgments , all of these jobs are completely legitimate, lawful and humane. They perform a service, they receive salaries, job benefits, and they are respected by society. Yes , people who work in the detective branch or the judiciary , their work is lawful, they receive pay, they get benefits, the community respects them.
Now here’s the point I want to make: what about the rest of us? Who are we that we behave like busybodies, meddling in other people’s private affairs without pay, without authority, spying on them for no reason? Who gave us the right to do that? The person who goes out and investigates a robbery or a murderer, fine, that’s their job. But what about us, who start poking into other people’s business for free, with no mandate? That becomes mere snooping. What gives us the right?
Why should it matter to me whether someone bought a car with cash or on credit? What business is it of mine whether that earring they wear is theirs or borrowed, whether they wore it at a wedding? Why should I care whether they went to Italy, did they really go or did they just go to their village and come back claiming they were in Italy? Why does that concern me? Whether their husband is handsome or ugly, employed or unemployed, why is that my business?
These things simply shouldn’t concern us. Why do we get involved in other people’s affairs? Because we ourselves have problems. Because we ourselves feel lacking. Because we don’t have enough in our own lives. Because we have idle minds and nothing constructive to do. That’s why we pry. That’s the core of it.

A person who actually has work, who plans and is busy with their own life, doesn’t have time for this. Someone who’s idle, what do they do? They poke their nose into other people’s business; they snoop. So when they snoop and meddle, they pick up bits of information and “knowledge” that are all incomplete. Better if I just read it out.
So, this becomes a paragraph about one of our society’s problems, our society. Some advanced societies have moved past this phase. Advanced societies have left it behind. But our society still hasn’t gotten past it. In an alley, someone goes into a house and everybody wants to know who went where and what they were doing. At three in the afternoon everyone knows that Mr. Hasan had his camping lantern on and was smoking opium on a skewer, for example. The whole block knows; they all gossip to each other: “who went where, who did what, who went into that house, who was there.” Some societies have moved beyond that, but we haven’t. People are still wrapped up in this, obsessing over other people’s business. The more advanced a person’s life is, the less they care about others’ affairs, because they’re so busy with their own work and concerns they simply don’t have the time.
So the question arises: what is some of us doing, behaving like busybodies, spying on other people’s private affairs without pay or authority? Sometimes they even call it “a good deed” or “a virtuous curiosity.” What do they call it? A good deed, a pious act. Because, they say, no immoral or corrupt act takes place unless we dress it up in righteous clothing, that is, nothing that’s against values happens unless we put a nice-looking garment on it. We meddle, then we give it a pretty name, “curiosity,” “I’m being caring.” “I’m trying to make sure that girl doesn’t befriend some stranger boy.” Why does it matter to you if the girl next door makes friends with the neighbor’s boy? Let them be, why is it your business? Are you jealous? Upset? What business is it of yours? Yet they call it a good deed. But it’s not a good deed. Maybe they become friends, maybe they marry, and good comes of it , and you, in the name of doing good, are separating them. I’m giving this as an example.
So we put a nice label on the nosy things we do: we call it “charity,” we call it “curiosity,” we call it “merit.” In other words, the meddling we do, we rename it with a good-sounding label. We don’t call it meddling; we don’t call it prying into other people’s affairs, we call it “I’m curious,” or “I’m concerned.” “I want to make sure they don’t ruin themselves.” Meanwhile you’re worse than everyone, you yourself are the one who’s broken. You think you can stop their downfall? That’s what I’m saying, for example.

And then, sometimes they even call it a good deed, or a virtuous act, or “just curiosity.” And always, right after the nosing around and the gathering of half-baked, disconnected, and wrong information, they climb up onto the bench of judgment.
So they pry, they snoop, they collect a pile of faulty information, and then, sit themselves down in judgment. I’ve said it many times: on a single case, a judge, a prosecutor, and a defense lawyer may work for ten years, and a death sentence or life sentence can be handed down… only to find five years later that it was all wrong. The murderer wasn’t the person they convicted, somebody else confesses, or new evidence shows the whole thing was mistaken. With all the police, prosecutors, judges and so on involved, they still get it wrong.
And you , you stick your nose into other people’s lives, you snoop around, and then immediately you put yourself on the throne of judgment and issue your verdicts, based on a handful of flimsies, incorrect facts. Always, after meddling, after that sleuthing and that gathering of incomplete, absurd, and false information, they take their seat as judge and hand down the harshest punishments.
What do they do after they pass sentence? They become judge, and then what? The next step follows: the judgment is issued.
And then they even play the role of the enforcement office themselves. In the judiciary system, when a suspicious case comes up, a department called the detective bureau or the investigative unit runs it, they investigate, they review the files, they do the groundwork. They interrogate people, coax statements out of them, softly or roughly as the case may be; they gather evidence. That process is called “investigation.” When their work is done, the case goes to the judge, that’s another step. The judge looks at the papers: “You wrote this, you confessed here, this is the evidence.” The judge deliberates and eventually issues a ruling. That can take years. Once the judge issues the ruling, his job is basically finished, the sentence is handed over to another office called the Enforcement Department. What does the Enforcement Department do with the sentence? They carry it out.
But here’s the problem: some people play all three roles themselves. They investigate, they pass judgment, and then they enforce the sentence, all on their own. How do they enforce it? By gossip. They can’t put someone in jail, they can’t lash them, so the only punishment they can mete out is the gossip mill: they become a little factory of slander, talking behind that person’s back, over and over and over.
So we said: they pry, they collect incomplete and false information, they seat themselves in judgment, and then they hand down the harshest penalties , and then they take on the role of executioner too. They lean on that rotten, crumbling wall of gossip, and like a rumor-mongering shop they spread stories about this one and that one everywhere. And in the end, one day, while they’re giving their speech, that rotten wall will collapse on their own heads. And then, sure enough, they’ll run around looking for someone to blame.

They don’t realize, nor do they believe, that the real culprit is their own ignorance and unawareness, something that lies within themselves. After they’ve gone through all that, after issuing their judgment, what do they do? They sit down to gossip, here and there. As we said, in God’s book, in the Qur’an, it says that the one who backbites is like someone eating the flesh of his own dead brother. That’s how ugly, how vile this act is. That’s why I said such a person sits beneath the crumbling, rotten wall of gossip. Because he chooses to sit there, under the wall of gossip, a wall that’s already weak and broken, it means it won’t be long before it collapses on his own head. One way or another, the day will come when the wall crashes down on the head of the gossipmonger, and everyone will recognize him for what he is: a nosy busybody who has nothing better to do than whisper and talk behind people’s backs.
It is said: “Where will your words be heard? In the same place where you’ll hear the words of others.” And who will carry your words to another person? The same one who carries others’ words to you. So, whenever you sit in a gathering and hear people gossiping about someone else, know this: that very same gathering is the one where, if you’re absent, they’ll start gossiping about you.
So, just as I said before, one day while they’re busy talking, that wall will fall on their heads, that is, they will finally realize what’s happened. You can’t keep your own words to yourself, yet you expect others to keep your secrets? It always starts the same way: “I’ll tell you something, but don’t say it to anyone.” It always starts like that. You yourself can’t keep it, and yet you want someone else to? And then that word spreads, turning into what they call “one crow, forty crows.”
It’s like the old story: there was this man, Mash-Mohammad. He was making ablution when he sneezed, and at that very moment a crow flew in front of him. Someone saw it and thought the crow flew out of his nose when he sneezed. He went off saying, “Mash-Mohammad sneezed and a crow flew out of his nose.” He told someone else, and that person said, “No, it came out of his mouth.” That one told another, and the story spread. The crow became two, then three, then five, then ten, until eventually people were saying, “Mash-Mohammad sneezed and forty crows flew out of his nose.” That’s what they call “one crow turns into forty.”

So, sometimes we can’t even keep a single word to ourselves. We promise someone that we won’t tell anyone, that it’s private, and yet they go and tell someone else. And even if you promise not to tell, the cycle continues. Then, when the “wall” collapses on them, they start looking for someone to blame. What does that mean? They ask, “Who told so-and-so this?” They seek a culprit, not realizing that the mistake is their own. The fault lies within themselves.
Another issue we face is what we call “circumventing” or “going around.” Sometimes you need to say something in the right place, but you don’t. Instead, you take it somewhere else. For example, in the legions, if a problem arises, the proper thing is to bring it to your guide. But instead, you bypass your guide, going to someone higher, or even to others who can’t actually do anything about it. The point is, you speak to everyone except the person you should have spoken to. This is what we call circumventing, and it’s a major mistake.
The best approach is always to go directly to the person involved. If you have a problem in your system, or within your family with your brother or sister, go and talk to them directly. Sometimes people will gossip to neighbors, friends, everyone, but they won’t speak to the person who actually matters. Then, when the person finds out, they ask, “Why didn’t you tell me yourself?”
I remember one of my friends came to me years ago, complaining about a colleague. They had a disagreement. I listened carefully to everything, and then I said, “Go tell the person directly what you told me.” They did, and surprisingly, they became very good friends afterward.
So, whenever you have a problem with someone, go and tell them directly. Sharing it with others only complicates things. For instance, if a guide has an issue, they might not tell the Marzban, the Agent, or the Watchman. Instead, they tell four or five other people across different branches, making the situation worse. This is something I need to accept, find a proper way to explain, and address in a discussion one day.

In general, there’s the issue of gossip, you shouldn’t say certain things. Then there’s the situation where you need to say something in the right place, but you end up saying it somewhere else. My advice to you is: if you have a problem with someone, go and tell them directly at a good time when they’re in a calm state. Say, “I have this issue with you,” or “I have this problem with you.” Then they can explain, and you may realize that the fault is actually yours, or it could be a misunderstanding, or perhaps your perception was completely wrong.
If you have a problem, instead of calling a hundred people and telling them, just call the person involved and say, “I have this issue with you, what should I do?” Pick a good time. This is one matter.
Another thing I added to this path is based on stages that great masters go through. For example, Attar’s Seven Valleys of Love, or the late Jami’s stages: the student, then ethical refinement, then ecstasy and astonishment, then longing and agitation, leading to annihilation in God and subsistence through God. I’ve taken these and added elements that are relevant to people today, like curiosity, spying, gossip.
I’ve also added the concept of saving, “savings”, which I don’t think appears in any of these classical teachings. Many people think saving is only for those who already have money. If you ask them why they don’t save, they’ll laugh and say, “I don’t even have a grave to be buried in, where would I get money to save?” They assume saving is only for the wealthy. I completely disagree with this.
Saving is for those who have nothing. Saving is for a poor person, for someone with minimal income. My belief is that someone who is wealthy already has everything saved within their wealth; they don’t need to save externally. So saving is not just for those who are well-off, it’s for those who have little, and they need to learn the way to save.
I had the same thought myself, but everything I teach I first practice. If I learn and practice something and see the result, then I teach it. Whether it’s a classical lesson or a modern application, one of the practices I’ve followed is saving. I started saving 14–15 years ago. My work began with the book 60 Degrees. Now the fifteenth edition is out. My other notes and booklets are printed once a year, about five thousand copies per year, just my own books. The cost of printing five thousand books is at least fifteen million tomans, just for the books.
Other than that, for my cultural projects and other work, I saved money. When my savings reached 200 tomans, I’d buy a coin, a half coin, or a full coin. Now that a coin costs 950 tomans, I bought it for 210 tomans when it used to be 200.

One day in class, I told you all that women should go and buy gold. Gather your money, instead of spending it on useless things, sofas, TVs, or this and that, take your money and buy gold. Each grain is a peak in the warehouse; on the ground, water settles firmly.
You can have a piece of bread with cheese tonight, or order pizza for 8,000 or 12,000 tomans. If you eat the cheese, the rest can be saved. Think about it: if you eat three pizzas, or two pizzas, that’s 30,000 tomans, you can manage with 3,000 tomans, have bread and cheese, grapes, or two egg omelets. You can do a lot with it. I started 15 years ago. One day in a session, I told you, and I said again a year or two ago, if you ever see me building a tower, don’t say, “Mr. Dezhakam stole from us.” Pay attention: I’m doing this from savings. I bought land for 15 million tomans, sold the first property with difficulty, and now I have 80 million tomans. I tell you, everything I’m doing now comes from savings.
We must learn to save. Members in Congress 60 must learn to save in their lives and avoid waste. As I told you about contentment, know that contentment without saving is useless. Contentment must come with savings. You all need to understand that the wealthy already have wealth, they don’t need to save. Saving is for us, those whose financial situation is not good.
When you get 20 tomans, 10 tomans, or 5,000 tomans, hide it somewhere, transform it into something else. We need to implement this practice in all branches. You don’t realize it, but it’s like those overweight people who eat a lot of food and claim they haven’t eaten anything. I say, take everything you ate today and put it in a basket, you’ll see it adds up: a flatbread, a puffed snack, bread, biscuits, sweets, tea. You say, “I didn’t eat much,” but if you add it all together, it’s significant. 500 tomans, 2,000 tomans, 10,000 tomans, put them together and see what happens.
That silo is made up of individual grains; wheat is counted grain by grain in the warehouses. We must learn this from childhood and teach our children. Savings are like grains of wheat in a warehouse. Life is a path,a winding path full of unpredictable ups and downs.

So, one of the points that can somewhat smooth this path is savings, and these savings can be both material and spiritual. Here, of course, we focus on material savings, because life’s path is full of ups and downs, and savings can help buffer some of these difficulties.
For example, I once had a heart problem and didn’t have my insurance booklet, had nothing at all. Suddenly, you face heavy expenses. You must always have something so that, with savings, you can manage and make this path a bit easier. Savings can be material, but they can also be spiritual: doing good deeds, or saving knowledge and awareness, these are all forms of savings.
Some may say, “I have nothing to begin with, how can I trade with sighs?” Here, “sigh” means complaining or lamenting, and “trading” or “commerce of sighs” is trying to exchange complaints for something. But reason dictates that if we have no bread to eat, and after a week of hunger a loaf becomes available, we shouldn’t consume it all at once. Instead, we eat half and save the other half for another day.
Saying, “We are starving, we have nothing, and suddenly a loaf comes after a week of hunger, let’s eat it all,” is the thinking of a foolish person. No, we eat half and save half. This is the wisdom of balancing present needs with future security. This is the thinking of foolish people who say, “No, let’s just eat whatever we have; live for the moment. Who knows who will be dead or alive tomorrow?”

When you were singing and chirping with joy, were you thinking about your winter? They say, “No, let’s just eat now; live for the moment.” Some people live only for others; they are truly foolish. I apologize, “foolish” isn’t the right word, they are miserable, always slapping their own faces to appear prosperous, working hard just to show others how well-off they are. That doesn’t help anyone.
There was a man named Abbas Agha whose father was wealthy. Later, their financial situation declined. He had thick mustaches and would smear them with a piece of fat before going out. Then, outside with his friends and children, he would say, “Oh, what a wonderful pilaf we ate, what a great kebab,” patting his mustaches. One day, as he was doing this, his little son ran up and said, “Dad, the fat you were using on your mustaches… the cat took it!” (laughter)
Sometimes life is like that, you don’t need to go through such trouble. Live your life for yourself. It doesn’t matter what others think or say about your possessions or lifestyle. You don’t need to impress anyone or live according to their judgment. Others matter, but they don’t control you. Whether I have dinner tonight or not, what does it matter to anyone else?
Life is simple, don’t wear masks to please others. Wearing a mask is exhausting; it drains your energy. Be yourself. Live your life for yourself, not for others. If my score is fifty, fifty has value; if it’s twenty, twenty has value; even if it’s five, five has value. There’s no need to pretend you’re a hundred when you’re only five.
So, as we said, if we get a piece of bread, we eat half and save half for the future. Saving is fundamentally for those who don’t have enough, though wealthy people may not need it. But with a little reflection, we realize that saving is essential for everyone, and even necessary for countries.

If a country doesn’t save, it will face crises and problems. Look at all countries, they store enough wheat for a year or two, keep fuel in silos for a year or two, hold gold to back their currency, and stockpile grain in silos. Saving is a necessity.
Ultimately, saving itself carries wisdom and a kind of miracle; until we practice it, we cannot truly grasp its power and blessing. It has strength, wisdom, and a miracle, until we act on it, we won’t understand its magnitude. We must feel it and teach our children to value it.
So, saving is one of the most important and significant matters in life. We must plan carefully, set aside a portion, and turn potential extravagances into savings that may serve us in the future. In the past, the greatest support for women who cared for their families was gold. Most women in our towns would convert small bits of their household resources into gold because it always appreciates, ever since humans discovered it, it has always increased in value.
Women would save gold bit by bit, over ten, fifteen, or twenty years, and eventually help their husbands buy a home. Many of the old men who bought houses were able to do so thanks to the savings their wives had accumulated. They would save gradually, until they had half a kilo, two hundred grams, or one hundred grams of gold.
What about women today? They have seven, eight, or ten bottles of perfume, two kilos of cosmetics, three or four kilos of glitter, rouge, and other things that don’t have lasting value. This is where we need to evaluate priorities. Spending hundreds on perfumes, creams, or cosmetics is not inherently wrong, I like perfume and cosmetics myself, but the problem is the lack of proportion.
Tomorrow there may be difficulties: illness, poverty, famine, shortages, or war. Life doesn’t always revolve on a single axis; circumstances change constantly. Everyone must have savings, hidden under blankets, under mats, or under rugs, ready and available. Our fathers, and some of our mothers, didn’t teach us this. We must learn it ourselves and be able to teach it to others.

My father never taught me what saving is, nothing at all. In the family, we didn’t learn many things we should have. Many lessons were left untaught. Now, that time has passed, but we must learn these lessons ourselves and then teach them to our children.
The next issue brings us to the seventh step. I’m reading it as it is, just this one now. Previously there were seven: reliance, gratification, surrender, and the others, each separate. I combined them all and added a few paragraphs to them.

It is proper that in all stages of life we move forward with thought, effort, and diligence, and always make the Absolute Power our reliance, keeping our eyes on His guidance and support in every circumstance. He says the best thing is that in all stages of life we put all our effort and diligence into action and make God our reliance, meaning we trust in God, saying: “We do our part, You are our reliance; whatever is meant for us, you determine,” and with heart, tongue, and action, we accept with satisfaction whatever is decreed by Him. We trust in God.
See, there are three stages: the stage of the tongue, the stage of the heart, and the stage of action. Sometimes we love someone only with our tongue, we say we love them. Sometimes we love with both tongue and heart, our feelings in the heart align with what we say. And sometimes, we love with tongue, heart, and action. For example, if He says, “Give a thousand tomans,” you might say, “I can’t give it,”, you love with your tongue, love with your heart, but you cannot act. Sometimes it’s with tongue, with heart, and with action, and all three must align.
Now, if we trust in God and make Him our reliance, we must be satisfied with whatever occurs, with heart, tongue, and action, accepting what is decreed by Him. Sometimes we ask, “Why is my child sick? Why my house? Why my spouse? Why my friend? Why my family? Why my city?”, as if death or misfortune should only happen to others. We must be satisfied with everything from God.
Now, if we pass through these first two stages, reliance and gratification, we can enter the stage of complete surrender to the Absolute Power. Of course, in the stage of gratification, whatever the Absolute Power decrees, if it aligns with our desires, we are mostly satisfied and pleased. But in the stage of surrender, if something good happens, we are pleased, and if a difficulty occurs, it may not feel pleasant, yet we have no personal desire except the desire of the Absolute Power.
When we reach the stage of surrender, we ourselves have no wishes; our wish is only the wish of God. In the stage of gratification, if what the Absolute Power decrees aligns with our desires, we are mostly satisfied. But in surrender, we have no desire other than that of the Absolute Power. We have neither agreement nor disagreement. Anyone at the stage of surrender has nothing personal to assert: whether it says wear a white cloak or a black one, whether it says become a prophet or go astray, whether follow the path of light or darkness, it makes no difference.
In the stage of surrender, whatever is said must be accepted with “yes,” because there is no personal desire, our desire is the desire of the Absolute Power. We have neither agreement nor opposition. It should be noted that executing the stage of surrender is extraordinarily difficult, exhausting, and demanding.

The stage of reliance itself requires a lot; a person must truly reach the point of trusting God and making Him their reliance. This stage is difficult, but even harder is the stage of gratification. After gratification, we move to surrender. We can talk about it and read about it, but very few people truly reach the stage of complete surrender to God’s will.
As we say, it is hard and exhausting, but once a person acquires the necessary conditions and enters this stage, everything changes. In other words, it is a stage that is difficult for some and easy for others. It is extremely challenging, but I want to emphasize that once someone reaches the stage of surrender, it no longer feels difficult. If someone were to say, “Your father must be torn to pieces,” the person would say, “Tear him to pieces”, it would not feel hard for them.
So, this stage is hard and exhausting, but once a person is ready and enters it, the situation changes. In other words, it is hard for some and easy for others. Right now, we are only becoming familiar with it and trying to learn it little by little. We are just getting acquainted and attempting to learn.
In any case, in the fifth Valley, we must transform our mental structures into practical and executable structures. This marks the end of the fifth Valley, year 91.
Thank you all for listening to my talk.

Translated by: Companion Marjan

9/24/2025