In this book, the author delves into fundamental questions in the theory and practice of Sufism. The book is based on his own personal experience of mysticism. In accessible language, the author enlightens the reader on the secrets of mystical knowledge and mystic practices, discussing in detail how these practices should be performed and under what conditions. The book is unique for having been written by a contemporary mystic and containing both knowledge of the essence of the Sufi tradition and a deep knowledge of the mindset of the contemporary seeker. An open-minded reading of the book may prove an invaluable aid to the individual work of a true seeker.

The sketches presented in this book contain practically no full biographical information of any kind about the lives of its subjects. They are devoted to research about their mission, message and what the Sufis call the Work. I wrote about those whom I consider to be really great mystics although not all of them are recognized as such. I didn’t begin to limit myself to only an analysis of the activity of specific Teachers, but included in the book several essays on the later stages of the Sufi Way and methods of transmitting knowledge. In my view, they enable the reader to understand more fully and deeply the situation in which any real mystic finds himself. In this book, I propose answers to many questions that I know for sure torment many seekers. I hope that it will be useful to them as for all those in general who are interested in the Way – in the widest most sense of that word. After all, the experience of the Work of every mystic is the most valuable knowledge, available to us in an ordinary state of perception.

I wrote this book using transcripts of my public lectures in 2016. The topics discussed at those meetings combined what I planned to tell myself and what the attendees were interested to hear about. The result was a series of lectures covering practical and theoretical aspects of spiritual search and the work on the self. The book is not a verbatim record of what I said at the talks, nor does it include most questions from the audience. I have rewritten much of the material, using my lecture notes as a basis rather than reproducing what I said initially. Therefore, although I kept the headings, the content has been altered to improve consistency and add more in-depth analysis. In any case, those inclined to learn more about self-work in general and within the Sufi context, in particular, will benefit from this book. All the more so, several aspects discussed here were never raised in my earlier books.

As The Keys to Self-Awareness fell out of tune with my later books, something had to be done. After weighing the pros and cons and realizing the need for a few clarifications, I decided to proceed with the writing of comments on my own text. Considering how far I had come since then in laying out the Truth, this approach appears to be logical enough. On the one side, the original text remains intact and conveys the message embedded in it at the beginning. On the other side, the text is now supported by new comments that add to the knowledge from the earlier book. This is the task I assigned to myself and completed by adding comments to the text where they will hopefully give the readers the intended broader picture and deeper understanding of the subject.