The Drunken Sufi path of love

THE PATHS IN THIS GARDEN reflect the winding steps of Sufi mystics, drunk on the divine, but they are also like the paths we all travel through life. Out near the edge, we are faced with a seemingly impenetrable maze of alternatives, and each of us must wind our own unique way between the flowerbeds, sometimes crossing places we have passed long before, sometimes becoming deeply entangled with the paths of others. The subtle coherence of this pattern of paths eludes us more often than not, but we will enjoy the journey more when we take the time to smell the flowers we pass along the way.

As we travel in towards the heart of the garden, a golden pathway radiating out from the centre begins to interlock with our own chaotic tracks, offering a glimpse of another level, another way of understanding the journey. Under its magnetic influence, our paths fall gradually into harmony with the whole, becoming one with its elegantly regular design. Ornamental pools reflect ever clearer skies until, at last, we reach the golden pavilion at the garden’s centre, and from there we may survey the beauty and harmony of the whole journey as it now stands revealed to us.