Practicing Presence

The "flip side" of ecstatic witness is the practice of presence: being-there-for-others. The central room of the dervish khanqa or lodge is, traditionally, the kitchen. The aspirant (murid) typically arrives at the lodge with the conviction that, within, lies ecstasy. And ecstasy does lie "within"--the dervish herself. In the lodge, on the other hand, is community: and community involves work. The kitchen is the place to begin a life of being-there-for-others: it is a place of intensive manual labor providing an essential service. The murid who cannot be troubled to serve here is not ready for the dervish life.

Here lies another distinction between the state of ecstasy and the state of service. [Ecstasy] is the individual way and goal; a rope is stretched over the abyss, tied to two slender trees shaken by the storm: it is trod in solitude and dread by the foot of the venturer. Here there is no human community, neither in doubt nor in attainment. Service, however, is open to many souls in union. The souls bind themselves to one another for greater unity and might. There is a service that only the community can fulfill.

Martin Buber, The Life of Hasidism, "Avoda: Service."