The Gateway to Returning to the Essence

Everything begins with a seed. Our thoughts, words, choices… all are seeds secretly sown into the soil of tomorrow. Whatever seed we plant today, we shall harvest its fruit tomorrow.

Thoughts are the silent seeds of our future emotions. Words become the deep roots of our relationships. Choices lay the foundation stones of our character. Therefore, a person must frequently turn inward and ask:

• Which seed am I planting in the soil today?
• Which thought am I watering and nurturing?
• Which habit am I cultivating and allowing to branch out?

Consciousness should be as pure as clear water; intention should flow as simply as the wind. For even the tiniest seed, when planted in the right place and tended with a clean intention, can grow into a vast forest, offering shelter to countless lives.

In this inner journey, the most common mistake is confusing the means with the end. Yet the means exist only to bring us closer to the goal. A means is a bridge, a door, a step; it is crossed, used for positive benefit, and then left behind. The goal, however, is essence itself—the source of intention, the compass of direction.

If a means is sanctified and regarded as the ultimate end, a person becomes distracted along the path. Elevating the tool blinds one to the real goal. The correct approach is to value the means for its function while keeping the eye firmly fixed on the true destination, the truth at the core of one’s being.

Returning to the essence is remembering oneself. Every step we take, every tool we use, every door we pass through either brings us closer to our truth or draws us away from it.

We plant the seed, we water it, we reap it. Every harvest echoes our intention. If the roots are strong and the intention pure, the path becomes clear. The true goal is to use the means for positive benefit and, through this, arrive at ourselves, at our essence.

Syriac wisdom states: “Those who sanctify the means corrupt the goal.” The genuine purpose is to steer clear of deceptive and impure motives, turning instead toward the Divine Essence within and its light. For within every human being resides the breath of God; this light is the lantern for the seeker’s path.

The self, however, obscures the truth with countless veils. Its most subtle trick is to deceive the mind. When the mind becomes a plaything of the self, it is tainted with cunning, selfishness, and opportunism. Yet the mind nourished by love and combined with awareness allies itself with prudence, sincerity, and honesty. This alliance sustains the inner balance of the person.

The soul resembles a multifaceted crystal whose essence is pure love. Yet the surface of this crystal is coated with mud called ego. Life, the long journey we travel, is the art of cleansing this sacred crystal of its mud and polishing its surface. Without polishing, the high life-energy within—love—cannot awaken, grow, or radiate its light.

Those who discover their spiritual self are the ones who patiently cleanse this mud, revealing the brilliance of their inner essence. They are mature human beings; by simply being, they find themselves. Those who cannot cleanse remain captive to the layers of ego; though physically mature, they remain spiritually childlike. They define themselves not through being, but through possession or approval.

Thus, the true journey is a door opening inward, not outward. This door lies hidden within each of us. Whoever patiently opens it nourishes the seed within and witnesses the silent awakening of a forest. Whoever preserves and grows the light within illuminates their own path and becomes a doorway for others.

The gateway to returning to the essence is not an end; it is a beginning that reopens with every step. And that door waits to be opened within the heart of each of us.

Yusuf Beğtaş