The mysticism of our seeing and knowing is precisely what our nafs tries to hide from us. Our nafs wants its world to stay fixed, opaque, hostile to deeper vision. At the same time, and paradoxically, the nafs is a creation of our mystical longing for oneness – or as we usually experience it, familiarity.*
James Carse

Every little action toward our Future Self is you more fully being your Future Self now.**
Ben Hardy

The Sufi nafs is the self –
I often speak of the Self as being false or True, whilst
Sufism considers its existence along a continuum of seven stages;^
That we each can grow and become is both exciting
and troublesome,
For whether we believe in god or not, we are both
on the hook and effort is required
for expanding our talent and character:
This possibility overlaps with our mythic life,
The greater story we at times find that
we are longing for:
The old way of doing things are
no longer working. We are now seeking
the emergence of
the deeper story. We are seeking
our mythic lives.^^

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory;
**Ben Hardy’s Be Your Future Self Now;
^Inciting, self-accusing, at peace, inspired, pleased, pleasing, and pure;
^^Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us.