Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Healing Papers
1,1: Magnetism
1: Magnetism
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One of the aspects of personal magnetism is physical magnetism, which has three kinds of attraction.
- One kind comes because the mechanism of the body is working properly, regularly, when the circulation of the blood is right and when proper care is taken of the body.
- The next depends on the attractiveness of the form and features with which a person is born.
- The third is caused by harmonious movement.
The person who lacks any of these three things will naturally lack magnetism. As there is the blossoming of the trees, so there is the time in a person's life when he blossoms, a time which is called youth, when this magnetism expresses itself in its fullness. It comes as a season and it goes as a season.
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The second aspect of magnetism is the magnetism of mind. A person of thought and wit, one who is quick to grasp something and apt in expressing his ideas to others, naturally has magnetic power.
This magnetism of thought can also be divided into three kinds.
- One is thoughtfulness. A thoughtful person may not perhaps speak one word, nor do anything, but the very fact that he is thoughtful will attract others to him.
- The next way in which the magnetism of mind manifests is in the form of speech, of wit, of expression. Those who are in the presence of a man who has a living mind are immediately won by his magnetism.
- And the third kind of magnetism of the mind is the power of perception and conception. There are people to whom we at once feel attracted, to whom we feel close, who understand us and what we say and what we mean. Such a person need not speak or explain anything in order to show his magnetic power. He may sit before us and listen to us, and while we are talking to him we feel at one with him.
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The third aspect of magnetism is the magnetism of heart. It is more powerful than the magnetism of mind, for the latter touches the surface whereas the magnetism of heart touches the depths of a person. The heart can be best described as a glowing fire if it is living, but when it is dead it is like frozen snow. Magnetism of heart needs no expression, for a person with a loving heart is indubitably magnetic. Therefore no one should profess to love, for love speaks for itself; it needs no words. The fire does not cry out, "I am burning!" The heat of the glow is felt without words.
The magnetism of the heart can also be divided into three kinds.
- One is the heart that receives love. It has the magnetism of the moon; the cooling effect of the moon is seen in the beloved soul.
- Then there is the heart that loves, and this has a more powerful magnetism, a magnetism which can be likened to the sun, which is powerful and which shines.
- And the third kind of love is greater, finer, and more subtle than the two mentioned above: it is developed when the love becomes a continually springing fountain, which rises as a stream and falls as many drops. It is the love of souls who cannot help but love, the love of souls who only know love, not hate; the love of souls who are no longer the possessors of love but who have become love itself. Their magnetism spreads in a wider horizon and lasts longer than one could ever imagine.
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The fourth and highest aspect of magnetism is the magnetism of the soul. The soul that is born again, the soul that has begun to live, the soul that has opened its eyes to the world, that soul not only attracts the wise and the virtuous, but also those who are devoid of wisdom and who lack virtue.
- The presence of souls who have awakened is itself a magnetism; it draws people walking on the earth and it draws souls that are not seen on the earth. It not only draws the living beings, the lower creation, but also the trees and plants are drawn to it.
- The atmosphere that an awakened soul produces lives for centuries in this world, unbroken and unpolluted. The sky takes care of it and preserves it for generations, in order to experience and enjoy this atmosphere produced by the illuminated souls.
- And the third way in which the illuminated soul shows its magnetism is in words and acts, so that every word becomes dynamic, in Biblical terms a tongue of flame; and everything this soul gives to the world remains; it lives and never dies.
2: Physical Magnetism
There is not much difference between magnetism and vibration, but at the same time we use the word vibration for that which we can feel in some form or other, which we can perceive, which is more intelligible; whereas we are not always conscious of magnetism and it is not always intelligible although it has an effect on us. Sometimes magnetism may work for a long, long time before we are even conscious of it. Nevertheless, these are one and the same thing; in the aspect where it is intelligible we call it vibration because we feel the movement, whereas in the aspect of magnetism we may not feel it until its effect manifests to our view.
It is not always that one is attracted or feels repulsion on meeting a person, though it may happen that one is attracted or repulsed by merely seeing a person. Attraction or repulsion is something which takes place in less than a moment. The finer a man is the more he is awakened to this sense of attraction or repulsion, and as soon as he casts his glance over a person he either feels attracted or repelled. The only difference is that the wise see all and rise above it, whereas people of little sense react instantly. Nevertheless, every person gives an impression in an instant which calls out either attraction or repulsion.
Treating this subject from a physical point of view only, the first important thing which works automatically on another person is form and feature. The reason is that every individual is partly, even if not wholly, responsible for his form and features. Form and features do not represent only a family resemblance, but they tell us something about the person's mentality, his attitude of mind, his outlook on life, his condition. The first principle in regard to feature and form, besides the right formation, is the right proportion. Upon this depend attraction and repulsion. No doubt everyone sees it differently, because the sense of proportion is different in everyone, and therefore the impression is also different. And when we look at it from the artistic point of view, we find that there is a sense which is more developed in some and less in others, a sense which is awakened and which is touched by line and color.
The next aspect of physical magnetism can be seen in the regularity of the working of the physical body, in the rhythm of the heart and the pulse and in the circulation of the blood; also in the purity of the body, within and without. This magnetism is sustained by a regular life, by taking care of one's health and vigor, and by maintaining a regular rhythm of life. A man, absorbed as he is in his daily affairs, often neglects his body which is a vehicle to express the spiritual ideal. His neglect is sometimes due to his absorption in his daily work, sometimes to thoughtlessness, and sometimes because he does not trouble to think about it.
Another aspect of physical magnetism can be observed in the movements. By this is not meant dancing movements, but movements in ordinary life: walking, sitting, eating, drinking. Every moment one shows the bent of one's mind with every turn one takes. We can see from a man's movements what his weakness is and what his strength is; his movements can tell us of his wretchedness and of his joy. A person with awkward movements will always have an awkward mentality, a person with crude movements will naturally be coarse. This does not mean that one should develop artificial movements in one's everyday life in order to make one's movements more beautiful and appealing; that would be still worse, Nothing that is artificial has any power; that which attracts is an innocent movement. It manifests naturally; one cannot help moving in a certain way. Control over one's actions, over one's movements, gives a person magnetism; and the one who moves automatically loses that magnetism, whereas the one who gains control over his movements develops a power of magnetism which manifests in different forms. Is it not clear that a person who walks stamping on the floor with his feet has something hard in his mentality? A person may show his animal tendencies in the way he eats; also the way he sits, the way he looks, the way he speaks, and the way he acts in every capacity of life, are expressive of the condition of his mind.
Many do not observe all this, and yet they are affected by it just the same. Either they are attracted to someone or they are repulsed by him without his having said one word. Very often a person goes to look for work in an office, in a shop or elsewhere, and the man who appoints him, before he asks him any question has gained a first impression of him without even knowing it himself; and it is this impression which directs the whole conversation that he has with that person. He may ask him a hundred questions or only two questions, but they are dictated by the first impression he received in one instant. Naturally an ordinary person is not awakened to the higher aspects of magnetism, but everyone in a greater or lesser degree possesses a sense to feel and to be affected by physical magnetism.
3: The Magnetism Of The Mind
In many cases the magnetism of the mind proves to be more powerful than physical magnetism. It can be divided into five aspects.
The man who has a keen perception can win the hearts of both the foolish and the wise, because he understands them both. The wise man looks for someone who will understand his wisdom, but the foolish man is also longing to meet someone who will listen to his story and who will understand him. For the foolish person is always rejected; everybody gets tired of listening to his stories and tries to avoid him. The wise man, with his rare thoughts of wisdom, is always disappointed in people, and when he meets someone who can perceive his ideas this gives him a joy beyond words. It is because of this that a perceptive faculty in a person makes him loved by all.
The next aspect of mind is creative. It may manifest in the form of an invention or in a work of art; it may manifest in the form of composing music, writing poetry, and in many other forms. This aspect shows a most wonderful quality of God, namely creation. The creative genius has always the sword of victory in his hand, and all he does will bring him success and give his personality that magnetism which attracts everyone who understands his merit.
The third aspect of the mind is reasoning, judging. The man who has the faculty of reasoning and of justice is sought by everyone. He is the one to depend upon and to accept advice from. This faculty will show in all he says and does, and it will win for him many who are attracted by it.
The fourth aspect of the mind is memory. A man who can remember verses, songs, words, or ideas collects knowledge within himself. It is he who may be called learned, who has within him a storehouse of all he has studied, experienced and seen, and this gives him a magnetic influence which attracts those who value learning.
Sometimes people, wishing to improve a weak memory, attempt to memorize more and more, but [. . . text missing; suggest: "it is not through artificial exercise of the memory"] faculty that the faculty develops. Very often we remember things which are useless. There are many things which it is not necessary to remember, and in trying to do so we make our memory tired with those thoughts; consequently, it is not free to remember other, more important things. It is no longer open; it becomes limited; it closes itself with the thoughts it has in it, and this may even develop insanity. The best advice in regard to memory is to forget all the disagreeable things of the past, and only to remember the most beautiful ones.
The fifth aspect of the mind is feeling. The mind that has a touch of feeling is brilliant like a diamond. It has a liquid quality, for the warmth of feeling liquefies the crystal-like mind. A man with such a mind shows this quality in what we call wit, and also in tact. Wit is a play of delicate feelings, of humor or joy, and the thought which it forms manifests in speech or action. It has a cunning way of winning those who have subtle perception. When three or four people are sitting together, and a serious person comes and sits down among them like a rock, hard and stiff and devoid of any sense of humor, he kills even the atmosphere of the place; but when someone, even if he is a stranger, joins them and shows that he possesses the quality of wit, he wins them all in a few moments. The mentality of the witty person can be called a dancing mind, and to have a witty mind is a wonderful manifestation of nature; it is a great quality. A witty person can make words dance; his phrases can give us the joy of a symphony.
The serious manifestation of this quality is tact. It is essentially the same as wit; when wit is developed and centralized it becomes tact. Everyone can feel, think, speak, and act, but not everyone is always tactful. It takes lifelong study and practice to be tactful, and even if a person becomes tactful at the last moment of his life it is worthwhile. The magnetism of a tactful person is beyond words. Every word and movement, every action of his, will have an influence on those whom he meets, for he is not only a considerate person; he is consideration itself. It is not that all sympathetic people are always tactful. There are people who are most loving and yet tactless; the more they want to please their friends, the more they displease them. Their loving words can become stones instead of flowers. This does not mean that they have no love, that they have no sympathy; it only means that they do not possess this great wealth of mind which is tact.
There are three degrees of the rhythm of mind. There is a mind which creates slowly and perceives slowly, there is a mind which creates gently and perceives gently, and the third degree is the mind which perceives quickly and creates thoughts quickly. There is a particular phenomenon that manifests from these three rhythms of the mind, each of which has its particular influence. The three qualities of the mind ñ slow, gentle, and quick ñ are the outcome of the three Gunas, as they are called in Sanskrit: Satva, Rajas and Tamas. There is one person to whom we may say something and he answers, "Will you give me time to think it over? May I tell you about it tomorrow?" The answer that he will give us will surely be of some worth. There is another person who has heard us say something and he says, "And then, what then?"; and then we go on speaking, and while we are saying something else he is thinking about what has struck his mind. By the time we have finished our conversation he has found a proper answer to what we said first. And there is a third man who answers us even before we have finished our sentence; far from thinking about what we have said, he has not even heard it. He has at once formed an opinion on it and promptly gives an answer. Such a man may easily make a mistake.
In conclusion we might say that there are two principal mentalities, of which one may be called a living mind and the other a dead mind. A living mind will show its life by its creative and perceptive quality. The pleasure that a man derives from a clear mind and a living mentality is a pleasure that cannot be compared with the pleasures that belong to this earth. A brilliant intellectuality imparts the pleasure of flying in the air, it lifts one above the earth. The thinker is like a bird that flies in the air compared with the man who is like an animal that stands on its four legs; and the joy of the bird that flies in the air is beyond comparison with the pleasure of the animal that walks on the earth.
4: Magnetism of the Heart
The living heart has the same quality as the primal being of God, and it is because of this that the heart of man is the greatest magnet there is. The primal aspect of the divine Being, as it is said in the Bible, is love; the manifestation of the same principle in its fullness is to be found in the heart of man, and thus the awakening of the heart is in fact the awakening of God. In the person whose heart is not awakened, God is not yet awakened.
There is nothing in the world that draws people closer together than sympathy. A simple answer to the question as to what attracts and what repulses, will be that sympathy attracts and that antipathy gives a feeling of repulsion. Some people have sympathy for one person and antipathy for another, but when they feel antipathy for somebody this eats up the magnetism which is created in their hearts by sympathy, and therefore they will always lack magnetism. What is created on one side is used up on the other side.
Heart quality is that which attracts not only mankind but even animals and birds. When traveling abroad we very often meet a person who does not know one word of our language, and yet we feel a silent friendship with him. He may not speak, but his heart speaks and our heart hears it. The living heart is such a phenomenon that it needs no pleading. A sympathetic person need not say, "I like you very much." Sympathy speaks for itself. The voice of the heart reaches us before a word is uttered. The voice of the heart is louder, the words that the heart speaks are clearer than the words of any language. No barrier remains when the heart draws a person, neither land nor water, for the heart is a phenomenon in itself. If there is anything in man that can be called living it is the heart, not heart in the physical sense but in the mystical sense.
There are three reasons why a person may be attracted to another: in one case the heart quality of the one is the same as that of the other with only very little difference; then they are attracted. The second reason is that the heart quality of the one is quite opposite to that of the other. And the third reason is that in the one there is a heart and in the other there is a stone.
The explanation of the first of these three rules is that like attracts like; a sympathetic person is naturally drawn towards a loving person. The explanation of the second rule is that the one has certain heart qualities and the other has other heart qualities; the qualities of the one supplement those of the other; together, therefore, they make a complete heart; that is why they are drawn together. One will often see two people of quite different qualities who are yet great friends.
And the explanation of the third rule is that what is most fine seeks for what is most dense in order to express itself. Are not souls attracted to the dense earth in order to be born as mortal beings? Are not souls living in the angelic world attracted to a human body, donning it in order to be walking under the sun? If heaven can be attracted to the earth, then a most spiritual person can be attracted to a most material one. What is fine cannot exist without what is dense, and what is dense cannot exist without what is fine; therefore two opposite poles, meeting together, form a perfect whole.
The other law is the law of repulsion. It is possible for a sympathetic person to become friends with a quite unsympathetic one, but there is often repulsion between a sympathetic person and one who is half-sympathetic, as there is between the wise and the half-wise. They cannot get along together. The wise can get along better with the foolish than with someone who is half-wise. The latter makes life very difficult for the wise man.
Another reason for repulsion is the inharmonious grouping of the qualities of two people; in other words the qualities of the one do not blend with those of the other. Both may have lovable qualities, but they may be so different that they cannot blend, and then there comes repulsion.
The third reason for repulsion is that there is no echo of sympathy to be found in the other. Even in what we call a heartless person one expects to find an echo of one's own sympathy, but when one does not find that echo, then it is like standing before an iron wall; it is then that repulsion comes.
We read in ancient legends that the saints, the illuminated souls, spoke with birds and animals. What language did they speak?, It was the language of the heart. We read in the Bible of the Twelve Apostles understanding all languages. What was it? It was the awakening of the heart. Once the heart is awakened we begin to understand another's language before a word is spoken. Birds and beasts apart, sympathy has an influence even on trees and plants. A sympathetic person creates an atmosphere which naturally attracts another; worthy or unworthy, both are drawn by sympathy.
There are some who are capable of sympathy, and there are others who are not capable of it; nevertheless everyone possesses a heart. Either it is living or it is dead, and if it is living it has magnetism. The more living it is, the more magnetism it has; without magnetism the heart is dead, or one should rather say that it is not yet awakened, that it is asleep.
It is the greatest pity when the heart awakens and then goes to sleep again; this is worse than not awakening. If it is awakened and keeps awake, its magnetism becomes stronger and stronger because the power of the heart becomes greater and greater, and what it can attract is beyond words to explain. Souls who have the power of wonder-working, of performing miracles, do this through the power of the heart. And the power of the heart is the power of God. In Sufi terms an awakened heart is called Sahib-e Dil, which means master-mind. If anyone has ever heard the word within, it is he whose heart is awakened; for the Speaker speaks all the time while the heart is mostly asleep. If the heart is awakened it can hear the whisper which comes from within.
When disagreement arises between friends, when sympathy turns into antipathy, when sweet turns into bitter, and when one asks them why it is so, what do they say? "The other one does not understand." Probably they will both say the same. Very few will say, "I did not understand the other." Most people will say, "The other does not understand me." But why must there be this lack of understanding? What causes it? It is lack of sympathy. No words can ever make a person understand; it is the heart alone which can convey its full meaning to the other heart, for there are subtle waves of sympathy, there are delicate perceptions of feelings such as gratefulness, admiration, kindness, which cannot be put into words. Words are too inadequate to explain the finer feelings, it is the heart quality which can express itself fully, and again it is the heart quality which can understand fully. Would it therefore be an exaggeration to say that as long as the heart is not awakened a man is as though dead: it is after the awakening of the heart that a man begins to live.
Then there is the question of how to develop this magnetism which is more powerful than all the other influences and qualities of man. The answer is that one should not try to develop the power of this magnetism; this in itself would be an error. To develop a quality in order to draw others? For that reason? It is a selfish reason, and selfishness stands in the way of magnetism. Magnetism comes from having no desire for any such powers, but allowing this quality of the heart to develop naturally; for love is the plant of God, and it needs no water to grow. It is life itself, it has power in itself to grow and to expand, if only we do not close our heart. What is necessary on the part of man is not to keep it from developing. And in cases where we find lack of sympathy in people, it is not that their heart did not have sympathy, but only that it is closed, either intentionally or unintentionally. To say that someone is loveless is like saying that there is no water beneath a certain piece of land. There is no land which has no water in its depths, and if one has the patience to dig deep enough there is no heart that will seem to be without sympathy.
All the beauty of life manifests to the view of him whose heart is awakened. To the extent to which a heart is opened, to that extent the horizon of beauty manifests to his view. It is not only that the awakened heart draws man nearer, but a living heart also draws God closer. It is as in the story of a Persian king, to whom his Grand Vizier said, "All day long you give your time to the work of the state and at night you are occupied in devotion to God. Why is this?" The king answered, "At night I pursue God, so that during the day God will follow me!" People talk about magic; can there be greater magic than the quality of heart? The most melodious song, the most beautiful poetry, is the fine feeling of a living heart..
5: The Magnetism of the Soul
The soul has the greatest magnetism compared with the power of mind and the physical magnetism. The word soul is so little understood that it is difficult for most people to perceive and to distinguish soul qualities. There are, however, soul qualities, distinct and different from the qualities of mind and body. They are greater than what one calls virtue, and they can attract more than any other quality. One might call them angelic qualities, but since we have to do with human beings and we have little to do with angels, it is better to call them soul qualities.
The principal soul quality is innocence. There is a great difference between innocence and ignorance. The ignorant one does not know; the innocent one both knows and does not know. It is its innocence that attracts us in a child, and the magnetism that we feel in the expression of an infant has a heavenly character. The child does not know and therefore it is innocent, but when the soul has reached a point where it knows and yet is innocent, then it is divine. Very often people mistake an innocent soul for a simple soul. Indeed, that soul is simple, but not in the way people think. When one sees generosity in someone who is poor and humility in someone who is honored, when one notices simplicity in a great soul and fineness in a strong personality, when one discerns an unassuming quality in a brave man and a desire to learn in a man who knows and understands, then one may realize that all these are qualities which belong to the soul, and they win the heart of man more than anything in the world. People are unconsciously attracted; souls without realizing it will surrender to the soul that shows its original qualities.,
Every infant brings with it to the earth soul qualities, but as it grows it forgets them and learns the qualities of the earth. And when these earth qualities have matured and developed after a person has learned the practical side of life, after he has learnt to distinguish between good and bad, between right and wrong, then if the soul unfolds itself it will begin to show the soul qualities as a sign of its unfoldment. It is not possible to keep the innocence of childhood for ever; even if one wanted to preserve it one could not do so, for life on earth sweeps it away. And as a child grows up it becomes more and more clever, and that gives it satisfaction. People will call it common sense, they will call it practicality, or whatever name they, may choose; they will even call it wisdom. But the time of the soul's maturity eventually comes; and when once the soul has matured a new outlook on life arises. All the knowledge gained through experiences, through cleverness, practicality, common sense, or wisdom, drops its hard shell and remains only in the form of essence; and innocence manifests as its natural outcome. It is not that innocent people are not wise, though they may not seem wise from our point of view; those who are really innocent know the essence of wisdom while yet perhaps appearing to be simple.
No doubt a person with soul qualities is not always understood. His language is different. But at the same time it is the one with soul qualities who will penetrate and who will have power in the form of influence. When we read in the lives of the saints of the simplicity with which they talked with birds and trees and flowers, then we can understand, if we try, that it was not the condition of a simple mind that they showed; it was a mind full of wisdom, only it worked in a different way. It does not take long for someone with soul quality to make friends; he can make friends with the wise, with the foolish, with the virtuous, with the sinner; for nothing can stand as a barrier between two souls. His soul will reach the soul of the other, and the deeper he is, the deeper will he penetrate into the other.
Another soul quality is harmony. It is a natural inclination of an illuminated soul to create harmony, for it is in harmony that an illuminated soul finds peace; the one who is without illumination finds his satisfaction in struggle. Fearlessness is also a soul quality. It is the light of the soul, falling on problems that trouble us, which makes us see life more clearly and which gives us the power to surmount our difficulties. Soul quality gives bravery, courage, as we see in the image of Shiva, the Lord of the Yogis, who has a snake round his neck, which means that he is not afraid of keeping the enemy he has conquered curled round him. That is bravery.
All the manners one learns in order to become refined are the natural outcome of the soul quality. Once the soul is awakened one need not learn manners; manners come of themselves. For all beautiful manners belong to the soul; they are the qualities of an illuminated soul. One tries to build a personality, but once the soul has awakened the personality is built like a magic palace. It is built without building.
In point of fact all virtues are soul qualities. But virtues are also preached from the pulpit, and a person who has learned to be good and nice and kind because the preacher has told him to may possess virtues, and yet these virtues do not belong to him, they are like something he has borrowed from somewhere, and he will have to give it back some day. But that which comes out of the heart as a natural spring is real virtue, for it will all remain, and that gives one the greatest satisfaction. It is very sad for a person to be good only because goodness has been urged upon him and he cannot escape, and so he has to be good. This kind of goodness is really worse than badness.
Soul quality also expresses itself through art, through music, through poetry. And in whatever way one may wish to give expression to the soul, the soul quality manifests in the form of love, harmony, and beauty.
6: Mental Purification
There is no great difference between magnetism and an electrical current. Scientists have never been able to give an answer to the question of what electricity really is; but no one can say that to a certain extent electricity is magnetism and magnetism is electricity. Power of attraction is magnetism, power that gives force and energy is electricity; it is essentially the same power. But interesting as the subject of magnetism is from a scientific point of view, as interesting, or even more so, is it from a mystical point of view.
A magnet and something which is attracted to the magnet have a relationship. The magnet represents the essence, part of which is held by the object which is attracted. Very often one does not find a trace of that essence in the object that the magnet attracts, but at the same time the essence is there, and that is the logical reason why it is attracted.
The ancients used to recognize that the relationship between two persons of the same blood was influenced by that magnetism, and a deep study of this fact will certainly prove that there are relations.
An incident that occurred lately is an example of this. A man from Stockholm was visiting London, where he thought he had no relations or, if any, they dated from perhaps a century ago. In the street one day someone called him by name. When he turned round, the man who had called him excused himself, saying, "I am sorry, I have made a mistake." But he asked, "How did you know my name? The name you said is mine!" And when they spoke together they found that they were cousins, although very distant ones.
The more attention we give to this subject, the more proof we can find of one element being drawn to its similar element. Sa'adi says, "Element attracts element, as a dove is attracted to a dove and an eagle is attracted to an eagle." But do we not find the same thing in life every day? A gambler when he goes to another country, one does not know how, attracts another gambler very soon. And it is not only that when two persons of a similar element meet they are attracted to one another, but even conditions, life itself, brings about their meeting; life itself draws them together. And therefore it is natural that a person who is very sad attracts a miserable one to join him; the one with joy, with happiness, naturally attracts happiness. And in this way magnetism is working through the whole of creation; and in all aspects you will see the phenomena of magnetism, in the physical world as well as in the mental spheres.
Of course, one cannot say that an element always attracts the same element, for the element also attracts what it lacks, what is opposite to it. When we think of friendship, we see that with some we feel inclined to be friends and from others we feel inclined to keep away. And the most interesting part is that those whom we feel disinclined to be friends with, have also some who are drawn towards them in friendship. This leads us to the truth which lies in musical harmony: how two notes have a relation to one another and their combination brings about a harmony.
Now coming to the question of the practical use of magnetism, whether you are in business or in industry, whether you are in domestic or in political work, in whatever situation, you will always find that magnetism is the secret of your progress in life; and as to qualifications, to which we give such great importance, you will find that numberless people who are most highly qualified do not make their way through life because of lack of magnetism. Very often there may be a highly qualified man, but before he speaks of his qualification the person to whom he has gone has had enough of him. Personality takes such an important place in life that even the absence of qualifications is tolerated when the personality has magnetism. In these times, when materialism is so much on the increase that personality is given much less importance in society, and when heroism has no place in life, magnetism works automatically and proves to be the most essential thing even now, and it will always prove so. But people generally do not go deeply into the subject of magnetism and only recognize personal magnetism by the attraction that they feel.
When we consider personal magnetism, we may divide it into four different classes.
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One kind, the ordinary kind of magnetism, is concerned with the physical plane; and this magnetism has to do with nourishment, with hygiene, with regular living, with right breathing and the regulation of activity and repose. This magnetism also depends on the age, like the ascending and descending notes in an octave. It may be likened to the season of spring, which comes and goes; and at the same time this magnetism is dependent upon everything belonging to the physical world, since it is a physical magnetism.
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Then there is the magnetism which may be called mental. A person with a sparkling intelligence naturally becomes the center of his society. The person who has wit and a keen perception, who can express himself well, who understands quickly, that is the person who always attracts others around him and is liked by everyone. The person who has knowledge of human nature, who knows about things and conditions, naturally draws people towards him. If there is any qualification it is this; and without this qualification no other qualification can be of very great use. But a man who is born with this sparkling kind of intelligence, it is he who becomes a genius, it is he who accomplishes things, and it is he who helps others to accomplish something, for on his mind others depend. It is this person who can guide himself and direct others. And with all our thought of equality in which we are so much absorbed, we shall find that it is this person who will win the battle in life, and it is this person who stands above the masses, who leads, and without whom many are lost.
The question is, how can this magnetism be developed? This magnetism is developed by study, by concentration, by a keen observation of life, and by the knowledge of repose. Very many intelligent persons, because they do not know how to concentrate and how to take repose in their lives, in time blunt their intelligence; because there is a certain fund of energy which is preserved and which is limited, and when there is too much pressure put upon that limited energy in the end, what happens? A person becomes less and less intelligent, and his power of mind diminishes every day. Whenever you find a very intelligent man becoming duller every day, it always proves that the amount of energy that was there has been spent. It is, therefore, by knowing how to preserve one's intellect, that this magnetism remains in a right condition. What generally happens is that great responsibility falls on the intelligent person. Much more is asked of him than of others who lack intelligence. If he does not give his mind a rest by knowing how to repose, and if he does not concentrate and thus sharpen his intellect naturally - just like a knife which is continually used, it will become blunted naturally - the continual use of intellect will make him short of words.
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The third aspect of magnetism is perhaps a higher kind than the two which have been described above, for this magnetism is more profound and it affects another person more deeply. This is the magnetism of love, of sympathy, of friendliness. A person who by nature is sympathetic; a person who tolerates, who forgets, who forgives; a person who does not keep bitterness nor malice in his mind against anyone; a person who admires and appreciates beauty, who loves it in art, in nature, in all its forms, and who goes out to friend and foe, to the acquaintance, the stranger, to all; the person who can endure and who can suffer, and who has the power to have patience through all conditions of life, who feels the pain of another in his heart and who is always willing to become a friend, it is that person whose magnetism is greater than all the other magnetisms that we know of. We do not need to go far to see this; if only we look for good things in people we shall find this. Among our surroundings we can find many in whom we can appreciate this quality.
One day a man who had traveled very much saw an Indian mystic, and he said, "We have heard so much and we have read so much about the saints and sages and Mahatmas and masters who live in India, but when I went there I found no one." And the mystic told him, "You need not have gone so far. The souls who are worthwhile, the souls who love one another, the saints and sages, are to be found everywhere."
If we can appreciate them, we can find them; but if we cannot appreciate them, even if an angel came we would not be able to find these qualities in him. Nevertheless, call him a saint or a sage, call him a prophet or a Mahatma, if there is anything that draws man towards man, it is the love element that he pours out.
Now the question is, how can one develop this quality? And the answer will be: by one thing only. By studying, by knowing, by practicing, and by living the life of a friend. By contemplation on this thought from morning till evening:
"Towards everyone I meet, towards those who love me and those who hate me, will I practice in my life that thought of friendliness, that outgoing, that pouring out of sympathy and love."
Apart from the magnetism that one acquires from this, when we consider life as it is, with all its limitations, with all the pain and troubles and responsibilities that it gives us, if there seems to be anything worthwhile it is one thing only, and that is the thought and impression that we have done our best to be gentle, to be tender to those whom we meet in our everyday life. If there is any prayer, if there is any worship, if there is any religion, it is this. For in the life hereafter there is no one to please; if there is anyone to be pleased and whose pleasure it is worth while to earn, it is here, it is man; and it is in the pleasure of man, if one understands it, that the pleasure of God resides.
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The fourth aspect of magnetism is magnetism itself. Lack of magnetism means that this aspect is hidden; this magnetism is the soul of man. To define what the soul is, it may be said that the soul is the self of man. But which self? That self of which he does not know.
There is a humorous Indian story about some peasants who were traveling, but it was the first time in their life that they had done so. Therefore, being worried about each other, they decided the next morning to count if all the peasants were still there. They were very upset after having counted, for they counted nineteen, and it was understood that twenty peasants had left home. And so each peasant counted and each said, "There are nineteen"; and they could not find who was missing, for everyone was there. In the end they found that all those who had counted had forgotten to count themselves.
That is the condition of the soul. It sees all selves, but it does not see itself. And the day when the soul realizes itself, that day a new life begins, a new birth. It is the self-realized soul which grows, which expands. So long as the soul has not realized itself, it does not develop, it does not grow. Therefore it is at the moment when the soul begins to realize itself that a man really begins to live in the world.
But it must be understood that the magnetism of the self-realized soul is greater than any magnetism one could ever imagine. It is power, it is wisdom, it is peace, it is intelligence, it is all.
- It is this magnetism that heals, heals bodies and heals minds; and
- it is this magnetism that raises those fallen into difficulties, in pain and sorrows.
- It is this magnetism that brings others out of their confusion, their darkness.
- It is by this magnetism that the illuminated souls spread out their love, thereby attracting all beings.
- It is of this magnetism that Christ said to the fishermen, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
- It is with this magnetism that the great ones, such as Buddha, such as Moses, Christ, Muhammad, came and attracted humanity. And humanity during the ages has not forgotten.
- It is their magnetism which, after their having left this earth, has held millions and millions of people in one bond of brotherhood, of sympathy, of friendship.
The immense power that the soul-magnetism gives shows that it is divine magnetism. It is a proof of something behind the seen world.
7: The Magnetism of Beings and Objects
In preparing anything one does not only put one's magnetism in it, but the voice of one's soul is produced in the thing one prepares. For instance, it is not difficult for an intuitive person to find in the food that comes before him the thoughts of the cook. It is not only the grade of evolution that the cook has, but also what the cook is thinking at that particular time, that is produced in it. If the cook is irritated while cooking, if she is grumbling, if she is sighing, if she is miserable, wretched, all that comes before you with the food she prepares. It is the knowledge of this fact which made the Hindus engage as a cook a high-caste Brahmin, whose evolution was great, whose life was pure, whose thoughts were elevated. It is not the custom of the past, it is the custom of today, that a Brahmin who is sometimes the Guru, the teacher, of other castes, may also be the cook. Besides this, in the ancient times when human personality was keenly observed in everything one did, every person, whatever his rank or position in life, was qualified in cooking and preparing dishes for himself and for his friends; and a great mark of appreciation and affection was shown by people who invited some relations or friends to come to their house, by placing before them dishes that they themselves had prepared. It was not the dish, it was the thought that was put into it.
Life at the present time seems to have taken away many considerations of personal character. But whether in the East or in the West, there was a time when the craft of knitting or weaving clothes was known by every little girl; and to give one's brother or sister or beloved or relation some little thing made by one's own hand was the custom. Now a thing is easily bought at the shop; no one knows who has made it, nor whether it was made grudgingly, or with grumbling, or how. Especially at this time when the working man is in revolt, what the workman has put into the objects he has made for you is a question. And in sewing for the one she loves, a thought naturally has gone with every stitch that a girl has made; if it is done with love and affection, every stitch produces a new thought; it completes that living thought of love, thus giving inwardly that help that every soul is in need of.
But then also the wagons, carriages and ships which are used at the risk of man's life, by whom are they made? Who knows what was the condition of mind of the builders of the Titanic? Was there a peacemaker teaching them to keep a certain rhythm of mind while making her?
Everything that is made as a magical influence in it. If it is made with a thought quite contrary to what is needed, it only means dangers awaiting the ship, the train, the wagon, the car. Very often without apparent cause you find a boat in danger, something breaking without a substantial reason. In its make-up the thought of destruction has been given. It is working through it; it is something more living than the object itself. So it is when a house is built. The thoughts given to it by the one who was building it, or by those who worked on it, all count.
The thought attached to things is a life-power. But in order to define it, it may be called a vibratory power. In a mystic's conception vibrations may be considered to have three aspects: audible, visible, and perceptible. Now the vibrations put into an object are never audible and visible; they are only perceptible. Perceptible to what? To the intuitive faculty of man. But it is not meant by this that the one who lacks intuitive faculty does not perceive it, he perceives it too, but unconsciously. In short, we understand by this that there is a thought attached to all things made either by an individual or by the multitude and that thought will give results accordingly.
The influence put into things is according to the intensity of the feeling. A note resounds according to the intensity with which you strike it. You may strike a note on the piano, and it will continue to resound for so long; and if you strike it with less intensity it resounds for a shorter time. But at the same time it is according to the strength with which you strike and the instrument on which you strike. There may be one instrument the string of which will continue to vibrate for a very long time; there is another instrument whose string will not vibrate for very long, and then it will quiet down. And so it is also according to the medium which you take in striking vibrations, that the effect is made.
In all things there is God; but the object is the instrument, and man is life itself. Into the object a person puts life. When a certain thing is being made, it is at that time that life is put into it which goes on and on like breath in a body. This also gives us a hint that when we take flowers to a patient and we bring a healing thought with them, the flowers convey the thought of healing. And as the patient looks at the flowers, he will receive from the flowers the healing which has been put there. Any eatable or sweet, anything that we take to a friend with a thought of love, may create a harmonious, a happy result with him. Therefore every little thing given and taken in love, with a harmonious and good thought, has a greater value than the object itself. For it is not the object, it is what is behind it. Does it not teach us that it is not always the doing or preparing of things in our everyday life, but that it is giving these things with a harmonious, constructive thought that counts, so that our work may become a thousand times greater in effect and in its real value?
This also teaches us that while doing a certain thing we should be accomplishing something very great if we did it with this attitude, with this idea at the back of it: that we are not making a thing only, but that we are making it so that it lives. Does it not open before us a vast field of work that we could do easily, without much cost or effort? In its results that work could be of a much greater importance than anyone could think or imagine. Is it not at the same time a great blessing to be able to do a thing of great importance without any outward pretense? Even while writing a letter a person sometimes puts into it what words cannot explain; and yet the letter conveys it. There may be one word written with a loving thought behind it; that word will have a greater effect than perhaps a thousand others. Do we not almost hear a letter speaking? It is not always what is written in it; it brings the one who wrote it to us, and what mood he was in, his evolution, his displeasure, his joy and his sorrow; the letter conveys more than what is written in it.
Consider the great souls who have come to the earth at different times. Conditions opposed them, and they found difficulties at every move in accomplishing what they wanted to do; yet they have produced the voice, a living voice. That living voice continued long after they had left, and spread in time throughout the whole universe, accomplishing what they had once wished. The effect of that one moment of thought took perhaps centuries to build something, but it was something worth while, something beyond man's comprehension.
If we could only understand what spirit is, we should esteem the human being much more than we do now. We trust man so little, we believe in man so little, we respect man so little, we esteem his possibilities so little. If we only knew what is at the back of every strong and weak soul, we should know that there is every possibility, and we should never under-estimate anyone nor fail to respect any man in spite of all he may lack; we should recognize that it is the Creator creating through all the different forms; but it is one Creator; and all that is built and prepared and made and composed, is made by that one Being working through this world of variety.
8: Personal Magnetism, Part I
Everyone sees how great is the influence of personal magnetism upon success in everyday life, profession., business, family, and daily occupations.
Sometimes we notice that we go to a shop to buy a certain thing, and there is something about the manner of the salesman that impels us to decide to visit the same shop the next time we need that kind of article. Even if it is a long way to the shop, we prefer not to go to one which is nearer. Similarly it sometimes happens that a person goes to a hotel or boarding house or restaurant, and someone treats him in such a way that he decides to return to that place rather than visit another.
So with doctors, solicitors, barristers, scientists, professors, and teachers of all kinds. A doctor may be well-versed in his knowledge, he may have a great many degrees, but if he lacks this personal magnetism, instead of curing patients he may make them worse. Sometimes a doctor cures the patient before giving him the prescription. Just by a word of kindness, by a manner, a tenderness, a sympathy he makes the patient feel so much better that the disease which before was too much to bear, appears to be curable after all. Half the pain has gone with just seeing the doctor, such a difference does personality make. It is a great healer.
Then there may be a solicitor or barrister who antagonizes his client as soon as he sees him, and so the latter does not wish to go to him next time. Another person will impart courage and hope; his personality, his speech, everything, will show that he is the man to follow, to go to for help.
In family life disagreement or agreement often arises for the same reason. The father, mother, husband or wife may have personal magnetism which can hold the family together. When this magnetism is lacking, a person finds it better to be among friends than to be with a relative; he would rather go out than stay at home. The home becomes a strange place, because there is not that magnetism for which he lives. It is as if in mid-winter a person comes to his room and finds it cold because there is no fire there; he wishes that he were somewhere else where there is a fire. Personal magnetism can create beauty around one, can attract one, can make a person attractive to his fellowman, serviceable to them. It is soothing; it is healing
What is this personal magnetism? Is it a development of psychic power or occult power? Is it an education, or is it refinement? The answer is that education helps personal magnetism, because knowledge is light, and light is beautiful, and it always helps. But this is not personal magnetism. People may be very well-educated and at the same time very disagreeable. Sa'adi says that an educated man who does not put what he has learnt into practice is like a donkey loaded with books: he is carrying them on his back, but he does not know it or act accordingly. He has a load of knowledge which serves no purpose. If his education has not made a man human, what is the use of education? It is just learning for the purpose of earning money.
One may think, if magnetism is not education, is it then psychic power? Not necessarily, though it is the natural psychic or occult power that we call personal magnetism. It is not necessary to attain this kind of power by a certain practice or study; one should already have it; and when it is used in the right way it is personal magnetism.
Is magnetism then politeness? Is it polish? As polish is the fashion today, every person learns it when he mixes with people; but this is not necessarily personal magnetism, though men may think he has a winning manner. If there can be any real explanation of personal magnetism, it is the making of one's own personality into that which one expects from others. A man usually makes the mistake of expecting things from others and not doing them himself. For instance, a man is very pleased if he is well received in a friend's house, if he is spoken kindly of, and treated well, if his vanity is satisfied by the action of others. He is very glad if others have a good opinion of him and overlook his defects. But seldom does he pause to do the same himself.
If we only tried to give to others all the things we demand from them; if we overlooked their bad points instead of expecting them to overlook ours; if we only thought, "How inconsiderate I was that time when I spoke so rudely to so and so;" if we only gave others all that we would like them to give us, that would create a personal magnetism; if we did to them all the things that we expect from them!
The word "gentleman" in the English language is a very good one in this respect. It has come to refer merely to dressing well; but the ideal behind it is good. It is the ideal of gentleness, and gentleness is the essence of personal magnetism. There cannot be a better lesson than that given in the Bible where it is said, "Blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit." But the difficulty is that man pays little attention to all these things; he thinks they are too simple. And at the same time if you ask him the meaning of "poor in spirit" he will find it very difficult to answer. Not many will know what that means. It may be understood by comparing the spirit of man with the spirit of an animal. If a tiger is lying in a certain place, and you want the tiger to get up, he will roar. If a man is lying there, and you say, "Will you please let me sit there," he will say, "Certainly," because his spirit is poorer than the spirit of the tiger. And that is also the difference between a man and a gentleman. The gentleman is he who shows that poorness of spirit in himself, a spirit of accommodating another, letting another sit in his place if he wants to.
He feels that it does not matter if another person sits in his place; it is really better. There is a person who, if we talk roughly to him, returns our words four times more rudely and coarsely. There is another person who, if we talk roughly to him, bears it and perhaps does not give an answer at all, or perhaps he understands and consequently avoids a fight or quarrel in his search for peace. It is written, "Blessed are the peace-makers." This is not merely the kind of peace which prevents fighting and bloodshed and strife; we may make this kind of peace many times a day from morning to night. There are a thousand matters about which we can quarrel and get annoyed with one another. So throughout our daily life, at all times, there are opportunities of making peace.
We always admire a person who shows gentleness in his movements, in sitting, walking, in his voice or words, in his thought; we admire it consciously or unconsciously. There is always charm in gentleness, and yet man neglects it when the time comes to practice it. That which should come first comes last. If only man realized how much he likes gentleness on the part of others! If a person has gentleness of voice or expression or word, it is so charming, so winning; we know this so well and yet we always forget it at the critical moment.
Poorness of spirit comes from meekness. Meekness is mildness, which is contrary to what we call roughness. Roughness of action or roughness of speech is contrary to mildness or meekness. Our eyes naturally always enjoy softness of color rather than striking tones, because of the aggressive power in the latter which our eyes cannot bear. We experience the same thing with the sun and moon. We do not like to look at the sun, and in India we enjoy the moonlight nights so much, we wish the moon shone every night. Why? Because it is mild; it shows meekness. Our power is the power of light; our strength of speech, thought, and action is of the same kind and the same nature as the light of the sun and moon respectively. If the light is too strong, it irritates; if it is mild, it soothes. So if we treat everyone with gentleness, our personality is always welcome wherever we are. The same gentleness in our speech will always give us success, and we will always have friends. If only we had control over our words; if only our words were always of that meek nature!
Among the musicians and poets of the East special attention is given to education in meekness and mildness. There is a Sanskrit saying, "Art becomes twice as graceful when art and mildness go together." How true it is. When we admire the art of the artist and say how beautiful it is, and he answers, "O, it is nothing, it is your kindness that causes you to admire it," his magnetism becomes great.
From a king down to the most ordinary person, it is mildness that wins the whole world. People of all positions in life and all grades of evolution can do such a great work with this one little possession. Sa'adi says, "If your word is sweet, you conquer the world; wherever you go you win men's hearts." Is it not what Christ means when he says to the fishermen, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; " that is, "I will teach you those manners of humanity by which you will win everyone you may come in contact with." Do you think a person can become a fisher of men by his cleverness, by his artificial polish? False is false, gold is gold. The true gold will last; the false gold will lose its brilliance.
Polish is just like false gold. A person may wish to win wife, husband, father, brother, all by his cleverness, by his polish, but he will prove to be false even on a very unimportant occasion. Polish may please the eyes, but it cannot please the heart; the polish of the heart comes from the feeling. When the action of the heart is not in harmony with the roughness of the feeling, the feeling will come out all the same. All that is real will come out; the polish is only beautiful for a moment. It may show a person to be very gentle and clever for a moment, but it does not last. His friends will leave him in a short time. The relatives will all know in time that it is just external, all cleverness, not that which will last for ever. It is the truth that lasts for always. All the beautiful qualities should be true qualities, not false, because the value lies in the true and not in the false.
In ancient times people of great descent, royal princes, people of educated and religious families, used to go out into the world, and were not recognized as such because there was no international communication in those days; no nation knew its neighbor. Yet it happened that these persons were always recognized by their manner, recognized as belonging to such a family.
9: Personal Magnetism, Part II
Evolution has made all humanity a family; and now is the time when every individual should consider that as a member of the family of the whole of humanity he ought to show himself as being human in nature, and show how superior he can be to the animals and the lower creatures. If we only did what animals do, if we only ate, drank, slept, bit each other, got the better of one another, we should not accomplish anything great. Their whole life is spent in pursuit of their food. In the night animals join together and make a noise in the jungle. If we also enjoy ourselves in that way, then our amusements and joys and comforts are no greater than those of animals, unless we show some quality in our personality which animals do not possess.
A Hindustani poet, Amir says, "It is much more precious than any wealth to collect the wealth of a good manner."
Because by a good manner we can make another person as kind as our own father and mother, as kind and sympathetic as our own brother and sister, as respectful as our own son and daughter, if we only have that manner. If we know how to behave respectfully towards our elders, if we know how sympathetic and polite and good we ought to be to those who are poor or are servants, or who depend on us, if our manner is beautiful, there is no heart we can fail to win. The children of the wealthiest people may, owing to the ill manner of the parents, want to sacrifice all their fortune, their fatherland mother, in order to get away from them; they would even sacrifice life itself. As with children, so with less near relatives. They cannot attract as long as they have no good manner; all the physical magnetism passes away. During youth, a man may be very magnetic, but when his youth passes away his attraction may be lost. But the attraction of personal magnetism grows with years and can be used at all times. Even an old man is attractive, so that people will say, "What a nice person. By going to him we can feel so filled with joy and comfort." Although even the nearest and dearest will not always desire to spend time with an old person, they find themselves attracted to an aged one who has personal magnetism.
The Prophet said, "God is beautiful, and He loves beauty."
What is beautiful in life? It is not only trees and plants and flowers and the external physical world; the higher beauty is the beauty of personality. By the beauty of personality our heart is filled with joy; by the beauty of nature only the eyes are satisfied, the heart is not satisfied. It is the beauty of personality that fills our heart with joy; there is something imparted to us which we cannot explain. Animal magnetism passes away with the strength of the animal. Animal beauty all goes when the person is ill and his physical energy is lost; there is no longer any attraction.
Personal magnetism helps in all conditions. If a person is poor, it makes him rich, because his personality is such that he receives the attentions, the service, and all his life's demands with less trouble, even in spite of his humble position in life. Do we not see around us how a person of beautiful personality, however helpless, will always attract the good, the bad and all around him? If a person lacks it, however rich, however educated, however great in position, he will only attract those who are forced into his society, or such as are looking to get some of his wealth. His relatives, forced to be with him, only long for the time when he is no more, and his wealth will be theirs.
Let us think about the Prophets. There are so many followers of Christ in the world today, and perhaps it is true that not everyone understands his teachings or follows him because of his teaching. But if there is anything of him which is known to the world, if there is any of his fragrance left in the world, it is his personality. He was ready to forget and overlook the faults of others; he was ready to attend to the service of the poor, ready to play and be equal with little children. He never said, "I am a teacher from God, and people must come and bow before me."
That, then, is the attitude: the poorness of spirit, the harmony in life, the harmonious temperament.
From the highest to the lowest we always find people in a state of disharmony. In clubs, associations, meetings, institutions, parliaments, all will dispute and fight. This teaches us that however evolved a person may be in his education, his position, or his power and wealth, he has not mastered the law of harmony by these.
Whoever has mastered the law of harmony has developed humanity within himself. He will harmonize equally with the wise and with the foolish. It is not because he is wise that he harmonizes with the wise, nor because he is wise that he harmonizes with the foolish. Foolish men gave their lives for Christ; wise men worshiped him for his wisdom. "They left their nets" and the fishing where they had spent all their lives because Christ harmonized with them. He answered their questions; he was tolerant.
So with the story of Krishna. He is looked on as the incarnation of God, one of the greatest teachers the Hindus ever had. He was a child with little children, a cowherd with every cowherd. He was harmonious with everybody. He was wise among the learned, and was merry among the happy. He was not a king; he was not poor; he was one among all. The young and the old, everybody loved him. When he played the flute the cows and the deer and all the animals of the jungle would come to listen. It was not the mere skill of his music, for music is not attractive if the personality is not attractive; it was his personality that attracted them.
There were two friends speaking together, and one said, "That funeral which is passing is of a person who is going to heaven." Another funeral, passing later, caused this friend to remark, "For this person, the place is hell." The younger of the two friends asked, "What do you know about it?" "Oh," said the other, "it is so simple: Behind the first one were people walking with tears in their eyes, and they all looked so sad. So he must have won their hearts by his personality. His magnetism must have made such an impression that all the people appeared sad and sorrowing. But with the other funeral there were few people, and they were laughing in the sleeves and winking, and everybody had a smile, which shows that they were very pleased to get rid of him."
Whatever possession, whatever power, whatever honor, whatever wealth, whatever property we have, is of no use in the end, for all is passing. But if there is any one thing which is worth gaining in life because it lasts for ever, it is humanity.
10: Our God Part And Our Human Part
Not only in this age but also in past ages, the first thing realized by man has been his own limited existence formed of matter, which he called "I." This is not his fault; it is because religions have been interpreted with the intention of dominating the people, of holding them in the grasp of those who understood their meaning. The priests have only allowed people to understand very little, and all the rest they have kept for themselves. They have said, "You are ordinary beings. God is much too high for you to understand. We can communicate with Him, we can understand Him, but you must stay where you are."
All his life Buddha fought hard against this. When someone spoke to him of a spirit, of God, or made a show of a holy, a spiritual life, he said, "I do not believe in it." But this was very extreme, for it led people into another error: it led them to say that there was no God, no spirit.
Another reason for this separation was that it has always been the tendency of those who had the same way of thought, the same belief or faith, to come together in one group, in one society, in order to have the encouragement of each other's thought. By this they separated themselves from the rest of humanity.
The mystic has never believed with a blind belief. In fact he does not believe, he experiences. He experiences that he is himself the whole Being. There is a verse of a Hindustani poet which says:
Behind the human face God was hiding,
I did not know.
I veiled my eyes and was separated from Truth,
I did not know.
It is a very beautiful verse, and it has a deep meaning.
All of us have our God part and our man part. Man is made of two things, spirit and substance. The spirit is the finer part and the substance is the grosser part; the finer part, the spirit, has turned into the grosser part. One part is the external, limited self that we see, and the other is the unlimited being.
Man's external self is composed of the five elements, but in reality man is much larger and extends much further than we generally believe. For instance, when someone stands before an audience he appears to be of a certain size; but when he speaks he is as large as the area to which his voice carries. Although a friend or a beloved may be thousands of miles away he will feel our attachment, our affection. The feeling originates here, but manifests over there. This shows that in our feelings we are larger still.
The breath goes still further. By the breath we can send our thoughts wherever we wish, and we are able to know the thought and the condition of every being. The thought of someone who wishes to accomplish a certain thing reaches out in order to prepare it. Man is like a telescope: at one end there is the man part, the limited existence; and at the other end there is the God part, the unlimited Being. At one end we are so small; at the other we are so vast that we are the whole Being.
If each of us is so great, as great as the whole Being, we might ask how there can be room for so many of us. Are there then several whole Beings? There are not. Through our ignorance we see many and make distinctions saying: "This is I, that is you, this is a friend, that is an enemy, I like this one, that one I do not like." But in the hereafter all are connected; there we are all the same.
Man has two natures: Farishtagi, the angelic, and Hayvanat, the animal. Hayvanat means man's body and the part of his nature which needs food and drink and sleep and the satisfaction of all its passions. His anger and his jealousy are animal, also his fear of one who is stronger than himself. In all these man is the same as the animals.
Farishtagi is the part of his nature that goes back to its source. It is not man's intelligence; the animals also have intelligence, though the animals cannot ask, "From whence have I come? For what purpose am I here?" When man knows this, when he recognizes his origin, then he is a divine being. This angelic nature is his kindness, his love, his sympathy, and his desire for knowledge. A great Hindustani poet has said, "We created man for feeling; if not, for our praise the angels were enough in Heaven."
In his worship, man, thinking that he glorifies God, in reality reduces God. We take a part and call it "I." We occupy this part and thereby deduct this part from God. I remember that my murshid when he met with any difficulty used to say with a deep sigh, "Bandagi becharegi," which means, "By coming here, He has become helpless."
What connection is there between Allah and Bandeh, between God and man, and what connection is there between man and God? What we call "I" is formed by the impressions of the external world, of the world of illusion, which have fallen upon the soul. An infant will never say "I." If it has something in its hand and one takes it away, it does not care. It does not distinguish between old and young. Whoever comes near to it, friend or enemy, is the same to the infant. The intellect that recognizes things by their distinctions and difference has deluded the soul.
We can see that that which we call "I" is not the true nature of our soul because we are never really happy. Whatever we do, whatever we have, whatever power we possess, we can never be happy. We say that this or that makes us unhappy, but it is only the distance that makes us so; the soul is unhappy in its separation.
A person sees that his coat is worn and poor, and he says, "I am poor." He sees that his coat is grand and he thinks, "I am grand." It is not he who is grand, it is his coat. Whatever is before the soul, the soul recognizes as "I." But what is "I"? The coat is not I, because when the coat is taken off, the self remains. When we are not experiencing through the senses the consciousness still remains.
The Sufi, by the inactivity of the senses, by different postures and practices, produces stillness; and then by the repetition of the name of God he merges his consciousness in the whole Consciousness, in God. This has been understood by the Greek philosophers; it has also been understood by the Vedantists. The Sufi keeps to the adoration, the reverence that he has for God; he bows and postulates himself before God. And he gives the beautiful name of Beloved to God. He understands that by saying, "This too is God," he glorifies God; he does not reduce Him. With all his humility, with all his devotion, he realizes his oneness with the highest Being.
It is difficult to separate God from man; in reality there is no separation. God's action and man's action are the same; God's action is perfect and man's action is imperfect. We upon earth are dependent upon so many things. First of all we must eat. If he did not need to eat, man would not have to work; he could sit with his friends and think of God or of something else. Then he must sleep; and there are so many other necessities.
There is a verse of Zahir which says, "The seekers have lost themselves before they sought Thee." And the great poet Amir says, "Do not say that man is God for he is not God. And do not say that man is separate from God, for he is not separate."
It is not difficult to have occult or psychic powers; to be virtuous is not difficult, nor to keep our life pure. But to be merciful, to be compassionate, to be human, is difficult. God has many names: the Great, the Almighty, the Sovereign, but He is mostly called the Merciful and the Compassionate. In these qualities we are never perfect, and we never shall be. One should go into one's room at night and repent of what one has done, of all the thousand bad thoughts one a has had of friends and enemies. A Persian poet says, "The whole secret of the two worlds is in these words: with thy friends be loving, with thy enemies be courteous."
If we have understood this then this world is nothing; and if we have recognized that it is a passing thing, why not let others enjoy themselves while we look on? Why not let others put on a beautiful dress, while we look at it? Why not let others eat a good dinner, while we watch or stay in the kitchen and cook it? Why not let others sit in the carriage, and we pull it, instead of sitting in it ourselves and making others draw it? Keeping our life noble means being merciful and compassionate. But it is the tendency of every man to take what is best from another; even in friendship there is that tendency. All are seeking their own enjoyment and want to leave the worst to another; but if one is a seeker of God one should take the opposite way, even if it is contrary to all the world.
There are three courses: The first is renunciation - this is the way of the saints and the sages. It means following in the ideal and accepting whatever troubles and sorrows and ill-treatment may result. The second is selfishness, which means being more selfish than the rest of the world. The third is the greatest and the most difficult. It means having all the responsibilities, all the cares of life, friends and everything, and being as unselfish, as good as possible and yet just selfish enough not to be trampled upon.
If a person is turning round in a circle, the first time he goes slowly, the second time he goes faster, the fourth time he goes faster still, and the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth time he will fall down. The first time he experiences the joy of turning, the second and third and fourth times he experiences it more and more, till at last he is drunk with it and falls down and experiences it to the full. This is what the universe has been doing, night and day, from the creation till now. In every activity there is an intoxication. Whatever we do we wish to do more and more, whatever the action may be. If a man is a patriot he will be more and more patriotic. A singer will sing more and more songs until he loses his voice. If a person gambles he will want to do it more and more. If a person has been drunk or drugged he will want more and more of whatever drink or drugs may be.
Hafiz says, "Before sunrise the wine was poured out. The wine was borrowed from the eyes of Saki, the wine-giver." Saki is the manifestation, which so intoxicates us that we believe that this is all that exists until we have become so enslaved by it that we cannot free ourselves any more.
Pir Vilayat: Magnetism
Five Types of Magnetism
You know very well that you can be depleted of magnetism. You know that you can be full of magnetism. You know that there are some people who exercise an extraordinary magnetic attraction for you and there are some people who really charge you with energy by their being. There are people who rob you of your energy. You know that there are different levels of magnetism. There's the magnetism of the body; there's the magnetism of the mind; there's the magnetism of the heart; there's the magnetism of the soul; and there's the magnetism of the Spirit.
The Magnetism of the Body
Now, the magnetism of the body you find in a person who is very vital, generally amongst younger people. In old age one loses this magnetism. Hopefully it is replaced by another form of magnetism, otherwise one is a very empty receptacle. This magnetism does depend upon quite a number of factors.
It depends upon first of all knowing how to replenish this magnetism. There are some very simple things, like the proper food, which seems very elementary; but it is only just these last decades that people are beginning to learn how to eat. It also includes the knowledge of being able to draw the magnetism of the different elements in one. It is the reason why in the purification practice Murshid talks about how he teaches one how to be able to breathe in the magnetism of the earth as you are walking on the earth, and breathe in the magnetism of the water as you are standing by a stream, and the magnetism of the fire as, for example, by looking into the sun, of course, and drawing the magnetism of the air in by walking in the wind, experiencing the vitality of the wind, and also the magnetism of the ether when you look into outer space. There are breathing practices corresponding to it: In through the nose and out through the mouth is Water; in through the mouth and out through the nose is Fire; in through the mouth and out through the mouth is Air. The other breath is the breath which becomes so light that it is hardly perceptible at all, when it is your magnetic field that is breathing instead of your physical body.
We are living absolutely the wrong way, there's no doubt about it. That's why one of the aspects of the New Age is communes, because (it allows people) to get back to nature. Living in boxes as we do, houses, is alright, as long as we still have contact with nature. In the cities we live the wrong way, and therefore it is not surprising that people are ill. Then people go on holidays, and what do they do? They go to beaches, which are crowded, and build themselves protection against the sun. I spoke yesterday about this rishi who sits in the snow. Of course it is no use for you to go out and sit on the ground all night if you haven't got yourself used to it. If you can gradually strengthen yourself you will have the strength to be able to withstand conditions which you would be surprised that you are ever able to do; and it is because of our weakening of our resistance that we are ill. We blame it on microbes, but if we are strong enough we can overcome the germs and microbes. So first thing, harden yourselves, like sleep on a hard bed. Get up and shake yourself and go into the cold air and do your breathing practices. Wash in cold water. Don't always try to protect yourself and be in a comfortable, protected atmosphere. Expose yourself to hardship. That's what will give you vitality. All of these people dying of heart attacks: no exercise! They are also eating the wrong foods. Millions of people are dying of heart attacks, and it is simply the result of not understanding the most basic principles of life. Especially in middle-age, one has subjected one's body to so much strain, at that time you begin to feel the strain of it. Then you realize that one needs oxygen, one needs exercise. So keep yourself trim all the time, because you need Brother Ass in order to live on the planet. It is very unfair to that lump of flesh that you inherited from the planet to treat it so badly. After all, it is the temple of God. So strain yourself a little bit beyond your means. Not too much, but increase the strain all the time. That's the thing to do! For all of us have a whim of overdoing it, and then you can spoil your health for good.
Now the other thing is evacuation, cleaning the tubes. There was a time that I always had colds. It has been a long time since I've had one. The reason is because the thing to do is wash the tongue every morning. I mean brush your tongue real hard with a brush, right to the back. That's a yoga technique, you wash the back of your throat. This is part of those tubes that get clogged up. One of the things I suffer from most is the bad breath of people. It is terribly annoying! You are speaking to people and you feel that bad breath and you know that they can't be healthy if they are entertaining all this poison in the mouth, which is the instrument of the Divine force of Breath. The same applies to the nose. You can wash your nose every morning with water. There are tubes that you can buy in the health food stores that you can pour the water in one nostril and bring it out in the other You should know how to fast from time to time, and to take an enema. Fasting without an enema is a most dangerous thing. A lot of people do it. Clear your system out completely. There are finer channels which have to be unclogged. Of course, by running, the blood rushes through your veins and it unclogs quite a number of veins that are clogged up. Breathing practices will do it. The very fine breath will reach into finer tubes in the body that Hazrat Inayat Khan speaks about and which are in fact the nerves.
The prana, well actually, even physically speaking, the oxygen that passes through the lungs, is brought into the blood stream, but after passing through the blood stream it passes into every cell of the body, including the nerves. There are certain asanas in yoga that are absolutely essential to bring vitality in the different nerves, that means in the whole network of nerves, and in the centers. And many of the practices that we've been doing in the seminars are to develop the chakras, which are the centers of the whole nervous system.
We have to take into account the action of the mind upon the body and the action of the body upon the mind. Remember that death is always produced when the body is unable to hold the soul. It has lost the magnetism to hold the soul. Between these two is the mind. When the body is unable to hold the mind, the mind is functioning without the body and doesn't need the body; and the body desperately tries to hang onto it, and it doesn't have enough magnetism to hold it. So it is the magnetism of the body that keeps you in life, and one has to know how to draw this magnetism in. Food is one means of drawing in that kind of energy that manifests itself finally in magnetism. You could say that the body is a transformer of energy. Food that is a substance of the earth has passed through the process of your body and been transformed into a magnetic field.
The magnetic field is what holds your body together. In fact, the magnetic field is the womb of your body. It existed before your body was formed. Inside the womb of the mother the magnetic field is drawing the cells of nourishment into a pattern. It is the magnetic field that is the mold. After the body has been formed the magnetic field unfolds as a consequence of the unfoldment of the body. After the death of the body the magnetic field will continue to live. So it is very important to know how to keep your magnetic field in a good state. Remember that consciousness of the magnetic field will increase it.
First of all, feel your magnetic field. Identify yourself with the magnetic field and breathe through the magnetic field. When you exhale feel the expansion of the magnetic field, and as you inhale feel the contraction and, at the same time the, packing-in of all that energy that seems to be compressed. You know how you can go about the world being so conscious of your magnetic field that you hesitate passing through a door because it is not big enough to let your magnetic field pass through it. That's when it is really effective. When you are really conscious, your consciousness is not here but there. That's where you are: there. That will give you a lot of strength. You have to watch your magnetic field. See what situations are robbing you of your magnetism. You felt fine until you met that person, and now it's all gone. The reciprocal is true, that you can rob people of their magnetic field. When you find that people are trying to run away from you, that's what it is. It is you robbing them of their magnetism. It might not be the physical magnetic field, it might be another at some level, but still that is what's happening. So you can test your magnetism by seeing how people react to you, because it is a give-and-take of magnetism between one battery to another. That's what people are, they are batteries of energy; and the greatest thing that you can do to a person is to give him energy, to give him life. So don't rob people of their magnetic field.
But on the other hand it is in the nature of life that energy is communicated from one being to another, and there are some beings whose magnetism is so great and who desire to give you their magnetism and therefore it is perfectly alright for you to take their magnetism in. It is something that you have to feel, but there is a law here which Hazrat Inayat Khan talked about, and that is that the extent of your physical magnetism is rather limited. Once it is been expended, well, then it is been expended, Whereas the magnetism of the mind, and the magnetism of the heart, and the magnetism of the soul, each one of these is wider. Let's say that your store of magnetism is greater. So you can have, like I said, in old age very little magnetism of the body but much more magnetism on the other levels. The fact is, how much physical magnetism can you give to a person is very little. Then, soon you are exhausted. But the store of magnetism of your soul is so great that you can give them a lot and you won't be depleted. So people will try to draw upon your physical magnetism and you have to know how to prevent them from drawing upon your physical magnetism and give them of your soul magnetism. That's where you must avoid letting them draw you into your physical consciousness but maintain yourself in your soul consciousness. Then you can give them the magnetism of your soul instead of the magnetism of your body.
The Magnetism of the Mind
The magnetism of the mind is a form of life which is communicated by people. For example, people are in a room and there is a dull person there and everybody feels very dull and all of a sudden a bright person comes in with a lot of wit and in no time everybody feels better. That's the miracle of the magnetism of the mind. It is magnetism, you see. It is something that manifests itself in speech, but it can even manifest itself in the glance of a person. You can see right away those who are quick to pick up things and communicate meaningfulness to another person. There are those who have a kind of electricity in their minds, and just immediately it gives you life again. Whereas the mind itself can be depleted of its energy by boredom. Challenging thoughts will immediately give vitality to the mind.
The same thing with the body. You think that you need a lot of sleep, but might find that you can deplete your body by too much sleep, and develop the ability of going into deep sleep fast. I said the other day that there's a curve of sleep, like the first few minutes or hours it takes until one goes right down into deep sleep, and then the curve comes back again. The most precious time is that period, which might be just one hour or two hours of deep sleep in the night. So if you can get into just that deep sleep right away and stay in deep sleep a little longer, then you are able to sleep less long, whereas there are people who sleep superficially and don't get the proper rest. It isn't necessarily so that physical sleep is a help to you, but you have to know how to sleep. The same is true of the mind. The mind can develop a kind of boredom which is very depleting of your energy, and you have to know how to stimulate your mind by perhaps reading a book if you are home, something that really gives you impetus; and it will give you magnetism. And remember that the magnetism of each plane can be communicated to the next plane, and so the magnetism of the mind will communicate itself, for example, to the physical body. The same thing is true, of course, that it can communicate itself higher.
The Magnetism of the Heart
The magnetism of the heart you find among persons who are just so full of love and kindness. They come in a room and everybody's hearts open, and another person just can't do it. You wonder what is the difference? Well, the difference is because this person has killed his ego and really cares for people, and the other person might try to be loving but isn't really because he doesn't really care in the bottom of his soul, it is just a sort of superficial thing. It is much more worthwhile than the magnetism of the mind.
There is a story of Abdul Qader Jilani. He was a very great Sufi, and people would have followed him to death because he just entered into their hearts. His son was a scholar. He came back from the university and they thought, "Let's hear the son give a talk." Well, nobody smiled. It was a very scholarly talk. Nobody was very impressed, and people seemed to be a little bit bored. Then somebody asked if he would speak. He said something about a chicken and an egg and an egg and a chicken, and everybody was in tears. So it was just his being that opened the hearts of all beings.
This is the magnetism of the heart. Remember that you can only hold this magnetism if you really don't wish anything for yourself. The person who calculates, "What am I getting out of this?", has lost the magnetism of the heart. You can have another magnetism maybe, but you can't have the magnetism of the heart. So maybe you think, "Well, after all, I've done all this work; now if only I could just have an ice cream!", even that will take it away from you! Just the thought, this kind of self-pity: "I wish I could have something", that will do it. The person who has given himself absolutely in dedication to service, that's the one who is loved by all, and people feel it! Don't think that they don't! Oh yes, people can put on a show. There are gurus today who travel in Rolls Royces and have a golden throne. For a time people are impressed by it. But in the end it is the heart that will win.
The Magnetism of the Soul
Then there is the magnetism of the Soul. That magnetism is such a powerful magnetism. It will heal much more than the physical magnetism. That's why I'm stressing these different forms of magnetism, instead of just speaking about healing with physical magnetism, or the magnetism of the body; because that will reach so far and no further, whereas the magnetism of the soul will immediately have an effect upon people. The magnetism of the soul comes from the sincerity of the heart, and it comes from that consciousness that we spoke about the other day. When you have awakened and you are conscious of being a soul and not being a body and a mind, that's when this magnetism develops. In other words, realization gives you magnetism. So if you want to know how to develop this particular magnetism, it is not the highest of all magnetisms, but it is the next highest of all, the way to do it is through realization of your real being, by not allowing yourself to be taken into the disillusion of the personal self. In other words, by being God- conscious. It is God realization. It is this God realization that will make a person able to perform miracles.
I already told you the story of when Murshid went and healed this baby, where actually he gave a blessing to the mother and the child was cured. There's also the story of al-Hallaj, who was invited to the court of the king. [Editor: Hazrat Inayat Khan tells this story about Shams Tabriz. Perhaps Pir Vilayat mixed up the names.]
The son of the king was dying. They were desperately in search of someone who could heal him. The king ordered them to "find someone who can heal him" or resurrect him, or something. Then they found this dervish, Al Hallaj, who was lost in Divine contemplation, and they said, "Come along quickly, come to the palace! The son of the king has died!" And he said, "Bismillah! In the name of God, arise!" And nothing happened. So then he said: "In my name, arise!" and the boy stood up. Then, of course, the orthodox of Islam were furious that he should have said such a thing that is absolutely contrary to the law of Islam, challenging the will of God by his will. So they beat him to death. Sort of, of course, gratitude. The fact is that when he said, "In my name," he was conscious of the Divine Being. That is why it was effective. Otherwise he couldn't have healed. One is conscious of being God. That's the reason that Al Hallaj was crucified, for saying that. You can say "I am God" only when your "I" does not mean "me." I mean, it does not mean the individual person, then you can say it whoever it is in you that says it.
This is the secret of healing. One says that to heal, one should be an instrument of the Divine Power of healing. That's the first stage. But the second stage is the one that has to be the Divine Power of healing. The same is true of the teachings of Ibn al-Arabi. So many people these days have been absolutely thrilled by the discovery of Ibn al-Arabi because his philosophy just the most exciting metaphysics you could possibly come across: "I am the eyes through which God sees." "God can only see as much through me as I am able to see of myself through Him." "In contemplating me, He contemplates Himself." All of these far-out views of the mind which express a vision of reality seen from different angles at the same time: that's Ibn al-Arabi. Then you come to Al Hallaj, and he says, "I am not the eyes through which God sees. I am the Divine Glance." It is a matter of realization. It is like the different stages that we talked about. At one stage you are still in the maqam when you I are conscious of your being. If you are conscious of your being, at least think of yourself as being the instrument. When you are not conscious of your being, then it is the Divine Consciousness that comes through. That's when you can heal. There is so much about how to develop healing in your hands, and in your eyes, and in the water, and things like that, those are techniques, and we'll be speaking about them. They are all important, but it is your state of consciousness that will make all the difference in your healing.
You may have some physical magnetism in your hands. You can adopt techniques that will bring the magnetism right down into your fingertips. A violinist has all this magnetism in the ends of his fingers; that's how he's able to play. But how long will the cure be able to operate that you have been able to, the transfusion, let's say, of energy from your finger tips, how long is that going to be able to hold out? You would have to be there all the time with the patient to keep the patient in a good state, whereas, the magnetism of the soul performs miracles. That's the reason Jesus could heal, because he wasn't a healer, it was just because he had reached that consciousness that enables one to heal. It is a communication of life; it is the ability to communicate life.
The Magnetism of the Spirit
I should speak about the magnetism of the Spirit that is, really, still beyond the magnetism of the Soul. I don't know whether one can speak about it at all. It is because of the importance of this magnetism that in my seminars I have been giving practices like, for example, going to the source of life and experiencing the water of life and the communication of the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the life of your life. And we've been doing the practice Hu - Hayy. The Spirit is the origin of the Soul.
You may reach a point when you experience yourself as being a soul, or as being the Soul even, because there is not really such a thing as a soul. There is just Soulness, at every level the merging of beings is more intense. At the top it is just One Being, and at the bottom, let's say, there is a relative autonomy of the individuals, in multiplicity. But the Spirit is beyond. There are several ways to use the word Spirit. I'm not talking about spirits in the sense of spirit phantoms or anything like that, or spiritism, but Spirit, in the real sense, like the Spiritus in the Latin sense of the word and, of course, Quddus in the Ruh-al Quddus in the Arabic. That is the essence. That is the perfume of the rose. The Soul is the seed of the plant. That is the difference. The word is used in Arabic as Ayn. This is the meaning of resurrection. What is it? You are drawing the essence of the essence of the essence of the essence. The attar of roses, for example, that's the Spirit. When one says "the Holy Spirit," that is what it means. The Holy Spirit is not an angel, because an Angel is a soul, where Spirit is not a soul; it is beyond a soul. So if you can experience the life of your life, you experience it as being something that is flowing through you, like the energy behind energy. We talk about prana. Well, prana is cosmic energy at a certain level, but Spirit is the energy of that energy. That is what we mean by Spirit. It is always something beyond, always the essence of something, the life of your life.
As you know, all Sufis belong to the tradition of Khidr, who is called the green man in the desert, and who appears to the initiates sometimes, a mysterious being who is always present in any real initiation. He is he same person as Elijah, and Elijah is always linked with the water of life. So if you can draw the power of healing from the water of life, from the source of life, that is where your healing will be effective. That is a higher level than the level of the Soul. It was in order to promote this consciousness that the tradition of the Virgin Mary arose. It is the immaculate state. It is only through an extreme purification of body, mind, heart and soul that one reaches into the consciousness of the Spirit. It is only the being who is immaculate, who is first of all the instrument of the Spirit and then, secondly, becomes pure Spirit. There are some people, it is very rare, but you can find people who are just pure Spirit! They are so fine, so delicate, pure Spirit, just Life! There's no matter, hardly any matter there, just Life. The penetration of that Life is like a transfusion of Life. Actually that is what healing is: it is a transfusion of Life. It is just like a blood transfusion.
There are all kinds of levels of life, so you have to heed what kind of magnetism you are introducing in this organism. There are organisms that will refuse a foreign agent that it is not in harmony with. So if you introduce, for example, a magnetiseuse, I don't know, I suppose you have them also in America, (who) just have a lot of magnetism and they may be reasonably good people, and I'm sure that they can do a lot of good to a lot of people, but there are some people that are so sensitive that they would become ill by being subjected to their magnetism. It just means that their magnetism is too gross for the magnetism of the patient. As I said, it is limited; whereas the very fine magnetism is always absorbed by all beings, the magnetism of the Spirit, there is room for it in every being. The grosser magnetism can be too gross for you.
The other thing that we have to take into account is that the transfusion of life will give an extra impulse to the organism in its fight, because that is what an illness is, the organism is involved in a battle. The whole of life is a battle. The body is in a state of battle against the vultures that are trying to make it into a prey. Everywhere in nature, just look at the plant life, you'll find that there are parasites that live on the plants. Parasites live on the animals, which is natural; but survival is always the ability of the organism to overcome the inroads of the parasites upon itself. Parasites represent the lower kingdoms, but, we are parasites too, you know. We are living on other organisms. It is one of the tragedies of life, that life can only be promoted by one being living on other beings. It is a fact. You might say, "Well, I'm a vegetarian," but you're still living on vegetables, and vegetables, as we know, still feel pain. You can say, "Well, it is being dedicated to God." Yes, but still, there is pain involved in the process. It is true that that thought brought certain hermits, like, for example, Ibrahim Ibn Adam, Buddha talked about this several times, to the point of letting the organisms come and feed on them, like the worms were feeding on them. There was an ants' nest on Buddha's head and, of course, the body would soon be eaten up by the microbes and by the germs unless there was some resistance, or at least some power in the body to resist inroads. Now, this is what healing is: You are giving the body an extra push, but the body has to be able to assimilate the energy that you are giving; and, also, the body has to be able to learn how to produce it is own energy. It is been depleted so that it is lost the ability to produce its own energy and you have to now give it an extra push, but you can only help a person to help himself.
What, for the scientist, is germs and microbes and viruses (actually, viri), which haven't been seen as far as I know, except perhaps maybe they see some of the larger ones in electronic microscopes, but the fact is that science has been able to ascertain the existence of microorganisms that can multiply at a tremendous rate and will live on the organism or maybe live on the microbes which are necessary for the organism, which may account for cancer. Anyway, from as much as can be ascertained from the point of view of, let's say, the instruments of scientific research, each one of these organisms is a being. Actually, every cell in our body is a being, and we have millions of beings in us, and that means that they are endowed with, there's no such thing as a completely independent existence, but they are endowed with a consciousness. They're endowed with a soul, they're endowed with a spirit. Millions, millions, millions of beings within the body, some that constitute what we call the body, others that constitute what we call parasites that are trying to fight to live on the body, like the mistletoe on the trees, it is the same principle, or ivy.
There's no doubt that if these beings have a reality, that means that they also exist at the mind level, and that physical illnesses are in some way associated with our thinking. For example, a person with a lot of anxiety will develop ulcers, and a person who is burning himself out in his emotions will develop tuberculosis, and a person who is holding back on his emotions will develop cancer. Cancer is like a revenge of the physical organism that is multiplying because it is being restrained. It is a question of proliferation, you know, and there is a balance of forces in nature.
In ecology one is beginning to discover these things, and supposing if you allowed, well, I'll give you an example: There was a leper colony and the rats were eating the feet of the lepers, and nobody could sleep because the rats would just walk over your bed, and they weren't even afraid of a stick. It was because they killed the cobras. Then the doctor who was running this home made a covenant with the cobras, and the cobras increased and the rats decreased. It is a case of the balance of ecology in the world, and people are discovering more about it nowadays. So we need certain parasites. We call them parasites, maybe in our body, like germs that are good and others that are not. Perhaps there is a balance between them, or perhaps there are too many. I spoke to you of that man who was controlling all these monsters. Well, the human will has the ability to control the minds of these beings. If you can do it you can heal yourself. And you can heal others. It takes a lot of power, of course. As we said before, the whole purpose of life is mastery. You have to become a master of all conditions.
Now I'm saying this, and I can become ill, and, of course, it isn't true to say that there are a lot of masters who have been ill. It is not true to say that a perfect being or a master cannot be ill. You shouldn't pass a judgment about things. There are a lot of factors. Perhaps one has to experience the suffering of the world in one's flesh, karmic participation in suffering . I don't subscribe to the theory that if people are ill it is because they're re-paying a karma. We talked about karma the other day and we said that that could be one reason; but there are other reasons, like the testing that one has to undergo, and the fact that one is sharing cosmic karma. You remember the question that was put to Jesus: "Why are these people born blind or lame? Is it because …?" You know, they were thinking that he might have confirmed the theory of reincarnation. "Was it because of their parents? Or, you know …" No, no, it was so the works of God may be accomplished. So there was some planning in it. There was some reason for these illnesses that maybe we cannot understand with our mind. I know we are perplexed and say, "Well, why is this child born blind?", or, "How is it possible that this person suffers from paralysis?", and so on. Why does this happen? Well, we don't always know the plan. When we know the plan then we'll understand it, but for the moment we can say, What can we do?
There is such a thing as intercession, for example; you can intercede for somebody. That is what a lawyer does. He, the barrister, intercedes. What does it mean to intercede? Do you know what it means? It means to take upon yourself part of the karma of the person. That is what it means to intercede. You cannot heal a person unless you would rather have the illness. You are interfering in the Divine Plan, but you are part of the Divine Plan. So God wishes you to intervene in the Divine Plan; otherwise He wouldn't have given you free will. It is something that you are taking upon yourself that means that there is no yourself, because there is just God, but still there is within the greater self a karmic involvement which has its consequences. You know, you picked a child up from the street who is begging. Well then, you have the responsibility, that child was begging. And you've taken an animal out of nature, and that animal was able to fend for itself. You've taken a bird from the nest, you've taken away its possibility for survival now. You are responsible for it. You can't thrust it back in nature again because it hasn't got the power to defend itself. That is what healing is. You have intervened in a situation in which there was a certain balance. That balance is not perfect anyway, but it is a balance. You have intervened, right? Well, from that moment you're involving yourself karmically. You are involving yourself karmically with those little beasties that are trying to destroy that person. So you got them all at your doorstep, right?
It is just like if you exorcise a person, it is the same thing. You get them knocking at your door. Those spirits, they have been living on a person. You have disturbed their life and they don't like it. They don't have anyplace to live. They come and say, "Look here, you have deprived us of our existence!" I know some exorcists whose life has become a complete hell. It is only a very powerful person who can become an exorcist. The responsibility you are taking upon yourself is tremendous. Like Hazrat Inayat Khan, there was a lady who came to him and said, "Oh, I'm obsessed by this being all the time. There are two persons in me. It is so terrible! I'm so confused! I can't go on living like this." Actually, it was the person whom she loved and who was killed during the war. So Murshid said to her, "You're sure that you want to be free of this obsession?" "Oh, yes, Murshid, I can't go on like this!" "All right," said Murshid, "all right." He spoke to the spirit and it is almost as simple, it is like saying, "Go away." You wouldn't believe it, but he went. She came back a few days afterwards and said, "Oh, I feel so poor in myself like this. Oh, please, could you bring him back?" Murshid said, "All right, but once I bring him back I won't be able to exorcise him again. Are you sure that you want him back?" "Yes, I do! I do! Yes!" "All right," said Murshid, "all right."
You see, you have to respect the will of a person. You can't heal a person against his will. If they don't want to be healed, you have to ask their permission before you place them on your healing list. They might not want to be placed on the healing list. Actually, some people wish to be ill. They are only happy if they are ill. It gives them something to talk about. You take away their illness and they feel just empty. Illness fulfills a function in life. If not, it wouldn't be there. It is like an abscess that brings out all the impurities. There is a reason for it. It can get out of hand, but the original cause, as all causes, all purposes, are the Divine Impulses. Don't blame God for illnesses. The Divine Impulse got out of hand because people didn't know how to deal with it. Then that lady came back to Murshid again and said, "You said you couldn't exorcise me again, but do you think you could?" Then he said, "All right, but I will never be able to bring him back again."
Now we are coming across everyday miracles which we think are just, you know, that we're discovering and yet they have been there all the time. Like, I don't know if you have seen a film of the operations in the Philippines, bloodless operations. They were not bloodless, but anyway, without surgical instruments. You wouldn't believe it. I've seen them, and actually, one reaches a point when one thinks that it must be trick photography. It's not possible. But I know people who have been there, who have had operations done to them. You wouldn't believe it! This man takes a big rusty knife and he scratches an abscess off the eye of a person and it is all bleeding. That person stands there and doesn't move. Then he softly blows "Foooooh," and the person recovers and looks quite baffled and is able to see. You wouldn't believe it, but this is actually what I've seen. Then of course the patient is in agony, lying on that filthy table. No precautions to hygiene at all of course, and this man with his own hands, with dirty nails, starts grabbing inside this body. All the blood is gushing out. You wouldn't believe it. And really, I'm not joking. One should perhaps get those films. And then he's pulling and pulling on this part which he is pulling out, you know, an abscess or something like that. The patient lies there absolutely still, as though actually hypnotized, because he doesn't know it. Then all he does is put his hands like this with the skin. And the skin, you can see the skin actually coming together, and all the blood is stopped. No more blood rushing. And the person stands up and is healed and walks back home. No ambulance. You just wouldn't believe it. They do the same thing with the brain. A brain operation. And there was this man working behind the eye of a man, and he couldn't get through with the knife so he got an old rusty wire and poked that up through behind the eye. Anyway, that is what I have seen. I'm not telling you something. Really, I have seen it. Perhaps one day those methods will be introduced in our hospitals. For the moment, the medical profession is already very much on the defensive with all the new methods that are coming in.
There are new methods coming in, like being able to diagnose by looking into the eyes, and new things coming in now that are not new because they were used right in the time of the old Egyptians. Back in the past, people had relied on certain very narrow methods of cure which are beginning to prove unsatisfactory, or not altogether satisfactory. They had their disadvantages. You can cure a lot of illnesses now with antibiotics, and at least now there's an immediate stoppage of the assault of the germs; but the consequences to the organism in the long run are absolutely disastrous.
Other methods are slower but may be in the long run more effective. You can use certain herbs. You know that the ancients used to follow the bears in the forest to see what herbs they were eating under certain circumstances and that is how they found out the curative powers of herbs. We're beginning to discover quite a lot of things, the effects of different herbs, of different drugs, of course, of roots, of the difference between, for example, the grain and the fruit. For example, in Oshawa methods it is all the difference between being a tomato and being a cactus. The wiry types, like the Japanese are more wiry and so they don't need so much fluid, so much, the lush thing about the fruit, the yang aspect, I mean the yin aspect - they will develop the yang aspect. If you subject the European temperament to, well I'm generalizing a bit too much now, but let's say there's a temperament that is a little more lush and not that wiry, and if you subject them to the Oshawa method they dry up. You have a lot of people really drying up. Whereas, on the other hand, for people who are proliferating too much, of course that means that they're eating too much and that is why this method is a good cure for cancer. It is because you have to get back to really basic things, the root, you see. Then you get to eat cereals, or buckwheat, or something like that, really hard cereal. It will give you strength, whereas if you eat fruits and things like that, then you get into what is the end of the process of growth, and the degeneration has set in the end process in the fruit. Then, all the energy of the fruit is in the formation of the grain of the fruit. If you eat the fruit you don't get the real energy because it is being prepared in the seed.
We'll reach a point when we will realize that we can gain much more energy by eating the seed. All things that have grown a little further, like in the case of meat, for example, beef, a lot of toxins are in beef because it is been involved in life, whereas the very young animal would be better to eat if you're not a vegetarian. If you're a vegetarian, as I say, you'll find that cereals are much more important than fruit. There is something in fruit that cereals can't give, vitamins and so on; but still you will find that you will have to bring your diet more and more to the mineral, to the seeds. On the other hand, you'll have to find just the right balance according to your nature, and not just be too dogmatic about it.
In falconry, there's something I know about when a falcon is ill. You can sometimes save its life by giving it chicks that come out of the egg. You see, that is because the life force is there before it has developed toxins, and as soon as it becomes a chicken then it doesn't have the same value any more. A lot of things that we'll be learning about food and how to balance. There are things that we don't know about. How many vitamins are necessary for life? How to use proteins? The seeds that have the best proteins are beans, for example, which we cook and of course we ruin completely all the food value by cooking them. And then, on the other hand, we don't know how to eat them raw, you see. Soy beans, for example. So if we learn how to be able, as the ancients used to do, to make a powder of them and predigest them. There is a lot of science that we are just putting our hands on now. Like in India, it is a very secret knowledge, but I'm revealing it to you now, it is a way of rejuvenation. That is, you go on a retreat, and you select a very wonderful cow. And somebody prepares wonderful meals, like, you know, with cereals and fruit and rich cream and all kinds of marvelous food and you give it to the cow. Then you drink the milk of the cow until you have milk intolerance, just gallons of milk. I don't know how one does it, because medically there's just so much milk that you can stand. Gorging yourself with milk of that cow that has been overfed, apparently you come back and all your white hair is gone, which some people would like, and your wrinkles are gone, and I don't know if that is the kind of thing people would like.
With all your good will to heal people with your magnetism you can do a lot of harm. That is the reason why Hazrat Inayat Khan instituted the service of healing. The fact that it is not just one person is already a help, that they are linking themselves as instruments of the Divine Power of Healing, so that it eliminates a lot of ego. Also, because it is done in a prayerful way, so people are really dedicated to a higher consciousness; whereas, if you're there facing a patient the ego is involved. It is very difficult to get rid of it. And because, as I said, your magnetism may be just too gross for the patient, and you're doing the patient harm.
Be very careful, particularly of certain cases, for example, cancer. The warmth of your human magnetism will just make the cancer proliferate much more. You have to treat the patient with a cool healing atmosphere, not a warm one. Be careful, and it is your state if you're in a state, and you know, like a madhjubiat with his feel of fire in your being, don't approach a being who is already blazing. You have to be very cool. You have to know how to bring cool magnetism in your hand and how to bring warm magnetism in your hand. You have to know how to draw through your fingers the polluted magnetism away from the patient, and you have to know how to reverse the energy and send out energy through your hands. You have to know when to press with your fingers in the flesh of the person, when to hold your hands above the body of the person, how far to hold the hand above the body, how to earmark exactly the spot where is the source of the disease and remember that just curing the cause is not curing the patient. You have to cure the cause of the cause. All good doctors know that. In fact the hands are only one means, and there are cases where your hands would communicate too gross a magnetism, and where you should use your breath because you can breathe over your hand and by so doing you are able to sweep the magnetism that is warm, maybe warm magnetism of the hand, over towards the patient by your breath and your breath will make this magnetism finer, will make it digestible by the person. Maybe it might be better to do that than breathe directly on the person.
There are so many different circumstances you have to consider. You may, of course, find that you feel that you can breathe directly on the part that is affected. Then there's again the warm breath and there's the cool breath, the warm breath when the mouth is open, cool breath when the lips are closed.. You can, for example, put cloth on the person's body, the part that is affected, and blow warmth through your lips; and the lips are, of course, very strong center of magnetism. You have to know how to use your glance, and, of course, your glance has to be very pure. You can use your glance on the part of the body that is affected. You can use your glance through the glance of the person. You can use your mind. You can actually talk to the minds of the molecules of the beings that are affecting the person. You have to know how to talk to the person concerned, and free him from all the mind trips that he's going through in his illness. And then what is much more important is that the illness in the body is not only a symptom of the illness in the magnetic field of the person, as I said, but also in all his higher bodies. So, you cure the physical body and the higher bodies are still ill and so the physical body gets ill again, so you're not beating the problem. You have to see where the cause of the illness is, not just in the mind, but in the soul of the person, the heart of the person. Then enter into communion with that person and perhaps give them a spiritual practice which will cure the psychological cause of the physical ailment. So you see that healing is not that simple a thing.
The highest form of healing is faith. The greatest miracles have happened just by faith, and it wasn't by the intervention of a person like a Lord for example. They think that it is Lord, it is going to Lord. You don't have to go to Lord for it, but as people think that's where they'll get it, well then of course it will happen that way. It is also true to say that in those places where people converge their thoughts and aspirations, higher beings come; they descend upon those places. That is the meaning of a temple, because otherwise the real temple of God is the body of man.
You can pray anywhere you like, but there are some places that are more sacred than others, because either a holy being has lived there for some time and their presence has left an atmosphere that continues for ages and which would be worn out if it weren't for the people that come there and pilgrimage, and who strengthen the atmosphere of that place, like a djiner for example. As I talked about the other day, there are some places that are holy spots, meccas, because there was, one day, a being, in the case of Mecca it was Abraham, who prayed there or made a wish there and the heavens were moved by his prayer and the angels came, descended upon that place. That place is protected by the angels, and whatever one builds there, it won't take away anything except that, of course, it wears down a little bit in tine unless people are able to come there and maintain their prayers at that place.
That is why, when I saw those orthodox nuns at the top of the Mount of Olives, I realized that they were protecting that place from being desecrated. Just nearby, there were people quarreling and throwing banana peels on the ground, or children throwing stones at each other and so on. Those were the places where Jesus had been and was walking in the last stations of the cross, and so on, and that those orthodox priests, well, nuns, were there and they felt that their object was just to protect this place so that it would remain a place where people can find inspiration. And you will find that is true. You will find under the tree of Buddha, for example, the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, they used to sit there the whole night, and somehow the being of Buddha is more present there than elsewhere, although he is present everywhere, but still, the atmosphere is there. You go to the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi and they built a wonderful cathedral. There's no atmosphere in the cathedral, and you go there just next to the sarcophagus and his being is so strong. So sometimes going to places will be helpful. It is a strength of faith of the person that heals him; but still, healing is performed by angels who have become used to being present in that spot. Healing is the victory of spirit over matter.
There is a saying of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan: "I am the wine of the holy sacrament. My very being is intoxication. Those who drink of my cup and yet keep sober will certainly be illuminated, but those who do not assimilate it will be beside themselves and exposed to the ridicule of the world." That you must have felt in the course of all the different states of mind and all the emotions and all the states of consciousness that we have shared during these days. Perhaps you've felt the particular salt, the particular yeast, of the Message, which is of course the essence of Sufism, and that is exaltation, ecstasy. The word that is used by the Sufis is hal, or wajd, which is the most precious thing there is in the world. The most precious thing that you can ever give to another being is perhaps to say one word that touches their soul and that they'll never forget for the rest of their life. Perhaps just a glance or a gesture or something that uplifts the soul.
One cannot live by bread alone; one also needs wine. So, of all the utilitarian things that we are seeking for in our life, there is that perfume, there is that thing which cannot be accounted for by all the demands of life in which is the only thing that really makes life worthwhile living. If you watch through your life and think of the moments that were really worthwhile living, you will realize that they were the moments when you were so intoxicated, when you were so in love, when you were so shattered, when you were so exhilarated, so overwhelmed, that nothing made sense and everything made sense, because it didn't make sense and nothing mattered and everything mattered, and, well, you were in that state of inebriation or intoxication. It is epitomized of course by the drunken man, and of course the Sufis are always speaking in terms of drunkenness. Although, as you know, wine was forbidden by Islam, and I think it's possible that even Omar Khayyam, who speaks about it so much, probably never partook of that substance that we call wine, but it was the spiritual wine of ecstasy that they were referring to. It is what in America is called being high. It is something that everyone experiences from their birth. There are moments when one s heart beats faster, and when it burns more intensely by more intense flame; and, of course, the height of that moment is the moment of awakening, when all of a sudden all of the forces of life have broken through into a kind of climax of awakening.
Everyone is intoxicated with some kind of wine, and you have to be intoxicated to see the intoxication of others. That is why this madhjub, who was standing in the streets of Calcutta, was able to laugh as he did because he was so intoxicated that he could see. The drunken person will always recognize another drunken person, just like a thief will always recognize a thief in the middle of the city, and birds of a feather flock together. So you will experience that intoxication. Youth experiences it in the intoxication of the children for their toys. They're so excited about their toys. They can't go to sleep without their toys. Then there's the intoxication of youth, of being in love for the first time, of discovering the mysteries of the body, of discovering the whole excitement of life. There's a tremendous intoxication.
Hazrat Inayat Khan described all the different stages that one goes through in life. In five stages, each one is a different form of intoxication. The first one is the one of youth of course, which is just like a butterfly that is so fascinated by everything. One is ready to spring into the fire, and everything is just really so fascinating and one doesn't care for the morrow and it is all wonderful, and when they cry it seems like the worst tragedy on earth and the moment is all gone. It is just pure intoxication. Then there's the intoxication of the person who has begun to be conscious of his ego. In fact, the ego grows with youth, and that is often the reason why, well, unless it were for spiritual unfoldment, generally people are better when they are young than later on in life. If it were not for spiritual development a lot of people lose that wonderful spontaneity and innocence of youth. The reason is because the ego develops. It is part of the unfoldment of the human being, of the soul coming on earth. It is like the core of individuality, like a focal center that has to unfold. As one descends the ego becomes stronger. In fact, the world makes it so. For example, if you don't affirm yourself, they will walk over your dead body. You have to. You realize at the time, well, you are doing things right and you wonder, you know, people take advantage of you and of your innocence, and finally you feel, well, I must make a life for myself, and I must have a house, and I must have a family, and so on and so forth. So eventually this whole spontaneity of youth disappears and there's a need for you to affirm yourself, affirm the ego.
And that is another intoxication which comes in; that is, the intoxication of one becomes so interested in things, one learns so much, all the nature of the atoms and the planets and the nature of the plants and the nature of human beings and the world is so fascinating the more one learns, and then, when one develops the spiritual knowledge and wants to find out, like Buddha, for example, the cause of existence, one feels like dismounting the whole mechanism and seeing how it all ticks. So that is a passion. It's a real fascination. A scientist in his laboratory working with all this organic and inorganic matter, and the physicist with all his gadgets, it's a real fascination, an intoxication!
Then there's a strange intoxication that takes over people at the certain time when they feel that everything seems to be not worthwhile. People are deceptive and they're caught up in their trips. One meets ingratitude, and one wonders, What am I toiling for? There comes a time when one feels that one has exposed one's emotions to other people and they have betrayed one. There's a time of course, when there's a tendency to withdraw; and its all right if one has already lived very intensely. That is the time to develop this intoxication for the wilderness, a need to leave everything and go into the wilderness. A real need. Find yourself amongst the rocks in the snow with a clear sky away from everything. The tremendous attraction of the being who has become completely peaceful, completely empty of himself, it is a tremendous attraction. People will give up their whole life to follow the path of sanyassin in India.
Then, the next intoxication, I don't know whether perhaps it is sobriety, is the fifth state, in which you come back into the world again and you just enjoy it all. Not like the child any more, because you've gone through so many stages in between; but you enjoy the fact that people enjoy themselves, and you share in the sufferings of all beings, and you share in the ignorance, and you don't try to show self as knowing any more or being any better. You are just playing the game. Then you give assistance to every being that you can, and that is the state of perfection. It is the fifth state, and each one of these states is a state of intoxication.
We need exaltation, as I said, in order to live; and, as a matter of fact, you may meditate for hours and hours and days and days and months and months and. months, and years and years, doing all the things that were prescribed, and nothing happens. Then all of a sudden you come in contact with a being who is intoxicated himself, and you are carried beyond yourself and in that moment you have done more progress than in all those years of hard work practicing. And that is the reason for the gurus, if they are gurus. The guru is the one who sweeps you off your feet, I mean your personal feet, into Divine Consciousness, who lifts you upon wings of ecstasy. He is the one who performs the fana', that is, the annihilation, of your opinion, and the baqa', which means the eternalization of Divine understanding. I'll say that again: the fana' of opinion, it is zikr, actually, the fana' of opinion in the baqa' of Divine realization. His being can act so powerfully upon you that, as I say, you are shattered in everything that you ever thought and everything that you ever knew and everything that you ever felt. There's no emotion that can come anywhere near the emotion of ecstasy. You might have experienced extremes of despair and tremendous joy, and yet this is something different, something unexplainable in words. You may find that his presence is such that it burns you. Shams Tabriz, when he was in a state of incandescence, said, "Don't come near me, don't come near me. You will burn, you will burn. Keep away, keep away!" And the others are so completely peaceful that you feel as though you were at the source of all life, in that snow countryside that I've often talked about.
Of course, there are many things that give you ecstasy. Apart from a being, you can have ecstasy looking at the immensity of space, by the fact that your consciousness is free from the tyranny of your ego, just looking into a clear sky or into moonlight, or looking at that wonderful array of colors at dawn that you see sometimes, all those different shades of colors and the brilliance of the light. Something that gives you a feeling of splendor, the splendor of the heavenly realms. You can experience it by the vertigo that you experience at the top of the mountain, when you feel annihilated by the greatness of the mountain; because exaltation always has to do with fana', it always has to do with annihilation, and with baqa', which means to survive the annihilation, but transformed.
Sometimes you may experience exaltation by watching the beautiful smile of a child; or, if you have humbled yourself before someone, perhaps someone whom you've asked forgiveness, you have been able to overcome your ego; or perhaps someone asks forgiveness of you. The other day we spoke of when you feel gratitude to someone who has acted so beautifully towards you, or when your heart goes out to someone in his suffering, or when you fall in love, or when you feel the power of the Divine Perfection in you working in human limitation. For example, well, I always think of Christ captured by the Roman soldiers, experiencing exaltation. Christ experiencing exaltation on the cross, which is perhaps the greatest exaltation there is, experiencing the disintegration of the body. When Al Hallaj was crucified, his friend Shibli said, "Had we not warned you not to welcome a friend?" And that friend was God. He was crucified for having revealed the secret of his lover. And then his friend Shibli asked him what is the highest degree of exaltation? And he said, "You will see it tomorrow." And the next day he was crucified. He had said, on the night before, "I have engaged myself from the wild seas I and my boat is shipwrecked. I shall die in the religion of the cross." And then when he was on the cross, do you know what he said? Well, he quoted, of course, it was a verse of the Qur'ân, and it said: "The one who dies may wish for this terrible test to be over soon, but the one who knows the meaning of death wishes for it to come slowly because it is the moment of truth!" So he was experiencing fana' of the destruction of his body, and this was at the same time the exaltation of the spirit that is freed from all the travails and limitations of the earth.
There are other ways in which we can feel exalted when we see a reason behind things that we hadn't seen. Even the child, for example, with the, I don't know if you have that in America, we have that in France, little children had little pictures, a face of a man hidden somewhere in the tree, and then, "Do you see it?" "No, I don't see it." "Yes! Of course!" That is the moment of exaltation, when you're able to see it. And that is the exaltation, when you're able to see the hand of God working through all things. Or the cause behind the cause, or the essence of wisdom, or you touch upon the depth of your heart.
It is like a bell that you ring in which you are not used to touching. A lot of people just live at the surface of their being, and they only hear the bell outside, and never listen to the bell inside. Imagine the exaltation when you reach a point when you actually experience the way the rocks are exalted and the birds, and the whole of nature is exalted. That is because you are exalted; you are able to feel the exaltation of nature. Another feeling of exaltation is described by Abdul Qader Jilani when he says, "I am a bird from the heavens and I experience at present my visitation on the earth." There is a time when you can touch a particular phase of existence in which one feels raised above limitation. In fact, that is the essence of exaltation. It is when you feel that you are raised beyond limitation by having touched a certain plane of existence that was always there, but you hadn't really struck into the depth of your being.
Well, every form of intoxication passes. Everything is relative. So the girl gives up her dolls at some time, and as one progresses, the things that intoxicated one before don't intoxicate one any more, and there is something else that intoxicates one. One is always changing, going from one wine to another, everyone is intoxicated by some wine or another. Hafiz said, "Oh, if those pious ones of long robes listened to my verses and my song they will immediately begin to get up and dance." And then he went on to say: "Forgive me, O pious ones, for I am drunken just now." And the dervish says, "If I cannot dance, what am I to do?" The dance of the soul is participating in the ecstasy of creation. That is like the dance of Shiva, or the dance of some of the Sufis who are absolutely enraptured by the ecstasy of creation. And the beauty of it is, of course, that you are led away from where you are into the unknown. That is, you leave the place where you are, that's the meaning of ecstasy. Ecstasy means going away from the place where you are your state; it is being carried beyond your state. Murshid says, "Come to the mystic and sit with him when you are tired of all the other remedies that you have employed in vain. Come and take a glass of wine with him."
The mystic Wine is the inner absorption. And of course, the highest of all exaltations is the one expressed by Christ when he said, "Be perfect as your father is perfect." The actual realization of the divine perfection in one is the greatest exaltation there is; and that is of course the exaltation of the prophet, Insan al-Kemal, the perfect man, who experiences the divine perfection. That is the greatest thing that can happen.. As I said, you can be exalted by the beauty of the sunrise or the mountains or beautiful poetry or beautiful music or whatever. But imagine the exaltation of coming across a human being who incorporates the divine perfection, who can incorporate it in a way that nothing in nature could ever express. This is the reason why Jelal-ud-din Rumi said, when he saw Shams Tabriz, "The God whom I have been worshiping all my life has today appeared to me in the form of a man." It happens when the heart has been touched or tuned to a certain pitch or melted. Shams Tabriz again says, "When the sun-faced one has arisen …" (The sun-faced one's name was Shams Tabriz, Shams means "the sun.") "When the sun-faced one has arisen, each atom of the two worlds arose. When the light of his face sent its shadow, by the shadow various names I became. The things, what were they? The pictures of the names. The atoms, what were they? He, in reality. The waves, what were they? They were in reality the sea." That is the kind of vision of the one who is lost in ecstasy. He just sees Him. Him. There's nothing but Him. Baba Kule of Sheraz, that is the place where dervishes congregate at his tomb, and what he says, his poem is always, everything is Him. Everything, it is Him. Everything, it is the discovery of the Divine Beloved that gives the greatest exaltation. Because the greatest exaltation is love, and when one is able to see the One Beloved behind every beloved then one experiences the highest exaltation. What the exalted one does is read the mind of the universe. In fact, the expression of the ultimate exaltation is, of course, the condition of the prophet. That which expresses the prophet is that he reads the mind of the Universe.
You know what Hajji Sherif Zindani said: "This is death, where the divine impulse becomes stale in the isolation of the ego." And life is where you have freed God from the prison to which we have subjected Him in your ego-self. There comes a time when one thinks that one has reached sobriety. For example, one had been intoxicated by some fancy or other. You know, the Buddhists speak about intoxication as Asavar, which means something that is alluring and takes you away from your realization. It is strange how these two, we have already seen how Sufism and Buddhism complete one another, and, of course, contrast with one another. We have shown how exaltation is a case where the emotions are extremely intensified, but in a very special direction which is neither joy nor peace. Whereas Buddhism tends towards Nirvana, which is a kind of sobriety, which is often thought of as sobriety; but one must understand that it is just like introducing indifference into action. Introducing sobriety into ecstasy. It cures you from one wine and makes you appreciate a more subtle wine. There are some who like beer and there are some who like champagne. That subtler wine is the higher intoxication. You see, there are moments when you are intoxicated by the music of Brahms, and then there might come a moment of sobriety that you pass through, and you want to be very quiet and you can't listen to that music. You want to be very, very quiet, but it is not an emptiness; it is just a need for some other wine. Then you hear the music of plainsong, and you realize, Yes, now that is my wine; because now you need another kind of wine. So sobriety is like kemal. It is a passage from one state of intoxication to another. As Hazrat Inayat Khan says, "The highest intoxication is where there is no emotion," and that is the condition of Christ, of course, when he says, "It has been fulfilled."
Now, you know that you can make yourself high. You can do it. It is because you don't think you can do it that you can't do it. But if you know that you can do it, you can do it. You can just, it is something that you, it is just like switching on an electric light. You do something. You bring the physical world out of focus, but you have to be ready to disappear, you have to be ready to be dissolved, and you have to enjoy being dissolved and even want to be dissolved. Then also you have to really have a tremendous nostalgia. Actually, the human being is an expression of nostalgia. So it is not like you have to have nostalgia: you are nostalgia. But you have to be conscious of your nostalgia, of being nostalgia. Then, all of a sudden you can be absolutely focused on another level. Imagine that you reach a point where everything begins to live around you. It is like you're in an enchanted universe; and, as I say, you experience the exaltation of all things. Then you will begin to see the auras of all beings, and you will begin to see the eternal faces of all beings, and you begin to see meaning behind all things. You begin to hear the music of the spheres. And you watch your body walking and it makes you really laugh because you can't in any way see what relation there is between your body and you. It just seems to be such a very remote appendix of your being.
To understand the consciousness of the consciousness, that is, carried beyond the limits of the person, one has to understand the meaning of the Message, because one's own purpose only makes sense in terms of a greater purpose. There are some people who reach a point when they can't see what is gained by what they are doing, and if only they felt that they could do something that was really worthwhile doing, they would give their efforts for it. But just to do something that seems to gratify their needs, well, I think that a lot of people feel, "Well, my needs are not so great and I don't see why I should work so hard to just be able to eat and have clothes and so on. I don't have to have such beautiful clothes, and I don't have all that life has to offer." So one begins to discover a reality behind beyond one's own purpose, and this is what extends one's consciousness to the consciousness of the Masters, Saints and Prophets. So it is the consciousness of the Message that gives a sense of purpose, and, again, the sense of purpose will give one an exaltation. In fact, exaltation, this cosmic form of exaltation, comes when one realizes God Who is realizing His Oneness through one. He realizes Oneness through all things. But when the instrument through which He realizes His Oneness, then of course you experience exaltation. And that is the thing that the prophet is always pointing out. Because that is his condition. He is trying to make you share in his condition, which is the supreme condition of a being who has become the instrument through which God realizes His perfection. His Oneness and His Perfection. As we advance, the Unlimited Being working through us makes His own way and realizes His perfection. For in doing this He only realizes himself.
God knows Himself by His manifestation. Manifestation is a self of God, but a self which is limited, a self which makes Him know that He is perfect when He compares His own being with this limited self which we call nature. Therefore, the purpose of the whole creation is the realization that God Himself gains by discovering His own perfection through his manifestation.
Has God a consciousness of the whole creation beside the consciousness He has of separate being? This may be explained in this way: Every part of one's body is conscious of the pain that it has; it suffers through that pain, through pain from a sting, for example, but at the same time it is not that particular part only which is conscious of it. So if God is all and in all, then He does not only experience life through all forms and through all entities separately, but also collectively, as the pain of one organ is experienced by the whole body.
This is what I mean when I say that you are so much in connection with all beings that you experience the suffering and the joy of all beings. And that is when you are in tune with the consciousness of the Messenger, or the Prophet. What can be said is that in creation God manifests Himself. In suffering He Himself suffers; He Himself is puzzled in His creation. And one day He Himself realizes His perfection. God alone exists, no one else.
"The one whom I have called God, whose personality I have recognized, and whose pleasure or displeasure I have sought, has been seeing His life through my eyes, has been hearing through my ears. It was His breath that came through my breathing, His impulse which I felt. And therefore I know that this body which I had thought to be my own is really the true temple of God. I did not realize that this body was the shrine of God. Not knowing that God experiences his life through man, one is seeking for Him somewhere else, in some person aloof and apart from the world, whereas all the time He is in oneself. "Man, if you try to earmark what is your purpose in life, you will find that you are continually seeking to know yourself."
Note from editor: This quote is from "In An Eastern Rose Garden." Actual quote is:
The third stage is that of Haqiqat. It is in this stage that man begins to realize the truth of the whole being and he will think: "The one whom I have called God, whose personality I have recognized, and whose pleasure or displeasure I have sought, has been seeing His life through my eyes. Has been hearing through my ears. It was His breath that came through my breathing. His impulse, which I felt, and therefore I know that this body, which I had thought to be my own, is really the true temple of God. I did not realize that this body was the shrine of God." Not knowing that God experiences this life through man, one is seeking for Him somewhere else, in some person aloof and apart from the world, whereas all the time He is in oneself.
1,4: Insight
1: Safa
It is the faculty of the soul to see, and the eyes are its instruments. It is not the instrument that sees, but it is the soul that uses the instrument to see. The eyes I have given as an example, but really the whole body is the instrument of the soul, to get the experience of life. The seeing of the soul through the ears is called hearing, through the tongue, tasting. It is the knowing by the soul of the external life — the soul uses different instruments to obtain different experiences.
Between the body and the soul there is another instrument which is recognized by scientists and mystics as inexplicable. That is the mind. The scientists call it the brain, but the brain is but the instrument of the mind, and the mind goes beyond it. Plainly speaking, it may be said that the mind is the instrument of the soul and the body is the instrument of the mind, but both mind and body are the instruments of the soul. Although these instruments give the soul knowledge of things clearly, these instruments at the same time limit the power of the soul.
There are two aspects of sight: one is penetration and the other expansion. These are the length and width of the range of sight. Through the eyes of the body one can see a short or long distance, or have a wide or narrow horizon. But by using the mind as its instrument, the soul sees through another mind in the same way as the eye sees across the length and breadth of its range of sight.
When the mind takes the body in order to experience life, it limits the experience, for the body is not sufficient. If the mind were free, it would see further. But, as from childhood man has the habit of using the body as the instrument of the mind, hardly anyone knows how to make use of the mind without the body. And as the soul has always taken the mind as its instrument, it also limits its sight and experience. If the soul could see independently of mind and body, it would see infinitely more.
As it is difficult for the mind to see independently of the body, it is more difficult for the soul to see independently of the mind. Therefore, the Sufi tries to make his mind independent of the body and his soul independent of mind and body. In order to accomplish this, different concentrations and practices are given. It is like effacing the external form from the mind, and erasing from the soul the form of the mind. It is this experience which is called Safa.
2: Tat Tvam Asi
There are three aspects of life, and by seeing the oneness of these three one comes to divine knowledge. To the mystic, therefore, the idea of the Trinity suggests this philosophy. This idea also exists in the Hindu religion, and is known as Trimurti. They have a religious instrument with three points (a kind of fork with three points) as a symbol of this — the idea being that it is the three different aspects of the one life which confuse man and prevent him from realizing the one life beneath these three aspects.
The first aspect is the knower, the second is the known, and the third is the knowing. In other words they may be called the seer, the seen or that which appears, and the sight. These three are three turnings on the same road, which hide it and divide it into three aspects. Therefore, in the spiritual path this puzzle must be solved as the first and last thing. If the barriers which divide these three aspects are removed, then the mystic realizes one life and not three.
Occult power is the power of knowing or seeing, the faculty of knowing or seeing. The seer is the greatest of these aspects, the second is that which is seen (appears), the seeing power is the third. The reason of this is that the seer is the source and origin of what is seen and of the seeing power. Therefore, Jesus Christ called Him "Father.' That which is seen has in it the light inherited from the seer. Whether flower or fruit, it has radiance in it which makes it appear. There is a verse of a Persian poet, which explains this: "The nightingale has borrowed from Thee his beautiful song, and the rose has borrowed from Thee its color and fragrance." But the means that the seer takes as his instrument is the mind, which is the instrument of the soul, and the body, the instrument of the mind.
Therefore, the first lesson the mystic has to learn is to know the relation between himself and the thing he sees. As soon as a mystic sees life from this point of view, that he connects himself with the thing he sees, he can understand it much better than the average person can. Sufism is not a religion, because it does not give any doctrine or principle, but it is a point of view. The ancient Vedantists adopted their point of view in teaching the sacred words Tat Tvam Asi : "As Thou art, so I am." With this point of view, when the sight becomes keen, even objects become clear to the seer and speak to him, and what is called psychometry, or such phenomena, become as a play to the seer. The whole of life is as an open book. But there is nothing so interesting for the seer to see or know as human nature, and it is the seer who can see and know another person.
Ordinarily there exist many barriers between one person and another, such as prejudice, hatred, reserve, remoteness and all aspects of duality. A person considers another his greatest friend in the world if he realizes that the other understands him. There is nothing that brings two people closer together than understanding. And what is this comprehension? It is trinity with unity. Often one wonders, "Why do I not understand this person?" But one does not realize that one creates oneself the barriers which separate one person from another. If these barriers are not created, the soul has freedom to see and nothing can stand in its way. Do you think the sages and saints try to see the thoughts of other people? Not at all; that does not concern them. But the thoughts of another person manifest themselves to the saint. Why? Because there is no barrier. This barrier creates duality.
The idea of the Sufi is to uncover himself, and this he can accomplish by contemplation upon the idea of God, which is the Absolute Oneness. When one realizes this in its immensity, all such sciences as physiognomy or phrenology begin to become like play, because by these sciences one sees a part, but by the light of the soul one sees the whole.
3: The Glance of the Seer
The glance of the seer is penetrating, and in this it differs from the glance of an ordinary man. It has three characteristics (qualities). The first is that it penetrates through the body, mind, and soul. The second quality of this glance is that it opens, unlocks and unfolds things; it also possesses the power of seeking and finding. The third characteristic of the glance of the seer is more wonderful. It is this: as it falls upon a thing, it makes that thing as it wants to make it. This is not actually creating, but it is awakening that particular quality, which was perhaps asleep.
This is quite natural, as we see in the ordinary course of life that by fear we create in others dreadful qualities, and when we love, we create kindness. It is possible to turn a friend into an enemy by thinking that he is an enemy, and also it is possible to change an enemy into a friend by expecting him to be a friend. Therefore, the tendency of the mystic is to turn everything into that which he wishes it to be. To turn what is ugly into beauty, and beauty into ugliness, this is what the vision can accomplish. This proves to a deep thinker that things are not what they appear to be, but we make them as they are. The whole life may be made into a thing of complete ugliness or it may be made into a sublime vision of perfect beauty. The lord of the yogis, Shiva, is pictured with a cobra on his neck, which means that death, which frightens everyone else, is accepted by him as life. That shows that even death can be made into life, and it is only the difference of the point of view that makes life death.
The first characteristic of the glance of the seer, penetration, depends upon clearness of vision. The second characteristic, the uncovering of objects, depends upon the illumination of the soul. But the third, the greatest, comes from confidence in the self, called Iman.
4: Divine Evidence
The first thing in the study of human nature is observation of the external part of man. This has two aspects: one is the head of man, and the other is his form. And this can be seen from two points of view: the first is the analytical point of view, and the second is the synthetic. The former is understanding of the character of each organ and the meaning of its form, and the latter is the harmony of the different organs. And a person understands half if he considers one organ only and not its combination with other organs.
The study of physiognomy can help one as an interesting study, but one must have intuition also to help and guide him who wishes to judge. Nothing in life is so interesting as the study of human nature, and in attaining to knowledge of God, knowledge of human nature is the beginning. Therefore, in occult study one must begin by studying human beings, and the first lesson is to study their form.
The prominence of particular organs and muscles shows the vitality which exists in these organs, and the lack of it is lack of energy in these organs. Therefore, the straightness of any organ suggests straightness in the nature, and curve, where it is natural, shows subtlety of nature, a point, wherever it is natural shows sharpness of nature, roundness makes for subtlety, and the oval form shows acute intelligence. Proportion of head and body and of each part of the head and body shows balance, and lack of it shows lack of balance. Every organ represents a certain part of man's nature that may have no connection with that organ. A particular mode of standing or sitting denotes a certain nature. Crookedness where there should be straightness shows lack of straightness in the nature. Organs which should be symmetrical and are not show lack of balance.
In every face and form there is always some resemblance to the lower creation, and a person with keen insight can recognize it, and intuition helps us to understand it. Sometimes in face or form, sometimes in movements, we show a sign of one or the other of the lower creatures, and this signifies some resemblance with the nature of that particular creature.
The more one observes from this point of view, the clearer the view becomes, and it shows the marvel of the Creator. It makes one tolerant and forgiving to everyone, by reason of understanding that none can act against his nature. Also he who looks at this marvel begins to see the divine evidence in every face, as a person can see the painter in his painting. And it is only natural to wish to study this part of occultism, in order to recognize the divine part in the creature and worship Him.
5: Openness
Every atom of man's body expresses his past, present, and future. The reason is that, in the first place, every impulse creates its vibrations and takes a particular direction of activity. This influences the heart, whence the blood is circulated through the whole body. In this way the thought is, so to speak, written on man's face. Man's continual agitation in regard to others, his satisfaction or dissatisfaction, his love or hatred, all shows in his appearance. Everyone can know it more or less, but the seer can read more correctly. It is difficult to tell definitely the marks of a person's thoughts and feelings that are shown in his appearance. Nevertheless, partly by intuition and partly by experience, man reads them. There are some in whom self-control is developed, who are capable of hiding their thoughts and emotions, and yet it is impossible to feel deeply and to hide one's feelings from the eyes of others.
No doubt form and movement speak aloud of one's condition, but the expression of a man's face speaks louder still. There come distinct changes at every impulse, at every change of emotion, making distinct marks which are an open book to a seer. The word Kashf means "opening", and it is used by the Sufis with the meaning that the heart is, as a rule, a closed book and the one to whom it becomes open can read it like an open book. No doubt reading man's condition of mind from his appearance is not such a difficult thing. Even dogs and cats can know this, and sometimes they know better than man does. What gives one insight into another is, in the first place, his sympathy. The seer first develops the quality of love. He whose heart is kindled with the love of God is capable of the love of humanity. The heart thus kindled with love becomes a lighted lantern, which throws its light on every person the seer meets, and as this light falls upon the person he meets, all things about that person — his body, heart, and soul — become clear to him. Love is a torch that illuminates all that come within its light, but it is the knowledge of God which is the key that opens the hearts of men.
6: Movement (1)
Every movement that one makes suggests to the seer some meaning. A person is not always conscious of his movements, and not every movement is made intentionally; but many movements that man makes unconsciously and thinks nothing of mean something to the seer.
The seer notices them from two points, the beginning and the end. No motion, to a seer, is without direction; in other words every movement is directed by a precedent cause. And no motion, to him, is without a certain result. The purpose seems to be in the cause, but in reality it is in the effect. It is born in the cause, but it is finished in the effect.
The first thing that the mystic understands by a movement that a person makes is the nature of the person, and the next thing that he understands is about the person's affairs. And the law holds good about straightness suggesting straightness, and crookedness suggesting crookedness, grace of movement suggesting beauty and lack of grace the lack of that element. Rhythm of movement suggests balance, lack of rhythm suggests lack of balance. The upward tendency of movement suggests rise, the downward tendency fall, and the horizontal spreading. The movement inward and outward are suggestive of within and without. Also the law of tendency of the five elements to different directions helps the seer to recognize the different elements working in man's nature. The movement can be recognized in sitting, walking, lying, and in laughter or in crying.
The study of these laws of movement and direction is helpful only when the intuitive faculty is developed. If the study is intellectual, it is limited and rigid, and one cannot probe the depths of human nature far enough by intellectual study alone.
7: Movement (2)
The condition of the mind is expressed not only in the countenance but also in the movements. Every movement denotes a certain change of thought and feeling. The more one understands the language of movements the more one comprehends this. In every thought and feeling the waves of the mind, so to speak, rise and fall, and as by seeing the waves one can notice whether the sea is rough or calm, so by noticing the movements of a person one can read the condition of his mind.
Upward movement suggests wrath, revenge, conceit, or pride; downward movement depression, helplessness, or meekness. Movements towards the left and right also have their significance. To the right show struggle and power, to the left art and skill. A contracting tendency suggests fear, indifference and coldness. A stretching tendency shows desire for action, strength and power. A tendency to turn shows confusion. A tendency to pinch and press shows uneasiness and agony of mind. Expansion and ease of movement show joy and happiness, and stillness without stiffness is expressive of calm and peace.
8: The Study of the Whole
Man's form can be divided into two parts: the head and the body. One part is for action, the other for thought. Therefore, the face can explain the attitude of mind and depict the nature and character more fully than the body and its movements. Every little movement of the eyes, the movements of the lips in smiling or in laughter, the movements of the eyebrows or of the head itself explain the condition of the mind.
The ends of the eyebrows turning upwards suggests egoism and shrewdness. The puckering of the lips suggests pleasure, as the twitching of the lips shows a tendency to humor or indicates pleasure. The rolling of the eyes towards the outer corners denotes a clever brain. The puffing of the cheeks denotes joy, the drawing in, sorrow.
One can get a full conception of the character by studying the full countenance and not a part only. The study of a part always gives only partial knowledge. Complete knowledge is gained only by a study of the whole. Keen observation with the desire to understand helps a person to read the condition of man's mind, his nature and character, yet the view is often colored by the personality of the one who sees. His favor or disfavor, his liking or dislike, stands between the eyes of the one who sees and the one who is seen. Therefore, sometimes, innocent people have a better understanding of a person than clever people with deceitful minds do. There is a saying of Sa'di, "O my subtle cleverness, Thou often becomest my greatest deceiver."
9: The Mystery of Expression
Man's expression is more indicative of his nature and character than his form or features. In the Qur'an it is said that man's eyes and gestures will confess what he tries to hide in his heart. The strength, the weakness, the power, the fear, the happiness, the joy, the uneasiness, the praise or blame, the love or hatred — all these are shown by the expression. The more capable one becomes of reading the expression, the more clearly one can read character.
This shows that there is a mystery that lies behind movement. There are certain vibrations which take a particular direction under certain conditions, and the visible signs of all vibrations can be seen either in man's movements or in the expression of his countenance. It does not take one moment for the expression to change from pleasure to pain, from calm to horror, from love to hate. That shows that all the atoms of man's body — the veins, tubes and muscles, and the lines formed by their movements — are under the control of the heart. And every change that takes place in the heart shows on man's face, so that one who knows the language can read it. People who see each other often can read such changes from the expression, because each grows accustomed to know and to recognize the changes of facial expression in the others. But it is the development of intuition which gives the clearness of vision by which one can see more completely.
The eyes are more expressive of thought and feeling than anything else. A person who can read the language of the eyes, their appearance and their movement, has the key to character. The eyes can ask and answer questions, and it is in the grade of speed and direction of the glance that the mystery of expression lies.
10: Different Qualities of Mind
As there are different qualities of the sight, such as long and short sight, so there are different qualities of mind. There are minds which can see a certain distance and no further, and others that can see a longer distance. And what is called foresight is not a supernatural, superhuman faculty, but a long range of sight. When a person can see the action of another person, the seer can see the reason of the action too, and if the sight is keener still, he can see the reason of the reason. One cannot give one's sight to another. He can tell what he sees, but that is not sufficient, for in order to be sure every soul wants its own experience.
The faculty of seeing through life can be developed by observation, which is called study. And the focusing of the mind upon the object of study is called concentration. As by making a habit of lifting one thing, a person can learn to lift several weighty things, so by observing one object of study a man becomes capable of observing any object in the same way. Keeness of observation is a phenomenon in itself. In the first place, the sight penetrates, so to speak, the object one sees. And the next thing is that as the light of the sun has the power to open the buds, so the power of keen observation commands the objects observed to unfold themselves and to reveal their secrets.
Every object has a soul in it, which may be called its spirit. In ancient times the seers recognized the spirit of all things — the spirit of mountains, trees, stars and planets, of the rivers, lakes, pools and seas. And penetrating through objects means touching their spirit. No doubt it is easier to touch the spirit of man than to touch the spirit of the objects, for the very reason that man is more living than any other form of creation.
The person whose eyes are not steady cannot observe fully. So also, the mind that is not steady cannot observe things well. Therefore, the mystics prescribe certain postures in order to make the body stable. And steadiness of body and mind react on each other. So a self-mastered person who has control over his body and mind has balance and wisdom. Wisdom comes from steadiness and insight follows wisdom.
11: The Reproduction of the Mental Record
Every line which is deeply engraved on the surface of the mind may be likened to a vein through which the blood runs, keeping it alive, and while the blood is running it is productive of offshoots of that deep-set line. There are moments when a kind of congestion comes in a line where the blood is not running, and there are no offshoots. This congestion can be broken by some outer influence; and when the congested line is touched by an outer influence related to that line, then this sets the blood running again and offshoots arising, expressing themselves in thoughts. It is just like a waking or sleeping state of the lines. As one note of music can be fully audible at a time, so one lone offshoot can be intelligible at a time, and it is the warmth of interest that keeps the blood running in that particular line. There may be other lines where the blood is alive also. Still, if they are not kept warm by one's interest they become congested and thus paralyzed. And yet, the blood is there, the life is there; it awaits the moment to awaken. The sorrows of the past, the fears of the past, the joys of the past, can be brought to life after ages, and could give exactly the same sensation that one had experienced formerly.
The more one knows the mystery of this phenomenon, the more one learns to understand that there is a world in one's self, that in one's mind there is the source of happiness and unhappiness, the source of health and illness, the source of light and darkness, and that it can be awakened, either mechanically or at will, if only one knew how to do it. Then one does not blame others for his ill fortune nor complain of his fellow man. He becomes more tolerant, more joyful and more loving toward his neighbor, because he knows the cause of every thought and action, and he sees it all as the effect of a certain cause. A physician would not revenge himself on a patient in an asylum, even if the patient hit him, for he knows the cause. Psychology is the higher alchemy, and one must not study it only, without practicing it. Practice and study must go together, which opens the door to happiness for every soul.
12: Impression
The mind can be likened to a record of the talking-machine. But, as it is a living mechanism, it does not only reproduce what is impressed on it, but it creates as well as reproduces. There are five different actions of the mind which can be distinguished:
1) Creating of thoughts; 2) the sense of discrimination; 3) memory; 4) the factor of feeling; 5) the principal faculty, the feeling of I-ness, or ego. Every thought which mind creates has some connection with some idea already recorded, not exactly similar, but akin to it. For instance, one deeply engraved line on the mind may have several small lines shooting out from it like branches from the trunk of a tree.
The Sufi, therefore, learns and practices to discern the more deeply engraved lines by the observation of their offshoots. Therefore, he is able to learn more from a person's thought than anybody else, just as by looking at a leaf of a tree one can find out what kind of tree it is. As a rule, every thought a person expresses has at bottom a connection with some deep feeling. The reading of the deep-set line is like reading the cause of the person's thought. The knowledge of the cause can give greater understanding than knowing only the thought. It is just like standing on the other side of the wall. Thought is like a wall; behind it - the cause.
Often the difference between cause and effect is like that between sour and sweet. It is often confusing, yet simple, that the same fruit may be sour when unripe and sweet when ripe. When one begins to understand life from this point of view, the opinion one forms of thought becomes different. There is a great difference between reading a thought externally and reading it from the inside, the source. The one who forms an opinion of the shade has not seen the reality. The effect of a thought is but a shade; the reality is the cause, the source.
What are these deep lines from which offshoots come? These deep lines are the deep impressions which man gets in the first part of his life. In the East, considering this theory, they observe certain rules in the family concerning the expectant mother and the child to be, so that no undesirable impressions may touch their minds. This shows how important it is that this question must be studied. The word "man' comes from the Sanskrit Manas, which means mind. This shows that man is principally his mind, rather than his body. And as mind is naturally impressionable, that means that man is naturally impressionable too. Most often his illness, health, prosperity, failure - all depend upon the impressions on his mind. They say "Lines of fate and death are on the head and palm," but I would say that it is the impressions man has on his mind which decide his destiny. The lines on head and palm are but re-impressions of the mind; there is no need of the lines on hand or face.
Can this language be learned like shorthand? No, the method is different. The method is that, whereas to understand a person every man in his reasoning goes forward from the thought of another, the Sufi goes backward. All impressions of joy, sorrow, fear and disappointment become engraved on the mind. This means that they have become man's self. In other words, man is the record of man's actions which will be reproduced on the Last Day, and that angels write down all the good and ill done by each one. What we learn from this allegorical expression is that all is impressed on the mind; although forgotten, it is always there and will one day show up.
13: The Balance of Life
Every habit makes a line in man's mind, and the continuation of that habit wakens that line from sleep. In other words it gives the line sensitiveness, which is the feeling of life, and in time man indulges in his habit. If a person takes a liking to a certain phrase of music, its every repetition gives him a renewed joy. When someone enjoys certain poetry it cannot be repeated to him too often. If anyone likes a certain dish, in time he has a craving for it. Not only praise or flattery does man enjoy, but even insults, if they have made a deep line on his mind. He will try to tease others or offend somebody, in order to receive an insult. He may not outwardly seem to enjoy it, and yet he will revel in it. If a person becomes accustomed to sit on a certain rock in a garden he forms a habit of going and seeking the same rock every day. If someone has a liking for the scenery of a certain place he longs to see it every day. Of course it depends upon the depth of the line. The deeper the line, the more one lives in it. When talking, a businessman explains things in terms of his compass and tools. Every person has his own language and that language is made of his words, which come from the deeply engraved line of his mind.
Therefore, the work of the mystic is to be able to read the language of the mind. As the clerk in the telegraph office reads letters from the ticks, so the Sufi gets behind every word spoken to him and discovers what has prompted the word to come out. He therefore reads the lines which are behind man's thought, speech and action. He also understands that every kind of longing and craving in life, good or bad, has its source in deep impression. By knowing this root of the disease he is easily able to find out its cure. No impression is such that it cannot be erased.
The mystics have two processes in dealing with these lines. One process is to renew this line by putting in some other color and therefore changing one impression into another impression. No doubt this needs great knowledge of mental chemistry. Another way that the mystic takes is to rub out the line from the surface. But often, when the line is deep, it takes the rubbing out of a great portion of the mind to destroy one line.
Naturally, the mystic becomes tolerant of every sort of dealing of others with him, as he sees not only the dealing as it appears, thoughtful or thoughtless, cold or warm, but the cause that is at the back of it.
By reading the human mind a mystic gets insight into human nature, and to him the life of human beings begin to appear as a mechanism working. The mystic learns from this that life is give and take. It is not only that one receives what one gives but also one gives what one receives. In this way the mystic begins to see the balance of life. He realizes that life is a balance, and if the gain or loss, the joy or pain of one outweighs that of another, it is for the moment, but in time it all sums up in a balance, and without balance there is no existence possible.
14: The Language of the Mind
Everything one expresses in his art, painting, verse and music is the reproduction of the mind. Not only that, but his choice, his likes and dislikes, his habits, all show what is the state of his mind. Everything man says or does shows the lines already traced in his mind. There is no exaggeration in the saying that man's face is the mirror of his heart. It seems as if the mind begins to speak through every particle of the body. Since the head is the more predominant factor, the expression of man tells most about the condition of his mind.
No doubt it is difficult to give a certain rule of reading this language expressed in the face, form or movements, but two things can help one to understand it: keen observation to study human nature, and developed intuition. Then one begins to have a sort of key to this language. But if you ask him, he cannot express it. From different compositions of composers one can imagine their character, their life and state of mind. As in the science of sound there is a tone and an overtone, so in the music of a certain composer there is a sense which stands together with the music. The one who hears the notes only enjoys the music. The one who understands the sense knows the mind of the composer. So the verse is the soul of the poet. The poetry is not only poetry, for it has its music behind. The one who reads the verse only enjoys the poetry. But the one who comprehends the sense in it enjoys the music of this poetry. One who asks a question of himself on hearing a certain word, on seeing a certain movement, on observing a certain expression in a face, must receive an answer from his intuition, telling him the cause of this effect which manifests outwardly. In this way the Sufi makes his way for his journey in the inner world.
15: The Influence of Experience
Beneath the five senses there is one principal sense that works through the others. It is through this sense that one feels deeply, and distinguishes between the impressions which come from outside. Every impression and experience gained by this sense is recorded on the mind. This record is made up of deep lines, and the nature of these lines deeply set in the mind is to want the same thing that has already been recorded, according to the depth of the line. And it is according to the depth of the line that one needs the thing that one has once experienced. For instance, the liking for salt, sour, or pepper are acquired tastes, and the sign of this acquisition is the deep line that is on the mind. Each line so produced wishes to live upon its impression, and the lack of that experience is like death to that line. Unpleasant flavors such as fish, or vinegar, or cheese, become pleasant after the line is formed. Tastes even more unpalatable than these may become excessively agreeable once the line is well engraved on the mind.
The same rule is applicable to notes of music. A certain combination of notes, or a certain arrangement, when once impressed upon the mind, may become very agreeable to it. The more one hears the music which has once been impressed on our mind, the more one wants to hear it. And one never becomes tired of it, unless another, deeper line is formed. Then the first line may be neglected and become a dead line. It is for that reason that the music that belongs to a certain people, whether evolved or unevolved, is their ideal music. Therefore, it is not the music written without; it is the music written within the mind that has influence. This is the reason why composers resemble each other in their music, for the lines that are impressed upon their minds have been created by what they have heard; and as the first lines are inherited from other composers, there is a resemblance in their music. In this way the music of every people forms its own character.
The same law works in poetry. One enjoys poetry from one's previous impressions. If the poetry that one reads is not in harmony with the first impressions, one will not enjoy it so much. The more one reads a certain poetry the more one enjoys it, because of the deep impression on the mind.
From this we learn that not only what is desirable but also what is undesirable may become a favorite thing. Even things that one would never like to have, such as pain, illness, worry or death, if they are deeply impressed on one's mind, one unconsciously longs to experience them again.
It is very interesting to find that if a man has formed an opinion about a certain thing or person and after a time there has been everything to disprove that opinion, he will still hold on to his impression and will not like to change his opinions. This is because of the deep lines impressed on his mind. How true is what the mystic says, that the true ego of man is his mind! And it is still more amusing to find that after spending his life under the influence of the deep impressions on his mind, man still boasts of what he calls free will.
16: Intuition
The modern psychologist adopts a system of psychoanalysis in order to investigate the state of mind of his patient, and the barrister in the law court cross-examines in order to investigate the truth of the case. All these methods are more or less useful when they are rightly practiced. But the chief thing for getting to the mind of a person is to see the person — in his form, in his expression, in his movements, in his words, in his imagination and in the way of his action. The principal thing which helps in seeing the mind of another person is the light of intuition. Nothing else — neither the rules, nor studies, nor standard of understanding — can help, without the development of intuition. But one thing must be remembered: that man shows the line engraved upon his mind in his form, his expression, in his movements, in his words, in his imagination and action. And it is possible to detect a man from his word before his action, or from his movement before his action, or from his expression before his words, or from his form before even he had time to imagine. Therefore, the knowledge of this can save a great deal of trouble in life, if man only knows beforehand how to act with different people.
The person who acts in the same manner with every person, however good or kind he may be, must always meet with disappointments. As the direction of the fire is upwards and that of the water is downwards, so the direction of one person is different from that of the other. Therefore, if you expect a person who is going to the south to take your message to the north, you will find yourself mistaken in the end. Generally a person dealing with others thinks of the affair more than of the person. Really the person must be the chief object of study, not the affair, for the affair depends upon the person. In the East there is a superstition of a dog or cat or horse being lucky or unlucky for the person who possesses it, but the reality of this idea can be most seen in every human being with whom one comes in contact through one's everyday life. He must surely bring something with him, pleasure, and displeasure, and happiness, good or bad influence. Every man in himself is a world. Every new contact is a New World opened before us.
17: Evidence of the Thought
When a person is thinking, you can see his thought in his eyes, in his expression, in his movements. Things such as: opening or closing the eyes, looking up or looking down, looking out the corners of the eyes, turning the head to the right or left, raising it or bowing it, scratching the fingers, rubbing the hands, turning the thumbs, a half-smile, puckering the face or the forehead, sitting stiffly or at ease, sitting upright or leaning back, or leaning to one side or to the other - all show to the seer the line of thought. Especially when a person is asked a question, before he answers the seer knows what will be his answer from his attitude.
The Hindus believe that the creation is Brahma's dream, which means the Creator's dream - in plain words, what the Creator has thought, He has made. So, in proportion to his might, man makes what he thinks. What materializes, we call happening, but what has not been materialized we don't know, and what we don't know still exists in the thought-world.
In the Qur'an it is said, "The organs of your body will give evidence of your action on the Last Day."
Really speaking, not of the action only but evidence even of the thought is given by every atom of the body immediately. The nature of the manifestation is such that there is nothing hidden except that which one cannot see, and what one cannot see is not hidden in itself, but from one's eyes.
The aim of the Sufi, therefore, is to see and yet not be interested. Suppose you were climbing Mount Everest and were interested in a certain place, which you liked, to admire it, or in the part which you disliked, to break it. In both cases you have allowed your feet to be chained to that place for more or less time, and by that, have lost time and opportunity. Whereas you could have gone on forever and perhaps seen and learned more than by stopping there. Those who trouble about others' thoughts and interest themselves in others' actions most often lose their time and blunt their inner sight. Those who go farther, their moral is to overlook all they see on their way, as their mind is fixed on the goal. It is not a sin to know anybody's thought, but it is a fault no doubt if one professes to do so. To try to know the thought of another for one's own interest is neither just nor beneficial. At the same time, to sit with closed eyes is not good either. The best thing is to see and rise above, never to halt on the way, and it is this attitude that, if constantly practiced, will lead one safely to his soul's desired goal.
18: The Activity of the Mind
The activity of mind can be recognized in three different aspects: mobile, rhythmic, and chaotic. And the activity of mind can be seen by the speech and action of a person. If, in speech and action a person shows a friendly attitude, love and kindness, the activity is mobile, and every impulse prompted by this activity will manifest in the form of gentleness, generosity, gratitude and goodwill. If the activity of mind is rhythmic it will make a person more reasoning. He will be exacting, weighing, measuring, loving and hating. Liking and dislike will be balanced. This is not an easygoing person. This person will be more businesslike. All that manifests from him in speech or action will be more substantial, reasonable, also progressive in a worldly sense. But the person the activity of whose mind is chaotic will be agitated, confused, suspicious, horrified, and all that will manifest in his speech and action will be anger, passion, intolerance, imprudence, and will be difficult for himself and for others.
No soul is by nature fixed to any of these three aspects of activity. It is what he allows himself to be or what the condition of his life makes him to be. Therefore, the principle of Sufi teaching is to regulate the rhythm of one's mind. Then the Sufi becomes his instrument. He can play on it any music of any rhythm and nothing will affect it, for he is no longer in the hand of his mind; his mind is in his hand.
19: Likes and Dislikes
What one dislikes in line, form, color, smell, taste, or sound, or in sense or idea, is not disliked because it deserves to be so, but because it is foreign to one's nature. Once a person becomes accustomed to anything he develops love for it in himself. Therefore, often some people have a liking for certain things which many others dislike, or a dislike of certain things which many others like. Often when traveling in the train a person feels more comfortable if no one else comes into his compartment, but once someone has come and sat there, if they have spoken together and become acquainted, then they wish to travel together. All things have their beauty, and so has every person his goodness, and one's dislike of a person very often comes from lack of knowing that person or from lack of familiarity with him. What makes one dislike things and despise men is a certain barrier, which very often the one who dislikes does not know and also the one who is disliked does not know.
The work of the Sufi is therefore, to investigate the truth about all the things or persons whom he likes or dislikes. By a keen observation of life he gets to that barrier and understands what it is that makes him disliked or makes him dislike others. All fear, doubt, suspicion, misunderstanding, bitterness and spite become cleared as soon as one touches that barrier which keeps souls apart. It is true that one need not force one's nature. It is not necessary to dislike what one likes or to take a liking to something that by nature one dislikes. Only one must know why one likes if one likes a certain thing, and the reason why one dislikes if one takes a dislike to a certain thing. After observation one will come to understand. "All I like in the world is what I have always liked, and all I dislike is what I have always disliked in life." It can be said in other words, "What I know to be loveable I have always loved and all that I don't know I cannot love at once." This shows that ignorance becomes a cover over all that is beautiful and ugly, and knowledge uncovers it. Liking comes from knowledge and dislike from ignorance, although both are necessary. Also it is possible that through ignorance one may like a certain thing and by knowledge one may rise above that liking. However, the higher knowledge must always give liking for all things. And things that do not deserve liking, above them a soul will rise by the help of knowledge.
20: Viprit Karnai
In man's speech and in his action the seer sees designs: a straight line, a round, a crooked line, zigzag, oval, square, a triangle. For instance there is a person who speaks straight to the face of all he feels. There is another person who proceeds in a roundabout way. There is a person who has a crooked way of mentioning a thing. There is a person who will touch two opposite angles before he will arrive at a desired point. There is another person who will go about in a zigzag way, you can't know whether he is going to the south or to the north until he has arrived at a certain point. These figures represent the lines on the mind of man. Man does not feel comfortable in acting differently from the lines already engraved upon his mind. Therefore, a crooked person enjoys his crookedness as much as a straightforward person enjoys his straightforwardness.
A most interesting study of this subject can be made by studying the art of different ages and of different nations. Every nation has its typical lines and typical forms. Every period shows the peculiarity of expression of the art of that period. So one finds in the imagery of poets and in the theme of musicians. If you study one musician and his lifelong work you will find that his whole work is developed on a certain line as the basis of his work. Also by studying the biography of great people you will find how one thing has led to another, different but of similar kind. Therefore, it is natural that a thief in time becomes a greater thief. So the righteous after some time may become a saint.
It is not difficult to slide on the line already made on one's mind; the difficulty is to act contrary to the line which is engraved there, especially in the case when it happens to be an undesirable line. Shiva, the great Lord of Yogis, has given a special teaching on the subject, which he calls Viprit Karnai: "Acting contrary to one's nature." And he gives great importance to this method of working with oneself, that by this method in the end one arrives at mastery.
21: Reason Is Earth-born
Mind is most capable of expressing itself in a fitting form. Very often man expresses his thought in any conversation that may be going on, which perhaps has nothing to do with his thought. And as his nature is, man looks for a scope for expression of his thought, and he easily gets it. In a serious conversation one can find scope for a joke. Even in tragedy one can find comedy, and in comedy one can find tragedy, if one's mind happens to dwell on sad thoughts. This shows that the mind always seeks for a scope for expression, and situations outside generously offer the scope.
The same thing one finds with the mind. In every situation, every condition, man easily finds out a reason for it from the mind. The one who does right and the one who does wrong both find the reason for their action. Two people disputing against each other both have reason at the back of their discussion. This shows that the mind provides reason, as the sun shines and the rain falls, for the sinner as well as for the virtuous. Not knowing this fact, man always reasons with another. But it is not a dispute between reason and no reason, it is a dispute between two reasons contrary to one another. This shows that reason has not sprung on the soil of heaven; reason is earth- born, upon which man so confidently fixes his argument.
Therefore, every conversation is not always on a pre-designed plan. Most often it is an outcome of instantaneously arising impulses. It is most interesting when one can get to the back of a conversation and find out what it is founded upon. And it is still more interesting to find what a very obedient servant reason is, which is ready to respond to the call of its master, although the truth is coined by itself. It is when the seer begins to look behind reason that he begins to get a glimpse of truth upon which he can depend. Insight makes life interesting. One who drifts along with the waves of insight will not enjoy life so much as one who has insight into life and yet stands firm on his own feet.
22: The Word and the Idea
The word is a body of the idea and the idea is the soul of the word. As the body represents the soul so the word represents the idea. The idea can only be expressed in the word, so the soul can only be seen in the body. And those who deny the existence of the soul must also deny the existence of the idea. They must say that only the word exists, without an idea, which in reality is impossible. Behind every word there is an idea veiled in one or a thousand veils, or clearly represented by the word. However, the word is a key to the idea, not the idea itself. It is not the word, which is in itself an idea, but only an expression of it. The ears hear the word, the mind perceives the idea. If the idea were not there, the word would not convey anything to the listener. If one said to a child, "Sarcasm is an abuse of the intellect," what will the innocent child understand by it? The word "sarcasm" will be known by the one who is capable of being sarcastic. This opens up another idea, that those who accuse others with authority of some fault must necessarily know the fault themselves. Man, however evolved, will now and then show childishness in expressing his opinion about another, prove thereby guilty of the same fault in some proportion. No one can tell another, "You told a lie," who did not tell a lie himself once at least in his life.
No doubt the idea is vaster than the word, as the soul is wider than the body. Every idea has its breadth, length, height, and depth. Therefore, as a world is hidden in a planet, so a world of idea is hidden in a word. Think, therefore, how interesting life must become for the one who can see behind every word that is spoken to him its length, breadth, height and depth. He is an engineer of the human mind. He then does not know only what is spoken to him, but he knows what is meant by it. By knowing words you do not know the language. What you know is the outside language; the inner language is known by knowing the language of ideas. So the language of ideas cannot be heard by the ears alone, the hearing of the heart must be open for it. The seer must understand from a word spoken to him what even the one who speaks does not know, for every human being thinks, speaks, and acts mechanically, subject to the condition of his body, mind and situation in life. Therefore, as a physician finds out more about a complaint than the patient himself, so the mystic must comprehend the idea behind every word that is spoken to him. One might think with the continual growth of such a perception the life of a Sufi must become very much troubled, for when the average person would be seeing a yard's distance a Sufi may be seeing the distance of a mile. Yes, there is no doubt it could be troublesome if the mystic did not develop all around. The elephant's strength is required to carry the load of an elephant. It is not enough to become a seer alone, but what is needed is to develop that strength which takes all things easily, the power that endures all things, and the might which enables one to surmount all difficulties in life.
23: The Expression and the Idea
Actions such as a smile, or staring, or frowning, or nodding, or moving the eyes or the head, have ideas behind them. Externally it is a light movement; behind it there is a mountain of thought. No movement is possible without a thought at the back of it. Sometimes it is known to the person and sometimes the person himself does not know why he smiled. The eyes express more than anything else does, by their movements, the ideas behind them. Very often intuitive people say, "I perceived from that person's look pleasure," or "displeasure," or "his favorable — or unfavorable — attitude." And yet many do not know what movement, what expression, suggested to them what they perceived. Every expression of the eyes — the eyes, which change their expression so many times in one minute — suggests the idea behind. This shows that the mind is an engineer and the body is a mechanism which it works. If the engineer becomes conscious of his working the engineer also becomes a mechanism.
There used to be courtiers in the ancient times in India who at every moment would know the state of mind and the attitude of the king, even to such an extent that very often everything was arranged as the king liked without him having uttered one word about it. There were nine courtiers attached to the court of Akbar. Every one of them knew the state of mind of the Emperor at every moment. The Sufi, whose duty in the world is to live in the presence of God and who recognizes His presence in all His creatures, His personality especially in man, he fulfills his duty of a courtier with every man. A person who lives as dead as a stone among his surroundings does not know whom he has pleased, whom he has displeased, who expects of him thought, consideration, who asks of him sympathy or service, who needs him in his trouble or difficulty. People think insight comes by psychic development. Yes, it does come, but it comes most by the development of the heart quality. A loving person is a living person. No doubt the more living one is, the more difficult it is to live, and yet no difficulty is too great a price for living a real life.
The method which a mystic takes to perceive the mentality of another is that he takes the movement of the person and his expression as a guide to arrive at his thought, and he takes his thought as a guide to his nature. By realizing the nature of man, he comes to know about the very depth of his being, and instead of having a part of the knowledge about a person he gets to know that one is wise or foolish is not sufficient. To have a complete knowledge of a person one must know if he does right why he does right, and if he does wrong, why he does wrong. If he is wise, what makes him wise, if he is foolish what is the reason of his being foolish. Not only this, but also if there were a possibility of making the best of what the person is and trying to improve the person without him knowing it. A foolish person cannot get along with his own friend whereas a wise person can get on even with his enemy. The difference is that one knows life, understands human nature and acts according to it, whereas the other, even if he wanted to act rightly, always fails and becomes disappointed in the end.
24: The Power of Words
There are two kinds of men, one who speaks subject to his impulse, the other who speaks just like hitting a target. This first one may strike a wrong note, and may work against his own interest, but the other one will become the master of his own destiny. The one who knows while speaking to whom he is speaking, the capacity of mind of his hearer, the lines on the mind of his hearer, he will speak the words which will pierce through the mind of the listener. It is just like looking for a track before running the cart in a given direction.
Many, content with their honesty, speak just as they like at the moment. They do not mind what effect it will produce as long as they are sure that what they say is true. The truth that strikes like a hammer on the head of the listener is not desirable; one would be better off without it. This shows that it is not only a thing to consider that what one says is true, there is another consideration which is most necessary, and that is what effect it will make on the other. The seer sees the lines made on the mind of his listener he first takes the road which is already made there, and when once he has entered the mind of his listener then he will make another road, not before. It is just like the person is going to buy something in a shop and saying before entering, "I have not got more than four pence," instead of going into the shop and finding out what he can buy with four pennies. Action is one thing, and prudence is another thing. Even the animals are active, even they work for what they need in life. What one expects in man is prudence. Man must have forethought, before he utters one word about its effect upon another. Some say spiritually wise is not worldly wise; some think that these two worlds are different. But it is not so. The worldly wise is capable of being spiritually wise, but spiritually wise is already worldly wise. He may not care for worldly things, therefore, he may be lacking in experience in worldly affairs. Yet for him, worldly wisdom is not a foreign thing, he has only to open his eyes and see. Those who know nothing of the world and those who are called spiritual are known more for their goodness than for their balance. The complete spiritual life is not a dreamy one, but wide-awake, full of thought and consideration.
The word has magic in it. It can turn friends into your enemies, and it can make your enemies your friends. The mystery of all success in every direction of life is in the word. The word has power to turn the mind of the listener warm or cold. The word can produce the effect of earth, water, fire, air, or ether. The word can produce depression or joy. The one who knows the chemistry of the word does not need drugs or herbs. He has medicine for every disease in the world — not only for bodily disease, but also for the disorders of the mind, which still remain unexplored by science. By a constant study of life, by special thought given to one's word, by careful watching of the effects of one's speech upon others, one arrives at a state of realization where one can heal hearts.
25: The Re-echo of the Past
One can easily trace the past of man from what he says and from how he expresses it. The past is ringing in the heart of man like a bell. The heart of man is a talking-machine record, which goes on by itself or, if it has stopped, one has only to wind the machine, then it goes on again. Man's present is the re-echo of his past. If he has been through suffering, even if he is better, he will vibrate the same. Outer conditions will not change his inner being. If he has been happy, even in troublous time his heart will vibrate the past. People who have been against one another, if by chance they become friends, will still feel in themselves the beating of the pulse of hostility of the past. Great kings who have been dethroned, imprisoned — still one can feel their past vibrating in their atmosphere.
The past lives, and one cannot easily destroy it, however greatly one may wish to close it. It gets hold of the human tongue to express itself. As every heart is eager to tell its story, so the past is most eager to sing its legend. It only seeks the way how it shall express itself. A Sufi, therefore, does not need spirit communication to learn the past, or astrological science to discover what has happened. To him every person explains his past without even one word spoken. But by the speech of a person about the past, the Sufi can tell what is hidden behind, what is being said and what remains unsaid. He need not trace the past in history or in traditions. He who can read has but to open his eyes and all is written before him.
26: Interest in All Things
As there is a shadow of every form and as there is a re-echo of every sound and as there is a reflection of every light, so there is a re-impression of everything one sees, hears or perceives. But as it wants the musician's ears to sense the overtone of a sound and an artist's eyes to recognize the form from its shadow, and as it requires a keen sight to distinguish the degree of the reflection of light, so it wants the soul of a seer to see through all things in life. The seer's eye is in the heart of every soul, but it is the attitude that keeps every man looking down to the earth instead of raising his eyes upwards. The average tendency is to see on the surface.
It is not true that the average person cannot see any further. But the average man does not think that there is anything further, so he does not give himself the trouble to see any further. There are many who are intelligent enough to perceive all that is behind things, but he first thing that makes their view limited is the narrow range of their interest. They are not enough interested to take trouble about things they neither know nor believe. They would be glad to have intuition if it came without them taking any trouble. There are many who can think, but they do not wish to take the trouble of thinking.
There are two things necessary in order to perceive: one thing is openness, the other thing is effort made in that direction. When contemplating upon anything the mind must be free from all else that stands in the way; that is called openness. Also some must arrive, by the help of concentration, at focusing one's mind on a certain object. The next thing is to be interested enough in all things that one comes in contact with and one cares to know about, that one may penetrate below the surface and find out what is hidden in all things.
27: Vairagya
The presence of man speaks of his past, present, and future. When a visitor comes to your house he brings to you either his joy or his sorrow. He brings you the effect of his good or bad deeds. He brings you the influence of his high or low mind. He tunes the vibration of the sphere of your home to his pitch. He charges the sphere with his own vibrations. If you can only perceive — he need not tell you one word about himself — you can know if he is experiencing heaven or hell. For one need not wait for heaven or hell in the hereafter. It is here also, only after death it will be more felt. Therefore the contact of a heavenly person can bring to you the air of heaven and the contact of the other can bring you the air of the other place.
This shows that every individual is a tone, a rhythm, and a tone which draws the tone of every other person to its own pitch, a rhythm which compels every other person to follow the same rhythm. That is where one feels the pull in life. That is what scares the sage from the life of the world and makes him feel inclined to run away from this world and take refuge in a forest or in a desert. Why the average person does not feel it is because, just like children absorbed in play, the people in the world are pulling each other's rope. Therefore they do not feel much. For they are pulled, but they also pull the rope of another. But the one who is tuned to a different pitch altogether from the average person and whose rhythm in life is quite different from the other's naturally must feel the pull too much. And the only way how the sages manage to protect themselves from this is by the practice of Vairagya ( the word Vairagya means independence and indifference, both in one), which cannot be learned or taught; it comes by itself. It is not lack of love, or bitterness; it is only rising above love and hate both.
28: A Silent Music
Every soul radiates an influence which charges the atmosphere all around. The more powerful the influence the wider it spreads, forcing its way even through the walls. There is no barrier of water or space which can keep that influence from spreading. The stronger the influence the longer it lasts. It is not difficult for a sensitive person to perceive, on coming into a room or a house, what influence it has, or to perceive, on sitting on a chair, who was sitting there before him. The character of this influence is just like light or heat, which silently spreads its warmth according to its power of radiance. It is not that man's influence is felt in his presence only, but even after he has left the place it remains. The influence of some persons can remain for hours, of some for days, of some for weeks or months or even years. Atmosphere is a silent music. It has its effect upon the listener, exciting or peaceful, whatever it may be. The atmosphere remains not only in the place but also in objects, such as a chair, or a sofa, or a cushion, or a carpet or a mat. An influence can remain with the clothes that one has worn in one's life. It is something real, not tangible but perceptible. Music comes through the ears to the heart, but atmosphere comes direct. A walking stick can have the atmosphere of the person who held it. A rosary, a necklace, brooch, or a ring can have atmosphere. A pen or an inkstand can have an atmosphere of the person who has used it. Everybody perceives it, consciously or unconsciously, but the more sensitive a person, the more he can realize it.
It is not easy for everybody to break anybody's influence, although it is possible to rise above it. A person who is fine of nature and sensitive, pure and good, for him the influence from all around in this world can become so troublesome that he would always find himself in the midst of the battle going on constantly around him. Therefore, it will not do for a person to become fine and sensitive, and yet not learn how to combat all influences around him. The more one studies this question the more one comes to realize that life is not only a battle outwardly but also inwardly. And there are two things that can be done for self-defense: either to become a most well-equipped fighter, to fight out all influences attacking one with the power of one's own influence; or to rise above all influences, which means to live and not live, to be and not be, to come down to act and to rise up to keep in security.
29: Three Ways to Develop Insight
There are three important things to be considered in the development of insight. The steady gaze of the eyes and of the mind, which helps one in penetration. Another thing is losing everything else from one's sight except the object through which one wishes to penetrate. And that comes by sufficient interest in penetration. But the third thing, which helps most is losing for the moment the thought of one's self. When one's body and mind are not before one, it is then that one has the proper insight into things one wishes to know and understand. Sufis therefore have different concentrations by which they are helped not only in keeping their gaze steady, but standing firm upon one thought. When a person cannot take interest in any object or being, then his mind is not steady, for there is nothing that it takes interest in. It is the interest which makes the mind steady. A certain thought which is inspiring or helpful in some way, or a certain form which is inspiring when once one has concentrated upon it — then the mind becomes steady also, then it can easily hold an object before it without wavering.
The character of the mind is as the character of the eyes, the eyes which take in all that comes under their horizon. So the mind jumps from one thing to another, upon all thoughts which may be standing within its horizon. And as it is not always easy to keep the gaze steady so it is with the mind. To keep the mind firm upon one thought, form or image is not easy. But the third thing is the most difficult, and that is to lose oneself in the thought of the object that is before one. In this way the self, which stands in the way between the soul and its object of penetration, is lost from view for the time being. Thus the person is able to penetrate through all things, knowing thereby the nature, character and secret of all things.
There is no other cause of all depression and despair than the inability of seeing through life. There may be many reasons apparently seeming to be the different causes of unhappiness, but this one is the greatest reason, the reason of all reasons. Even animals in whose nature the tendency of fighting is pronounced become friends when they come to know one another by association. Many troubles in the life of individuals and of the multitude might be avoided if keen insight were developed, for all confusion is caused by misunderstanding. Not only human beings, but all things of this world which seem of use or of no use, which seem to be easy or difficult to obtain, all are for the use of man. Therefore, penetration into things is the secret of the success of science, art, philosophy and religion, all.
Questions and Answers
Question: Suppose a person had for years some interest very near to his heart which had developed his power of concentration, and that interest ceased. Is that person more capable of strong concentration on a new interest, because of his previous experience?
Answer: Yes, certainly. All our experiences are nothing but preparation for something else. Nothing that belongs to this world, however precious, must hinder one's path of progress. For every step in the direction to that spiritual gain must be the aim of every soul. And the concentration upon the object is just a step.
Q: A feeling of deadness seems to come. . .?
A: Here is the question of concentration, and not of its effect. The question of effect is quite a different subject again. Then the question comes: of what object? Something to steady the mind. It may be a tree, a flower, the sun or a star. Of course, according to the object a reaction is produced. And according to the reaction an object is produced. Every belief and every experience for a wise person is a step of a staircase. He has taken this step, there is another step for him to take. The steps of the staircase are not made for one to stand there. They are just made for one to pass, to go further. Because life is progress. Where there is no progress there is no life. One should go on. Death and disappointment — two things are one. And if there is a hereafter, then the death was a passing stage, and so is disappointment. Two things are one. And if there is a hereafter, then the death was a passing stage, and so is the disappointment. It only has made one more steady, more wise, more. . .
Q: Does the staircase never end?
A: The end is not very desirable. The interest is in the staircase, in going on.
Q: . . .when a soul has reached perfection?
A: After perfection there is no interest. If there is no self, there is no interest, there is perfection.
30: Tranquility
The most important thing in life is the opening of that clear vision which is opened by the help of insight. The effect of every emotion covers the insight, just as clouds cover the sun. It is therefore that most clever and qualified people often do things, especially at the moment of passion or anger, which they would not have done otherwise. The reason is that the mind loses its rhythm under the strain of passion or emotion, and so it upsets the rhythm of the body. It makes one perplexed and unable to see any condition or situation clearly.
It is therefore that the seers, the sages, try to keep their tranquility at every cost, for life in the world brings up many things every day and hour to disturb that tranquility which is the secret of insight. Every little noise or disturbance in oneself and outside can upset a person who keeps the rhythm of his whole being in the proper order. It is therefore that the sages have chosen solitude and a life away from the world. But the best way of keeping one's tranquility is to keep one's rhythm under the control of one's own will. By doing this one preserves one's tranquillity in the midst of life's greatest turmoil. In the terms of Vedanta life is likened to the sea, where there is a continual rising and falling of the waves. Everyone by nature seeks peace and in peace alone is their satisfaction. But often one seeks it wrongly; therefore instead of producing peace one creates more struggle in life. The secret of peace is in the will power. Instead of resisting the forces which jar and disturb one's life, if one would only stand firm against them, then one can attain to that tranquillity which is most necessary to have a greater insight into life.
Man is made of atoms gathered together around the intelligence, physical atoms and mental atoms which make his body and mind. The power which has gathered them and which controls them and which uses them for their best purpose is the will power. When this power is absent the body and mind both go to pieces, broken by every jarring effect coming from whatever direction. This is the reason hidden under most of the illnesses and weaknesses. Every mistake, failure and disappointment in life has this reason behind it: the lack of control, the lack of steadiness and strength against the disturbing influences, which come from within and without.
The great lesson which one learns, which helps one most in keeping that tranquillity in life which helps insight, is to be able to become like the ebb and flow. When the first is needed then to become the ebb, when the next thing is needed then to make oneself in that way. When it is necessary to express then to express, when it is necessary to respond, then to respond, at will. In this manner one will always manage to preserve tranquility in life.
End of Volume 1, Number 4
1,5: Spirit
1: The Secret Of Spirit, Part I
There are four different explanations of the word "Spirit." One meaning is essence. Spirit of camphor means the essence of camphor. The second meaning of spirit is what is understood by those who call the soul spirit when it has left the body on earth and has passed to the other side. The third meaning of spirit is that of the soul and mind working together. It is used in this sense when one says that a man seems to be in low spirits; this means that both his mind and soul are depressed, although one may not always define it in this way. And the fourth meaning of spirit is the soul of all souls, the source and goal of all things and all beings, from which all comes and to which all returns.
The first meaning of the word spirit is, as I have said, essence. The essence of flowers is honey, the essence of milk is butter, the essence of grapes is wine, and the essence of learning is wisdom. Therefore wisdom is as sweet as honey, as nourishing as butter, and as exalting as wine.
To rise above things in life one must try to get to the essence. In other words, there is one way of listening to a musician and that is to consider the form, the technique; and the other way is to grasp the feeling, the sense that the music suggests. So it is with life: we can look at life in one way and see it in different forms and make a rigid concept of it, or we can see it so that we get the suggestion of its essence. For instance, a person may come to us and express a thousand false feelings. And then we go over it in our mind and realize it was all false because it could not reasonably be true; this is one way. The other way is to see immediately that it is false from first to last, without going into details. This is quite sufficient, and because we have immediately seen it we have saved our mind a great deal of trouble.
Sometimes a person says to another, "You say you are my friend; all right, I am going to find out what you are like, how you work." That is one way of looking at it. But the other way is to look only once at that person and, by that one glance, to know what he is worth; that is all. If one can do this it will make one brave, venturesome, and will bring one nearer to the essence. It will impart generosity and liberality; otherwise one remains narrow and small and confused, and in this way thousands and millions of souls are buffeted along on the sea of life, not knowing where they are going, because they are not sure of themselves. If a person says, "I don't know you, but perhaps I will know you some day," that person will never know anyone, for all his life he will be unsure.
As to the second meaning of the word spirit, this mechanism of the physical body, which works from morning until evening without winding like a machine, and which stands up to all the turmoil of life, encounters all difficulties, and endures everything that comes to it, one day falls flat. It is just like when the steam or electricity, or whatever it was that kept the machine going, suddenly gives out. A physician says that the man's heart failed, or his blood pressure was too high, or something like that as an explanation of death. It means that a person who was active and sensitive is no longer active nor sensitive. That which was most important in him has left, so much the physician can tell you; but what was there he does not know.
From the point of view of a mystic, however, what has left the body is the person. This body was not the person. This body was a mask which covered that person; and. when this mask is cast off that visible person becomes invisible. Not he himself but only the mask has been thrown away. He is what he already was. If death comes it is the removing of the mask.
A question arises: How does this take place, how does it happen? And the answer is that there is a magnetic action between the person and the mask. It is the strength of the physical body which holds the spirit, and it is the strength of the spirit which holds the body. The physical body holds on to the spirit because it only lives by the life of the spirit, and without the spirit it is dead. And as every being, however small, struggles for life, this physical body tries to hold on to the spirit; and it does so to the last, as someone who is on the point of losing his gold might hold it tightly in his hand until his hand is paralyzed, and he can no longer hold it and so lets it drop. It does not mean he does not want it; it only means he cannot hold it any longer. And so it is with the spirit; as long as the spirit is interested in the physical body it holds it, permeates it, and embraces it. But as soon as it feels that it does not want it any more, that it no longer has any use for the body, it drops it.
Both these tendencies can be seen in people when they are studied by those who understand. There are people who have reached old age and who are no longer doing anything in the world, yet each atom of their body is consciously or unconsciously holding on to the spirit in order to live every moment they can possibly prolong their life. And as long as their strength allows them to hold on to the spirit they live; and they may live to a very great age. But one can also notice another tendency, and that is that there are some who are tired of life. They no longer attach any importance to this life on earth. The value of things has diminished in their eyes; they are disappointed by these transitory and changeable conditions. In their spirit they are feeling something quite different from the other type of person. Their tendency is to give up the physical bondage of the body, and they would be glad if the spirit were separated from it; and yet their body unconsciously clings to the spirit just the same and keeps them alive as long as it can hold on. Thus the unwilling spirit is held by the body.
In conclusion, death means a separation from the body which is nothing but a garb covering the spirit. And what follows after the separation? The body which is left on the earth by the spirit is no longer living in the sense we understand life; yet it is living. It is as if there had been a fire in the stove, and even after the fire was extinguished the warmth remained there. There is only the smallest degree of spirit but there is life in it. Where there is no life, life cannot be created; life must come out of life. Life cannot come out of death. Living creatures such as worms and germs come out of a dead body, and how could life come out if there were no life there? There is life; not in the sense we generally understand it, but it is living just the same. There is nothing in this world of which we can say that it is without life, or dead. Everything, every object that seems without life, has some life somewhere. And even after it is destroyed it is still living. When germs and worms manifest out of the dead body we think that it means it is finished. On the contrary it goes on, life is continued in various forms. It has never ended. What has ended is this imprisonment which we recognize as such and such a person; but the existence is still going on, even the mortal existence, even the mask which in reality was nothing.
The living part was the spirit and it goes on living. When we say, "He has gone to the other world," the other world is only our conception, though it is a beautiful conception. If one says, for instance, that a great revolution is taking place in the scientific world, it does not mean that the scientific world is outside the earth. When we have experienced a great development in the mystical world, this does not mean that we live outside this planet. It is a conception; it is a beautiful way of putting it, and it is the best we can find. "In the other world" means in a world which is veiled from our eyes, our physical eyes; but it does not mean a world far away from us beyond our reach. Both the living and the dead inhabit the same space; we all live together. Only a veil separates us, the veil of this physical body. Separation means being unable to see one another; there is no other separation.
One need not attain to the seventh heaven in order to reach those who have passed. When one really cares for them, that bond of love and sympathy in itself makes us close to, them. Two people may be living in the same house, working together, seeing each other every day, every hour, and yet they may be as far apart as the North Pole from the South Pole. There are people thrown miles apart by destiny so that they cannot reach one another because of life's difficult circumstances, and yet they can be closer to each other than anyone else. If this is true, it proves that those united in spirit may be thrown far apart in the world and yet be so close together that nothing stands between them. Therefore if those who have departed from this earth have a connection with someone on earth, they are close to him just the same. Nearness means nearness of the spirit, not of the physical body.
In India there used to be a custom called Sati, by which a wife who was devoted to her husband was cremated with him. Some people felt a great horror at the idea, but others thought differently. I would say in regard to this question that when two souls have become one, whether they are both on earth or whether one of them has gone to another plane, they are still united. If one of them remains living then that living person is as though dead here, for he only lives there where there is real unity. There is no separation. Nothing can separate two souls if they are really united.
2: The Secret Of Spirit, Part II
The third meaning of the spirit is that it is the mind and the soul together. One might ask if the mind and the soul together, that is to say the spirit, is that part of one's being which lives. It is not a part, but all. Our overcoat is not a part of our being; it is something extraneous. It becomes temporarily a part, but it is not essentially a part. The real being is the spirit, the mind and the soul together.
One might think it uninteresting to live as spirit and not as body. It might seem uninteresting to one who has not experienced on this earth how to be able to live independently of the physical body. All mysticism has been based on this: how to be able to live independently of the physical body, how to live on earth as spirit, even for five minutes a day. This gives a conviction of being able to live and yet be independent of the physical body. It is an experience in life, an education in the highest knowledge. Once a person has realized how he can exist without the physical body it produces a faith that gives an ultimate conviction which nothing can damage.
It is not only a matter of existing, but of existing completely, fully. The soul is not dependent upon the eyes to see. It is not dependent upon the ears; it hears more than the ears can hear. Therefore he who knows spirit receives far greater inspiration from being able to exist independently of the physical body. It is very easy for a person with material knowledge to call those people fanatics who retire to the mountains or wander about thinking of spiritual things, who seem to live in a dream. They might appear to do so, but actually they only do not conform to what everyone else does. They left the life of business and profession and politics, all social life, for the sake of deeper experience. It is not necessary for everyone to follow their example, but one may benefit by what they have brought to us.
At this time West and East are coming closer together. What is needed now is that we should awaken and benefit by the fruits of the lives of people in both East and West. There is much that the West can give to the East. It has labored along certain lines, and the fruits of this work can be of use to the East, while there are fruits which Eastern people have gathered for years and years which will be of great use to the West, once people have realized this. And the particular lesson which can be learned from the experience of those in the East who have investigated life's secret, is the way of becoming conscious of one's spirit, of realizing spirit. No doubt those who wish to mystify others make complexities out of simple things. But those who wish to serve the world in the path of truth reduce complex things to simple ones. It is in a simple form that we have to realize the truth.
The fourth meaning of spirit is the source and the goal of all things, something towards which all are bound, to which all will return. It is that spirit which in religion is called God. And the best way of explaining this meaning of spirit is that it is like the sun, the center of all life, the divine spark in us. But the sun is not as small as it appears to be. Then what is the sun? The sun is all. The part of the sun that we recognize as the sun is the center of it, but the sun is in reality as large as its light reaches. The real sun is light itself. But as there is a point which is the central focus of light, we call that point the sun.
The light has centralized itself there; but the sun has other aspects such as rays, which are not different from the sun but which are the sun itself. And what are we? Our souls are the rays of the sun. In our inner being we are both source and goal itself. It is only our ignorance of this which keeps us ignorant of our own being.
Every atom of the universe, having come from the sun, from the divine sun, makes every effort to return to it. The tendency of the waves is to reach upward, of the mountains to point upward, of the birds to fly upward. The tendency of animals is to stand on their hind legs. The tendency of man is to stand upright, ready to soar upward. An angel is pictured as a man with two wings ready to fly upward. Science has discovered the law of gravitation, but the mystic knows the other law, which is also a law of gravitation but in the opposite direction.
Thus not only is every soul attracted in that direction, but also every atom of this world, going through all the different processes known to biology in order to reach that state, to return to the spirit. Therefore it is not necessary to be frightened by going towards God, or by trying to attain the spirit by losing one's identity, one's individuality. A fear like this is the same as the experience of someone on the top of a mountain. A kind of terror overwhelms a person when he is looking at the immensity of the view; and in the same way a soul is frightened of spiritual attainment because of the immensity, of the largeness and depth it has. It frightens the soul which fears to lose itself, because it has this false conception of its smaller self. The mystic says, "Try to die before death"; and to die before death is to play death. That means to get above this fright, which only comes from the false conception of self.
The one who has died before death has no longer desire; he is above desire. This is shown by the picture of the God Vishnu sitting upon the lotus. The lotus represents desire: every petal is a desire. Sitting upon the lotus means that the desire is under him instead of being above his head, To some extent there is a relationship between life in the spiritual world and life on earth, for that which is collected here on earth indicates the task one has to perform here. The only condition is that the one who has stayed a shorter while here must work more for his spiritual accomplishment than the one who has stayed longer on earth. When someone has achieved spirituality here, it is not necessary for him to stay longer unless it is his desire. And the day the false conception of self is removed from his eyes he begins to see the immensity of God's majesty.
3: Spirit Within and Without
The spirit of everything and of every being is to be found both within and without. Be it a metal, a stone, a fruit, or a flower, everything has its spirit within it, even if it be in a hidden form; and this spirit continues to exist even after the object has lost its apparent life. Sandalwood keeps its perfume even when dry; the ashes of pearls still preserve that essence which is so powerful. In the stone, which is cold, a spark of fire is hidden. In fruit there is a seed which contains its essence; and in some fruit there is a space, a vacuum which is not devoid of spirit either.
Not many are able to find the spirit in the vacuum, yet in the vacuum a phenomenon can be observed; for instance, in the vacuum of an apple is to be found the essence of the whole fruit. It was not, therefore, only imagination when ancient peoples believed in the spirits of trees and plants, in the spirits of the mountains and hills; for there is nothing existing which has no spirit, although that side of the object is veiled and we cannot see it. We see only the outside, but there is a spirit behind it just the same, and by tracking it we shall find it one day.
The qualities of all things are to be found in their spirit rather than in the things themselves. Ancient physicians, knowing this, tried to extract the essence from certain things by grinding, by burning, or by washing them a great number of times. By doing this they were able to bring out the spirit of the object, and that spirit became a thousand times more powerful than the object itself. Those who are acquainted with alchemy know how to bring out the living part hidden within every substance, every object, and even to some extent their essence; and when this essence is extracted, then all the benefit that can be derived from the object is derived.
Alchemists at one time used a process by which they produced metal out of herbs, and another process by which they extracted the essence of flowers in such a way that one drop of it spread its perfume for miles around. That art seems to have been lost; yet what we can learn from it is that in everything that exists there is a spirit, and that spirit has all the qualities which the outside of that thing shows least.
Astronomers regard the planets they know as accommodations, as worlds, and scientists have considered space to contain certain recognized substances; but if there is one source of all life, then there cannot be an empty space. There must be life, and there is life. Space is not only full of substance, but also full of spirit. In other words, life is one and life represents many; and thus there is not only one life in space, but there are many lives. Since our senses are so limited that we can see no farther than a certain distance, and since we can hear no better than our ears permit, our senses cannot perceive all things and beings, which nevertheless exist. Those who have seen or otherwise perceived such things and beings have described them to us in the form of legends. They have called them fairies and spirits and djinns and by many other names, and artists have also helped people to form a certain idea of such beings. But this does not mean that it is all imagination and that nothing exists save that which we can perceive through our organs of sense. Everything shows itself by its own light. Our eyes are capable of seeing certain forms, and there
are other forms which our eyes cannot see; but this does not mean that there are no forms except those which we can see with our eyes.
Ideas, such as that of the other world and of different planes, are taught by philosophers in order to give people some notion of the inner world; but in point of fact there is not one inch of space where no beings exist, beings with a form, even if it is a form that our limited sight cannot see. The reason is that the light with which an object, a form, shows itself is dim in these other forms. It is more clear to our inner perception and it is more dim to our outer sight.
What we see before our eyes is not so clear as the things we see in our thoughts. Only, the sphere of thought is different; it belongs to a different dimension. Our thoughts are clearer to us than what we see with our eyes, for we see our thoughts in detail, and every little detail is clear, whereas what we see with our eyes is mostly only the outline. This is also the reason why one can more easily idealize someone at a distance: the eyes of the heart are more capable of seeing clearly than the physical eyes. Naturally when we are thinking and seeing at the same time, neither what we see nor what we think is clear to us.
What is it that makes man limited and debars him from the vision of objects and beings in the unseen world? In the first place the unseen world is a name invented for our convenience. The seen world is the unseen world, and the unseen world is the seen world; the next world is the same world as this, and this world is the same as the next; only, what is veiled from our eyes, we say is a next step, and we call it the unseen world. But insofar as man is capable of seeing the seen world, to that extent he is also capable of observing the unseen world, on condition that he first sees and observes his own unseen world. And why a person does not observe the unseen world is that he is accustomed to observe only what is before him; he never. turns within to see what is within him.
Those whose sympathy is awakened, those who have fine feelings, those whose thoughts are deep, those whose imagination rises high, will never deny the fact that thought reaches beyond all boundaries of land and water, that feelings are reflected from thousands of miles away. Two souls can communicate, wherever they may be, in one instant. If this is true then the next world is not very far away; the unseen world has not been drowned, it is there, it is before us, and we live and move and make our life in it.
Then after death do we not depart from here? It is a poetic thought to think that there is a next world, it is a beautiful fancy, yet are we not a world within ourselves ? Every next experience is a next world; besides every day is a new world. We need not wait for death to see the next world; every new experience brings a next world into our lives. In order to get an insight into the unseen world the first thing is to open our own sight to the unseen being that is within us. It only means opening the third eye, as it is called in occult terms. Why is it called the third eye? Because it is not two eyes, it is one, it is sight itself. It is in order to look outward that we need two eyes; to look inward we need one eye, and that is sight.
In the unseen world we human beings are as fine as the unseen beings, in the outer world we are as dense as the visible beings. When we are conscious of the physical part of our being, and when we identify ourselves with that part, naturally the other part of our being, which is unseen and similar to all unseen beings, is unknown to us. But that does not mean that we are not unseen beings; we are unseen beings just the same. The subtlety of human nature, the fine perception, the deep feeling, the high imagination, is it not all unseen, is it not our own being? Our being reaches further than birds can fly; our own being is finer than the moth and brighter than the flame. For anything to be visible to human eyes there is a condition: that its form must have a certain degree of radiance; and if it is not radiant enough or if its radiance is of a different character, then human eyes cannot see it. But this does not mean that what human eyes cannot see a human being cannot see; for the real eye is the being, and that is why man calls himself "I", saying, "I am." It is not necessary to develop insight into nature in order to experience the phenomena of a finer world, but one must see with one's eyes and perceive with one's insight in order to live a fuller life, a life of greater perfection.
Lesson 4: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
The words "poor in spirit" are an unsatisfactory translation, and do not convey the real meaning of the text. There are certain words in the original which cannot be accurately translated. In Sufi terms this poorness of spirit is called Halim Taba, and means mild-spirited. The more true meaning of the words is: "Blessed are the mild in ego," and this is the teaching of Jesus throughout. He himself is spoken of in the Bible as "the Lamb of God," conveying the meaning of the mild in ego, like a lamb.
The ego is seen in the animal creation, but much more strongly in the carnivorous than in the herbivorous animals. It is very strong in the lion, and in the dog which will not suffer the presence of another dog when it is eating a bone. Elephants, on the contrary, the largest of all animals, are docile and harmless, and obey the commands of men. They live together in herds, and seldom fight. The same is the case with horses and sheep.
When we consider the ego in connection with the whole consciousness, we first look at the earth and rocks, the lowest form of life, and find how stiff and hard, how unmovable and unbendable they are. When we come to the water element, we find that it is pliable, and can be poured from one vessel to another. The course of a river or a stream may be diverted and made to go in another direction. It is poorer in spirit than the earth, for it is a higher element. A more exalted state of consciousness belongs to the poorer in spirit, the pliable and serviceable, than to the stiff and set. When we come to the fire element, we find that it is still more pliable. It can be taken from the rock and from the atmosphere, and it is more serviceable and more pliant. Air is still more pliable and is everywhere, and man cannot live without it. Ether is the highest element, and is nearest to us, for it surrounds us and is within us.
We frequently say, "I dislike him," "I wish to avoid her;" but if we examine this carefully we find that it is the same element in all that we dislike: the ego. And when we turn to ourselves to see if we have it in us, we find it there too. We should forget it, therefore, in other people, and first turn our attention to crushing it within ourselves. We should determine to have our house clean even if other people neglect theirs. We should be careful to take away from ourselves any thorns that prick us in the personality of others. There is a verse in the Qur'ân which says, "Arise in the midst of the night, and commune with thy Lord … Bear patiently what others say." This is not only a command to arise in the night and pray, but it also means that by rising in the night we crush the ego, for the ego demands its rest and comfort, and when denied, is crushed. The mystics fast for the same reason.
The Sufis base the whole of their teaching on the crushing of the ego, which they term Nafs-kushi, for therein lies all magnetism and power. Jesus Christ meant this power of magnetism when He told His disciples that they would become the fishers of men. This can be acquired by developing the personality in poorness of spirit.
Lesson 5: Spirit and Matter
From the scientific standpoint, spirit and matter are quite different from each other, but according to the philosophical point of view they are one.
Spirit and matter are different, just as water is different from snow; yet again they are not different, for snow is nothing other than water. When spiritual vibrations become more dense they turn into matter, and when material vibrations become finer they develop into spirit.
For a Sufi, at the beginning of his training the spiritual life is desirable, but after mastering it, material and spiritual lives become the same to him, and he is master of both.
6: The Experience of the Soul through the Spirit
The soul has two different sides and two different experiences. One side is the experience with the mind and body, the other side is the experience of the spirit. The former is called the outer experience, the latter the inner experience.. The nature of the soul is like glass, transparent; and when one side of the glass is covered it becomes a mirror. So the soul becomes a mirror in which the outer experiences are reflected when the other side is covered.
That is why, however greatly blessed a person may be with outer knowledge, he is not necessarily gifted with inner knowledge. In order to attain to inner knowledge the Sufi covers the other side of the soul, so that its mirror part may face the spirit instead of the outer world. As soon as he is able to accomplish this he receives inspirations and revelations.
There are people who are by nature intuitive; they are sometimes called psychic or clairvoyant. It is accounted for by the other side of their soul naturally facing the spirit within. One may call them extraordinary or exceptional, but not mystical; for the mystic does not desire that position. By concentration and meditation he gains such a mastery that he can cover the soul from without to take reflection within, and he can cover the soul from within when he requires the reflection from the outer world to its full extent. Balance is desirable, and mastery is the goal to be attained.
7: The Experience of the Soul through the Spirit of Another
The soul experiences life through one's own spirit and also through the spirit of another, sometimes consciously, but mostly unconsciously.
It is not only in obsession that the soul experiences through the spirit of another; on the contrary it is the spirit of another that experiences through one's own spirit in obsession. Thought-reading, knowing the feeling of another, receiving sympathetic impressions upon oneself, all these things are the experiences of our soul through the spirit of another.
Then there are dreams of strange character, thoughts that do not belong to us, and different feelings that come for no reason. These are nothing but the experiences of our soul through the spirit of another. It is difficult to achieve such an experience consciously, though one often has it unconsciously. The man who can experience consciously through another person's spirit has solved one of life's great problems, for to do this he must have been able to efface his limited individuality from his soul. He is already on the journey to perfection, for in time his soul becomes the soul of all.
8: Spirit and Matter, Part I
We often use the words spirit and matter in our everyday speech, but their meaning is not understood by everyone in the same way. There is the man who says, "Spirit is one thing and matter is another thing; matter is not spirit, neither is spirit matter." This is a religiously inclined person. There is another, a materialist, who says, "There is no such thing as spirit; all that is there is matter." And then a third person comes along who says, "Do not mention the word matter to me; there is no matter. It is only an illusion; only spirit exists."
One is free to believe what one wishes to believe, but when it comes to reasoning and looking deeply into life one sees it in quite a different way. Just as ice and water are two things and yet in their real nature they are one, so it is with spirit and matter. Water turns into ice for a certain time, and when this ice is melted it will again turn into water. Thus matter is a passing state of the spirit; only, it does not melt immediately as ice melts into water, and therefore man doubts if matter, which takes a thousand forms, ever really turns into spirit. In reality, matter comes from spirit; matter in its true nature is spirit; matter is an action of spirit which has materialized and has become intelligible to our senses of perception, and has thus become a reality to our senses, hiding spirit under it. It has covered the existence of the spirit from the eyes of those who look at life from the outside.
We read in the Qur'ân that all comes from God and all returns to Him. In philosophical terms one can simply say that all comes from spirit and will return to it. No substance can exist without spirit. Although there is a war between spirit and substance, although they are opposed to each other, at the same time no substance can ever exist without spirit. Throughout this battle between substance and spirit the substance will resist spirit and outwardly drive it away, resisting surrender or diminution by the power of the spirit. But there will come a day when it will be diminished; in other words there is no mountain which will not one day crumble.
What is death to the spirit? As spirit is nothing to matter, so is matter nothing to the spirit; it does not miss it because it is self-sufficient. Spirit misses matter only in its limited, active condition. When the spirit is acting in a process towards manifestation, then it needs a capacity. Through that capacity it experiences life in a limited way, but in its true nature it is self-sufficient. It stands in no need of any experience. It is itself all experience, all knowledge; nothing is wanting in it.
One may call matter positive and spirit negative, or spirit positive and matter negative; there is a reason for it in each case. If one calls matter positive it is true, because matter shows itself as the picture while spirit is the background, and we are always inclined to call the picture part positive, not the background. But if we call the spirit positive that is true too, because matter has come from the spirit and spirit will consume it one day.
It is through vibration, through motion, that spirit turns into matter. Hindus call it Nada, and they always combine this word with Brahma; together this means God-vibration. They never call it vibration alone; they always call it divine vibration. By vibration spirit arrives at two experiences: the first is that it becomes audible to itself, and the next that it becomes visible to itself. In the Bible we read that first was the Word and the word was God, and then came light, visible life. This means that the first experience of the spirit is that life is audible and that the next experience is that life is visible.
And now coming to the idea of spirit: What is it? How do we define it? The answer is: if we define spirit it cannot be spirit; the spirit that can be defined cannot be spirit. The best definition of spirit is "that which is not matter." The chemical world has applied the word spirit to the essence taken from anything; symbolically this expresses the same meaning, though in this way spirit is brought into matter. When one takes a bottle of essence and says, "There is spirit," it is true symbolically; but in reality spirit means something that our senses cannot perceive. It is spirit in the sense that it is essence, but in the sense that it is perceived it cannot be spirit.
Then spiritualistic people have given this name to the souls which have passed. Symbolically it is true that the body representing the material part of man has disappeared, and that the personality has gone towards the spirit; and yet as long as the personality is perceptible and has its own particular qualities, as long as it still retains its individuality, it cannot be spirit.
9: Spirit And Matter, Part I, (continued)
If we really want to define spirit, the best definition is pure intelligence. Because, occupied as we are with this world of illusion, we retain in our mind impressions and knowledge of the material world, we are not always able to experience that part of our being which is pure intelligence. We generally use the word intelligence in quite a different sense; when we say that someone is intelligent we mean that he is clever. But pure intelligence has nothing to do with cleverness; nor can one call pure intelligence the knowing quality, for it is above this. We know intelligence as a faculty, but in reality it is spirit itself. No doubt science today may not accept this argument, as the idea of the modern scientist is rather that what we call intelligence is an outcome of matter, that matter has evolved during thousands of years through different aspects, and has culminated in man as a wonderful phenomenon in the form of intelligence. He traces the origin of intelligence to matter. But the mystic holds, as in the past all prophets, saints, and sages have known, that it is spirit which through a gradual action has become denser and has materialized itself into what we call matter or substance; and through this substance it gradually unfolds itself, for it cannot rest in it. It is caught in this denseness, gradually making its way out through a process taking thousands of years, until in man it develops itself as intelligence.
Many biologists have said that animals have no mind, but it is only a difference of words. Mind is merely a vehicle of intelligence. It is intelligence which has manifested as matter, and it is the same intelligence which gradually develops through different aspects into a clearer and purer intelligence. Therefore the lower creatures may not have that mind which a scientist perhaps sees in man; nevertheless we find a vehicle of intelligence in all, and. not only in animals and birds, but even in substance we can find intelligence.
It is not only due to chemical action that a flower fades in the hand of one person and keeps fresh in the hand of another; it is not automatic when a plant grows under the care of a certain person but wilts if tended by someone else. And a still deeper study will reveal that the color and the brilliance of precious stones change in every person's hand; pearls too change their light when they go from hand to hand. The more deeply we study matter, the more proofs shall we find of intelligence working through the whole process of continual unfoldment.
What is the reason that flowers fade when touched by some people ? It is the same reason as with us. The presence of one person annoys us, we cannot tolerate it; the presence of another person brings us closer. It is the same with flowers. But the phenomenon behind it all is love. Whatever is touched by a person who lacks that element becomes dead; whether he touches a flower or whether he touches an affair or whether he touches a child, whatever he touches is destroyed. For love is in itself an essence, the essence; it is the sign of spirit. All that a person touches with love will be given light and life; and lack of love causes all death and decay. Glasses will break and saucers will crack when a loveless person touches them. One may not yet have had this experience, but one day one will see, that when an inharmonious person enters the house things begin to break, accidents happen, pet animals such as dogs and cats become restless.
But what is most interesting in the study of spirit and matter is the nature of vacuum and substance. Substance has a tendency to add substance to itself and to turn all that it attracts into the same substance, and vacuum has a tendency to make a greater vacuum. This shows that there is a continual struggle between substance and vacuum. Where vacuum can get hold of substance it will turn the substance into vacuum, and where substance is stronger it will turn out vacuum and make substance. The idea behind this is not what we might think. We think of vacuum as being nothing; we recognize vacuum by contrasting it with substance. If we want to explain what a vacuum is we call it absence of substance, but in reality substance has arisen from vacuum; vacuum is the womb of substance. Substance has been composed in vacuum and has developed in it; it has formed itself, it has constructed itself, and it will again be dissolved in the vacuum, There can be no form without a vacuum, visible or invisible. Everywhere there is a vacuum, but we see only what our eyes can see, and we cannot recognize as a vacuum that which our eyes cannot see. Even the pores of the body are a vacuum, although we do not always see them.
The difference between the nature of vacuum and the nature of substance is that vacuum is knowing. Therefore the prophets have called it the Omniscient God, not in the sense of a person who is knowing but of the Whole Being, the All-knowing Being. Man is so limited, he is limited because his knowledge is limited, and so he thinks, "I alone know. The vacuum which is meaningless to me, which gives no sign of life to me, is nothing." But if he goes further in investigating the nature of vacuum he will find that he himself is nothing, his body, eyes, head, bones, and skin. If there is anything in him which makes him a knowing being, it is the vacuum.
In the mineral kingdom the stone is dense; it does not know much. The reason is that it has little vacuum. The tree feels more than the stone because it has more vacuum, as the Indian scientist Jagarji Chandra Bose has pointed out. He tried to prove to the scientific world that trees breathe. Animals and birds show greater signs of life and a more pronounced knowing quality because the vacuum in them is greater still; and in man it is even more so. What makes one part of substance knowing and keeps another part without this faculty is the vacuum in one object and the denseness in another.
There is a third thing we should understand concerning this subject which is of great importance: that which stands between vacuum and substance is capacity. When we look at the sky we feel that it is a vacuum; it seems to be nothing, but in reality it is not nothing, it is capacity. Vacuum is all-knowing, but it is capacity which enables vacuum to know. And as the sky is a capacity for the vacuum to be all-knowing, so every being and every thing is a capacity, greater or lesser, which supplies a body or a vehicle for pure intelligence to work through. There is nothing in this world, whether a stone, a tree, a mountain or a river, water or fire, earth, air, anything, which is not in itself a capacity; it cannot exist without being a capacity. Therefore all that exists, whether living or not living, is a capacity. We read in the scriptures that every atom moves by the command of God. In other words, behind everything that exists, be it large or small, in every motion it makes, even the slightest, there is the hand of the Spirit. It cannot act or move otherwise. Jelal-ud-din Rumi describes this in his Masnavi, where he says that fire, water, air, and earth all seem to man to be dead things, but before God they are living beings, ready to answer His call.
Capacity is all-accommodating. All that we can know is known through some capacity - higher things through a higher capacity and ordinary things through an ordinary capacity. Even when we hear a voice it is through a capacity. A house is a capacity which helps us to hear it more clearly; the ears are a capacity in which it becomes audible; the mouth is a capacity in which the word is formed; the mind is a capacity in which we perceive it. The nature of every capacity is different, but the whole phenomenon is that of capacity.
Among Sufis there is a spiritual culture, a culture which recognizes four centers, each center being a vacuum, or a capacity, for pure intelligence to function in. This shows that man has the greatest possibility of knowing all that is knowable, and he has an even greater capacity than that: to realize all that can be known. If he only knew how he could achieve it! But, one may say, why must substance, coming from vacuum learn to know, when vacuum is already the all-knowing state? The all-knowing state is not the same as a limited knowing state. To look at all is one thing, and to look at a flower with a little instrument is another thing. The conductor of an orchestra may hear the whole orchestra at the same time, and yet he may want to hear one instrument alone to know in how far it is correct.
It is not enough for us to see and to hear, to feel and to touch all these experiences going on at the same time; we like to experience through every sense singly in order to get a definite experience. That is the nature of the spirit.
10: Spirit And Matter, Part II
Spirit and matter are the two names of one life. The primal aspect of life developing into denseness remains spirit, and its development into dense form is called matter. It is like water turning into snow: it is liquid, but it develops into a harder substance; it loses its fineness.
There is a conflict between spirit and matter. The matter absorbs the spirit in order to exist, and the spirit assimilates matter, for it is its own property. The whole of manifestation may thus be regarded as a continual conflict between spirit and matter; the spirit developing into matter on the one hand and assimilating matter on the other: the former being called activity and the latter silence, or construction and destruction, or life and death. When one realizes that the source of both spirit and matter is life, then one will see that there is no such thing as death; but this one can only recognize when one knows the distinction between the life which may be called the source and the life which is momentary, the life which matter shows by absorbing spirit.
Vacuum or space consumes substance; and when substance absorbs life from space, the space opens up within the substance. For instance, trees and plants absorb more from space than do rocks, and animals absorb still more from space than do trees and plants. Man absorbs the most spirit from space and therefore man represents both matter and spirit in himself.
What is absorbed from space has the effect upon that which absorbs it, of opening it up and of forming a vacuum. That is why the stone, which has very little vacuum in it, appears to be lifeless. Plant life shows some sign of life because it absorbs more from space. In the atoms of plant life there is an opening, for by absorbing all that it can absorb from space the plant opens within itself a space to accommodate also the spirit that it absorbs. We see a further development of the same phenomenon in animal life, which, through breathing, absorbs more of the spirit which is in space and therefore becomes more intelligent. This shows that although intelligence manifests through living beings, yet it is absorbed from space. We only know intelligence as something that belongs to man, to the mind or to the heart; but whence is intelligence attracted? It is attracted from space. We recognize intelligence in its manifestation, but we do not know it in its essence. In its essence it is all-pervading, and that is why philosophically minded people have called God omniscient.
All that is constructed is subject to destruction; all that is composed must be decomposed; all that is formed must be destroyed; that which has birth has death. But all this belongs to matter; the spirit which is absorbed by this formation of matter or by its mechanism lives, for spirit cannot die. What we call life is an absorption of spirit by matter. As long as the matter is strong and energetic enough to absorb life or spirit from space, it continues to live and move and be in good condition, but when it has lost its grip on the spirit, when it cannot absorb the spirit as it ought to, then it cannot live, for the substance of matter is spirit.
The Bible says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." But, one will say, does not the dense matter depend for its maintenance upon dense food? Yes, but at the same time the appetite is not satisfied by eating stones; man eats vegetable or animal food because he not only gets a substance from it but also the spirit it has absorbed. In other words, even in eating dense food one is absorbing spirit from space.
Some people will call spirit energy, or a scientist will give it the name of some form or force, but it is never called a person or a being. Then what is it that makes us call God spirit, or why do we call that which is really spirit God ? If it is the very same spirit which we breathe from space that makes man an intelligent being, capable of thinking and feeling; the same spirit that gives him the power of perception and conception and develops in him that feeling which one calls ego, "I," if this is the phenomenon that the spirit shows by being absorbed by the material body, how much more capable of perception and conception, of thought and feeling, must the spirit be in itself! Only, because we are limited by our physical frame we are not able to experience fully its perfect life and its perfect personality.
Where there is a hole this hole has a tendency to become larger, and where there is a little substance there is a tendency for that substance to increase; this shows the tendencies of spirit and matter, the continual conflict that exists between spirit and matter. On the part of matter there is always a tendency to absorb, and on the part of spirit there is always a tendency to assimilate. Mortality, therefore, belongs to substance, not to spirit; immortality belongs to the spirit.
What is it that makes man spiritual? Spirit-consciousness. If a person is not conscious of what he absorbs, he is not conscious of that which makes him more than the dense part of his being. It is not the dense substance which has formed his body that makes him capable of thinking, that gives him the faculty of feeling, of experiencing, of knowing; it is the spirit which this dense substance has absorbed. And if one asks whether this spirit which belongs to man, which may be called an individual spirit, is to be found within or without, the answer is that man himself is the individual spirit. The body is something which the spirit has taken for its use. Therefore just as man is dependent upon this vehicle, which one calls the body, for experiencing the outer life, to the same extent or even more is he independent of the outer body in order to exist for ever.
The dependence of man and the independence of man depend upon what he wishes to experience. If he wishes to experience the dense earth, he depends upon the dense body. If he wishes to live the life of the spirit, he need not depend upon anything. The spirit is living, the spirit is life itself; it only depends upon matter for its experience and not for its life. For the spirit itself is life, though a life which is different from the life we generally recognize as such. What we call living is the matter which has absorbed spirit; and what we call life is that which is moving, acting through and by that spirit. In reality life is that which matter has absorbed. Life passes away from matter and remains; life cannot be destroyed. It is in the understanding of this that lies the secret of immortality.
11: Spirit And Matter, Part III
Spirit and matter are not two things; they are one, seen by us as two. The reason is that the former is not distinguishable while the latter is distinct; the former is not evident while the latter is. The spirit is man's own being, his real being; the spirit is his knowing faculty, his intelligence. The very intelligence that distinguishes all things is man's real being.
How can this intelligence see itself? It is the task of the spirit to feel matter, and at the same time it is the work of the spirit to feel itself. Matter cannot feel the spirit; the spirit has to feel itself in order to be evident. What happens when the spirit cannot feel itself is shown in the story of the twenty peasants who went on a journey, and after crossing a river, they wanted to know if everyone was there. Each counted and said, "There are nineteen," because each forgot to count himself. It is the same with the spirit: the spirit distinguishes everything except itself just as the eyes can not see themselves. The eyes see all things; but no one has ever seen his own eyes except as a reflection in a mirror.
Another and most important fact is that no matter can exist without spirit. Spirit is its existence, and spirit is its life. With any object, sweet or sour, fragrant, hot or cold, whatever be its quality, it is the phenomenon of spirit working through that object which makes it distinguishable in one way or another. And if one were to ask whether there is a link between spirit and matter, the answer would be that there is none; there is no gap between the two because, as has been said, they are not two things; they are one and the same. It is simply that the distinguishable aspect of the spirit we call matter, and its finer aspect which cannot be distinguished we call spirit.
People us the word spirit in different senses. Spiritualists have called spirit the soul that has departed from the earth; religious people have called spirit the being of God. And both are right, although both explanations are limited. It is not only spirit that is the being of God; matter is the being of God too. I once met a young man who said to me, "I do not believe in God, the hereafter, or the soul." I told him that I did not wish to make him believe in these things, that this was not my intention at all; but then the young man asked me what I believed, for he wanted to continue our conversation. I said, "It is very difficult to put one's belief into words, but I would very much like you to tell me first what you believe." He said very easily, "I believe in eternal matter." I said, "My belief is not very far from yours, for the very same thing that you call eternal matter I call eternal spirit. It is a difference of words - we really believe the same thing." Matter cannot be eternal, but if the young man wished to call that which is eternal, matter, I had no objection; I was quite willing to call it matter too.
The difference between what we call an object and a living being is the difference in the degree of spirit they absorb. Darwin died without finding the missing link. But there is no missing link; if there were any link which was missing it would have been found. There is a constant outpouring of spirit on matter, which is its own substance; and according to the degree in which the spirit touches matter, the matter forms into an object or into a being. Thus the difference between the lower creation and the higher creation is also that of the degree of the spirit which they are capable of absorbing; and there is the same difference between a material person and a spiritual person.
The question arises why, if spirit and matter are one and the same, is there then a need for anything or anyone to absorb spirit? Matter is something which is ever changing; it is continually going through a process of change; and we call this change destruction or death, or we say of matter that it is decomposed or destroyed. In reality it has taken another form, but this form is also changed by spirit and made into something else. Only, in order to distinguish it we give the first aspect of the same one name, and the next aspect of the same thing another name. For instance in one condition a substance is called coal, and in another condition it is called diamond. It has gone through a change. The value is different, the name is different, the appearance is different. The spirit has changed it in one condition to a certain degree, and in another condition to a different degree.
When we study the lower creation - insects, birds, and beasts - and when we study their instincts, the intelligence they show, the sympathy to which they respond, we can clearly notice that they are awakened to life according to the spirit they are capable of absorbing. We see among human beings how one man is standing in the midst of all that is good and beautiful, his eyes open but his heart closed. He does not see anything, although happiness is at hand, he does not know it. And there is another person, awakened to all that is good and beautiful, ready to appreciate it and to be grateful for everything good that comes his way. There is one man whose thought reaches the highest level that thought can reach, and there is another who thinks, but his thoughts can rise no higher. What is the reason for these differences? They all come from the varying ability of these people to absorb the spirit.
The soul is likened to a ray of the sun. And what is the ray of the sun, what causes it? It is the motion of the sun, the motion of the light. The light waves cause a space between one wave and another wave, just as in the sea a gap is formed between one wave and the next. There is no gap in reality; it is only a temporary condition of the rising of the water that makes a space between two waves; these two waves are a temporary condition of the water of the sea. The water of the sea remains, but these waves formed for a moment rise and fall again. If we say that five waves are coming it is our conception that they are five, but the phenomenon is only momentary; they are and they are not.
And so it is with souls. If we say that there are many souls, it is true, just as there are many waves or many rays of the sun; but if we say that there is one spirit, it is truer still, just as there is one sea and one sun. The waves are an action of the sea; the rays are a manifestation of the sun; the souls are a phenomenon of the spirit. They are and they are not. They are because we see them, and they are not because there is only one Being.
Those who separate soul from body are looking from the same point of view as the one who sees spirit and matter as two different things. The sight has made the eyes in order to see, but in making the eyes the sight has become limited; the sight had a much greater power before it had eyes. By limiting itself to the eyes the sight's power has become less. So it is with the soul. The soul manifesting as a body has diminished it's power considerably, even to the extent that it is not capable of imagining for one moment the greater power, life, and light it has in itself . Once the soul realizes itself by becoming independent of the body that surrounds it, the soul naturally begins to see in itself the being of the spirit.
What is consciousness? Consciousness is the knowing faculty, but it is the knowing faculty when it has some knowledge; it is only then that we call it consciousness. One is conscious of something; consciousness must always be conscious of something. When consciousness is not conscious of anything it is pure intelligence. It is in this realization that the greatest secret of life can be revealed.
One might say that the experience of pure intelligence is possible only for the only Being, for God, but no one can stand outside of the only Being, and therefore each and everyone is in the only Being. The only Being includes all. And undoubtedly there is a certain process by which one can attain to this pure intelligence. Man is not conscious of it anymore; he has lost the habit of experiencing what pure intelligence is; but all the meditations and concentrations, the whole process by which the mystic treads the spiritual path, bring us finally to the realization of that pure intelligence. And if one asks what benefit one derives from it, the answer is that since all that benefits us comes from one source, that source must be perfect; it must be all-beneficial. It is beyond our limited imagination, but it is the greatest thing one can attain in one's life.
12: Spirit
There is a part of one's life which can only be called life. There is no other name appropriate for it, and the English phrase, "To pull oneself together," means to set that part of oneself to work. It might be called spirit, as this part in itself is both intelligence and power. It is intelligence because any part of the body and mind or every part of both in which it dwells, it makes sensitive; and it is powerful because whatever part of the body and mind it touches, it strengthens that part.
In games and sports, when people jump down from a great height, what is it that protects them from hurt? It is this spirit, and they have made it their habit to call this spirit to their aid. When people throw balls to each other, and even in boxing, the receiver of the blow awakens this spirit in that part on which he receives the blow. The sportsman does not know what this spirit is, though he takes refuge in it. The mystic understands it by his meditation, and also by his research into metaphysics. When a person awakes from a deep sleep, the first thing that rises through his mind to his body, as he twists, turns, stretches and opens his eyes, is this spirit; it rises, so to speak, and spreads.
By the mastery of this spirit diseases are cured, age is mastered, even death is conquered. When this spirit is lacking, intelligence, joy and rest are lacking; and when there is this spirit, there is hope, there is joy, there is rest, because it is the nature of this spirit to hold together the body of atoms and vibrations. Comfort lies in its being held, discomfort when that spirit is not sufficient to hold the body intact. Thus it is the lack of this spirit that is the cause of a great many diseases. By the development of this spirit in himself the healer can give a part of his spirit to another, and that becomes the best source of healing.
13: The Conservative Spirit
There are two different points of view open to one about everything in the world: liberal and conservative; and each of these points of view gives a person a sense of satisfaction, because in both there is a certain amount of virtue. When someone looks at his family from the conservative point of view he becomes conscious of family pride and acts in every way so as to keep up the honor and dignity of his ancestors. He follows the chivalry of his forefathers, and by looking at it from this point of view he defends and protects those who belong to his family, whether worthy or unworthy. In this way he helps to keep going a flame which has perhaps been alight for many years, by holding it in his hand all through life as a torch to guide his way. And when one looks at one's nation from a conservative point of view it gives one a feeling of patriotism, which is the substitute for religion in the modern world. It is no doubt a virtue, in the sense that one begins to consider one's whole nation as one family. It is not only for one's own children that one cares, but also for the children of the whole nation. Man gives his life when occasion arises to defend his nation, or the dignity, the honor, and the freedom of his people.
The conservative spirit is the individualizing spirit, which is the central theme of the whole of creation. It is the spirit which has functioned as the sun; but for this spirit there would be only the all-pervading light, and it is its power working in nature which keeps many branches together on one stem and a number of leaves together on one branch. Again, it is this spirit working in man's body which keeps man's hands and feet together, thus keeping him an individual entity. But there is always a danger that this spirit, if increased, may produce congestion. When there is too much family pride man lives only in his pride, forgetting his duty towards mankind and not recognizing anything which unites him with others beyond the limited circle of his family. When this congestion is produced in a nation it results in all kinds of disasters, such as wars and revolutions with violence and destruction. The nightmare that humanity has recently experienced has been the outcome of world-congestion produced by the extreme of this same spirit.
This shows that it is not true that virtue is one thing and sin another. The same thing which was once virtue may become sin. Virtue or sin is not any action; it is the condition, it is the attitude which prompts one to a certain action, and it is the outcome of an action which makes it a sin or a virtue. Life is movement, death is the stopping of the movement. Congestion stops it, circulation moves it. The conservative spirit is useful insofar as it is moving; in other words, as it is broadening itself. If a person who is proud of his family, after doing his duty to his own people takes the next step which is to help his fellow-citizens, and the third step which is to defend his nation, he is progressing. Both his family pride and his patriotism are no doubt virtues, for they lead him from one thing to another which is better.
Congestion comes when a person is absorbed in his own interest. If he is so taken up with his family and its pride and interest that nobody else in the world exists to him except his own people, then his patriotism becomes a veil over his eyes, making him blind so that he is neither able to serve others nor even his own. In selfishness there is an illusion of profit, but in the end the profit attained by selfishness proves to be worthless. Life is the principal thing to consider, and true life is the inner life, the realization of God, the consciousness of one's spirit. When the human heart becomes conscious of God it is like a bubble which turns into the sea. It spreads and it extends the waves of its love to both friend and foe; and spreading further and further it attains perfection.
14: Spiritual Circulation through the Veins of Nature
When one observes keenly the nature of this life of variety, one finds that behind the veil of variety there is only one life, the source and goal of all things. It is this life which may be called the blood of the universe, circulating through the veins of nature. It may be called either substance or spirit; it is something out of which all that is seen and all intelligence is molded and kept alive and in working order. It is this life which we know as intelligence.
Intelligence, which is often confused with intellect, is something which is to be found even in the lower creation. It can be traced in plant life, and sensed even in the heart of the rock. People often think that the intellect is a development which manifests as mind in the life of man, and that the lower animals have no mind, that mind is a development of matter depending upon the brain. But the mystics of all times, the prophets and all meditative souls, say that what was, is and will be, and as it is all the same substance, life is not subject to change, nor does it develop. It is a different grade of evolution which makes us capable of understanding, and which gives us the feeling that mind is a development proceeding from matter. The great ones, the meditative souls who dwelt in the wilderness and the forests and communicated with the life around them, realized this truth; and very often they experienced a greater harmony and peace and upliftment where there was no visible life. Life is intelligence, everywhere, and the more one communicates with life, the more one feels that even the rock is not without life, that through it pulses the blood of the universe. And when we look at life from this point of view, we see that there is no place, no object which is not sacred, that even in a rock one may find the source and goal of all things in that particular form.
Many who are experienced in plant life know how responsive plants are to the sympathy of the person who lives with them and looks after them. It has been proved that plants breathe; and if breath is to be found in plant life, certainly there is intelligence too. I once happened to see a stone whose owner called it a magic stone, but in reality it was quite ordinary; only it often changed its color and shade, especially when a particular person held it. So even a stone can respond to a person's mind, and this teaches us that there is a great deal to explore in the mineral kingdom. This is not a discovery of today; it was known to the people of ancient times. We read in the Persian poems of Jelal-ud-din Rumi that God slept in the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable, became conscious in the animal, and realized Himself in the human being.
But this one life is to be seen in a more pronounced form in human beings, in the intellect they show, in the work they do, in the magnetizing of the atmosphere, in the thought-power they exercise, in the influence of healing. Although one person is separated from another, although there may be no outer connection, yet even at a distance the influence of thoughts and feelings is felt. There were many instances of this during the war when mothers and wives of soldiers, in times of pain, illness, or death, were conscious of their distress without any other source of communication. How often when people are in close touch do they perceive each other's condition, not only be thought-waves, but in the realm of feeling also; this shows that there is one body, and that in that body there is one life which continually circulates as the blood does in our veins.
This gives a logical explanation of the law of cause and effect. A wrong-doer may escape earthly witnesses, but he cannot escape this one life in which he lives and moves and has his being. A person who has done good to another may never see that other again; yet the good must return to him, as there is only one body and one life. Just as with the circulation in the physical body the essence of all we eat is absorbed in the blood, so our every thought, word and action affects the one life.
Often people question or ridicule certain superstitions. They ask, for instance, how past, present and future can be read from cards. But this, and also the science of astrology and crystal-gazing, may be explained by the fact that there is one life in which the circulation is always pulsing - one music, one rhythm. A person only needs to be acquainted with the theme of the music to be able to read and understand it.
Not only by cards and crystal-gazing can one read the past, present, and future, but by many other means, if we are in touch with all the veins of the universe. Some means are better, some are worse, but through any medium we can reach understanding, thus proving that there is one life behind all. Man may be taught to do good, he may learn righteousness, but this is virtue forced upon him as the result of a certain teaching. Real virtue only comes by understanding the oneness of life, thus binding man to friend and enemy alike. Jesus Christ teaches, "Love your enemies." And while it is often difficult to love our friends, we are not able to love our enemies unless we realize the secret of the one life behind everything, in spite of the world of variety which is continually creating illusion.
If by religion, philosophy, or mysticism this realization is attained, then one touches the secret of life, and a mighty power is gained without any wonder-working. This lesson is easy to learn intellectually; this truth can be consumed like food in a moment, but this is not enough. To digest it, the whole of one's life is not sufficient, for truth is mixed with facts, and when truth becomes a fact it loses its importance. Absorbed in the world of variety we are apt to forget truth, for we are always engrossed in facts. That is why people who spend much time in meditation try to think of the oneness of being, and try to meditate on the ultimate truth of being. It works like the winding of a clock: it only takes a minute to wind but it goes on all day long. So in meditation the same thought goes on, and in everything one does or says one uses the same truth.
How much harm is caused by the lack of understanding of this truth! All such disasters as wars, floods, earthquakes, famines, all the dire events that cannot be controlled by man, come from disorder in the body of the universe. When the blood is disordered everything goes wrong, and though sometimes it seems that what is harmful to one part is helpful to another, yet in the long run one sees that every part suffers. The after-effect is felt by the whole world as strain and pain and all kinds of suffering.
If one raised one's eyes from this world of illusion and looked up, and asked God to tell one the secret and the mystery of His creation, one would hear in answer that every thing and being is put in its own place, and each is busy carrying out that work which has to be done in the whole scheme of nature. Life is a symphony; and the action of every person in this symphony is the playing of his particular part in the music.
When the war was going on all the people were called to arms, and were placed, regardless of their profession, qualifications, or moral standards, where they were most needed. The reason was that the "call of the purpose" was to be the first consideration. If there is anything which will bring peace to the thinker, it is the understanding of this idea. The thought that one is suffering now because of one's sins in a past life may bring an answer to the inquiring and reasoning of the mind and stop it from rebelling for the moment, but will it take away the irritation that the misery is causing in the heart? Will that mind ever excuse God for having judged him so severely? He may own to his past mistakes, but will he ever believe in God as a God of love and compassion, as a God of mercy, or as a God of forgiveness?
If God were separate from man, and if He rejoiced in the suffering of man, then one might blame Him. But as the Sufi realizes, He is the sufferer and the suffering; yet at the same time He is beyond all suffering. This fact can be understood by not merely believing in God, but by knowing Him. Suppose our hands dropped a heavy weight on our feet and hurt them. Are our hands to be blamed? No, for they share the pain with the feet, and although the feet seem to be hurt, yet that which feels the hurt is our being, our absolute being, and therefore the hand shares the hurt with the foot.
So it is with God: all lives are His and He takes part in every feeling of joy and pain which we feel; but at the same time His perfect being keeps Him above all earthly joys and pains, whereas our imperfection limits us, so that we become subject to all joys and pains, however small they are.
People often ask why should man suffer and make sacrifices for God. When his suffering and sacrifice is over he will find that though he began to do so for God, in the end it proved to be for himself. It is the foolishly selfish man who is selfish; the wisely selfish man proves to be selfless. This consciousness is attained by self-realization. First man must realize himself and find out of what he is composed. He is composed of spirit and matter. He consists, in himself, of the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds, the jinn and the angel; and it is his task to balance all these, knowing that he has been created neither to be as spiritual as an angel, nor to be as material as an animal. When he strikes the happy medium he will certainly tread the path which is meant for a human being to tread, the path which leads straight to the goal. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way" - narrow because any step taken on either side will lead to some other path. Balance is the keynote of spiritual attainment.
The soul of the whole of creation is one, the life behind all these ever-moving phantoms is one. Meditation on this truth and the awakening to it will harmonize the condition of the world. And when the soul begins to see the truth it is born again. To such a soul all that seems truth to an average person appears false, and what seems truth to this soul means nothing to the average person. All that seems to the average person to be important and precious in life has no value nor importance at all for this soul. Thus he naturally finds himself alone in a crowd which lives in a world quite different from that in which he lives. Imagine living in a world where nobody speaks our language. Yet he can live in the world, for he knows its language, although life in the world is as unprofitable to him as the world of children playing with their toys is to a grown-up person.
Prophets and great mystics have come to the world from time to time, as the physician comes to help the patient whose health is disordered; and when the great ones have come they have brought a new life to the world, given to the organism of the universe to help it to run smoothly. The Sufis have always existed as mystics, and their lives have been devoted to meditation and spiritual practices. What have they learnt from these meditations? They have learnt the essence of everything, the oneness or unity; and it is by thinking about unity, by realizing it, and by living it that man fulfills the purpose of life.
15: Manifestation
Before manifestation what existed? Zat, the Truly Existing, the Only Being. In what form? In no form. As what? As nothing. The only definition that words can give is as the Absolute. In the Sufi terms this existence is termed Ahadiyat.
A Consciousness arose out of the Absolute, the consciousness of Existence. There was nothing of which the Absolute could be conscious, except Existence. This stage is called Wahdat. Out of this consciousness of existence a sense developed, a sense "that I exist." It was a development of the consciousness of existence. It was this development which formed the first Ego, the Logos, which is termed Wahdaniyat by the Sufis.
With the feeling of I-ness the innate power of the Absolute, so to speak, pulled itself together; in other words concentrated on one point. Thus the all-pervading radiance formed its center, the Center which is the divine Spirit or the Nur, in Sufi terms called Arwah. This central light then divided existence into two forms, light and darkness. In point of fact, there is no such thing as darkness, there has never been darkness; it is only less light compared with more light. This light and darkness formed an Akasha or Asman, an accommodation, a mold; and the phenomenon of light and shadow working through this mold furthered the manifestation into a great many accommodations, Asmans or Akashas, one within the other. Every step manifestation has taken has resulted in a variety of forms made by the different substances which are produced during the process of spirit turning into matter. The working of this process has been according to the law of vibration, which is the secret of motion; and it is the plane of the definite forms of nature which is called Asman in Sufi terminology.
Out of these forms the vegetable kingdom came gradually from the mineral, and from the animal came the human race. This provided for the divine Spirit the Ajsam, the bodies which it has needed from the time it centered itself in one point, and from there spread its rays as various souls.
Thus six definite steps towards manifestation are recognized by the Sufis. The first three are called Tanzi, and the next three Tashbi; the first three imperceptible, and the next three distinguishable.
There is also the phenomenon of four elements, besides one which is the source and goal of all elements: Nur, the ether; this makes them five. Baad, the air, Aetsh, the fire, Aab, the water, Khaak, the earth. These elements have worked in consonance with one another in order to bring about the results desired by the divine wisdom working behind them. In every Akasha or Asman they have been present either more or less; one without the other did not exist; the four together brought the fifth. In this way the whole manifestation has taken place through a gradual process of development.
Manifestation finished half its task in the creation of man, in whom is born the wisdom of controlling and using all that is on the earth to its best advantage. And in man the purpose of manifestation is fully accomplished, especially in the man who has on his return journey become more and more conscious of the purpose, by widening his outlook and by living a fuller life, the man who has reached that stage of realization which is called divinity, in which is the fulfillment of the purpose of this whole manifestation.
16: The Spirit of Christ
The belief in Christ is in the Church, the book of Christ is with the clergy, the spirit of Christ is in the illuminated soul. The spirit of Christ can be traced in Christ's own words where he said, "I am Alpha and Omega, I am first and last." By this he meant, "I was before Jesus was born, and I shall be after Jesus has gone."
"I am Christ" means "I am now, and I shall be till the end." In this the Master identifies himself with that light of which we read in the Vedanta, and which existed thousands of years before Christ, the divine light which is recognized by the Sufis as the Spirit of Guidance, and which is also mentioned in the Quran. This light of Christ is symbolized by the lantern in the story of Aladdin, in The Thousand and One Nights. And it is this same light which the Hindu legend speaks of when it says that there exists a cobra with a light in its head, and when it searches for food it takes that light in its mouth and by its illumination it can go about in the forest. It is the light of life of all men and all beings, seen and unseen. In reality it is the essence of light.
Where is this light to be found? It is to be found in the sun and in the higher intelligence; but this phenomenon of light occurs in all different forms. Even the spark that comes from the heart of the stone when it is struck represents the same light; also the light that manifests in the blossoming of plants, in. the ripening of fruit, in the light that we see on a moonlit night, and in the rising and the setting of the sun. It is all one and the same light manifesting from the unseen to the seen, yet existing in the unseen to a much greater extent than can be seen with our eyes.
One might ask why, if God is all sufficient, should He have made the Christ Spirit? An example will explain this. A farmer wanted to go to a place which was at great distance from his farm. And he thought how during nights with storms and winds and fogs one very often loses the way. Therefore he made a lantern to light him in case there should be a dark night, so that it could guide him on the path. It was his creation; he made, he prepared the lantern for himself in order to be guided by it.
This creation is nothing but the manifestation of God, and man is the culmination of that manifestation. God did not make man as a carpenter makes a chair, for the carpenter uses wood, something different from himself, in order to make the chair. But God made man out of Himself; in other words God manifested as man, and in His manifestation the One has become many, the unity has become variety and has become a puzzle. Thus life on earth for man is in the first place a puzzle: he does not know where to go and where not to go, he does not know what to do and what not to do. From the beginning until the end he is puzzled as to what is right and what is wrong. The wiser a man becomes the more difficulties there are. This shows that there are storms and winds, mists and fogs on this life's path which his eyes do not see but which the soul experiences. And in order to make these difficult times easier, a lantern is given which is God's own spirit, and which He made for His creation in order that man may take this lantern to guide him on his path.
Not only human beings have this lantern, even beasts and birds have it. In herds of animals there is always one that guides them; in flocks of birds there is one that guides and sees from which way the wind blows. The one that leads knows which way to go and the other birds follow him. In India a beautiful story is told about elephants by those who live in the forest, They say that in a herd of elephants there is one which is the leader and takes the branch of a tree in its trunk and goes ahead examining the ground where it walks in order that those which follow may not fall into a ditch. It is also alert to the sound of gun and arrow, and detects any atmosphere which may be unwholesome for elephants. But sometimes there is an unwilling elephant; it goes astray and is lost, and in order to catch it men dig pits in the ground so that when this lost elephant goes near one it may fall into it. And after two or three days they come and capture him.
This is a beautiful picture of the work of the Christ spirit. When one understands this one cannot blame those who say, "Christ is our Savior" or "Christ is our God." They may not see what the Spirit of God is in our interpretation, but there is nothing wrong about it except that they do not know themselves what they are saying. If one sees divinity in Christ, there is nothing wrong about it. If divinity does not manifest through man, then where is it to be found? Is divinity to be found in the heavens alone? And if on the other hand someone else calls Christ man, he only raises the standard of man to the highest point; and in this there is truth also. Only, the two do not understand each other's meaning, and they each say that the other is wrong; and this arises because they do not believe that he who is often called Christ the Savior is in reality the savior spirit. With elephants that savior spirit is the one who guides the herd; and a loving father, a kind mother, an innocent child, a helpful friend, and an inspiring teacher - all represent to a greater or lesser degree that savior spirit. The one who saves a man's life by jumping into the water does not do such a great work as the one who saves a soul who was groping in the darkness.
But then one might say, what about the whole world, the whole of humanity? Each soul is connected with the other, and there is not one soul which does not undergo the influence of the whole cosmos, consciously or unconsciously. Every cell sooner or later has an effect upon the whole body. Therefore if one looks at it rightly, there is no exaggeration in calling a liberated soul the Savior of the world; but if one only holds it as a belief, one does not know what it really means.
Naturally the liberated soul is like the living drop of blood. Scientists have discovered that blood transfusions can give new life. A soul who has risen to great illumination can inspire and invigorate the whole of humanity, just as one powerful man can influence a whole nation. He is then called the man of the day, and he may have an influence which can raise man to the height of heaven. If a material man can do this to the whole nation, why then should not a spiritual man have such an influence upon the whole world? Whether we recognize it or not, it does not matter; but there are souls in the world whose influence is greater than that of the so-called man of the day about whom so much is written in the newspapers.
If Christ existed before he was known as Christ, what was he? And if Christ will be after he has been known as Christ, what will he be? We are too limited as human beings to determine this; to try to do so would be nothing but folly. But at the same time, have we not known inspirers of humanity before Jesus? Have there not been prophets like Moses and Abraham and Zarathushtra, inspirers like Krishna and Buddha, whose influence has been felt all over the world? What were they? If the truth is one, if wisdom is one, if human personality is one, if God is one, then what are they if not the same spirit? Those who saw them have called them Buddha or Krishna; but they were all one and the same, the same lantern, the same light although in different globes.
After they have gone the light comes in another form to illuminate humanity. Does not that light work in our everyday life? In our deepest distress, in our greatest confusion, a friend, a relation, or a teacher comes and tells us something he himself does not know to be the message of wisdom. And sometimes it comes in such a queer way; perhaps in the form of a change, and we do not understand from whence it comes, so that we do not even believe it. But at the same time the inner guidance comes just at the moment when we have need for it. It comes perhaps from an innocent child, the word that is a message of God. For the light is hidden.
Those who say that after Jesus Christ they have not seen the light being kindled any more, limit Christ. Those who see the Christ spirit in all the various globes which are the light, they are the ones who really see Christ.
Christ identified himself with the Spirit of Guidance instead of with the personality which was known as Jesus. And people have limited that divine wisdom, that Spirit of Guidance, to the personality which came as Jesus. And they forgot that he himself said, "I am Alpha and Omega," which means all prophets and seers who came before Jesus whether it were Abraham or Zarathushtra or Buddha or Krishna. He identified himself with them. That is why he said he had not come to give a new law, but to fulfill the law, by which he also indicated that the guidance would continue afterwards. It was really a declaration of that identity in which Jesus lived, but not that in which the people recognized him.
Jesus Christ also said to some, "I will come," and to others, "The son of man will come." It was one answer to two mentalities: to the souls who would recognize his identity he said, "I will come," and to those who could not realize his real identity he said, "Someone else will come; whenever wisdom is lost, Christ will come." The real meaning of this is "I will come in another form, which is myself just the same." It is a puzzle of words only for those who want to puzzle themselves. For those who wish to get out of the maze it is easy and simple; but human nature enjoys complexities and prefers to make the truth as difficult as possible.
17: The Tuning of the Spirit
There are two sides to which one can look: one of these is before us and the other side is within us. The first step of the mystic is to see the side which is before him, and his second step is to look at the side which is within him. The first view, which is the minor development, is the view of the adept; and the other, the major development or stage, is the view of the mystic.
When people take the spiritual path they begin to interest themselves in psychology, occultism, or some other exciting subject, believing that it is the same as mysticism or esotericism; but real mysticism or esotericism begins simply with the first step, with looking outside. And at what does one look outside? At two things. One thing is that a person asks himself how all he sees affects him and what is his reaction to it all. How does is his spirit react to the objects or the conditions he encounters, to the sounds he hears, to the words that people speak to him? And the second thing is to see what effect he himself has on objects, conditions, and individuals when he comes in contact with them.
One must be just to be able to analyze these things; if not, one may always look at them in a light which is favorable to oneself. and unfavorable to others. We hear many people say, "That person has a bad influence upon me." But no one says, "I have a bad influence upon that person." Most people think that everybody else is wrong and bad, and that everything undesirable is in everybody except in themselves, but to become just is the process of becoming an adept, an adept who is developing into a mystic.
After this comes the inner process, looking within; and this is a most wonderful process. As soon as a person is able to look at his spirit, he is born again; it is a new life. By looking at one's spirit one can analyze how all that one says, thinks, and feels acts upon one's spirit, and also how the spirit reacts. In this way one's life is analyzed more and more; it seems like churning one's spirit, and by this churning one brings out the cream of the spirit, and that cream is wisdom. The difference between the wise and the foolish is only this, that the foolish looks at another whereas the wise looks at himself. Besides it is most wonderful to see how the person who is most at fault sees many faults in others. Because he looks at others he has not yet been able to look at himself, but the moment he begins to look at himself he does not look at others any more; he then has so much to look at in himself that both his hands are full.
Innumerable souls die without ever coming to this experience; they never even think about it. At the same time there are fine souls who may be quite young and yet have that perception; and wherever this perception is there is the living spirit, even if one finds it in a little child. That child is then as old as its grandfather; it is an "old soul," as a child which shows wisdom, depth, and subtlety is called in the East. By "old" is meant that it shows more experience; it does not take a long time to make a person old in this sense. Many become old in a very short time. There are people who from their childhood show that they are old souls; they make utterances of great wisdom, as if they had experience on earth for hundreds of years. And sometimes people of a very advanced age may think and feel and say and do things just like a child. This shows that the age of the soul does not correspond with the time since the birth of the person on this plane.
The soul which can analyze its own spirit is sparkling, for it is that soul which will train itself and train others; but the soul which cannot analyze its own spirit cannot train others. To keep the spirit in proper condition is as difficult or even more difficult than cultivating a delicate plant in a greenhouse, where a little more sun may spoil it, a little more water may destroy it, a little more air may be bad .for it. The spirit is even more delicate than that. A slight shadow of deception, a mere feeling of dishonesty, a little touch of hypocrisy can spoil it. If fear touches it, if doubt shakes it, if anger strikes deep into its root, it is spoiled. And the more delicate the spirit, the more delicate the care it needs; it must be carefully guarded in the greenhouse. A slight sense of dishonor, the least insult coming from any side, can kill it. Apart from man, the spirit of a horse can die the day that it feels the whip; once the whip has fallen upon it its spirit may be gone. No doubt, "killing the spirit" is only a way of speaking; spirit is never killed, and yet for the spirit that is killed in the meaning of this expression it is worse than death. Death is preferable; life loses all its interest once the spirit is dead. It is better that a person should die than that his spirit should.
Nevertheless, spirit is divine and spirit is eternal, and it can always be restored if one only knows the key to it. And what is this key? If this were told, then what remains? It is not an easy thing to find this key; it is not easy to mend the broken spirit; not everybody can raise his spirit when once it is fallen, for then it is heavier to lift than a mountain. But what one can say is that there is only one key, the first and the last, and that is found in seeking for the kingdom of God. It works as an antidote, and it helps one by tuning the spirit, by harmonizing one and putting one into rhythm. If this is combined with wisdom it is better still; that is why a person looks for a teacher on the path of wisdom, in order that the teacher may guide him to find the key.
There is a delicacy in friendship, in all kinds of relationship; there is delicacy in meeting people. If that delicate thread is damaged or moved out of place something goes wrong. There is no more delicate machinery than the spirit of man. How careful man is with his electrical machinery! Every little wire is looked at with a magnifying glass, and every little part of it is guarded so carefully and kept so clean that no rust can come on it, no one may touch it.
At the same time man has no regard for his spirit, which is the most delicate machinery of all. Once it goes wrong it may never get right again; and it is very easy for it to go wrong, while it is most difficult to repair it. For other machinery we can get spare parts, but not for this machinery, when once it is broken, when once something of it is lost. And when one thinks of all the illnesses and disagreeable experiences of the outer life, what about the spirit? When once the spirit is disturbed then the whole universe is disturbed for that person.
What happens, very often unconsciously, is that there are friends who are very devoted to each other, and then there is something in the machinery that goes wrong. Perhaps neither of them knows this, but unconsciously the spirit of their friendship is destroyed, and it is most difficult to mend it. Then there is no joy of friendship any more. Friendship lasts only as long as that delicate thread exists, as long as the machinery is in proper order. Besides, all the external things of life - money, power, position, or comfort - are nothing in comparison with the condition of one's spirit. If the spirit is disturbed none of these things has any value whatever; it is all lost.
There is a story of a king who one day called a porter and gave him a command, and after having given that command he went into his room and signed his abdication of the throne. His wazirs asked him why he did this, what had gone wrong. He said, "When I was giving that porter a command I saw by his expression that it was not received in the same way as he had received my orders up until now. So something must have gone wrong in my spirit. I should no more handle the affairs of the state."
It takes a long time to become fit, and it does not take a minute to become unfit. It is most difficult to collect the spirit and make it work as it ought to; the least little thing can upset it. Think of how many different parts must be made in order to make a watch go regularly, and how easy it is to drop the watch and destroy it.
There are some people who have no spirit; that is to say, whose spirit is still buried. They do not care, they are quite happy, although they do not know what true happiness means. But for others who are very much aware of their spirit there is nothing more difficult than to keep it in the right condition. Yet no sacrifice is too great, and nothing we can do is too much to keep the spirit in tune. The mystic trains his spirit. It is the training of his own spirit that enables a man to help the souls who come to him.
The story of Ayaz gives us an example of this. That is the way to tune the spirit: to cleanse it, to purify it, to humble it, to mold it, to efface whatever may have clouded it, and to raise it high. Everything that is necessary should be done with it. And it is not easy to handle the spirit. Many who do not know how to handle it break it, just as children break their toys, and when once the spirit is destroyed then what is left? It should be remembered that greatness and smallness, happiness and wretchedness, are all effects coming from the condition of the spirit. We are as great as our spirit, we are as wide as our spirit, we are as low as our spirit, we are as small as our spirit; spirit can make us all that we are.
Verily if there is anything that is more necessary than all else, it is to be able to tune one's spirit.
1,6: Purity
1
It is a very necessary thing in the life of an adept for him to adapt his mind and body to the spiritual life. In other words, it is necessary for a man to become his natural self before he begins his journey on a spiritual path. It is this naturalness that is called by the orthodox purity. For pure water, or pure milk, means water or milk in its own essence; when another element is mixed with it, then the purity is lost.
To become spiritual means to purify one's spirit from the foreign elements which take away the natural feeling of the spirit. Concentration, meditation, all these help to make the spirit its natural self again, but the vehicles that the spirit uses in order to experience life must help the spirit to become natural. These vehicles are the mind and the body. However great the musician, if the instrument is out of tune he can do nothing with it. To say that only the spirit matters, the body does not count, is not right. Therefore it is necessary that both mind and body be made fit vehicles first for the spirit to use.
The difference between a pious person and a spiritual person is this, that the pious person makes his mind and body ready for his own spirit to use, and the spiritual person, after making them ready, gives them to God. Piety is the first step and spirituality the next. There is no exaggeration in the saying that cleanliness is next to godliness. The body must be considered as the temple of God, and this sacred house of God must be made pure in every way; then the light of God is reflected in it.
Beasts and birds all have a tendency to be clean and pure, and for man it is necessary that he should develop this tendency. It helps, not only on the spiritual path, but also in the development of the mind. To the artist in his art, to the scientist in his science, in all aspects of life it gives happiness. When man neglects it, that does not mean that he does not like it, it is only out of negligence that he overlooks things that are of the first importance.
One's body is of all things in the world the closest to oneself, and its influence has a great effect, and an immediate effect, upon one's mind and soul. A great many illnesses are caused by lack of consideration of the necessary cleanliness of the body, which is a science and an art in itself. On the soul and mind one's own body makes the first impression; all other things come afterwards.
Yes, there are souls that have arrived at such a plane of spirituality that the condition of the body does not matter to them. But they are not to be followed as examples. It is the normal path which is safe and is for all. The question, "Would this not give one too much the thought of self?" may be answered thus: The thought of oneself exists when the light of God is absent, in the presence of every beautiful object man forgets himself.
2
The body is an instrument for experiencing life; both the worlds, that within and that without, are reflected in this instrument. Therefore purity of the body is the first essential thing, and the most essential, in the path of spiritual attainment. Every civilization has a peculiar method of cleanliness, but the mystic is not satisfied with the customary manner.
Mystics have two views: one view is that external cleanliness matters nothing to them, and the other that it is most important. As the work of an astronomer depends upon a telescope, and as it is necessary for him to keep the telescope as clean as possible, so it is necessary in the life of the mystic to keep the body in a fit condition.
All the passages in the body are connected with the centers, which are most important in spiritual development, and it is upon the cleanliness and purity of these passages that spiritual development depends. Besides these nine passages it is necessary to keep the skin in a proper condition for spiritual purposes. It is from the mystical conception that humanity first learned the idea of clothes. There have been times when certain races painted their skin, and by certain yogis the body was covered with ashes; in ancient times the body was covered with the bark of trees.
But behind all this there was always an inclination to keep the skin in a proper condition. It is upon the cleanliness of the body that sensitiveness depends; therefore people who have no regard to the cleanliness of the body are less sensitive than those who have regard to it.
Besides the cleanliness of the outer part of the body it is equally important, perhaps more important, to consider the cleanliness of the inner part of the body. Mystics, therefore take precaution about whatever they eat and drink, and have methods of cleansing the inner part of the body also. No mystic in the East guides a pupil who has not first prepared his body for the spiritual purpose.
Cleanliness of the body, besides its importance for spiritual and moral development, also prevents serious disease.
3
It is necessary that the breath should flow freely through the lungs, tubes, and veins of the body, and things that one eats and drinks often block the channels through which the breath passes, invigorating and revivifying every particle of the body. All skin diseases are caused by want of breath in the skin. The mystic feels not only the vibrations of music but even the vibrations of the breath of another. Music, so to speak, touches every particle of his being.
Breathing exercises will not give proper results if the channels of the breath are not cleared. The spine, the lungs, the tubes and veins of the body, the intestines should be kept clear. When the channels of the breath are blocked man feels heavy, depressed, lazy, drowsy, and confused, the expression becomes dull and the voice harsh; then the movements become void of grace and beauty when sitting, or standing, or walking, or moving; in every action one expresses a weakness, a lack of spirit. Feebleness is different from lack of spirit. A person may be strong bodily but may lack spirit, and the teaching of Christ is that "it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing."
4
The vehicle which is made of earth can be cleansed with water and by air. Therefore, besides external ablutions, inner ablutions are necessary to make the body a proper vehicle for the working of the spirit. In many different religions different ways of ablutions are taught. They are not only for the cleanliness of the body, but are also helpful in making the body a fitting instrument for the spirit to experience life.
The external organs of the body are used for external activities, but the inner ones are the instruments of the mind. The factors which are closer to the mind and which are more important for man than the physical organs are the centers which are located in the body, and the cleaner the channels of the breath are, the more active do the centers become. The breath is to these centers as the air is to the plants. Besides inner ablutions, the breathing practice itself cleanses the channels of the body.
5
Besides making ablutions it is necessary that the channels of the breath be kept clean, and for this, consideration is necessary about what one eats and drinks. Food that is raw and indigestible, and stale food, stale and decayed vegetables, rotten fruits, and meat that has been preserved for a long time, and all such things not only block the channels of the breath, but their influence on the breath makes it impure. Naturally when a person cannot digest food or when his lungs are not open and free the breath is not pure. The Sufi takes care in his life about what he should eat and what he should drink. Alcoholic drinks and drinks made from decayed fruits, naturally make the breath impure; even smoking tobacco has a bad effect on the breath. Those who observe the mystical rules carefully refrain from all flesh food, even from eggs. White meat is preferable to red meat, for red meat has particles which block the channels of the breath. This was the reason why the eating of pork was prohibited by the prophets of Beni Israel. No doubt to the pure all things are pure, but in order to become pure it is necessary to observe the rules of purity.
One must not judge another person's spiritual evolution by seeing what he eats and drinks, because this has nothing to do with a man's evolution, for Shiva, the great Lord of the Yogis, had fish for his food, and wine was given in the church of Christ as a sacrament. Therefore no one has the power to estimate his fellow men from what they eat and drink. But everyone who wishes to tread the spiritual path may observe the mystical law, which certainly enables one to progress speedily. It must be remembered that it is the spiritual ideal which is the first thing to be held fast; what to eat and drink is a secondary thing. Any dispute about this proves to be unnecessary.
6
The question of vegetarian diet is often discussed among seekers after philosophical truth. Some people give no importance to what they eat or drink, and there are some who give more importance to it than necessary.
There are two things which speak against flesh-eating: one thing is that meat, as a substance, hinders spiritual progress, and the other is that the unkindness toward the animals is a breach of moral law. Speaking about the first question, it is no doubt true that meat causes two kinds of harm to an adept. One is that it produces in man to a certain extent the animal nature; also it has an influence on the character of man. The nature of the animal he eats certainly has an influence upon a man's character. It was therefore that the prophets of Beni Israel forbade their followers to eat the flesh of certain kinds of animals and birds.
Mystically speaking, it clogs the channels of the breath and the important psychical centers which work in man as the instruments of wireless telegraphy. Morally, there is no doubt that it has a hardening effect upon the heart of man, which is meant to sympathize, not only with his fellow man, but with every living creature. There is no doubt that if all the people in the world became vegetarians, there would be no more wars. A person who refrained from killing the lower creatures would surely not be inclined to kill his fellow man.
Of course, there is another side to the question: life exists in all aspects of the creation, even in plants; and if one does not see the harm done to the plant, it is because they cannot express. And, looking from this point of view, one can observe that life lives on life.
At the same time, the creation is a process by which the lower form of life evolves to a higher form, and the life used in this process of evolution is not really lost; on the contrary it is raised to a higher consciousness. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the animal which is used as the food of man has been transformed from the animal kingdom to the human, which is really a natural process of evolution, the human kingdom being the goal of the lower evolution. However, this point of view does not help man, morally or physically, in his individual evolution; he has not gained by eating flesh, on the contrary he has allowed himself to evolve more slowly than he could have otherwise evolved.
The impression on the consciousness of man of having done harm to another creature which can feel pain as he himself can, is not a good one; it blunts the fine, tender and sympathetic feeling towards all living beings. At the same time not every person who eats meat is capable of considering the subject philosophically, and therefore of giving an answer to his conscience or to another one, as an explanation of having caused harm to a living creature for his enjoyment.
For many thousands of years the human race has lived on flesh food, especially in the cold countries, and the bodies made with that essence for thousands of years are so dependent upon flesh food that they cannot abstain from it without causing some harm to their health. Man feeds on things of which he is made, and it is not, in every case, easy for a man to give up flesh food, even if he realizes its disadvantages.
There are countries where there are deserts - no trees to be found for miles - and the inhabitants could not live if they did not live on flesh food. For the evolution of humanity in general uniformity is necessary. If some ate flesh and others lived on vegetables, it would be as if carnivorous and herbivorous animals were living in the same forest. Certainly people living different lives cannot live together harmoniously, and the strong must in every case have the upper hand.
Tenderness of heart will not answer the same purpose as strength and power. Therefore it is a question how vegetarian diet can be introduced in the world.
There is another side to this question: if the animals were left alone they would multiply and the herbivorous would become a prey to the carnivorous animals. The tigers and lions and bears and wolves would increase, and would be in search of man; so the human kingdom would diminish and the animals increase.
For those who strive in the spiritual path it is most essential to be thoughtful and considerate, and to be kind to the whole creation, and if they can manage to live a vegetarian life, it is no doubt very helpful to them. It is not right, however, for a vegetarian to look at the flesh-eater with contempt and regard his own harmless attitude with pride. There are many vegetarians who will prove selfish and unkind to their fellow man, whereas there are many non-vegetarians who will prove to be otherwise. Verily, charity of heart must begin at home, and then expand so that it may reach the very lowest of the creation.
7
The body is made of five elements, according to the mystical view - earth, water, fire, air and ether. Yet these terms must not be compared with the scientific terms: these are mystical conceptions and they should be understood in a mystical sense. These five elements form the sustenance of the body; at the same time these elements purify the body.
For instance, no ablution with water only is sufficient, earth is required also. In the East the Brahmins used pure earth, some used ashes; in the East graham flour is still used in place of soap. The scientist can never deny the fact that there is no better disinfectant than earth itself. The use of water for every kind of ablution has been taught by all religions in some form or other. That shows that it is not only of use for cleanliness, but it helps in spiritual development. The scientist today admits that there is no better tonic than pure water; this has always been held to be so by the mystic, who called the rivers sacred rivers and gave water in healing.
As the use of earth and water cleanses and purifies the body externally, so it has a purifying influence on the internal part of the body. By eating wholesome food and drinking pure water not only does one receive nourishment, but this cleanses and purifies every particle of the body. It is therefore that an adept must avoid eating and drinking anything unwholesome. This does not mean an absolute restriction to certain food and drink, but just that care in eating and drinking is necessary.
Once a person has advanced in spirituality nothing matters to him, neither what he eats and drinks; for he lives in the spirit the most part of his life. For him the body is a coat and he does not care if it is full of holes or if it is patched. But for a person who has yet to develop spiritually and who follows a process, consideration is necessary; it is most necessary that the body should be kept pure, outwardly and inwardly, that it may become a suitable vehicle for the manifestation of the spirit.
8
Man's health and inspiration both depend upon purity of breath, and to preserve this purity the nostrils and all the tubes of the breath must be kept clear. They can be kept clear by proper breathing and by proper ablutions. If one cleanses the nostrils twice or oftener during twenty-four hours it is not too much, for a Moslem is taught to make this ablution five times, before each prayer.
The cleansing, not only of the nostrils, but also of the ears is necessary, for part of the breath works through the ears, and if the ears are not protected and cleansed sometimes one hears a sound, which often is that of the breath which does not find its way through the regions of the ear.
The throat and palate are also important factors for the flow of the breath. The palate and throat are kept clean by the adept by gargling. The adepts drink water at fixed hours for the purpose of cleansing the veins and tubes in the chest, so that the breath may find pure channels for its passage. An adept drinks water before going to bed and after rising from sleep.
It is necessary that these laws of ablutions should be practiced by the student of thought first, in order that others may follow. Hygienic consideration is the first principle which is necessary for the health and happiness of the generality.
9
Sobriety is most necessary in the path of spiritual evolution, especially in the first stage, when the body must be made pure for spiritual revelation. Everything intoxicating deadens the nerves more or less, and the centers, which are the factors for spiritual realization, become dead. Although at times they may seem more active, too abnormal an activity is always exhausting. The centers which show sensitiveness during the time of intoxication, after its influence become weary and lifeless. Fakirs or yogis who take intoxicants in order to excite the centers become dependent for their spiritual experience on material objects; in the end they find their seeming advancement fatal.
Even hard smoking may block, not only the channels of the breath, but even the centers, and thereby intuition is confused. No doubt smoking gives a momentary comfort, because it brings a kind of repose to the smoker, but it is only a passing comfort. Smoking not only has an effect upon the throat or lungs but by it the two most important centers, the heart and the brain, upon which the whole spiritual progress depends, will become blocked.
The principal thing in spiritual attainment is to be self-sufficient, and the first step to self-sufficiency is to make one's body independent of all such things upon which its comfort and enjoyment depend. The sages of all times and the mystics of every cult have observed the value of continence and fasting, for the very reason that the body, upon which the experience of the whole life depends, must first be made fit by purity.
10
The object with which fasting is practiced by those who live in retirement is to let the breath pass through every vein and tube of the body, which can be made possible only when there is no foreign substance, such as food or even drink, in the body to block the channels. When the breath has touched every particle of the body, the body naturally becomes more sensitive and the pores of the skin open, making the centers transparent, so as to feel, outwardly and inwardly, all that is to be felt. This can be understood by seeing the difference between the intelligence and the intuitive faculty of a fine person and of a dense person.
Continence helps also, not only to keep the channels clear, but it conserves all the energy in every particle of the body and especially in the centers where it is most needed. Another thing is that continence keeps every outer element away. By this the adept is better able to keep his body and centers free from every foreign element, becoming at the same time a reservoir of energy, which expresses itself as radiating magnetism.
Professed celibacy is an assumption of chastity which must sooner or later break by nature, together with man's profession of the same. The true continence, therefore, can be practiced without profession and without any outward appearance or the attributing of it to any religious rank, only for a certain time and for a certain purpose.
11
Purity of body is more desirable than bodily strength. Purity of body consists in three things: pure blood, sound muscles and skin in proper condition. One might ask, "How can one be strong without a pure body?" But I should say, "One can be." There are many strong and vigorous looking people with something wrong in their flesh, blood or skin. Health, from the spiritual point of view, does not necessarily mean a strong body; health means a body sound in all its aspects. The standard of normal health is different for a mystic from what a scientist today thinks it to be. To the scientist the emotional side of man is not of interest; if the body is perfect according to his idea, he thinks man is healthy. But from a mystical point of view, if a man is strong bodily but his emotional nature is buried beneath, he is not healthy; there is something wrong with him. Therefore, a physician will find many not in proper health, but a mystic will find still more not in proper health. The person who is healthy to the physician's point of view is not necessarily healthy before the view of a mystic.
The illness that humanity has today is lack of that emotional nature which is productive of sentiment. In the East, though times have changed, still there is a recognition of that healthiness which is recognized by the mystic. They name these qualities of health beautiful names, such as consideration, thoughtfulness, mildness, gentleness, sympathy, harmoniousness, selflessness. When these things are lacking in a person, the mystic considers that lack of health. Even an animal can be materially strong. If man is simply strong, he is no better than an animal. It is purity which is necessary, in the body first, in the mind afterwards, which produces in a person a state of health which alone can be called good health.
12
The nature of the memory is to hold an impression, agreeable or disagreeable, and therefore a person holds a thought in the mind, whether it is beneficial to him or not, without knowing the result which will come from it. This is like a child who holds a rattle in his hand and hits his head with the rattle and cries with the pain, and yet does not throw the rattle away. There are many who keep in their mind a thought of illness or a thought of unkindness done to them by someone and suffer from it, yet not knowing that it makes them suffer, nor understanding the reason of their suffering. They go on suffering and yet hold on in memory the very source of their suffering. Memory must be one's obedient servant; when it is a master then life becomes difficult. A person who cannot throw away from his memory what he does not desire to keep in mind, is like a person who has a safe but the key to that safe he has lost. He can put in money but he cannot take it out. All faculties in man become invaluable when a person is able to use them at will, but when the faculties use the person, then he is no longer the master of himself.
Concentration is taught by the mystics in order to exercise the will, making it capable of using all the faculties. A person with will power can remember what he wishes to remember and can forget what he wishes to forget. All things which deprive one of one's freedom in life are undesirable. The mind must be free from all bad impressions of life, which take away one's rest and peace. By concentration one is able to hold a certain thought one desires and to keep away all other thoughts, and when one is able to keep away all the thoughts one does not want to think about, it becomes easier to throw away the impressions of years, if one wishes to forget them. Bad impressions, however old and intimate, are like rubbish accumulated, which should be removed in order to make the house clean. The human heart is the home of the soul, and upon this home the comfort and peace of the soul depend.
13
Purity of mind requires the destroying of all bad impressions collected there or received at present. One can destroy these impressions by five methods, and the method is chosen according to the impression one has to destroy. Some impressions need to be washed off from the mind; some require to be erased from the surface of the mind; some have to be shaken off like dust from the clothes; some need to be burnt like the wood in the fire, which after its test by fire turns into ashes; and some impressions must be drowned, so that they will never come up again. Bury certain impressions like a corpse, find every way of annihilation that is suited to each impression, so that your mind may be clear. The mind is not only a means of thinking or reasoning, but the king of one's being; and upon the condition of the mind one's health, happiness, and peace in life depend.
Now the question is what to destroy and what to keep in the mind. Collect and keep all that is beautiful, and destroy all that is void of beauty. Collect and keep all that is agreeable, and destroy all that has a disagreeable effect upon you. Collect and keep all that is harmonious, and destroy all that creates disharmony in yourself. Collect and keep all that is restful, and destroy all that disturbs the peace of your life.
As dust gets into the works of a clock and stops the clock, so the effect produced by all impressions that are void of beauty and harmony and which disturb your peace keeps you from progress. The mind cannot act properly when it is hindered by impressions which have a paralyzing effect upon it. Life is progress, and stopping from progress is death. Failure does not matter in life. To a progressive person even a thousand failures do not matter. He has before his view success, and success is his, even after a thousand failures. The greatest pity in life is the standstill when life does not move farther. A sensible person prefers death to such a life as that. It is a paralysis of the soul, of the spirit, which is always caused by holding bad impressions in mind. No soul is deprived of happiness in reality; the soul's very being is happiness. Man brings unhappiness upon himself by holding in his hands the clouds of bad impressions, which fall as a shadow upon his soul.
Once a person is able to clear from his mind, by whatever process, the undesirable impressions, a new power begins to spring from his heart, opening a way before him, attracting to him all he requires, clearing from his path all obstacles, and making his atmosphere clear for him to live and move and to accomplish all he wishes to accomplish.
14
It is upon the purity of the mind that the health, both of body and of mind, chiefly depends. The process of purifying the mind does not differ very much from the process of cleaning or washing any object. Water poured upon any object washes it, and if there is a spot which cannot be washed away by the water, some substance which can take away that spot is applied, to wash it thoroughly. The water which washes the heart is the continual running of the love-stream. When that stream is stopped, when its way is blocked by some object which closes the heart, and when the love-stream is no longer running, then the mind cannot keep pure.
As water is the cleansing and purifying substance in the physical world, so love is on the higher plane. Sometimes when it is difficult for love to take away some impressions that are disagreeable, which block the way of the love-stream, they may be washed away by some element that can destroy them. The whole life is a chemical process, and knowledge of its chemistry helps man to make life happy. An unhappy person, being unhappy himself, cannot make others happy. It is a wealthy person who can help the one who is hard-up, not a poor person, however much desire he may have to help. It is the same with happiness, which is a great wealth; and a happy person can take away the unhappiness of another, for he has enough for himself and more besides for the others.
Earthly pleasures are the shadows of happiness, because of their transitoriness. True happiness is in love, which is the stream that springs from one's soul, and he who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to him, whose source is not without, but within. If there is a constant outpouring of love, one becomes a divine fountain, for from the depth of the fountain a stream rises, and on its return it pours upon the fountain, bathing it continually. It is a divine bath, the true bath in the Ganges, the sacred river. When once one has the key of this fountain one is always purified, every moment of one's life; nothing can stay in the mind causing unhappiness. Happiness alone is natural, and it is attained by knowing and by living naturally.
15
The principal thing necessary for attaining happiness is to purify one's mind from all things that disturb it and create disharmony. There are not only bad impressions which disturb the tranquility of the mind, but many feelings of resentment and resistance against things which do not agree with one's own idea that disturb one's mind. For the person who has some business to carry on or some profession requires a tranquil mind, but the one who journeys on the spiritual path most needs tranquility of mind. Prayers, concentrations, meditations have no effect if the mind is not purified from all disturbances. Therefore for an adept no cost and no sacrifice is too great for keeping harmony within himself.
A Sufi tries to keep harmony in his surroundings, the harmony which demands many sacrifices. It makes one endure what one is not willing to endure, it makes one overlook what one is not inclined to overlook, it makes one tolerate what one is not accustomed to tolerate, and it makes one forgive what one would never have forgotten if it had not been for the sake of harmony. But at whatever cost harmony is attained it is a good bargain, for harmony is the secret of happiness, and in the absence of this a person living in palaces and rolling in gold can be most unhappy.
Harmony is brought about by attuning oneself to all beings, to all things, to all conditions, to all situations; and he who cannot tune himself tries to tune others, and in setting about tuning others he breaks the string. It is as if a person with a violin in his hands tried to tune the cello. If he wishes to be in tune with the cellist he must tune his violin to the cellist's pitch. Every soul, as is its nature, constantly seeks harmony, but rarely is there to be found a soul who really knows how to create it. If someone says, "This noise which goes on always close to my ears drives me mad," he cannot stop the noise. He must know how to close himself to that noise…to accustom himself to that noise so as to be able to bear it and eventually rise above it, that it may no longer create disharmony.
It is very difficult to evolve oneself and at the same time to keep in tune with the unevolved one through life. It is like being drawn from above and at the same time being pulled from below. And if there is anything that can save man from being torn to pieces in life there is only one way, and that is to resound, to respond to all that is asked of man. It is this principle that is taught by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount may seem to teach willing surrender to all, but that is not the way to look at it. The real lesson that one can learn from it is to try and harmonize with all instead of one note. Every note is fixed in its place, so is every man fixed in his ideas and ways. But the one who treads the spiritual path, he is all notes and he is no note in particular. Therefore he may rightly be called the keynote, the note which makes a consonant chord with every note that is played with it. There is no beauty where there is no harmony. Harmony is the fruit of love; therefore by attaining harmony in life one reaches the perfection of all three: love, harmony, and beauty.
16
Anything that weighs upon the mind, such as a worry, a fear or a feeling of remorse, keeps the mind below the pitch at which it is meant to be. When the mind is weighed down by anything, however learned a man may be, however capable and efficient, he can work very little. Learning does not help the mind which is not in its right place. So it is seen to be with many learned people, most capable and efficient; and yet incapable of accomplishing anything important in life. This is mostly found in life, and rare is the case where it is not so.
All the affairs of life are accomplished by the power of mind. External conditions are nothing but mechanisms which with the mind works as an engineer, producing from life all that is desired. Therefore, whatever be the condition in life, the principal thing is to shake off all things that weigh upon the mind, thus making the mind free to fulfill its task through life.
Often people find themselves helpless before a difficult situation, but very few stop to think that it is not only the situation that is difficult, but there is some difficulty in one's own mind. One hardly gives a thought to this question, for every man's eyes are fixed upon the difficulty of the situation alone. It is like seeing a wall standing before one and yet not realizing if one has a hammer in one's hand. If one realized the power that the mind has, not only the wall but even mountains, if they were standing before one, could be removed. Many seek for a power from without, ignorant of the fact that all power is hidden within. When, by freeing his own mind from all that weighs it down, man realizes the power he inherits from the source of all beings, he will realize in himself an enormous power. The mastermind is the master of life.
17
Every mind has its particular standard of good and bad and of right and wrong. This standard is made of what one has experienced through life, by what one has seen or heard; it also depends upon one's belief in a certain religion, one's birth in a certain nation and origin from a certain race. But what can really be called good or bad, or right or wrong is what comforts the mind and what causes it discomfort. It is not true, although it appears to be, that it is discomfort that causes wrongdoing. In reality it is wrongdoing which causes discomfort and it is right doing which gives comfort. And for the very reason that a certain thing gives comfort it is right, and what causes discomfort is wrong.
Very few in the world look at it in this way. If one who does well all his life is unhappy, I would rather he did not do well. His well-doing is neither well for him nor for another. The standard of right or wrong and good or bad made rigidly on the action is the artificial standard which seems outwardly a moral law, but causes degeneration in the end. The standard of action must be made natural, not artificial. The curse of the present day is the artificiality of life today. Man must be taught to consult his own spirit and from his own feeling to find out and make a distinction between right and wrong and good and bad. When this natural principle is adopted by humanity the greater part of the world misery will come to an end. This wrong and artificial standard is taught today to children at home and to young people at school. They begin to learn that that is wrong which they have heard others call wrong, that is right which they have read in a book that it is right; something is good because their parents have said it is good, something is bad because their friends have told them it is. An artificial standard made in this way buries the spirit, which alone has the right to discern between right and wrong and good and bad. On that day when people will arrive at the freedom of making their own standard by their own feelings a better condition will come. For those searching after truth, journeying through the spiritual path, this is the first thing to learn, to find out for themselves under all conditions in life what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, not from what they are taught or told, but from their own feelings, which can be perceived by a delicate sense of realizing through life what really gives comfort and what causes discomfort. Life is not made to be good and unhappy, life is made to be happy and therefore one has to be good. No happiness is to be sacrificed to goodness, but that goodness must be considered the real goodness which in its result is happiness.
18
The action of every illness or weakness is more manifest in its impression on the mind. There are many people who after an illness that has lasted some time become so much impressed by it that even after their cure the impression remains. Therefore to those who suffer for many years from an illness, their illness becomes natural, becomes a part of themselves, and the obstacle to their cure is not the illness, but the impression engraved on their mind.
So it is with weakness or a defect of any sort. Very often a person confesses, "This is my defect, but I cannot help it." If there is any weakness or defect, it is merely in the impression. When a person says, "There are moments when I lose my temper," or when a person says, "I would like to tolerate, but I cannot stand that person," his weakness in this is nowhere but in the impression he has in his mind. Therefore, the best cure for every illness and weakness is denial of the same. Affirmation deepens the impression, and contemplation of it makes it worse. There is no harm in denying one's illness or weakness, for that is not telling a lie, as it does not exist in reality, it is merely a shadow. Truthful confession of something which is unreal is worse than a lie. One must first deny that to oneself, and then to others.
The Sufi, whose ideal through life is the realization of God and His perfection, after realizing his ideal cannot say, "I cannot tolerate, or endure or stand anybody," and he cannot say that he cannot think, act or feel as he thinks right. The idea of the Sufi is always to suggest to oneself that which one wishes to be, that which one would like to be. And when he finds he failed to think, speak or act as he wishes to, he must think the condition of the process is to fall several times before one gets one's balance, instead of thinking, "It is my weakness, I cannot do otherwise." Those who walk toward the perfection of power and wisdom take every step forward with a new hope and new courage, and weakness to them is a story of the past; it does not exist any more, they don't recognize such a thing as existing. They can't accept themselves being what they don't wish to. They picture themselves as their ideal, what they would like to be. Some time or other in their lives, if not sooner, later, they certainly succeed in molding their life to their ideal.
19
All that exists lives on its own element, springs from its own element, and returns to its own element. So earth to earth, water to water, fire to fire and air to air. Purification means to make a certain object itself, nothing added, nothing foreign attached to it which does not belong to it. These two rules make one understand the process by which the mind could be nourished and purified. The mind is nourished by thoughts and impressions that are harmonious and productive of beauty and which result in satisfaction, for harmony is the nature of the soul, beauty is its source and goal, and by harmony and beauty the mind is nourished as it is made of harmony and beauty. And the same elements are needed to purify the mind of all undesirable thoughts and impressions, harmony as water and beauty as soap, purifying the mind of all thoughts which are void of harmony and beauty.
The first thing in purifying the mind is to be able to discern the foreign element there. As all that is foreign to the body does not agree with the body, making it ill, so all that is foreign to the mind disturbs the peace of the mind, and it is that which proves that it does not belong to the mind. Such things are worry, anxiety, fear, sorrow, or any sort of disturbance that takes away the tranquility of the mind, preventing it from experiencing that joy and peace for which it longs and in which alone is its satisfaction.
There are many who do not know the importance of keeping the mind in a pure and harmonious condition, and the few who know it find it difficult to bring about better conditions in practical life. In the first place it is difficult to accomplish outward duties, to answer the demands of life, and yet to keep the mind in perfect tranquility. It needs the knowledge of purifying the mind of all external influences. And the way one can manage it can be said in a few words: to throw away disharmony by the power of harmony and to wash away all that lacks beauty by preserving the great power of beauty within oneself.
20
The best way of keeping the mind free from all undesirable impressions is not to partake them at the moment when they fall upon the mind. For instance, if someone is disagreeable, instantly his influence produces the same thing in another person with whom he is disagreeable. The best way to avoid it would be to stand on one's guard that one may not catch his infectious disagreeableness. All such things as pride, prejudice, jealousy, intolerance, coldness have a great influence upon a person. When speaking, working or walking with someone, one can easily partake one's companion's disagreeable impulses, because as a rule a person thinks there is justification for giving it back, a word for a word, a frown for a frown. A person feels satisfied in boasting, "He said two words to me, but I gave him back the same in four words." He feels very glad for the moment thinking, "I have given back what I had received," but he does not know that if he had not given it back, the same that the other person had thrown upon him would have returned to that person a thousandfold.
The psychological point of view, therefore, differs from the ordinary point of view, for in the psychological point of view there is a science, it teaches one not to take in one's mind what is disagreeable, inharmonious. By understanding this one can maintain the purity of mind, and it requires fortifying oneself with willpower making the heart as a stone wall, for all that is thrown at it not to pierce through but to fall down.
The psychological effect of every impression is such that each impression has a tendency to be held by the mind, all we see during the day, consciously or unconsciously, an influence upon our life. All good or bad things or things with beauty or ugliness, they remain with us and flourish in our minds. If it was an impression of beauty, that would flourish; if it was an impression of ugliness, that would flourish. This is the principal reason why dreams have effect upon our lives. It is the impression that the dream has made upon us which works out its destiny in the waking state. Therefore, if by being on one's guard, instead of resisting evil one would only slide it over, it would run away by its own force.
However good a person, if he easily partakes impressions, he cannot be trustworthy. The one who has no willpower cannot even trust himself. There is no willpower in fighting with another, one shows willpower in fighting with self. The one who is strong enough to keep away from his mind all undesirable impressions will in time radiate harmony and will create the atmosphere of peace; thus making himself happy, he will bring happiness to others.
21
The real purity is experienced not by means of the outer ablutions nor by keeping away evil thoughts, but by keeping the heart pure from feelings which disturb the rhythm of the mind and thus upset the whole spirit. Feelings have a greater power than thoughts. If evil thoughts are monsters, evil feelings are as demons. Such feelings as the desire of robbing someone of his rights or his belongings have a very disturbing effect upon the spirit. Before such a feeling is put into action, the effect is even more, while it is being put into action it is less, but afterwards the effect is most. Life rightly and honestly lived has inner struggles, but by adding to it feelings that disturb life's tranquility one only adds to one's troubles in life, which then become endless.
Purity of heart must not be considered a virtue but a necessity, a necessity not only to be considered for the good of others but for one's own life. The feelings which produce that weakness in the heart take away strength from the eyelids, the glance drops instead of the eyes firmly gazing straight. Nothing in the world, however valuable or rare, can make up for this loss. The main thing that must be remembered is that the soul is pure and the lack of purity it cannot bear without feeling restless. The spirit has a tune and a rhythm. When it is out of tune and out of rhythm, if the riches of the whole world be given to it, it is worth nothing. It is purity and peace which is the soul's constant seeking.
22
As the rust is natural to the iron and as the milk turns sour, so it is with the heart, when it becomes rusted and its feeling, which by nature is as pure as milk, turns sour. Then nothing in the world is tasteful to that person and life with all its beauty becomes worthless. It is this condition which must be avoided. An adept must keep his mind pure from rust.
The rust comes from allowing the heart to bear malice and spite against anyone, by having hatred and prejudice against anyone, by wanting to take revenge, by looking down upon another with contempt, and by the feeling of jealousy, rivalry or envy. The heart wants a constant care to keep it from getting rusted, for the nature of this life of illusion is such that some little unimportant things, which are not of the least value, coming from the outer life, the heart may be affected by, and the rust may be produced as the mere touch of water can produce rust upon the iron. Once the feeling has become soured it is difficult, if not impossible, to turn it sweet again as to make the sour milk sweet.
A soul has brought from Heaven its love for sweet. It may after coming on earth develop a taste for salt, sour, or bitter, but its innate longing is always for the sweet, and what its life needs most is not sugar, which is required in some degree for physical health, but the sweet which is the original property of his heart and which is needed most for his true happiness and real well-being.
23
As the cleansing of a metal object produces a shine in it, so is the cleansing of the heart especially from feeling that produces humiliation. When a person thinks, "I have been wrong by acting in a certain way," "by saying a certain thing," or "by having thought something which should not have crossed my mind," he loses, so to speak, a radiance which even beams out through his countenance and which is called in Persian Abi ruh, meaning "the radiance of the face." Every person shows from his expression his condition of heart. Therefore the innocence of the expression is the sign of the purity of heart. Man may be clever, learned, qualified, most able, he may be strong physically or even mentally, he may be wealthy, or high rank, but none of these outside things help him to retain that glow of the countenance which depends only upon the purity of heart.
Many know and some say that the eyes can tell everything that is in the heart of man, but fewer there are who know the cause behind it. The eyes are like the thermometer of the center in the head, which is focused to the center of the heart. Every impression that the heart bears, beautiful or ugly, is mirrored upon the center of the head, and so it is reflected accordingly in man's visage, especially in his eyes, which express the most.
There are many clever people but so few there are who may be called wise. The clever ones plot and plan one against the other and exchange evil thoughts between themselves. So those deceitful and treacherous, intoxicated by their interest in life, cover their eyes with the cover of selfishness, thus keeping the heart from showing out its light, which alone illuminates the path of every achievement in life.
It might seem hard work to empty one's heart of all bad impressions and ill feelings, of all bitterness and evil thoughts, and yet it is not nearly so hard as the task of earning one's daily bread. The work in one's everyday life takes most part of the day, the emptying the heart of undesirable things takes but a few moments silence. It is the desire of erasing from the heart every undesirable impression that enables one in time to purify one's heart.
24
Innocence is the real purity according to the mystic, for innocence is the sign of purity of heart. The intuitive faculties play a greater part in the life of the innocent. People call them simple ones, nevertheless innocence proves often more beneficial in life than worldly cleverness. The innocent are oftener blessed by Providence than those worldly-wise, always trying to get the best of everyone and to seize every opportunity that may seem to be advantageous in any way.
It is not easy for a clever person to try and become innocent; it is something natural and manifests with the blooming of the heart. Innocence is the sign of the thriving of a spiritual personality. If one can develop anything it is only this, that one may abstain from trying to be clever, and know that a selfish and clever person, with all his qualifications of getting the best of another, comes across, sooner or later, a person cleverer than he. Often a clever person finds his own chain tied around his legs.
No one has arrived at a higher degree of spirituality without innocence. Innocence does not mean not knowing; it only means knowing and yet not knowing. A stupid person must not be confused with an innocent person, for the former is blind, whereas the latter only closes his eyes when he wants to. It is the wise, really, who become innocent on arriving at a stage of perfection in wisdom. It is two kinds of persons who show childlike simplicity in their lives, the silly one who shows childish traits, and the wise one who shows innocence.
25
There is generally a tendency seen in those treading the spiritual path to feel discouraged at having bad impressions upon their heart of their own faults and shortcomings. And they begin to feel that they are too unworthy to have anything to do with things of a sacred nature. But it is a great error, in spite of all the virtue humility has in it. When one acknowledges something wrong in oneself one gives that wrong a soul out of one's own spirit, and by withdrawing from all that is good and beautiful, spiritual and sacred, instead of developing the spirit of rejecting all errors, in time one becomes a receptacle of what is wrong. He goes on disapproving and yet collecting errors, so producing within himself a perpetual conflict that never ends. When man becomes helpless before his infirmities he becomes a slave to his errors, he feels within himself an obedient servant to his adversary.
The greater the purity developed in the heart the greater becomes the power of man. As great the power of man within himself, so great becomes his power on others. A hair's breadth can divide power from weakness, which appear to have as wide a gulf between them as between land and sky.
26
He alone is capable of removing from the heart of another doubt, deceit, fear or malice whose heart is already pure from these things or who, at least, can empty his heart of these things. There is a weakness of the heart and there is a strength of the heart. The heart's weakness is caused by things it contains which enfeeble it, such as doubt, deceit, fear and malice. The absence of these things produces that purity of heart which in itself is a power. This power could be increased by faith, hope and righteousness.
Purity of the heart causes its expansion and the lack of purity makes it narrow. The mystic poet of Hyderabad, Asef, says, "If the heart is large, it can be largest of all things." Besides, it is purity alone which opens the doors of the heart. All that hinders that purity stands as a closed door of the heart.
The pure-hearted may seem to be thinking, saying or doing simple things. And yet there is a beauty and charm in all they do, for there is nothing more attractive than light itself. All that is besides light depends upon the light to show out its beauty, light is beauty in itself. Purity of the heart is the only condition that allows the inner stream to rise. The pure-hearted see deeper, though they say little. There is no pretense about them. What they know they know; what they don't know they don't know. The pure ones make all pure, for to them all is pure. Their presence makes everyone pure. As the pure water is the best tonic so is the contact of the pure hearted person. In the spiritual path when one is able to accomplish this thing there is not much then that remains to be accomplished.
27
Exaltation depends upon purity. The body cleansed gives an exaltation which is experienced by all living beings on the physical plane. The heart cleansed of all impurities gives a much greater exaltation, which is experienced in the inner plane and is reflected on the outer plane.
Most people little realize the meaning of exaltation. In point of fact, all things man seeks for and becomes occupied with are most often methods adopted to obtain an exaltation, through food, perfume, music, or through the beauty of color and line. No method, however, succeeds in giving the experience of a fuller exaltation in the absence of purity of heart. In plain words, it is the pure-hearted who enjoy the beauty of music, color or perfume more fully than those without purity of heart; although the pure-hearted seem to need these things which bring about exaltation less, sometimes, for the very reason that the very purity of the heart gives them that exaltation which others strive to achieve by different methods.
Amir, the mystic poet, says, "Their eyes refused the wine, her generous offer, saying, We do not need thee, we are intoxicated perpetually." The reason behind the refusal of the pious, at times, of music, art, gaiety, or merriment was that they already had the exaltation which others try to gain by these things. It does not at all mean that the pious are always against things of beauty and pleasure. It only means that they are rich by the feeling of exaltation which comes from within, without adopting for it any other methods. Nevertheless, the pious are the ones who are capable of enjoying beauty in all its aspects fully. As Hafiz says, "If the pious ones would hear the song I sing they would get up and dance unrestrainedly."
28
To purify the mind from fear is of great importance, and this can be best done by analyzing what causes one fear. Fear is an outcome of long-collected problems unsolved. When once a person looks his own problem in the face he gets an insight into the cause of fear, and as in the sun many germs are destroyed, so the germs of fear are destroyed by the light of intelligence. Fear comes from weakness to face the consequences of one's condition, attitude and deeds. Once a person has solved the problem how he will meet the consequences, the fear is done with. The best way of getting over the fear of swallowing a bitter pill is to swallow a bitter pill and to experience by it that it is not more bitter than it is.
Fear comes also by being too cautious for one's health, morals and reputation; also by being too considerate of the feelings of those one loves, and too regardful of those under whose influence one is; also by taking too much to heart what others say. Fear very often remains in the heart of man in the guise of virtues, and very often a timid one is taken for a righteous one. But the timorous well-doer is worse than a fearless sinner.
The best practice one can make is to speak with oneself, with one's own fear; to dispute with it, to root out the reasons on whose foundations it rests. What generally happens is that all things one fears, one fears even to think of them. But the solution of getting above fear lies in analyzing the cause of the fear and so making it nonexistent. Man by nature possesses a tremendous power hidden in his heart, the power which waits constantly to become manifest. This power is hidden by fear. The day when fear disappears this latent power manifests to view.
29
Antipathy turns into malice, and malice culminates in bitterness. To possess it in one' s heart is like possessing on one' s heart a poison, a poison that clouds wit and produces obscurity. If one keeps one's heart free from malice one has accomplished a great deal, for it is in the clear heart that the light from above is reflected. Often without an intention on one's part malice enters, of which man is unconscious. Often the man who possesses malice is quite innocent, for his heart is reflecting the malice which is projected from another heart. It is therefore that care must be taken to keep one's heart free from the impressions and influences coming from others. The question, "How can one avoid this?" is answered thus, that the heart will focus itself to a person or to an influence which is akin to its own quality; that is the nature of the heart.
Therefore, even if the impression came from another, for the influence of another the man who reflects it is responsible. To make the heart reflect good qualities one must prepare it, one must train it; for it is the good quality of heart that will keep away undesirable impressions and thoughts, and will only reflect good impressions and desirable influences. As a practice of purifying one's heart repeat every morning and every evening: "My thoughtful self! Reproach no one, hold a grudge against no one, bear malice against no one; be wise, tolerant, considerate, polite and kind to all!"
30
The real purification of mind is in purifying it from thoughts and impressions which live in it as a germ of disease. The best way of cleansing the mind from all this is to be able to empty the mind of any thought, feeling or impression. To be pure means to be natural. The spirit in man in its natural condition is not a thought but mind, not love but heart. For as the thought is the outcome of mind, so is love the outcome of the heart.
To attain to the purity which is the seeking of the mystic one must be able to purify one's spirit from every thought and feeling, however deeply impressed or engraved in one's heart. The mystic goes as far as purifying oneself from one's identity, by removing it for a certain time and by putting something else in its place. From beginning to end the whole process of spiritual development depends upon this.
2,1: Breath
Lesson 1
It is difficult to define breath in a few words. Breath is the very life in beings, and what holds all the particles of the body together is the power of the breath, and when this power becomes less, then the will loses its control over the body. As the power of the sun holds all the planets, so the power of the breath holds every organ.
Besides this, the breath purifies the body by taking in new and fresh life and by giving out all gasses that should be put out. It nourishes the body by absorbing from the space the spirit and substance that are necessary, and more necessary than all that man eats and drinks. The whole mechanism of the body works by the power of the breath, and every disorder in the working of the mechanism is caused by some irregularity in the breath. Therefore physicians feel disorder in the health of a patient by feeling his pulse or the beats of his heart. The physician will say that it is the physical illness of the body which has caused the change in the pulsation and in the beats of the heart, but the mystic knows that it is caused by the breath.
The breath in its different aspects acts differently; in every direction the breath does a special work. The breath has a special work with every organ of the body, and it has its particular influence upon every element of which the physical body consists. Every movement that one makes is directed by the power of the breath; at the same time, the breath alone has the power to stop any motion. For instance, walking, running, sitting and standing are actions done by the power of the breath; and trembling, shivering, or waving the hands or feet without control show lack of power in the breath.
Diseases - especially such diseases as nervousness, palpitation of the heart, and paralysis - come from lack of power of the breath. All lung diseases are caused by unclearness of the breath. Troubles in the brain and troubles in the intestines are also caused by lack of regularity of the breath.
This shows that breath is the key to health, which is all happiness in life.
2
The air taken in and sent out that one feels through the nostrils or lungs is what we ordinarily call breath. In reality, however, that is as the stem of a tree whose branches are many. A mystic sees the whole body as a plant of the breath. According to the physician the lungs are the channel of the breath, but to the mystic the lungs are the branches of the tree, and other branches reach all parts of the body.
The mystics call all the branches by different names. This tree has a root in the body, and has centers where the branches meet the stem. There are five such centers in the body of man. The breath has its particular work in every center. By the study of mysticism one finds that man's life depends upon the working of the centers. Generally the centers are blocked up on the inner side of the body. Therefore they give but a dim light, if the breath be pictured as a gas and the centers as lanterns.
When the centers are not in a fit condition they are wasted; not only this, but man is deprived of the full experience of life. Powers that are considered supernatural become natural when man leads a natural life. The first lesson of a natural life is right breathing. Many people breathe a half, many a quarter, and (many) still less.
It is a certain direction that the breath takes that brings about sleep, and it is the direction of the breath that brings vigor or fatigue. A man may, by the help of the breath, become stronger by doing physical exercises, and another by physical labor may become exhausted and worn out. The laborers in India who have to lift heavy weights have a certain way of breathing, and work a great deal and yet feel little fatigue.
According to the point of view of the mystic, a natural, full breath gives perfect health; and to a mystic's view, in a hundred people not one breathes rightly. Every Brahman teaches his child the way of breathing when he is nine years old. As it is a common thing that everyone breathes incorrectly, it rarely occurs to the mind that one's breath is incorrect. There are many reasons why people in general do not breathe rightly, but one among them is the lack of education in this. As health is more important than anything else on earth, and as health depends entirely on breath, which is the very life, it is necessary that the culture of the breath should be considered as of the highest importance.
3
Breath in the Sufic term is called Nafs; in Sanskrit it is called Prana, which means the very life. It spreads life and magnetism in all parts of the body, for breath in itself is life and is magnetism. Deformity of form and feature is often caused by disorder of the breath. Lack of proportion of the body, in form and strength, is also caused by lack of order in the breath.
By exercises for physical culture and exercises of voice production breath can be developed in different parts of the body. It can especially be noticed in the fingers of the violinist that by constant practice on the violin he puts a sort of magnetism, of life, into the strings his fingers touch. This example is the plain proof that it is not the fingers that play nor the violin that sounds, but that they are instruments of life.
The importance of breath is now becoming known to the scientific world, and there is much of this mystical subject which is unexplored. But mysticism has been founded on the science of breath. There is no mystic, whether Buddhist, Vedantic, or Sufi, who makes use of another process than that of breath. Breath is the first lesson and it is also the last.
A mystic becomes capable of sending breath to any part of his body; thus he is able to send life, radiance and magnetism to any particle of his body. The question, "Does he send the breath by his power of will?" can be simply answered by "Yes," and yet that is not enough. If there are no strings on the violin, you cannot play it by willpower. So long as the adept has not balanced his breath, and controlled it, and mastered it, it cannot bring about the proper result. Therefore it is of no use to try to make use of breath for physical or occult attainments until one has caused the breath to be in such a condition that it can work properly in the body.
Many, therefore, are not successful in spiritual attainments because before making use of the breath in the body, they want to produce psychical phenomena.
The body is the instrument for every experience, worldly or spiritual. By a deep study of breath a seeker after truth will find that, as every particle of his body is formed and nourished by breath, so from that and according to that his character is formed.
4
The mechanism of the body is dependent in its work upon five different aspects of breath, and these aspects are the five different directions of breath. In the Qur'an, and also in the Hebrew scriptures, these five breaths are known as the five angels. These aspects are thus pictured in their finer work in human life. Often their direction is spoken of by the prophets in symbolical terms, as it is said: one stands on the left side of man, one on the right, one before, one behind, one with him. When one aspect of these five is not working properly it brings disorder in the whole mechanism of the body. In eating and drinking, yawning and stretching, and in all the actions of everyday life these five aspects of breath have to take the lead.
Among these five aspects the first is the breath which is like the stem in the tree and which one feels through the nostrils. By the purification, development and control of this breath, all five aspects are developed.
There are atoms in man's body which form a certain organ, which are more or less active in different rhythms according as the breath reaches them. The atoms which do not receive the proper breath remain undeveloped, and therefore are inactive.
As the centers of the body are situated in the center of the whole mechanism, it is natural that in the average person the breath does not reach their innermost part as it ought to. The question, "If it is natural that it should reach them, why does it not?" may be answered by saying that it is because man leads an artificial life. If man led a natural life it would not be necessary for him to develop by certain meditation processes the qualities that are latent in him.
A horse, a dog or a cat knows intuitively of death, disease or distress in the house in which it lives. The animals are considered by modern psychology to be without mind, and man, who is far superior to the lower creation and the ideal of all beings, has not that intuitive power. The reason is that the animals lead a more natural life than man, although even that is spoiled by contact with man. The cobra can attract its food from a mile's distance, but man must toil with his hands for his daily bread.
In short, there are faculties in man which, by the artificiality of life, are closed, and man lives an incomplete life. To live a fuller life the wise in all religions have taken the breath in hand and awakened atoms and centers which are instruments for those faculties. As soon as breath touches those centers it makes them vibrate and then they do their work. Therefore breathing exercises given to a murid are like the winding of a clock. Once in twenty-four hours the clock is wound and after that it goes on without effort.
5
Breath is the channel through which all the expression of the innermost life can be given. Breath is an electrical current that runs between the everlasting life and the mortal frame. Those who have attained any intuition, or miraculous power, or any power have achieved it by the help of the breath.
But the first essential thing is a pure channel for the breath, and that channel is the human body. If the channel is blocked, there is no possibility for the breath to pass freely. Air in itself is not bad, but when it touches the earth, it partakes of the influence of the earth, and therefore becomes polluted. So it is with the breath: breath in itself is pure, but if the channel through which it works is not right, it becomes impure.
The breath makes a circuit through the body, and the channel through which it makes the circuit is the spine. The mystics give this channel great importance; they call it the serpent. They picture it as a serpent holding its tail in its mouth. In almost all symbols the serpent represents the channel of the breath. In the terms of the Yogis it is called Kundalini.
When this channel is made clear by the method of breathing, then this is not only a help to the physical health, but it also opens up the faculties of intuition, and the doors that are within, where lies the real happiness of man. In order to clear this channel of all that blocks the way, one must follow the rules of mystical ablutions and of rhythmic breathing. People who cannot understand the subject and who hear and read things by halves, say that some chakras - centers - are opened by breathing exercises, and that many kinds of distress may be the consequence.
But looking at it from another point of view, one might as well say that the eyes of a child should never be opened, because he will thereby be exposed to temptations of all sorts. All virtue is in self-control; there is no virtue in being dead. Life is worthwhile only when a person leads it fully.
People look for phenomena, but there is no better phenomenon than breath itself, because breath is life and light, and in the breath is the source of life and light. In the mastery of the breath the secret of both worlds is hidden.
6
Rhythm is the principal thing to be considered in breath, as it is on the rhythm of the breath that the working of the whole mechanism depends, and the chief reason of the irregularity of the beats of the heart or head is lack of rhythm in the breath.
As man generally neglects to think of this breath, he overlooks the fact that his health entirely depends on rhythmic breath. Rhythm is the central theme of the whole creation. Therefore the infant moves his hands and legs by turns, forming a rhythm. This shows that nobody teaches anyone rhythm; it is natural to all beings. It is rhythmic movement which enables the fish to swim and the serpent to climb trees. If rhythm were not an instinct the animal would never have known how to walk, nor the bird how to fly.
The life of man is so pulled from all sides, so divided that he often forgets things that are most essential to his life, which the lower creatures seem to keep more correctly in their lives. Neatness in man's work and balance in man's actions show rhythm in him. When man shows lack of balance in his life and when his life is disturbed and all things seem to go wrong, it is most often that the rhythm of his breath has become wrong. Irregularity of activity and repose in the habits of life causes disorder of rhythm in the breath.
Very often the Eastern mystical exercises are wrongly understood by many. When a teacher gives a breathing exercise to his pupil, often he does not mean the breathing itself but rhythm.
Thought given to the breath becomes a weight upon it and naturally holds it longer in its movement, altering it from what it would otherwise naturally be. It is the following of the rhythm of the breath, and the keeping of the rhythm regular which brings about the best results.
7
Breath is termed by Sufis Kasif and Latif. Kasif means dense and Latif means fine.
Dense breath is that which is noisy and labored, which strains the nerves and lungs. The exercises of dense breathing are useful for developing the muscles and for gaining control over the nerves; they are helpful also to the lungs and useful to the physical health. But in spiritual development, unless the breath be made fine it cannot penetrate through the important centers in the body and it cannot reach far enough into the innermost parts of one's life.
Breath, to a Sufi, is a bridge between himself and God. It is a rope for him, hanging down to earth, attached to Heaven. The Sufi climbs up by help of this rope. In the Quranic language it is called Buraq, a steed which was sent to the Prophet for his journey to the Heavens. Hindus call it Prana, which means life, but they picture it symbolically as a bird which is named in Sanskrit Garuda, on which rode Narayana, the godhead.
There is no mystical cult in which the breath is not given the greatest importance in spiritual progress. Once man has touched the depths of his own being by the help of the breath, then it becomes easy for him to become one with all that exists on earth and in Heaven.
8
Breath is the mystery; in it is hidden the secret of life. Breath proves the existence of the life unseen. Breath is audible, at the same time inaudible. Breath is visible and at the same time invisible.
It is a certain degree of the activity of the breath and capacity through which it is acting which makes the breath audible. This shows that there exists something of which we are conscious, the source of which no one knows, which is active every moment of the day, on the model of which the mechanism of nature and art is made.
No one can explain when it came into this mortal body, and no one can say whither it goes when it leaves this body of clay. One can only say that something living came and kept this mortal body alive and left it, proving that the same body, which was once thought to be alive, was not really alive, but itself was the life. This proves to the intellect, even to that void of faith, that there is some source whence life comes and that it returns again to the same source,
Man's true self is the part of his being which knows itself to exist, which is conscious of itself. When that self takes breath as its vehicle instead of the body, then it soars up and toward the utmost heights, toward the goal which is the source and origin of all beings.
9
Breath is audible and visible, and when a spiritual person, by spiritual exercises, strengthens and purifies the breath it becomes more intelligible, as a light and as a sound. Life and light, in truth, are one; the breath is the life, and it is the same breath which is light. Breath in fact is the light of all senses; the senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch perceive all things by the light of the breath. When the breath is absent from the body, the body with all its perfect mechanism becomes useless. It is natural, therefore, that every sense must become powerful and keen if the breath be developed and purified.
The reason why the ill and weak and people physically delicate generally see visions is that by the lack of flesh, fat, and blood the veins and tubes of the body and all the organs of all the senses are free and not blocked as they are in a muscular person. Therefore, naturally, the senses become keen and man perceives more than what is within the ordinary range of perception. Also such a person, when asleep, perceives the impressions from the inner world, because during sleep the inner sense, which may be called the root of the senses, turns its back, so to speak, on the external world and so begins to see the world within.
The mystic, by help of exercises, develops and purifies the breath. Therefore to him, after a certain time, all things become clear in the inner and outer world. There are some who see light before them, there are some who notice colors before their view, also there are some who see forms before their sight. When they talk about it to others who cannot observe the phenomena, they are considered imaginative; people often laugh at them.
The Sufi, therefore, does not speak of any such experience to others. He thinks it is not their world and they will not be able to understand unless they also rise to that sphere. There is no motive for speaking about one's experience to others except pride, and if someone does this out of vanity his next step will be exaggeration. If something makes anyone feel himself above others it is natural for him to feel inclined to make it still more impressive. Besides, it is in human nature to wish to interest one's friends in one's pleasures, and if someone is pleased with something he sees he will surely try to make it more interesting by a little added exaggeration.
Therefore there are two dangers on the spiritual path of which the adept must be aware before making the journey. It is for this reason that mysticism has been made a secret cult, that it may not be for everybody to play with.
10
Breath in reality is light, but when it shoots forth its rays, then according to the direction of the rays and the capacity that receives the light, colors manifest. Both form and color depend upon the direction that the light takes and upon the degree of light.
Nothing on earth is meaningless; every occurrence has its meaning and every event has its purpose. Even the colors that manifest in the light of breath have their meaning, which pertains to the moment and the conditions of the moment. Attempts are being made to photograph thoughts and feelings, and some people have even attempted to photograph spirits. It is difficult to say how far these attempts can be successful; no doubt, in this, great scope is given to falsehood.
If there is any means of seeing a spirit, a form from the inner world, it is only the breath. For in the light of the breath a form from the inner world can manifest as a picture from the magic lantern. The picture is actually in the lantern and it is the reflection of that picture which we see. Those who see the form of the dead see the reflection before them, manifested in the light of their own breath the real forms being in the inner world. For it is the breath which connects the inner world with the outer world, just as the light thrown from the magic lantern falls upon the curtain.
Many people believe that there is a color or note which belongs to a particular person, and this question offers a wide scope for confusion and puzzle. Many people are anxious to know what note belongs to them and what color is their special color. In fact this belief can be looked at from two different points of view, from the symbolical point of view and from the metaphysical.
From the symbolical point of view every person is, so to speak, tuned to a certain pitch in his individual evolution, and he stands with respect to another person just as C on the piano stands with respect to G, or E to F. This shows why a person can get on harmoniously with a certain person, but is inharmonious with another. It is not the fault of the F or G on the piano if they sound inharmonious together, it is the combination of the notes that causes the disharmony. It is not always the note that is inharmonious; it is a wrong combination that makes it inharmonious. Spiritual perfection makes man the keynote which is in harmony with all notes, and even that perfection shown to the world by Christ caused his crucifixion.
Metaphysically this question can be explained thus: There is a certain degree of life in a person, which can be distinguished by his breath, and that degree shows itself to the seer as a color and sound. Those who have not attained the power which perceives the tone and color of the breath can perceive it by a man's voice and expression.
11
The breath is like a swing which has a continual motion, and whatever is put into the swing, swings also, with the movement of the breath.
Fikr, therefore, is not a breathing practice. In fikr it is not necessary that one should breathe in a certain way, different from one's usual breathing.. Fikr is becoming conscious of the natural movement of the breath, and picturing breath as a swing, putting in that swing a certain thought, as a babe in the cradle, to rock it. Only the difference in the rocking is that it is an intentional activity on the part of the person who rocks the cradle, and in fikr no effort must be made to change the rhythm of the breath; the breath must be left to its own usual rhythm. One need not try even to regulate the rhythm of the breath, for the whole mechanism of one's body is already working rhythmically; so breath is rhythmical by nature and it is the very breath itself which causes man to distinguish rhythm.
What is important in fikr is not the rhythm, but the concentration. Fikr is swinging the concentrated thought with the movement of the breath, for breath is life and it gives life to the thought which is repeated with the breath. On the rhythm of the breath the circulation of the blood and the pulsation of the heart and head depend, which means that the whole mechanism of the body, also of the mind, is directed by the rhythm of the breath. When a thought is attached to the breath by concentration, then the effect of that thought reaches every atom of one's mind and body. Plainly speaking, the thought held in fikr runs with the circulation of the blood through every vein and tube of the body, and the influence of that thought is spread through every faculty of the mind. Therefore the reaction of the fikr is the resonance of the same thought expressing itself through one's thought, speech and action. So in time the thought one holds in fikr becomes the reality of one's self. So he who contemplates on God in time arrives at a state where his self turns into the being of God.
12
As the mechanism of the body depends upon the breath for its subsistence as well as for its health, so the breath is important in sustaining the mind and keeping its work regular. Mostly, confusion, depression, or any other disorders of the mind arise from the disorder of breathing. All such diseases as hallucinations and delusions are caused by wrong breathing. For instance, if a person comes running or is hurried for a moment, he loses the regularity of his breath for that moment and at that moment he is incapable of thinking rightly. If science and the state knew this, they could surely cause some change to be made in the present law. Many who are put in prison for some crime caused by them during moments of irregular breathing, the state would send to be cured and taught how to breathe instead of sending them to prison, for neither does the prison cure them nor does it benefit by their presence there. By this I mean to say that not only a disorder of the mind that comes at a certain time is caused by irregular breathing, but also a disorder which comes so many times during the day, whenever the breathing is not rightly done.
People who become impulsive, or show irritability in nature, who become impatient at times, who get fits of anger, passion, or laughter, who get spells of tears - all have an irregularity of breathing, which is the cause of all this. The physician has no remedy for their ills; modern psychology has not found the link; but the mystics from of old have for years believed - and not only believed but practiced - and have found in the end that balance of mind entirely depends upon regularity of breathing.
13
On breath depends the capability and. efficiency with which one does one's work thoroughly. Shortness of breath causes impatience in man, and lack of endurance and irregularity of the rhythm of the breath cause confusion in man and incline him to be easily upset. Breath being the life power, it is the same life power which gives man strength to endure all things. One will always find that those who easily get cross, who quickly get upset and get annoyed. instantly, have something wrong with the breath. People not knowing their difficulty are annoyed with them; they are put aside and are considered disagreeable people. What they need is the training of the breathing. When their body and mind have been so repaired one will find no more disagreeableness in their nature. Then, the artist who gets tired of his work and feels a lack of enthusiasm to complete his work, and feels a lack of interest and absence of inspiration, often it is all caused by some disorder in the breath.
Regular and rhythmic breathing gives health to both body and mind. Inspiration comes from above, but it comes as light. It is the work of the mind to receive it; if the mind is not ready to receive it the inspiration will come but it will not be realized. This is like the difference between the metal gong and the wooden gong: the former will resound, the latter will not resound. It is not the fault of the one who strikes the gong, it is the gong itself which does not resound. So it is with the mind which receives the inspiration and the mind which cannot conceive it. Yet to every mind inspiration comes. The only difference is that one receives it, the other rejects it.
Right breathing makes the mind vibrate, and vibration is the sign of life. All that vibrates more is more living; what vibrates less is less living. So it is with trees and animals; they show their life in their vibration.
The greatest man of science in India, Jagadish Chandra, spoke the other day in an English university on the subject of the breathing of trees.
The horse one chooses as the best is that horse whose nostrils are fully open and whose breath is full, which it shows by the expression of the eyes. A good horse shows vibrations by the quivering of its skin when its back is patted. It is not like a stone-like horse, which takes one step after ten lashes have been laid on its back. In man, the life can be seen in the same way. It is termed in Hindustani pani, which means "water."
They say that a horse, or a man, has a "watery nature", which means a fluid nature, living, pliable. And this life, breath gives to body and mind.
14
The influence of the breath on the body is like the influence of the weather on the world. As body and mind act and react upon one another, so the influence of the breath takes the chief place in directing both mind and body. Every emotion is caused by the breath flowing in a certain direction, also by the degree of force of the breath.
There are three different rhythms of breath which have influence upon the mind. Slow breath gives tranquility to the mind; and to all the creative faculties of mind, scope is given by this rhythm. Moderate breath helps the mind to continue its activities. If one wanted to make out a plan of work or wished to accomplish a certain work, the slow activity of breath spoken of above would not be helpful; although for poetry or music the slow activity of the breath is more helpful. But quickness in the rhythm of the breath produces confusion, though it gives force to physical activities. One can run well or swim well when the breath is in a fairly quick rhythm. When the rhythm of the breath is too quick it brings confusion to the mind and exhaustion to the body.
One who does not breathe fully - in other words freely and deeply - can neither be well physically nor make use of his mental faculties. Very often one finds most learned and intelligent people unable to work as they wish to and incapable of finishing a work which they have taken up. Sometimes a person thinks it is from bodily weakness, or mental weakness, or lack of enthusiasm, or loss of memory, not knowing that it is very often a matter of regularizing the breath. Most often people think that it is the tired or exhausted condition of the external senses that prevents their thinking, but in reality it is the lack of right breathing, for right breathing can make the mental faculties clearer and the organs of the senses more capable of perceiving. This shows that the mind can live a fuller life by what I call full breath.
For the Sufi, therefore, breath is a key to concentration. The Sufi, so to speak, puts his thoughts under the cover of the breath. This expression of Rumi's I would interpret as meaning that the Sufi lays his beloved ideal in the swing of the breath. I remember my murshid's saying that every breath one inhales conscious of the Divine Beloved is the only gain there is, and every breath inhaled without this consciousness, the only loss.
15
Thought is conveyed without speech through the breath. The true wireless telegraphy is the rightly established current of breath. It is difficult for any man to try it, without practice in concentration and lacking development of breath, though unconsciously thoughts are always exchanged through the agency of the breath.. The scientist is ready to believe that contagious diseases are spread by means of the breath, but it is the providence of psychology to realize that thoughts and mental states, such as hilarity, depression, energy, or sloth, are conveyed by means of the breath. In the presence of a cold person one becomes cold, the contact of a warm-hearted person warms one; and all this is done through the breath as the medium. If an angry person were to close his breath while angry much less of his feeling would affect another. If a person who is prone to hilarity would close his breath in the presence of an expert comedian he could protect himself from being influenced by him.
Yogis who rise above the thoughts and feelings of those around them attain power by control of the breath. So the method of the inner cult of Sufis also depends upon the science of breath. Knowledge of another person's pleasure or displeasure, the message of affection, the warning of hostility, all are received by way of the breath. The one who is conscious of the rhythm of the breath and whose breath is pure from grossness begins to perceive a sense which in time. becomes a language to him. Thought-reading is not necessarily intuition, although many people confound thought-reading and intuition. There is not much difference between the action of these two faculties; the difference is like that between the telephone and the telegraph. Thought-reading comes from without, intuition come from within; yet for both rhythmic breath and a clear mind are necessary. The rhythmic breath helps the mind to be clear. Breath breaks the congestion which in the head produces confusion, and in the heart depression, which covers the thoughts of others from one's perception, even from one's own intuition. A thought is better conveyed to another through breath than by speech, for a feeling put into words becomes half dead. Feeling in its own sphere is fully living and when conveyed from there through the breath it reaches the mind to which it is sent. When a person has not developed his mind by concentration and tries to send his thought by the breath he is not always successful. He is like a person trying to hit the target without ever having practiced in his life. It is practice which makes man perfect.
16
It is by the power of breath that the animals search for their food; through breath they perceive what they must eat, what they must not eat, and through breath the carnivorous animals search for their prey. It is through breath that certain animals receive warning of dangers and again it is through breath that some animals when ill find their remedy. If the lower creation can do so much by the power of breath how much more can man do, if he only knows the right way of the development of breath. It is through the breath that the birds receive warnings of the changes of the weather, and accordingly they migrate in flocks from one place to another. Through the breath the herds of deer perceive approaching storms or changes of weather or the approach of a lion or a tiger. Man, who is more capable of perceiving by breath still deeper things, warnings and calls from the earth and from Heaven, which places are meant for him to dwell in or to settle in, discriminating between friend and foe and discerning their pleasure and displeasure - owing to his interest in the superficial things of life, cannot fully benefit by the power of breath.
Yogis and Sufis, therefore, and all students of the inner cult, believe that breath is the means of receiving all intuitive knowledge from every direction of life. Absorbed in a thousand things of daily life man gives very little thought to breath. Therefore he keeps his heart closed to all the revelation that can be received by the help of the breath. Man as a rule is never conscious of his breath, of its rhythm, of its development, except at the time when he is so tired that he is breathless or when he is so excited that he feels choked up, or when something keeps the breath from flowing. For a Sufi it is desirable to be conscious of every breath. In the schools of the Sufi in the East the members of a certain association take up as their duty to remind the whole assembly of the same. So one after another, in turn, takes it up as a duty. They call aloud "Hush ba dam," meaning, "Keep conscious of the breath." "Nazr ba kadam" - this sentence is added when the Sufis are walking, which means, "Look down and see whose feet are these that are walking."
17
It is said that the cobras, enormous animals living in dense forests or in the mountains, attract animals or birds by the power of the breath. When the cobra is hungry, which is once in three months or six months, by inhaling the breath it draws its prey near. In its exhaling there is magnetism, power and influence; in its inhaling there is attraction. The mystics of ancient times have learned much from cobras. Mahadeva, the Lord of Yogis, had the cobra as his necklace. The peace and stillness of this animal, the contentment with which it waits for its sustenance are wonderful, and most instructive for an adept on the spiritual path.
One who masters breath becomes invigorated and strengthened in his mind, becomes quiet and peaceful and achieves self-control. In the cobra there is the far-reaching breath. So is the breath of the mystic. The mystic's breath is not what is called deep breathing. His is the breath reaching inmost, which touches every plane of his being. Every movement robs one of a great portion of breath, every excitement takes away a great deal of life-force. Therefore those who master breathing first learn control, not only over every passion and emotion, but over every movement. By trying first to make the body still, one can practice the breath better. Therefore among Yogis different postures are taught. Every posture allows the breath to take a certain direction, for every direction the breath takes has a different result. It is posture and thought, both together, that help to direct the breath in a certain direction. As breath is a life-power, whatever center it is directed to, it brings to a new life.
18
Different conditions and the changes that take place in the world have their effect upon the mind, and the different conditions of the mind have their effect upon the body. As bodily illness makes man irritable, confused and exhausted in mind, so different conditions of the mind cause health or illness in the body. The link between the body and the mind is the breath, a link through which the influences of the body and the mind are exchanged and work upon one another.
- By the use of breath in physical culture the health and vigor of the breath is projected, so to speak, upon the mind.
- By the use of concentration through the breath the light of the mind is thrown upon the body, which takes away from the body all heaviness and stiffness, making it light and exhilarated.
Breath in this way acts like a ball in tennis thrown from one side to the other, and the force of its movement comes from the side from which it is directed. Therefore when it is directed from the body to the mind, the mind becomes subject to the influence of the body, but when from the side of the mind it is directed toward the body, in this case the body becomes subject to the mind.
Very often dervishes and fakirs in the East, many of whom live upon alms and go several days without food and spend many nights in sleepless vigil, do things which are difficult for a wrestler, a boxer, or any other muscular person. Some dervishes practice jumping into fire, standing for hours in the water, sitting or lying on iron pricks, thrashing their bare arms and legs, cutting themselves with knives and swords, and all such things, beyond the power of a physically strong man. Often a physically strong man suffers in proportion to his strength when he is exposed to pain or torture.
This explains that through the power of breath is the main source of physical development, yet breath is the principal thing in the development of mind, in which the influence of the breath is more valuable.
19
The breath has a great influence and entire control over two principles which work by the power of breath: Kabs, or contraction, and Bast, or expansion. The former absorbs, attracts and gathers energy from outside, the latter tendency repels energy from within. In this way body and mind are sustained, nourished, enriched, and made light, easy, clear and pure by the power of breath. Inhaling is contraction and exhaling is expansion. It is upon these two principles and their regular working that the health and happiness of man depend.
A man who has not gained power over his breath is like a king who has no power over his domain. Once man has gained the power of contraction and expansion, then what he needs in life is to know what to attract and what to repel, and this the master of breath intuitively understands. Even the birds and animals know what they must eat and drink and what they must not. By a close study of the lower creation, students of nature have learned that animals and birds abstain from food and drink when it becomes necessary for health.
I am often asked the question, why there should be pain in childbirth. And the answer is that our life has been removed far from nature. Man today lives an artificial life to such an extent that he can hardly understand what real life may be. Man considers the accustomed to be the natural, he does not think how far the natural is removed from the present life we live. The domesticated animals are also beginning to show the birth pain, through their association with human beings.
Fikr practiced for some years helps to regulate the rhythm of breathing, and it helps in all aspects of life to attract and repel all one wishes. By the help of fikr not only the digestive faculty and the circulation of the blood and the pulsations of the body are made regular, but the concentration that is developed through the development of breath enables man to repel all disagreeable impressions which cause despair and depression. By the power of fikr one helps the power of memory, also the power of retention of thought. At the same time one is enabled by the power of breath to forget any thought one wishes to put out of one's mind and to erase from one's heart any impression deeply engraved.
20
Breath is the medium between the outer life and the inner life.
- By the help of breath the elements necessary for the body can be attracted and
- by the help of the breath thought and inspiration can be gained.
- By the help of the breath all that is undesirable in the body and mind can be expelled.
- The secret of telepathy, of reading the thought has the science of breath as its mystery.
- When one wishes to draw from within inspiration, breath is the key.
Breath is a life current, its value is known to so few. Breath in itself is a phenomenon, but the phenomenon becomes manifest when once the breath is fully mastered.
The law of transmutation is also the secret of breath. What we give or gain from another, without seeing or hearing, which we only realize as a result of the contact of someone, that is the effect of breath; for by the medium of breath there is always something given and taken.
So few are aware of it! In the presence of one person one feels an inclination to laugh, in the presence of another one has a desire to cry, contact with one makes a person feel cheerful, with another sorrowful. Sometimes without there being one word spoken between two people thoughts and feelings are transferred, without people knowing it, through the current of breath.
Breath is a link through which one individual is connected with another individual, and space does not make a difference if once connection of breath is established. The communication will be sure and clear, if only the wire is tied to the sympathetic hearts. There is much that is common to the science of electricity and the science of breath. The day is not very far off when science and mysticism both will meet on the same ground in the realization of the electricity which is hidden in the breath.
21
Mind is creative and thought is living, but out of what does mind create a thought? Out of the atoms of the mental sphere? But the current which attracts the desired atoms to complete a thought is the breath, not that breath which is outwardly manifest, but that part of breath the action of which is not felt by every man. The more length and breadth the breath has the more scope it gives for the creation of thought. It is therefore that the thoughts of the sages and mystics who have gained mastery over breath are more substantial and complete in themselves; and besides, they prove to be more expressive and impressive.
The breadth of the breath is in its volume. This comes by the facility one has of breathing through wide nostrils and open lungs. The secret of the power of voice is also to be found in this. The voice of a commander of an army which carries through the army and impresses the soldiers, thus encouraging them to fight, has breath as its secret behind it. Ali, by his invocation of the sacred word, which he sometimes used to cry aloud on the battlefield, used to cause the enemies to tremble.
The length of the breath shows the length of life; lengthy breath is the sign of long life. This comes not only by wide nostrils and open lungs, but also by the accommodation that the body has for the breath, not only the nose and the chest but also the head and the abdomen.
There are some whose breath has volume, or breadth, but not much length, and there are others who have length and no breadth. But it is the balance of the length and breadth of the breath which gives balance to the mind.
22
Inspiration comes from the light thrown upon a certain idea. This comes from the radiance of the breath falling upon the mind. There are two shadows, one that is projected upon the sky, and another which falls upon the ground; the former known to the mystic and the latter to everyone. When the breath which is developed is thrown outward its radiance produces light, and it is the different shades and grades of this light which manifest in various colors, suggesting to the mystic the different elements which the particular colors denote. The same breath has a different action when it is thrown within. It falls upon the mind like a searchlight and shows to the intelligence the object of its search as things seen in daylight. Thus man knows without any effort on the part of the brain all he wishes to know and expresses in the way each individual is qualified to express.
Inspiration, therefore, is one thing, qualification another thing. The inspiration is perfect when expressed by the qualified souls. Nevertheless, inspiration is independent of qualification. The light that the breath throws upon the mind is in every case different in its radiance. When far reaching it illuminates the deepest corners of the heart, where the light has never reached, and if breath reaches further the light is thrown upon the mind of God, the store of all knowledge there is.
23
It is the vibration caused by the breath which becomes thought waves which carry the thought from one mind to the other. It is therefore that thought-reading much depends upon the position in which two people sit with regard to each other, for a certain position makes it easier for the breath to reach than another, although it is not always necessary that a person must be facing one in order to receive thought waves through breath. If the thought power is strong and the breath is sound enough to carry the thought waves, a person, whether facing or having his back turned, must receive thought.
The mystics do not only project their own breath and see the condition of their being manifest before themselves, but also they can make themselves responsive to receive the thoughtwaves of another carried by his breath. This receptivity does not only enable an adept to read other's thoughts, but also to a mystic the condition of another becomes revealed by the projection of another person's breath upon his heart.
Plainly speaking, souls are likened to mirrors, and two mirrors facing one another become projected on one another, one manifesting the reflection of the other. The mirror which has no reflection is capable of manifesting the reflection of the other mirror. In this way breath enables a Sufi not only to know and see his own condition of life but also to know and understand the condition of those he comes in contact with.
24
The breath of one person may, so to speak, overpower the breath of another. It is as a little stream can be washed away by a large stream of water. In this is the secret of knowing the condition of another person. A Sufi whose breath is lively, which is called in the Sufic terms Nafsi garm, has the influence of scattering the thoughts, feelings, the vibrations of the atmosphere of another. In this way he is able to convey his thought or feeling, and create his vibrations as the atmosphere for another who needs it for his own betterment. In this way a Sufi brings a life and health to another person; he can have an influence on the character of another person.
There is a great difference between a developed breath and an undeveloped one. There is as vast a difference, or even a vaster, between the breath of two persons as in two voices. A specially produced singing voice is quite different from the uncultivated speaking voice. It is a psychological fact that the voice and word of a person whose voice is cultivated makes a greater impression than the voice and word of an ordinary person. How much more then must the influence of breath work silently. It is in this that is the mystery of the mystic's magnetism, which is healing, harmonizing, exalting, at the same time invigorating.
25
The breath is a light in itself, and it becomes projected like the beam from a searchlight thrown upon an object. When the breath is coarse, undeveloped, it is full of material atoms which dim its light; but a developed breath is sometimes not different from the light of the sun but even brighter than that. Breath being a light from another dimension, which is unknown to science today, it cannot be visible to the ordinary physical eyes. The glance of the physical eyes must be cleansed and purified first by Pasi Anfas before the eyes can see the light of breath.
What people call the aura is the light of breath, but it is not everyone who sees it. A radiant countenance is a proof of an aura which lightens it, and the lack of it is the lack of light in the breath. A seer sees the sign of a death more clearly and longer beforehand than a physician can. The reason is that the seer sees in the aura of a person whereas the physician sees only the condition of the body.
There is a belief in India that there are some cobras that have light in their head, the light by which they find their way through the dark. They make a hole in the earth miles long and illuminate the hole by their own light, which is centered in their head. As two wires, positive and negative, cause the electric light to manifest, so the two currents of breath, Jelal and Jemal, when connected in a head in the way they ought to be, cause the light to manifest.
Many experience the phenomena of the light of breath, and yet doubt if it can be true, for they think it is perhaps an imagination. Others, who are incapable of seeing that light, confirm their doubt. The Sufi by the development of breath experiences this light, which becomes for him a proof of the existence of that dimension which is unknown to the ordinary world.
26
Why is breath called Prana by the Hindus? It is because it brings on the surface the essence from within. It is a current which is running from the outer spheres to the inner spirit. What it brings from the outer spheres to the inner spirit is not nearly so great as that which it brings from the inner spheres of life.
This being the condition, breath is vitalizing. Naturally, therefore, the breath of man in sound health must give health to another in his presence. The breath of a mastermind must vitalize the thought of another, and the breath of a spiritual person must illuminate those in his presence. By breath a spiritually developed person can impart his physical energy, his thought-power and his spiritual influence to the others with whom he may come in contact.
It is natural, no doubt, that if the one who wishes to impart has not sufficient power to impart, he becomes broken if there is a greater demand on his power and if there is little left with him. Sufis, therefore, consider breathing connected with meditation much more important than anything else in the world, their food, sleep, or comfort.
27
Breath is likened to water. The flowing of the breath is like the flowing of a stream. Inhalation and exhalation show ebb and flow. Parts of the earth which water does not touch remain barren; so the centers in the body, with all their intuitive, innate capacities, remain unproductive if the breath does not reach them. Besides, various diseases, in spite of all their apparent causes, often have one principal cause, and that is the lack of free flow of the breath. Many operations could be avoided and several diseases could be cured by the knowledge of the phenomena of breath.
The Hindu sacred rivers, Ganga and Jumma, are outward symbols of Jelal and Jemal, the two directions of the flow of the breath. And the place where they meet is called Sangam, the meeting or unity, which is considered most sacred by the Hindus. That Sangam is the meeting of these two opposite flows. It is like the meeting of the two directions in the center, which is called Kemal by the Sufis.
The water rises, passes, falls, and runs zigzag, and stands if held. So is breath. Every above said action of breath has a meaning and has a peculiar effect, as even water varies in its power and magnetism while going through the above said directions. Water is a tonic, and breath is life itself. No tonic can be greater and better than breath. A spiritually evolved person's presence, therefore, brings about a cure in cases where all remedies fail. Water is the necessity of life, and breath the only condition for living. Without it life is impossible. Water falls as a rain from above; so breath is from above also, though from another dimension. Water rises as vapors. So breath rises with gasses, also with joys or depressions. Pure water is health-giving, pure breath gives life. Water partakes of all things mixing with it; so does breath.
28
The mechanism of the human body shows the nervous system as its principal battery, in which magnetism is prepared by the action of breath. It is when the nervous system cannot function that this battery gets out of order and does not work properly. Many, in order to make this battery of the nervous system work properly, take drugs and other medicines which stimulate the nervous system. But instead of giving power to it they take away power from it, and in the end the nervous system becomes accustomed to all such medicines one takes.
The nourishment of the nervous system is what breath attracts from the space. As far as science goes, it says one gets into one's system oxygen. The mystic goes further in saying, not only does one get oxygen, but also that life and intelligence, that power and radiance which makes the nervous system in perfect order. The result of which is not only good health but ever-increasing magnetism, which comes forth from the person in his thought, speech, movement and action, charging his atmosphere with magnetism which surrounds him as a fortification and protection against all influences, physical and mental; thus making man live a fuller life.
29
Inhaling shows the power of absorption which is manifest in all living beings and in all objects. Little germs, worms, trees and plants all absorb, and in that way they breathe. Also in all living beings and in all things there is a tendency to put out an element which their system will not assimilate. It is not only the inhaling and exhaling by the nostrils which accomplishes these two functions, absorption and rejection; but there are minute waves of the breath working in different directions of the body, which perform the above said two acts in their own way and in their own rhythm of speed; for instance, the tendency of stretching and contracting, the tendency of blinking the eyes, of expelling water and refuse from the body. When any of these subtle waves of the breath working in any direction of the body get out of order, then an illness originates in that particular part of the body, spreading its influence gradually to other parts.
Balance in man's life and being is maintained by the evenness of inhaling and exhaling. The compass of man's being is as large as the reaching point of his breath. One lives a fuller life, another does not live a fuller life, because the former breathes fully, the latter does not breathe fully. Very often the reason why a child is a dwarf is that his breathing capacity does not allow him to breathe fully; and often the reason why a youth does not develop fully is that he does not breathe properly. A person ages sooner, also, because his breathing is not right. Very often people who have no particular illness feel tired and lifeless because their breathing is not as it ought to be.
The spirit produces this physical body out of itself, so the body, in spite of all the physical nourishment, entirely depends upon the spirit to live. One can live for some time without food and water, but one cannot live without breathing. The reason is that as the physical body is made of the spirit, it needs to breathe spirit in, in order to exist. Breath, therefore, does not only nourish the physical body, but it gives subsistence to all the planes of man's existence.
30
Breath penetrates, breath permeates, breath strikes, breath absorbs, breath invigorates, and breath heals. It is therefore that souls with great powers make their thought and feeling penetrate into the minds and the hearts of others. As breath creates an atmosphere it permeates the bodies of others, also the sphere, charging the whole atmosphere with its particular magnetism.
The hearts of men are likened to gongs in the temple. Every spoken word strikes them, but by the power of breath one strikes them without a word. It is by the breath that one contracts illnesses, but also one absorbs defects and the depression of others, as well as joy and happiness. The breath of personalities healthy in mind and body is vitalizing. The breath of the spiritual beings, whose love and sympathy goes out to others, is naturally healing.
It is no exaggeration that the whole phenomenon of life has breath as its mystery, and once the knowledge of breath is attained and breath is mastered by practice, one beholds a most wonderful phenomenon within and without. There are many who remain skeptical until they have fathomed the mystery of breath. Once they know it, they call it, as Hindus have called it for ages, Breath-Life.
End of Volume 2, Number 1
2,2: the Spirit In the Flesh
1: Our Physical Constitution
Our physical body is constituted of the five chief elements, which compose even the whole universe. The skin, flesh, and bones show earth properties; And the blood, perspiration, and saliva represent the water element. The heat in the body and the digestive fire in the system denote the fire element. The breath and its inner work within the body, which enable us to stretch and contract, and the power of movement, which does not allow us to keep still for one moment, represent the air element. The ether element in us is that which controls our activities and gradually consumes All other elements. It is for this reason that a child is more active, while an aged person is still and inclined to inactivity.
The above is a rough explanation of the different parts of the body representing the different elements. They correspond in the following way: the bones with the earth element; the flesh with the water; the blood with the fire; the skin with the air; the hair with the ether.
Bone is as void of sensation as the earth. The shrinking and swelling of the muscles, the festering of the flesh, and the effect of water on it both inwardly and outwardly, prove that the flesh corresponds to the water element. The. circulation of the blood depends absolutely upon the degree of heat; it flows as the fire element makes it. The air influences the skin. In hot weather the skin becomes darker, and in cold fairer; in rough weather it becomes rough, and in fine weather smooth. All different shades of the skin are mainly due to the climatic conditions of our place of birth and dwelling. The hair corresponds with the ether and is the least sensitive. If the hair is cut or burned there is no sensation.
The outlet of each different kind of refuse is caused by a certain element. The motion is caused by earth, urination by the water element, perspiration by fire, saliva by air, semen by ether.
2: The Mystical Significance of the Body
Man's body may be divided into two parts: the head and the body. The head represents Shuhud, the spiritual part, and the body represents Wujud, the material part. In the former, from the crown of the head to the chin is the expressive part; in the latter, the upper half of the body is the expressive part.
Two parts of the body, the brain and the heart, are considered to be the most important factors, for the scientist thinks that the brain thinks and the orthodox believes that the heart feels. In the view of the Sufi, both are wrong in a way and right in a way. In fact it is not that the brain thinks, but the brain is the means by which the mind distinguishes thought in its concrete form; just as the piano does not compose, but the composer tries his composition on the piano and makes it clear to himself. It is not the camera which takes the photograph, but the light and the plate. The camera is the medium for both, and so it is with the brain. By disorder in the brain, the scientist says, man becomes unsound in mind. But the Sufi holds that nothing is wrong with the mind; it is the instrument through which the mind functions that is out of order.
The same misconception exists among those who believe that the heart feels. The heart, being the center of the body, partakes of the effect of the feeling from within - which is the real heart, not the piece of flesh - and it feels suffocated and oppressed. Depression is felt as a heavy load upon the breast; and when the heavy vibrations are cleared, then especially a person has a feeling of joy and his heart is lighter than usual. This explains the Shaqq-i sadr, the opening of Muhammad's breast by the angels when fear, bloom, bitterness, and conceit were all cleared away before the manifestation of divine revelation. It is as the darkness clearing away at the rising of the sun.
As the brain is the instrument of the mind which is invisible, and the heart of flesh is the vehicle of the heart within which is above substance, so it is the illumination of the soul, our invisible being, whose light is reflected within this physical body. When active it beams through the eyes, through the radiance of the countenance, charging the whole environment with a magnetic atmosphere. This light being originated from sound, both light and sound echo in the dome of the temple of this physical body, though neither in reality belongs to it. To the Sufi, the seeker of the self within, they are vouchsafed when he has control over the gateways of this holy temple, the physical body. Then, instead of reflecting outward through the expression, the light and sound both manifest within.
3: The Nature of the Sense and their Organs
There are five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The senses of sight and hearing are the principal ones, and of these two the principal is the sense of sight. The sense of touch is perceived through the medium of the skin, which represents the earth element, and is sensitive to cold and heat. The sense of taste is perceived through the medium of the tongue, which represents the water element; all salt, sour and sweet, pungent and bitter tastes are distinguished by it. The sense of smell is perceived through the medium of the nose, the channel of the breath which alone can distinguish the odors and fragrances. The sense of hearing represents ether, and is perceived through the medium of the eyes, which in this material body are the substitute of the soul.
Each sense has its dual aspect, Jelal and Jemal, the strong and the gentle aspects of life, which are represented by the right and left side, their action being expressive and responsive. Therefore, although the sense of sight is one, the eyes are two; the sense of hearing is one, but the ears are two; the sense of smell is one, and the nostrils two. So it is with every sense. It is this dual aspect in nature which has caused the distinction of sex, for in spirit the human is human, but as it approaches the surface it becomes either male or female. The myth of Adam and Eve expresses this to those who know: Eve coming out of Adam's rib means that two came out of the one Spirit.
In reality there is but one sense, and it is the direction of its experience which is perceived through a particular channel. This being so, each experience is different from the other. Therefore we may call this sense the five senses, although in reality it is one.
Whichever element predominates in a person's nature, the sense relative to that element in him is the most active. And as breath changes so many times throughout the day and night, its element acts in accordance with the senses. This is the cause of every demand of the senses. He who indulges in any one of the senses makes that sense dull, just as attar, kept all the time near oneself, dulls in time the sense of smell, although it enslaves one to the smell of attar. The same is the case with all senses. The Sufi, therefore, experiences life through the senses for the sake of experience and not for indulgence, the former being master and the latter slavery.
4: The Source of Bodily Desires
The source of our bodily desires is one: the breath. When the breath leaves the body all desires leave it also; and as the breath changes its elements, and the elements - earth, water, fire, air, and ether - predominate in the breath by turns, this being caused by the different grades of activity in the breath, so the desires change. Therefore in a certain climate one feels hungry, and in certain weather one feels thirsty, because the influence of weather on the breath kindles in the breath more of a certain element.
The constitution of a person has a great deal to do with his bodily desires. Naturally a healthy person is often hungry and thirsty; and the unhealthy person, under the garb of piety, may say, "How material he is!"
All bodily desires show in the physiognomy of a person; and there is no desire without the influence of a particular element behind it. Besides, everybody has a certain element predominant in his physical being, and other elements in a greater or lesser degree. Upon this each person's habits and desires depend.
The following elements and desires correspond:
| Elements in the Breath
| Desires
|
|---|
| Earth
| Motion
| | Water
| Urination
| | Fire
| Thirst
| | Air
| Appetite
| | Ether
| Passion |
There is always a possibility of confusing desire with avidity, which is not a bodily desire, but the desire of mind that has experienced its joy through the bodily desire. Even in the absence of the bodily desire, the mind demands and forces the body to desire. In this aspect every bodily desire is out of place and undesirable, and enslaves one.
The soul, during the satisfaction of every bodily desire, descends to earth from above. That is what the myth of Adam and Eve explains, when they were driven out from the heavens and sent down to earth. This tells the seer that heaven is the plane where the soul dwells freely in its own essence and is self-sufficient, and that the earth is the plane where the soul experiences the passing joys through the satisfaction of bodily desires depending upon external objects.
The soul becomes captive in this physical body, which is subject to death and decay, and forgets the freedom and peace of its original above. That is why at times Sufis experience the satisfaction of desires, and at times abstain by the power of will, to allow the soul to experience its original joy, being in its own essence, independent of mind and body. By doing so the soul knows its first and last dwelling place, and it uses the body, its earthly above, to experience life on earth. It is as undesirable, according to the Sufi's point of view, to kill the bodily desires by absolute or partial renunciation, as to over-indulge them and enslave one's life to them. The Sufi means to possess the desires, not to be possessed by them.
5: The Source of Emotions
The source of our emotions is our breath, whose impurity brings confusion, and whose purity produces radiance. As the breath changes from one to the other element it produces in us an inclination towards a certain emotion; but according to the power of our will we control or give in to its unruly expression.
Every emotion has its color and its flavor. One emotion develops into the other, since the proportion of activity of mind, in its increase and decrease, produces emotions. No emotion is undesirable so long as it is under the power of the will, but when uncontrolled even the least effect of it is a sin.
- Fear has the influence of the earth element;
- affection has the effect of the water element;
- anger has the effect of the fire element;
- humor has the effect of the air element; and
- sadness has the effect of the ether element.
The nature of the elements is like colors; light in the color makes it pale and darkness in the color makes it deep. So is it with the emotions: the light of intelligence makes them faded, and the lack of intelligence makes them deeply felt.
- With light, the influence of the earth element produces caution;
- the influence of water with light produces benevolence;
- the fire element with light produces ardor;
- the influence of air with light produces joy; and ether with light produces peace.
If you give in to an emotion, even only once in a while, remember that the other emotions, to which you may never wish to give in, will also overpower you; because it is one energy which assumes, by the influence of different elements, the garb of different emotions. In fact it is one emotion. By controlling ourselves we control all things in the world.
6: The Constitution of the Mind
The mind is composed of five faculties. Even as your hand has five fingers, the physical world has five elements which constitute it. As ether is an element separate from earth, water, fire and air, and yet contains all these elements, so is the faculty which we call heart a faculty separate from the remaining four; and yet it contains the four faculties within itself.
The special work of the heart is to feel and to produce emotions out of itself. The second faculty is the mind; its work is to think and to produce thoughts. The third faculty is memory; its work is to collect and to supply impressions. The fourth is reason; its work is to discriminate and to decide things. The fifth faculty is the ego, which makes one think of one's own person, and all else as a separate entity.
The word "heart" in metaphysics denotes the main center of the mental plane. The piece of flesh which we term heart is the sensitive part in us which feels the effect of all joy and pain before any other organ; and from this center the breath carries on the work of spreading all energy throughout the physical body. That is why the Sufi works through this center in the physical body when he wishes to impress his absolute self with a certain thought; but high development lies in purifying the five faculties before mentioned by the mystical process and in mastering them.
7: The Influence of the Mind upon the Body, and of the Body upon the Mind
It is difficult at the first thought to say whether it is the impression of the external part of ourselves which forms the mind, or if it is the impression of the inner part which forms the body. In reality both do their work: body makes mind and mind makes body. The mind makes a stronger
impression upon the body, and the body makes a clearer impression upon the mind. The thought of illness brings illness to the body; the thought of youth and beauty develops these qualities; at the same time cleanliness of body helps to bring purity to the mind; strength of body gives courage to the mind.
Every change in the muscles and features takes place under the influence of the mind. In other words, the mind "paints" the picture of the body, its vehicle in life. Wrath, hatred, jealousy, prejudice, bitterness, and all evil thoughts work upon one's physical self even before manifesting themselves. In the muscles of the features, in his face, every person shows his follies, which can never be veiled from the eyes of the seer. So it is with love, kindness, appreciation, sympathy, and all good thoughts and feelings. All show in one's face and form, and give evidence of one's goodness against a thousand accusations.
Sin and virtue would have no effect upon a person if the mind did not take impressions; nor would good and evil thoughts work on the external body if impressions were erased from the mind immediately. The sages in the East have, therefore, mastered concentration, that by its help they might be able to wipe off all that is undesirable, since it is human to err. But one arrives at this power by collecting all the good one can in the mind, so that evil may be naturally repulsed. By constantly doing so one acquires mastery.
8: The Soul in Itself Alone
The soul in itself alone is no other than consciousness, which is all-pervading. But when the same consciousness is caught in a limitation through being surrounded by elements, in that state of captivity it is called soul.
The Chinese use the simile of a bee when describing the soul. It is symbolical, and really denotes the eye, the pupil of which is like a bee; in other words the nature of the soul may be studied in the nature of the eye. All things exposed to the eye are reflected in it for the moment, and when the eye is turned away the reflection is in it no more, It had received it for the moment only.
Such is the nature of the soul. Youth, age, beauty, ugliness, sin, or virtue, all these are before the soul when they are exposed to it during the physical or mental existence; and the soul, interested in the reflection, may be for the time attracted and bound by the object reflected; but as soon as the soul turns away it is free from it. Amir Minai, the Hindustani poet, says, "However fast I am bound by earthly ties, it will not take a moment to break them. I shall break them by changing sides."
Every experience on the physical or astral plane is just a dream before the soul. It is ignorance when it takes this experience to be real. It does so because it cannot see itself; as the eye sees all things, but not itself. Therefore the soul identifies itself with all things that it sees, and changes its own identity with the change of its constantly changing vision.
The soul has no birth, no death, no beginning, no end. Sin cannot touch it, nor can virtue exalt it. Wisdom cannot open it up, nor can ignorance darken it. It has been always and always it will be. This is the very being of man, and all else is its cover, like a globe on the light.
The soul's unfoldment comes from its own power, which ends in its breaking through the ties of the lower planes. It is free by nature, and looks for freedom during its captivity. All the holy beings of the world have become so by freeing the soul, its freedom being the only object there is in life.
9: The Soul with Mind
The soul with mind is as water with salt. Mind comes from soul as salt from water; and there comes a time when mind is absorbed in soul, as salt dissolves in water. Mind is the outcome of soul, as salt is the outcome of water. Soul can exist without mind, but mind cannot exist without soul. But the soul is purer without mind, and is covered by the mind.
The mind covering the, soul is as a globe: a sinful mind makes the soul sinful, a virtuous mind makes the soul virtuous not in nature but in effect, as a red globe on the light makes the light red, and a green globe makes it look green, though in, reality the light is neither green or red; it is void of color, color being only its garb.
The soul becomes happy when there is happiness in the heart; it becomes miserable when there is misery in thought. The soul rises high with the height of imagination; the soul probes the depths with the depth of thought. The soul is restless with the restlessness of the mind, and it attains peace when the mind is peaceful. None of the above conditions of mind changes the soul in its real nature, but for the time being it seems to be so. The soul is a bird of paradise, a free dweller in the heavens. Its first prison is the mind, then the body. In these it becomes not only limited, but captive. The whole endeavor of a Sufi in life is to liberate the soul from its captivity, which he does by conquering both mind and body.
10: The Soul with Mind and Body
The body is the vehicle of the mind, formed by the mind; as the mind, which is the vehicle of the soul, is formed by the soul. The body, in other words, may be called a vehicle of the vehicle. The soul is the life and personality in both. The mind seems alive, not by its own life, but by the life of the soul. So it is with the body, which appears alive by the contact of the mind and the soul; when both are separated from it, it becomes a corpse.
The question whether the mind works upon the body or the body works upon the mind may be answered thus: it is natural that the mind should work upon the, body, but usually the body works upon the mind. This happens when a person is drunk or when he is delirious with fever. In the same way the relation of the soul and the mind may be understood: it is natural that the soul must work on the mind, but usually the mind works upon the soul.
The mind cannot do more than create an illusion of joy or sorrow or knowledge or ignorance before the soul; and what the body can do to the mind is only to cause a slight confusion for the moment, to accomplish its own desire without the control of the mind. Therefore all sin, evil, and wrong is what is forced from the body on the mind and from the mind on the soul; and all that is virtuous, good, and right is that which comes from the soul to the mind and from the mind to the body. This is the real meaning of the words in Christ's prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It means, in other words, "What Thou thinkest in the soul the mind should obey, and what Thou thinkest in the mind the body should obey"; so that the body may not become the commander of the mind, and the mind may not become the leader of the soul. .
The soul is our real being, through which we realize and are conscious of our life. When the body, owing to loss of strength and magnetism, has lost its grip upon the mind, the seeming death comes: that which everybody calls death. Then the soul's experience of life remains only with one vehicle, that is the mind, which contains within itself a world of its own, photographed from one's experience on earth on the physical plane. This is heaven if it is full of joy, and it is hell if it is filled with sorrow. Feebleness of mind, when it loses its grip on the soul, is purgatory. When the mind has lost its grip, that is the end of the world for that soul. But the soul is alive; it is the spirit of the eternal Being, and it has no death. It is everlasting.
11: The Experience of the Soul through the Body
The soul experiences life through both mind and body. Without the mediation of the mind the body would be incapable of acting as a proper vehicle of the soul. To put it plainly, the mind is the vehicle of the soul and the body is the vehicle of the mind. Many believe that the brain thinks and the heart feels; but in reality the brain enables the mind to think concretely, and the physical heart enables the heart, the factor of feeling, to feel clearly.
The soul stands aloof as a mirror in which every activity of the mind and body is reflected. The soul accomplishes its purpose through these vehicles, the purpose that it has set before itself from the beginning of its manifestation. As great as is the purpose, so great is the strength that the soul applies to its fulfillment; and as fine as is the purpose, so fine does the intelligence become for its accomplishment. This is very well said by Sa'adi: "Every soul is born for a certain purpose, and the light of that purpose has been kindled in this soul."
12: The Experience of the Soul through Other Beings
In this subject the first thing that we must understand is that the soul is an undivided portion of the all-pervading consciousness. It is undivided because it is the absolute Being; it is completely filled with the whole Existence. The portion of it that is reflected by a certain name or form becomes comparatively more conscious of the object reflected in it than of all other objects. Our mind and body, being reflected upon a portion of the all-pervading consciousness, make that part of consciousness an individual soul, which in reality is a universal spirit. This individual soul experiences the external world through the medium of the bodies reflected in it, namely our mind and body.
If we think of another thing or being, forgetting our self, that thing or being becomes reflected in our soul. We ourselves become that thing or being which is reflected at that moment in our soul, and we know all about the thing or being reflected in our soul; more than we know about our self, which is in reality not our self.
It is this mystery which accounts for telepathy, thought reading, spirit obsession, and spirit communication. By focusing our soul with responsive mind on the mind of another we read his thought; by focusing our soul with expressive mind we send a telepathic message. When a spirit focuses his soul with expressive mind upon the mind of another, it obsesses another. When we focus our soul with expressive mind, we communicate with and help the spirit on the other side; when we focus our soul with responsive mind to a spirit, we get spirit messages.
We can learn from our murshid, be inspired by a prophet, or become illuminated by the light of God without study, practice, or any effort on our part, if we only know how to focus our soul rightly in any direction desired.
13: The Experience of the Soul through Other Things
So long as the soul has not awakened to its majesty, it is full of poverty, which is caused by its limitations. The things upon which man depends in life, and the things that man admires and wishes to possess, seem so far from his reach; not because his soul has short arms which cannot reach, but because his soul is captive in the physical body and only knows how to work with the material arms, which cannot reach further than one yard's length.
The other reason for the soul's disappointment through life is that it disconnects itself from the things and beings around it, concentrating upon the limited vehicles, the mind and body which are focused on it, and through which it experiences life. It calls these "my individual self," thus limiting its far-reaching power and intelligence.
When the soul awakens, then no being, no thing is far from its reach, and as it becomes more capable of seeing through man, so it becomes capable of seeing through things also. In this way the soul sees through all things and knows their use, their purpose in life, and uses them for their best purpose in life.
The soul not only knows things and the secret of their nature, but it can attract things, it can construct and it can destroy things; its power is much greater than words can ever explain.
Those who cannot see, but believe by the external evidences, to them the soul is as if dead, and they are as limited as their limited body. Those who realize God, the all-knowing and almighty, and realize His intelligence and power in their soul, they, according to their evolution and power in life, inherit the power and intelligence of the heavenly Father. Rumi says, "Earth, water, fire, and air seem things to men, but to the seer they seem living beings, waiting every moment to carry out the command of their Lord, the God of the universe."
14: The Experience of the Soul through the Mind
The mind has five faculties: the faculty of feeling (heart), the faculty of thinking (mind), the faculty of reasoning (consciousness), the faculty of remembering (memory), the faculty of identifying (ego).
The soul is like a light in this five-cornered room, for the soul perceives feeling, thought, memory, reason, and identity, and identifies itself with them. In reality it is aloof from them; change of feeling or thought does not change the soul. But as the soul cannot see itself, it thinks, by the help of the ego: I am sad, or I am glad, or I remember, or I have forgotten. The soul does none of these things; they are all the workings of the mind; but as the soul does not see itself, it identifies itself with what it sees at this time.
It is a fact that the light of the soul keeps the mind in working order. When its light is covered all confusion in life comes; and all intuitions and inspirations come as the soul discloses its light. When the mind is not in order the soul cannot perceive things rightly, the mind is like a telescope before the soul. Therefore both things are necessary: the mind in order, and the soul in perfect focus on the mind.
15: The Experience of the Soul through Other Beings
The mind is like a mirror, and every thought coming into the mind is reflected in this mirror. If a mirror with a reflection in it is focused on another mirror, the same reflection will be found in that mirror.
So it is with the mind. For the mystic who has developed enough to do it rightly, it is a simple task to take the reflection of the mind of another, or to throw the reflection of his own mind on the mind of another. The former is called thought-reading, the latter is called mental suggestion; and by developing this power a person can communicate not only with the living, but even with spirits. The question is who should do so and who should not do so. If it is not advisable for a little child to go in a crowd, that does not mean that the same should be applied to a grown-up person. Therefore the unselfish and wise may learn this in order to make the best use of this attainment.
16: The Experience of the Soul through the Heart
The heart is as a globe covering the light of the soul, and its different emotions are different colors of this globe. Every emotion is produced by a certain element. While experiencing life through the heart, the soul at that moment thinks: I am sad, or glad, or afraid, or humorous. In fact it is its momentary experience. When the influence of a particular element is changed the emotion has expired and the soul is as pure as it was before. Nothing touches it. It is pure by nature and it always remains pure. If ten people in turn look in a mirror, the mirror shows everyone his face reflected in it and it is clear enough to take every other reflection. In the end the mirror is as clear as before; no face that has ever been reflected in it has left an impression on it.
There are nine different emotions which the soul experiences through the heart, and these are influenced by corresponding elements, thus:
| Emotions | Elements |
|---|
| Humor | Air | | Joy | Ether | | Sorrow | Earth | | Fear | Ether and Air | | Pity | Water | | Courage | Fire and Air | | Indifference | Ether, Fire, and Earth | | Passion | Fire | | Anger | Fire and Air |
17: The Experience of the Soul through the Heart of Another
The soul sometimes experiences life through the heart of another. In the case of a living person it is only done when he is master of harmony and concentration. But a spirit that has left its body on earth and passed away to the other side becomes master, for it has one vehicle less of the many vehicles that keep the spirit captive.
The secret of experiencing through another person's heart is to focus one's own heart on the heart of the other. This is easily done by love, and sometimes by concentration, but concentration and love combined give mastery over it. The heart is pictured by the mystics as a mirror, and as the reflections of one mirror can be reflected in another mirror, so it is with hearts.
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The heart which perceives reflection from the other heart should be without any reflections in it, by which is meant it should be pure from any other thought or feeling at the time.
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But the heart which throws the reflection has a much more difficult part to play. It has to force its own reflection through a heart which may perhaps be full of reflections. Therefore reading the thoughts of another, or knowing the feeling of another, is not so difficult as sending a thought to another or expressing one's feeling to another. It requires strength of will, good concentration, and the right way of directing the reflection, with fineness or purity of thought and feeling.
18: The Experience of the Soul through the Spirit
The soul has two different sides and two different experiences. One side is the experience with the mind and body, the other side is the experience of the spirit. The former is called the outer experience, the latter the inner experience. The nature of the soul is like glass, transparent; and when one side of the glass is covered it becomes a mirror. So the soul becomes a mirror in which the outer experiences are reflected when the other side is covered.
That is why, however greatly blessed a person may be with outer knowledge, he is not necessarily gifted with inner knowledge. In order to attain to inner knowledge the Sufi covers the other side of the soul, so that its mirror part may face the spirit instead of the outer world. As soon as he is able to accomplish this he receives inspirations and revelations.
There are people who are by nature intuitive; they are sometimes called psychic or clairvoyant. It is accounted for by the other side of their soul naturally facing the spirit within. One may call them extraordinary or exceptional, but not mystical; for the mystic does not desire that position. By concentration and meditation he gains such a mastery that he can cover the soul from without to take the reflection within, and he can cover the soul from within when he requires the reflection from the outer world to its full extent. Balance is desirable, and mastery is the goal to be attained.
19: The Experience of the Soul through the Experience of Another
The soul experiences life through one's own spirit and also through the spirit of another, sometimes consciously, but mostly unconsciously.
It is not only in obsession that the soul experiences through the spirit of another; on the contrary it is the spirit of another that experiences through one's own spirit in obsession. Thought-reading, knowing the feeling of another, receiving sympathetic impressions upon oneself, all these things are the experiences of our soul through the spirit of another.
Then there are dreams of strange character, thoughts that do not belong to us, and different feelings that come for no reason. These are nothing but the experiences of our soul through the spirit of another. It is difficult to achieve such an experience consciously, though one often has it unconsciously. The man who can experience consciously through another person's spirit has solved his limited individuality from his soul. He is already on the journey to perfection, for in time his soul becomes the soul of all.
20: The Experience of the Soul through the Abstract
All things that manifest before the mind, such as thoughts and feelings, are in time born on the surface in the world of action, where they are called deeds. And those who cannot see them are sometimes quite unaware of the totally different form they take in their outward manifestation.
Sometimes they come before a person's eyes, and sometimes they manifest far from his notice. Those who dive deep within themselves can, when they touch the plane of the abstract, perceive things that are preparing to manifest through the mind on to the surface. But the primitive state of these things is so indistinct even to the seer, that unless he knows the language of that sphere he cannot understand what his experiences convey, though they are undoubtedly true in their effect. It is just as difficult as to read a line of fate.
In Sufi terms such experiences are called Anvar and Ansar. In them lies the secret of prophecy. The first experience is perceived by the ears of the soul, so to speak, for the first experience is audible, while the second experience is visible. And yet it is not audible to the ears nor is it visible to the eyes. The audible experience is called clairaudience, and the visible clairvoyance, although these words are misused by those who falsely claim these experiences.
21: The Journey to the Goal
People have different motives for attaining knowledge. Some attain it to gain power, occult or psychic, some for inspiration, and some out of curiosity, to see if there is really something behind the wall that stands between human perception and the life unseen.
In reality, none of these motives are true ones to have for spiritual attainment. Life in the world may be likened to a journey, and the real desire of the soul is to reach the goal. The soul is the point whence life starts and where it ends; and all religions at different times have taught man the way that seemed most desirable, the way to make his journey easy and joyful. One person goes to Mecca on horseback, the other riding on a camel, another traveling on foot. The experience and joy of each is different, though all journey to the same goal. So it is with us. All the virtuous and wicked and wise and foolish among us tread the same path and reach the same goal in the end; the difference being that some go with closed eyes and some with open, some on the back of an elephant, and some, weary and worn, journey on foot.
The mystics, therefore, try by the study and practice of the deeper side of life to make this path of life's journey smooth. Amir says, "Beware, O travelers, the path has many charms; men and robbers and thieves are all along this path." The real robbers and thieves are our attachments and temptations that rob us of our life, every moment of which is an invaluable privilege, thus bring to us all disappointments and sorrows, which are not natural and do not belong to us. The path of this journey is within ourselves; just like the wide space beheld by the eyes, which do not seem more than an inch wide, yet miles of horizon can be reflected in them.
So is the true nature of the soul. It is so wide, and there is a path that runs from the body to the soul, from man to God. A person sitting at the gate will perhaps sit there for a thousand years, and never get to the goal, but he who leaves the gate behind and proceeds further will arrive at the goal by contemplation and meditation.
The Sufi's aim is not power or inspiration, though both come as he proceeds. His only aim is to tread the path until he can arrive at the end. He does not fear how long it may take, he does not worry about what sacrifice he will have to make. He desires one thing alone, be it God or goal, the attainment of which is his perfection.
22: The Journey to the Goal (continued)
Though one sees different desires in different people, yet when one studies them keenly one finds they are all different paths leading to one common goal. When one realizes this one's accusations, complaints, and grudges cease at once. However, there is also a natural tendency in man to find the easiest and quickest path to reach the desired goal, and there is also the tendency to share his pleasure, happiness, or comfort with others, and it is this that prompted the prophets and reformers to help mankind on its journey to the goal. Those that follow in their footsteps, forgetting that moral, drag people by the neck to make them follow them, and this has brought about the degeneration of religions.
Christ said, "In my Father's house are many mansions." The Prophet has said, "Every soul has its peculiar religion." And there is a Sanskrit saying, which perhaps deludes those who do not understand it, but which yet means the same thing: "As many souls as there are, so many gods are there."
The Sufi therefore never troubles which path anybody takes, Islam or Kafir; nor does he worry which way anyone journeys, the way of evil or of righteousness. For every way to him seems leading to the goal, one sooner and one later, one with difficulty, one with ease. But those who walk with him willingly, trusting in his comradeship, are his murids and call him Murshid, and he guides them, not necessarily through the same path he has chosen for himself, but through the path best suited to them.
In reality the goal is already there where the journey begins. It is a journey in name; it is a goal in the beginning and in the end. It is absurd to say, "How wicked I am", or "How undeveloped I am for reaching the destination!" or to think, "How many lives will it take, before I shall be ready to arrive at the goal?" The Sufi says, "If you have courage and if you have sense, come forward. If now you are on earth, your next step will be heaven." The Sufi thinks, "From mortality to immortality I will turn as quickly and as easily as I change sides in sleep."
23: The Purpose of Life
A deep study of anything shows the seer that there is a purpose beneath it all. Yet, if one could look beyond every purpose, there would seem to be no purpose. This boundary is called the Wall of Smiles, which means that all purposes of life, which seem at the moment to be so important, fade away as soon as one looks at them from that height called the Wall of Smiles.
But as deeply as the purpose of life can be traced, there seems to be one ultimate purpose working through all planes of life and showing itself through all planes of existence; that is as if the Knower, with His knowing faculty, had been in darkness, desiring to know something; and in order to know something He created all things. Again, it is the desire of the Creator that has been the power which created; and, too, it is the materialized substance of the spirit, a part of Himself, that has been turned into a creation, yet leaving the Creator behind as the absolute Spirit, constantly knowing and experiencing life through All different channels, some developed, some undeveloped for the purpose.
This Knower, through His final creation, man, realizes and knows more than through any channel of knowledge, such as bird, beast, worm, gem, plant, or rock. This one Spirit, experiencing through various channels, deludes Himself with the delusion of various beings; and it is this delusion which is the individual ego. He experiences, therefore, two things in his delusion: pain and pleasure; pleasure by the experience of a little perfection, and pain by the lack of it. As long as the cover of this delusion keeps His eyes veiled He knows, yet does not know; it is an illusion; He experiences all things, and yet everything is confusion. But as time goes, when this veil becomes thinner and He begins to see through it, the first thing that comes to Him is bewilderment; but the next is knowledge, culminating in vanity, which is the purpose of life.
24: Self-Realization
Life, which is omnipresent and all-pervading, divides itself as it proceeds towards manifestation in the same way that light divides itself when it projects its rays; and although there is originally no purpose in it, every activity and all activities when summed up make a purpose or purposes. In other words, it can be said that purpose comes after the activity, not before; and when it seems to come before, it is the result of previous activity. For instance, it is true, that the eyes are made to see, but in reality it is because the eyes can see that seeing is the purpose of the eyes. It is of course a poor example, for nothingness of purpose cannot be traced in objects visible and intelligible; it can only be traced in the origin of things.
The outcome of the whole of manifestation seems to be its knowledge; therefore it is knowledge alone that can be called the purpose of the whole creation. It is not the knowledge of why and where that can be the purpose of life; it is the knowledge that gives complete satisfaction. There remains no part of one's being that is hungry. There is a feeling of everlasting satisfaction in knowing something that the knower can never put into words.
It is this knowledge that mystics call self-realization, and that is recognized by some religious-minded people as God-consciousness, and by philosophical minds as cosmic consciousness. It is a knowledge which is self-sufficient; and in the moments that a soul holds this knowledge before its view no pain, or suffering, or weakness, or sorrow, or death can touch it. For this knowledge the whole world was created and with this knowledge the soul's purpose on earth is fulfilled.
25: The Divine Light
The mystical conception that all life is the divine light and the whole creation is made of that light, which is the light of God, has its evidence in all forms of creation. In the mountains and rocks there are not necessarily separate and detached rocks. This shows that in the mineral kingdom life evolves collectively. Evolution may show singleness in the vegetable kingdom, and as every tree may be called single, so every leaf, flower, and fruit may be called single. A flower may be called single, trees and plants attached together may be called single, such as reeds and grass. The development is collective, and yet it shows singleness.
Singleness can be noticed among animals and birds, but individuality is found among men. All this shows the nature of the light: that at the source from which the rays of light start they do not start singly, separate from each other; but it is a collective light; at every step forward it separates, until at its end it takes the form of a separate ray.
Light has two tendencies: to open itself, and to withdraw, which may be likened to birth and death. Also, it has a tendency to narrow itself and to expand. This is like the first tendency, only in a different direction. The former is in the perpendicular direction and the latter activity takes the horizontal direction; and it is this idea which is symbolized in the cross.
These tendencies can be seen in every form, in its length and breadth. There is a certain time in life during which youth grows tall; after that limit, growth will spread in another direction. Therefore the soul is that point of the collective light which stands separate and aloof from other points; but the withdrawal of each ray within naturally enables it to merge into that collective light and life.
26: The Soul
The word "soul" is used by different people in different senses, but the manner of its connection with the body proves it to be divine. Therefore the Sufi conception of the soul is that it is the divine part in man. The fire that comes from coal or wood is in reality the part of the sun that is in them; and when the soul qualities arise in the heart of a man and show themselves, this proves that it is the divine part in him that rises, like the flame in the fire.
Soul is in all objects, both things and beings, but when it is recognized as soul, then it becomes a soul. It is of the soul that a Persian Sufi has said, "God slept in, the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable kingdom, awoke in the animal kingdom, and became self-conscious in man." It is the description of the soul, starting in manifestation as one and manifested in variety.
The reason why one cannot see the soul is that it is the soul that sees all things, and the soul has to become two in order to see itself, and this can never be. As consciousness is realized by being conscious of something, and as intelligence is realized by the knowledge of things, so the existence of the soul can be proved by one's very existence. That part which exists in one, or which makes one existent, that part which sees, conceives, perceives, and is conscious of all things and yet above all things is the soul.
27: The Destiny of the Soul
The destiny of the soul with the mind and the body is a momentary experience when compared with the everlasting life of the soul. The soul with the mind and the body are like three persons traveling together.. The difference between them is that one depends for his life upon the other two - that is the body; and one depends upon one for its life - that is the mind; and one does not depend upon either for its life - that is the soul. That is why the spiritual person, who realizes being not as body and mind alone, but as soul independent of body and mind, attains to everlasting life. But for the experience of the external life the soul depends upon the mind, and the mind depends upon the body.
There is no object or being that has no soul, but the word "soul" is used in ordinary language only for that entity which is conscious of its individual being. The soul is the light, the mind is the furniture, and the body is the room. The furniture could be anywhere, and the room is a fitting place for it; but without light, neither room nor furniture is of any use, nor would life exist without soul.
The mind is created by the soul, yet the soul is independent of the mind; just as the body is created by the mind, but the mind is independent of the body for its life. It is the life of the body which we call life on earth, and it is the life of the mind which we call the hereafter, and it is the life of the soul which we call the life everlasting. Who lives with the body dies with the body; who lives with the mind will live long with the mind, and will die with the death of the mind; but who lives with the soul will live and live for ever. Who lives with his individual self will live so long as his individual self lives, here and hereafter, and who lives with God will live the everlasting life of God. There is a saying of Nanak that, as grain is saved from being ground in the mill by being in the center, so the worshiper who lives with God is saved from mortality.
28: The Connection of the Soul and the Body
The soul is the originator and producer of the mind, and the mind is also the originator and producer of the body. The soul produces the mind out of its own self; and yet the mind is constructed fully after the formation of the body, and the soul becomes a spirit after the formation of the mind. The soul holds the mind and the mind clings to the soul, at the mind holds the body and the body clings to the mind. The soul holds the mind as long as its activity is constructive, in other words, the soul holds the mind as long as it is engaged in the creative purpose.
When the activity of the soul takes another direction, it withdraws itself from the mind; and as long as the mind has power it still clings to it, though it becomes exhausted as there is no hold on the part of the soul. This can be seen when the aged and ill begin to lose their memory and become uninterested in thinking, speaking, or hearings.
In the same way the mind works with the body. When the mind for some reason or other withdraws its activity, the body becomes disconnected from it, for it loses its hold of the mind. But if the body is still strong and healthy it clings to the mind; soon however it becomes exhausted and this causes death and disease.
Death is mostly caused by the withdrawing of the soul and the mind; it seldom happens that it is caused by the body, its weakness or disorder. When the activity of the soul and the mind is constructive and drawn within, the body with a disease or a disorder continues to live; and the cases where people live for years with disease and pain are the proof of this.
29: The Radiance of the Soul
The phenomena of the radiance of the soul are apparent to the student of the human body. The body with its perfect mechanism loses power, magnetism, beauty, and brightness, when the soul departs from the body. This shows that the power, magnetism, beauty, and brightness belong to the soul; but since they are expressed through the body, man attributes all this to the physical body.
When we consider power, we see that the hand is not so powerful in weight and strength compared with the weight it can lift. This itself shows that it is not the hand that lifts the weight; it is something behind it. And one can notice that physical power is not the only power, but real power is something else.
As to magnetism, there is no object nor any living creature that has as much magnetism as man. The magnetism of objects attracts man, but a keen study of life would show that objects are more attracted to man than man is to the objects. If they had only intelligence to show their attraction this fact would be clear to everybody.
There is a superstition in India that some people can light fires better than others, in other words, that fire responds to some more than to others. With plants and flowers one can see the truth of this even more. The touch of some people's hand will make them fade sooner than that of others, and certain people's touch, or even glance, would make them die. Certainly no living creature can feel man's magnetism as much as man, and yet even animals and birds are attracted to man sometimes more than to their own element. This magnetism of man is not necessarily of his physical body; it is his soul.
It is the same with what we call radiance or brightness. It is a light, something which is quite apart from the physical body; and no illness, weakness, or age can take away this brightness, although it must be understood that illness is always caused by the withdrawal of the soul to a certain extent from the body, or by the incapacity of the body to a certain extent to hold the light of the soul.
Sometimes by stretching one's hands and body one feels renewed, strength and brightness come to one's mind and body; sometimes without reason one feels depression and pain in general, and laziness besides, for which no one can suggest a cause, except that the light of the soul closes and discloses itself. When disclosed, brightness, freshness and strength come; but when closed, depression, darkness and weakness come. By knowing this we can realize that those who have sacrificed every pleasure, wealth, comfort, or power in life in their pursuit after the soul are justified; for a loss in pursuit of a greater gain is not necessarily a loss. Those who become independent of the physical body by meditation no doubt experience the state of the highest bliss and attain the everlasting life.
30: The Radiance of the Soul (continued)
The heart of man is like a globe over the light of the soul. When the globe is dusty, naturally the light is dim; when it is cleaned, the light increases. In fact the light is always the same; it is the fault of the globe when it is not clear. When this radiance shines out, it shows itself not only through the countenance and expression of a man, but even in the man's atmosphere. The soul-power, so to speak, freely projects outward, and the surroundings feel it. The radiance of the soul is not only a power, but it is an inspiration too. A man understands better; there is less confusion; and if he is absorbed in the contemplation of something, be it art, science, music, poetry or philosophy, he can get inspirations clearly, and the secret of life and nature is revealed to him.
Love is the best means of making the heart capable of reflecting the soul-power - love in the sense of pain rather than as pleasure. Every blow, it seems, opens a door in the heart whence the soul-power comes forth. The concrete manifestations of the soul-power can be witnessed in the depth of the voice, in the choice of words, in the form of a sentence or a phrase, in every movement, pose, gesture, and especially in the expression of the man; even the atmosphere speaks, though it is difficult for everyone to hear it.
The heart may be likened to soil. Soil may be fertile or a barren desert, but the soil which is fertile is that which bears fruit. It is that which is chosen by living beings to dwell in, although many are lost in the soil of the desert, and lead in it a life of grief and loneliness. Man has both in him, for he is the final manifestation. He may let his heart be a desert, where everyone abides hungry and thirsty, or he may make it a fertile and fruitful land, where food is provided for hungry souls, the children of the earth, strong or weak, rich or poor, who always hunger for love and sympathy.
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