The Fifth Aspect of Human Nature that Leads to the Path of Wisdom—Continued
The being of a person is a mechanism of body and mind. When this mechanism is in order there is happiness, fullness of life; when anything is wrong with the mechanism, the body is ill and peace is gone. This mechanism depends on winding. Just as a clock spring is wound tight to run for twenty-four hours, meditation keeps a person rightly tuned. When a person sits in a reposeful attitude, and puts the mind in a condition of repose, and regulates the work of this mechanism by the process of meditation, it is like winding. Its effect is felt continuously, because the mechanism is kept in order.
The belief of a mystic is not an outward belief in an unseen deity. The mystic’s worship is not only an outer form, that by saying prayers one’s worship is finished. The mystic makes the best use of outer things, but at the same time, the mystic’s pursuit is logical and empirical. The mystic will, if possible, unite those outer things with the mystical conception. Mysticism is the scientific explanation, and also the realization of things taught by religion, things that otherwise would have no meaning to an ordinary person. When ordinary people read about the kingdom of God and Heaven, they read these names but they do not know where heaven is. They feel there is a God, but there is no evidence. Therefore, a large number of intellectual people who really are seeking Truth, are going away from the outer religion, because they cannot find the explanation, and consequently then they become materialistic. The mystic says the explanation of the whole religion is investigation of self. The more a person explores themself, the more they will understand all religions in the fullest light and all will become clear. Sufism is only a light thrown upon your own religion like a light brought in a room where all things you want are; the one thing needed was light.
Yet, the mystic is not always ready to give their answer to every person. Can parents always answer every question of their infant children? No. There are questions that can be answered, and there are some for which we should wait until that person comes to that point, until that person understands. I used to be fond of a poem that I did not understand, and yet I could not find a satisfactory explanation. After ten years, all of a sudden, in one second’s time a light was thrown upon it, and I understood. There was no end to my joy. Does it not show that everything has its time?
When people become impatient and ask for an answer, something will be answered, and something cannot be answered. The answer will come in its time. A person must wait. Has anyone in the world, with all the scriptures and prophets, been able to say what is God to the full? God is an ideal too high and great for words to explain. Can anyone explain such a word as Love, or say what Truth is?
Very often people ask: what is Truth? I often felt as if I should write the word ‘Truth’ on a brick in charcoal and put it into their hands and say, “There, hold this, then you can hold Truth!” If Truth is to be attained, it is only attained when Truth itself has begun to speak, which comes about in revelation. Truth reveals itself; therefore, the Persian word for Truth is Khuda (which means self-revealing) for this word unites God with Truth. So God is Truth. Neither can one explain the first word God nor the second word Truth. The only help the mystic can give is how to arrive at this revelation. No one can teach or learn this; a person has to learn themself. The teacher is only there to guide the person to this revelation. There is only one teacher, God. The great masters of the world were the greatest pupils, and they knew how to become a pupil.
How is it all taught or brought to the consciousness of those who tread the path of Truth? By Bayat; by initiation. It is a trust from someone who guides to someone who is treading the path. The person treading the path must be willing to risk the difficulties of the path. They must be sincere, faithful, undoubting, not pessimistic nor skeptical, or else their efforts will not reach their aim. A person must come whole-heartedly, or else not come. Half-heartedness has no value. Then what is necessary is some intellectual understanding of the metaphysical aspect of life, which some have, but not all. What is also necessary are the qualities of the heart, love as the first principle, which is known to be divine. Then action, such action as will not hinder a person in the path of Truth; such action as creates greater and greater harmony. And then repose: that which is learned by the study of one year is learned by the silence of one day, if one only knows the real way of silence.
Undated
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