A clear vision depends upon a clear heart, open to reflection.  Jalaluddin Rumi begins his Masnavi by speaking about the mirror quality of the heart. Also, by telling that this mirror quality sometimes disappears when a kind of rust covers the heart. And then he goes on to tell us that by purifying the heart from this rust, one makes this mirror of the heart clear to receive reflections.

Speaking about the science of telepathy, my Murshid once said, 'It is reflection. If your heart is clear, then you must only know how to focus it, and you need not do anything else. It is a mirror and all that is before it will be reflected in it.'

Therefore, it is not surprising if the seers see the soul of every person as clearly as an open letter. For it is the nature of sight. If the sight is perfect, it must see whatever is before it. It cannot help seeing it. It is not that the sight desires to see. It is natural if the eyes are open; all that is before them is reflected in them. So the seer cannot help seeing the soul of another, perceiving the thoughts and feelings that a person has. If he made an attempt to do it, it would not be right. The heart is the soul's private chamber. No one must intrude upon any one's privacy. No one has the right to try and find out the thoughts and feelings of another person. But as the eyes cannot help seeing what is before them, so the heart, once made clear and pure from the rust, then sees as the eyes see.

But the eyes can see so far and no farther. The dimension which is before the eyes is different. Before the heart there is another dimension, and that is the heart of man. While the eyes see the surface, the heart sees the depth of a person. Never, therefore, think that a real mystic does not see into a person's life. Never think that a mystic is unable to see a certain side of a person's nature. No, he sees all, if only his heart is clear.

But now the question is: what is the rust? What is it made of? The rust is made of the dense outcome of the mind itself. It is its dense part, which comes to the surface, and thereby covers it, covering at the same time its mirror quality. The heart becomes covered by confusion, fear, depression, by all manner of excitement that disturbs the rhythm of its mechanism. As the health of the body depends upon its tone and rhythm, so the health of the heart depends upon the regularity of its tone and rhythm. A man may be virtuous in his actions, pure in his thoughts, and kind in his feelings; at the same time if he has ups and downs, then the rhythm is not kept right. Then he cannot see the reflection clearly. For the mirror is clear, but when the mind is continually moving the reflection is blurred, the reflection does not show itself clearly.

Once we think of it, we begin to see what a wonderful instrument this human personality is for perceiving and experiencing life fully. If there were a mirror sold for a million dollars, which showed the condition of thought and feeling of every individual, there would be a great demand for it. The man who made that mirror would certainly get numberless orders, even at a million dollars, for such an invention. And here man has it, and is unaware of it. And as he does not believe in it, he would rather spend that much money and buy a mirror than try to cultivate a thing in which he does not believe.

He does not believe in himself. And as he does not believe in himself, he does not believe in God. His belief in God is mostly superficial. Numberless souls believe in God, and yet they know not if He really exists. They only believe because others believe in God. They have no proof, and they live their whole life without a proof of the belief in God. And there is no way of getting proof of God's existence, except by becoming acquainted with oneself; by experiencing the phenomena which are within one, and the greatest phenomenon that one can experience, which is one's heart. Could anything, therefore, be more interesting in life, more precious to give life to, than the thought that you could be an instrument for knowing all that is in the person who is before you, his nature, his character, his condition, his past, his present, his future, his weakness, and his strong points? Nothing in the world could be more interesting and more precious than arriving at this stage, than experiencing this; more precious than wealth, or power, or position, or anything in the world. And this is something, which is attained without cost, even without the hard work, which man does for his livelihood. When we think of this, we feel that man thirsts for water, standing near the stream. What man thirsts after is within himself. And, what keeps him from it, is the lack of belief in himself, in truth, in God.

People try to study the outer life. But for this study the sight must be the first thing. This outer sight can show the surface of things. It is the inner sight that is the seeking of the soul. Science as we know it is built on the study that one has made of the things, which are visible, which are on the surface, and therefore, that study is incomplete.

That study can be completed by seeing the inside of things. For even the beginning of science can be traced as the outcome of intuition. The ancient physicians used to follow wild animals, such as the bear and others, who sought for different herbs when they were in need of a cure for some illness, because their intuition was clear. Physicians used to live the life of solitude, the life of meditation, they used to live a pure life; and from that they got their inspiration. And from that inspiration they knew what to give in order to cure different diseases.

The science which we have today is borrowed from what was once known to them, although it was not called science at that time. It is a heritage of the ancient people, which we call science. But its beginning was intuition. And if ever a scientist today discovers something new, something wonderful, he is again indebted, not to the outer studies, but to intuition. If this is true, then the faculty of intuition must be developed, the heart must be made clear, so that even if someone is not a spiritual person but a man of science, he could be benefited in his study and practice in life.
 

checked 18-Oct-2005