Hazrat Inayat Khan continues to explore the realm of the mind and the heart. The previous post in the series is here.

The difference between thought and imagination is that imagination is an automatic working of the mind. If the mind is fine, then there is a fine imagination. If the mind is gross, then there is a gross imagination. If there is a beautiful mentality, then the imagination is beautiful. Thought is also imagination, but imagination held, controlled and directed by will. Therefore when we say ‘He is a thoughtful person,’ it means that this person does not think, speak or act on impulse, but behind everything he does, there is will power that controls and directs the action of his mind.

There are nine principal feelings that can be distinguished as mirth, grief, anger, passion, sympathy, attachment, fear, bewilderment and indifference. Feelings cannot be limited to these nine, but when we distinguish numerous feelings, we may reduce them to these nine distinct feelings that we experience in life.

There are six diseases that belong to the heart: passion, anger, infatuation, conceit, jealousy and covetousness.

The more one thinks on the subject of the heart, the more one finds that, if there is anything that can tell us of our personality, it is the heart. If there is anything through which we feel ourselves or know ourselves – know what we are – it is the heart and what our heart contains. Once a person understands the nature, the character and the mystery of the heart, then he understands, so to speak, the language of the whole universe.

There are three ways of perception. One way of perception belongs to the surface, to the mind. It is thought. Thought manifests to our mind with a definite form, line and color.

The next way of perception is feeling. It is felt by quite another part of the heart. It is felt by the depth of the heart, not by the surface. The more the heart quality is awakened in a person, the more he perceives the feelings of others. That person is sensitive because to him, the thoughts and feelings of others are clear. The one who lives on the surface does not perceive feelings clearly. Also, there is a difference between the evolution of the two, of the one who lives on the surface of the heart and the other who lives in the depths. In other words, the one lives in his mind, and the other lives in his heart.

To be continued…