Here Hazrat Inayat Khan concludes his lecture on mysticism, begun here, by describing the preparation that is necessary for this unfoldment.
If there is any secret in mysticism this is the only one. Before a person has developed his outlook he must not hear, he must not see. Therefore it is not in order to make one see and hear but to change one’s outlook that the teacher gives initiation. But when the pupil says, ‘I come to see and hear’ the teacher says, ‘Wait!’
I will tell you my own experience. Before I started looking for my teacher the faculty of seeing was being developed in me. It is this which awakes the desire to seek a teacher, for the teacher can give the explanation of life. I did not tell my teacher about this faculty, for I was too impressed, too respectful, to speak of what I could see and hear. But one day, after having been with my teacher for some time, I ventured to speak about it. And what was his answer? ‘I’m sorry.’ I was expecting a word of encouragement! But he added, ‘It is not seeing or hearing, it is acknowledging it that hinders one’s progress.’
When this seeing occurs it is called clairvoyance, and this hearing is called clairaudience. How wrongly these words are used today! Anyone who is troubled in his mind, who wants to know the future and speak about it, is called a clairvoyant. In reality this gift of seeing and hearing is a gift from the divine Being. The one who has this power is entrusted with the secret of life. The more he claims and the more he attracts people, the more he sins against the law of divine nature. It should be understood that at the time when this seeing and hearing begin an initiation is given, and man becomes responsible for the secrets revealed to him. Besides, if a man was not prepared, if he had not reached a certain point, what would be the benefit of it? On one occasion I was amused to hear a man say, ‘The condition of our country? We have so much freedom that we do not know what to do with it!’ It is the same with a person who can see and hear; he finds so much to see that he does not know what to do. The Sufi, therefore, is grateful for what he sees and hears, and also grateful for what he does not see and hear. He learns resignation on the path of the divine voyage.
Now one might ask, what kind of preparation is needed? The answer is: a moral preparation; but not in the sense that we understand the word ‘moral’ in everyday life. What we understand is selfish, because we judge another according to our law, instead of considering him according to his law. According to the Sufi idea moral is a different thing, especially in regard to this preparation; it is consideration of the law of friendship of the relationship with one’s elders or superiors or those who are younger or inferior. Although friendship is a simple thing to consider, it is most difficult to practice it. If we live a life of friendliness there is nothing better we can live for, and if we know the principle of friendship we do not need the moral of the world. If instead of his own advantage and rules of conduct a man considers the advantage and rules of another person, then he begins to see that person’s soul, but as long as he sees the other as a separate being, different from himself, he will see him wrongly.
Therefore, what Sufism offers are facilities for becoming acquainted with these ideas. After this acquaintance, naturally the soul unfolds, and as a natural consequence of the soul’s unfoldment it gradually hears more and more.