Mysticism is neither a faith, nor a belief. Neither is it a principle or a dogma. A mystic is born. Being a mystic means having a certain temperament, a certain outlook on life. It is for this reason that many are confused by the word ‘mystic,’ because mysticism cannot be explained in plain words.
The one who feels, ‘This is my impulse, this I must bring into action,’ only knows of the idea from the moment it has become manifest to his view. He therefore calls it free will.
To a mystic, impulse has divine significance. In every impulse a mystic sees the divine direction. What people call ‘free will’ is something that does not exist for the mystic. He sees one plan, working and making its way towards a desired result; and every person, whether willingly or unwillingly, contributes towards the accomplishment of that plan. This contribution to the plan is considered by one to be ‘free will,’ and by another, to be ‘accident.’ The one who feels, ‘This is my impulse, this is my idea, this I must bring into action,’ only knows of the idea from the moment it has become manifest to his view. He therefore calls it free will. But from whence did that idea come to him? Where does impulse come from? It comes, directly or indirectly, from within. Sometimes it may seem to come from outside; but it always starts from within. Thus, every impulse for a mystic is a divine impulse. One may ask, why is not everyimpulse divine for everybody, since every impulse has its origin within? It is because not everybody knows it to be so. The divine part of the impulse is in realizing it is divine. The moment we are conscious of the divine origin of the impulse, from that moment on, it is divine. Although all through life it has come from within, it is the fact of knowing this which makes it divine.
A mystic removes the barrier that stands between himself and another person by trying to look at life not only from his own point of view, but also from the point of view of another. All disputes and disagreements arise from people’s misunderstanding of each other. Mostly, people misunderstand each other because they have their fixed point of view and are not willing to move from them. This is a rigid condition of mind. The more dense a person is, the more fixed he is in his own point of view. Therefore, it is easy to change the mind of an intelligent person, but it is most difficult to change the mind of a foolish person once it is fixed. It is this dense quality of mind which becomes fixed on a certain idea and that clouds the eyes so that they cannot see from the point of view of another person.
Many fear that by looking at things from the point of view of someone else, they lose their own point of view; but I would rather lose my own point of view, if it were a wrong one. Why must one stick to one’s point of view simply because it is one’s own? And why should it be one’s own point of view and not all points of view, the point of view of one and the same Spirit? For, just as two eyes are needed to make the sight complete, and two ears are necessary to make the hearing complete, so it is the understanding of two points of view, the opposite points of view, which gives a fuller insight into life.
A mystic calls this ‘unlearning.’ What we call ‘learning,’ is fixing ideas in our mind. This learning is not freeing the soul, it is limiting the soul. By this, I do not mean to say that learning has no place in life, but only that learning is not all that is needed on the spiritual path. There is something else, besides, there is something beyond learning; and to this, we can only attain by unlearning. Learning is just like making knots of ideas, and the thread is not smooth as long as the knots are there. They must be unraveled; and when the thread is smooth, one can treat it in any way one likes. A mind with knots cannot have a smooth circulation of truth. The ideas which are fixed in one’s mind block it. A mystic, therefore, is willing to see from all points of view in order to clarify his knowledge. It is that willingness which is called ‘unlearning.’
The sense of understanding is one and the same for all of us. If we are willing to understand, then understanding is within our reach. Very often, however, we are not willing to understand, and that is why we do not understand. Mankind suffers from a sort of stubbornness. A man goes against what he thinks is coming from another person. Yet, everything he has learned has come from others, he has not learned one word from himself. All the same, he calls it his argument, his idea, and his view, although it is no such thing. He has always taken it from somewhere. It is by accepting this fact that a mystic understands all, and it is this which makes him a friend of all.
A mystic does not look at reasons as everybody else does because he sees that the first reason that comes to his mind is only a cover over another reason that is hidden behind it. He has patience, therefore, to wait until he has lifted the veil from the first reason until he sees the reason behind it. Then again he sees that this reason which was hidden behind the first reason is more powerful, but that there is still a greater reason behind it. And so, he goes from one reason to another, and sees in reason nothing but a veil to cover reality. As he goes farther, penetrating the several veils of reason, he reaches the essence of reason. By touching the essence he sees the reason in everything, good and bad.
To be continued…