Hazrat Inayat Khan begins a concise but profound teaching on the subject of purity.

The word Sufi, although it comes from a Greek root which means ‘wisdom,’ has yet another meaning, which is from the Arabic and that is, ‘pure.’ One often wonders what this purity implies. In our everyday life we have corrupted many words, and we interpret such words according to our own understanding; thus many of us speak of goodness as purity, while others call moral character purity. But to a mystic, purity means something quite different.

A mystic gives to purity its natural meaning. Pure water means that nothing is mixed with the water, that there is no other element in it, and therefore purity is that substance within oneself which is pure. As soon as this substance is realized, one finds that all qualities such as good and bad, right or wrong, exist outside purity, since there is no goodness which is not touched by what may be called evil, nor is there any evil which has no touch of goodness. There is no wrong which has no right side to it, and there is no right which has not got a wrong side to it. Therefore as one comes to realize this purity, one becomes reluctant to express an opinion about anything or anybody. It is always the foolish who are readiest to express their opinion about others; the wiser the person, the less inclined he feels to form an opinion of anyone else. If he has to say anything about someone, it is only good. Besides, no one who has once realized this purity tries to force his belief or his opinion upon another, because as soon as the purity which is within is realized, he no longer has an opinion which can be expressed with words.

There are three steps to this purity. When a person takes the first step, he distinguishes between right and wrong. When he takes the second step, he only sees the right and overlooks the wrong. But when he takes the third step, then his heart can see even the right of the wrong. One might say that a realization such as this would upset the whole conception of right and wrong, and also the standard set by the nations or by religion. Yes, this is true; but at the same time, keeping in harmony with the world, with those one lives with, does not mean that one should close one’s eyes and not see the truth. It is for this reason that the Sufi says: do as others do, live as others live, think as others think, but feel as you yourself feel and realize life as your soul guides you.

There is one sin, if ever sin existed, and it is expressed in the story of Adam. This sin becomes apparent from the time that the infant begins to come to childhood: the soul experiencing the kingship of infancy and beginning to feel ‘I’, ‘I am separate from the others’ – that is the exile from the Garden of Eden. As soon as the soul begins to say ‘I,’ he is exiled from heaven, for all blessings belong to the state which the soul experienced before he claimed to be ‘I’, a separate entity, separate from others. It is because of this that man, whatever his position, whatever his situation in life, is not fully happy. The trouble of one may perhaps be greater than that of another, but both he who resides in heavenly palaces and the inhabitant of a grass hut have their troubles; both have their pain. But man finds the reason for all afflictions in the life outside him. The Sufi finds it in that one sin: that of having claimed to be ‘I’. With this claim came all the trouble, it continued, and it will always continue. This sin has such a hold upon the soul that it is just like the eclipse of the sun, when its light is covered and cannot shine. In everyday life one may sometimes find this claim and the spirit of ‘I’ helpful, and so the practical man looks upon a person who has less of this element as weak; he thinks that he is unpractical. If this person seems more simple he calls him dreamy, he will say that he is floating in the air. But after all, how long does this practical sense last, and to what end does it lead? The end of the one who was practical and the end of the unpractical one are the same.

To be continued…