As Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee explains, the Sufi comes into this world to love and serve the divine and this destiny is stamped within the heart in fire.
Eros makes his home in men’s hearts, but not in every heart, for where there is hardness he departs.
— Plato
Look in your own heart,” says the mystic, “For the kingdom of God is within you.” He who truly knows himself knows God, for the heart is a mirror in which divine is reflected. Just as a steel mirror, if coated with rust, loses its power of reflection, so do our inward senses which are the eyes of the heart. When this visual heart becomes numb to the celestial impulses owing to the dross of material impressions it no longer remains a clarified beacon. Our quest for the numinous becomes barren and we experience tremors of the dark night of the soul.
The heart has long been the starting point for many spiritual schools, but for a mystic, the heart is a fixed referent for true enlightenment. The heart announces the first sign of life and its silence signals the message of the death of the physical body. The mystic regards God as the real agent in every act, and therefore takes no credit for his good works nor desires to be recompensed for them.
The heart is normally veiled or stained by sins, tarnished by sensual impressions, pulled to and fro between reason and passion: a battlefield on which the armies of God and the devil contend for victory. Through one gate, the heart receives immediate knowledge of God, through another it lets in the illusions of sense.
No previous society has offered seekers so many different ways to chase after Nirvana, so many different paths to spiritual epiphany. One powerful way is by polishing the heart. When we polish the mirror of the heart with daily spiritual practices — we can see beyond the illusion of our transient world and perceive the vast and luminous landscape of our true nature. This is one practice that in time can help us make the marriage between our being and our humanness. By its very nature, living in the world leaves a material impression on our heart, while our thoroughness of being and our impulses of love unveil it. The clear heart is the best guide to living. It is the mirror of our inner state, as also a hologram of all. As Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee explains, the Sufi comes into this world to love and serve the divine and this destiny is stamped within the heart in fire: “We bring this purpose into the world, and when our heart is awakened we feel this need of the heart, this call of the soul.” This divine remembrance awakens the slumbering soul to its real purpose and the journey home begins.
The mystics have discovered that, in addition to the mind, the heart is a very most important centre governing our spiritual consciousness. With diligent practice, teachers have perfected the techniques that moderate the heart, cultivating profound intuition and realisation. The polished heart becomes a mirror that catches the light of truth and reflects it in one’s consciousness. The surest way of achieving this sparkling quality is by focusing attentively on God and negating the ego. From then on the seeker starts to experience God, and see him with the inner eyes of the heart.
In the words of Hildegard von Bingen: “It is the heart that sees the primordial eternity of every creature.”
