Purifying the Spiritual Senses

 Kabir Helminski,

drawn from the teachings of Rumi

Patience is needed on the spiritual journey because we are subject to time. Sometimes we experience delays in our spiritual journeying. Intervals are sometimes needed in order that the blood might turn to milk. What is the difference between blood and milk? Imagine which you would rather drink. We are creatures of flesh and blood, but milk symbolizes pure spiritual knowledge. Just as a mother’s blood does not become sweet milk until she has the fortune of giving birth to a child, we, too, must give birth to the child of Spirit. Afterwards the milk of pure spiritual knowledge begins to flow.

 We all live before the gate of spiritual truth, the gate of Reality. The lock upon this gate is the preoccupation with what is dense and coarse; the mouth, the stomach, the genitals, when these are divorced from spirit, they obstruct the gate of Reality and veil us from subtler worlds. If not for these obstructions, we would be drinking from the fountain of spiritual knowledge inside that gate in the garden of paradise.

 The light of eternity shines upon this dense world, the pure milk flows within the rivers of blood. But when you take one step into the dense world without mindful precaution, your own spiritual milk will be turned to blood.

 Adam was the eye of the Eternal Light, but he stumbled. Although his sin was slight as a hair, yet that hair had shut his eyes. Even an eyelash in the eye can be as great an obstacle as a mountain. If Adam had been able to take counsel with a guide, he might not have uttered his excuses and self-justification, but Adam and Eve had to make this mistake and learn from it. They were alone, without spiritual companions. When one intellect is joined with another intellect, it can sometimes save us from our own mistakes; but when one mere ego is associated with another ego, our own intelligence becomes veiled, idle, and useless.

 Find the friend of God: when you have done so, God is your friend. If intelligence is paired with another intelligence, light increases and the way becomes clear; but if one obsessing soul makes merry with another obsessing soul, darkness increases, and we are lost.

 One conscious person is the mirror of another conscious person. The faithful are mirrors of the faithful. This is how their faces become clean.

 The earth is brought to life in the springtime through friendship with Spring. A thousand flowers bloom through the land when the Springtime Friend arrives. Is the earth of our bodies any less than this earth? But when the crows perch on the bare branches of January, the nightingales hide themselves and are mute, because the nightingale is silent without the rose-garden.

 When the sun is absent the nightingale goes to sleep, but the Sun of Divine knowledge has no motion and never sets. The place where it rises is within the soul; so come to the Sun's rising-place: after that, wherever you go, you will have that radiance. After that, wherever you go, will become the place of sunrise.

 Can you see how your bat-like senses are running towards the sunset; while your finer senses are heading toward sunrise? The way of physical sense-perception is the way of donkeys. We should be ashamed of competing with other donkeys, jostling, nudging, and braying. You can ride another steed! Besides these five leaden physical senses there are five golden spiritual senses. The bodily sense is consuming the food of darkness and will ultimately be consumed by what it tries to feed on; while the spiritual sense is feeding from a hidden Sun.

 The Spirit is endowed with pure knowing: what has the Spirit to do with Arabic, Turkish, or any human language? Both the one who asserts the transcendence of God and the one who asserts His immanence are bewildered by the One who, without any image or external appearance, is nevertheless appearing in all forms.

 If, besides the animal senses, you did not have other senses unconditioned by the desires of the flesh, then would human nature have any dignity? How should the sons of Adam have been honored to know the spiritual mysteries?

 Its no crime to be blind; but if you have vision, persevere in purifying it, for patience is the key to success. The medicine of patience will burn away the veils over your eyes and will open of your breast to Divine knowledge. When the mirror of your heart becomes clear and pure, you will behold images which are outside of the world of water and earth. You will behold both the image and the image-Maker, both the carpet of the spiritual empire and the One who spreads that carpet.