Mental Purification

As necessary as it may be to cleanse and purify the body, it remains equally if not more necessary to keep the mind cleansed and purified too. As all impurity causes disease and an irregularity in the working of the physical system, the mind is also subjected to the same. There are four major steps towards mental purification :

 

The first one is "Stilling the Mind". Very often it is the activity of the mind which produces impurities. Stillness removes the impurities by tuning the mind to a natural pitch.

Physical repose is one way in this direction and it is most commonly used by the practitioners of yoga. In mystical science there are different ways of sitting in silence which produce different effects.

Stilling of the mind is just as important as the body requiring rest and sleep after hours of toil and activity. The mind works more than the body. The mind being composed of finer elements than the body and belonging to a higher plane of existence is naturally more active. The lower the plane the less are the activities. Even when the body is asleep, the mind is active producing dreams etc. Balance lies in perceiving that work and rest are equal needs for good health.

Most of the time there is a lot of energy drain through the uninterrupted and mostly useless activity of the mind. Seldom do we question ourselves, "Why was I thinking? Was there any purpose in those anxious thoughts?" Usually the mind is allowed to go wherever it wants, the thoughts are active with things that seldom apply directly to us or matter in the least to our lives. The more the mind is kept purposeless, the more it has the chance of becoming a vehicle for outer influences like spirit obsessions and other human beings. The true purpose of life is to learn mastery and not to be a vehicle for others to use. The first step in the mystic’s path is to train the mind by learning concentration.

The statues of Buddha and Krishna are the symbols of this stillness.

When the mind is stilled, it can truly hear what the other person says, it can meditate upon any subject it sees and when the person is developed then the mind can even hear Heaven’s voice.

The second way of purifying the mind is through breathing. The scientist goes as far as to say that the outgoing breath expels the poisonous gases from the body, such as carbon dioxide. The mystic goes further, saying it is not only from the body but the mind too that impurities may be expelled, by the power of breath.

The current of breath runs from the innermost plane to the outer. It unites both the inner and outer dimensions in a sacred union. The picture of God is that of the sun and its rays are the souls. As the rays have no existence of their own, they are only an action of the sun, similarly the breath is that current which comes from the sun which is the Spirit of God. The body is only a cover over the ray. When the ray is withdrawn from this cover, the body becomes a corpse. In addition to this there are two more covers. The mind is the next cover after the physical body.  If the ray which is the breath has withdrawn itself from the garb of the body, it still exists in the garb of the mind. If it is lost in the garb of the mind it enters a still finer garb called the soul. So the breath runs through all body, mind and soul. The central current of the mind is also breath. We not only breathe through our bodies but also through the minds and souls. Death is only the departing of the body from the main current of breath. But after the departure of the breath from the body, the mind still adheres to it. This is what gives proof of the hereafter. The body of the mind is ethereal, lasts long and is not dependent on food and water. It is maintained by breath. 

One realizes thus that man has never been separated from God. He is linked with God at every moment by the current of the breath. As breath is of such prime importance, it is absolutely essential for us to tune our beings through developing breath and harmonizing body, mind and soul. One must undertake breathing practices under the guidance of a teacher and do them correctly in order to avoid harm.

The third way of purification is through developing the right attitude towards life. This is the moral way and also the royal road to purification. A person may breathe and sit in silence a thousand postures, but if he/she does not have the right attitude, he/she will never develop. Everything in life has a place and use. Humility and Pride are opposite principles but both should be harmonized. There is a time for humility when the melting of the heart is required to win a situation and at that time the lack of it becomes a serious fault, and then there is a time when the element of pride is necessary for lifting and sustaining a person, and if it is missing then it is seriously disadvantageous. Therefore learning the proper balance in life and acquiring it is of great relevance. Pessimism and optimism, hopefulness and resignation, contentment and enthusiasm are all opposing forces which must be harmonized in oneself. Allah says that the successful person in His eyes is one who remains between the state of Hope and Fear, Rija’ and Khawf. That is to say that one should not become totally complacent in one’s satisfaction with oneself or be so fearful that one perishes in the wilderness of separation from God, but keep a balance between reason and hopefulness.

The right attitude develops when one regards one’s shortcomings favourably. Very often one defends one’s faults and errors and is willing to make one’s wrong right. But one does not have that same attitude towards others. One is judgmental and critical of others. It is easy to disapprove and hate others. One with such an attitude is oblivious to one’s own mistakes. This condition developing on the inside, accumulating all this negativity, is finally projected on the other. We always live under an illusion; praising ourselves and blaming others. According to Murshid, no one can speak ill of another without making the illness his own, because the one speaking ill of others is ill himself. We should be free of judgment and refrain from categorization through comparison because what is good and beautiful today in our mind may change tomorrow. Thus the purification of mind from a moral point of view should be learned by trying to consider things sympathetically and putting oneself in another’s shoes. It is a fact that souls on earth are born imperfect  and are here to develop towards perfection. In the course of their development they are bound to show imperfection. Manifestation has taken place so that every being may rise from imperfection towards perfection. Purification of mind is to rid one’s mind of all undesirable impressions, forgetting others’ and even our own shortcomings. Too much concentration on one’s own errors also engraves the error deeply on one’s mind. Self-criticism to the point of constructive development is good but to the degree of demoralization and self-destruction is damaging. It is best to ignore and rise above ugliness wherever one meets it and to make beauty the focus of one’s life.

The fourth step towards purification is "Unlearning". Learning means fixing ideas in the mind until they become tangible. This idea eventually becomes a veil for any other knowledge that can illuminate one’s path. Unlearning is a process by which one rises above what one has learned. It is not necessary to forget in order to unlearn, but merely look at things from an opposite point of view. When one is able to see from the other angle as clearly as one sees from the angle one is used to seeing, then one is on the path to perfection. To be able to see in life everything from two angles gives one a great mastery. The process of spiritual attainment in this way depends upon unlearning.

In the case of personal beliefs of people, they have made them rigid and therefore instead of being benefited by them they are going backwards. Belief is a steppingstone to Religion. It is like a staircase which leads to a higher realization. When people want spiritual guidance they must go to a guide without any mental constructions. When they arrive at the door of the guide with preconceived notions then they are too busy trying to see how their ideas fit in with those of the guide. Such a person cannot make himself empty enough to receive direction from the guide. People usually do not want to give up their ideas but want to have them confirmed. Spiritual attainment from beginning to end is unlearning. By being able to contradict one’s own ideas and learning to submit to the Higher Self represented by the guide, one becomes wiser through the process of this unlearning. Mental purification is thus the only way through which one can reach the spiritual goal. The more one sees the rightness of every point of view, the vaster one’s being becomes. It is expanding one’s consciousness to accommodate the other’s consciousness.

In this path one has to learn to see the right of the wrong and the wrong of the right, the evil of the good and the good of the evil, pain in the pleasure and the pleasure in the pain, gain in loss and the loss in the gain, for this is how one rises above paradoxes. Generally one’s sight is blunted to one thing or the other. Mental purification is about clearing out the block of opposites in the mind.

Another step in this process is also to learn to identify oneself with what one is not for that purifies the mind of impressions of one’s own false identity. This is losing oneself in the object of one’s meditation. Amongst the Sufis there is the practice of Tasawwuri Murshid in which one identifies with the Teacher, and by doing so one gains the knowledge, power and inspiration of the Teacher.

The last step in this process is to purify the mind of forms and to have the sense of the abstract. Everything suggests to the eye a form and that becomes a hindrance in attaining to the presence of the Formless. After mental purification we arrive at the step of cultivating the heart quality which ultimately culminates in spiritual attainment.

Teachings by H.I.K.
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