Polishing The Mind Divine You Find Poem by Rhymer Rhymer

"Your heart is a polished mirror.You must wipe it clean of the
veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets." -al- Ghazzali"

"Everyone sees the Unseen in proportion to the clarity of
his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished
it.Whoever has polished it more sees more- more Unseen forms become manifest to him." -Rumi

The above quotes by two great Sufi masters describes the
concept of"polishing the heart"which can provide
valuable information on working on both personal
and spiritual growth.There are two ways of polishing the heart discussed in Sufism: remembrance of God, and recognizing and
gaining control over the lower self.

Sufism stresses the importance of remembering and
experiencing the divine throughout the day.Prophet Muhammad (saw)
said, "There is a polish for everything that takes away rust; and
the polish of the heart is Zikr, the invocation of God".

Zikr consists basically of the repetition of certain aspects
of God over and over again.This is either done in groups
or individually throughout the day.A common Zikr is "la illa ha il allah"which is translated in different ways to mean"there is no God but God", "there is nothing but God", or "there is nothing but the divine".


This, or a similar phrase, is repeated over and over
throughout the day, always bringing one's attention back
to the divine.You might find something similar that
helps to bring you back in touch with the divine inside of
you throughout your day.Quoting Arabic might not fit
into your path but perhaps prayer of some sort would
suit you, too. Working with the Lower Self:

In addition to remembrance of God, the Sufis also stress the
importance of recognizing and gaining control over the lower
self.The lower self is the dust and rust on the mirror that
blocks the divine.It's all those parts of us we'd rather
pretend we don't have.It's our selfishness, judgementalism,
pride, jealousy, envy, laziness, dishonesty, etc… Our lower
self are all those parts of us that don't fit into our concept of who we are as a loving person.


Bringing these parts into awareness, recognizing the dust and rust
on the mirror, is the first step in cleaning up the lower self.It is
important to realize that noticing these "not so nice" parts is a
positive step in personal and spiritual growth and not an indication that you are backsliding.


Many people become discouraged as they move down a
spiritual path, feeling close to enlightenment, and"bam"
something occurs which reminds you that you are
still very, very human.The fact is that as we progress down a
spiritual path it gets harder and harder to ignore these
parts.It's similar to the analogy of not being able to see the dust in
your home until the sunlight is streaming in the room causing every speck of dust to become much more obvious.The more light in our life, the more aware we become of the darkness.

Once we have begun to notice these obstacles that act as barriers to the divine reflection, it is important to look at them with courage and compassion or we might be tempted to push them out of our awareness again.It takes a lot of courage to do this work.May Allah help us in doing this work Ameen



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